What are you listening to now?

[Karl Henning]

Of course I am listening to this!

[asin]B00GWS990Q[/asin]

[North Star]

Of course I am listening to this!

Do report.

Thread duty
Bach
Lute Suites, BWV 995 & 996, Prelude BWV 998
Hopkinson Smith
[asin]B000067FG3[/asin]

[Brian]

Op 59/1 by the Prazaks given away by jpc (Thanks Harry!) and it is just as great as I was led to believe. Marvellous SACD sound.

So glad to hear this! That cycle is a treasure.

[Spineur]

[Karl Henning]

Do report.

Rapturous.

[André]

Disc 1 of 3 from this collection:



Although there has been a renaissance of sorts of Gouvy's works (all the symphonies on CPO, numerous choral/vocal or chamber works on K617), he remains a niche composer. In his time, he was neither a Frenchman nor a German (thanks to to shifting boundaries, his native Lorraine was then part of Prussia).

He was bilingual and totally at home in both cultural worlds, studying in Paris and Leipzig, meeting with Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. He took over Anton Rubinstein's seat at the Prussian Music Academy in Berlin, but was also a member of its parisian counterpart. Mendelssohn, early Brahms and Schumann come to mind when listening to his music, but also Spohr and even Berlioz.

The late Sinfonietta is a beauty. If you don't crack a smile and settle comfortably in the ol' armchair upon hearing its opening phrases, you're a desperate case of The Grinch. The curvaceous, bouncing melodic lines and open harmonies evoke nature like few works I've heard (the first movement of Brahms' Serenade no 1 comes to mind). The cantata La Religieuse (The Nun) could well be a cross between Schubert's eponymous lied and a Berlioz cantata such as Herminie or La mort de Cléopâtre. Beautiful.

The book size item contains 3 discs with well researched and very well written essays (in French and excellent English translation) as well as numerous pictures and drawings. Full texts. I already had quite a few Gouvy discs, but this is a peach of an offering.

[Mister Sharpe]

I just realized I know the better part of these auswendig :

[asin]B000005GP5[/asin]

[Kontrapunctus]

On the TT an all-tube analog recording--superb sound and is quite a thrilling performance.

[Ken B]

I just realized I know the better part of these auswendig :

[asin]B000005GP5[/asin]

I don't think I have played those in more than 5 years. Maybe even longer. Which is odd since I rank only Schubert ahead of Wolf for lieder.

[mc ukrneal]

Disc 1 of 3 from this collection:



Although there has been a renaissance of sorts of Gouvy's works (all the symphonies on CPO, numerous choral/vocal or chamber works on K617), he remains a niche composer. In his time, he was neither a Frenchman nor a German (thanks to to shifting boundaries, his native Lorraine was then part of Prussia).

He was bilingual and totally at home in both cultural worlds, studying in Paris and Leipzig, meeting with Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. He took over Anton Rubinstein's seat at the Prussian Music Academy in Berlin, but was also a member of its parisian counterpart. Mendelssohn, early Brahms and Schumann come to mind when listening to his music, but also Spohr and even Berlioz.

The late Sinfonietta is a beauty. If you don't crack a smile and settle comfortably in the ol' armchair upon hearing its opening phrases, you're a desperate case of The Grinch. The curvaceous, bouncing melodic lines and open harmonies evoke nature like few works I've heard (the first movement of Brahms' Serenade no 1 comes to mind). The cantata La Religieuse (The Nun) could well be a cross between Schubert's eponymous lied and a Berlioz cantata such as Herminie or La mort de Cléopâtre. Beautiful.

The book size item contains 3 discs with well researched and very well written essays (in French and excellent English translation) as well as numerous pictures and drawings. Full texts. I already had quite a few Gouvy discs, but this is a peach of an offering.

It was the first set I got from this company, and I agree that it's a gem. I can't recommend it enough...

[eljr]

Kronos Quartet
A Thousand Thoughts

Release Date March 25, 2014
Duration01:14:09
Genre
Avant-Garde
Classical
Styles
Chamber Music
Modern Composition

[aligreto]

The World of Kathleen Ferrier....





I have always admired Ferrier's rich voice.

[Mahlerian]

Of course I am listening to this!

[asin]B00GWS990Q[/asin]

And I hope you agree with the review I wrote on Amazon?

[aligreto]

You can always buck the trend! I'm going to have to dig out some of my cute looking musicassettes! I think I've got around forty to fifty,now,including some box sets. I keep picking them up s/h. An eccentric hobby of mine! I have a cassette jam now and again,just for something different. Unlike vinyl,you can't just look at them first to see if they're okay. I have bought ones that sound good,and then part way through,you get to the chewed up bit. Others that don't even play!! I have also been quite shocked by some of the shoddy transfers by major labels. For example. The cassette version of Boult's recording of Holst's Choral Symphony sounds like it's being performed in a hail storm. I'm told that recording companies looked on them as just something people just listened to in a car or a low-fi ghetto blaster type unit. On the plus side, you get musicassettes from small labels like Chandos and Hyperion which were very good indeed.



