What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Watching OperaVision again. This time it's Verdi's Rigoletto, which I know I've seen on TV once before years ago.

I'm not entirely loving this production, which is from the Teatro Real in Madrid (and I know exactly where that is!). Plenty of fine music of course. The plot of Rigoletto is... a bit icky to be honest. Though that's part of the point. Apparently the working title was La Maledizione, "The Curse".

EDIT: Okay, I think I got more on the wavelength of what the production was trying to do as it went on, and appreciated it more.

Also, I'd forgotten just how incredibly good Act Three is. I can even forgive the way that Gilda hangs around for a last song, which is so very opera.

[AnotherSpin]

A quiet morning, a calm sea.
No agitation, and no hopes either — they are but the reverse side of fear.

[steve ridgway]

Schoenberg - String Quartet 2

Great idea to add a soprano to a string quartet  .

[Baxcalibur]

Wetz: Symphony No. 3
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Werner Andreas Albert



In one of my first posts on this site, I reviewed a different recording of this symphony. So I felt a bit nostalgic while listening, and some parts were vaguely familiar. Once again, I liked the way Wetz set up the conclusion of the finale. Unusually, I couldn't stop thinking about the symphony until I fell asleep. It wasn't exactly mind-blowingly good, and yet...

Anyway, does anyone else remember a YouTube channel called "Unsung Masterworks?" I think that's where I first heard this.

[AnotherSpin]

Schoenberg - String Quartet 2

Great idea to add a soprano to a string quartet  .

More than forty years ago, I had a Melodiya LP of this quartet. I don't remember the music anymore, but I have a feeling I found it interesting at the time—perhaps because it stood out from the typical Russian music. I haven't listened to it again since then. Just now, I looked it up on Discogs and found the cover:

[AnotherSpin]

[Roasted Swan]

Wetz: Symphony No. 3
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Werner Andreas Albert



In one of my first posts on this site, I reviewed a different recording of this symphony. So I felt a bit nostalgic while listening, and some parts were vaguely familiar. Once again, I liked the way Wetz set up the conclusion of the finale. Unusually, I couldn't stop thinking about the symphony until I fell asleep. It wasn't exactly mind-blowingly good, and yet...

Anyway, does anyone else remember a YouTube channel called "Unsung Masterworks?" I think that's where I first heard this.

I have this CD - but no memory of the music at all!  Your post has tweaked my curiosity so thankyou.

[Que]

To spare those reading this post some serious neck twisting  :

Biber: Fidicinium Sacro Profanum
Les Plaisirs du Parnasse / David Plantier

This recording was conspicuously absent on my Spotify, but I found a YouTube video with the entire recording.
So much better than the Clemencic Consort: crisp, elegant and expressive, but with great focus and tranquility. Very well recorded too - as usual with ZIG-ZAG. Love it. I might look for a cheap used disc.

[Que]

Nice. And for me the inclusion of plainchant is a plus.

[Traverso]

Pepe Romero - Famous Spanish Dances

[Harry]

Viola d'Amore.
Hélène Plouffe, Viola d'amore.
See back cover for performers and Music.
Recorded: 2009, Church Saint-Augustin de Mirabel, Québec.

This is actually a very good performance, these musicians belong to the top echelon in their trade. The CD is filled with music that gives instant pleasure, generating an well balanced ensemble sound. A fresh interpretation on music that will be familiar to most Baroque lovers. I think essential to have.

[AnotherSpin]

[Madiel]

I don't know what's happening to me. It seems I can now do two operas in one day.    When I'm scarcely listening to classical otherwise at the moment.

Well, when the first opera wasn't especially long, and the second is on the short side.

This time it's the Croatian Biblical opera Judith, composed by Frano Parać in 2000. I like the music quite a lot, and full marks for the production which frequently looks great and the soprano in the lead role who has a real presence to her. The libretto is... well it's quite stylised and sometimes static. This seems particularly deliberat in the first section, with the crowd sitting around despondently until Judith steps in.

Not a bad way to spend about 75 minutes.

[Que]

[Harry]

In Wilhemina's Footsteps.
Music of the Bayreuth Court.
Camerata Öresund.
See back cover for details.
Recorded in April 2024 at Borlunda kyrka, Eslöv (Sweden).
Cover: Frederikke Sofie Wilhelmine, Margravine of Bayreuth.

