What are you listening to now?

[Traverso]

Luc Ferrari

[aligreto]

Faure: Cello sonata No. 2 [Igloi/Benson]


   

[aligreto]

A selection of songs by Poulenc

[Zeus]

Handel: 'Tu Fedel? Tu Costante?' and Other Italian Cantatas
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Ton Koopman
Challenge Classics

[asin] B01J94DWWK[/asin]

Le Salon de musique de Marie-Antoinette
Sandrine Chatron et al.
Ambroisie/Naive

[asin] B001P9276K[/asin]

Both quite nice.  I think I slightly prefer the latter.

[aligreto]

Schubert: String Quartet D.173 [Amadeus Quartet]

[prémont]

Schubert: String Quartet D.173 [Amadeus Quartet]

Aah, I owned this in my youth. Very nice, but I became rather fast saturated by the music.

[aligreto]

Wagner under the baton of Rickenbacher






The Ride of the Valkyries from "Die Walkure"
Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey from "Gotterdammerung"
Death March from "Gotterdammerung"

[aligreto]

Aah, I owned this in my youth. Very nice, but I became rather fast saturated by the music.

Do you not listen to Schubert's String Quartets still?

[Kontrapunctus]

One of the best performances of the Sonata that I have heard. He plays every piece phenomenally well. Good sound--a little bright and hardens a bit in the climatic passages.

[aligreto]

Babar The Little Elephant


   


A bit of fun 

[Daverz]

Shoatakovich: Symphonies 4 & 11

[asin] B07CXC3311[/asin]

24/96 download from Presto:

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8456728--shostakovich-symphonies-nos-4-11-the-year-1905

[André]

The symphony is the minor work here, a tripartite overture-type work that is over in just 9 minutes, much like symphonies 26 and 32. The serenade is the big offering, in 8 movements preceded by a march (K237). Nifty stuff, although not on the Haffner or Posthorn level. Superb playing from the spirited Concentus Musicus, and sound to match. Harnoncourt is sometimes gruff, but that becomes a concern only in the symphony, which surely ought to sound a bit less brash.

[André]

Leitner was one of the great brucknerians (his 6th and 9th are both top contenders in a very crowded field).

Born in 1912, he studied with Karl Muck and Franz Schreker. He was Bernard Haitink's teacher and mentor, giving him his first conducting job. Leitner was especially active in the theatre, devoting much of his career to opera conducting, including modern works (Stravinsky, Orff among others). He preferred to guest conduct, having held only one tenured job as a music director (in Den Hague, from 1976 to 1980).

I wish there were more recordings of his work on the podium available. This 7th was recorded in concert in 1978 at the Komische Oper, Berlin. It's a patient, beautiful, serene recording. Climaxes in the 7th are few and far between, something that often causes tension to sag under less skilled batons. That is not the case here.

[Draško]

No.1. Still the benchmark.

[Kontrapunctus]

Shoatakovich: Symphonies 4 & 11

[asin] B07CXC3311[/asin]

24/96 download from Presto:

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8456728--shostakovich-symphonies-nos-4-11-the-year-1905

How does it compare sonically and interpretively to others you own/have heard?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

No.1. Still the benchmark.

+1

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Shostakovich, quartets 12 & 14, Danel.

[TheGSMoeller]

No.98, one of my favorites from Papa Haydn.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Schoenberg, quartet 4, Arditti (there really needs to be a giant Arditti box).

[Que]

Morning listening:

[asin]B006WG3U2Q[/asin]

Disc 2 contains two masses. The 1st is the six-part  Missa pastores loquebantur by Cornelius Canis (Cornelius d'Hondt), who was choir master in the Flemish city of Gent, where he succeeded JHeronimus Vinders - whose music is also featured in this series. Later he succeeded Thomas Crequillon at the court of Holy Roman emperor Charles V. The Egidius devoted an entire album to him before. Anyway, it is a very nice piece indeed. 2nd is an anonymous, 4-part Requiem mass, which requires attentive listening due to its rather subdued character but is quite impressive. 

Q