What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Atlanta Symphony has announced their new music director, French conductor/contralto Nathalie Stutzmann. Stutzmann will officially begin her role with the ASO in the spring of 2022. It was time for a change as Robert Spano had been ASO's MD for 20 years, and I think is a good decision for the orchestra, and hope that Stutzmann finds great success! I found a video of Stutzmann conducting Tchaikovsky 5th on YouTube which I found exciting and liked her interpretation, but mostly found her vocal work streaming online, so I chose this disc to listen to...

Strangely enough, it was only earlier today that I even found out that Stutzmann was a conductor! I know her as a singer from the Hyperion series of Vivaldi sacred works.

Maybe this announcement was the reason they were playing one of her performances on the classical radio here - apparently it was something that she was conducting and singing, which is quite a feat.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Strangely enough, it was only earlier today that I even found out that Stutzmann was a conductor! I know her as a singer from the Hyperion series of Vivaldi sacred works.

Maybe this announcement was the reason they were playing one of her performances on the classical radio here - apparently it was something that she was conducting and singing, which is quite a feat.

I believe that I have a few of her recordings (in complete operas or scenes from).  I went to her website and found some videos of her--including one of Handel in which she's doing both the conducting and singing.  Here:  https://nathaliestutzmann.com/videos/

Beautiful!

PD

p.s.  Tried to embed a video but didn't work...probably because I got rid of Flash! 

[Roasted Swan]

I had a look at the Tchiak 5 video - technically she's clear and precise - which as an orchestral player I like even before a jot of "interpreting" is done.  The only thing I find curious - and this is nothing to do with gender - is how a singer is able to be deeply familiar with the bulk of orchestral repertoire.  I don't know Stutzmann's background to know if she was an instrumentalist before she became known as a singer, but if not its a very steep learning curve for her because the bottom line is most of the people she will be conducting will know the music better than her.

[Traverso]

Josquin Desprez

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I had a look at the Tchiak 5 video - technically she's clear and precise - which as an orchestral player I like even before a jot of "interpreting" is done.  The only thing I find curious - and this is nothing to do with gender - is how a singer is able to be deeply familiar with the bulk of orchestral repertoire.  I don't know Stutzmann's background to know if she was an instrumentalist before she became known as a singer, but if not its a very steep learning curve for her because the bottom line is most of the people she will be conducting will know the music better than her.

There's a video here of her being interviewed about her career which might help shed a little light on your questions.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKdUnb16pGU

PD

[prémont]

Susanne Ansorg  has a voice very suitable for this type of music.Everything sounds effortless and involved,I like it very much.The instrumental pieces are also first class.

The singer on this recording is Lena Susanne Norin.
Susanne Ansorg plays fiddle and rebec. From the top of my head I don't recall her singing on any recordings.

[Karl Henning]

Tansman
Symphonie concertante (Symphony № 3) (1931)
for pf quartet & orch
À sa Majesté Elisabeth, Reine des Belges
Wilma Smith, vn
Katharine Brockman, va
David Berlin, vc
Caroline Almonte, pf
Melbourne Symphony
Caetani

[vers la flamme]

I'm not familiar with Ms. Stutzmann's work, either as a vocalist or conductor (I didn't even know she was a conductor until I heard the announcement the other day) but it is always a pleasure to hear about woman conductor finding success. Looking forward to seeing what she'll do with our ASO. I wasn't particularly interested in seeing Tchaikovsky's 5th which she conducted here this past week, but I'll have to catch some of her performances.

Anyway, here is what I'm listening to this morning:



Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.9 in D minor, WAB 109. Günter Wand, NDR-Sinfonieorchester, live recording from Lübeck Cathedral

Wand is one of a school of "patient" Brucknerian conductors (mostly Germans) who let the music speak for itself. Early in my exploration of Bruckner I was talked out of buying the Wand/Köln Bruckner cycle in favor of the Barenboim/Berlin, a decision I do not regret in the slightest, but as a result I have not spent much time with Wand's recordings. This recording is brilliant, though. It all comes together like a flowing river. Interpretively they are not similar by any means, but I am reminded somehow, in feeling, of the Celibidache Bruckner 4th. Phenomenal orchestral sound from the Hamburg orchestra in Lübeck, the idyllic, Hanseatic hometown of Thomas Mann. Need to hear the Wand/NDR Bruckner 8th at the same cathedral.

[Madiel]

I believe that I have a few of her recordings (in complete operas or scenes from).  I went to her website and found some videos of her--including one of Handel in which she's doing both the conducting and singing.  Here:  https://nathaliestutzmann.com/videos/

Beautiful!

PD

p.s.  Tried to embed a video but didn't work...probably because I got rid of Flash! 

Okay, that Handel aria is gorgeous!

[Traverso]

The singer on this recording is Lena Susanne Norin.
Susanne Ansorg plays fiddle and rebec. From the top of my head I don't recall her singing on any recordings.

Very clumsy, you're right, didn't pay attention! 

[Todd]

Op 31.

[71 dB]

Symphony 1 'War' features (with a much less interesting cover image) in this enjoyable 2 CD set:

That cover art is chaotic. Especially the red color of the "meet the composer" works poorly with the overall green-blue-orange color theme. I re-designed the cover into something more orderly and controlled:

[Iota]

It's a work that I have increasingly come to appreciate.

It's growing on me too. 

Triste Plaisir


A beautiful recording

Thanks for posting, a beautiful recording indeed! My interest is always aroused when I see Lena Susanne Norin involved, ever since I got fairly hooked on her Figures of Harmony recording with Crawford Young. There's a spellbinding tranquillity about her voice, yet it's always full of nuance and feeling. The instrumental playing on the disc is quite something too.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

HINDEMITH, P.: Nobilissima Visione (Complete Ballet Music.)

[vandermolen]

André,

How did you like that album?  What did you think of the violin concerto in particular?
Love that LP cover!
Good to see more women getting appointed as music directors.    I haven't heard any recordings/concerts with her conducting before, but am looking forward to it.

PD

Re: LP cover PD - all those Thomson VW symphony recordings feature paintings by J.M.W. Turner - I think they go well with the music.

[vandermolen]

Le Mort de Tintagiles by Loeffler, from this great CD:

[Mandryka]

The singer on this recording is Lena Susanne Norin.
Susanne Ansorg plays fiddle and rebec. From the top of my head I don't recall her singing on any recordings.

A couple of recordings with the lute player Peter Soederberg. This is lovely -- it's very much Que's sort of thing I think



As is this

[Mirror Image]

Bernstein: Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety"


Not being in the mood for much musically today, this arrived at the eleventh hour, with a kaleidoscopic array of timbres, melodies and moods, and saved the day. Much appreciated and enjoyed.

A fantastic work! I love this performance, too. Have you heard the Zimerman/Rattle performance on DG? It's a must-hear!

[aligreto]

Faure: Piano Quartet No. 1 [Nash Ensemble]





The opening movement is wonderfully lyrical and expansive and moves along at pace but never feels that it is in a hurry. There is also wonderful tension and drama here too. It is an exciting presentation. The Scherzo is taken at quite a pace but not at a breakneck speed. It is light in texture and it simply glides along swiftly. The extended opening to the slow movement, by way of supreme contrast, is elegiac in proportion. The pace and tone both pick up a little as the movement progresses and I like the way that the music expands as a result. Normal service, as before, is resumed in the final movement which is buoyant and exciting in its delivery.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Shostakovich
The Age of Gold Suite, Op. 22a
Gothenburg SO
Järvi