What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

You can have my set in exchange for your inexpensive CD player!

Yes, I thought afterwards that the remark affordable would bring me in trouble.

[Mookalafalas]

As some of you may know I am struggling to enjoy classical music the way I did two decades ago. I revisited this Naxos disc of Silvestrov and it worked well. Silvestrov's music is among the most dreamy I have ever heard. Also very comforting. If I had to say something negative, it is the sameness of the music. Not much variation, but sometimes that is a plus depending on your mood. In general I think I prefer "modern" contemporary classical music these days. So maybe I should just concentrate on that for now...

Started listening to this, on your recommendation. It is a nice change from what I like, the formality of high classical and baroque. Dreamy would not have initially been a word I'd have used to describe it, except that the lack of formal structure sort of moves the pieces outside of time, which I suppose is dreamlike...anyway, thanks for the recommendation. {I also played his 4th symphony, which is VERY different from this, but also good}

[Mirror Image]

Concerning Mikrokosmos I feel much in the same way, while the other set of instructive pieces For Children feel much more musically rewarding even if the pieces are shorter.

Happy birthday MI 

Yes, indeed. Thanks for the birthday wishes!

[Mirror Image]

Happy birthday, John!

Thanks a lot, Andrei!

[Mirror Image]

Johnny.........congratulations 

https://www.youtube.com/v/QX67kpYqCps

Thank you, Jan!

[Mirror Image]

Now playing:



Some prime Hindemith coupled with an unknown early work. Alerted to this by John, and absolutely a very fine disc for my Hindemith collection.

Most excellent, indeed. I own all of those CPO sets of Hindemith orchestral works with Albert at the helm. Very good performances all-around.

[j winter]

Disc One, my first listen to the sonatas on PI....

[Mirror Image]

NP: Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (Crossley/Salonen)

[ritter]

Happy birthday, John!

A small complement to what you are now listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/v/6dLQRjRX9jg

[Traverso]

Gesualdo

Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday

[Mirror Image]

Happy birthday, John!

A small complement to what you are now listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/v/6dLQRjRX9jg

Thank you, Rafael! Such a fun, little piece from Stravinsky.

[Florestan]

[Papy Oli]

Happy Birthday, John, Have a good one !

One more of Ravel's Valse :

 

[Mirror Image]

Happy Birthday, John, Have a good one !

One more of Ravel's Valse :

Thanks, Olivier!

[Que]

[Mirror Image]

NP: Zemlinsky String Quartet No. 2, Op. 15 (Artis Quartett)



These Zemlinsky SQs have turned to be fantastic. Since I couldn't find the Schoenberg Quartet's set on Chandos, I went with the Artis Quartett on Nimbus and I'm glad I did as these are outstanding performances. I was a bit worried that the fidelity of the recording would be drowned in reverb since this seems to be a trademark of many of the recordings I've heard from Nimbus, but this isn't the case here.

[Harry]

NP: Zemlinsky String Quartet No. 2, Op. 15 (Artis Quartett)



These Zemlinsky SQs have turned to be fantastic. Since I couldn't find the Schoenberg Quartet's set on Chandos, I went with the Artis Quartett on Nimbus and I'm glad I did as these are outstanding performances. I was a bit worried that the fidelity of the recording would be drowned in reverb since this seems to be a trademark of many of the recordings I've heard from Nimbus, but this isn't the case here.

Have a good Birthday John, and let your hair down, once a year that is mandatory.

[Papy Oli]

Ravel - Boléro

[DavidW]

Disc One, my first listen to the sonatas on PI....

Nice!  That is my favorite set!

[SonicMan46]

Arensky - The two piano trios - Trio Carducci /brilliant CD

Very pleasant and well played, was somehow reminded of French Belle Epoque chamber music, rather than any Russian heavyness here. A bit of interesting booklet/cover design too, IMHO. Recommended; I don't agree at all with the MusicWeb review's very harsh criticism of the recorded sound.

Out of interest I am listening to this disc on Spotify. In my opinion the recorded sound is not that great (for a modern recording). There is a lot of reverberation creating muddiness and giving the lower midrange an unnecessary emphasis, but also warm bass. With headphones this isn't so bad, because it compensates for the lack of listening room acoustics and makes the sound "fuller." Spatiality is a little bit fuzzy, but there's not much spatial distortion on headphones thanks to the heavy reverberation washing out channel differencies. Crossfeed at level -10 dB seems to remove spatial distortion. For all it's problems this recording is quite suitable for headphone listening, but on speakers the muddiness probably becomes a bigger issue. The sound is pleasant rather than technically precise. Fans of "dry" sound should stay away.

That said, the cover art of this CD looks silly. Brilliant Classics rarely if ever impresses me with their cover art. 

Well, these comments piqued my interest because I had recently purchased these performances by the Wilkomirski Trio, which received an excellent Dubins review in Fanfare (attached) - his review of the Trio Carducci recording is also in the attachment, for those interested, along w/ several others; except for MusicWeb, the two other reviewers seemed to have no major problems w/ the sound - maybe the guy on MusicWeb had an inner ear infection? 

But I listened to both recordings below in my bedroom early this morning on a pair of Wi-Fi Sonos speakers (not ideal but not too bad sounding) - the Carducci performances sounded fine to me except for some of the violin phrasing; however, I really preferred the one I owned.  Interestingly, that Poju found the sound for the Carducci Trio somewhat better on headphones which was the major complaint of the MusicWeb reviewer.  My suggestion to those w/ Spotify or another streaming service, listen to both and then decide if you are in the market for these Arensky's works.  Dave