Remember these?!!

Good for you! I know three guys who still have expensive music cassette players. One of those has an extensive cassette library. He bought a lot of my [quality] cassette recordings and still plays them regularly.

[eljr]

Anton Steck / Matthew Halls / L'Arpa Festante
Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Pössinger: Violin Concerto

Release Date March 24, 2017
Duration01:01:58
Genre
Classical
Styles
Concerto
Recording DateMay 22, 2016 - May 25, 2016
Recording Location
Martinskirche Müllheim (Germany)

[Spineur]

After listening to Pletnev in Mozart KV570 sonata where he plays the first movement quite slowly (13:40) with a very interesting narative, I compared it to Maria Pires who adopt a more deliberately Mozartian style with a faster tempo (8:40) and the live Brendel recording


who expedite the movement in 5:50 minutes.  To fast for my taste.  The slow movement is played at about the same tempo by all 3 pianists but with very different naratives, all interesting IMO.
There is no such thing as the best interpretation...

[SonicMan46]

For the afternoon, 2 more BRO arrivals - I already own the first 3 discs in Shelley's cycle of the Spohr 10 Symphonies - reviews attached, for those interested; these were just $7 each - at the moment, BRO has 4 of these 5 discs.  Dave

P.S. on Amazon USA, there is the 5-CD CPO box of the same works (plus a bunch of fillers) w/ Howard Griffiths for $29 on the MP - out of curiosity (since I've not heard the Griffiths performances) I reviewed the Fanfare Archive and just provide a few short quotes below; seems that Griffiths has the edge for the orchestra and sound recording, but close, so no need to own both, in my mind.

I find Griffiths a bit more incisive in these symphonies than Shelley; he is faster in the Ninth, particularly in the slow movement, "Summer," which helps. He is also aided by more immediate, transparent recorded sound. In addition, of course, his cycle is on SACD, as opposed to Hyperion's standard CDs for Shelley. Both cycles are well done, although I would give Griffiths the slight edge overall based on the sound and the more substantive nature of his fillers. Now, let's see whether CPO issues the 10 symphonies in a boxed set. Meanwhile, recommended.

I'll confess that I've heard only one of Shelley's Spohr CDs. It was the first to come out, and it contained the symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, plus the Grand Concert Overture. So, unfortunately, I can't compare Shelley's 4 and 5 to this new 4 and 5 from Griffiths and CPO. But I have been collecting Griffiths's cycle, so I can compare his 1 and 2 to Shelley's 1 and 2. In a nutshell, the differences—mainly in orchestral execution and recording, rather than in matters of interpretation—are of such a minor degree as to conclude that if you already have one you don't need the other, unless you consider the music important enough, and you are so enchanted by it, that you feel the necessity to have it in multiple versions. My sense is that Griffiths's Hannover North German Radio forces are a bit more polished in their performances and perhaps a bit more conversant with Spohr's German Romantic vernacular than are Shelley's Italian Swiss Orchestra players; and, at least on Shelley's First and Second symphonies disc, Hyperion's sound isn't quite as focused as it is on Griffiths's CPO disc containing the First Symphony.

Spohr, Louis - Symphonies 7 & 9 and Symphonies 8 & 10, both w/ Howard Shelley & Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana.

   

[kishnevi]

Op 59/1 by the Prazaks given away by jpc (Thanks Harry!) and it is just as great as I was led to believe. Marvellous SACD sound.

I am about half way through that set and can only echo what you said.
TD
Brahms Double Concerto
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Perlman/Ma/Barenboim/CSO

One of my finds this afternoon at the used CD Store.

[kishnevi]

Anton Steck / Matthew Halls / L'Arpa Festante
Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Pössinger: Violin Concerto

Release Date March 24, 2017
Duration01:01:58
Genre
Classical
Styles
Concerto
Recording DateMay 22, 2016 - May 25, 2016
Recording Location
Martinskirche Müllheim (Germany)

What's the Possinger like? And how is Steck? I have only heard him in Vivaldi.

[cilgwyn]

On now. The 1993 recording of The Yeomen of the Guard,with dialogue,albeit,some of it abridged. Some Gilbert and Sullivan 'experts' moan about this recording. I think it's pretty good really. It's certainly beautifully sung;and it's nice to have some dialogue. At the same time,compared to the BBC studio recordings,the delivery of the dialogue does come across as a bit of a 'read through'. As to the performances of the soloists themselves? Good as they are,the Sargent recording is obviously superior. Here they all seem a bit of an anonymous bunch. The assumed accents help;but where's the sparkle? "Okay chaps,let's just get this job done and go home!" It's still a very enjoyable recording,though,and there's no doubt the singing is good......some of it,indeed,very good. Oh,one last rather trivial observation. The 'artwork' on the front of the jewel case has to be one of the most boring efforts by a record/cd label in the history of recording.
Although,probaby not the most boring!! Not that I mind,particularly. It's the recording inside that really matters to me.