What are you listening to now?

[Irons]

Gorgeous works, big, brawny, generous. The London Philharmonic was London's premier orchestra at the time and Alwyn conducts with feeling and energy. The sound is ample and natural (venue not specified).

If the Lyrita CD issues are anything like the vinyl then little information is given. Alwyn's 4th Symphony was recorded in 1975 and the 1st, 1977. Kenneth Wilkinson was the sound engineer for both at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall. "Wilkie" is a given for good sound.

[aligreto]

Fauré: Requiem [Willcocks]





This is a fine, true to the music version but, what I would categorize as a restrained performance; devotional but not quite as emotionally charged as other versions that I have in my collection.

[aligreto]

This is one of my favorite recordings with the Tallis Scholars,it is really brilliant.

Yes indeed, and I have it on both CD and vinyl in my collection.

[Iota]

Jumpin' on this Franco-Persian bandwagon (but still firmly in 20th century French territory):

Kathryn Stott plays Charles Koechlin's Les heures persanes, op. 65

Sort of contemporary with the Koechlin I was listening to earlier (but I find the music of these two composers—Debussy and Hahn—, different as they are from each other, much more appealing than Koechlin's ):

For what it's worth, I find the orchestral and piano versions of Les Heures Persanes very different experiences. The latter seems far more solitary, existential even (and it's not just instrumental numbers, it's timbre, note decay and a qualitative atmospheric difference), whereas the orchestral version feels a far more sensory/heady/intoxicating affair. Personally I have a preference the latter.

Segerstam's is the only version I know, but he really seems to have a way of coaxing extraordinary sounds out of strings (cf the storm scene at the end of Sibelius' Tapiola, the most intense I've heard!)

[André]

If the Lyrita CD issues are anything like the vinyl then little information is given. Alwyn's 4th Symphony was recorded in 1975 and the 1st, 1977. Kenneth Wilkinson was the sound engineer for both at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall. "Wilkie" is a given for good sound.

Thanks for the info ! I assume it also applies to the disc with the other symphonies, then.

[Ken B]

To me the deploration sounds like lapping waves of the sea, waves collide and new waves form.

I absolutely adore the timbre of the top voice. And I like their way of forming vowel sounds, it's not too rich and large, and it's pretty introspective.

It's slow. I find it hard to hear and follow the words.

Re world music R Us, that connection has been part of medieval music interpretation since the 1960s, maybe less so in music as late as this Ockeghem. The one thing we know about this period of music is that it didn't sound like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Everything else is up for grabs.

Thanks. I'll give that a listen tonight.

[kyjo]

A gentle, mellow, almost lullaby-like Requiem --- to the memory of my beloved mother who unexpectedly passed away two weeks ago.

My deepest condolences, Andrei.

[ritter]

For what it's worth, I find the orchestral and piano versions of Les Heures Persanes very different experiences. The latter seems far more solitary, existential even (and it's not just instrumental numbers, it's timbre, note decay and a qualitative atmospheric difference), whereas the orchestral version feels a far more sensory/heady/intoxicating affair. Personally I have a preference the latter.

Segerstam's is the only version I know, but he really seems to have a way of coaxing extraordinary sounds out of strings...

Thanks for the comments, Iota! Much appreciated.. I have the orchestral Les heures persanes in my collection (the Segerstam recording), and will give it a spin sometime soon...

[Todd]

Another listen, this time through cans.  Gourari's style on this disc works better this way.  Now I kind of want to get her Decca recordings, if only because they are hard to get.

[aligreto]

Berlioz: Te Deum [Davis]





A very fine, devotional reading which is very well performed by all.

[ritter]

Chamber music by Vincent d'Indy:

[Mandryka]

Le Roman de la Rose??

I listened to this as lately as yesterday. Yes it is worth listening to.

Continuing my exploration of Sabine Lutzenberger with this rather fine recording, which has led me to a tenor with a very affecting, unaffected voice whose name I haven't yet identified, evidently the Augsburg Early Music Ensemble is my kind of thing.

[king ubu]

wonderful performances, but I guess just not really my kinda repertoire ...

[aligreto]

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast [Loughran]





This is the only version of this work that I own so I have no other listening reference points for comparison. However, I find it to be a strong, dramatic work which is well sung and performed here in a powerful, spirited, exciting and intense presentation; operatic/theatrical almost.

[JBS]

To me the deploration sounds like lapping waves of the sea, waves collide and new waves form.

I absolutely adore the timbre of the top voice. And I like their way of forming vowel sounds, it's not too rich and large, and it's pretty introspective.

It's slow. I find it hard to hear and follow the words.

Re world music R Us, that connection has been part of medieval music interpretation since the 1960s, maybe less so in music as late as this Ockeghem. The one thing we know about this period of music is that it didn't sound like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Everything else is up for grabs.

I followed Ken's link for Schmelzer and Co.   Did not care for the Missa Caput.  That the Youtube algorithm suggested that a video of Inuit throat singing sisters was comparable may be taken as an image of why.   But now listening to their performance of that Ockeghem Deploration, which works much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9tcg1VfKPs

[JBS]

To me the deploration sounds like lapping waves of the sea, waves collide and new waves form.

I absolutely adore the timbre of the top voice. And I like their way of forming vowel sounds, it's not too rich and large, and it's pretty introspective.

It's slow. I find it hard to hear and follow the words.

Re world music R Us, that connection has been part of medieval music interpretation since the 1960s, maybe less so in music as late as this Ockeghem. The one thing we know about this period of music is that it didn't sound like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Everything else is up for grabs.

Having listened, I agree, and I found I did not like the Bordeaux BrokenConsort performance you posted not nearly as well.

[Mandryka]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

[JBS]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

But can't nightingales pray as well?

I suppose you're right about the Graindelavoix, but I found it hard to get past the drone.  There was a similar effect on Beauty Farm's recording of Baudelwyn.  Have you heard that one?

[André]

Very nice. The second concerto is a work of real substance. In between the concertos the orchestra plays the Derby Overture, a fun work with an arnoldian touch (a « lounge » tune in the middle section).

[Harry]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

Told ya so....