What are you listening 2 now?

[steve ridgway]

Varèse - Un Grand Sommeil Noir

[AnotherSpin]

[steve ridgway]

Takemitsu - Water-Ways (For Eight Players)

[Que]

[Harry]

The Soule of Heaven.
Alfonso Ferrabosco I (1543-1588)
Alfonso Ferrabosco II (c 1575-1628)
Pavans and Almaines.
B Five Recorder Consort, Sophie vanden Eynde, Lute.
Recording: Eglise Assomption de la Vierge, Basse-Bodeux, Belgium, August 10th-14h 2020.

This is an absolute blast of a recording. Reading about them I got enthusiastic and decided to try something out of their repertoire, and the choice was spot on.  B-Five creates a perfect  harmony and balance and is with reason one of the world's most successful ensembles of its kind. And perfection is what you hear. The music is of a high level and sublimely performed, interspersed with music for the Lute. Really a great pleasure listening to such beauty. SOTA sound, almost no reverb, and just enough air around the instruments to let them bloom and to create intimacy on a grand scale.
A pity that the other recordings of them are in combination with mediocre voices, Tenor and Soprano, and one with a modern composer mixed with Dowland.

[Harry]

Carlo Zuccari (1704-1792)
Sonate a violino e basso o' cembalo Opus I. Milano 1747)
See back cover for details.

In view of the countless musical Italian violinists who worked in England in the 18th century, it was joked that England had depopulated the whole of Italy of its violinists. One of these was Carlo Zuccari, who worked intermittently in London for more than 20 years. His Violin sonatas, printed in Milan in 1747, show him to be an imaginative composer who did not care about traditional movement sequences and had very precise ideas about ornamentation, which he wanted to be as rich as possible. Which is clearly an item in his works as shown abundantly in this recording. Plamena Nikitassova is to me a Violinist I hear for the first time. Her bowing is flexible, and souple to a degree which makes you gasp at times, and thus she masters the demands of Zuccari with ease and a perfect command of all ornamentations. The BC follows in the same vein. The recording is clear and intimate with enough air around the instruments.

[Florestan]

[Que]

Harry, thanks for posting. I'm a fan of Plamena Nikitassaova! 

Thread duty:



EDIT: my memory was triggered during listening... I have heard these pieces before....
And the best available version at the time was by Pandolfo et al. (Glossa). I never followed up because these pieces are nice, and benefit from a good performance, but are not exceptional.

[Que]

Definitely looks intriguing.... 

[Harry]

Johann Adam Reincken.
Hortus Musicus I & IV for 2 Violins,Viola da Gamba & Bc.

Dietrich Buxtehude.
Sonatas for 2 Violins, Viola da Gamba & Bc BuxWV 266, 269, 271 & Ciacona BuxWV 159.

La Reveuse.

Recorded in 2008 this is still a reference interpretation. I almost forgot how enjoyable this disc is, and am happy that I fished it out of my collection. A perfect interplay, sublimely balanced, seamlessly played, a small wonder this recording is anytime. The musicians around the lutenist Benjamin Perrot, reveal beautifully the stylistic similarities between both composers. The flowing melodies combined with the dense, typically German ensemble sound is a revelation that commands attention. Detailing is awesome, and the recording is near SOTA. For those who do not know this recording, try it!

[San Antone]

Bach - Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1052R
Sato | Netherlands Bach Society

When it was composed, this violin marvel – the Violin Concerto in D minor, performed here by the Netherlands Bach Society for All of Bach – immediately became such a technical challenge that few soloists were able to tackle it. Too few, probably, as not a shred of it has survived. The concerto played here is a modern reconstruction, based on a harpsichord concerto written much later by Bach, but which is presumed to originate from a violin concerto.

[Florestan]

A Midsummer Night's Dream - complete incidental music.

Fresh as the morning dew, cheerful as a child and bright as a sunrise --- youth itself sings and dances in this immortal masterpiece filled with love, laughter and lightheartedness.

[Papy Oli]

Beethoven
SQ 13,op.130


The Italians 

[Todd]

[Harry]

Johann Friedrich Meister. (1630-1697)
Il Giardino del Piacere.
Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel.

There is not much about Johann Friedrich Meister. Even Wikipedia only has a very short article about him. The only surviving instrumental music seems to be the 12 sonatas, six of which are presented here.
Recorded in 2004 and since then little is recorded of this composer. This was the last recording of MAK, and it got little attention as it is, which to my ears is not deserved. Johann Friedrich Meister is an original genius, Reinhard Goebel said, and I for one think he is right.
This is beguiling, stylistically highly individual music in which the German art of counterpoint and Mediterranean sensuality of sound come together in the most beautiful way. Meister titled the cycle 'Il giardino del piacere', 'The Garden of Delight', and it fits wonderfully. He treats the established movement forms with playful ease: there are laconic, short fugues, barely a minute long - as if he wanted to prove that he has mastered counterpoint but does not want to torture the listener with long developments. Instead, Meister can lose himself for seven and a half minutes in embellishing the harmonic framework of a sarabande, not a second of which you want to miss. And so I say, a fine recording, expressive as an interpretation, and a shame that this ensemble had to stop, because they were not in demand anymore, and yes the world is cruel.

[Que]

Excellent!! 

https://earlymusicreview.com/telemann-six-trio-1718/

[AnotherSpin]

Thanks for the mention. I'm listening now, and the day's news is shrinking, as if I'm peering at it through an inverted telescope, until it vanishes altogether.

[Traverso]

Schubert



Seems to be a rare bird, nice music nonetheless.

[Mandryka]

Harry, thanks for posting. I'm a fan of Plamena Nikitassaova! 

Thread duty:



EDIT: my memory was triggered during listening... I have heard these pieces before....
And the best available version at the time was by Pandolfo et al. (Glossa). I never followed up because these pieces are nice, and benefit from a good performance, but are not exceptional.

Try the Ton and Jordi show. It's wild.

[Traverso]

Scandinavian Music