What are you listening to now?

[North Star]

I've heard these ones, and I'm listening to that Gardiner one right now actually. It seems like an older, grander Gardiner than his 1985 recording and I like it almost as much. I've also heard recordings by Suzuki, Parrott, Harnoncourt and a few others but I can't remember exactly which.

Very good!

I'm listening to the Herreweghe 1987 recording now - and I see that there is no Herreweghe among the ones you remember!
https://www.youtube.com/v/WZLeB56pgyc

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Very good!

I'm listening to the Herreweghe 1987 recording now - and I see that there is no Herreweghe among the ones you remember!
https://www.youtube.com/v/WZLeB56pgyc

I've only heard the opening chorus of that one! It certainly is magnificent though.

[North Star]

I've only heard the opening chorus of that one! It certainly is magnificent though.

Herreweghe is certainly a name I trust, not least in Bach.

[Brian]

Ignoring the icky cover design and focusing on the awesome music. Biber believer here.

[ritter]

First listen to this recent purchase:

[asin]B019NU7BMM[/asin]
As mentioned by me elswhere on GMG, the Five Popular Songs, op. 10 are an orchestration by Shimon Cohen of the original with piano accompaniment. I don't really see the point of these orchestrations, but these are very nice songs, and the  orchestral verrsion is pleasant enough, and delightfully sung by Ana María Martínez.

But, caveat emptor: anyone looking for the "nationalistic" Ginastera must know that the only music in the vein of the big, early ballets (Estancia, Panambí) on this CD are the songs. Don Rodrigo and Milena are from the composer's last, "neo-expressionistic" period, where nothing remotely "Argentinian" can be detected (at least by me). The two long excerpts from Ginastera's first opera make a very strong impact. As opposed to the impressions Andrew Clements' in The Guardian (here), I believe that the success of these scenes is the superposition of soaring, lyrical vocal lines over a very dense and rather fascinating orchestration (Clements speaks of "highly wrought, anguished vocal writing"). Now, these are simply "bleeding chunks" (albeit very effective ones), and I do not  understand why they are presented here in isolation. Still, the end of the opera, with the bells ringing after the king's (i.e. Rodrigo's) death is gripping. Plácido Domingo (whose contribution was spliced in several years after the orchestral and soprano parts were recorded) is in top form, and very idiomatic.

Milena is fascinating (and, although I haven't listened to it for quite a while, appears much more succesful in this new recording with Virginia Tola than in the pioneering effort from Denver by  Phillys Curtin on Phoenix). Now, there is an extended spoken section that, for those who do not speak Spanish, can be a drawback. But once again, Ginastera's superposing of the vocal line with some really wonderful orchestral textures is masterful, and the piece as a whole is rather wonderful (top-notch late Ginastera IMHO). A very famous quaotation near the end (I won't spoil the effect for those who approach the piece for the first time) is haunting and touching. The text (extracted from Kafka's Letters to Milena in Spanish translation) fits the composer's phantasmagoric inventiveness perfectly (very much in the vein of the librettos to his three operas).

I've been an admirer of Ginastera's music for many, many years now--my introduction to him was the "middle-period", stunning Harp concerto--, and I find him a superb composer (in all his styles "subjective nationalism", "ojective nationalism" and "neo-expressiosm"). Listening to this CD, though, I was struck more than ever before by the "excentricity" (in the sense of "being outside the center") of his late music. Here we have a composer who abandons his Argentine "roots" to fully embrace an avantgarde idiom (even if not a cutting-edge one--the name Alban Berg often comes to mind), setting European texts (distinguished Spanish playwright Alejandro Casona for Don Rodrigo, and Kafka for Milena--and his other two operas are both set in renaissance Italy). Perhaps there is a very Argentine "malaise" and "anxiety" in his late oeuvre (cliché as this may sound), and the sun never really shines in his late music. But listening to him, I cannot help but recall (with a smile) an old joke told in most of the Spanish-speaking world: "Argentines are Italians who speak Spanish, dress like Englishmen and wish they were Frenchmen". Ginastera's late music could be defined with some sort of variation of this line.  . This, of course, does not make him any better or worse as a composer (and I insist, I think he's an excellent one).

