What are you listening 2 now?

[Operafreak]

Offenbach: Overtures- Orchestre National de Lille, Darrell Ang

[Papy Oli]

Boccherini: Quintette en Ut Mineur, Op. 31 / 4 G. 328
(Banchini, Ensemble 415)

[Roasted Swan]

I'm sure that you won't regret it. The CD featuring the Fourth Symphony is one of my favourite Chandos releases of recent years (Lyatoshynsky's 3rd Symphony and Grazhyna comes to mind as well). Decades ago I saw Ruth Gipps conduct without realising who she was. The music is not revolutionary but moves at a high level of inspiration and is both moving and memorable in my experience. 'Harry' of this forum is another big fan.

If I've told this story before apologies - as a student violinist I played a couple of times for the "London Rehearsal Orchestra" of which Gipps was the indefatigable conductor and driving force - this would have been around 1980.  In the arrogance of youth I thought her little more than a rather eccentric "old person".  One of those classic moments looking back you wish you'd taken a couple of minutes to realise the stature and significance of someone.  Think of the conversations or questions I could have asked - I remember her as being very personable and unaffected.

[Lisztianwagner]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Capriccio Italien

[aligreto]

Portuguese Polyphony [Holten]:





Fonseca: Beata viscera - This is a fine work. I particularly like the harmonies which are well executed here.

Trosylho: Circumdederunt me - This is a new composer to me. This is a very short work but I like what I have heard.

Escobar: Clamabat autem mulier - I find this to be a fine work from a composer hitherto unknown to me. I like the counterpoint in the scoring.

[Que]

Boccherini: Quintette en Ut Mineur, Op. 31 / 4 G. 328
(Banchini, Ensemble 415)

Such a nice recording. You surely know how to pick them! 

[vandermolen]

If I've told this story before apologies - as a student violinist I played a couple of times for the "London Rehearsal Orchestra" of which Gipps was the indefatigable conductor and driving force - this would have been around 1980.  In the arrogance of youth I thought her little more than a rather eccentric "old person".  One of those classic moments looking back you wish you'd taken a couple of minutes to realise the stature and significance of someone.  Think of the conversations or questions I could have asked - I remember her as being very personable and unaffected.

Nice story.

[Traverso]

Flower of Chivalry

The Hilliard Ensemble

Chivalry is always welcome......

[vers la flamme]

Gavriil Popov: Symphony No.6, op.99, the "Festive". Edvard Chivzhel, USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra

[Operafreak]

Mozart 'The Weber Sisters'

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)-Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon

[Iota]

Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No.8 in B-flat major, op.84. Sviatoslav Richter

Been almost two years since I've heard this excellent performance. In fact, I've hardly spent any time at all with Richter's performances these past couple years. I need to hear the rest of Prokofiev's piano sonatas. I only know 6, 7 & 8.

A venture I'd wholeheartedly recommend. Endlessly rich pickings imo.


Here:



Monteverdi, Vespro della Beata Vergine
La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion

A bejewelled, revelatory recording whose impact on me is enormous. The sheer energy and lustre of the full-throated ensembles is truly a glorious thing, individually singers are superb,  and there's a Moor-ish almost untamed feeling to some of the singing. The whole thing has that rare feeling of a familiar work being born for the first time. Glowing, inspiring stuff.

[Traverso]

Mozart 'The Weber Sisters'

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)-Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon

A refreshing recording.I like it. 

[Papy Oli]

Such a nice recording. You surely know how to pick them! 

I get just quality recommendations from fellow members  0:)

Ensemble 415 is just one of those that always seem to hit the spot, whichever the composer.   

[Papy Oli]

Tubin - Symphony No.1 (Jarvi)

[Traverso]

Organ Music Before Bach

A fine recording to say the least.

[Harry]

Stefano Bernardi.

Motetti in Cantilena.
Con Alcune Canzoni per Sonare con ogni sorte di Stromenti, con Basso per L'Organo Opera Quinta, Venezia, Giacomo Vincenti, 1613.

Ensemble Cantimbanco, Roberto Balconi.
World Premiere Recording.


To me Bernardi is a very important composer. His music is very approachable, and well balanced. This ensemble led by Balconi, makes sure that the voices are individually fitted into the right context. Diction is clear too. Some of the Female voices are at times a bit wobbly and unfocused, but in the greater picture its hardly a problem. Sound is okay.

[Todd]

Josef Krips in Israel.  Krips is one my favorite Mozarteans, and this Jupiter (and every) recording reminds me why.  Krips is not a speed demon, taking his time with relaxed tempi, nice dollops of vibrato, and a perfect flow.  Every movement gets the treatment, much like Karajan applies the same approach to everything, and the results here sound so right.  Nice, so very nice.

[Biffo]

Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
                            Sinfonia antartica

Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin with Women of the Philharmonia Chorus and Linda Hohenfeld soprano

[Traverso]

Louis Couperin


A very attractive recording

[Florestan]

This is is a very good disc which offers a different facet of Albeniz than the one which he is usually known for. The sonatas, although romantic (small r intentionally) in content, are poised and restrained: no sweeping emotional outbursts, no pyrotechnics and bravura, no strong dynamic contrasts or abrupt mood shifts. On the contrary, the overall atmosphere is one of calm and serenity. Soul there is a plenty in this music but a tranquil and delicate one: Mozart and Chopin, rather than Schumann or Liszt.

If the sonatas show Albeniz at his most classical, the two Suites anciennes present his most Baroque-ish face. While still recognizably romantic music in its melodic and harmonic twists and turns and overall feeling, ithey are heavily informed by the spirit of Bach and Scarlatti, two of Albeniz's favorite composers.

Superb music in both cases, delivered with grace and feeling by Sebastian Stanley. Informative albeit rather abrubtly cut liner notes by the Albeniz specialist Walter Aaron Clark. A corker of a recording.