What are you listening 2 now?

[Christo]

Now playing Grieg Holberg Suite, Op. 40:

I found this a remarkable, fresh, approach (but can't stand the cello guy clearly harassing that cello girl):

[Harry]

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
Lamentationes, Book 2.
'L'harmonia nasce dal cantare, che fanno insieme le parti delle cantilene'
See back cover for details.
Cinquecento.
Recorded in Kartause Mauerbach, Vienna, Austria, on 11–13 September 2018.

Palestrina's lamentations for Holy Week with Cinquecento are performed in a perfect style and ideally balanced. Anyone who is not convinced of the composer's qualities here, is probably beyond help in this respect. It is also a jewel in the crown of this ensemble, for Palestrina comes very near, and I readily accept that it sounded just this way when it was composed. It's also near the time in our year that it must be played. Very well recorded too!

[Harry]

I found this a remarkable, fresh, approach (but can't stand the cello guy clearly harassing that cello girl):

This guy should be boiled in his own pudding, which will taste horrible I am sure.

[ritter]

First listen to the Quatuor Diotima's recently released second recording of Pierre Boulez's Livre pour quatuor.



As opposed to the Diotima's previous recording of the work (from 2014, on the Belgian label Megadisc --with rather limited distribution, I'm afraid--), here we get --as a world première-- Movement IV, reconstructed by Philippe Manoury from the original manuscirpt (it's some 11 minutes additional music).

[Que]

Later reissued in the "hmgold" edition. A terrific and frustrating recording at the same time. Great music, wonderful performances. The catch is that the music in this selection tastes like more: like the Lamentations by Tiburtio Massaini, apparently a very prolific Italian composer but almost completely absent on record. And Franco-Flemish Marbrianus de Orto, luckily his music gets more recorded now!

Anyone who is not convinced of the composer's qualities here, is probably beyond help in this respect. It is also a jewel in the crown of this ensemble, for Palestrina comes very near, and I readily accept that it sounded just this way when it was composed. It's also near the time in our year that it must be played. Very well recorded too!

I think Palestrina's music has been completely misrepresented on earlier (mainly British) recordings. That image is now steadily corrected. Palestrina did not write (generic) "oceans" of etherial voices for English cathedrals, he was the linking pin between the Franco-Flemish tradition that came to Italy and later Italian composers.

[Traverso]

Palestrina

Canticum Canticorum

[Harry]

Antonio Vivaldi
Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione Op. 8 Le quattro stagioni.
And
Brescianello.
Violin Concerto in C Major.
La Folia, Barockorchester, Robin Peter Müller.
Recorded: at the Palais im Großen Garten Dresden, Germany, 4th - 6th August 2014.

I very much doubt that you will hear a better SOTA sound as this Stockfish release. It is nothing short of spectacular. Enormous micro and macro details, all there, perfect acoustics and excellent musicians. Whether you like this performance or not is a personal thing, but my two cents is WOW, this good? Yes for me it is. I have heard these concertos a thousand times or even more, but like this, well no decidedly not. This performance is an event which will either delight or disgust. What these musicians make of it, is my cup of tea spilling over in excess. They have an approach that is new, and leading the way in my opinion.
So try! And before you even waste time of reacting on the artwork, don't, is not worth the effort and already done in these pages, but instead take a dive in the music that is on offer.

[Madiel]

Ravel

Chanson du rouet
Si morne!



I find Ravel's songs really interesting. They seem to epitomise something mentioned in the booklet essay for this Poizat set, that Ravel didn't like doing the same thing twice. Each piano accompaniment I hear feels different from the ones I've previously heard.

[AnotherSpin]

Antonio Vivaldi
Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione Op. 8 Le quattro stagioni.
And
Brescianello.
Violin Concerto in C Major.
La Folia, Barockorchester, Robin Peter Müller.
Recorded: at the Palais im Großen Garten Dresden, Germany, 4th - 6th August 2014.

