What are you listening to now?

[ritter]

Some Reynaldo Hahn this morning:

[asin]B000A7XJPQ[/asin]
Venezia is a delightful cycle of six songs (on texts in Venetian dialect), famously first performed on a gondola (how they managed to get an upright piano on to a gondola beats me), during the trip that Hahn, Proust and other members of the Parisian glitzy set undertook to the city on the lagoon in 1900–a trip that is evicated in À la recherche... . This is the recording to have, as all the other ones I know either omit the sixth song (the joyful La primavera), which requires several voices, or arrange it for a solo voice.

[asin]B00015U6BC[/asin]
Portraits de peintres was Hahn and Proust's only artistic collaboration, a set of four piano pieces written by the 20 year old Hahn to accompany Proust's four prose poems on Cuyp, Potter, van Dyck and Watteau. Here they are beautifully performed by Ronald Brautigam sans récitation.

[Traverso]

Gilles Binchois

Mon Souverain Desir

Back in the Middle Ages with this very fine music.Music close to my heart.

[Que]

Agreed, a beautiful recording and superb music.

It was pleasure to revisit it. 

This just got delivered:



Tracking down a copy of this set that ran OOP proved to be very difficult....
Since nothing (affordable) was available at the various Amazons, I resorted to French Fnac. But they turned to be as unreliable as ever in indicating items to be on stock...
Then I turned to a local seller at discogs.com (excellent site to track down rare items BTW), but that was another dead end....
But I was third time lucky with another Dutch seller at cdandlp.com. Delivered the next day, new and still in factory wrapping at €38 including p&p.... For an OOP set that's hard to beat! 

Q

[aligreto]

Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde, Act 2 [von Karajan]

[aligreto]

Nice to see this Antikrist cover art again. There is some terrific music here that doesn't leave indifferent to some, including myself of course 

Yes, I am finding it quite an interesting work thus far. I need to finish listening to the second part, perhaps later today.

[aligreto]

For some reason, what attracts me most on this disc is the sound. Singer and orchestra are superbly caught, with great immediacy and transparency. Lively, rythmically alert singing by the great Maria Bayo, and beautifully pointed orchestral commentary. This Baïlèro is the most seductive, spellbinding I've heard.

I was afraid the you wold give this one a glowing report 

[aligreto]

Hekla



Oh my goodness, I think loud is short to describe this pandemonium!!!    Incredibly exhilarating and overwhelming. The woofer sounded just shattering. This work would be a real experience in a concert hall. Leifs was a master about percussion.

I had a similar reaction when I first heard that work.

[aligreto]

This just got delivered:



Tracking down a copy of this set that ran OOP proved to be very difficult....
Since nothing (affordable) was available at the various Amazons, I resorted to French Fnac. But they turned to be as unreliable as ever in indicating items to be on stock...
Then I turned to a local seller at discogs.com (excellent site to track down rare items BTW), but that was another dead end....
But I was third time lucky with another Dutch seller at cdandlp.com. Delivered the next day, new and still in factory wrapping at €38 including p&p.... For an OOP set that's hard to beat! 

Q

I am sure that it will prove to be worth all of the searching and disappointment.

[aligreto]

Leopold Mozart: Sinfonia di caccia [Armstrong]





The opening movement is great fun, filled with hunting horn calls, gunshots, dogs and guys shouting.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

#morninglistening to #JohannPeterPixis #PianoTrios w/#LeonorePianoTrio on @hyperionrecords / @PIASclassicsUSA

: http://a-fwd.to/2ZhSpq9

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection

[Draško]

Superb playing from Melnikov, but I don't like his piano, 1880s Erard.

It's probably just me but I fail to hear the point of late 19th century pianos being used today. They neither are exotic and very different sounding like early to mid 19th century ones (before repetition mechanisms and iron frame) nor they are rich sounding and voluminous as modern grands. To me most of them sound just like an old rickety upright in an elementary school music cabinet.

[Karl Henning]

Leopold Mozart: Sinfonia di caccia [Armstrong]





The opening movement is great fun, filled with hunting horn calls, gunshots, dogs and guys shouting.

"Yoicks!"

[Karl Henning]

#morninglistening to #JohannPeterPixis #PianoTrios w/#LeonorePianoTrio on @hyperionrecords / @PIASclassicsUSA

: http://a-fwd.to/2ZhSpq9

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection

I think the appropriate thread in the Composers section must be:  Pixis Dust

[SurprisedByBeauty]

I think the appropriate thread in the Composers section must be:  Pixis Dust

[André]

I was afraid the you wold give this one a glowing report 

There's no escape: now you have to buy it ! 

[aligreto]

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons [Malgoire]





I find this version to be pedantic; painfully slow in a lot of places, in fact. However, the pure, clear texture of the instruments in this recording are very evident and the musicianship is impeccable from both the orchestra and the soloist.

[aligreto]

"Yoicks!"

Indeed, I must be good fun for the orchestra to perform it.

[aligreto]

There's no escape: now you have to buy it ! 

You know, the funny thing is, I once thought that as I grew older my Wish List would decrease 

[ritter]

On the way to the gym today, caught Roberto Gerhard's Pedrelliana on Spanish National Radio. Pedrelliana is a loving homage to the founding father of Spanish musicology, Felipe Pedrell, a man who exerted an enormous influence on most relevant Spanish composers of the first half of the 20th century. The piece is the third movement to Gethard's Sinfonía homenaje a Pedrell from 1941, but was intended by its composer as a stand-alone piece too. Victor Pablo Pérez conducted the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.



What a pleasant surprise to relisten to this beautiful work! 

[Daverz]

Zelenka: Concerto a 8

[asin]B00006L770[/asin]

I wish Zelenka had written more orchestral music.  Did any other Baroque composers write anything so delightful.  Only Bach and Telemann sometimes come close.

The whole Camerata Bern box above is full of delights, but it's now OOP and CDs are silly expensive.  Presto has lossless downloads:

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/7924661--zelenka-capriccios-nos-1-5-etc