What are you listening 2 now?

[steve ridgway]

Messiaen: La Fauvette Des Jardins

[Bachtoven]

[Que]

This recording has been around for a while, but I avoided Franco-Flemish repertoire by the Orlando Consort.
Despite the raving reviews: this is a pretty good recording but doesn't give me the wow factor.  The countertenor is a "prominent" issue here, not an ugly voice at all but dominating and sticking out like a sore thumb. And I don't say this often, but the tempi are - particularly in the songs - too fast: they are churned out in an almost mechanical way with little feel for the texts. Those who have heard the Blue Heron recordings of the songs by Johannes Ockeghem, Busnois' contemporary, know what I'm looking for. The mass fares best of all.

[AnotherSpin]

D.959

[Que]

Domenico Cerasani did a wonderful recording with lute music by Francis Cutting. And I am actually eagerly waiting for the appearance streaming of his new recording dedicated to Giovanni Maria da Crema. That hasn't happened yet... but I came accross this recording of the Raimondo manuscript:

Pietro Paolo Raimondo was a nobleman of Como and a musician of accomplishment who began in 1601 to compile a manuscript of pieces that came his way. He probably copied them out – or had them copied – for the purpose of playing them himself, but the manuscript now provides a significant record of pieces that would otherwise be lost, many of them by authors now unknown to us. Among the 69 pieces there are anonymously authored dances but also fantasias by Francesco da Milano and Lorenzino del Liuto, and intabulations of vocal works such as the famous Vestiva i colli and Susanne une jour.

As can be expected the quality of the music varies. Sensitive playing.

[vandermolen]

Quite marvellous English late-Romanticism. Grey Galloway and The Demon Lover contain splendid music, whilst Coronach is mildly less engrossing.

Totally agree Cesar - I think very highly of 'Grey Galloway'. There's another fine Chandos CD featuring the Solway Symphony.

[vandermolen]

Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50, Rafael Kubelik, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sibelius Luonnotar, op.70 (Gwyneth Jones- soprano),  Night-ride and Sunrise, op.55 and The Oceanides, op.73 Antal Dorati London Symphony Orchestra

That's a fine recording of Nielsen'S 5th Symphony and my favourite version of Luonnotar.

[classicalgeek]

Shostakovich
Symphony no. 5
Symphony no. 6
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Rudolf Barshai
(on CD)



First-rate performances, especially the Sixth.

[Florestan]

D.959 Op. 106

Fixed. 

[VonStupp]

Frederick Delius
Cynara

John Shirley-Quirk, baritone
RLPO - Sir Charles Groves

Roderick Williams, baritone
Halle - Sir Mark Elder

Was going to just listen to Halle, but couldn't resist the lure of JS-Q in this music.
VS

[Todd]

[AnotherSpin]

Op. 106 (rec. 1985)

[AnotherSpin]

Op. 106 (rec. 2008)

[Mandryka]

This recording has been around for a while, but I avoided Franco-Flemish repertoire  The countertenor is a "prominent" issue here, not an ugly voice at all but dominating and sticking out like a sore thumb.

Reframe it.  The countertenor is the voice of a putto. I think it's well balanced, or at least it sounds well balanced now on my big ESL system. But  it's true that there's a tendency for the ear to be drawn to higher voices. Blue Heron are way too smooth and polished for me. Hollywood style renaissance polyphony.

[Que]

Reframe it.  The countertenor is the voice of a putto. I think it's well balanced, or at least it sounds well balanced now on my big ESL system. But  it's true that there's a tendency for the ear to be drawn to higher voices. Blue Heron are way too smooth and polished for me. Hollywood style renaissance polyphony.

I don't think putting actual meaning to the words is polish. Besides that: nothing new here - we like the same music in very different ways.... 

[Bachtoven]

This is an interesting new release. I've never heard Julián Orbón's Partita No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra and Manuel Martínez Burgos' concerto for piano and orchestra "Cloches" receives its premiere. Both are very enjoyable. The playing and DSD256 sound are great. It was recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered in DSD 256, something of a rarity. More info here: https://www.nativedsd.com/product/euddr2406-mysterium/ (Native DSD is having a 20% off sale. Due to a technical problem, they kindly upgaded me from DSD64, which I originally ordered, to 256 at no extra charge--a good deal!)

[Todd]

Yunchan Lim's first major label recording, The Emperor and some encores.  Lim has got chops, no one can doubt that, but here in a performance recorded before the Cliburn, one hears immense technical prowess that mixes in with a large number of pianists qualitatively.  Sure, he plays cleanly, with great clarity, fine scale, a grand cadenza, and so forth, and all sounds good.  But.  The last recording I listened to was the benchmark recording from Pollini and Bohm.  Lim simply is not in that category.  Pollini displays greater command, greater scale, greater accuracy, more forcefulness.  If one considers other recordings like Serkin/Ormandy or Katchen/Gamba, well, Lim did not make a recording for the ages.  He certainly does not surpass more recent recordings like those from Schnyder or Lisiecki, either.  He may not match them.  Lim does excel, relatively speaking, in the quieter, more nuanced passages, but there he's far from alone.  Just considering contemporary pianists, Hannes Minnaar does something similar.  So, this is high quality, to be sure, but it sets no standards.

The encores include three miniatures.  The first is the fifth Scenes d'enfants from Mompou, and Lim's touch is very fine.  But here, Volodos looms gigantically large, and it is not surprising to report that Lim's finesse is not as limitless.  Colom and Perez also present playing at least as good, and really, better.  That leaves a couple Scriabin miniatures, and they, too are very fine.  I rarely listen to Scriabin miniatures, Volodos' encores aside, but Lim didn't leap out as setting new standards in Scriabin, either. 

I skipped the Yun piece, and the Barber Adagio, and may listen to those later.

[Spotted Horses]

Mozart, Symphony No 34 from the Pinnock set.



Delightful.

I was thinking of listening to a symphony recorded by Hogwood for contrast, but can't find it on my streaming service. Odd. I'd have to find my Flac files, which seems like too much of a burden!

[Lisztianwagner]

Charles Ives
Symphony No.1

Michael Tilson Thomas & Chicago Symphony Orchestra

[Karl Henning]

Vagn Holmboe
Symphony № 6, Op. 43 / M. 155 (1947)
Chamber Concerto № 6, Op. 33 / M. 143 (1943)
String Quartet № 6, Op. 78 / M. 210 (1961)