What are you listening to now?

[Traverso]

This came in the mail yesterday, so I decided on an immediate spin:

[asin]B000GW8AT0[/asin]
Glad to have found some "new" English lute music. 

Q

Never saw this one,congratulations.

[Traverso]

Music from the 13th Century Spain

[Traverso]

Trouvères

[Que]

Never saw this one,congratulations.

Ohhhh, thats good news, tell me is it good, can I put it on my order list?

Perhaps you've encountered Daniel Bacheler before - a few of his compositions are included in O'Dette's recording "Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Lute Book" (1992).

I enjoyed this more extensive programme, recorded in 2006. An elegant & sophisticated, French-influenced style.

More about it in the Gramophone & ClassicsToday reviews here: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=142309

Q

[Traverso]

Now, this is something I've never heard yet. What are your thoughts about it?

Well it is minimal music and that is something wich can be too much for some listeners .For me I can enjoy it but it is not my favorite style of music.It can have a sort of hypnotic effect on the brain wich is necessary otherwise it is very tiring to listen to. It is a train of subtly changing rhythms. It can clear your head or you get nervous but that depends on the listener.
An example might be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/v/RB-woRXwY-Q

[Biffo]

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 in F major Pastoral - Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1963)

[Harry]

Perhaps you've encountered Daniel Bacheler before - a few of his compositions are included in O'Dette's recording "Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Lute Book" (1992).

I enjoyed this more extensive programme, recorded in 2006. An elegant & sophisticated, French-influenced style.

More about it in the Gramophone & ClassicsToday reviews here: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=142309

Q

Unfortunately this disc is very expensive it seems. O, well must search for a better price as the ones I find. I have indeed O'Dette's recording with a few of Daniel Bacheler's works.

[Harry]

Corelli's Legacy.

Corelli: Sonata op. 5 Nr. 9
Carbonelli: Sonata op. 1 Nr. 2
Mossi: Sonata op. 1 Nr. 5
Visconti: Sonata op. 2 Nr. 5
Castrucci: Sonate op. 1 Nr. 4
Locatelli: Sonata op. 8 Nr. 10
Montanari: Giga in d-minor. World Premiere recording.

Musica Antiqua Roma.

A creative choice to choose Corelli, starting from his Concerto opus V, No. 9 in A major, and from thereon embroidering further with this tapestry. Very successful as I might add. The playing is superb as is the recording. And let's be honest, how many times in your musical search do you stumble over the likes Giovanni Mossi, Gasparo Visconti, Prospers Castrucci, or for that matter Antonio Maria Montanari? And the last one is a WPR, granted a small work lasting nearly 2 minutes but very beautiful. It is from a Sonata in D minor (Ms Dresden) with the elegant name of "Giga senza basso".

[Que]

Unfortunately this disc is very expensive it seems. O, well must search for a better price as the ones I find. I have indeed O'Dette's recording with a few of Daniel Bacheler's works.

At Amazon MP prices go up and down like a jojo....
I got it recently used in excellent condition for a few euros!

What I do is wishlist everything and frequently have a look, sorting the list from the lowest price up....

Q

[André]

The Hot Club de France (Reinhardt, Grappelli and friends), in live recordings from 1936-1949.






Two very, very different interpretations of the Pathétique. Couplings are splendid: Kakhidze's 1812 (cannon shots omitted) is stirring. Wand's Pulcinella combines brashness and refinement. I tend to favour the former (Klemperer) over the latter (Marriner, Abbado). A neat appetizer before the main course.

[Traverso]

Boulez

[Traverso]

Dutilleux

Métaboles
The shadow of time
Symphony No.2 "le Double"

Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse
Michel Plasson

[Todd]

Woo doggy!  Sofya Melikyan is a name new to me, and on the evidence of this disc, she needs to record more post-haste.  Her themed disc contains four works by four women, two from last century and two from this century.  In the Gubaidulina sonata, Melikyan smokes Marcela Roggeri, herself quite good.  Melikyan makes the most of the unabashedly modernist piece, displaying exceptional command and extracting every last musical morsel.  Geghuni Chitchyan's Armenian Bas-Reliefs is a Bartokian smorgasbord; Kaija Saariaho's Prelude is a seven minute and change blend of Impressionism, spectral music, and a Ligetian style etude; and Raquel Quiaro's Cluster Suite opens very much living up to its title in the first piece and proceeds through a largely hard-hitting work, concluding with some bite and anger in the last piece. 

I'd very much like to hear what Melikyan could do with Messiaen, or just about any core rep, or anything else she chooses to record.  It'll be pretty much impossible for me to resist her Granados and Mompou disc.

