What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

IMAGES
MARIN MARAIS (1656-1728)
MUSIC FOR VIOLA DA GAMBA AND THEORBO.
MIENEKE VAN DER VELDEN,  Viola da gamba, made by Antoine Despont, Paris 1617.
FRED JACOBS, French theorbo made by  Michael Lowe, 2004 (gut-strung).
Recorded in May, 2011 at the Koepelkerk, Renswoude, The Netherlands.

A Kaleidoscope full of devotion, grandeur and sadness. That is the right conclusion after listening to this disc. and it is done rather well. Mieneke van der Velden playing style is a bit of matter of fact, very much earthbound and straightforward, but clear in expression and delineating all the right accents, she does not miss much in this respect. A cool approach, maybe not entirely, but enough to make people wonder. Fred Jacobs is a excellent musician, clear and also straightforward in expression, but with a tad more feeling in his fingers. Recording is excellent. The Koepel church has a intimate acoustic. Feels like they are playing right in front of me.


Music distinguishes itself from the other arts by its evanescence: as soon as it has been heard, it evaporates, leaving no trace other than in the head of its auditors. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), the most musical of the painters of his time, practised his art in the same way: of the moment. The softness of the colours, the fragility of the light, the delicacy of the lines, the airiness of the spaces, all is ephemeral and fleeting. The celebrated Pèlerinage à l'Isle de Cithère (Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera) accepted into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1717, brought to its maker the title of 'Peintre des fêtes galantes' (Painter of Gallant Festivities). It is this spirit that seems to inhabit the Viola da gamba works of Marin Marais.

[Harry]

Michael Praetorius,
Terpsichore Musarum.
See back cover for details.
Ricercar Consort, Philippe Pierlot, François Fernandez, La Fenice, Jean Tubéry, La Bande des Luths, Philippe Malfeyt.
Recorded: 1994, Liege, Conservatoire Royal de Musique.

The music by Praetorius is always kind of an adventure and challenge. Not everyone's cup of tea, but as it happens this recording was the first in this genre I heard, many many moons ago. And guess what, I still like the music and this excellent performance. Quite a few famous ensembles and persons of renown, who deserve their accolades rightly and all proper. The recording holds up nicely considering the recording date. Enough depth and air around the instruments, which is important with all the percussion instruments used. A bit dry but that's a minor quibble. I can safely recommend this recording, if you can get hold of it, for it is long OOP.

[Mandryka]

Webern - Vier Lieder, Op.12

I also listened to this a few days ago and was sufficiently impressed by Svetlana Savenko to explore her other recordings including a superb Silvestrov studio recording - which if you want I can let you have.

Webern's songs are wonderful I think - heavy and radiant, like a perfect brilliant warm summer's day.

[Harry]

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)
Sonate à violoncello solo, col basso-continuo – 1735.
See back cover for details.
Gaetano Nasillo — Cello.
Luca Guglielmi — Harpsichord, Fortepiano.
Sara Bennici — Cello.
Recording: 2009, Chiesa della SS. Trinità di Ghiffa (Verbania, Italy).
Cover picture: Luca Carlevaris, The Bridge for the Feast of the Madonna della Salute, 1720.

Nasillo and Guglielmi succeed in a gorgeous interpretations, carried along by a fine sense of sound, chamber music temperament, and concentrated attention to the scores. This poise is a wonderful match for Caldara's detached music, nourished by the full measure of a rich musical life. Really quite beautiful, with a wonderful sounding Fortepiano. Kudo's all around for the performers.

[Traverso]

Bach

Vol.6 CD 6

[vandermolen]

Cyril Scott: Cello Concerto/Symphony No.1
I enjoy both works enormously:

[Traverso]

Michael Praetorius,
Terpsichore Musarum.
See back cover for details.
Ricercar Consort, Philippe Pierlot, François Fernandez, La Fenice, Jean Tubéry, La Bande des Luths, Philippe Malfeyt.
Recorded: 1994, Liege, Conservatoire Royal de Musique.

The music by Praetorius is always kind of an adventure and challenge. Not everyone's cup of tea, but as it happens this recording was the first in this genre I heard, many many moons ago. And guess what, I still like the music and this excellent performance. Quite a few famous ensembles and persons of renown, who deserve their accolades rightly and all proper. The recording holds up nicely considering the recording date. Enough depth and air around the instruments, which is important with all the percussion instruments used. A bit dry but that's a minor quibble. I can safely recommend this recording, if you can get hold of it, for it is long OOP.

