What are you listening 2 now?

[Brian]

"Le Secret de Monsieur Marais" is being marketed in a rather gimmicky fashion - secrets, pictures of keys, marketing material about how it's uncovering Marais' secret way of playing the viola da gamba.

But despite that rather unpromising start, there is a backbone of serious scholarship here. Ghielmi and musicologists not only unearthed a couple works which here receive their premiere, but reconstructed Marais' own physical technique of playing the instrument. They claim that using his rather eccentric bowing practices, which are described in contemporary literature but scarcely believed because of how poorly they correspond with 20th/21st century stringed instrument technique, his scores make a whole lot more sense.

I don't know how to assess that, short of A/B comparisons between Ghielmi and people like Savall. But now I want to do those comparisons, because this album is a hell of a lot of fun. It's got dance rhythms, demonically focused playing, a super-responsive orchestra of virtuosi, and solo works very sensitively accompanied on theorbo by Luca Pianca. The solo pieces actually sound kinda like Bach cello suites in places?

Super good first impression on the ears.

[not edward]

This is a nice collection of spectralist and saturationist music, and I don't think the Robin and Bedrossian pieces have appeared on disc before.

What's on it is:

1. Fausto Romitelli, Le Domeniche alla periferia dell'impero, Prima domenica, pour flûte, clarinette, violon et violoncelle.

2. Gérard Grisey, Talea, pour flûte, clarinette, piano, violon et violoncelle.

3. Yann Robin, Fterà II, pour clarinette basse, piano et violoncelle.

4. Franck Bedrossian, The Spider as an artist, pour violoncelle.

5. Tristan Murail, Les 13 couleurs du soleil couchant, pour flûte, clarinette, piano, violon et violoncelle.

6. Fausto Romitelli, Le Domeniche alla periferia dell'impero, Seconda domenica : Omaggio a Gérard Grisey, pour flûte, clarinette, violon et violoncelle.

[ritter]

The first three symphonies of Roger Sessions, from this CD:

[asin]B000005TU1[/asin]

[j winter]

Following up the Mahler with some Mozart, Symphonies 33, 34, and 40 - Klemperer.  Marvelous stuff, elegant, stately and powerful.  Disc 2 of the below set, which I am liking more every time I listen to it (I've had Klemperer in Beethoven, Brahms, etc. for years, but his Mozart is a fairly new discovery for me):

[SonicMan46]

Pichl, Václav (1741-1805) - Symphonies & String Trios w/ performers shown below - Dave

P.S. also left a longer post in Gurn's Classical Corner thread.

 

[Karl Henning]

LvB
Op. 123
Herreweghe & al.

[vandermolen]

Glazunov: Symphony No. 2
Russian State SO/Polyansky

My favourite of the cycle along with 7,8 and the fragment of No.9. I also like 1 and 3.

[listener]

BLISS: Cello Concerto   - Raphael Wallfisch cello
Hymn to Apollo     The Enchantress       Linda Finnie, msop.
Ulster Orch.   Vernon Handley, cond.

[Karl Henning]

https://www.youtube.com/v/88hnYWKFLko

[André]

Following up the Mahler with some Mozart, Symphonies 33, 34, and 40 - Klemperer.  Marvelous stuff, elegant, stately and powerful.  Disc 2 of the below set, which I am liking more every time I listen to it (I've had Klemperer in Beethoven, Brahms, etc. for years, but his Mozart is a fairly new discovery for me):

Among the various Klemperer Warner boxes (Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Bach/Haydn, Sacred Music, Romantic Symphonies, Concertos) the Mozart offering is the most illuminating and a definite keeper. The Romantic Symphonies box is excellent, too. There are gems in all the other boxes, but they rub shoulders with duds or very controversial interpretations.

[Brian]

This is a perfect example of the comment in the "Are Performances Faster Than Ever?" thread about how romantic-era performances are getting slower:



Mikko Franck leads a slow, safe, tame performance of the Symphonie which stretches to about 39 minutes. The trumpets are recessed and almost inaudible, trombones muted, and the symphony sounds cautious and ominous rather than fiery or dramatic. For most orchestras and conductors, this might be the first run-through in rehearsals rather than an interpretation viewed as worthy of recording.

[Sergeant Rock]

Moving on to Mahler 2... the Mahler 1 was just as I remembered it -- broader in tempo than many, but dramatic and full of little details.  Glad to revisit it.

Glad you enjoyed it, J. I think Papy and I are the only Mahler/Maazel enthusiasts here. Be sure to check out Maazel and Battle's ravishing Fourth. To die for.

Sarge

[Symphonic Addict]

Boris Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.1
An impressive score which reminded me of Moisei Weinberg's music in places.

Oh yes! It has some gestures of his 'compatriot' style. A very fine work.

[Symphonic Addict]

This is a perfect example of the comment in the "Are Performances Faster Than Ever?" thread about how romantic-era performances are getting slower:



Mikko Franck leads a slow, safe, tame performance of the Symphonie which stretches to about 39 minutes. The trumpets are recessed and almost inaudible, trombones muted, and the symphony sounds cautious and ominous rather than fiery or dramatic. For most orchestras and conductors, this might be the first run-through in rehearsals rather than an interpretation viewed as worthy of recording.

The good thing about this recording is that it includes the 2nd recording ever of his tone poem Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne.

[vers la flamme]

Glad you enjoyed it, J. I think Papy and I are the only Mahler/Maazel enthusiasts here. Be sure to check out Maazel and Battle's ravishing Fourth. To die for.

Sarge

I'm going to check this out myself. Thanks for mentioning it.

[JBS]

This is a perfect example of the comment in the "Are Performances Faster Than Ever?" thread about how romantic-era performances are getting slower:



Mikko Franck leads a slow, safe, tame performance of the Symphonie which stretches to about 39 minutes. The trumpets are recessed and almost inaudible, trombones muted, and the symphony sounds cautious and ominous rather than fiery or dramatic. For most orchestras and conductors, this might be the first run-through in rehearsals rather than an interpretation viewed as worthy of recording.

He looks so proud and happy about it, though!
TD
CD7

Overall I am liking this, with all sorts of stuff bundled together almost at random. Chief oddity is that about ten chorales from the Orgelmesse appear well apart from the main group. Recordings date from the 60s and 70s, with some organs being obviously better than others (and I am suspect that at least a couple were heavily "restored" over the years), although the set provides no details on the individual organs.

Program of this CD
Herbert Collum at Reinhardtsgrimma (1731)
Pastorella in F Major BWV 590 rec May 1960
Partita on Gott du Frommer Gott BWV 767 rec July 1965
Christoph Albrecht at Crostau (1732)  rec June 1966
Preludes and Fugues in D Major BWV 532
                                       in c minor BWV 549
                                       in d minor BWV 539
Triosonata IV in e minor BWV 528
Fugue in G Major BWV 576
Prelude and Fugue in C Major BWV 547

[71 dB]

Mozart Piano Concertos  Nos. 20-22. Murray Perahia.

[T. D.]

Spending so much time at home I'm digging out things I haven't listened to in a long while:

I recall this as good but with sometimes wonky sound quality (not unusual for the old VoxBoxes). Will see how this pass goes.

[André]

Big-boned readings of these big-gestured works. I love it.

[JBS]

Spending so much time at home I'm digging out things I haven't listened to in a long while:

I recall this as good but with sometimes wonky sound quality (not unusual for the old VoxBoxes). Will see how this pass goes.

Same phenomenon here. For instance, I got this quite a way back, didn't like it for some reason.  Pulled it out now, and find my opinion has changed drastically

At the moment, K 575, the D Major "Prussian" quartet.