What are you listening to now?

[otare]

I started this Saturday with Anda and Fricsay playing Bartók piano concertos. CD 1 from this set:


Now:
from this set:

[prémont]

I'm enjoying this quite a lot:

If this is the case, I think you will enjoy Vol.II even more, particularly the Clavierübung III.

[Que]

I'm enjoying this quite a lot:

I am not surprised - right organist (I think his complete Merulo set on DIVOX is awesome) and right organ - but glad to hear expectation might bare out!

When would Brilliant issue the complete set? I am not mistaken it is already included in their newly "improved" forthcoming Big Bach Box?

Q

[Que]

Just in, so let's do a test-drive:

[asin]B00KFU09OW[/asin]

The packaging sets new standards in flimsiness BTW it is just a piece of folded cardboard with the two discs enclosed in the front and back!
And the liner notes? Well, those are reduced a short "blurb" in German and English on the inside of the front and backsides.. Not pleased with that, at all...

EDIT: Disaster nr. 2 - due to the flimsy packaging one of the discs is cracked....

Q

[Harry]

Volume 8 of Bach's complete Organ Music, on my hometown church.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/08/bach-js-complete-organ-works-volume-8.html?spref=tw

[Drasko]

Just in, so let's do a test-drive:

[asin]B00KFU09OW[/asin]

The packaging sets new standards in flimsiness BTW it is just a piece of folded cardboard with the two discs enclosed in the front and back!
And the liner notes? Well, those are reduced a short "blurb" in German and English on the inside of the front and backsides.. Not pleased with that, at all...

EDIT: Disaster nr. 2 - due to the flimsy packaging one of the discs is cracked....

Q

Sorry to hear, that's really crap   Could you post a photo?

Maybe packaging was the reason why it was cheaper than their usual abnormal prices. For said reason I have only one of their releases (Gombert) but it's standard double-folded digipack with normal booklet (texts about music, full sung texts and translations).

Flimsiest packaging I have is some Hat-Hut, double-folded cardboard with just cut slot to stick the CD in, scuffed obviously.

[Que]

Sorry to hear, that's really crap   Could you post a photo?

Maybe packaging was the reason why it was cheaper than their usual abnormal prices. For said reason I have only one of their releases (Gombert) but it's standard double-folded digipack with normal booklet (texts about music, full sung texts and translations).

Flimsiest packaging I have is some Hat-Hut, double-folded cardboard with just cut slot to stick the CD in, scuffed obviously.

Will try to post a photo. But imagine a thick paper envelope that would be in one of those big box sets, but that in a folded double form.

After listening to the undamaged disc, I must say I rather liked what I heard. Their soundreminds me of the Dufay Ensemble (Freiburg), though in all fairness that ensemble is IMO actually better (or least was before leader and bass Eckerhard Kiem passed away not so long ago).

So, I'll take it. Though the initial execitment about the lower price has definitely and completely cooled down. What you get are the physical discs with a tracklisting. A tiny bio on Pipelare that you can find anywhere on the internet, doesn't count in my book.

thread duty:

[asin]B000NY1F4I[/asin]

Q

[Que]

The Loeki Stardust set got me hooked on early Italian recorder music (Newton Classics, by some twist of fate it was exactly the Italian disc that proved to be containing a production error in the form of a (single) hick up)).

I got the disc which features another Dutch recorder ensemble yesterday:

[asin]B000026E6T[/asin]

Aprt from the fact the recordeds are accompanied  by other instruments here, there is an interesting and striking difference in approach. While the Loeki Stardust was focused of fusing the sound of the instruments in a divine blended sound, here the individual recorders are much more pronounced.

Interesting pick of repertoire and superb musicianship. 

Q

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

My friend and I read through the Wieniawski a few weeks ago.

Although it is not a violin concerto, you should hear Boulez's short chamber work Derive I. If that doesn't cure your DTs, nothing will.

Which Wieniawski do you prefer, 1 or 2?  (I think I know already!: Grove states point blank that the first "overstresses virtuosity.")  Will look-up the Boulez, merci mille fois.