I have a younger edition....

[Traverso]

Vivaldi

[Harry]

Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)
Chamber Works for Violin, Volume, 3.
See back cover for details.
Michael Collins, Clarinet.
James Ehnes, Violin.
Amy Schwartz Moretti, Violin.
Andrew Armstrong, Piano.
Recording venue Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, 2012 (Sonatina) & 2013 (other works).

I could of course repeat my praise for this series with James Ehnes, but that would be utter boring. The Music is superb, the performance too, and the sound is SOTA. One cannot do much better as this performance and recording, simple as that.

[Cato]

I wonder if @Symphonic Addict hears some of what you hear in Henze? I only mention this member because he recently went through a traversal of a lot of Henze's orchestral works.

Henze is a more radical figure, I think, and one that offers a more challenging concept of what music can be. The only works where I heard a sort of neoclassicism were those pieces inspired by Baroque composers like CPE Bach, Telemann or Vitali. Otherwise, compared to Hartmann or Hindemith, Henze's music doesn't display much counterpoint. It frequently lies on atmosphere, with haunting elements, often bizarre and there's a sort of eloquence I find captivating.

e.g. and an excellent work to consider...

[Que]

Michael Praetorius,
Terpsichore Musarum.
See back cover for details.
Ricercar Consort, Philippe Pierlot, François Fernandez, La Fenice, Jean Tubéry, La Bande des Luths, Philippe Malfeyt.
Recorded: 1994, Liege, Conservatoire Royal de Musique.

The music by Praetorius is always kind of an adventure and challenge. Not everyone's cup of tea, but as it happens this recording was the first in this genre I heard, many many moons ago. And guess what, I still like the music and this excellent performance. Quite a few famous ensembles and persons of renown, who deserve their accolades rightly and all proper. The recording holds up nicely considering the recording date. Enough depth and air around the instruments, which is important with all the percussion instruments used. A bit dry but that's a minor quibble. I can safely recommend this recording, if you can get hold of it, for it is long OOP.

La Bande de Luths (12 lutes, archlutes and theorbos) sounds sounds interesting! 

[Harry]

La Bande de Luths (12 lutes, archlutes and theorbos) sounds sounds interesting! 

It really is!

[Harry]

Friedrich Gernsheim.
Symphonies No.1&3.
See back cover for details.
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz, Hermann Bäumer.
Recorded: 2012, Frankfurter Hof, Mainz, Germany.

After many years a rerun of Gernsheim's Symphonies. I remember them much to my liking, so I ignored them long enough, a deep dive in then. A very good recording, and performance.

[Cato]

Barber: Piano Concerto
John Browning
George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra


There was a huge fuss about this work in the very early 1960's, when I was discovering classical music, and rightly so!

[Iota]

Albéniz: Iberia, Books 1 & 2
Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Somewhat prodded by my positive experience with Gerhard yesterday, I headed to the Iberian peninsula again today and took a first listen to Hamelin's recording of Iberia, bks 1 & 2. And it was something of a revelation, I'd never heard the textures of the music played with such clarity, and the poetry of the music emerges all the more clearly for it. I have more than once found Hamelin a bit of a let-down in mainstream repertoire, but here his singular facility does a great service to Albéniz imo, and both performer and composer shine, I have never enjoyed this music so much.
And a very significant piece of icing on the cake for me, is that he plays the meltingly beautiful melody at the heart of Fête-dieu à Séville (one of the loveliest tunes ever penned for the keyboard imo) perfectly!

[Traverso]

Stravinsky

Le Sacre du Printemps

[Karl Henning]

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I was actually looking on Spotify for the recording by Mitzi Meyerson, but this will do:

Nice music!

There is also a recording by Judit Péteri.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Debussy, Ravel: Orchestral Works. Guido Cantelli & Philharmonia Orchestra.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Kodály: Concerto for Orchestra, Dances of Galánta, Dances of Marosszék (Ormandy/Philadelphia). Another "wow" from these forces during the 1960s. I don't recall ever hearing the Dances of Marosszék.

The album sounds very good!