What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

Antonio de Cabezón.
Organ Music, Volume IV.
Javier Gimenez, Organ.
Organ: Convent of San Pablo (Palencia, Spain). Dominican Fathers. Built by Juan Otorel (1898.) Restored by Acitores Organería y Arte S.L (2025).

A fine close of this series which I really enjoyed. The careful handling of Cabezon's compositions, played on organs that fit the time and age, and above all sound authentic, couched in a perfect sound, it really leaves nothing open in regard of what I expected. The booklets are an insult to the superb project, but that's the only quibble I have. Recommended.

[Que]

This arrived on disk, requiring another run:



Thnx again to AnotherSpin. The layout is not very generous, clocking at just over 54 mins, with the famous motet Lamentabatur Jacob, three vihuela pieces, the Desprez song and Morales' parody-mass (with organ & vihuela accompaniment). Great performances! Recording from 1994.

[Harry]

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
Chamber works.
Cello Sonata 1&2-Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux-Le Cygne transcribed by Leopold Godowsky.
MATS LIDSTRÖM cello & BENGT FORSBERG piano.


It seems that these works are not highly regarded, but I like them anyways, especially in the hands of these performers and also because it is recorded in such a fine acoustic. The Cello sonatas are highly approachable and steep in romanticism, but never sentimental. Saint Saens knew a few tricks to make them sound like premium pieces from his repertoire.

[Harry]

Benjamin Godard and Leon Boëllmann.
Cello Sonatas.
MATS LIDSTRÖM Cello & BENGT FORSBERG Piano.

Interesting. did not know these works that well.

[Que]

[Roasted Swan]

A rare outing for me of this disc;



Fricker is not the "friendliest" composer but this Vision of Judgement is a rather impressive big work.  This recording is a Lyrita/Itter off-air recording.  Performance is good - the choir sound a bit recessed.  But you can't imagine another performance let alone recording any time soon.  Large scale work - big orchestra/choir/soloists required - without the work being accessible enough or the composer known enough to generate an audience.  So as so often is the case - thank goodness that the BBC was around and willing to perform/broadcast this kind of music.  Certainly worth a listen.

[Traverso]

Mozart

Violin Concerto No.5

[Traverso]

Pièces De Luth

[Harry]

REBECCA CLARKE.
WORKS FOR VIOLA.
Viola Sonata (1919)-Shorter Pieces-Morpheus (1917-1918)-Dumka for violin, viola and piano* (? 1941).
RÚNYA DUO.

Since I am a great admirer of Rebecca Clarke's music I certainly had to listen to this CD. It is not a punishment at all, but sweet seduction rather. Well performed and recorded.

[ritter]

Another fascinating, completely OOP but very seductive work for orchestra by Sylvano Bussotti: Souvenirs d'Italie. The Orchestra della Toscana is conducted by Marco Angius or Tito Ceccherini (or both). There are three works on the CD, and two conductors are listed, but it doesn't say who conducts what.

[Karl Henning]

[Lisztianwagner]

Franz Liszt
Responsorien und Antiphonen, S.30

Pianist: Leslie Howard

[Karl Henning]

[prémont]

Updated ranking after four more versions:

1. Eduardo Del Pueyo/ Sergey Schepkin, can't choose between them
2. Tengku Irfan
3. Maroussa Gentet / Peter Bradley-Fulgoni
4. Seokyoung Hong/ Drew Petersen
5. Alexander Kobrin
6. Joel Schoenhals
7.Dawid Allen Wehr (eloquent and lyrical but I would prefer a little more drive in the Perpetuum Mobile)
8. Robert Maciejowski
9. Maia-Maria
10. Marta Czech
11. Nicolas Namorade
12. Jean Muller
13. Rudolf Buchbinder (disappointing workmanlike performance)
14. Tumaini Sango (light and dancing Menuetto but the Perpetuum mobile lacks propulsion even if beautifully articulated)
15. Anastasia Frolova (solid but average performance)
16. Pengcheng He (artistically rather uninteresting)
17. Nate Wambolt (a little better than Villar, but not much)
18. Eliseo Villar (has learned the notes, but not to make music of them)
19. Alberto Sanna (sigh!)
20. Fritz Jank (bad sound, I gave up rather fast)

[prémont]

Tier 3
He, Solomon, Wehr, Andsnes, Buchbinder, Namoradze, Petersen, Hong, Brown, Sango, Villar, Frolova, Czech

Who is Brown? James Brawn?

[hopefullytrusting]

Who is Brown? James Brawn?

Michael Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waJVumCiCx4

My 4 22s, for this morning:

Ronald Brautigam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0WjS4ao9Vk
Tomer Kviatek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kv4Bptoryg
Matthew Edwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89MzMcCpEqI
Nicholas Walker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdabIWDR58s

[vandermolen]

Great piece!

Yes, one of my favourites by Copland.

[Harry]

Farrenc, Piano Quintet No.1 in A minor op.30- Firsova, Piano Quartet op.146 - Bonis, Piano Quartet 1, in B flat major op.69.
Ensemble Louise Farrenc.
Cover: Heinrich Vogeler, "Sehnsucht", ca. 1900, beautiful cover art, actually one of my favorites.

Some intonation problems but not big ones, their enthusiasm makes more as good for slight mishaps. I knew the Farrenc and Bonis works, but Firsova was a unknown composer for me, but she is good actually, perfectly fitting in this threesome. A warm and spacious recording, and very recommendable.

[hopefullytrusting]

This is how I will lose my mind, lol.

Updated Beethoven 22s Tiers

Tier 1
Brautigam, Kobrin, Del Pueyo, Schepkin, Schoenhals
Tier 2
Edwards, Maia-Maria, Bradley-Fulgoni, Gentet, Irfan
Tier 3
He, Solomon, Wehr, Andsnes, Buchbinder, Namoradze, Petersen, Walker, Hong, Brown, Sango, Kviatek, Villar, Frolova, Czech
Tier 4
Wambolt Maciejowski, Muller
Tier 5
Jank (Bad transfer), Sanna (Insanity), Sang-moon (Disqualified)

[Iota]

I too was listening to DSCH's second piano sonata the other day, with the always excellent Konstantin Scherbakov. Very inward looking Shostakovich I thought, and to me, the last couple of minutes or so where a few hints of major tonality dare to peer through the gloom, created such an exquisite ambiguity.