What are you listening 2 now?

[hopefullytrusting]

Alfred Mendelsohn's Sonata-Brevis for Organ and Violin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDCgpNNBRyc

What an interesting combination, and one which, at least to me, on its surface - shouldn't work, as the violin is a relative weak instrument (especially when it gets into harmonics), and the organ can easily overpower everything (without having to flex too much), but this work is a well-balanced dialogue, an "enlightened rhetoric," as it were, and overall it has a pastoral-spring vibe which keeps a pep in the step (the organ light, and the violin plucky). A very nice work, overall - a definite recommend.

[Harry]

Claudio Monteverdi.
Madrigali Erotici.
See for all details back cover.
The Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley.
Recorded: 1981-10-21 St. Barnabas, North Finchley

Pure béatitude!
This CD was always much love by me. All my favourite singers in a recording that made my heart jump a few meters.
And it still does. Brilliantly recorded and performed, a true blast of the past. Am I that old....yes I am

[Spotted Horses]

Mozart, String Quartet in A major, KV464, Quatuor Mosaiques



I had this set of Mozart's Haydn Quartets by the Mosaiques and inexplicitly didn't like it and sold it off, before it subsequently went out of print and impossible to find. I regretted that.

It is a delightful recording of my favorite among the Haydn Quartets, largely because of the menuetto, with its ghostly theme presented in unison, in canon, and in various contrapuntal guises. The opening movement is characterized by quick and unexpected shifts of mood, the andante (which unexpectedly comes third) consists of substantial variations of a relatively simple theme, and the finale overflows with counterpoint. Brillant from start to finish.

[hopefullytrusting]

One of Alfred Mendelsohn's students, Costin Miereanu's Jardins Oublies



It's electronic, and you'll most definitely be able to tell when from if you give it a listen. Wonderfully blended and trippy.

[Traverso]

Claudio Monteverdi.
Madrigali Erotici.
See for all details back cover.
The Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley.
Recorded: 1981-10-21 St. Barnabas, North Finchley

Pure béatitude!
This CD was always much love by me. All my favourite singers in a recording that made my heart jump a few meters.
And it still does. Brilliantly recorded and performed, a true blast of the past. Am I that old....yes I am

Indeed a very fine recording..

[Traverso]

Bach

[Que]

[Brian]

First listen to these performances.

[Spotted Horses]

First listen to these performances.

That Dvorak 7 is one of my absolute favorite recordings of anything.

[Mandryka]

First listen to these performances.

I've had it in the car for about 40 years -- it is an excellent driving recording.

[Brian]

That Dvorak 7 is one of my absolute favorite recordings of anything.

The Seventh is very doom-and-gloom, very slow, very powerful. I love it. The only other person like this is Bernstein, I think. The London winds are great, but I wish Mercury had done a better job catching the timpani with all those menacing rolls.

[Kalevala]

The Seventh is very doom-and-gloom, very slow, very powerful. I love it. The only other person like this is Bernstein, I think. The London winds are great, but I wish Mercury had done a better job catching the timpani with all those menacing rolls.

I'll have to look into it more.  A question for you all:  why is there so much "hate" towards his ninth?  I love it though I also know that it's played a lot (at least in the US).?  Overplayment?

K

[Florestan]

I'll have to look into it more.  A question for you all:  why is there so much "hate" towards his ninth?  I love it though I also know that it's played a lot (at least in the US).?  Overplayment?

K

So much hate? It's one of the most popular symphonies, both with audiences and conductors. What hate are you talking aboit?

[ritter]

I know, I know, just last week I referred to Ernest Ansermet in perhaps not the most flattering terms, but he was an important Stravinskian, and I finally got hold of this set:



I'm now listening to Les Noces (with Hugues Cuénod and Heinz Rehfuss among the vocal soloists — the four pianists are new names to me). I wanted Ansermet's 1961 take on this absolute masterpiece because he uses C.-F. Ramuz's French translation of the Russian text (AFAIK, apart from Ansermet, only Pierre  Boulez and Charles Dutoit have recorded the French version), and I like the sound of it.

I must say this recording is quite good, clean and rhythmically precise.

And at the risk of being reiterative, what an absolutely fantastic masterpiece Les Noces is!

[Kalevala]

So much hate? It's one of the most popular symphonies, both with audiences and conductors. What hate are you talking aboit?

That's what I think too though I keep hearing things from others (including one friend who enjoys classical music and it was one that her husband loved) that are dismissive.  Maybe it's partly to do with that it's popular?  And maybe that it's not Bach chamber music (which she loves)?   

K

[JBS]

Kurt Schwertsik (b. 1935)
Orchestral works.
BBC Philharmonic, HK Grube.
Recording venue: Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester from the 4–6 August 2010.

A Rerun this time, and boy is this impressive. He is not much liked and virtually unknown, but he writes beautiful music anyways. SOTA recording, and ditto performance. It's worth your while to listen to his music. He's full of surprises.

Herr K entdeckt Amerika
Do I espy something based on a Kafka novel?

TD
Definitely not based on Kafka

[Roasted Swan]

I'll have to look into it more.  A question for you all:  why is there so much "hate" towards his ninth?  I love it though I also know that it's played a lot (at least in the US).?  Overplayment?

K

No hate from me!  A nailed-on masterpiece and I love every bar.  Not Dvorak's fault if it's played a lot.

[Spotted Horses]

I'll have to look into it more.  A question for you all:  why is there so much "hate" towards his ninth?  I love it though I also know that it's played a lot (at least in the US).?  Overplayment?

K

I am not aware of much hate. Maybe condescension from cognoscenti reacting to the fact that it is by far Dvorak's most popular work.

I think it is great, particularly in Karajan's EMI recording from the 1970's, where he brings out the menacing aspect of the music. In the abrupt opening the figure from massed strings is played with such force that I wonder that they don't snap the necks off their fancy fiddles.

[Spotted Horses]

I know, I know, just last week I referred to Ernest Ansermet in perhaps not the most flattering terms, but he was an important Stravinskian, and I finally got hold of this set:



I'm now listening to Les Noces (with Hugues Cuénod and Heinz Rehfuss among the vocal soloists — the four pianists are new names to me). I wanted Ansermet's 1961 take on this absolute masterpiece because he uses C.-F. Ramuz's French translation of the Russian text (AFAIK, apart from Ansermet, only Pierre  Boulez and Charles Dutoit have recorded the French version), and I like the sound of it.

I must say this recording is quite good, clean and rhythmically precise.

And at the risk of being reiterative, what an absolutely fantastic masterpiece Les Noces is!

I seem to recall that Ansermet conducted then premier of Les Noces. (I've never listened to the piece.) Ansermet's Petruchka is wonderful, and his Sacre is just weird, eschewing brutality that has come to characterize performances.

I know someone who used work for Decca, and the story told is that during the recording session of Le Sacre the producer (maybe Eric Smith) turned to the engineer and said "they can't play this f*cking music."

[Kalevala]

I am not aware of much hate. Maybe condescension from cognoscenti reacting to the fact that it is by far Dvorak's most popular work.

I think it is great, particularly in Karajan's EMI recording from the 1970's, where he brings out the menacing aspect of the music. In the abrupt opening the figure from massed strings is played with such force that I wonder that they don't snap the necks off their fancy fiddles.

Condescension is probably a better word.  I love Dvorak's music and don't get why, when you mention the Ninth, that people laugh and/or scoff at what you have said.  And just because something is popular doesn't mean that it's bad.

K