What are you listening 2 now?

[vers la flamme]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No.6 in B-flat major, K 238. Géza Anda, Camerata Academica des Salzburger Mozarteums

Man, this is an absolute knockout of a disc. This early piano concerto is no filler; it's stunningly beautiful! The Rondo finale I find especially convincing, with its beautifully melodic primary themes. I don't like making such recommendations, but I reckon this is a must for anyone who likes Mozart.

[Que]

More from this 12CD boxset - "Musica en el Quijote":

   

http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/reference.aspx?id=56

Another gorgeous recording! 

This set is on a fast track to become one of my favourite purchases of the year.

Q

[Traverso]

Albinoni

Concertos Op.7 Nos.9-12
Sonata a cinque in G minor Op.2 No.6
Sonata a cinque in D Op.2 No.5

[vers la flamme]

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.5 in B-flat major, WAB 105. Bernard Haitink, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Man, what a performance... Currently the adagio plays, which is just beautiful and cosmic, fatalistic, even. A world class orchestra at the top of their game, under perhaps the greatest living conductor. I would love to have seen Haitink conduct before his retirement, alas... Very grateful to have discovered this recording.

[Biffo]

Weber: Piano Concerto No 2 in E flat major - Ronald Brautigam fortepiano with Kölner Akademie conducted by Michael Alexander Willens

[The new erato]

A fine and interesting disc:

[vers la flamme]

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.5 in B-flat major, WAB 105. Bernard Haitink, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Man, what a performance... Currently the adagio plays, which is just beautiful and cosmic, fatalistic, even. A world class orchestra at the top of their game, under perhaps the greatest living conductor. I would love to have seen Haitink conduct before his retirement, alas... Very grateful to have discovered this recording.

Ahhh, that finale! That was the greatest performance of a Brucknerian finale I've ever heard!  _{(With the possible exception of the Celibidache/Munich 4th)}

[Maestro267]

Howell: Lamia
Karelia State PO/M. Stravinsky

Holbrooke: Variations on "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
Karelia State PO/M. Stravinsky

Bliss: Violin Concerto
Mordkovitch (violin)/BBC NOW/Hickox

[Brahmsian]

Ahhh, that finale! That was the greatest performance of a Brucknerian finale I've ever heard!  _{(With the possible exception of the Celibidache/Munich 4th)}

That's a great one (Celibidache 4th. The Celibidache schrezo and finale of the 5th is also quite spectacular.)

[Florestan]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty Suite, op.66a. Mstislav Rostropovich, Berlin Philharmonic

This is an excellent performance. The music is really just now clicking with me. Sometimes, I get to feeling like our Florestan, where all I want to hear is Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and the like. 

Duirng my Covid quarantine I experienced an unexpected burn-out on instrumental music. Even Schubert and Haydn kind of bored me --- which is highly unusual for me. The only composers whose instrumental music I still enjoyed were Mozart and Tchaikovsky --- if even their music would have left me cold I'd probably have thought there was something truly and badly amiss with my health.

Tchaikovsky is nobody's idea of difficult music, but still, I didn't always enjoy his music, and I'm happy that it's all beginning to make sense. By the way, the ballets are completely different from the symphonies (of which I only know the last three: I still need to track down a good recording of the first three).

Try this:

[Que]

[Todd]

[Florestan]

Sumi Jo's French diction is at times frustratingly unintelligible (reminded me of Elly Ameling's English) but her voice and coloratura are just fantastic. The highlight of this splendid disc is an aria by Felicien David in which Jo's voice blends admirably with a flute and a piccolo, a truly magical piece of vocal music.



Tchaikovsky nailed it with respect to Auber: Like all good composers of the French school, Auber stands out for the elegant clarity of his harmonization, an abundance of delightful and rhythmically striking melodies, sensible moderation in the use of outward effects, and for his beautiful instrumentation. [...] In his works he appears before us as the same smart, cheerful, intelligent and well-bred Frenchman that he was in real life.

All works on this disc are delightful but I was particularly impressed by the overture to Julie, ou l'erreur d'un moment, a charming and witty work scored for strings alone.

Both discs highly recommended.

[Florestan]

Lovely recording.

[steve ridgway]

Kagel - Die Stücke Der Windrose Für Salonorchester.

[Iota]

Weiss: Lute Sonatas
Jakob Lindberg


Silvius Weiss was a compatriot and almost exact contemporary of Bach, and although on the evidence of this disc he has none of JSB's harmonic adventurousness, these 'sonatas' (which were compiled by Lindberg from various sources) are a very pleasant listen, and given a rich and lingering execution by Lindberg on the other star of the show, the 1590 Sixtus Rauwolf lute.

[Irons]

Albéniz: Suite Espanola.

An arrangement for orchestra by the conductor on this recording Rafael Fruhbeck De Burgos of piano pieces composed by Albéniz. Eight pieces representing not so much places in Spain but more the type of music played in such locations. Austurias is worth the price of admission alone. Spain in a nutshell and it sounds fantastic. In a different way I enjoyed the sweeping Granada. Of the others Castilla, Aragon, Cadiz, Sevilla, Cataluna and Cordoba I have only visited Cadiz which remains strong in the memory as a very nice place with friendly people.

[Mirror Image]

Before heading off to work...

Takemitsu Nostalghia (Hope/Boughton)

[Todd]

The third of three recent-ish recordings of works for Violin and Piano by Enescu, and by some distance the best.  It ain't even close.  Though neither artist is Romanian, the color, the rhythmic flexibility, the vitality all seem from a different world than Germans or Hungarians can muster.  (Perhaps Kudritskaya's Ukraninian roots matter?)  Both artists play with very strongly individual artistic temperaments, and then merge together spectacularly well.  The pinnacle of the disc is Impressions d'enfance, Op. 28, which emerges as a towering masterpiece of 20th Century chamber music, blowing the Duo Bruggen-Plank take into the weeds.  This duo has recorded a couple other discs, including an all French music disc.  I  must hear it.

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

The third of three recent-ish recordings of works for Violin and Piano by Enescu, and by some distance the best.  It ain't even close.  Though neither artist is Romanian, the color, the rhythmic flexibility, the vitality all seem from a different world than Germans or Hungarians can muster.  (Perhaps Kudritskaya's Ukraninian roots matter?)  Both artists play with very strongly individual artistic temperaments, and then merge together spectacularly well.  The pinnacle of the disc is Impressions d'enfance, Op. 28, which emerges as a towering masterpiece of 20th Century chamber music, blowing the Duo Bruggen-Plank take into the weeds.  This duo has recorded a couple other discs, including an all French music disc.  I  must hear it.

Ohhhh, that is interestin'!  Thanks!