What are you listening 2 now?

[aligreto]

Kurtág: Hommage A Robert Schumann for clarinet, viola and piano [Plane-Dukes-Rahman Trio]





This is an atmospheric and absorbing work. The musical language is edgy and exciting and the performance is very engaging.

[Karl Henning]

JSB
Brandenburgs 4 5 6 BWV 1049-1051
b minor orchestral suite, BWV 1067
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Koopman

[Traverso]

JSB
Brandenburgs 4 5 6 BWV 1049-1051
b minor orchestral suite, BWV 1067
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Koopman

One of the finest IMO.

[aligreto]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 [Mackerras]





This is a very fine work given a very fine presentation here. There is terrific orchestral writing in this symphony with very effective scoring throughout particularly for the brass and woodwinds.

[San Antone]

Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch

[aligreto]

Beethoven: Violin Concerto [Oistrakh/Ehrling]





The outer movements are characterized by bold, assertive yet lyrical playing and the slow movement is played with great sensitivity and emotion. Oistrakh's performance is wonderful.
This is the third Oistrakh version of this magnificent work that I now own, each one under a different conductor. Therein lies the basis of a mini project sometime in the future perhaps.

[Tsaraslondon]

Today I've played the first two CDs from this set. They cover Der fliegende Holländer, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. Excerpts from Der Ring, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal are on the second two. Recordings cover the period from 1927 to 1957, with the maority being from the 1930s. Some truly remarkable singing, the likes of which we don't really hear today. It's good to hear such firm, well-produced voices.

[Karl Henning]

One of the finest IMO.

It's a beauty!

[Karl Henning]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 [Mackerras]





This is a very fine work given a very fine presentation here. There is terrific orchestral writing in this symphony with very effective scoring throughout particularly for the brass and woodwinds.

Nice!


Tangentially, the first recording I heard of the Rakhmaninov Third, is Mackerras's, and I still think we'll of it.

[Que]

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Q

[Que]

Bach

Das wohltemperierte Klavier  Book 1

Glen Wilson Cembalo

Top of my list of favourites! 

Q

[Traverso]

Handel

Zadok the Priest

I really like this piece and this recording.

[Traverso]

Ravenscroft

One of the very few recordings with part songs of Ravenscroft and this is just a fine one  .



From another fine recording
https://www.youtube.com/v/FOTrMiH85iw

[André]

Excellent performances of the two warhorse concertos, and a nice complement of solo works - études, mazurka, valse nonchalante - that sort of thing. A generous and most pleasing Saint-Saëns repast.

.........................

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, with Jon Vickers, Maureen Forrester, the Boston Symphony under William Steinberg. There is a youtube link for that performance, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YbP3KugsU, as well as an audio transfer on cd from Yves St-Laurent:


Both singers have recorded the work multiple times. I have Forrester in Das Lied under Walter, Reiner, Szell and Steinberg. Vickers did it under Colin Davis, Steinberg, Rattle. It is quite fortunate that in both cases they are in best voice in the same performance: Steinberg's. Indeed, both are so refulgent of tone and generous in spirit that there is a distinct feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer outpouring of vocal steel (Vickers) and gold (Forrester). Steinberg is a sensitive and powerful leader, coaxing magnificent playing from the BSO (best horn section I've heard in the work). He does not dawdle, prodding everybody into a quite urgent delivery of the music. Very good mono broadcast sound.

....................................................



D. 959 in A major.

Brendel does not overly emote or succomb to mere agitation in this, Schubert's most beautiful sonata. Other pianists may offer more tragic, lyrical, neurotic performances, but I like the expert balance of elements chez Brendel.

................................



This is a very different Flute indeed. There are some strong defining characteristics. Zauberflöte is the 6th Mozart opera performed and recorded live from the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus by Nézet-Séguin and the COE. You can tell how finely honed an instrument the orchestra is and  symbiotic relationship they have developed with the conductor. Basically, this is a « third generation » MI approach. After the big orchestra standard that reigned until the 1980s, there was a split between lean, classical small orchestra (Marriner, Abbado) and lean, leaner still PI performances (Christie, Kuijken). NS has incorporated a lot of PI practice features into his lean MI mix. What we hear is a dynamic, zippy, bubbly performance. I avoid using the word 'fast', because players and singers are such a well-oiled group that they never sound fast. The overture is dispatched in 5:58, the fastest timing of the dozen versions I have (most range from 6:30 to 7:00) and yet it is exhilarating, not merely breathless. Part of the trick is that the masonic bits are treated lightly, not funereally. For example, the long notes at the end of chords are unusually short. This was truly outstanding.

Singers are for the most part a very accomplished group. Although the work is a mere singspiel, all of the character's arias have come to be standard repertoire for the respective voice types employed by Mozart. In that sense, we have become accustomed to hear the most accomplished singers perform them. Nézet-Séguin has some splendid voices and vocal actors at his disposal. Tamino, Sarastro, the Queen of the Night and Monastatos are outstanding. Christiane Karg's Pamina is not bad, but she is up against legendary performances by Janowitz and Price, both of whom still dominate the field. The one questionable choice is that of Villazón as Papageno. As a baritone he has no low register to speak of, has trouble adjusting his voice to the lower tessitura and sounds just plain clumsy most of the time. In a sense, Papageno is just that: a clumsy, goofy birdcatcher. So, in a sense, his performance could be said to be in character. The whole Mozart operas project is supposed to be his brainchild, and he sings in all six operas recorded so far.

The chorus work is outstanding. N-S started his career as chorus trainer and choirmaster at the Montreal Opera, so he knows exactly what he wants and gets it from the famed RIAS Kammerchor and their director Justin Doyle. Nézet-Séguin's, Zauberflöte is more a funspiel than just the habitual singspiel. I was entertained and musically satisfied.

[aligreto]

Mozart: String Quartet No. 14, K387 [Quatuor Mosaiques]





Poise, grace and elegance immediately spring to mind in relation to both the music and the performance. The final movement, in particular, is a wonderful piece of writing.

[aligreto]

Sibelius: Violin Concerto [Oistrakh/Ehrling]





This is a very interesting and appealing version of this wonderful work. I find it to be a dark and brooding version. The music is quite driven in the first movement but it is never rushed and it feels like a quite expansive reading. The first movement is both assertive and lyrical and is given a very fine performance and interpretation. The slow movement is both tender and emotional. The final movement is both a bold and an assertive affair and it is quite driven and passionate in its delivery.

[Sergeant Rock]

Alwyn Odd Man Out Suite, Hickox conducting the LSO

https://www.youtube.com/v/bvLsH7UI_sY


Sarge

[San Antone]

Telemann : Violin Sonatas
Boris Begelman

[vers la flamme]

Brahms Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Cello in A minor op.114 played by Ax, Stoltzman and Ma




Sarge

I frequently see this CD at the used record store I frequent. Is it good? Moreover, is it autumnal? 

[SymphonicAddict]

The longest, most boring, most discursive, most tedious tone poem I've ever heard. I was expecting something memorable and gripping, but alas, not at all.