What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Right. Vivaldi, Farnace, the actual work and not the booklet SNAFU. Justice for Sonia Prina.



Apparently this is the opera that Vivaldi revised and re-staged the most times. There are 7 known versions, of which only one and two-thirds survive.

So if it was popular enough to be done so many times it must have a great story, right? Well, no... even the Naive booklet doesn't think much of the libretto, which was heavily plagiarised by a writer who even in his own lifetime was considered a bit of a hack. It doesn't have a lot of shape to it. Farnace is a bit silly and a real dick to his wife, and then there's his mother-in-law Berenice who apparently hates him so much that she spends much of the opera advocating the death of her own little grandson. She can never really explain why, and then she turns around so fast in the traditional Baroque happy ending that it will induce whiplash.

It's got pretty good music, though. The instrumental playing is excellent throughout. All of the singers are fairly solid, and some more than that (and yes, Prina is one of the best). They are hampered a little at times by the live recording. Jordi Savall acknowledges that the way the singers sound is affected by where they are on stage, and so sometimes they're further back in the mix than would be ideal. There's the occasional minor vocal wobble too, and some background noise but nothing too serious. And as Savall also points out, there's some benefits to a live recording from the sort of spontaneity you get in the recitatives.

So it's another opera entry that currently sits in the 'listenable, but I'm not bowled over' category. Very solid musicianship, a recording with the pros and cons of being live, and a sub-par story if you care about that sort of thing (and I'm foolish enough to be in that category).

[Que]

Basically show pieces by Claude Balbastre and Pancrace Royer.
Rameau's name is on the cover due to the inclusion of adaptations by Balbastre of opera arias by him (but also by Mondonville, Ferrand, Rebel and Monsigny). Catherine Zimmer plays a copy of a famous harpsichord by Jean-Claude Goujon (picture below).

And this was the 1st issue of what turned out to be a wonderful label:

https://www.encelade.net/index.php/en/hikashop-menu-for-products-listing-2/product/7-airs-d-opera-accommodes-pour-le-clavecin

[Florestan]

There's the occasional minor vocal wobble too, and some background noise but nothing too serious. And as Savall also points out, there's some benefits to a live recording from the sort of spontaneity you get in the recitatives.

In short, it's pretty much what people heard back then in the opera house. Can one get more HIP than that? 

[Florestan]

somehow, someone managed to go through the whole course of producing the front half of this booklet in 3 languages without noticing a colossal blunder. Either that, or they had a serious vendetta against Sonia Prina.

I kind of hope she complained and got compensated.

Confound it! Sonia Prina is an excellent singer and a beautiful woman. I say, everlasting shame on Naive!

[Iota]

Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16
Michael Korstick (piano)

In the wake of Víkingur Ólafsson's LVB Op.109, another very distinctive take on an established favourite. And Korstick really digs into Kreisleriana pulling all sorts of rabbits from the hat, most notably with overt foregrounding of hidden/counter melodies that float up from the textures, often to exceedingly beautiful effect. The intimacy already palpably present in the music is intensified by these interventions and aided by his ability to layer sounds, ringing them like tubular bells from all sorts of distances and directions, creating a sirenic and gorgeous sound world one can just fall into. Just lovely.

[Traverso]

Messiaen

Verset pour la fête de la Dédicace

Le Banquet céleste

Les Corps glorieux

Thomas Trotter

Bad Säckingen, St. Fridolinsmünster 

[Mandryka]

Morning listening is this wonderful Busnois recording by a short lived all male Dutch ensemble of Harry van der Kamp et al.



Unfortunately, not available streaming...

https://www.discogs.com/release/28962523-Busnois-Kapel-van-de-Lage-Landen-Harry-van-der-Kamp-Busnois

There are four more surviving masses by Gheerkin de Hondt left to record - one can hope!

Yes that mass is substantial, and beautiful.

[Madiel]

Confound it! Sonia Prina is an excellent singer and a beautiful woman. I say, everlasting shame on Naive!

She's actually in several other volumes. I meant to go and check whether they were before or after this reissue.

EDIT: Both before and after. She kept working with them after this!

[Harry]

Diego Ortiz.
Recercadas del Trattado de Glosas, Roma 1553.
See for all details back cover.


Recorded in 1989 at the Pieve de S. Martino, in Emilia, Italy, this CD is represent the very nature of Savall's view in how to present the music. I find the performance balanced and all instrumentalists at the right angle and place in a perfect acoustic. A warm sound yet detailed and embracing in its interpretation. The music of Ortiz thrives well in this approach, and by the way, rediscovered in the 20th century. There is no hurry and all feels organically right. One of the best out of Savall's music factory. SOTA sound. And for those interested, Ton Koopman participates in Savall's ensemble, and he does that quite well. Very informative PDF file attached. As a side note, Savall's seems to hum on almost all his recordings, this I detected recently, obviously, a sort of Jeno Jando, or Glen Gould treat.

