What are you listening 2 now?

[Bachtoven]

No.1 from this set via Qobuz. Not life-changing but pleasant enough.

[Number Six]

Biber: Mystery Sonatas
Amandine Beyer

[Madiel]

Haydn: keyboard sonatas 54, 55 and 56 (the 'Bossler' sonatas)



This group of 2-movement sonatas is the first time that Bavouzet presents a published set. A contemporary review described as them as more difficult to play than they first appear, and the music is full of interest and incident (even when Haydn flags his intentions in the 1st movement of no.54 by labelling it as 'Allegretto innocente').

There are things in here that come across as very Haydnesque, especially the finales of 54 and 56. The latter takes almost its entire length before having a proper tonic chord.

[Madiel]

Falla



I'm 98% certain that the Falla recordings here are the latest re-release of one of de Larrocha's first Hispavox albums in 1958. The program is incredibly similar to one of the Decca albums that I recently acquired on CD. There's clearly a lot of repetition in her discography. But one could do a lot worse than repeating Falla's piano music.

EDIT: There's some great playing on here. I hope the one I bought was this good!

[Harry]

The Complete Sacred Music by Henry Purcell.
Volume I.
See front and back covers for Details.
Recorded: 1991, St. Jude's Church, Hampstead, London.

I thought it incumbent to start this box again after seeing it so often this last week. After all it's almost a musical monument. So here it goes.....The recordings are not always to the usual standards of Hyperion, and the choir can be too loud at times, being the culture in England, but it does not suppress the pleasure in listening to it.

[Que]

The Complete Sacred Music by Henry Purcell.
Volume I.
See front and back covers for Details.
Recorded: 1991, St. Jude's Church, Hampstead, London.

I thought it incumbent to start this box again after seeing it so often this last week. After all it's almost a musical monument. So here it goes.....The recordings are not always to the usual standards of Hyperion, and the choir can be too loud at times, being the culture in England, but it does not suppress the pleasure in listening to it.

It's a very nice set, and I love Purcell - and my appreciation of his music has only grown over time.
I did a nice run of this set a while ago!

[Christo]

No.1 from this set via Qobuz. Not life-changing but pleasant enough.

Love Nos. 3, 4 and 5. Especially the Fifth, just as fine as the three Madetoja symphonies.

[Madiel]

Alicia de Larrocha's first (mono) recording of Iberia in 1958, thanks to YouTube.

[Irons]

the great theatrical moment in Peter Schafer's "Amadeus" when Salieri describes his reaction to the opening of the miraculous Adagio;

"Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight!   This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God....."

A scene from the film which will stay with me for always.

[Irons]

Gordon Jacob: Six Shakespearian Sketches.

Six short pieces totalling 15:29 which I feel perfectly showcase Jacob's worth. My favourite two are 3 "In Sad Cypress" an elegy and the Elizabethan sounding 4 "Grace in All Simplicity". However, all are varied and excellent. 

[Que]

3rd and last disc. That's it for now, there is some delay on the 4th book.
But it has been a very satisfying experience to revisit these pieces in different but beautiful performances.

[Florestan]

the great theatrical moment in Peter Schafer's "Amadeus" when Salieri describes his reaction to the opening of the miraculous Adagio;

"Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight!  This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God....."

Mozart as an unabashed romantic... Love it. 

[Harry]

New release.


BACH, Johann Sebastian (1685—1750)
Leipziger Choräle (I).
Masaaki Suzuki playing the Arp Schnitger Organ of Martinikerk, Groningen, The Netherlands
Organ tuner: Theo Jellema.
Pitch: a' = 465 Hz.
Tuning: after Hinz, Variant of Neidhardt.
Recording: 20th—24th November 2023 at Martinikerk, Groningen, The Netherlands.

A new release of the Complete Works for Organ, on the Organ. And it's every bit as good as the previous releases. Not yet available on CD, but on streaming it is.

[Traverso]

Bach





Suzuki made two recordings of the Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) ,I wonder wich recording is included in the new Vocal Works Suzuki

[Florestan]

[Harry]

HOWELLS & WOOD.
Quartets.
Herbert Howells (1892–1983) "In Gloucestershire" (Earlier Version, 1923).
From 3 Pieces for Violin and Piano Op.28 (1917).

Charles Wood (1866–1926)
String Quartet No.6 in D (1915/6).

LONDON CHAMBER ENSEMBLE QUARTET
MADELEINE MITCHELL VIOLIN, DIRECTOR, GORDON MACKAY, VIOLIN, BRIDGET CAREY VIOLA, JOSEPH SPOONER CELLO.
Recording: The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d'Abernon, 2023 (1–4, 6), 2024 (5, 7–bk)

 This recording is quite a discovery, performance and sound wise. The compositions are a little familiar to me, but I have no active memory in what form I heard it. It is much to my liking, really delightful.

[Cato]

Gordon Jacob: Six Shakespearian Sketches.

Six short pieces totalling 15:29 which I feel perfectly showcase Jacob's worth. My favourite two are 3 "In Sad Cypress" an elegy and the Elizabethan sounding 4 "Grace in All Simplicity". However, all are varied and excellent.

I studied Jacob's book on orchestration and still have it in the archives!  Many thanks for the link!

Dayton classical Radio played Carl Orff's Carmina Burana this morning, the famous DGG recording with Eugen Jochum conducting and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing.

I began to wonder: does anyone listen these days to Orff's later works, percussive, experimental in various ways, like his last composition, De Temporum Fine Comoedia, ?

Unfortunately, my last visits to works like Prometheus, left me shrugging again: just too much declamation, loud declamation, too little music, although the percussive aspect can be interesting, but that also becomes tedious.

[Traverso]

Christus Natus Est



Choralschola der Wiener Hofburgkapelle

P Hubert Dopf S.J.

[Iota]

Stunning playing and excellent sound.

Yes indeed!

Here:



Intriguing, Savall takes a work already replete with sudden changes of mood and texture and highlights them further, taking us even deeper into the Missa Solemnis' weird and wonderful world. I found the concentration on micro detail and accompanying feeling of disorientation illuminating and very involving. Thus many positives and the playing/singing is excellent, but for whatever reason, I feel I need to hear it again before deciding quite how much I'm won over by it, though my feeling is probably rather a lot.

[foxandpeng]

Peter Maxwell Davies
Symphony 10
Antonio Pappano
LSO
LSC
LSO Live


Revisiting PND 10 on the back of the PMD thread.

Always interesting, always challenging, always thought-provoking.