What are you listening 2 now?

[The new erato]

A really excellent disc in all ways:

[Harry]

I don't understand why I don't see this recording more often on the forum.
it's a desert island for me.
In addition to being charming and exciting, the playing is also a fine example of musical joy that really radiates from the playing of the Kuijkens.

Well I have that disc.

[foxandpeng]

Per Nørgård
Symphonies 4 and 5
Leif Segerstam
Danish NRSO

[Papy Oli]

JS Bach: Partita for Solo Flute in A minor BWV 1013 [Musica Antiqua Koln]



I do not know the name of the soloist here but he/she has the measure of the work. The range is within their competency and the phrasing is excellent. The rhythms are also keenly interpreted and the forward momentum of the music is always maintained. I also like the sonority of the instrument employed.

Fergus,

The soloist is Wilbert Hazelzet (flute)
Recorded: 1982-01

[Karl Henning]

Good morning all, to those who's days begin.

Johann Gottfried Walther.
Complete Organ Music.
CD V. Chorale settings IV.

Simone Stella plays on a Francesco Zanin organ 2006.

While sipping my coffee, the fourth track makes me sit up properly. What a magnificent rendition of "Herr Gott, dir loben alle wir". If one would not know that the organ is from 2006, we might assume it is as old as the composer. I really love the chorale settings, and could listen to them endlessly without fatigue. The recording is magnificent; How beautiful the notes come out, as the Bordone 16 from the Hauptwerk, and the Subbasso 16, plus Trombone 16, from the Pedal roll out like thunderous blasts. Magnificent.

Goedenavond, mijn excellente vriend!

[Traverso]

Well I have that disc.

Of course you have it ,do you have the same appreciation for it? 

[Brian]

First ever listen:



Is this seriously the only recording available of an opera written by Carl Maria von Weber and Gustav Mahler? I can't find any other sign of a full recording. This one features a decidedly dicey orchestra and a LOT of live performance noise (stamping feet, clinking glasses, swishing clothes). But I guess this is it. Time to find out what Weber and Mahler got up to "together".

So far, the music is divine.
EDIT: The music is so good it's distracting me from my work.
EDIT 2: Oh good grief, they even left in the applause after each aria.

[Harry]

Goedenavond, mijn excellente vriend!

Goedeavond I guess, being terrible with all the time differences. The excellence I share with you

[Florestan]

A fine performance of my favorite Tchaikovsky symphony, although not one to replace my favorite so far, Mravinsky & The Leningraders.



D87

An early work yet one that displays all Schubert trademarks: unfailing melodiousness, bittersweet melancholy in the slow movements and unbuttoned romp and merriment in the fast ones.

I am glad that I'm only hafway through this marvelous journey.



No. 3, KV 40

Ditto for this, all Mozart trademarks are there: unfailing melodiousness, continuous alternation between exhilarating joy and bittersweet melancholy and an overall feeling of irepressible cheerfulness and serene gaiety, all presented in the utmost formal elegance and musical beauty.

I'm sad that I'm only two discs away from the end of this fabulous journey but I console myself with the thought that I still have several complete sets to listen to for the first time.

[Harry]

Of course you have it ,do you have the same appreciation for it? 

Yes I do

[Florestan]

First ever listen:



Is this seriously the only recording available of an opera written by Carl Maria von Weber and Gustav Mahler? I can't find any other sign of a full recording. This one features a decidedly dicey orchestra and a LOT of live performance noise (stamping feet, clinking glasses, swishing clothes). But I guess this is it. Time to find out what Weber and Mahler got up to "together".

So far, the music is divine.
EDIT: The music is so good it's distracting me from my work.
EDIT 2: Oh good grief, they even left in the applause after each aria.

Hey man, it's opera after all, isn't it? This is how they experienced it back then and I bet they had a lot more fun and excitement than we'll ever have listening to our aseptic recordings in the quiet of our home. 

EDIT: Gotta love the conductor's name: Arrivabeni, reminds me of an Italian footballer, Benarrivo. 

[JBS]

First ever listen:



Is this seriously the only recording available of an opera written by Carl Maria von Weber and Gustav Mahler? I can't find any other sign of a full recording. This one features a decidedly dicey orchestra and a LOT of live performance noise (stamping feet, clinking glasses, swishing clothes). But I guess this is it. Time to find out what Weber and Mahler got up to "together".

So far, the music is divine.
EDIT: The music is so good it's distracting me from my work.
EDIT 2: Oh good grief, they even left in the applause after each aria.

I don't mind applause...
But apparently the Bertini recording was never released on CD

[JBS]

TD


From the Erato set.

[Papy Oli]

JS Bach - Organ works CD5 (André Isoir)

[Mandryka]

Ouch...

But then I've heard this singer live, and I'm afraid it's easy to imagine Mr. Parsons dominating the proceedings.

I didn't mean to suggest that Bär is bad, I think he does a good job. The piano part is really good, and Parsons seems very inspired it.

[Mandryka]

That's a rather gruesome-looking cover! 

PD

I'm sure there's a reason for it, maybe Que will enlighten us.

[kyjo]

To the bolded text: You have heard more obscure composers and works, but you haven't heard Szyma's 2nd yet? Paradoxical,  you have a huge input in this forum regarding symphonic music and works, composers and styles in general.

And +1 for the others. That is the most approachable Wellesz's Quartet. The main theme from the 2nd movement has a catchy and dramatic feel to it I find quite memorable.

Believe me, there's tons of more well-known works than Szymanowski's 2nd Symphony that I haven't heard! I'm thinking of heaps of heaps of solo piano music, songs, operas, Baroque music, more than half of Haydn's symphonies and SQs, as well as important "avant-garde" works from the 20th century. My listening priorities may not be in order, but hey, I'm enjoying myself so that's all that matters!

Regarding Wellesz, he's one of those composers where I find their earlier style infinitely more appealing. I've tried some of his later works and they struck me as quite arid. There's some 20th century composers, like Braga Santos, whose change to a more "difficult" style later in life I find compelling and convincing, but not Wellesz!

[SonicMan46]

Abel, Carl Friedrich (1723-1787) - Viola da Gamba & Baryton Works w/ performers on the discs shown below; brief bio quoted (edited) - he is best known as arguably the best gamba player of his time and for his London concerts w/ JC Bach - these recordings concentrate on his gamba along with the baryton.  Dave

Carl Abel was renowned throughout Europe in his time and, with Johann Christian Bach between 1765 and 1781, presented the famous "Bach-Abel Concerts" in London promoting both their own and others' compositions. Abel's father played in the Dresden orchestra during J.S. Bach's time, and young Abel was a master viol gambist. After leaving Dresden (1758), he finally settled in London in 1759. His influence on London's musical scene steadily increased, and young Mozart studied his compositions there in 1764. Apart from two years in Germany, Abel spent his remaining life in England. More than 200 compositions are known from Abel, covering symphonies, concertos, chamber music and sonatas. Most were published in his lifetime in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin and his work reflects the evolution of music from the gallant style to mid-classicism. (Source)

   

[MusicTurner]

Per Nørgård
Symphonies 4 and 5
Leif Segerstam
Danish NRSO

Personally I have a clear preference for the volcanic 5th ... the 4th seems rather un-spectacular to me, but maybe there's more to the web of intricacies, when you get to know the work better ...

[MusicTurner]

That's a rather gruesome-looking cover! 

PD

Maybe related to the saint's martyrdom, or some existential symbolism ...