What are you listening 2 now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Oh dear! You are a bad influence Harry - I sampled Symphony No.3 on You Tube. It sounds like a fine crash-bang-wallop symphony - just my cup of tea. I shall have to investigate further.

lol 

So, should we refer to you then as ["Mr." Optional?] "CBW"?

PD

[prémont]

Leaper is a fine Nielsen interpreter, no doubt about it. I based my opinion on the first and sixth symphony, in which I missed the raw side of Nielsen, and that's probably what I miss in the Leaper interpretations.

I only know Leaper's "Espansiva", and I think that he - like Bostock - tends to underline the lyrical aspect of the music, an approach I find very relevant for the work in question.

[Harry]

New arrival.

Musique and Sweet Poetrie.
Jewels from Europe around 1600.
Compositions by:
Robert Johnson, Thomas Morley, Gregory Huwet, John Downland, Giovanni Kapsperger, Georg Schimmelpfennig, Heinrich Schutz, Michelangelo Galilei, Sigismondo D'India, Robert Ballard, Pierre Guedron, Jean Baptiste Boesset, Etienne Moulinie, Wojciech Dtugoral, John Danyel.

Emma Kirkby, Soprano.
Jakob Lindberg, plays on a Sixtus Rauwolf Lute, Augsburg c. 1590.

I somehow missed this CD, when it was released in 2006. Emma Kirkby is by far my favorite soprano, always was always will be. I have quite some recordings with her, and bought all that was available, but alas her voice has let her down in age, so the last recordings, let say after 2010, I did not buy. This BIS recording however is a dream, and one that lets me dream of things past. Many years ago I met her, when on a concert in my birthplace, and we had some pleasant hours together, sipping a delicious white wine, and I telling her what a joy she has been to me, throughout my life, giving joy in listening to her voice.
Lindberg is as it happens also my favourite lutenist, so all is well. SACD sound, crystal clear, in a pleasant ambiance.

[Traverso]

Mozart

Symphony No.41

Especially the last bars of this symphony are overwhelming. As a listener, "I mean myself" I am struck every time by the liberating force that is contained in this music.

[Harry]

I only know Leaper's "Espansiva", and I think that he - like Bostock - tends to underline the lyrical aspect of the music, an approach I find very relevant for the work in question.

I would agree with you in this, but think that Bostock puts more energy in his interpretations. But do not think I regard Leapers's take, less,, just different. Afterall I keep them in my collection

[JBS]

New Arrival, came in today.
New release, the first of many to come I hope

Grazyna Bacewicz.
Symphony No.3 & 4.
WDR Sinfonieorchester, Lukasz Borowicz.

O, the Dickens!, this is so good, I must have been ear deaf for disregarding her music for so long. (Note to Jeffrey and JBS) you will most probably fall for this music, plenty of opportunities to sample I think.
Explain what I hear is for now to complicated for me, that will come in time.
What I can say is this, very good performance and excellent sound.

Another one to put on the list...I have some of her chamber music, which was good but not enough to get me enthused about her.
But there's always more to explore...

[Papy Oli]

Oh dear! You are a bad influence Harry - I sampled Symphony No.3 on You Tube. It sounds like a fine crash-bang-wallop symphony - just my cup of tea. I shall have to investigate further.

Is it craggy though ? 

[Operafreak]

 Bruckner: Symphony No. 1 in C minor- Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim

[vandermolen]

Is it craggy though ? 

I'm not sure yet, but there might be some looming sense of impending catastrophe

[vandermolen]

David Diamond 'The Enormous Room'
One of Diamond's most beautiful orchestral works:

[Traverso]

Bartók

I'll stay with Ferenc Fricsay with these piano concertos one of the many excellent recordings in this box.

