Purchases Today

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Some time ago, our fellow GMGer Dancing Divertimentian drew my attention to pianist Philippe Biancioni, and boy was he right: his Debussy Préludes and album of Ravel's piano music are top-notch, and this album of other Debussy works (the Estampes and Images being favourites of mine) was a no brainer (at 5€ in the discount bin).

Coming late to this, ritter, but, yes, a thousand times, yes!!

[kishnevi]

As a kid, I used to listen to a recording of Acts 1 and 2 of Traviata on a set of 78s that belonged to my mother.  It was a heavy bulky folder of disks, and the companion set for the remainder of the opera was nowhere to be found. That set was my introduction to opera. I think the recording in this set is the one I played so often.

The "others" referred to on the cover include a couple of overtures, the Te Deum, the Hymn of the Nations, and various highlights from Rigoletto and Luisa Miller.

[Mirror Image]

Ordered tonight - filling in some gaps:

[kyjo]

Awesome! Both of Weill's symphonies were great recent discoveries of mine, especially the Second, which I had the opportunity to hear live.

[Mirror Image]

Awesome! Both of Weill's symphonies were great recent discoveries of mine, especially the Second, which I had the opportunity to hear live.

Excellent, Kyle. I'm a bit of a Weill novice and I'm not hugely interested in a lot of his music, but this 2-CD set was too good to pass up.

[kyjo]

Excellent, Kyle. I'm a bit of a Weill novice and I'm not hugely interested in a lot of his music, but this 2-CD set was too good to pass up.

Knowing Weill was mainly a composer of theatre music, I wasn't expecting much from his symphonies, but they both turned out to be powerful works which pleasantly surprised me.

[Mirror Image]

Knowing Weill was mainly a composer of theatre music, I wasn't expecting much from his symphonies, but they both turned out to be powerful works which pleasantly surprised me.

It's important to note that the symphonies are early works and show him working in an early-Modernist/Neo-Romantic type of style. This is certainly not the composer people came to know him through works like The Threepenny Opera or The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny for example.

[GioCar]

I have the CD. You cannot go wrong there. Enjoy the music. 

Thanks aligreto! It's exactly what I'm doing right now. It's mesmerizing. I've just reached the heavenly Agnus Dei.
I'm a bit more familiar with some other Flemish guys, but I cannot remember being so overwhelmed at the first listen.

[Mookalafalas]

Small birthday box to get myself some more Telemann.

[asin]B00LHO6PWK[/asin]

  Reinhardt Goebel with the Musica Antiqua Koln.  Expecting some smoking baroque.

[ritter]

Small birthday box to get myself some more Telemann.

[asin]B00LHO6PWK[/asin]

  Reinhardt Goebel with the Musica Antiqua Koln.  Expecting some smoking baroque.

Great stuff...and happy birthday!

[Mookalafalas]

Great stuff...and happy birthday!

Thank you, sir I'm just getting ready to load up the CD carousel, and refresh my beverage   The rest of the evening should be extraordinarily pleasant.

[Harry]

Small birthday box to get myself some more Telemann.

[asin]B00LHO6PWK[/asin]

  Reinhardt Goebel with the Musica Antiqua Koln.  Expecting some smoking baroque.

A very happy Birthday my friend, and that Telemann box is top notch!

[Mookalafalas]

A very happy Birthday my friend, and that Telemann box is top notch!

  Thanks Harry! Listening now, and it is everything I had hoped. 

[Jo498]

It's important to note that the symphonies are early works and show him working in an early-Modernist/Neo-Romantic type of style. This is certainly not the composer people came to know him through works like The Threepenny Opera or The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny for example.

The symphonies are quite good, especially considering he was only around 20. Alternate timelines with Weill becoming a "serious" composer of mainly instrumental music are not entirely implausible.

Another pretty good Weill anthology with the instrumental suite from the threepenny opera, the violin concerto and a few vocal pieces (the latter unfortunately sung not quite idiomatically, the instrumental pieces are done extremely well, though) is with Atherton/London Sinfonietta on DG.

The problem with his theatre music is that it does not always work so well outside the theatre, partly the fault of singers because they often overdo it (or if singing actors are cast, they usually cannot sing well enough...).
"The seven deadly sins" is probably the piece that works better on records than some other vocal music. The best is May/Kegel on Berlin but there are a few other good ones.

[Mirror Image]

The symphonies are quite good, especially considering he was only around 20. Alternate timelines with Weill becoming a "serious" composer of mainly instrumental music are not entirely implausible.

Another pretty good Weill anthology with the instrumental suite from the threepenny opera, the violin concerto and a few vocal pieces (the latter unfortunately sung not quite idiomatically, the instrumental pieces are done extremely well, though) is with Atherton/London Sinfonietta on DG.

The problem with his theatre music is that it does not always work so well outside the theatre, partly the fault of singers because they often overdo it (or if singing actors are cast, they usually cannot sing well enough...).
"The seven deadly sins" is probably the piece that works better on records than some other vocal music. The best is May/Kegel on Berlin but there are a few other good ones.

Thanks for the feedback, Jo498. As I said, I'm not too interested in Weill's music, but would like to get to know at least some of it.

[André]

The symphonies are quite good, especially considering he was only around 20. Alternate timelines with Weill becoming a "serious" composer of mainly instrumental music are not entirely implausible.

Another pretty good Weill anthology with the instrumental suite from the threepenny opera, the violin concerto and a few vocal pieces (the latter unfortunately sung not quite idiomatically, the instrumental pieces are done extremely well, though) is with Atherton/London Sinfonietta on DG.

The problem with his theatre music is that it does not always work so well outside the theatre, partly the fault of singers because they often overdo it (or if singing actors are cast, they usually cannot sing well enough...).
"The seven deadly sins" is probably the piece that works better on records than some other vocal music. The best is May/Kegel on Berlin but there are a few other good ones.

+ 1.

Weill is a composer that is still extremely difficult to "get". Not for the listener, but for the players. Coming from the theatre world (Lenya, May, Lemper), singers/instrumentalist have the zing and freedom of speech rythms, but for the classical music listener it may all sound a bit raw and unkempt. When it's done by professional singers (von Otter, Hampson) and conductors (Rattle, Nagano), things fall into place musically, but the effect is of watching a chess game. Best to go according to one's tastes: I go for "natural" singers for the songs. Remember, too, that there is a healthy Weill tradition among popular singers from various nationalities/languages. Weill's songs have been translated in many languages. I personally treasure the french versions by Catherine Sauvage and Diane Dufresne. The songs suddenly take flight and have a life of their own.

EDIT: I was forgetting the purpose of this post:



I do not have the first symphony, a quasi experimental work. The Amazon comments convinced me this was the kind of playing/interpretation I was loking for.

[Que]

Great stuff...and happy birthday!

A very happy Birthday my friend, and that Telemann box is top notch!

Got the Goebel set not too lang ago myself, after concluding that even with more recent competition it was still the right choice! 

Q

[Mirror Image]

Happy Birthday, Mookalafalas!

[Mirror Image]

Just bought:

[Todd]

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[asin]B0742WNHPC[/asin]


Placed an order at Amazon UK.  $8.78 shipping included.  I'll see if I get it.