What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

Now playing Act I from this set:

Wagner
Tristan und Isolde
Yvonne Minton (mezzo-soprano), Bernd Weikl (baritone), Chandler Goetting (wooden trumpet), Marie-Lise Schüpbach (cor anglais), Hildegard Behrens (soprano), Heribert Steinbach (tenor), Hans Sotin (bass), Raimund Grumbach (bass), Thomas Moser (tenor), Peter Hofmann (tenor), Heinz Zednik (tenor)
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Leonard Bernstein

[T. D.]

First listen to new arrivals. Never heard the Hindemith sonatas before.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92
Berliners
HvK

[Daverz]

Falla: Noches en los jardines de España - Clara Haskil, Igor Markevitch



Also in the new Eloquence Markvitch Philips Legacy box.  It's as if my Grandma T was one of the great pianists of the 20th Century (Jewish ladies of the same generation and from the same part of the world).

[André]

His Bloch 'Sacred Service' is also my favourite of the many recordings that I have. The idiom is not that different from Vaughan Williams's choral music.

I have that disc but haven't listened to it yet. Coming up shortly...

[André]

Selim Palmgren: Piano Concerto No.2 'The River' (1912)
I'd forgotten what a warm-hearted, lyrical and approachable work this is:

Selim Palmgren: Piano Concerto No.2 'The River' (1912)
I'd forgotten what a warm-hearted, lyrical and approachable work this is:

Palmgren is a real find among finnish composers. I have this 2-disc set from that excellent Finlandia 'Meet the Composer' series :

[André]

Another got this fascinating program of Yun compositions:



The 5th quartet is a masterpiece. The Pièce concertante and the Nelly Sachs lieder, too, are amazing.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Penderecki
Violin Sonata No. 2
Ida Bieler (violin), Nina Tichmann (piano)

[JBS]

Inspired by JBS's earlier posting, I'm listening to that Opera d'Oro recording of Il Trovatore.  Really enjoying it!  Paused momentarily at the end of Part II, scene 1.  Manrico has just had an argument with his mother Azucena saying that he's heard that Leonora is preparing to take her vows at a convent (believing that he was dead) and so must rush off to stop her.  Azucena entreating him not to go.

PD

Thank you!
TD


I have the BIS recording of Distant Light, but Viatore and Stimmen are totally knew to me.

[Mirror Image]

Thank you!
TD


I have the BIS recording of Distant Light, but Viatore and Stimmen are totally knew to me.

Just for clarification: you own one of the recordings of Distant Light on BIS. There are two of them. Here's the other one:



This is the one I own and it's a gorgeous recording.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Great cover art!

Yes I like the art too. The music, as well as the Naxos recording of the same work, is very likable.

[Madiel]

Haydn Symphony no.75, which I didn't get to yesterday.

The opening movement has fantastic zing.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Pettersson
Symphony No. 11
Radio-Philharmonie Hannover des NDR
Alun Francis

[Symphonic Addict]

On a bit of an Atterberg journey again.


Symphonies #2 and #5

Two of my favorites.

[Symphonic Addict]

Francisco Mignone, Maracatu de Chico Rei.

Good stuff!

[JBS]

My Handel Op. 6 conundrum is as follows: the OCO certainly play them well, the music itself is all right. Somehow, I dragged my heels to finish listening to the set of 12 (in fact, I haven't yet listened to the b minor, which opens the next disc in the box.

I am listening to the first CD of the Handel (that is, Op 6 numbers 1-6) and I think I see the difficulty. Although recorded in 1993-4, it has the "must be polished and elegant" approach that characterized a lot of Baroque recordings in the 60s and 70s.  And of course it's on modern instruments.
We are used to HIP and this Orpheus recording is definitely not HIP.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Berlioz
Les nuits d'été, Op. 7
Véronique Gens, soprano
Opéra National de Lyon
Louis Langrée



Here's why a soprano can sing this song cycle:

For the orchestral version, Berlioz transposed the second and third songs to lower keys. When this version was published, Berlioz specified different voices for the various songs: mezzo-soprano or tenor for "Villanelle", contralto for "Le spectre de la rose", baritone (or optionally contralto or mezzo) for "Sur les lagunes", mezzo or tenor for "Absence", tenor for "Au cimetière", and mezzo or tenor for "L'île inconnue". The cycle is nevertheless usually sung by a single soloist, most often a soprano or mezzo-soprano. When the cycle is sung by sopranos the second and third songs are usually transposed back to their original pitches; when lower voices sing the cycle some other songs are often transposed downwards; in the view of the Berlioz scholar Julian Rushton this has a particularly deleterious effect in the first song, the lighthearted "Villanelle".

[T. D.]

[Mirror Image]

Cool! I may join you in Kakadu and Mangrove, but first this:

Gubaidulina
Viola Concerto
Yuri Bashmet, viola
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Gergiev

[Madiel]

Dvorak symphony no.1 again, Neumann's earlier version.