What are you listening to now?

[amw]

Yes.

Definitely.

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B0002U9G7Q[/asin]

[Maestro267]

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande
Berlin PO/Karajan

This just arrived in the post, so this is my first ever listen to this work. Really enjoying it so far. Love the trombone glissandi and flutter-tongued woodwinds in the "vault scene".

[Karl Henning]

The major item on tonight's agenda
[asin]B000VX1QFO[/asin]
I'm wondering how anyone could extract a suite from Spalicek. It's very fast flowing and diverse. The liner notes have a major flaw: while they contain the sung text, they make almost no attempt to explain what is supposed to be happening on stage.
Spectre's Bride sounds properly spectral.

MI was right about this recording: it's a near essential Martinu CD.

Goldarnit, youse guys . . .

All right: wish-listed.

[Karl Henning]

Revisit of this set of good music disguised as salon music
[asin]B00008X5B5[/asin]
CD2
I think the Amazon editorial review, by Leslie Gerber, drastically underestimates the quality of this music.

Goldarnit &c.

[Karl Henning]

Fresh from the mail for first listen
Josquin
Missa Ave maris stella
Marian motets
Weser Renaissance
Manfred Cordes

Just finished this. Amazingly beautiful music and singing.
[asin]B0063FK5WO[/asin]

Sweet!

[Cato]

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande
Berlin PO/Karajan

This just arrived in the post, so this is my first ever listen to this work. Really enjoying it so far. Love the trombone glissandi and flutter-tongued woodwinds in the "vault scene".

The perfect performance has not yet occurred on a recording  0:) but Herr von Karajan and company come close!

I did hear the Berliners with Claudio Abbado play this at a concert about 20 years ago, and the clarity of the admittedly complicated lines was astonishing, along with the intensity of the performance.

This morning: Ovchinnikov, Suite for Piano #1: the Fugue is great fun!  Sort of an homage to both Scriabin and Prokofiev, maybe also Shostakovich...see what you think!

https://www.youtube.com/v/GEX80tOTgT8

[Todd]

Michel Block's Benediction.  I saved the best for last.  The overall timing for Block's version is close to Amoyel's, but the Moderato sounds much slower at the start, and the playing is more subdued overall, with even greater tonal and dynamic nuance.  Block plays with a sense of devotion and serenity.  He takes the religious aspects of the music and the underlying poem very seriously indeed.  Block's attention to detail and focus on every single note renders each one significant.  Block plays the rolled chords very gently at first, and very firmly as they progress, then speeds up significantly as the climax approaches, playing with a religious ecstasy that sounds very real.  The music immediately after sounds almost enlightened, and Block plays with nicely varied dynamics for different voices, adding to the effect.  The Andante is not the most flowing or even beautiful of all the versions I listened to, but it is the most elevated.  The Piu sostenuto starts off the same way, and just seems to achieve higher heights.  Again, the rolled chords start off slow and lovely and speed up, as does Block's playing generally, creating an indelible sense of ecstasy in the climax.  The right hand runs after the climax are sort of anti-virtuosic, but they work even better that way.  Block saves his best playing for the serene ending, which here rivals late Beethoven for depth.  Block stands above and apart from everyone else in this work. 

Among mortals, FFG, Schuch, and Amoyel stand out.

[Mirror Image]

The Red Pony Suite
Our Town
The Heiress Suite
Music For Movies
Prairie Journal (Music For Radio)

Leonard Slatkin, conductor
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

[Harry]

CD IV from this set.
Hugely successful.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/12/telemann-georg-philipp-1681-1767_2.html?spref=tw

[nodogen]

Some wonderful music from a composer who had so much more to give, but tragically passed away quite young.

[asin]B000025UTU[/asin]

[pjme]

https://www.youtube.com/v/0mYR0ULb8OE

Such a lovely disc!



P.

[Todd]

PCs 21 & 24

[Turbot nouveaux]

Sofia Gubaidulina
Complete String Quartets (1-4 and 'Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H')
Stamic Quartet [Supraphon, 2012]

A favourite disc, both performance and recording being superb. And of course, Gubaidulina's extraordinary string quartets.

[North Star]

Goldarnit, youse guys . . .

All right: wish-listed.

It's a great set, Karl.

Thread-duty - fresh from the mail
Weiss
Sonata No. 1 in F, WeissSW1
Michel Cardin (baroque lute)
[asin]B00QG15MQO[/asin]

[North Star]

No surprise...

Weiss
Sonata No. 2 in D, WeissSW2
Sonata No. 3 in G minor, WeissSW3
Michel Cardin (baroque lute)

[SonicMan46]

After seeing a new piano recording of the Goldberg Variations in the thread of that name, I decided to look at my collection of this Bach work - about a dozen CDs, most of course piano or harpsichord versions; also Tuma on clavichord, plus about 4 transcriptions for one or more instruments - so, last night and today listening to the latter:

Trio Echnaton - String Trio w/ violin, viola, & cello; arranged by Dmitry Sitkovetsky.
Homecoming Woodwind Ensemble - two oboes, cor anglais, & bassoon - a little too reedy even for this 'wind aficionado' -
Sylvain Blassel on harp - well done, if a fan of that instrument - disliked by Dubins in Fanfare, but recommended anyway!
Andreas Almqvist on guitar - on Magnatune Label - click to hear.  Dave

     

[San Antone]

Feldman : Clarinet and String Quartet
The Phoenix Ensemble, Mark Lieb (clarinet)

[North Star]

Fresh from the mail
Padre Antonio Soler
Keyboard sonatas
Marie-Luise Hinrichs
[asin]B00CZ9COHG[/asin]

[San Antone]

Babbitt : Clarinet Quintet
The Phoenix Ensemble, Mark Lieb (clarinet)



I wanted to hear some atonal honking and even some hooting.