What are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

Sibelius' Violin Concerto - Genette Neuveu, violin, Walter Susskind, cond.

[Todd]

From the big box.  Willful Chopin, wonderfully played.  Sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses.

[CRMS]

I see the Gibson / Bryn-Johnson Luonnotar is on Youtube, I need to revisit it.

You should also check out the Rattle / Hannigan / BavarianRSO Luonnotar

[Mirror Image]

Sibelius
Rakastava (The Lover) Op. 14 for strings, timpani and triangle
Sinfonia Lahti
Vänskä

Such a gorgeous work, Karlo. One of my favorites from Sibelius.

[Mirror Image]

This is an excellent set to get a good portion of the best known Sibelius works, the biggest omission is probably the tone poem Nightride and Sunrise.

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The Tempest, Op. 109 is quite a head-scratching omission as well.

[Todd]

[SimonNZ]

Eduard Patlayenko's "Symphonic Runes" for orchestra - Alexander Dmitriev, cond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7KOeT9-XaU

[Artem]

Here also. Though my reaction doesn't tend to be tepid either way (I find some of his late Schubert infuriating, some of it wondrous, and much of it both at once).

I've been spending quite a lot of time with Kurtag recently. I don't think everything he does comes off equally well, but he's got that difficult knack of achieving profundity through simplicity. A piece like Stele does very little with a very large orchestra (much of it just subtly varied repetitions of short cells) and it just works.

How did you like the string quartets?

[listener]

RESPIGHI seems a good test for these headphones (Sennheiser) with the oratorio Maria Egiziaca providing a good range of sound.  The isolation from outside sounds also helps.   A good dose of Catholic mysticism, composed at the same time as Belkis 
Soloists, Hungarian Radio/TV Chorus, Hungarian State Orch, Lamberto Gardelli, cond. and occasional vocal obbligato

[Wanderer]

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[Florestan]

CD 1 - An early sonata and various pieces and suites, 1884 - 1888

If you like soaring melodies and dancing tunes played on violin (I do), young Sibelius is your man. Had he chosen to pursue a career in this field, he would have outdone Fritz Kreisler. 

[aligreto]

Soothing sounds....

[Camphy]

Earlier, Sibelius's Violin Concerto:



Now:

[Madiel]

My own traversal through Sibelius by opus number has been running... since February apparently...

Currently introducing myself to Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux, op.16.  As played by Ashkenazy.

Good stuff, it's a pity this wasn't in the box set of concertos and piano works I bought some years ago. About a week ago I listened to op.10 for the first time and they didn't strike me as particularly memorable pieces, but so far op.16 is proving to be full-on virtuosic Rachmaninov.

[amw]

A variety of recordings of Mozart's String Quintet K. 516, piecemeal.

Ensemble 415 is probably the group that comes off the best, but I am also really impressed with whoever was sound engineer for the Kuijken Quartet & Ryo Terakado. (And the performance, I guess.)

[Madiel]

Sibelius, In Memoriam. op.59

In which Sibelius does, as suggested on one website, go a bit Mahlerian.

Followed by 2 songs for Twelfth Night, op.60. With guitar accompaniment. Rather awesome, actually.

[NikF]

Roussel: Aeneas - Martinon/Orchestre National de l' O.R.T.F.

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[Cato]

The local classical station today played a Sanctus from:

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What can I say?  It sounded like one of Enya's best efforts! 

Mainly 5-star reviews on Amazon!

[Karl Henning]

What can I say?  It sounded like one of Enya's best efforts! 

Mainly 5-star reviews on Amazon!

(* chortle *)

[Wakefield]

J.S. Bach: Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden BWV 1083 (after Pergolesi's Stabat Mater)
Holland Boys Choir
Netherlands Bach Collegium
Marjon Strijk, soprano
Sytse Buwalda, alto
Pieter Jan Leusink, conductor



Extremely fine performances. So fine that I didn't experience any kind of rejection against Buwalda.