What are you listening 2 now?

[Gurn Blanston]

Revolutionary Drawing Room!

Nice. Some of my favorite Boccherini.

TD:


One of Beethoven's first go-rounds with stage music. Quite nice, even beyond the well-known overture.

[Que]

Nice. Some of my favorite Boccherini.

TD:


One of Beethoven's first go-rounds with stage music. Quite nice, even beyond the well-known overture.

It's my favourite performance. 

I mean, Harnoncourt is nice but Brüggen really nails it.

Q

[San Antone]

[SimonNZ]

Happy Kwanza Eve, my fellow warriors!

now:

[Mirror Image]

Spinning this new arrival:

Britten
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28
Saint Nicolas, Op. 42
Sally Pryce (harp), Katherine Watson (soprano) & Zoë Brown (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor)
Trinity College Choir Cambridge, City of London Sinfonia, Holst Singers & Temple Church Choristers, Stephen Layton

[kyjo]

Revolutionary Drawing Room!

Love Boccherini! Surely one of the most undervalued composers from the Classical period. I'm probably in the minority here, but I would place a lot of his music on par with Haydn and Mozart. His music exudes such charm, inventiveness, and often some surprising and unexpected touches. He surely deserves to be more than a "one-hit-wonder" (for *that* famous Minuet).

[San Antone]

Love Boccherini! Surely one of the most undervalued composers from the Classical period. I'm probably in the minority here but I would place a lot of his music on par with Haydn and Mozart. His music exudes such charm, inventiveness, and often some surprising and unexpected touches. He surely deserves to be more than a "one-hit-wonder" (for *that* famous Minuet).

I also enjoy Boccherini, and especially these recordings of the string quartets by the Revolutionary Drawing Room.  If you haven't heard them, you definitely should.

[kyjo]

I also enjoy Boccherini, and especially these recordings of the string quartets by the Revolutionary Drawing Room.  If you haven't heard them, you definitely should.

I haven't, so I'll definitely be checking them out. Thanks for the tip!

[JBS]

Love Boccherini! Surely one of the most undervalued composers from the Classical period. I'm probably in the minority here, but I would place a lot of his music on par with Haydn and Mozart. His music exudes such charm, inventiveness, and often some surprising and unexpected touches. He surely deserves to be more than a "one-hit-wonder" (for *that* famous Minuet).

There's also a whole series of his quintets on Brilliant by a PI ensemble, Magnifica Communita, I think the name was. (They seem to have dissolved or been drastically reorganized a couple of years ago.) I'm not sure if it covers all his quintets.

TD
Igor Levitt playing Beethoven sonatas, Opp. 7 and 10.

[André]

I have to say this is an absolute ingenious piece of music. I always try to read a synopsis of the opera I'm about to listen to and I found this particular narrative quite fascinating. I haven't finished The Turn of the Screw yet, but I'm not sure why I was resisting when I first listened to it years ago. I guess I needed to live with Britten's music longer. So far, I'd rank this opera up there with Peter Grimes and Death in Venice.

+1

Reading the detailed and very informative program notes of this Collins issue helped me a lot 'getting' this opera. I had watched a tv production many years ago and had found the whole thing uneventful on all fronts (drama and music). Not so this time!

Britten's ingeniosity is indeed part and parcel of the fascination it generates. I wrote about it in the opera thread.

[San Antone]

[André]

Boulianne has a sumptuous mezzo/contralto-ish instrument. Not as deep as Forrester's, but just as lustrous. Her coloratura skills are very good, but not often called for in these mostly slow arias. The accompaniment is beautifully realized by the always reliable Luc Beauséjour. Very, very nice.

[Mirror Image]

+1

Reading the detailed and very informative program notes of this Collins issue helped me a lot 'getting' this opera. I had watched a tv production many years ago and had found the whole thing uneventful on all fronts (drama and music). Not so this time!

Britten's ingeniosity is indeed part and parcel of the fascination it generates. I wrote about it in the opera thread.

I'll have to go find your post there, Andre. I'll be honest and say I've never heard an opera like it. I know they say opera is a visual genre and you have follow the action and so forth, but I never believed this. Opera can be enjoyed without knowledge of what's happing on the stage. If the music is strong enough, it'll pull you along and continue to lure you in.

[Mirror Image]

Britten
War Requiem, Op. 66
Gabrieli, Susan Gritton, Christopher Maltman, John Mark Ainsley
Wrocław Philharmonic Choir, Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme, Trebles of the Choir of New College Oxford
Paul McCreesh



A new acquisition. While this doesn't displace Britten's own legendary recording on Decca, this McCreesh recording does offer a different view of the work, which, perhaps, is more reflective, but not without moments of intensity. The soloists are all fantastic, but Britten's own recording representing UK, Russia, and Germany gives the work another layer of depth rather than an all-British vocal cast. I do like this performance a lot and many details within the work have been brought to the fore. The packaging is marvelous.

[JBS]

Britten
War Requiem, Op. 66
Gabrieli, Susan Gritton, Christopher Maltman, John Mark Ainsley
Wrocław Philharmonic Choir, Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme, Trebles of the Choir of New College Oxford
Paul McCreesh



A new acquisition. While this doesn't displace Britten's own legendary recording on Decca, this McCreesh recording does offer a different view of the work, which, perhaps, is more reflective, but not without moments of intensity. The soloists are all fantastic, but Britten's own recording representing UK, Russia, and Germany gives the work another layer of depth rather than an all-British vocal cast. I do like this performance a lot and many details within the work have been brought to the fore. The packaging is marvelous.

I essentially agree with everything you wrote there.
TD
[asin]B07VDMNHZJ[/asin]
The Prokofiev CD from this set, presenting arrangements for two pianos of the First Symphony and the suite from Cinderella, the Overture on Hebrew Themes, and the Sonata for Two Violins.  Maestra Argerich herself participates here only in the Overture on Hebrew Themes.

[Mirror Image]

I essentially agree with everything you wrote there.

Ah yes, I had forgotten that you listened to this recording not too long ago.

[André]

[SimonNZ]

[JBS]

According to Amazon MP, this set is almost worth its weight in gold
[asin]B01G65QU0Q[/asin]

NP
CD 8
9 CDs in this set are chorale settings; this is the seventh of those nine, featuring chorales whose source hymns have titles starting in O and N (the chorales are sorted alphabetically in this set).
Given the nature and era of the music, comparisons to Bach's chorale settings are natural. Suffice it to say Walther does not suffer by the comparison.

[kyjo]

Merry Christmas everyone! Ringing in the season with a first listen to RVW's Hodie - A Christmas Cantata:

[asin]B000005GJK[/asin]

A joyous, uplifting work with a particularly inspiriting opening and conclusion featuring some of RVW's most colorful orchestration. As others have noted, the middle portion of the work contains some longueurs with the multiple "narrations" by the children's choir, but that's a small gripe in the face of a very cherishable work, perfect for the holiday season.