What are you listening to now?

[Que]

.[asin]B00QG15MQO[/asin]

Q

[Tsaraslondon]

I do not get the emotional connection you refer to.  Perhaps seeing him live made a difference?

I don't think so, and it surprises me you can't hear it. I hear that emotional connection in pretty much all his recordings. I doubt I've ever heard a more moving rendition of Scherza infida than his. It even tops Janet Baker.

But we all hear things differently, I suppose. For instance, people often talk of Jessye Norman's emotional commitment, but, for the most part, all I hear is a generalised generosity of spirit, with very little specific to the music she is singing. It is that specificity I admire so much in the singing of David Daniels.

[Tsaraslondon]

Another great disc from the Schwarzkopf box. The 1968 sound is superb, with Szell bringing out marvelous detail in the orchestrations. Both singly and in duet, Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau respond superbly to the texts. Highly recommended, as is the whole set.

[Madiel]

Online streaming of Rattle's recording of Szymanowski's King Roger.

Whoa. Okay, early days yet, but... is this the perfect opera for CD? I've just read stuff suggesting that it can be problematic on stage, lacking action, but with thoroughly beautiful music. Sounds like a winner for sitting and listening to the music at home.

[North Star]

Online streaming of Rattle's recording of Szymanowski's King Roger.

Whoa. Okay, early days yet, but... is this the perfect opera for CD? I've just read stuff suggesting that it can be problematic on stage, lacking action, but with thoroughly beautiful music. Sounds like a winner for sitting and listening to the music at home.

You will want to hear Jacek Kaspszyk's recording too.

[prémont]

Can I ask you a sincere question? Vivaldi should be judged, then, by the repetitive stuff (it is a concession) or by his extraordinary stuff. A man should be judged by the valleys he walked or by the mountains he conquered? Bach, for instance, had a very clear opinion on this. Bach didn't need to listen to the first twelve numbers of Vivaldi's catalogue to transform his encounter with him in a sort of breaking point in his career. Bach just needed to know the Op. 3 in order to accept his genius.

I have known Vivaldi´s Op. 3 (and of course Op. 8 no.1-4) and a some other works (basoon concerto e-minor, viola d´amore concertos e.g.) since my early youth, and I have always rated Vivaldi according to these indisputable masterpieces. Now I decided to listen trough all the Opus-numbered works, thinking that the works, he got published, would be the cream of his oevre, but I was equally surprised and disappointed to learn, that much of it is rather unmemorable. But of course I still appreciate Op. 3 et.c. highly.

[Jo498]

While I have never made a systematic comparison and have not even have heard all 12 opus numbers, I think it is not so clear cut. At least some of my favorite stuff, e.g. the "chamber concerti" (giardino armonico did all of them on Teldec) that are between quattro sonatas and concerti and some of the strings only (with no big solos) concerti (there was an early Alessandrini anthology, re-issued by Brilliant) I seem to prefer to several opussed works (to my recollection op.3 and op.8 are the best by some margin).

I do not want to call Vivaldi overrated. But I think a whole bunch of (more or less) contemporaries are underrated in relation to Vivaldi, that is they may not be better or even as good as AV at his best, but they do not deserve their *much* lower popularity: Albinoni, A. Scarlatti, Durante, also Telemann, Zelenka and maybe a bunch of lesser known Germans like Heinichen and Fasch. 

[The new erato]

Am I one of the few that thinks that most of Vivaldi's best Music is the vocal kind?

[North Star]

Am I one of the few that thinks that most of Vivaldi's best Music is the vocal kind?

We few, we happy few!

Thread duty - Maiden Listen
Elgar
Nursery Suite
Ulster Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

Ulster, June 1982
https://www.youtube.com/v/ejYn_TvWIVc

[mc ukrneal]

Am I one of the few that thinks that most of Vivaldi's best Music is the vocal kind?

Do I have to choose!?! 

[Harry]

Do I have to choose!?! 

Never forget Neal, that an opinion about Vivaldi is an individual one, not meant for all. For me all of Vivaldi's works are top notch, even a few Vocal things but certainly not all. Much of his operas are mediocre at best and repetitive.
This said it's my personal opinion.

[Harry]

CD 25 already from the SEON box, and a good one too. Jeffrey was there before me, and he praised them into heaven so.....I agree!

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/11/couperin-francois-1668-1733.html?spref=tw

[Tsaraslondon]

In need of a bit of cheering up on this grey afternoon, I've opted for a welcome injection of Italian sunshine, with Callas in top, sparkling, effervescent form. Almost impossible to believe that this scintillatingly breezy singer is the same one who plumbed the depths of Verdi's Forza Leonora in the studio only a couple of weeks before, but the chameleon-voiced Callas achieves the impossible yet again.

[Maestro267]

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Frith (piano)/Slovak State PO/Stankovsky

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor
Rudy (piano)/St. Petersburg PO/M. Jansons

[Harry]

One Bach CD a day keeps the doctor away!

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/11/bach-js-complete-organ-works-weinberger_26.html?spref=tw

[kishnevi]

CD 25 already from the SEON box, and a good one too. Jeffrey was there before me, and he praised them into heaven so.....I agree!

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/11/couperin-francois-1668-1733.html?spref=tw

TD
More Seon
CDs  38/39

Calm before the storm: I face the Black Friday storm starting at 3 this afternoon.

[Harry]

I have not seen this box acquired by anyone on GMG. Still it's really worth getting.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/11/rodrigo-joaquin-1901-1999-orchestral.html?spref=tw

[Florestan]

Earlier today:



CD 2 of Hindemith´s complete sonatas for solo instrument and piano.

Little Sonata, for viola d'amore & piano, Op. 25/2    
Sonata for viola & piano, Op. 25/4    
Sonata for violin & piano in C major (1935)
Sonata for violin & piano in E major (1939)
Sonata for viola & piano in C major (1939)

Now playing



CD 1

Piano Trio in E flat major, Op.2 (1902)
Divertissement, for wind quintet and piano, Op.6
Sonata no.1, in D minor, for piano and violin, Op.11 (1907-8)

The Hindemith set is sonically superior to the Roussell but when it comes to music and performances both are superb.

   

[SonicMan46]

Rheinberger, Josef (1839-1901) - Piano Works w/ Jürg Hanselmann in the solo compositions - just getting started this morning w/ this box,  and enjoying.  Dave

 

[Harry]

Earlier today:



CD 2 of Hindemith´s complete sonatas for solo instrument and piano.

Little Sonata, for viola d'amore & piano, Op. 25/2    
Sonata for viola & piano, Op. 25/4    
Sonata for violin & piano in C major (1935)
Sonata for violin & piano in E major (1939)
Sonata for viola & piano in C major (1939)

Now playing



CD 1

Piano Trio in E flat major, Op.2 (1902)
Divertissement, for wind quintet and piano, Op.6
Sonata no.1, in D minor, for piano and violin, Op.11 (1907-8)

The Hindemith set is sonically superior to the Roussell but when it comes to music and performances both are superb.

I collected all the Hindemith CD'S recorded by MDG, and indeed they are sonically very good. So is the Roussel chamber music. The acoustics and engineers are different, but the musical impact is the same.
I remember when I called one of the CEO's of MDG to order directly the whole catalogue, he would sent me "one day delivery" this particular disc to let me taste before the really large crate was delivered 2 weeks afterwards. I knew right away that I made a good decision in including this whole series.