What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Penderecki
Double Concerto for Violin and Viola
Bartłomiej Niziol (violin), Katarzyna Budnik (viola)
Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Penderecki

[vers la flamme]

Igor Stravinsky: Mass. James O'Donnell, Westminster Cathedral Choir, City of London Sinfonia

Wow, I love this recording. Mostly for the Symphony, but the Mass is growing on me. (The Canticum is still a challenge.)

[vers la flamme]

Charles Villiers Stanford: Songs of the Fleet, op.117. Benjamin Luxon, Norman Del Mar, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

I'm more of a sucker for this echt-Edwardian, late Romantic music than I expected to be—still find it a bit pompous, but there's more sensitivity than you might expect.

[Mirror Image]

Igor Stravinsky: Mass. James O'Donnell, Westminster Cathedral Choir, City of London Sinfonia

Wow, I love this recording. Mostly for the Symphony, but the Mass is growing on me. (The Canticum is still a challenge.)

Pounds the table! A desert island Stravinsky recording for me. All of the works on this recording are outstanding.

[Klavier1]

Excellent playing, and the sound is good until it gets distorted by the FF passages in "Gaspard de la nuit." Scriabin's 5th Sonata is better in that regard (I guess the engineer was better prepared for her dynamic range!) and the opening set of Scarlatti has no distortion.

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Tuesday

Mascagni
L'amico Fritz
Mirella Freni (soprano), Malvina Major (soprano), Vicente Sardinero (baritone), Luigi Pontiggia (tenor), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Laura Didier Gambardella (mezzo-soprano), Benito Di Bella (baritone)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Gianandrea Gavazzeni

[Karl Henning]

Igor Stravinsky: Mass. James O'Donnell, Westminster Cathedral Choir, City of London Sinfonia

Wow, I love this recording. Mostly for the Symphony, but the Mass is growing on me. (The Canticum is still a challenge.)

Fabulous disc!

[listener]

Feldbæk

Do you know her recording of The  AoF?

Not at all,  is that a recommendation?

[Mirror Image]

I finished Act I of Mascagni's L'amico Fritz, but that's all the opera I want to listen to tonight...

NP:

Korngold
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Bournemouth SO
Kirill Karabits



Korngold's father died the same year this concerto was premiered (1945) and even though his father died many months after the premiere, I believe it represents, especially in the first and second movements an emotional release of sorts. His father was a famous critic and was, on many occasions, especially in his old age, rather verbally abusive to Erich and since he and his wife took care of his father later in life, he was "stuck" with him. I would never doubt that Erich loved his father, but it seems the works following 1945 showed the composer removed of these emotional shackles and free to finally express himself. You really hear it in works like the Symphonic Serenade in B-flat major, Op. 39 and the Symphony in F-sharp, Op. 40. Anyway, I just thought I would point this out to anyone that would be interested.

[Que]

On Spotify:



http://www.medieval.org/music/early/cdc/lin644.html

[Irons]

Beethoven - Symphony No.4 (Celibidache / Munich Phil.)

A mesmerising conductor who unfortunately for us didn't like the recording studio. 

[Irons]

Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel with John Shirley-Quirk on a mono Saga LP.

What a voice!  Love it!

As as aside, looking again at the cover, it looks like he was quite young when he sang them--maybe twenties or early thirties (hard for me to tell).

Now on Side Two. 

PD

Pretty sure his first recording, PD.

[vandermolen]

Honegger: Symphony No.2
I'm looking forward to hearing the Lazarof works as well:

[Harry]

Johann Gottfried Walther,

Complete Organ Music.
CD X.
Chorale settings IX.

Simone Stella plays on a Francesco Zanin organ 2006.
Pitch: A=440 Hz.
Unequal temperament.

[Mandryka]

"Susanna Un gioir" ( Orlando di lasso) is one of the most attractive pieces from this eleven-part CD box set with works by Hassler.
Really enjoyable . 

Revisiting Susanna un gioir today, and I'm not enjoying it at all for this reason: there's no relief. Same colour, same texture throughout, same energy level. So no, today I am a grouch. It seems to me a superficial run through of a performance.

[Harry]

Revisiting Susanna un gioir today, and I'm not enjoying it at all for this reason: there's no relief. Same colour, same texture throughout, same energy level. So no, today I am a grouch. It seems to me a superficial run through a performance.

I think you are right, throughout this set the energy level is high. He doesn't seem to relax very often. I got a feeling of fatigue after listening to CD 2 of this set. So I took some Hassler out of my collection, and sure enough I found where the problem lies. Never the less, the box is of prime importance to me.

[Mandryka]

I think you are right, throughout this set the energy level is high. He doesn't seem to relax very often. I got a feeling of fatigue after listening to CD 2 of this set. So I took some Hassler out of my collection, and sure enough I found where the problem lies. Never the less, the box is of prime importance to me.

Yes I'm listening to Franz Raml's Hassler CD and . . . that's better! Much better.

[Harry]

Yes I'm listening to Franz Rail's Hassler CD and . . . that's better! Much better.

Agreed!

[aligreto]

JS Bach: Complete Organ Works [Foccroulle] CD 16





This CD comprises Triosonaten BWV 527, 528 & 530 and also eight kleine Präludien und Fugen played on the Holzay organ of the Neresheim Abbey and the Thomas organ of L'Abbaye de Leffe.

[Que]

Revisiting Susanna un gioir today, and I'm not enjoying it at all for this reason: there's no relief. Same colour, same texture throughout, same energy level. So no, today I am a grouch. It seems to me a superficial run through of a performance.

I agree. I like set up and style, I like the voice, but it seems there is the same emotion/feel for every song with no connection to the text...

My apologies to resident fans!