Purchases Today

[The new erato]

Excellent! Villa-Lobos is a great composer and even if most of his symphonies don't rank among his finest works, they are still great listening. In case you weren't aware, Naxos is currently producing another Villa-Lobos symphony cycle (two volumes have been released so far), which is shaping out to be superior to the CPO one. This is due to the presence of a Brazilian conductor and orchestra, who are more in tune with V-L's idiom than St. Clair and his band.

Mirror Image won't like that. Are we witnessing a rift?

[Parsifal]

Augmenting my small collection of works by Pierne with these two releases.  The Timpani recordings are difficult to find, but now available at importcds.com.


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[kyjo]

Mirror Image won't like that. Are we witnessing a rift?

Why won't he?

[The new erato]

Why won't he?

He has repeatedly pronounced the superiority of the cpo discs. I'm ordering my popcorn.

[kyjo]

He har repeatedly pronounced the superiority of the cpo discs. I'm ordering my popcorn.

If he'd hear the Naxos performances (which I'm surprised he hasn't, considering the V-L enthusiast that he is), I'm sure he'd agree with me that they are superior to the CPO ones. MI and I are good friends, so don't get too excited for a forum brawl!

[Brian]

[Cydalise]

Sorry about that... I'll get a dustpan and sweep up the remains of your table.

(In all seriousness, one of my favorite orchestral works from France, period.)

[Parsifal]

Sorry about that... I'll get a dustpan and sweep up the remains of your table.

(In all seriousness, one of my favorite orchestral works from France, period.)

I already have this one, and I'm trying to remember if I actually listened to it yet...

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This one I'm sure I haven't listened to yet.

[asin]B000026M4O[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Mirror Image won't like that. Are we witnessing a rift?

I agree that VL's symphonies aren't his greatest works and that his best music is to be found elsewhere like his Choros, Bachianas Brasileiras, ballets, symphonic poems, and chamber music (esp. the SQs).

Oh, and, yes, Kyle, I do like the CPO recordings better than the Naxos, but surprisingly I already own both Naxos recordings in the series so far that I proclaimed to not care for. They're actually quite good, so I've made a liar out of myself yet again!

[Mirror Image]

Frost/Vanska performs Nielsen and Aho's Clarinet Concertos

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I bought this cd, it arrived in the mail and I gave it a listen.  The Nielsen concerto is played with virtuosity, but it sounds not as warm as the Blomstedt recording (I forgot who the soloist is).  Now the highlight of the cd is the Aho concerto, a work of contrasting moods between short passages of dissonant, but never shrill music, and the quiet, atmospheric mood that permeates most of the work.  Frost gets most of his workout in the quiet passages, and what a workout, that has to be very demanding.

An excellent recording, not my favorite for the Nielsen but worth it for the Aho.

A fine recording. I need to listen to the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto again (I don't listen to Nielsen enough these days), but the Aho work is first-rate and one of his finest concerti that I've heard so far.

[Mirror Image]

A couple of additions to my library:

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Pounds the table! Yes! That Bartok VC disc is top-notch. Great choice my friend. Oh, and I would love feedback regarding that Hindemith recording. I really enjoy his music a lot.

[Mirror Image]

Villa-Lobos - Complete Symphonies on CPO - 7 CDs - this has been on my want list (a major gap in my V-L collection) for a while - bulked @ the $47 price on Amazon, BUT just added a $25 gift certificate so for $3 a disc, I'm a 'happy camper' -    Dave

Great! I hope you enjoy those performances as much as I have, Dave. Happy listening my friend!

[The new erato]

Pounds the table! Yes! That Bartok VC disc is top-notch. Great choice my friend. Oh, and I would love feedback regarding that Hindemith recording. I really enjoy his music a lot.

The Bartok no 2 was an early love of mine, but I haven't listened to it for some years. This new recording is a great opportunity to renew the aquaintance. And while I don't deny that Hindemith has his dreary moments, I love the joie-de-vivre and musicality that shines through most of his music even when he's out to make some academic point, with the excellent handling of the instruments (his sonatas for solo instruments and piano contain some gems) and often "bubbling" counterpoint (as in the operas Cardillac and Harmonie der Welt to mention a few). I also like his occasional iconoclastic attitude as in his one act operas. This disc had an "Outstanding" rating in International Record Review (I tend to trust some of those reviewers a lot); and there is a quite illuminating review on amazon as regards the background for some of these works. Now to wait for delivery (I'm not out of stuff to listen to though).   

[Brian]

I already have this one, and I'm trying to remember if I actually listened to it yet...

Judging from the images on Amazon, that disc is a suite of highlights. The full Cydalise is actually longer than Daphnis - but, aside from the first scene or two, and aside from the time and location of composition, it doesn't have very much in common with Daphnis.

[kishnevi]

Arkivmusic is having a sale on Naive, which motivated me to order these three off of Amazon MP (because Arkiv prices are often not the lowest in town, even when on sale)

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Which means that, since I also preordered the Harmonia Mundi Baroque opera box from Amazon UK, I'm going to have a surfeit of baroque opera rather shortly.

[Parsifal]

Judging from the images on Amazon, that disc is a suite of highlights. The full Cydalise is actually longer than Daphnis - but, aside from the first scene or two, and aside from the time and location of composition, it doesn't have very much in common with Daphnis.

Looking back, I never got to listen to the Martinon disc.  I got it as a consolation after my first attempt to order the full Cydalise disc failed (the vendor informed me it was unavailable).  But now, miraculously, it is in stock.

[Willow Pattern]

Got these 2:

[Karl Henning]

Are you on a diet as well? I haven't bought a disc in three months and I am hoping to go at least another month.

I suppose so, although I do not know if I will be able to match your endurance!

Thanks for the YouTube suggestion, BTW.

[Mirror Image]

The Bartok no 2 was an early love of mine, but I haven't listened to it for some years. This new recording is a great opportunity to renew the aquaintance. And while I don't deny that Hindemith has his dreary moments, I love the joie-de-vivre and musicality that shines through most of his music even when he's out to make some academic point, with the excellent handling of the instruments (his sonatas for solo instruments and piano contain some gems) and often "bubbling" counterpoint (as in the operas Cardillac and Harmonie der Welt to mention a few). I also like his occasional iconoclastic attitude as in his one act operas. This disc had an "Outstanding" rating in International Record Review (I tend to trust some of those reviewers a lot); and there is a quite illuminating review on amazon as regards the background for some of these works. Now to wait for delivery (I'm not out of stuff to listen to though).

Yes, you'll certainly enjoy the Faust/Harding recording (I hope). I would like to get to know more of Hindemith's music, but I've got a lot in the frying pan right now.

[Willow Pattern]

I've had my eye on this set for a while but its kind of expensive in most places - I found a digital copy today for $10 so it was a bit of a no-brainer!



Edit: My joy at finding a cheap download of this set appeared to be misplaced when I found that 3 of the first 4 tracks i listened to had skips in them  I hope its not that the recording has really bad cuts in it. I have contacted customer service about the download so Im hoping I can still get a good copy of the album as what i heard of the performances was great!.

[Sergeant Rock]

Recent purchases: Schreker Kammersymphonie and Krenek Violin Concerto, Heinrich Schiff conducting; Stravinsky ballets conducted by Temirkanov.




Sarge