I very much doubt that you will hear a better SOTA sound as this Stockfish release. It is nothing short of spectacular. Enormous micro and macro details, all there, perfect acoustics and excellent musicians. Whether you like this performance or not is a personal thing, but my two cents is WOW, this good? Yes for me it is. I have heard these concertos a thousand times or even more, but like this, well no decidedly not. This performance is an event which will either delight or disgust. What these musicians make of it, is my cup of tea spilling over in excess. They have a approach that is new, and leading the way in my opinion.
So try! And before you even waste time of reacting on the artwork, don't, is not worth the effort and already done in these pages, but instead take a dive in the music that is on offer.

Once again, delighted that you've found joy in this recording, as I did before. As for the cover, it turns out to be a fragment of a painting by a Chinese artist. To judge Chinese art through the narrow lens of Western aesthetic formulas would be, at the very least, rather foolish, wouldn't it? 

[ChamberNut]

Well....I'm half-way through the behemoth! 

Disc 26

[Madiel]

Ravel: Sheherazade overture

[ChamberNut]

I found this a remarkable, fresh, approach (but can't stand the cello guy clearly harassing that cello girl):

I'm all for boiling people in their own pudding if they deserve it. I fail to see what you see in this video? Can you pinpoint where? I don't see it. For now, the pudding is just on simmer. 

[Roasted Swan]

I'm all for boiling people in their own pudding if they deserve it. I fail to see what you see in this video? Can you pinpoint where? I don't see it. For now, the pudding is just on simmer. 

I couldn't spot it either.  As far as I could tell he happens to play with the corners of his mouth turning down and the odd twitch.  None of whcih I could see or interpret as directed at his colleague.....

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Debussy: Nocturnes - Iberia - Clair De Lune - Prelude à L'apres-Midi d'un Faune.

[Madiel]

Ravel

Deux Épigrammes de Clément Marot
Pavane pour une infante defunte




I've acquired two recordings of the Épigrammes in quick succession, but that's okay because I think they're marvellous. And without doing a direct A/B comparison I've enjoyed both recordings very much.

This Pavane is just a fraction slower overall than the recording I already have, Poizat seems to emphasise the lyrical melody though he makes a very sharp contrast in the occasional loud passages. Most satsifactory.

And that'll do for now. For one thing, I'm a quarter of the way through Ravel's compositions after just 2 nights. For another, I'm about to hit the Prix de Rome years, which will be interesting. How much will Ravel sound like Ravel in those pieces. From memory, not so much in the years that he actually got anywhere!

[Harry]

I'm all for boiling people in their own pudding if they deserve it. I fail to see what you see in this video? Can you pinpoint where? I don't see it. For now, the pudding is just on simmer. 

I see a head of a Cellist that needs to be boiled, and he should eat himself to ascertain the prove of it....

[Florestan]

I'm all for boiling people in their own pudding if they deserve it. I fail to see what you see in this video? Can you pinpoint where? I don't see it. For now, the pudding is just on simmer. 

I couldn't spot it either.  As far as I could tell he happens to play with the corners of his mouth turning down and the odd twitch.  None of whcih I could see or interpret as directed at his colleague.....

Moreover, she looks smilingly at him from the get-go and at no time is there any hint that she's annoyed by him. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they were lovers.

[Harry]

Marie Jaëll.
The complete works for Piano.
Volume I.
Cora Irsen, Piano.
All details on the back cover.

I am a great admirer of her music. Little known, but great in composing captivating music. She sort of assimilated all musical trends from her time, and made it into her personal style. Expressive, passionate, with a width spread of Romanticism, pointing a little ahead to the future. I like her dynamic personality, she makes her music bubble with creativity, and good cheer. Well performed and recorded.

[Traverso]

Brahms

Symphony No.1
Variation on a theme by Haydn
Tragic overture

London Philharmonic Orchestra

[ChamberNut]

I see a head of a Cellist that needs to be boiled, and he should eat himself to ascertain the prove of it....

Well, for this one I'll let you have my portion of head cheese.