What are you listening to now?

[Turner]

Celibidache tends to shout at climactic moments. I like it. Makes the music even more thrilling 

Sarge

Yes, agree. He is like an extra soloist at the end of the DG Sibelius 5th - but it´s just great 

[San Antone]

Listening to a new recording of the Faure Requiem -



Yale Schola Cantorum, David Hill (conductor), Robert Bennesh (organ)  [harp, violin and cello]
Recording details: February 2015
Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Produced by Malcolm Bruno
Engineered by Mateusz Zechowski
Release date: 27 October 2017



I enjoy the spare instrumentation and the choir sings in a devout, understated, manner which allows the music to breathe and come alive in a way that is overshot with the conventional versions.  So far, I like this a lot, but it is early days, yet.

[Florestan]

Celibidache tends to shout at climactic moments. I like it. Makes the music even more thrilling 

Sarge

Yes, agree. He is like an extra soloist at the end of the DG Sibelius 5th - but it´s just great 

I think you'll greatly enjoy this. I know I do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwxuMDxT9Dw

[Mandryka]

The harpsichord Gavin Black uses is a copy of Sweelinck's, it's special because it has two keyboards which can't be coupled, and because it is very sweet, including a wonderful lute stop. Gavin Black plays in a thoughtful and aristocratic way, not at all flamboyant. I'd go as far as to say that this recording is a revelation.

Does anyone have Gavin Black's Buxtehude CD? If so, could they let me have an upload?

[eljr]

Joyce DiDonato
In War & Peace

Release Date November 4, 2016
Duration01:19:07
Genre
Classical
Styles
Opera
Recording DateMarch 13, 2016 - March 20, 2016
Recording Location
Gustav Mahler Hall, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel Toblach

[amw]

The harpsichord Gavin Black uses is a copy of Sweelinck's, it's special because it has two keyboards which can't be coupled, and because it has a very sweet, including a wonderful lute stop. Gavin Black plays in a thoughtful and aristocratic way, not at all flamboyant. I'd go as far as to say that this recording is a revelation.

This sounds nice. I will listen to it later.

Currently listening to:

I really appreciate every Tetraktys recording I've heard. Know very little about the repertoire but their interpretations have a purity and unpretentiousness (especially with the many dissonances & weird mannerist ars subtilior stuff) that's very nice to hear in medieval repertoire, as though it were just..... normal music.

[Karl Henning]

First-Listen Fridays!

http://www.youtube.com/v/pLmXRcnWClk

[Sergeant Rock]

I think you'll greatly enjoy this. I know I do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwxuMDxT9Dw

Superb performance of the Rhapsody, and Celibidache's directing/dancing makes a compelling show. He's feeling his roots. Love it. (8:51, the Celi shout  )

Sarge

[Florestan]

Superb performance of the Rhapsody, and Celibidache's directing/dancing makes a compelling show. He's feeling his roots. Love it. (8:51, the Celi shout  )

He shouts: "Keep [playing] like that!" (in Romanian).

AFAIC, this is the best performance of RR1 ever, period.

[Harry]

Third disc of this box that gets even better after the second listen.


http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/10/luzzasco-luzzaschi-c1545-1607-quinto.html?spref=tw

[San Antone]

Pelléas et Mélisande
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Recording details: January 2016
Barbican, London, United Kingdom
Produced by James Mallinson
Engineered by Neil Hutchinson
Release date: October 2017



I will need to live with this for some time, and listen to it carefully a few times, in order to appreciate how it compares to the recordings I consider the best (Abaddo, Désormière, Dutoit, Haitink).  But my first impression is a good one.

[Mandryka]

This sounds nice. I will listen to it later.

Currently listening to:

I really appreciate every Tetraktys recording I've heard. Know very little about the repertoire but their interpretations have a purity and unpretentiousness (especially with the many dissonances & weird mannerist ars subtilior stuff) that's very nice to hear in medieval repertoire, as though it were just..... normal music.

I think Jill Feldman's a very good singer, I've been really enjoying a thing she did separately from Tetraktys called Trecento. There's something a bit New Age, acid and shrooms, about what they do. Sensual too.

You know, no-one's really got a clue about what this music sounded like in the day, how singers formed the notes.

[Karl Henning]

He shouts: "Keep [playing] like that!" (in Romanian).

AFAIC, this is the best performance of RR1 ever, period.

Fearless music-making, just as it ought to be.

[André]

New release from Currentzis/Aeterna


[asin]B01MS9VBKH[/asin]

And what's your opinion ? Presto Classical raves ecstatic about it. I wasn't convinced by the clips, but that's normal.

[Harry]

And what's your opinion ? Presto Classical raves ecstatic about it. I wasn't convinced by the clips, but that's normal.

Neither was I. I have listen to the samples several times, but the interpretation did not appeal to me.
But then Presto is often over the top about recordings, I do not necessarily agree.

[André]

Just finished listening to the violin concerto from this disc:



To my ears this is by quite a margin the best sounding recording I've heard (I listened to 3 others yesterday). Interpretation-wise I can't find any fault either. A superb Barber disc.

[Mahlerian]

Schmidt: Symphony No. 3 in A
Malmo Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sinaisky
[asin]B003NA7GA6[/asin]

I think I've warmed up a bit to this work, but it still interests me less than the two symphonies flanking it.

[Todd]

Eschenbach starts his Introduzione in slow, dark, rich fashion, though rather than sounding eerie, it sounds more processional.  The massed violins don't display the last word in bite, but, especially given that this is taken from live performances, the execution is more than admirable, and as the movement progresses at a sometimes leisurely pace, the little orchestral details pop into focus most realistically.  Eschenbach takes the Giuoco delle coppie at a slightly slow tempo, but the energy and rhythmic verve mask that, and each pair of instruments gets their due.  The unbright sound makes the oboes, in particular, stand out, as they sound a bit richer than normal.  In the Elegia, Eschenbach subjects the music to the Philly virtuosic treatment, with the rich strings anchoring the music, which sounds suitably mysterious in the quiet music, and satisfyingly searing in the climaxes, and string playing around halfway in that sounds too good to be true.  The slow tempo elicits a more Mahlerian sound than Kubelik, though this time in the slowest music.  Good stuff.  The Intermezzo interrotto starts off with a lushly beautiful and rich theme that sounds almost too romantic, and that makes the interruption, with an exaggerated trombone glissando and the peppy and playful music immediately thereafter sound even better than is typically the case.  The Finale starts off more restrained than some versions, but it doesn't take long at all for the pace to pick up, with the strings again offering a plush sound overall, but also some extremely fine detail.  The tuba gets its rich, gnarled blatty due, too.  Eschenbach knows how and when to slow down just enough, and when to speed back up, but not too much, using well nigh flawless transitions, to generate the perfect proportions of energy and excitement, with hints of folksiness blended in.  The work ends with a blistering coda.

Superb sound, some of the best, makes this set attractive.  So does the pairing with Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, which here receives a performance of immense power that surpasses even Ancerl.  This recording was pivotal for me in reassessing Eschenbach as a conductor.  A masterful disc all the way around, and one that has improved with age.

[North Star]

Haydn
Symphony No. 35 in B-flat major
Symphony No. 50 in C major
Symphony No. 43 in E-flat major
Symphony No. 58 in F major
Symphony No. 59 in A major
Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment
Frans Brüggen
[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Karlo!  By no mere coincidence, I was listening to #50 while driving to Alewife this morning . . . .