The acronym SOTA does not do justice to the sound quality.

[Harry]

Le Chant de Leschiquier.
Binchois & Dufay songs in the Buxheim Codex.

Performed by:
Tasto Solo.

This is one of the best CD'S I bought this year. It has a fine mix of instrumental and vocal music performed by an ensemble I admire without end. The singing is well balanced, and pleasing to the ear, and the brilliancy of the instrumental parts is also a joy to listen to. I urge all to try and listen to the samples.
Good sound too.

[Roasted Swan]

The Boulanger is a stunning work.  Sadly of its 2 recordings - one (with a superb tenor Andre Mallabrera and specialist Boulanger conductor Igor Markevitch) has never made it to CD and the other - much lauded on Chandos is actually about as unidiomatic as it could be,  The tenor there the straining Italianate Bonaventura Bottone is about as wrong as it is possible to be.......

Managed to get a back-ordered copy of the BBC Music Magazine with the Boulanger "Faust et Helene".  Well played and well recorded but oh dear another straining tenor.  Is French lyric tenor singing really a lost art?  The guy here is OK but as soon as it requires volume AND altitude he resorts to punching out the notes.  Not ugly per se - and might suit Italian opera but not at all right for this kind of lyric/ecstatic work.  Rather disappointing just because there do not seem to be many/any voices currently singing suited to this style.  I'll just have to wait for someone to transfer the mallabrera/markevitch recording to CD......

[Florestan]

Continuing my journey through this fascinating Basque series. Jesus Arambarri's music is right up my alley: Late Romantic yet never turgid, colourfully orchestrated, passionate, sentimental and tuneful (hummingly so, actually). I loved every work on this disc, and I loved all three discs I've listened to so far. What a feast for my ears this series proves to be --- and still more than 10 discs to go! Luze bizi Euskal herria!

[vandermolen]

Sinfonia austera: Reading some notes, I had listened to this work previously, but I didn't have strong memories of it. You are right, Jeffrey, about the Kielland connection, there is a little of similarity between those symphonies. The gray but gripping atmosphere was the most relevant feature I found between them. However, the Kielland has more recognizable themes and marked rhythms, whilst the Norgard is slightly more modern, with a more expanded percussion and more climaxes. Anyway, I enjoyed the Norgard enormously. It's my favorite along with the psychedelic 3rd. Thanks for reminding me of it.




Symphonies 1 & 2: Not as exceptional as those by his master Beethoven, but I consider that they deserve attention as well. They were a pleasant listen overall.

Glad you enjoyed the 'Austera' Cesar. I need to listen to the 'psychedelic' 3rd which I also have on Chandos.

[vandermolen]

Thread duty:
A fabulous disc, which I've enjoyed even more than Volume 1:
The big discovery for me was Patrick Hadley's 'Kinder Scout' - a marvellous tone poem of under seven minutes which reminded me a bit of Holst's 'Egdon Heath' and Sibelius's 'The Swan of Tuonela'. Kinder Scout is a hill in the Derbyshire Peak District which I have scrambled up at least three times as it is at the start (going from South to North) of the Pennine Way. I had the good fortune to hear Dorothy Howell's atmospheric tone poem 'Lamia' at the Proms a week or so ago. The early VW work 'Harnham Down' sounded more like Delius to me although there were resonances of 'In the Fen Country'. Bliss's 'Melee fantasque' is a work I've always liked and the same goes for 'April' by John Foulds, 'Merok' by Eric Fogg and 'By the Tarn' by Eugene Goossens:

[Mandryka]

This came in the mail yesterday, so I decided on an immediate spin:

[asin]B000GW8AT0[/asin]
Glad to have found some "new" English lute music. 

Q

O'Dette was a big advocate for Bacheler, there's some other pieces in an earlier recording he made

[Roasted Swan]

Managed to get a back-ordered copy of the BBC Music Magazine with the Boulanger "Faust et Helene".  Well played and well recorded but oh dear another straining tenor.  Is French lyric tenor singing really a lost art?  The guy here is OK but as soon as it requires volume AND altitude he resorts to punching out the notes.  Not ugly per se - and might suit Italian opera but not at all right for this kind of lyric/ecstatic work.  Rather disappointing just because there do not seem to be many/any voices currently singing suited to this style.  I'll just have to wait for someone to transfer the mallabrera/markevitch recording to CD......

decided to upload to youtube the Markevitch version as it doesn't appear to be there......

https://youtu.be/mFLkarwfcCU