What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, 1877 Version. Ed. William Carragan - Removes remaining Haas anomalies
Staatskapelle Berlin Daniel Barenboim

[Symphonic Addict]

Alwyn: Violin Concerto and Oboe Concerto

I love how cinematic the Violin Concerto is, albeit not without its enveloping lyricism. The Oboe Concerto has a more pastoral nature and it's beautiful as well.

[Symphonic Addict]

Kabalevsky: The three piano sonatas

These works require high-caliber playing and Korstick delivers that successfully.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Margret Köll, Welsh triple harp.

[AnotherSpin]

I've turned to advice from forum members time and again, and this time it's tip from @Mandryka. Cheers!

[AnotherSpin]

[Irons]

Yes nice recording! I only knew it via Youtube. I wish it were available in disc or electronic format.

Surprising how many times I hear that.

[Irons]

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 is in my head atm...

Best one (although all are great).

[Que]

The recent brief exchange here on the organ music of Merulo inspired me to explore further:



This is one on the contending complete recordings, the other set is by Frederico del Sordo (Brilliant).
Both sets are recorded on the Antegnati organ of the Basilica S. Barbara in Mantua.

PS Does anyone have a preference?

[Harry]

Galant Night Fever.
Quartets, Trio and Duet for flute, strings and basso.
The WIG Society Chamber Music Ensemble.
Recording: 2022, Castle of Lardirago, Pavia, Italy.
Streaming: 96kHz/24 bit recording.
See back cover for composers, and other details.

This ensemble came into existence in 2020, and was quickly recognized as an exciting and innovative group of music enthusiasts on the European early classical music scene. They present an intriguing array of both familiar and unfamiliar names. While I knew of Joseph Schmitt and Hans Hinrich Zielche by reputation, I had never heard a single note of their music—until now. Their inclusion, in world premiere recordings no less, is one of the chief delights of this disc.

Zielche's quartet sparkles with French-inspired elegance and a hint of North German sturdiness, while Joseph Schmitt—sometimes called the "Dutch Haydn"—offers an E minor quartet of surprising depth and charm, with lyrical turns that speak of salons rather than symphonic halls.

Ernst Eichner I did know, but never found particularly compelling. Yet here, I find myself reassessing. His G minor quartet is delicately poised, full of ornament and finely etched lines—a testament to the group's nuanced approach.

Their playing highlights the lavish, extravagant, and witty spirit of a repertoire designed to entertain a fading aristocracy. One can imagine rococo ballrooms and gilded salons transformed into intimate dance floors—conversations carried on in minuets and sighs. The WIG Society respond with crisp articulation, spirited tempi, and stylish phrasing. Every gesture is shaped with care and affection.


The recording is first-rate—full of air, transparency, and texture. Yet one serious flaw must be addressed: Conor Gricmanis, playing a Lockey Hill violin from ca. 1780 (generously loaned by David John), too often pulls the musical spotlight toward himself. As in the recent Uccellini recording, his playing feels more that of a soloist than a partner, and this undermines the group's internal cohesion. His tone is assertive and his phrasing confident, but the balance suffers: the ensemble's delicate weave becomes strained by his forwardness, and what should be conversation turns into declamation. In a program that otherwise celebrates the delights of collaborative sparkle, this imbalance is jarring—and, to my ears, a serious distraction from the overall achievement.
The recording, however, is excellent—clear, resonant, and full of air. Every pianissimo shimmers, every detail of bow and breath is lovingly captured. This is music that flatters the senses, gently pleases the mind, and invites one to linger a while in its elegant glow.
There's much to explore here, and many will find delight in the rediscovery of a repertoire that once sparkled through 18th-century salons—and now, centuries later, shimmers anew in the hands of a bold young ensemble."

[prémont]

The recent brief exchange here on the organ music of Merulo inspired me to explore further:



This is one on the contending complete recordings, the other set is by Frederico del Sordo (Brilliant).
Both sets are recorded on the Antegnati organ of the Basilica S. Barbara in Mantua.

PS Does anyone have a preference?

It's a long time since I listened to Cavazzoni. To some degree I don't warm that much to the music. I recall that del Sordo appealed the most to me. Ivana Valotti was IIRC unlistenable because of some strange manners - I wrote about this some years ago.

You forgot Vartolo's set on Tactus, which I own but haven't explored much.

[pjme]

[Harry]

Johann Georg Weichenberger (1676–1740) – Works for Lute
Joachim Held, 11-course Baroque Lute (2014, Lars Jönsson)
Recorded: 2022, Erlöserkirche Vahrendorf, Germany
Streaming: 44.1kHz / 16 bit
See back cover for full list of works and instrument details.

