What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Händel: Concerti grossi, op. 3

What I do remember is that I hadn't played these entertaining pieces too long ago, perhaps more than 15 years. Great stuff.

[Symphonic Addict]

Busoni: Piano Sonata in F minor, op. 20

This is a superb, meaty sonata. Busoni wrote it at the age of 17 and it's something to behold.

[hopefullytrusting]

Christian Vasquez leading the Juan Jose Landaeta Symphony Orchestra and Simon Bolivar National Choir in Mahler's Symphony No. 2.: Recorded March 1, 2025 with Patricia Laguado, soprano and Marilyn Viloria, mezzosoprano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqxQaA1qEII

Easily competes with Dudamel for my favorite Mahler 2 ever - I don't think any conductor loves this piece more than Vasquez (yes, I'm including Bernstein in that pile - Vazquez is a maniac in the last movement).

This is one of those pieces that makes me weepy, no matter how many times I hear it in a row, but I don't want to discover the why, so, please, no one spoil that.

[Symphonic Addict]

Chen: Er Huang, for piano and orchestra

There are no words that can describe how intensely beautiful this work is.

[hopefullytrusting]

One of the great adaptations: Maazel's Wagner's Ring Without Words: Stankow leading the Norddeutsche Orchesterakademie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPBRKtPgCtY

This is my kind of Wanger - cut out all the fluff - highlight the hammer - so much brass, so much bass - love it.

[AnotherSpin]

CD2

[Que]

Such lovely music - a mass and a handful of motets.

Listening to the reissue (of both volumes originally on ORF) on Fra Bernado now:

[Que]

CD2

For a composer of smaller fame, there are a lot of prime choice recordings!

[Roasted Swan]

Same store, Putney High Street for me. I think it was the covers, as I walked into Smiths the plasticky smell got the blood racing.

Now you mention that - YES!!

[vandermolen]

Malcolm Arnold Symphony No. 5, Op. 74
Peterloo Overture, Op. 97
Four Cornish Dances, Op. 9
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm Arnold

A great disc and my introduction to Arnold on LP.

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.5 BBC SO, Rozhdestvensky (BBC Radio Classics)

[Harry]

Guardian Angel.
Works by Biber, Bach, Tartini, Pisendel.
See full details of the works on the back cover.
Rachel Podger, Violin, Persarinius, Genoa, 1739.
Recorded: Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem, 2013.
Streaming: 44.1kHz/16 bit, SACD & Reference recording, SOTA sound.

It escapes me why Qobuz labels this as having mixed track formats, when it is in fact a SACD 96kHz/24-bit recording—one of considerable audiophile merit. Such lapses defy comprehension. But let us not linger on metadata, for what truly matters is that this disc is a reference in every sense: musically, emotionally, and sonically.

Rachel Podger here delivers great art—playing of such expressive clarity and poise that the speakers disappear, leaving only the free-floating voice of her Persarinius violin, made in Genoa in 1739. Its tone is warm, rounded, and silken, utterly devoid of shrillness, and it sings with what one might call divine joy.

If you need convincing, simply begin at the beginning: the Partita in A minor, BWV 1013, originally for solo flute, here adapted for violin. It is a formidable piece, yet Podger renders it with such grace and lucidity that it feels almost like a lullaby whispered through time. Such elegance in execution is the mark of supreme artistry.

From there, the programme unfolds like a baroque prayer book of rare gems: Tartini's introspective lyricism, Pisendel's virtuosic flourishes, and above all, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Passacaglia, the 'Guardian Angel' that lends this album its name. Biber's work—published in 1676 as part of his Mystery Sonatas—is one of the earliest and most profound examples of solo violin writing. The Passacaglia itself is a spiritual meditation, circling around a descending bass motif, thought to symbolise both the guardian angel's protection and the fallibility of man.

In Podger's hands, this piece becomes an intimate pilgrimage. Her bow seems to breathe, her phrasing imbued with sacred hush and hushed sorrow, as though she were communing with something just beyond the veil. That this was recorded in the acoustically superb Doopsgezinde Kerk in Haarlem is no small matter—the space gives the music its soft-spoken halo, a sonic glow that's hard to forget.

So whether it's Bach, Biber, Tartini, or Pisendel, this disc flows from one masterwork to the next, a series of baroque illuminations that never cease to astonish. An amazing travail, yes—but more than that: it's a world of fulfilled expectation, a place where beauty and spirit are as one.

Is it surprising when thinking of this recording remembering what Henry Vaughan, whose metaphysical sensibility and musical cadence feel so apt for this moment, could have written, so after the vogue of Vaughan, this I came up with....

Inspired by listening to the Guardian Angel

I saw a sound, aslant with light,
That touched the air with breathless wing;
A single string could stir the night
And make the dust of Heaven sing.

No hands were shown, yet all was played,
The notes did rise, then bowed to rest—
As if some guardian, half-afraid,
Had whispered peace into my chest.

O violin, thou bright exile,
What grace in solitude you bring—
As though the soul, for just a while,
Forgot its weight, and learned to sing.

[Traverso]

Well that's it, I am now clear that Alma's songs are better than Gustav's

They are incomparably different, Alma Mahler's songs clearly bear the traditional stamp where Gustav is more of an ego document. It is clear that Alma's songs are certainly worth listening to and mean more than just the wife of.

[Traverso]

Bach

CD 2

[pjme]

[Mandryka]

They are incomparably different, Alma Mahler's songs clearly bear the traditional stamp where Gustav is more of an ego document. It is clear that Alma's songs are certainly worth listening to and mean more than just the wife of.

I just think she's one of the best song composers of all time. A small number of works, admittedly -- she's like Webern in that respect. Lots of ideas, unusual harmonies, full of passion. If you separate the concept of genius from the concept of innovation, she's a genius, I would put Alma in the same category as Mozart and Schubert.

Here's some proof. This is so erotic, so harmonically, chromatically, heady.

 

[Iota]

Debussy: Douze Études Pour Piano
Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

An enduring and great recording of these extraordinary pieces. Uchida brings an ear and a facility to the music that penetrate its emotional depths and sensual wonders to reveal them in unforgettable lucidity.

[Henk]

[Florestan]

I would put Alma in the same category as Mozart and Schubert.

Oh, come on now! 

[Mandryka]

Oh, come on now! 

Quality, my dear, not quantity. And I'm only talking about songs.