What are you listening to now?

[Henk]

~
[asin]B008R5OKH4[/asin]

Eötvös - Seven

[aligreto]

Irgens Jensen: Japanisher Fruhling....

[knight66]

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.

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.

Oh heck, I have quite a few Tristans already. I recently got hold of a 1971 Vickers/Nilsson/Bohm live version from Orange and thought to myself that I had all the bases covered now. It is a really impressive performance. Though of course the sound quality is less than ideal.

I have never heard any of the Goodall version despite knowing his Ring performances. I seem to recall the reviews of the set were not all that good and I know his propensity for slow speeds. But out of curosity I went to Spotify. Of well, that's it ordered from ArkivMusic. Difficult to get hold of, but I have signed up to their site so I can get it for about 2/3rds what Amazon marketplace discs cost.

What wonderful forward sound. I never liked the dry theatre balance of the Ring. I have been enjoying the pacing which does not feel slow at all to me. The meeting in act 2 is like a lavaflow. Even Mitchenson, not a favourite, sounds very good. But Esther-Gray is just stupendous. I don't understand why this set does not get a whole lot more attention than it has had. I have been slowly buying versions for about 40 years, replacing my LPs with the CD versions 30 years ago. But it has hardly merrited a mention in the many reviews I have read.

Linda Esther-Gray is Scottish and was contracted to sing with Scottish Opera. However, I never heard her as she kept cancelling, there was Fidelio and then Turandot, both no-shows. The latter she withdrew from while we were waiting for curtain up. For Turandot she had special coaching from Dame Eva Turner. However, the problem was extreme stage fright which blighted her otherwise promising career, a great pity. Goodall I know prepared the singers in lengthy one to one rehearsals; this was his custome. It pays dividends in terms of confidence and the way he so closely supports yet challenges his singers. I frequently felt that he ruined singers for other conductors and got them to sing better than they did with others, Hunter and Remedios and now Esther-Gray for three. I know an artist who was commissioned to paint her portrait right at the crisis time. I don't know whether it was ever completed.

Thanks, I think, for drawing my attention to the recording. My credit card is throbbing somewhat.

Mike

[SimonNZ]

Bach's Mass in B minor - Thomas Hengelbrock, cond.

[Camphy]

Op. 59, 1

[listener]

a test of strength or stubbornness, nothing but Max REGER (a first centennial session):
Piano Concerto       Erik Then-Bergh, piano   SW German Radio Orch, Baden-Baden   Hans Rosbaud, cond.
(he should have recorded the suite from Citizen Kane?)
3 Romances for Violin and Orch., Suite in a for violin and orch.
Hans Maile, violin   Berlin Radio S.O.   Uros Lajovic, cond.
Organ Sonata no.2, Intro. & Passacaglia in f, 2 pieces from op.65
Yevgenia Lisitaina, organ of the Riga Cathedral
Anything you can play, I can play longer/louder...

[Henk]

Sept Hakai (cond. De Leeuw)
[asin]B0014GIZCY[/asin]

[aligreto]

Sor: Six Pieces, Op. 45....

[North Star]

Валентин Васильович [ Valentin Vasilyovich (Silvestrov) ]
Тихие песни [ Quiet Songs ]
Sergei Yakovenko, baritone
Ilya Scheps, pf
[asin]B0002XV2UM[/asin]

[Madiel]

Images [oubliées]. First ever hearing.

[asin]B00925T9LK[/asin]

So far I am getting a great deal of satisfaction out of this set.

[Que]

Bach's Mass in B minor - Thomas Hengelbrock, cond.

Q

[SimonNZ]

Q

That was my reaction today, as well. Its a recording I don't play very often, but I can't now remember why, or if its just that there are now so many other top-shelf recordings of the work.

[Sergeant Rock]

Fauré Ballade op.19 played by Naida Cole




Sarge

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Oh heck, I have quite a few Tristans already. I recently got hold of a 1971 Vickers/Nilsson/Bohm live version from Orange and thought to myself that I had all the bases covered now. It is a really impressive performance. Though of course the sound quality is less than ideal.

I have never heard any of the Goodall version despite knowing his Ring performances. I seem to recall the reviews of the set were not all that good and I know his propensity for slow speeds. But out of curosity I went to Spotify. Of well, that's it ordered from ArkivMusic. Difficult to get hold of, but I have signed up to their site so I can get it for about 2/3rds what Amazon marketplace discs cost.

