What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

It is one series which they are dividing responsibility for. So collect every volume because there will be no box set!

Yeah, I was aware that both labels were dividing up the recordings. I already own them all except for this one:



Erato had some some pretty negative things about this recording. Have you heard this recording, Brian? Just curious if you can give me some kind of opinion of it?

[Pat B]

Bruckner: the Eight symphony in one of the best played, engineered and conducted performances I know of: the Berlin Radio S. O. under Heinz Rögner. That, too, is from 1985, but it sounds a lot more immediate and beautiful.

Is that from the Brilliant set (or on Berlin Classics)? There's apparently a Weitblick set with different performances but I can't even find it on amazon.

[listener]

IRELAND: The Forgotten Rite     BAX: Symphony no.3
Hallé Orchestra     Barbirolli, cond.
recorded in 1943 and 1949 respectively
will hear the other disc tomorrow

[TheGSMoeller]

Just did a comparison of three recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor from Bernstein/VPO, Norrington/Stuttgart and Harnoncourt/RCO. Didn't really set out to pick a winner, but Harnoncourt is psychological, Norrington is polished and Bernstein is passionate, although Hanssler wins hands down for sound quality. All three very good, and highly recommended. And all three are live recordings.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



A superb symphony and performance.

[Todd]

Disc four.  The best disc so far.  DSCH's 4th is top shelf, and the Prokofiev is of Paavel Haas Quartet quality.

[Mirror Image]

Disc four.  The best disc so far.  DSCH's 4th is top shelf, and the Prokofiev is of Paavel Haas Quartet quality.

Excellent! I received my set today. I hope to dig into it next week or so.

[Brian]

Erato had some some pretty negative things about this recording. Have you heard this recording, Brian? Just curious if you can give me some kind of opinion of it?

I think we're in the same boat and for the same reason.

[Mirror Image]

I think we're in the same boat and for the same reason.

I recall that the Hurwitzer wasn't a big fan of this recording either.

[SonicMan46]

Vivaldi, Antonio - Bassoon Concerti V. 3 w/ Sergio Azzolini on Baroque bassoon - I bought the two Naive boxed concerto sets (total of 12 CDs) which included the first 2 volumes of Azzolini in the bassoon concerti, but he made a third volume - so tonight did an MP3 DL from Classicsonline for $9 - burned to CD-R (burned on a label), and now listening - LOVE this guy!  Dave

[Mandryka]

http://www.youtube.com/v/4WaScFXm9HQ

Luc Ferrari, Tautologos III. Just a study in pulsation and repetition really, what impresses me is how Ferrari keeps an idea going for just the right amount of time. And then he makes a very slight change - just enough to make it interesting. So there's a real sense of drama. The way the ecstatic climax is single mindedly developed over 15 minutes is pretty impressive.

Makes me want to listen to the overture to Rhinegold again to see how Wagner did it. Ravel's Bolero too.

[Que]

My morning listening is this disc by the recorder ensemble (now defunct) La Fontegara Amsterdam:

[asin]B000026E6T[/asin]
Accompaniment by viola da gamba/cello, dulcian and haprsichord/organ.

Q

[Harry]

New Acquisition, first listen. Nothing better as starting the morning with this music.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/09/new-acquisition-monteverdi-claudio-1567.html?spref=tw

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B000SNUMFC[/asin]

[Sadko]

Rameau: Works       Marcelle Meyer

Magical!

I'm glad to see that Marcelle Meyer's Rameau is slowly getting wider appreciation

[Mandryka]

The best Harnoncourtian insight into how the music ties together, audible in the recordings themselves, is the fact that they removed the pause between 39 and 40, and 39 really does flow into 40 pretty seamlessly.

Maybe the inexpressive, rushed slow movements are meant to somehow make the symphonies feel more "balanced"?

Listening to this:



Mackerras/SCO would be a midpoint between Harnoncourt and Bruggen. Bruggen is grander, more elegant and old-fashioned in 39 and 41, although his 40 is pretty thrilling and overall one of the best I've ever heard. I'd say the intro to Bruggen's 39 is probably half the speed of NH's. The Orch of the Eighteenth Century is a much more interesting period sound. The strings are drier and more insistently vibrato-free, but the woodwinds are glorious, and prominent in the recorded mix. Overall, a subtler ensemble than the trumpet-heavy Concentus Musicus Wien.

Thanks for bringing up these recordings because it's prompted me to listen, so far I've been focussing on the Jupiter fugue. Re sound,  I can certainly hear that CMV makes the brass very characterful, but in fact in the fugue it was the beauty of the woodwind which impressed me most, I thought the balances were really revealing at times. I also thought that Harnoncourt's performance lacked nothing in grandeur, on the contrary. And there's quite a bit of contrast - texture, emotion - that's quite a coup in this music. If this is a musical representation of the Ascension, as the link with the CPEB oratorio suggests, that NH pulls it off astonishingly well.

You may enjoy Bruggen's first recording of the Jupiter, I prefered it to this late one. Mackerras seemed like a really good dependable mainstream animated performance.

[Harry]

A Bach CD a day keeps boredom away.....disc 16 already.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/09/bach-js-complete-organ-works-disc-16.html?spref=tw

[Harry]

Some divertimentos, Feldparthie's and Parthia's....

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/09/haydn-joseph-divertimentos-for-wind-cd.html?spref=tw

[Karl Henning]

G'day, Harry!

[Harry]

G'day, Harry!

A very good day to you Karl.