What are you listening to now?

[Sadko]

[asin] B000BQV52A[/asin]

... but I've never heard Beethoven sound this human and approachable.

Good idea, I'm joining in:

[asin]B001DCLOYA[/asin]
And Horst Stein's conducting and the Wiener's playing also have this approachable, "natural" quality.

[Mookalafalas]

Good idea, I'm joining in:

[asin]B001DCLOYA[/asin]
And Horst Stein's conducting and the Wiener's playing also have this approachable, "natural" quality.

  Nice to see ya Actually, I haven't gotten to the concertos yet. Maybe I'll just put one on now...

[Brahmsian]

Brahms
Pf Quintet in f minor, Op.34
Members of the Nash Ensemble

+1  Good day, Karl!    I find this piece works well in the Piano Quintet, and original version for two pianos.

Would have loved to have heard it in the originally intended String Quintet (a la Schubert instrumentation) version.

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Ray!

[Harry]

In a sense Haydn is always fun, even if it comes in such performances. But then, the music is always most excellent, what else have we come to expect from one of the greatest composers around.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/09/haydn-joseph-almost-complete-symphonies_17.html?spref=tw

[Karl Henning]

G'day, Harry!  Hope you have an excellent one!

[Harry]

G'day, Harry!  Hope you have an excellent one!

I cannot complain about my day, it was sunny, warm, full with music by three of the finest composers around, namely Monteverdi, Bach, and Haydn And I gathered quite some apples from my tree, so all is well in my little cosmos, excellent it was for sure. And I hope it can be affirmed that your day was also all you needed from it?

[Madiel]

String Quartet No.16 (K.428)

[asin]B000024MCP[/asin]

I'm liking this work, it may become a favourite from the box (of course I still have another 7 quartets to go, most of which I don't know or only have a passing knowledge of). It actually struck me as being relatively Haydn-like for Mozart, so I was a bit chuffed when I found out that Allmusic/Classical Archives makes exactly the same comment.

[kishnevi]

CD2

Atmospheres VPO Abbado
Volumina Gerd Zacher organ
Lux Aeterna NorthGerman Radio Chorus H. Franz cond.
Organ Study 1 Gerd Zacher organ
Lontano VPO Abbado
Ramifications Ensemble Intercontemporain Boulez
Melodien London Sinfonietta David Atherton cond.
CD3
Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures Ensemble Intercontemporain Boulez
Cello Concerto EI Boulez Queyras
Chamber Concerto EI Boulez
Mysteries of the Macabre Hardenberger/Pontinen
Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe COE/Abbado

My head is getting itself wrapped around this music much better than before, as evidenced by the fact I am listening to two CDs in a row. Although it does still sound like very similar music differentiated only by the instrumentation. But then, can not the same be said of much of Mozart and most other composers?  So my prior complaint was flawed.

[Karl Henning]

I cannot complain about my day, it was sunny, warm, full with music by three of the finest composers around, namely Monteverdi, Bach, and Haydn And I gathered quite some apples from my tree, so all is well in my little cosmos, excellent it was for sure. And I hope it can be affirmed that your day was also all you needed from it?

Still in progress, but going very nicely, thank you!

[Wakefield]

J.S. Bach - Musical Offering BWV 1079



Top notch sound quality and masterful interpretation: it was really thrilling to listen to the Ricercar a 3 (charmingly) played on fortepiano and then the following keyboard parts on harpsichord. Freedom and more geometricum together. 

BTW, apparently Passacaille is full of dyslexic people. 

[Linus]

Currently listening to some of the 20th century recommendations given to me on this forum (mostly Bartók right now). It's an exciting journey.

[Brian]

Gulda Non-Stop



Misleading, because the CD does end.

[Mookalafalas]

Gulda Non-Stop



Misleading, because the CD does end.

  Those marketing SOBs will do anything to steal your money

    Anyway, it spite of the lack of promised infinitude, how is it? (Assuming you are not so enraged by the false advertising that you lack the objectivity to properly evaluate the disk...)

  Thread duty:

[asin]B008NR8YXC[/asin]

[Brahmsian]

String Quartet No.16 (K.428)

[asin]B000024MCP[/asin]

I'm liking this work, it may become a favourite from the box (of course I still have another 7 quartets to go, most of which I don't know or only have a passing knowledge of). It actually struck me as being relatively Haydn-like for Mozart, so I was a bit chuffed when I found out that Allmusic/Classical Archives makes exactly the same comment.

Vigorously pounds the table!     What a great set.

[kishnevi]

Ligeti Chamber Concerto Ensemble Intercontemporian/Boulez
.....reveals itself to be a wonderfully poetic work.
And I do not see why Nate is having such a hard time with the cello concerto.

Two possibilities. 
1)The performances in the DG box are better than the corresponding performances in the Warner box.  In which case I need to find alternate recordings of the Requiem, San Francisco Polyphony, etc.....which are not in the DG box.
2) Ligeti's orchestral music is finally clicking for me.

[Pat B]

Gulda Non-Stop

Does "<Anything> Non-Stop" make anybody else think of Kraftwerk?

Thread duty: Mozart: Gran Partita (Nachtmusique, Hoeprich on Glossa).

[Brian]

  Those marketing SOBs will do anything to steal your money

    Anyway, it spite of the lack of promised infinitude, how is it? (Assuming you are not so enraged by the false advertising that you lack the objectivity to properly evaluate the disk...)

  Thread duty:

What do you think of that Bach set?

In return, here's my Gulda Non-Stop report: remarkable. It's a live concert, including four Gulda compositions and three transcriptions. The most surprising thing about the non-Gulda pieces is how softly he can play the piano; sometimes (like the Mozart Fantasia in D minor) this is the mutest I've ever heard a modern concert grand. Eccentric interpretations, which of course is exactly what I hoped for. Gulda tends to interrupt the applause with the next piece he wants to play, instead of waiting for people to stop clapping.

[Florestan]

http://www.youtube.com/v/9L9IQL4unl8

W. A. Mozart: String Quintet in E-flat, K. 614

Hausmusik (on period instruments)
Monica Huggett & Pavlo Beznosiuk, violin
Roger Chase & Simon Whistler, viola
Richard Lester, cello

II. Andante --- on repeat for the umpteenth time since last Sunday.

I just can't get enough of it / take it out of my head.

[Florestan]

Brahms
Pf Quintet in f minor, Op.34
Members of the Nash Ensemble

Excellent!