What are you listening to now?

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

A lovely disc, possibly my favourite out of all Upshaw's recital discs.

I love the light, caressing, silvery timbre of Upshaw's voice- which is just perfect for the exotic landscape of those pieces.

[Florestan]

The inwardness, the quirkiness and the rapidly shifting moods of these sonatas foreshadow rather Eusebius and Florestan than Haydn or Beethoven. I love it! 

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

I agree with this 100%, Mike

Incidentally, the sound on the Callas/Karajan is very much improved in Warner's recent remastering.

What impressed me most when I listened to it again recently, was Karajan's conducting, which has an elegance and a rhythmic drive that I don't quite hear in other performances. I think it one of the best things he did on disc. Callas too, though the voice is starting to show signs of deterioration, sings with such aristocratic style, with such inevitability of line, such stunning accuracy in the many coloratura passages usually glossed over by less technically gifted singers, that I find it one of her greatest recorded performances.

The Callas panegyric I of course agree to without cavil or qualification. ;DD

And I'm also in deeply moved agreement with what you say about Karajan's nuanced and spirited conducting on that Trovatore as well: Its so poised and perfect for this music. It really is. Its hard for me to imagine its effusive elegances being exceeded by any other performance.

The Callas/Karajan Trovatore really is one of the greatest things Karajan ever did- and he did 'so many' great things: his first DG Zarathustra, his Ariadne auf Naxos, his Schwarzkopf Rosenkavalier, his digital DG Beethoven's Sixth, his 1960 Philharmonia Sibelius Fifth, his mid-Sixties DG Tapiola, his Callas/Berlin Lucia, his early-fifties Bayreuth Tristan. . . the list of formidable performances just goes on and on an 'on.'

- Yet near the very summit of 'these' rosy peaks stands his Callas Trovatore.

I so wish Callas and Karajan worked together more.

Those two were made for each other in the fifties.   

[Karl Henning]

I can just imagine so. They are skillfully crafted pieces. I want to listen to a symphony next.

His imaginative scoring is part of the exuberant joy of being in the ensemble while playing these!

I don't know any of the symphonies . . . you have an idea of my preferences    . . . which symphony would you suggest I start with?

[AnthonyAthletic]

Hahahahahaha....

As heard in Bend it Like Beckham.....these guys know how to sell it!

[Karl Henning]

As heard in Bend it Like Beckham.....these guys know how to sell it!

Gracious!

[AnthonyAthletic]

Gracious!

Mind you, I think they used it in The Witches of Eastwick too 

[Karl Henning]

Mind you, I think they used it in The Witches of Eastwick too 

I won't go so far as to watch it a third time . . . I meant to pay attention to what Michelle Pfeiffer's character (?) plays on the cello in that one scene.  (Or maybe I did, and *poof*, it's gone again . . . .)

[mc ukrneal]

His imaginative scoring is part of the exuberant joy of being in the ensemble while playing these!

I don't know any of the symphonies . . . you have an idea of my preferences    . . . which symphony would you suggest I start with?

That's a good question, because I only have one of the symphonies (#5). So it makes choosing my next listen quite easy! I've heard that 1,5 and 8 are the best starting points (the last three are supposed to be the darkest), but at this point, I am looking to just dive into them. If it helps. his 5th does not at all sound like the Dances. I mean, it's his sound world, but they clearly are more developed. The 5th starts off with some beautiful celeste/xylophone (or something like this), which I just love. But it is more dissonant for sure. Still, I was surprised by how much I've grown to enjoy the symphony considering I am not always a fan of music from this period. From what I've heard about it, the 4th sounds like it might be closer in spirit to the Dances, but I have not heard it myself yet.

I've been thinking about picking up a couple of discs - one Penny and one Hickox to start enhancing my own collection.

[North Star]

Nielsen
String Quartet in g minor, Op. 13
The Danish String Quartet
[asin]B007N0SVDS[/asin]

Earlier:

Second round of this set. I like the playing and the medium sized varying continuo ensenbmle, but don't have much to compare this with

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Rosary Sonatas
Rachel Podger (violin)
David Miller (theorbo/archlute) Jonathan Manson (cello/viola da gamba) Marcin Świątkiewicz (harpsichord/organ)
[asin]B0135GT9VQ[/asin]


Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 6 in B flat major KV 238
Zacharias
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
[asin]B016C57VTY[/asin]

Debussy
songs
Dawn Upshaw & James Levine
[asin]B006VKKAXU[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

That's a good question, because I only have one of the symphonies (#5). So it makes choosing my next listen quite easy! I've heard that 1,5 and 8 are the best starting points (the last three are supposed to be the darkest), but at this point, I am looking to just dive into them. If it helps. his 5th does not at all sound like the Dances. I mean, it's his sound world, but they clearly are more developed. The 5th starts off with some beautiful celeste/xylophone (or something like this), which I just love. But it is more dissonant for sure. Still, I was surprised by how much I've grown to enjoy the symphony considering I am not always a fan of music from this period. From what I've heard about it, the 4th sounds like it might be closer in spirit to the Dances, but I have not heard it myself yet.

