What are you listening to now?

[Traverso]

Foccroulle's interpretation is high on my list, but I wait until I get a good deal. Have already his complete Bach with which I am very happy.

Bought it a few days ago ( marktplaats) 25 euro's, not too bad. About a complete Bach recording with Foccroulle is something I consider but can't decide.I have already 5 complete sets.
Koopman ( Teldec ) Marie Claire Alain (2X ,second and third recording ) The Aeolus set with Kooiman and André Isoir.
Buxtehude Foccroulle,Vogel and Ulrik Spang Hanssen.   Life is too short  ! 

[Florestan]

Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 4 [Keylin/Yuasa]





Dramatic, bold and ebullient music with wonderful virtuosic playing from Keylin makes for intense and gripping listening.

Amen!

The whole Naxos series of the Vieuxtemps concertos is a winner! How I wish I attended a concert where, instead of playing for the umpteenth time the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky or Brahms VC, an intelligent, sensitive and brave enough violinist would play Vieuxtemps, or for that matter Beriot, or Hubay... But I guess I have no more chances to that than to hear a Moscheles, Herz or Scharwenka PC instead of the usual suspects. A pity!

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Buxtehude

CD 1

This guy, or Vogel, if you had a choice? (I have USH & Koopman and a bit of Byrne)

[aligreto]

Vivaldi: Four Seasons [Biondi/Opus 111]





This is a beautiful, stylish and buoyant version [recorded in 1991] that sounds gorgeous. It is also full of drama, energy and excitement. Suffice to say that the playing from all concerned is impeccable. Biondi's playing is magnificent. He plays fiendishly in places; I am sure that Vivaldi would approve of his performances and he is also very ably accompanied by Europa Galante. The speeds are brisk and lively but the music is infused with such fluidity that one hardly notices. The textures are rich but never dense. This highly charged version gets a very high recommendation.

[aligreto]

The whole Naxos series of the Vieuxtemps concertos is a winner! How I wish I attended a concert where, instead of playing for the umpteenth time the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky or Brahms VC, an intelligent, sensitive and brave enough violinist would play Vieuxtemps, or for that matter Beriot, or Hubay... But I guess I have no more chances to that than to hear a Moscheles, Herz or Scharwenka PC instead of the usual suspects. A pity!

Agreed on all counts.

[Traverso]

This guy, or Vogel, if you had a choice? (I have USH & Koopman and a bit of Byrne)

I have the box with Foccroulle only one day !    That said,if I had to choose it is Harald Vogel who is the most appealing and has a more lively way of playing.

BuxWV 138   Praeludium in C
BuxWV 199  Komm, heiliger Geist,herre Gott

Especially when you listen to the chorale it is evident that when you listen to the Vogel recording it draws your immediate attention,Foccroulle is a bit dryer and less engaging.
It is not likely that I change my opinion but that doesn't mean that Foccroulle is a bad choice,Vogel is more inviting and goes under your skin.
About the recording has Vogel again the advantage of better acoustics ,the organ is better placed in the soundimage.
This is my first opinion and clearly in favor of Harald Vogel.

[Traverso]

 Brahms

After the sextets yesterday now the string quintets

The Rafael Ensemble

[Florestan]

Agreed on all counts.

That's why I do think that, while the advent of the recordings has it serious negative consequences, nevertheless we are very fortunate to live in an era when even the most obscure stuff eventually gets recorded --- not that Vieuxtemps would have been obscure back then; actually, had we been his contemporaries, we'd have had more chances of hearing his VCs than Brahms' or Tchaikovsky's. Sic transit gloria mundi!

[Florestan]

Vivaldi: Four Seasons [Biondi/Opus 111]





This is a beautiful, stylish and buoyant version [recorded in 1991] that sounds gorgeous. It is also full of drama, energy and excitement. Suffice to say that the playing from all concerned is impeccable. Biondi's playing is magnificent. He plays fiendishly in places; I am sure that Vivaldi would approve of his performances and he is also very ably accompanied by Europa Galante. The speeds are brisk and lively but the music is infused with such fluidity that one hardly notices. The textures are rich but never dense. This highly charged version gets a very high recommendation.

+1!

Reading your reviews I sometimes get the uncanny feeling that we've been separated at birth.

[Spineur]

+1!

Reading your reviews I sometimes get the uncanny feeling that we've been separated at birth.

Here is music for Florestan:
Hyacinthe Jadin is a french composer born just before the french revolution and died of tuberculosis at the young age of 24.  He still managed to write 12 string quartets, 12 piano sonatas 6 sonatas for violin and piano.  I bought the two string quartets discs

[asin]B0042GNDWA[/asin]



Lovely Mozartian music reminicent of Arriega string quartets

[Florestan]

Here is music for Florestan:
Hyacinthe Jadin is a french composer born just before the french revolution and died of tuberculosis at the young age of 24.  He still managed to write 12 string quartets, 12 piano sonatas 6 sonatas for violin and piano.  I bought the two string quartets discs

[asin]B0042GNDWA[/asin]



Lovely Mozartian music reminicent of Arriega string quartets

Oh, thanks! I do have several discs of his music, including the Mosaiques above --- but I can't remember if I listened to them at all. 

[Moonfish]

Smetana: Má vlast             Kubelik/Boston SO

[Maestro267]

Gubaidulina: Pro et contra
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Otaka

[SymphonicAddict]

Playing here,right now! This is,easily, one Raff's best symphonies. It has long been my personal favourite. It has lots of good tunes,and I would place it above the Fifth because it just seems more tightly structured to my ears. I like the Fifth,of course,but this one seems to benefit from the fact that it doesn't have a program. Enjoy the Fifth for the colourful orchestration,tunes and story. Enjoy this one for the narrative of the symphony,itself. I particularly like the 'Beethovenian' third movement and the inexorable manner in which it builds to a majestic climax (with timpani). The performance and sound quality is as excellent as always. Again,I love the use of these Arnold Böcklin paintings.

It's a great symphony with no doubts. That CDs box is a real treasure. Hours of pure enjoyment.

[Moonfish]

Richard Strauss: Violin Sonata             Repin/Berezovsky

[asin] B00GZQJ644[/asin]

[Baron Scarpia]

Melartin, Second Symphony

[asin]B00001W08G[/asin]

Splendid music, I would say the second symphony is more distinctive than the first. Presumably Melartin is coming into is own style. It is in four movements which play without pause. There is a sort of "doom" motif that keeps returning at key moments. Very imaginative use of the orchestra, particularly brass. A wonderful discovery.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Back to the basics:



#morninglistening to #Beethoven w/@KarajanMusic & @berlinphil on @dgclassics in THE classic #symphony #LvB cycle from 1963

: http://a-fwd.to/1YX0QjX

2nd of seven cycles he recorded.

[SymphonicAddict]

This set is excellent, maybe the best one about Madetoja. Overall, my favorite work is the indisputably gorgeous 2nd Symphony, imbued with a nostalgic atmosphere which I find poignant (and it's a homage to the composer's brother). The cold and quiet Finnish landscapes can also be perceived throughout.

[Todd]

[Sergeant Rock]

Raff Symphony No. 4 G minor op.167 (1871)




Sarge