[Todd]

Some HIP Debussy.  While I am not too wild about period keyboards from the first three quarters of the 19th Century or before (though I do fancy the best of them), I have something of a weak spot for modern grands from the first couple decades of the last century.  Steinways and Bechsteins (as here), in particular, sometimes sound almost magical to my ears.  Why that should be, I have no idea.  And Debussy just seems like the ideal composer for such instruments.  When I spied this release, I was interested for works and artist, not instrument, so the 1900 Bechstein is just icing in the cake.

Véronique Bonnecaze is, I am pretty sure, new to my collection.  (I should probably be worried that I do not know for sure without scrubbing my entire collection.)  On the evidence of this recording, she's got chops.  And the right ear for the right instrument with the right repertoire.  She starts things off with a slow Clair de lune, though it never drags, and the decay of the piano adds a little something.  Next, she moves to L'Isle Joyeuse and dispatches it with at times glittering, bright playing, with the sustain pedal at times blurring music into an amorphous delight.  And that Bechstein really shines in the upper registers, bursting with color.  The second set of Images follows, and each piece is nicely characterized, with the close sound accentuating some individual notes in a most appealing way.  Indeed, the combo of instrument, music, and recording technique ends up sucking the listener into a detail oriented listening session.

The main attraction is of course the first book of Préludes.  One can never have too many recordings.  The only music I have collected more versions of is the New Testament.  Bonnecaze delivers a fine performance.  Listening here becomes even more detail oriented, and one is rewarded with color and a good amount of clarity where appropriate, and mystery where needed.  True, Le Vent dans la plaine and even more so Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest lack maximum oomph in the ff playing – Bonnecaze never thunders like Zimerman – but the tonal variation of the instrument really focuses attention.  While upper registers sound bright, and lower registers a bit flat and dull and less powerful than on modern grands, the middle registers often sound most prominent.  And by often, I mean always.  That leads to some intriguing effects, not least in La Cathédrale engloutie, where the tolling bass notes sound woody and the right-hand playing can swell over it.  She paces the critical piece nicely indeed.  Each piece ends up distinct and distinctive.  Nice.

La plus que lente serves as a punchy little encore, starting slowly, with the pianist lilting and wandering and then accelerating and punching out notes in a an almost drunken manner.  The closest analog in my listening experience is Russell Sherman's final movement in Beethoven's Op 31/1.

So, a very nice Debussy recital overall, and one that makes me think I should probably expand my exposure to Bonnecaze's discography.

Recorded sound is close and clear and offers up details.  It also offers up either low-level analog hiss or pervasive low-level room noise that sounds like hiss.  Or perhaps some low-level electronic noise that mimics hiss.  That would be the first time that has popped up on a recording.

[Klavierman]

New Arrival, came in today.
New release, the first of many to come I hope

Grazyna Bacewicz.
Symphony No.3 & 4.
WDR Sinfonieorchester, Lukasz Borowicz.

O, the Dickens!, this is so good, I must have been ear deaf for disregarding her music for so long. (Note to Jeffrey and JBS) you will most probably fall for this music, plenty of opportunities to sample I think.
Explain what I hear is for now to complicated for me, that will come in time.
What I can say is this, very good performance and excellent sound.

Where did you buy it? I'm not having any luck finding it.

[Harry]

Where did you buy it? I'm not having any luck finding it.

I was just released. I got it from JPC de, and I think Amazon has it too.

[Klavierman]

I was just released. I got it from JPC de, and I think Amazon has it too.

Thanks. Hmmm...neither came up in my search. Amazon US doesn't have it--might take a while to hit our shores.

[Que]

This morning:



And presently something entirely different:

[Harry]

Thanks. Hmmm...neither came up in my search. Amazon US doesn't have it--might take a while to hit our shores.

Yes that could be. It's out only for 4 days.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Bartók

I'll stay with Ferenc Fricsay with these piano concertos one of the many excellent recordings in this box.

I love those Bartok p.c. recordings!

And I bet that that set is excellent too.

PD

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D Minor and finale 1984 Finale Realization by Samale and Mazzuca - Early Draft 1984 USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

[jlopes]