What are you listening 2 now?

[ritter]

Piano music by Riccardo Malipiero (Gian Francesco's 12-tone nephew, who lived from 1914 to 2003), played by José Raúl López.

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Sebastian Bach
English Suites

Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord)

[brewski]

Loving this live concert from Stuttgart, which I hope they archive. The Berio was the draw for me, but the Rebel (which I'd never heard) was a revelation, and they're doing a beautiful job with the Schubert.

SWR Symphonieorchester
Members of the SWR Vocal Ensemble
François-Xavier Roth, conductor

Jean-Féry Rebel: Les élémens, symphonie nouvelle
Berio: Sinfonia
Schubert: Symphony No. 8

[Linz]

Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor
Igor Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919)
Petrushka Suite (1917)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra,  Carlo Maria Giulini

[Karl Henning]

Maurizio Pollini playing the late Schubert Sonatas. 

[AnotherSpin]

[Wanderer]

Répons is without doubt one of the great musical achievements of the second half of the 20th century. I hope you are enjoying it!

I most certainly do, as well as Sur Incises and others in that later post-strict-serialist vein of his, shimmering and kaleidoscopic (unlike, say, the cacophonous sterility of the Second Sonata, almost a manifesto against the piano itself). Even if Boulez might not have liked to hear it, I find one can catch the refracted spirit of Messiaen in them ("bordello music" and all 😇).

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, 1890 Thorough revision Bruckner with Joseph and Franz Schalk Ed. Theodor Raettig
Wiener Symphoniker, Charles Adler

[Linz]

Hector Berlioz Symphony Fantastique
The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst

[JBS]

Harry's mention of Vieuxtemps several days ago made me think of these.  The craving must have been serious as it took some digging into box after box but thank goodness I found them without too much trouble. It's a source of amazement to me how much a well-packed standard archival box (aka banker's box) of CDs weighs: 30 lbs!

I remember enjoying that set.
TD
The CD version of this

[Madiel]

Vivaldi oboe concertos.



I'm not a fan of RV 447 (C major) which opens the disc, it seems to involve more note spinning for the sake of it than usual. RV 455 (F major) is rather better.

This album contains music recorded in 1994 and 2008. Between these two concerti it's the one recorded in 2008 where the oboe tone is a bit less appealing.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi violin concertos



The theme of this particular album is that it includes some of the most technically difficult concertos. I'm looking forward to the last one, which is described in the liner notes as "the most gratuitously unplayable piece ever composed by Vivaldi". 

The first couple of concerti on here, RV 232 in D and RV 264 in E, certainly do sound difficult though that's true of most Vivaldi violin concertos. The first movement of the D major concerto goes to super high pitches. But both pieces still sound musical.

[AnotherSpin]

Michel Bouvard, CD1
François Espinasse, CD2

[Madiel]

Finishing off this one with a violin concerto (RV 369) and 4 more arias.



The aria discs in this sort of format are quite good listening. Though surprisingly this one ends on a quiet and downbeat note rather than an on a lively aria.

[Que]

Out of the many wonderful options to start my day:

[Que]

Moving on with another recent arrival:



I know this recording well, I streamed it many times (different generic cover on "Magnatune"). But this is an extra special that I wanted on disc, which is rarer than hen's teeth... Anyway, here it is.

BTW Michelangelo (1575–1631) was the son of Italian lutenist, composer and music theorist Vincenzo Galiliei (1520–1591) and brother of Galileo, the famous scientist. I prefer Paul Beier to Anthony Bailes (Ramée). Axel Wolf also did a recording (Oehms), which I haven't heard (yet).

[Madiel]

Arias for tenor, first half



Yay, a nearly-Australian singer!

Hmm. Um, this isn't the best so far.

Firstly, the liner notes are not quite up to the usual standard (yes, this is relevant to my experience as you'll see). There aren't RV numbers, or Act/Scene numbers, which is why it took a little while to understand things like the Tito Manlio arias not being from the full version that Vivaldi wrote but from the co-written version he did a year later.

Figuring stuff out like that happened to mean I read a review before I actually listened to the album, and so maybe the review biased me to what I was hearing (I might give the same tracks a 2nd go). But I think it's more likely that myself and the reviewer are hearing the same basic problem.

It's loud. The playing is mostly loud. The singing is mostly loud - though both improved on the last 2 tracks before I paused. It's impossible to know how much is from the performance and how much is from the recording (there are only 2 from this ensemble/location), but there's a serious lack of light and shade a lot of the time.

I think another factor is that the tenor roles Vivaldi wrote, and/or the arias selected for the album, tend towards the fiery or heroic so there's less contrast. In what I've heard thus far there are only a couple of potentially gentler arias.

I Barocchisti also have a somewhat silly habit of doing a dramatic silent pause before the final chord.

[Florestan]

Les Francs-juges Overture

[Florestan]

I Barocchisti also have a somewhat silly habit of doing a dramatic silent pause before the final chord.

They probably take Vivaldi's Baroque theatricality a step too far. But the worst offenders in this respect are Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus: staccato e sforzando, ;prestissimo possibile seems to be their motto.

[Madiel]

They probably take Vivaldi's Baroque theatricality a step too far. But the worst offenders in this respect are Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus: staccato e sforzando, ;prestissimo possibile seems to be their motto.

Yes, although in one of the 2 albums of theirs I've heard so far, they dialled it down a lot compared to the other one. La verità in cimento was very aggressive. Griselda really wasn't.

I am certainly forming opinions as to which ensembles in the series I prefer hearing.