I've been thinking about picking up a couple of discs - one Penny and one Hickox to start enhancing my own collection.

Thanks!  I may just root around YouTube for a start . . . apart from (I mean) having pulling the trigger on a copy of that disc of the Dances.

[aligreto]

Vanhal: Sinfonia in A major....

[Tsaraslondon]

The Callas panegyric I of course agree to without cavil or qualification. ;DD

And I'm also in deeply moved agreement with what you say about Karajan's nuanced and spirited conducting on that Trovatore as well: Its so poised and perfect for this music. It really is. Its hard for me to imagine its effusive elegances being exceeded by any other performance.

The Callas/Karajan Trovatore really is one of the greatest things Karajan ever did- and he did 'so many' great things: his first DG Zarathustra, his Ariadne auf Naxos, his Schwarzkopf Rosenkavalier, his digital DG Beethoven's Sixth, his 1960 Philharmonia Sibelius Fifth, his mid-Sixties DG Tapiola, his Callas/Berlin Lucia, his early-fifties Bayreuth Tristan. . . the list of formidable performances just goes on and on an 'on.'

- Yet near the very summit of 'these' rosy peaks stands his Callas Trovatore.

I so wish Callas and Karajan worked together more.

Those two were made for each other in the fifties.   

Not forgetting, of course, their fabulous Madama Butterfly, which is, in all other aspects than sound, preferable to his later version for Decca, gorgeously played and sung though that is. Between them Callas and Karajan raise what can be a sentimental pot boiler into the realms of true tragedy. Quite uncompromising, it makes for uncomfortable listening (there is no room for wallowing as in Karajan II), but who said great art should be comfortable?

[mc ukrneal]

Yum! A master at work, performed beautifully. Exquisite singing....
[asin]B00000422T[/asin]

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Yum! A master at work, performed beautifully. Exquisite singing....
[asin]B00000422T[/asin]

That's a cute work. I like it a lot.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Not forgetting, of course, their fabulous Madama Butterfly, which is, in all other aspects than sound, preferable to his later version for Decca, gorgeously played and sung though that is. Between them Callas and Karajan raise what can be a sentimental pot boiler into the realms of true tragedy. Quite uncompromising, it makes for uncomfortable listening (there is no room for wallowing as in Karajan II), but who said great art should be comfortable?

Oh yeah.

The Karajan II Butterfly with Freni is my 'listening-to-around-the-house' Butterfly.

The Karajan I is for special occasions at night when I want my heart absolutely ripped out.

I've never experienced Aristotelian catharsis so perfectly distilled as in that performance of Callas'. . . or her '58 Covent Garden Traviata. . . or Janet Baker's "Der Abschied" from Das Lied von der Erde with Kubelick.

I know the singing like the back of my hand, yet it slays me every time.

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B00713Y2R6[/asin][asin]B00004S3BF[/asin]

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Last night I listened to the Act II, Scene 1 Tristans of the Furtwangler; the Jan. 2, 1937 Bodanzky; the '72 Karajan; and the Goodall- all of which have my favorite Isoldes for this part of the score.

I find Flagstad to be the most regal and commanding Isolde I've ever heard in Act II- especially with the famed Furtwangler recording; although I like the:

Frau Minne will:
es werde Nacht,
das hell sie dorten leuchte.

much more on the Jan. 2, 1937 performance of hers because it just burns with heroic passion like none other. It really has to be heard to be believed. Absolutely incandescent.

But this isn't to say that I love the Flagstad's Act II, Scene 1 Isolde the most.

Not necessarily.

If I'm in the mood for a 'strong and heroic' Isolde I certainly do.

But if I'm in the mood for an extremely feminine and vulnerable Isolde, I incline more to the Dernesch; and most 'definitely' to the Linda Ester Gray- which pierces me like none other. Absolutely SUB-LIME. 

Her inflections and phrasing of:

Frau Minne kenntest du nicht? . . .
Des kuhnsten Mutes
Konigin?
Des Weltenwerdens
Walterin?
Leben und Tod sind untertan ir

completely do me in.

She's definitely the most 'princessy' Isolde I've ever heard.

[mc ukrneal]

.[asin]B00004S3BF[/asin]

One of my favorites of anything. It is one of my favorite 10 discs/sets in my collection.

[Maestro267]

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Masur

Chagrin: Symphony No. 1
BBC SO/Brabbins

Carter: Piano Concerto
Oppens (piano)/SWR SO/Gielen

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 "Winter Dreams"
As above