What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

It's diffciult for me to assess Stravisnky's own perfomances "objectively". I've lived with them since the "edition" was published on LP for the centennial (and some recordings even before that), so that makes 30+ years! I can only be gratful that the complete output (well, almost) of one of the IMHO greatest composers ever is available is performances conducted by himself (or under his supervision). Yes, sometimes the orchestral playing is not the best on disc, but these are all treasured pefomances that are somehow "beyond good and evil". And yes, there are single perfomances of this or the other work which can be seen as "superior", but that really becomes irrelevant in this case...

Cheers,

I couldn't agree more. That's certainly how I felt when his own performances hit my eardrums six years ago. Of course, I've amassed quite a Stravinsky collection since then, but these performances still sound right to me. Any orchestral missteps can't be worried about as these performances are really on another plateau.

[SimonNZ]

Andrea Zani concertos -  Compagnia de Musici

[Todd]

From the big box.  I can think of at least one other Op 106 piano sonata that I prefer to this one.  Ditto for Op 81, if one excludes pesky alpha characters.  The disc also includes some Haydn and Chopin as bonuses. 

[aligreto]

Elgar: Symphony No. 2....

[Mandryka]

Cardinall's Musick perform Nicholas Ludford's Missa Christi Virgo Dilectissima. The Benedictus is absolutely astonishing.

[The new erato]

Cardinall's Musick perform Nicholas Ludford's Missa Christi Virgo Dilectissima. The Benedictus is absolutely astonishing.

I'm putting it on now.

[king ubu]

after a couple of albums by Flying Lotus (the hottest thing in my house right now), I'll chill out with the Fugue of Mozart's KV 546, which I finally have in a string quartet recording, too, now (actually there are two recordings included, I'm spinning the early one):

[asin]B013L20N4G[/asin]

also, Saturday night, I caught John Eliot Gardiner's debut at Tonhalle Zurich, performing orchestral pieces by Janácek (Blánik ballad) and Dvorák (Spinning wheel) in the first half, and then Janácek's "Glagolitic mass" in the second (soloists including Luba Orgonásová) - enjoyed it tremendously ... now waiting if the local dailies will print some short reviews tomorrow

[Todd]

The Ninth.

[Todd]

PCs 9 & 14.

[TheGSMoeller]

A sudden feeling of sadness while listening to this since I've heard the news about Harnoncourt...

[asin]B00000IMU9[/asin]

[Artem]

Found this today at a local used cd shop and have already listened to it 3 times in a row. Motets are especially good.

[asin]B0000DET8P[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

Ondřej Adámek's "Ca tourne ça bloque" - Ensemble Court Circuit, Jean Deroyer, cond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBTSFRqN9V4

[Florestan]

Last week it´s been an all-Lieder one.

This 5-CD boxset of Mendelssohn´s work in the genre is a desert island one --- not least because of the classy artwork featuring paintings by the same Mendelssohn.



From the Hyperion website:

The latest research indicates that at least one hundred-and-six lieder, thirteen vocal duets and sixty part-songs by Mendelssohn have survived. Yet even during an age characterized by an apparently insatiable desire for the musically obscure and neglected, these impeccably crafted microcosms are rarely encountered in the concert hall where Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf (even Liszt by musical association) continue to form the backbone of the Austro-German Romantic lieder tradition.

The main reason for this neglect is Mendelssohn's comparatively narrow emotional range. Whereas the aforementioned composers all fearlessly probed the dark side of the human psyche, for the peaceable, broadly contented and self-contained Mendelssohn such concerns simply lay outside his experience. Equally, his songs were above all intended to be sung and enjoyed around the piano at home rather than subjected to public scrutiny. It is hardly Mendelssohn's fault that (with the notable exception of Mozart) commentators generally share an irrational tendency to upgrade the value of music in which laughter emerges only through tears rather than the other way round.[/b]

(emphasis mine, and amen!)

This superb disc starts with a most frolicsome and insouciant Die Forelle and ends with a truly demonic Erlkonig that sent shivers down my spine.



Also started my way through Loewe´s complete Lieder & Balladen with vol. 1 (of 21)



So far, so good.

Now playing

[Wakefield]

Dvorák: Piano Quintet, Op. 81, Bagatelles, Op. 47
Ensemble Explorations



I'm a great admirer of Dieltiens and his Ensemble Explorations, but this 2007 lovely release flew totally under my radar.

I knew the superb quintet, but I was totally unprepared for the intimacy and power of those small pieces of Op. 47, scored for the combination of two violins, cello... and harmonium, here played by the pianist Frank Braley.

Highly recommended. 

[aligreto]

Found this today at a local used cd shop and have already listened to it 3 times in a row. Motets are especially good.

[asin]B0000DET8P[/asin]

Great find! That is an excellent disc.

[aligreto]

Schubert: Die Winterreise with Tear/Ledger....

[Rinaldo]

This 5-CD boxset of Mendelssohn´s work in the genre is a desert island one --- not least because of the classy artwork featuring paintings by the same Mendelssohn.

First time I've heard about Mendelssohn's lieder other than those ohne worte. Must explore!

Speaking of easygoing, feel good music:

[asin]B000003D0V[/asin]
A treasure trove of beautiful melodies and gripping polyphony, especially the titular symphony and the Alleluia and Fugue.

[Maestro267]

Walton: Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor
City of Birmingham SO/Rattle

[Florestan]

First time I've heard about Mendelssohn's lieder other than those ohne worte. Must explore!

A most curious case, this one: a composer more famous for his songs without words than for his songs with words, and it´s a pitty because the latter are just as good as the former.

[The new erato]

A most curious case, this one: a composer more famous for his songs without words than for his songs with words, and it´s a pitty because the latter are just as good as the former.

I wasn't aware that those had been boxed up. Is that a recent thing, and is the box favorably priced?