What are you listening to now?

[aligreto]

Count me in as well.

Good for you; the more the merrier 

[Todd]

[SonicMan46]

     

Cello Concerto RV 403
Cello Concerto RV 424

Bright and lively performances in the outer movements with the inner movements just a little staid and solemn.

Hi Aligreto - enjoy Harnoy in these Vivaldi works w/ usually good to excellent reviews (one in the attachment) - inserted above are additional sets in my collections on period instruments - Galligioni in the 4-CD Brilliant jewel box & Roel Dieltiens (actually a 2-CD MP3 purchase); now, I've not heard Raphael Wallfisch who has 4 CDs on Naxos, but just noticed each is available for 'free streaming' w/ my Prime account.  Now, I have not listen to these in a while but likely preferred the period instrument performances, especially Dieltiens.  Dave

[André]

This is not the actual visual support to what I'm listening: Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov's symphonies 1 and 2. I have copies of Melodiya LP transfers (courtesy of one of our most erudite posters  ). Assorted clicks and pops make for less than optimal listening, but good enough to form an opinion. Not that the composer needs mine to support his reputation: an esteemed composer, his film music for productions such as Bondarchuk's mammoth War and Peace or Tarkovsky's Young Ivan and Andreï Rublev are testimony to the high reputation he was held in.

Symphony no 1 is in one movement and lasts 24 minutes. Colourful and quite "modern", but not grating. The composer intends to communicate, not alienate. Symphony no 2 is in 3 movements for strings only and lasts a little over half an hour. It's a rather tormented affair.

Other Ovchinnikov works I intend to delve in this week: tone poems (some with a voice obbligato) and the W&P soundtrack. I last listened to them a couple of years ago. If memory serves, all of it is of the highest quality.

[aligreto]

Weber: Der Freischütz, Act 2 [Keilberth]....

[aligreto]

Hi Aligreto - enjoy Harnoy in these Vivaldi works w/ usually good to excellent reviews (one in the attachment) - inserted above are additional sets in my collections on period instruments - Galligioni in the 4-CD Brilliant jewel box & Roel Dieltiens (actually a 2-CD MP3 purchase); now, I've not heard Raphael Wallfisch who has 4 CDs on Naxos, but just noticed each is available for 'free streaming' w/ my Prime account.  Now, I have not listen to these in a while but likely preferred the period instrument performances, especially Dieltiens.  Dave

Cheers Dave. I do enjoy the Vivaldi Cell Concertos. I have the four individual Harnoy CDs ans well as those Wallfisch you mentioned [which I intend to revisit soon]. I have not heard the Dieltiens versions.

BTW thank you for the attachment   

[Kontrapunctus]

In honor of HvK's birthday.

[Mandryka]

Susan Heinrich plays three of Bach's solo violin suites. I know that she's a fabulous musician from her Hume and Abel. I've just found this recording and I've only listened to 1006. It is an eye opener, very deep, emotionally deep.

She takes her time.

[aligreto]

Dutilleux: String Quartet "Ainsi La Nuit" [Belcea Quartet]....

[aligreto]

In honor of HvK's birthday.

I am still a fan of HvK. I grew up in his era. He did some wonderful things in his time.

[Kontrapunctus]

This direct-to-disc LP has startling clarity and basically places the harpsichord in one's room. Vibrant playing, too.

[Todd]

Now here's a chamber music disc with a fresh approach to established music.  But it starts with something new.  Fazil Say's 4 Cities offers a musical impression of four Turkish cities.  The very jazz and swing influenced fourth piece (Bodrum) aside, I kept thinking that this folk music-meets-modernism sounds like Ahmed Adnan Saygun, only more refined, updated, and sophisticated.  Say's piano writing certainly fits his playing style well (perfectly), and Nicolas Altstaedt plays superbly.  Here's a current century work worth hearing many times.  The other works all sound a bit, well, reworked: the Debussy is more vibrant and rhythmically vital than is the case in other versions I've heard; the Janacek pieces sound less folk-like; the Shostakovich less angsty but still punchy. 

SOTA sound. 

Just a great disc all around. 

I hope I get to hear Say play in person at some point.