What wonderful forward sound. I never liked the dry theatre balance of the Ring. I have been enjoying the pacing which does not feel slow at all to me. The meeting in act 2 is like a lavaflow. Even Mitchenson, not a favourite, sounds very good. But Esther-Gray is just stupendous. I don't understand why this set does not get a whole lot more attention than it has had. I have been slowly buying versions for about 40 years, replacing my LPs with the CD versions 30 years ago. But it has hardly merrited a mention in the many reviews I have read.

Linda Esther-Gray is Scottish and was contracted to sing with Scottish Opera. However, I never heard her as she kept cancelling, there was Fidelio and then Turandot, both no-shows. The latter she withdrew from while we were waiting for curtain up. For Turandot she had special coaching from Dame Eva Turner. However, the problem was extreme stage fright which blighted her otherwise promising career, a great pity. Goodall I know prepared the singers in lengthy one to one rehearsals; this was his custome. It pays dividends in terms of confidence and the way he so closely supports yet challenges his singers. I frequently felt that he ruined singers for other conductors and got them to sing better than they did with others, Hunter and Remedios and now Esther-Gray for three. I know an artist who was commissioned to paint her portrait right at the crisis time. I don't know whether it was ever completed.

Thanks, I think, for drawing my attention to the recording. My credit card is throbbing somewhat.

Mike

Wonderful dish on Linda Ester Gray- thanks for that, Mike.

I find the tempi of the Goodall Tristan entirely too slow for my liking. . . except of course for the sections with Linda Ester Gray- where funnily enough, it works 'perfectly.'   

Her singing is so expressively feminine and gorgeous with that emotionally-inflected silvery-timbre of hers that I really can't exhaust superlatives on how it makes me feel.

I'm excited that you bought the performance.

I absolutely love her in it. . .

Now 'I' need to get that Orange Tristan with Nilsson and Vickers.

I do on occasion like a more 'muscular' Isolde.

[Mirror Image]

Now:





Listening to Socrate. Absolutely gorgeous work.

[Todd]

Disc 2.  That's a spicy meatball!

[Todd]

Easily one of Kissin's best discs.  Virtuosic firepower when needed, but lots of nuance and sensitivity, too.  Outstanding.

[knight66]

Wonderful dish on Linda Ester Gray- thanks for that, Mike.

I find the tempi of the Goodall Tristan entirely too slow for my liking. . . except of course for the sections with Linda Ester Gray- where funnily enough, it works 'perfectly.'   

Her singing is so expressively feminine and gorgeous with that emotionally-inflected silvery-timbre of hers that I really can't exhaust superlatives on how it makes me feel.

I'm excited that you bought the performance.

I absolutely love her in it. . .

Now 'I' need to get that Orange Tristan with Nilsson and Vickers.

I do on occasion like a more 'muscular' Isolde.

I enjoy the spaciousness of Goodall, Tristan needs to be as close to a narcotic as possible. I best like Furtwangler Act 1, Kleiber Act 2 and Karajan with Vickers Act 3. Then it is lights out for me.

The Bohm is on Spotify if you want to test the sound out. If you occasionally like on overpowering Isolde, do you know Gertrude Grob-Prandl? It is a voice that was possibly even larger than Nilsson's. It is a great pity that she was not dragged into the recording studio. There is a live Tristan which is well worth the modest outlay to hear Act 1 and the Liebstod. The tenor is a poor lad shoved on stage to do a man's job. She overpowers him and sails through the music, over the orchestra and sounds as fresh as a daisy throughout.

I heard Nilsson in Elektra in a small theatre and the force of her voice, live, was stupendous and alarming. I was near the back of the stalls and felt I was being physically pinned to the back wall. Again, she seemed inexhaustable. A tenor who sang with Flagstad said that the secret of her breath control was that she expanded the ribs at the back in an extreme way. On stage he had his hand on her back and could feel the expansion. Jessye Norman did this too. I used to observe her from the choir stalls and watch it happen. Although she tended to wear loose clothes, the top of her back was usually exposed and you could see the material round the top of the garment go taught as she breathed in. Her whole back must have been expanding substantially. We used to joke that she breathed in at the start of a work and out at the end. I verer saw this expansion phenomenon with any other singer.

Mike

[SimonNZ]

Georg Friedrich Haas' Morgen und Abend - Michael Boder, cond.

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

[Que]

That was my reaction today, as well. Its a recording I don't play very often, but I can't now remember why, or if its just that there are now so many other top-shelf recordings of the work.

Not so many for me....
I had actually great difficulty in finding a recording [of Bach's Mass in B minor],  until I encountered this (then) "dark horse" [Hengelbrock].

Q