I applaud Gisèle Ben-Dor for bringing this CD to the market (in spite of the relatively awkward programming). The orchestral contribution by her Santa Barbara band is fantastic. I'm now looking forward to two more Ginastera CDs that should appear later this year: Arturo Tamayo's world-première recording of the Estudios sinfónicos (I presume this will be on the NEOS label) and Turbae from Trinity Wall Street. 

[Sergeant Rock]

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) String Quartet in A minor played by the Brodsky




Sarge

[North Star]

Cycling in the rain earlier today, this started to play in my head.

Sibelius
Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52
Sinfonia Lahti
Osmo Vänskä
[asin]B000KC849W[/asin]

[aligreto]

If you look at the Naxos site you'll see that they used some new recording techniques, and I think that may well help give the impression of responsiveness. They also find a contemporary quote about how English music is often jubilant (as opposed to German, French, Italian music), and that explains a lot about their style I think, here and in their extraordinary Dunstaple CD.

I get the impression that the ensemble is smaller than Nevel uses for his Eton Choirbook selection, and that there are more moments when the music turns into duets and trios and quartets. I could be wrong about that, and you've got to bear in mind that they weren't singing the same music.

Thank you for your insight. I have put that Naxos recording on my List.

[aligreto]

Mozart: Divertimento No. 10, K247 played by members of the Vienna Octet....

[Sergeant Rock]

Beethoven String Quartet F major op.59/1 played by the Emerson




Sarge

[aligreto]

Schumann: Dichterliebe [Walther Ludwig tenor and Michael Raucheisen piano]....

[Todd]

Disc 2.

[Brian]

After seeing lots of GMGer discussion of 'Il Vitalino Raddoppiato', I decided to give it a try after the Biber chamber sonatas disc ended:



The stylistic jump is...not as big as I expected! This is a very neo-baroque piece, a giant 30-minute chaconne that filters the style of Vitali--and Vivaldi!--through an unusual collection of instruments. (The tiny wind section makes room for bass clarinet and piccolo.)

Really, really enjoying this! I wish the other works Sheppard Skaerved describes in his excellent booklet essay (including a fantasy on La Folia) were on Naxos Music Library too...

[Brian]

After seeing lots of GMGer discussion of 'Il Vitalino Raddoppiato', I decided to give it a try after the Biber chamber sonatas disc ended:



The stylistic jump is...not as big as I expected! This is a very neo-baroque piece, a giant 30-minute chaconne that filters the style of Vitali--and Vivaldi!--through an unusual collection of instruments. (The tiny wind section makes room for bass clarinet and piccolo.)

Really, really enjoying this! I wish the other works Sheppard Skaerved describes in his excellent booklet essay (including a fantasy on La Folia) were on Naxos Music Library too...

Update: Not so much enjoying this anymore. It is reeeaaalllyyyy long. Should have been a 20-minute piece, not 35.

[North Star]

Bach
Magnificat
Deborah York, Susan Hamilton, Mark Padmore, Peter Kooij
Collegium Vocale
Philippe Herreweghe
https://www.youtube.com/v/LMe_sLzppcI

[Mandryka]

Missa Michael seems to me to be every bit the equal of Missa Corona Spinea and Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas, confirming my belief in the excellence of Taverner's music. This performance by The Sixteen is exceptional, thrilling in fact.

The virtuoso high parts are so distinctively Tavernian.

[Brian]

and a first-ever listen to Vasks' Te Deum, inspired by his composer thread:

[James]

https://www.youtube.com/v/crQ8YEUkUjg

[André]

Quartets 1-3

[Todd]