[Madiel]

Revisiting Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore" as I'll see it on stage Friday night, with Nello Santi conducting (alas not with Pavol Breslik, hope the other guy, Juan Francisco Gatell, will be good, too; Olga Kulchynska is singing Adina, don't know her either, I'm going for Santi really). Listening to discs five and six of the big Pavarotti "First Decade" box, which is the only complete recording of the opera I have, and this is a first listen to it (I've seen it on TV, I think twice) ... the Molinari-Pradelli with Güden and di Stefano has just been ordered to have a real one in addition to this slightly artificial Sutherland version.

This isn't a criticism of you because I know that a LOT of people do this. I've never understood why people listen to a recording of music just before they're going to see it in live performance. I do the exact opposite. I want the music to be fresh and new when I hear it live. I don't want to be comparing it in my head to the recording I just heard.

[Dee Sharp]

Brahms: String Quartets 1 & 3. Quartetto Italiano. Passionate and committed performances. Recommended.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Excellent. 

I am in full agreement with you Dancing Divertimentian!

Cheers.

Well said; another disciple of Vivaldi's Sacred Music here 

Count me in as well.

+1 to all this Vivaldi Sacred Music chatter!

I think I know what I'll be listening to tonight!

[PerfectWagnerite]

This isn't a criticism of you because I know that a LOT of people do this. I've never understood why people listen to a recording of music just before they're going to see it in live performance. I do the exact opposite. I want the music to be fresh and new when I hear it live. I don't want to be comparing it in my head to the recording I just heard.

I would agree if it is a concert piece. For opera I do the same thing as King Ubu because I want to know the plot, the expected arias, and in general what happens when. Otherwise things just come and go so fast I am not sure what I am watching, experiencing, or missing. For example in The Valkyrie I am always on the lookout for whether Sieglinde screams when Siegmund draws the sword from the tree(none is written in the score), or whether Siegmund sings "so blühe denn, Wälsungen-Blut!" by holding the "Wäl" syllable (sort of become standard performance practice) even though Wagner never writes a fermata on the score. These are the things that if you know nothing of the opera you don't even know what to listen for...

[Autumn Leaves]

This morning's listening:



Piano Quartet - Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo & Yo-Yo Ma



String Quartet #1



Piano Trio #2

[kishnevi]

Revisiting Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore" as I'll see it on stage Friday night, with Nello Santi conducting (alas not with Pavol Breslik, hope the other guy, Juan Francisco Gatell, will be good, too; Olga Kulchynska is singing Adina, don't know her either, I'm going for Santi really). Listening to discs five and six of the big Pavarotti "First Decade" box, which is the only complete recording of the opera I have, and this is a first listen to it (I've seen it on TV, I think twice) ... the Molinari-Pradelli with Güden and di Stefano has just been ordered to have a real one in addition to this slightly artificial Sutherland version.

I hope the box includes the photos which illustrate the individual re-issues. Seeing Pavarotti as a relatively thin, svelte unbearded young man can be, depending on your mood, either shocking or hilarious. The best ones are from the 1966 Covent Garden production of Daughter of the Regiment.  If they are not in the box, a Google image search should bring up some of them.

TD
CD 13 Piano Sonatas in A, a minor, D KV 331, 310,576
[asin]B011JHC0IC[/asin]
The Amazon pricing makes me think this is now going out of print.

[Madiel]

I would agree if it is a concert piece. For opera I do the same thing as King Ubu because I want to know the plot, the expected arias, and in general what happens when. Otherwise things just come and go so fast I am not sure what I am watching, experiencing, or missing. For example in The Valkyrie I am always on the lookout for whether Sieglinde screams when Siegmund draws the sword from the tree(none is written in the score), or whether Siegmund sings "so blühe denn, Wälsungen-Blut!" by holding the "Wäl" syllable (sort of become standard performance practice) even though Wagner never writes a fermata on the score. These are the things that if you know nothing of the opera you don't even know what to listen for...

Your general point about plot, okay, but then you go on to talk about incredibly specific things about the music that don't depend on it being opera, and don't even rely on listening to a recording. They rely on reading the score. The equivalent is reading the script of a play before you go see it so you can comment on any slight variation in the wording.

Those are the sorts of things I wouldn't WANT to know to listen for. Seriously, it sounds like you're sitting there running the live performance through a mental checklist. Which is far more than what I thought King Ubu was doing.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Pohjola's Daughter, Op. 49
Night Ride & Sunrise, Op. 55
The Dryad, Op. 45/1
Dance-Intermezzo, Op. 45/2
The Bard, Op. 64
The Oceanides, Op. 73
Tapiola, Op. 112

A stunning disc from an overall marvelous box set.