Yet another name to add to the ever-growing list of composers who time almost forgot. Johann Georg Weichenberger, born in Graz, Austria, was active during the late Baroque, straddling the cusp of a changing musical era. Though not prolific in surviving works, he was known in his day as a respected lutenist and composer. His surviving manuscripts, many housed in Czech collections (notably BM 371 and 372), suggest a refined and introspective musical mind — one well worth rediscovery.

Joachim Held deserves thanks for bringing these elegant works into the light once more. Nothing is amiss in these compositions: it is music that slumbers your thoughts into a slightly melancholy, spiritual and philosophical dreamlike existence, and makes the mind a free-floating entity, completely cut off from reality in exchange for Zen-like moments of utter silence and equilibrium. Music that sets things right that were wrong.
The recording itself is gentle and intimate — set in a quiet acoustic, with barely a sound besides the lute and the faint brush of fingerings across the strings. The lute, with its delicately drawn sonorities and fleeting decay, conjures a fragile world where silence is golden and understatement rules.
This is not grand or theatrical fare, but rather a kind of solitary consolation. Held's playing serves the material with grace and sensitivity, allowing this quietly luminous music to speak plainly and poetically. A composer to explore, a performer to trust, and a recording to savour.

On Weichenberger and the Lute Tradition.
Johann Georg Weichenberger (1676–1740) belongs to the twilight decades of the lute's long reign in European music. Born in Graz, he was active in Austria and the Bohemian lands at a time when the Baroque lute — with its increasingly complex tuning and extended bass courses — was nearing the end of its central role in musical life.
While composers like Sylvius Leopold Weiss still enjoyed fame, many others, like Weichenberger, slipped through the cracks of history. His surviving works are preserved in Czech sources  often bearing dedications or titles in French, which hint at the courtly aspirations of the music. These pieces are stylistically transitional: grounded in the late Baroque language, but already tinged with the galant sensibility to come — clearer textures, wistful simplicity, and a penchant for lyricism over counterpoint.
Weichenberger's lute suites evoke a private, introspective world, characteristic of music intended not for grand occasions, but for solitary reflection or intimate gatherings.

[Mandryka]

The recent brief exchange here on the organ music of Merulo inspired me to explore further:



This is one on the contending complete recordings, the other set is by Frederico del Sordo (Brilliant).
Both sets are recorded on the Antegnati organ of the Basilica S. Barbara in Mantua.

PS Does anyone have a preference?

Vartolo > Del Sordo > Valotti

Who do you prefer - Girolamo or Marco Antonio?

[Mister Sharpe]

I've been enjoying these Ponti recordings of the Scriabin Sonatas immensely; there are moments of utter joy and others where - admittedly - I utter aloud, "Whaaaat the..."  But the sum total is Respect both for Ponti's technique and insight into Scriabin's sound world. Thumbs down on Vox engineers this time around. And newfound appreciation for Ponti's career which I delved into; ponder this (from a well worthwhile Gramophone article (Nov. 2019) about the pianist: "Over the course of little more than a decade, Ponti recorded, among other works, concertos by d'Albert (No 2), Balakirev, Berwald, Bronsart, Dvorak, Glazunov (No 2), Goetz, Henselt, Hiller, Litolff (No 3), Medtner (No 3), Moscheles (No 3), Moszkowski (E major), Raff, Reinecke (No 1), Rheinberger, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstein (No 4), Scharwenka (No 2), Clara Schumann, Scriabin, Sinding, Tchaikovsky (Nos 1 and 3) and Thalberg, and the Chopin—Wilkomirski Allegro de concert and Lyapunov's Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes." Good grief, what a go-getter! Reportedly, he got only $250 each for his Vox recordings (approx. $2309 in today's money). New Grove says about him, "his outstanding technique and ability to master the intricacies of virtuoso piano works made him an impressive champion of such music, although too frequently he allowed his exceptional facility to swamp the qualities of musical insight he was capable of conveying." I can hear what they're saying.

[AnotherSpin]

Heinrich Scheidemann: Keyboard Music

Joseph Rassam organ, harpsichord, virginal

[Lisztianwagner]

William Alwyn
Sinfonietta for Strings

Richard Hickox & London Symphony Orchestra

[Que]

It's a long time since I listened to Cavazzoni. To some degree I don't warm that much to the music. I recall that del Sordo appealed the most to me. Ivana Valotti was IIRC unlistenable because of some strange manners - I wrote about this some years ago.

I agree about Valotti. I didn't't do it for me - jumpy, choppy... I haven't figured out if it is the music as well. I guess listening to Del Sordo will give more clarity.

You forgot Vartolo's set on Tactus, which I own but haven't explored much.

Thnx. Even though Vartolo never fails to rub me to wrong way. 

[Mandryka]

@Dry Brett Kavanaugh  -- since you like Scriabin, you may well like this.

[Symphonic Addict]

Martinu: Bouquet of Flowers and Field Mass

I don't recall having encountered the Field Mass before. Impressive and mournful work, imbued with a rather militaristic spirit.