[Traverso]

Schubert

[steve ridgway]

Kagel - Liturgien for tenor, bass, baritone, two mixed choruses, and orchestra

[Harry]

Gaspard Fritz (1716-1783)
Violin Sonatas op.3 (1756).
Plamena Nikitassova · Violin, Maya Amrein, Violoncello, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Harpsichord.
Recorded, 2013, Röm.-kath. Kirche, Nuglar-St. Pantaleon (Switzerland).

Another recording with Plamena Nikitassova that charms me out of my socks. She is a phenomenal violinist, sensitive as cat's paws, and tripping carefully through the intricacies of the music by Gaspard Fritz. Given the relative obscurity of Fritz, his artistic originality is surprising. It is difficult to assign the music of the Sonatas Op.3, published in 1756, to any of the stylistic guidelines of his age. Baroque sequences mingle with galant syncopated rhythms and extravagances that point far into the future. Sections of dense compositional penetration and period-oriented formal development alternate with passages of an improvisatory character that come up with unforeseen twists and turns. Still it is clear that we have to do with music that makes an impression right away, and captures you attention. In that sense quite a discovery. Performance and sound are top notch.

[SonicMan46]

Vivaldi - Cello Sonatas, a partial set w/ Anner Bylsma and complete sets with Ophelie Gaillard (MP3 DL) and David Watkin - the latter is probably my favorite of the three - Dave

   

[PaulR]

Schumann: Symphony #3 'Rhenish"

[Iota]

I wish I had listened to Olafsson's recording before I bought it. (His releases have always been an automatic purchase for me.) First of all, the sound is not nearly as rich and full as his other releases, and I don't like his frequent use of détaché playing...more cantabile would be welcome. Of course, his finger facility is phenomenal. Perhaps it will grow on me over time. The Beethoven fares better, but it could still use more intensity.

The bolded is almost exactly what I thought when I started listening to 109, it really surprised me. But as things went on it started to make more and more sense, and I loved how everything seem to come into really sharp focus, all the detail coming out while maintaining the music's dramatic intensity. And there is plenty of lovely cantabile in the 3rd* movement.
It's always felt a slightly unusual sonata me, and the first movement in particular difficult to balance the different elements convincingly, which is where I felt he was very strong. So we do indeed differ, but I do understand your disappointment at his change of direction. it is very marked.

*Edited to change 2nd movement to 3rd.

[San Antone]

Jonathan Berger (music) and Harriet Scott Chessman (libretto) - Mŷ Lai
Kronos Quartet, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, t'ru'ng, Cfan bau, Cfan tranh
Rinde Eckert, vocalist

[PaulR]

Mahler: Symphony #6 'Tragic'

(Probably not the same recording as below: but same conductor/orchestra)

[Spotted Horses]

Honegger, more selections from the Chamber Music set on Timpani.



Sonatina for Violin and Cello H 80, Cello Sonata H 20, Viola Sonata H 28. Performed by Pascal Devoyon with Raphael Wallfisch, Dong-Suk Kang, Pierre-Henri Xuereb.

The Violin and Cello Sonata is a favorite of mine. I have nothing to complain of in the Timpani recording but it does not surpass (or equal) my favorite recording, by Oleh Krysa and Torlief Thedeen on BIS. I also came across what seems like an exquisite recording by Turovsky and Turovsky on Chandos.

The Cello Sonata, another satisfying work which I know from the Poltera/Stott recording on BIS.

Finally there is the wonderful Viola Sonata, with an opening movement which alternates mysterious slow material with a more energetic theme, a middle movement which seems more like an intermezzo than a traditional slow movement, and a genial finale. The Timpani recording is satisfying, and a recording by Penkov and Manz is a very fine alternative.









The Timpani set is wonderful in the way it brings this music together, especially low-profile pieces that I would not otherwise have been aware of. But I am not attracted to the Timpani "house sound" for chamber music, which strike some as too dry and bright for my taste.

[Nostromo]

The bolded is almost exactly what I thought when I started listening to 109, it really surprised me. But as things went on it started to make more and more sense, and I loved how everything seem to come into really sharp focus, all the detail coming out while maintaining the music's dramatic intensity. And there is plenty of lovely cantabile in the 2nd movement.
It's always felt a slightly unusual sonata me, and the first movement in particular difficult to balance the different elements convincingly, which is where I felt he was very strong. So we do indeed differ, but I do understand your disappointment at his change of direction. it is very marked.

I was mainly referring to the Bach 6th Partita. The Beethoven is OK, though I wouldn't mind a little more heft here and there.

[Nostromo]

This is an excellent workout for one's woofers or subwoofers!