What are you listening 2 now?

[Tsaraslondon]

Félicien David's Le Désert was much admired by Berlioz, among others. It's Oreintalism, based on tunes that David captured on his tours in the middle east, probably sounds less excotic now than it did then, but there are moments of real inspiration, like the dawn sequence and song of the muezzin. This edition allows you to listen to the piece with or without the original recitation, and, though I listened to the latter once, it is to the former that I always return.

Well performed by Accentus and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris under Laurence Equilby. Of the two tenor soloits, Cyrille Dubois employs what John Steane one referred to as the squeeze box method of vocal production, which impedes legato but Zachary Wilder is very effective in the muezzin's song.

[vandermolen]

Holst: suite No.1 - an uplifting and inspiriting start to the day.

[Traverso]

Heinrich Isaac
Josquin
Senfl
Hofhaimer

CD 1

[Harry]

Bloch: Israel Symphony
Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov.
Arguably the most moving performance of this great work:

A pity though that the recorded sound is far from good, and there are even a few edit faults to be noticed.

[vers la flamme]

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68. Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The intermezzo third movement from this symphony was playing in my dream, so I had to listen to it first thing in the morning. Amazing performance.

[Harry]

Sieur de Sainte-Colombe.
Concerts a deux Violes Esgales, Volume I.
CD I.

Concerto No XXVII, Bourrasque. No, XXVIII, Le Raporte. No. XLI, Le Retour. No. XLIV, Tombeau Le Regrets. No. LIV, Dubois.

Wieland Kuijken & Jordi Savall, Bass-Viols.
SACD remastering, recorded in 1976.

Very well remastered I must say, a silent background, and two musicians keen to project the illustrious Sieur de Sainte Colombe.
They use fine 7 string Bass viols, which sound a bit grumpy and melancholy, but that is according to the composers wishes I guess. Not by all means easy fare, but extremely beautiful.

[vandermolen]

Shostakovich: Symphony No.8
Grand Symphony Orchestra of State Radio, cond. Alexander Gauk (1959 recording)
A powerful performance although the recording is rather muffled.

[vandermolen]

A pity though that the recorded sound is far from good, and there are even a few edit faults to be noticed.

On my 'low-fi' system I thought the sound was good Harry.

[Traverso]

Mahler

Symphony No.2

Nothing wrong with this recording,I'm not a Bernstein/Mahler fan and that's I think the reason that I can really enjoy these recordings.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

A good piece, I seem to recall

I found it to be enjoyable overall though (at least on first listening through), it didn't strike me as being particularly memorable shall we say?   

TD

From this set: 


CD1 Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in D minor, BWV 1052

[prémont]

SWEELINCK - thanks all for the comments (so far -  ) from my post - I was mistaken about the number of discs own; below I counted as only two w/o looking but the Cantiones Sacrae contains 2 CDs & the Secular Vocal Works has 3 CDs, so I really own 7 CDs of his works - is the 6 CD Glossa box of the keyboard works (shown in my previous post) worth pursuing?  A little pricey on Amazon USA (have not check my sources across the pond yet) but just used my AMEX card and expect some bonus $ will be added to my account - thanks again.  Dave

Maybe I'm not the right one to answer, since my philosophy as to Sweelinck's keyboard music is completism, so I have all the boxes and much more.

I find - like que - the Brilliant set a bit underwhelming. Berben is in my ears much too strict and serious. The Glossa box and the Dutch box are to be preferred. But there are many fine individual recordings, eg. Koopman's 4 CD set, Herrick 2 CDs, Uittenbosch, Leonhardt, Wilson to name a few.

[Mandryka]

Sieur de Sainte-Colombe.
Concerts a deux Violes Esgales, Volume I.
CD I.

Concerto No XXVII, Bourrasque. No, XXVIII, Le Raporte. No. XLI, Le Retour. No. XLIV, Tombeau Le Regrets. No. LIV, Dubois.

Wieland Kuijken & Jordi Savall, Bass-Viols.
SACD remastering, recorded in 1976.

Very well remastered I must say, a silent background, and two musicians keen to project the illustrious Sieur de Sainte Colombe.
They use fine 7 string Bass viols, which sound a bit grumpy and melancholy, but that is according to the composers wishes I guess. Not by all means easy fare, but extremely beautiful.

Vol 2 is a favourite of mine, this one less so. Music for a hot summer's day (so not till next year.)

[Madiel]

Various bits of Bartok's smaller-scale work.

So far, a Sonatina for piano, and Romanian Folk Dances, and Romanian Christmas Carols, all as played by Kocsis.  Truth be told, I don't find this side of Bartok - where he's being ethnographic or educational or both - to be all that interesting, at least not at this point in his career (I'm doing the chronological thing again). Packing 20 carols into just over 10 minutes doesn't feel like a listening experience.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Various bits of Bartok's smaller-scale work.

So far, a Sonatina for piano, and Romanian Folk Dances, and Romanian Christmas Carols, all as played by Kocsis.  Truth be told, I don't find this side of Bartok - where he's being ethnographic or educational or both - to be all that interesting, at least not at this point in his career (I'm doing the chronological thing again). Packing 20 carols into just over 10 minutes doesn't feel like a listening experience.

20 carols in 10+ minutes?!     That sounds quite bizarre.  I would have thought that they would have lasted much longer?  Differences perhaps in cultures?  No second, third verses, etc.?

TD

Concertos Nos. BWV 1053 and 1054 again from that Bach Concertos box set with Pinnock and the English Concert of Archiv Prod. Nice way to start the morning.

PD

[Madiel]

20 carols in 10+ minutes?!     That sounds quite bizarre.  I would have thought that they would have lasted much longer?  Differences perhaps in cultures?  No second, third verses, etc.?

The original songs might well have lots of verses, but we're talking about Bartok's shaping of them into a piano piece, not a song.

[Madiel]

Late Debussy

Berceuse heroique
Page d'Album

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The original songs might well have lots of verses, but we're talking about Bartok's shaping of them into a piano piece, not a song.

Ah, of course!  That makes more sense.  Still they seem to have rather short timings though.

PD

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton SY2. Bryden Thomson/LPO.

[Harry]

Igor Stravinsky.

Jeu de Cartes, A ballet.
Orpheus, a Ballet.
Histoire du Soldat.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra & Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi.

This fine recording made in 1986, (Jeu de Cartes, and Orpheus) performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the best I heard so far, in sound and interpretation. It has finesse and a expression that lies beyond what I thought possible. Great indeed. Histoire du Soldat gets a thorough workout with the Scotts, in an equally fine recording from 1991. One of the CD"s from the big Jarvi box I will treasure, a pity there was never a SACD release, which would be deserved in my opinion.

[Harry]

William Walton SY2. Bryden Thomson/LPO.

A fine recording indeed. Still looking for that box Chandos release some years ago, with all the works by Walton.