[Harry]

Some Arnell this afternoon.....

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/08/arnell-richard-symphony-no-1-6-and.html?spref=tw

[Harry]

This fifth volume of Panufnik, isn't so bad after all.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/08/panufnik-andrzej-symphonic-works-volume.html?spref=tw

[Que]

Symphony nr. 8 

I am curious how the live 2011 cycle from Rotterdam would compare....

Q

[Harry]

Symphony nr. 8 

I am curious how the live 2011 cycle from Rotterdam would compare....

Q

Funny enough I never warmed towards Frans Bruggen, I guess he made too many choices which I disliked, especially if it comes to tempo's. The artistic value however is obvious. His merits as a conductor are unmistakable. Whatever I heard from him, did not touch me, not even his many recordings with baroque music. Still he will be missed. I saw some rehearsal sessions when he recorded Beethoven, which had some impact on me.

[SonicMan46]

I've not explored my 'American' collection of music (mainly latter 19th into the early 20th centuries) in a while - so for a Saturday morning:

MacDowell, Edward (1860-1908) - Solo Piano Music w/ the performers below - tragic ending for MacDowell who was hit by a horse drawn cab in 1904 dying four years later; James Barbagallo died of a heart attach in 1996 - he was 43 y/o.  Dave

 

[Todd]

.
[asin]B00FESKPDA[/asin]


Disc 3.  Handel on a Hammond.  Well, at least Ms Schirmer tried something different.  Alas, it's god awful, the classical recording equivalent of the movie Thor.  It's Handel as played by a third-rate lounge jazz act.  The SOTA sound only serves to very clearly reveal its awfulness.

[Que]

[asin]B009EJSU32[/asin]

Encouraged by Pat B I am revisiting this disc, this time listen to the violin concerto with Vera Beths. I think it is quite on the mark to say that this sounds way  more inspired than any of the piano concertos. Still, the mater-of-factness of the orchestra at times bothes me. But Beths gives here absolute best, the way she does the cadenzas....wonderfull. 

Q

[EigenUser]

Messiaen's Sept Haikai. Beautiful day -- goes great with the windows open facing the woods!
[asin]B0014GIZCY[/asin]

[SonicMan46]

Disc 3.  Handel on a Hammond.  Well, at least Ms Schirmer tried something different.  Alas, it's god awful, the classical recording equivalent of the movie Thor.  It's Handel as played by a third-rate lounge jazz act.  The SOTA sound only serves to very clearly reveal its awfulness.

Hi Todd - have her on the Handel KB suites and enjoy; was not aware of the 3-disc set of concertos until you posted a few pages back - read a few reviews and was 'turned off' by the concept, as you just verified at least on the third disc - for those interested, a review from Fanfare is reprinted HERE - Dave

[Wakefield]

If this is the case, I think you will enjoy Vol.II even more, particularly the Clavierübung III.

I am not surprised - right organist (I think his complete Merulo set on DIVOX is awesome) and right organ - but glad to hear expectation might bare out!

When would Brilliant issue the complete set? I am not mistaken it is already included in their newly "improved" forthcoming Big Bach Box?

Q

It's great to know there are more great things to come.

Particularly, I have loved two things: (1) To remember the incredible range of possibilities of this fantastic Trost organ, from monumentality to the most delicate tenderness; speaking of which right now is sounding through the speakers a lovely prelude BWV 617, and (2) the relaxed, but highly focused style of Molardi. 

P.S.: Probably what I like the most in Molardi, it's his well controlled flexibility, rarely condescending to outbursts of any kind.

[Todd]

Hi Todd - have her on the Handel KB suites and enjoy; was not aware of the 3-disc set of concertos until you posted a few pages back - read a few reviews and was 'turned off' by the concept, as you just verified at least on the third disc - for those interested, a review from Fanfare is reprinted HERE - Dave

The first disc with fortepiano is quite enjoyable, and I predict that Schirmer is even better on a modern grand (I'll probably listen to disc 2 this weekend), but the Hammond disc is a colossal misfire.