Wilhelmine of Bayreuth (1709-1758), made a name for herself as a composer, instrumentalist and patron of the arts. So there are a few compositions by her on this disc, two vocal thing and one instrumental. I left the vocal parts out of the listening queue, it did not appeal to me. The rest of the music on this disc by other composers are very much worth your while. This ensemble plays well, at times a bit conservative in expression maybe, but enjoyable. Good sound!

[Harry]

Luys Milan (1500-1565)
El Maestro.
Music for the Vihuela 1536.
Hopkinson Smith, Vihuela, build by Joël van Lennep.
Probably recorded in 1984. No PDF file, so Venue unknown.
Could not find a back cover either.

Quite a sober and straightforward interpretation. Bare of any pretence, pure music, nothing less, nothing more. It will not warm your heart, but it will engender silence in your mind. There is such deep contemplation and inward thought in Smith's performance. Van Lennep's Vihuela sounds a bit raw, as if the instrument is not polished to perfection. The playing is certainly not gentle or immediately approachable, it needs time to fully understand the essence of it all. Clear and detailed sound, a little too close to the microphone to give complete comfort. Still I like it.

[VonStupp]

Benjamin Britten
The Ascent to F6
An American in England
Hadrian's Wall: Roman Wall Blues
On the Frontier
Where Do We Go From Here

Mary Carewe, soprano
Jean Rigby, mezzo
Andrew Kennedy, tenor
Samuel West, narrator

Ex Cathedra - Jeffrey Skidmore
Hallé - Mark Elder & Henry Ogg

An odd mix of incidental music for metaphorical plays and scores to propaganda documentaries. This program is perhaps the most I have heard Britten emulating popular music styles.

I am not the biggest fan of W.H. Auden's verse in this NMC series, whose best showing is when he rhymes 'tennis elbow' with 'have got B. O.'
VS

[AnotherSpin]

Luys Milan (1500-1565)
El Maestro.
Music for the Vihuela 1536.
Hopkinson Smith, Vihuela, build by Joël van Lennep.
Probably recorded in 1984. No PDF file, so Venue unknown.
Could not find a back cover either.

Quite a sober and straightforward interpretation. Bare of any pretence, pure music, nothing less, nothing more. It will not warm your heart, but it will engender silence in your mind. There is such deep contemplation and inward thought in Smith's performance. Van Lennep's Vihuela sounds a bit raw, as if the instrument is not polished to perfection. The playing is certainly not gentle or immediately approachable, it needs time to fully understand the essence of it all. Clear and detailed sound, a little too close to the microphone to give complete comfort. Still I like it.

What trait could be better than this one?

[Mister Sharpe]

Continuing my happy traversal of newly-acquired CDs. Martinů is one of my Top Ten favorite composers but admittedly because of his symphonic work (and to some extent his chamber work).  I'm less familiar with his concertante achievements, so this is a lucky find. Also an historical one: Firkušný debuted these concerti and was the dedicatee of the third.

 

[SonicMan46]

Boccherini, Luigi (1743-1805) - Guitar Quintets w/ Joan Carles Martinez on guitar and the Chamber Ensemble Almodis - recent $15 USD Bro purchase on 3 CDs which include the 8 extant works (9 are listed in the Gerard catalog with one lost - below).  Luigi probably wrote at least a dozen of these transcribed quintets for guitar.  Recordings from 2003-2005 - several reviews attached. Already own the Naxos 3 disc set w/ Tokos on guitar & the period instrument performance with Jakob Lindberg (2 discs of 6 works), so superfluous addition to my collection, BUT the recordings are quite good.  Dave

Guitar Quintets
The movements of the guitar quintets are wholly transcribed by the composer from earlier quintets (usually string or piano quintets).  (Source)

G 445: Guitar Quintet No. 1 in D minor
G 446: Guitar Quintet No. 2 in E major
G 447: Guitar Quintet No. 3 in B-flat major
G 448: Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D major ("Fandango")
G 449: Guitar Quintet No. 5 in D major
G 450: Guitar Quintet No. 6 in G major
G 451: Guitar Quintet No. 7 in E minor
G 452: Guitar Quintet No. 8 in F major (lost)
G 453: Guitar Quintet No. 9 in C major ("La Ritirata di Madrid")