What are you listening 2 now?

[ChamberNut]

Mozart, arranged by Triebensee



I have to admit that this pretty much washed over me. Maybe if I was more familiar with the 2 operas it would make a difference, but I suspect I'd still miss the singing.

Moderately pleasant background music, but not much more than that for me.

Best album cover ever.

[Florestan]

I do mean to listen to the series but I only want one disc every 6 months to a year!

So you'll finish the series in about 15 years at the earliest and 30 years at the latest. 

[Harry]

Excellent, as expected.

Beautiful artwork

[Iota]

Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
Netherlands Wind Ensemble

I think a couple of people here are currently wending their way through the complete set of Netherlands Wind Ensemble recordings, whose music-making it must be said always feels so alive and colourful, I'm just nibbling at the edges but getting enormous pleasure from it.  C minor is a key that always seems to fruitfully spark Mozart's muse, and this Serenade is no exception, endlessly inventive and constantly dappled by shifting nuances.

Any significant difference with the previous Vox edition?

I'm afraid I can't help you with that, not having heard that edition.

[Madiel]

So you'll finish the series in about 15 years at the earliest and 30 years at the latest. 

Even slower than the Bach cantatas...

[ChamberNut]

Mozart: the 'Antretter' Serenade, K.185



Current impression is that the music in the first really big serenade, while pleasant, is not really on the same level as the later works. It's possible I'm also not quite in the right mood, but mostly I think that the 17-year-old Mozart hasn't yet totally mastered the genre the way he will in another 4 or 5 years.

The much later Contredances have a nice feel to them, and the Notturno for 4 orchestras has a surprising restraint to it.

I'm onto disc 6, and the Antretter Serenade is actually a favourite of mine. 

[Traverso]

Bach

[pjme]

I just wanted to see if it was the same tune I know from this. It was and I rather enjoyed it .

In the Low countries this song is known as "Ik zag Cecilia komen"

https://www.libraryconservatoryantwerp.be/lieddatabank/tekst.php?ID=219

[Harry]

William Byrd.
Clarify me.
Leon Berben Plays on the historical organ at Oosthuizen (C.1521)
Meantone temperament.
Pitch a' = 465 Hz.
Recorded in May 2007 in the Grote Kerk, Oosthuizen, The Netherlands.

The organ sounds warm and clear, but also festive and transparent, also due to the excellent recording quality of the CD, and is therefore very well suited for both the more representative and the more contemplative pieces of Byrd's music. The recording is clear and detailed. Berben is as usual a top communicator.

[Harry]

New release

Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012)
Orchestral works.
See back cover for details.
Jonathan Aasgaard, Cello.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, John Wilson.
Recording: City Halls, Glasgow, 2023.

I did not expect this additional recording on the already existing releases in this series. But a very welcome one. I like Bennett's music enormously. I found nothing but excellence in performance and sound.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

That Minkowski Hercules is also one of the best, very dramatic and compelling. It would also be in my top 5 of Handel opera/oratorios. I would choose the Nelson Semele, a Giulio Cesare (Minkowski or Jacobs), Orlando (Christie) and Agrippina (Gardiner) or Alcina (Hickox). There was a time I could not get enough of Handel's vocal works, his catalogue is endless and there are so many superb recordings.

Thanks, @nico1616! I haven't quite went down that operatic Handel rabbit hole (yet), but I'll keep these particular recordings you mentioned in mind. Coincidently, there are several of them I've ran across in my Handel searches several times, especially Christie's Orlando and Minkowski's Giulio Cesare.

[Cato]

The Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov was a specialist in choral music, mainly sacred works.

I offered a different performance of this work (Psalm 71) a few days ago: this performance has a basso profundo named Glenn Miller, who is most impressive.

Wait for the incredible note G1 near the end!

Some information on Chesnokov: he had been a student of Sergei Taneyev.  The Communist Revolution ruined him, as its atheist agenda struck at the core of his being.  When a cathedral where he was choirmaster was demolished, the shock was so great that he stopped composing.

He died while standing in a bread-line in Moscow in 1944.

Also see:

https://www.musicarussica.com/compact_discs/a142

[LKB]

Some forty-two years ago I sang two movements from this work:

While it doesn't bear comparison with Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil, it remains worthy and welcome.

[Traverso]

Bach

[ChamberNut]

Some forty-two years ago I sang two movements from this work:

While it doesn't bear comparison with Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil, it remains worthy and welcome.

Hmm, and for me:

Tchaikovsky Liturgy > Rachmaninov Liturgy

[pianococo90]

Pascal Dusapin
Ohé for clarinet and cello

[Iota]

Even slower than the Bach cantatas...

Quite right, such things shouldn't be rushed. 

[SonicMan46]

Danzi, Franz - Piano & Wind Quintets on period instruments with Christine Schornsheim and the Reicha Quintett - if modern instruments are preferred, I also own the 3-CD set (3rd pic), which includes all of the quintets on well-filled discs.  Dave

   

[vandermolen]

Miaskovsky Lyric Concertino- one of his most endearing works:

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

A quick follow-up to this message:

That Minkowski Hercules is also one of the best, very dramatic and compelling. It would also be in my top 5 of Handel opera/oratorios. I would choose the Nelson Semele, a Giulio Cesare (Minkowski or Jacobs), Orlando (Christie) and Agrippina (Gardiner) or Alcina (Hickox). There was a time I could not get enough of Handel's vocal works, his catalogue is endless and there are so many superb recordings.

@nico1616 it turns out I own that recording of Nelson's Semele, which is in The Great Oratorios box set on Decca/DG I purchased and have been thoroughly enjoying this past week or so (you may have seen me post about it before on this very listening thread). I'm going to be starting McCreesh's Theodora tonight, but I'll get around to Semele at some point.