What are you listening 2 now?

[JBS]

I can't get past the name spunicunifait. I don't know about in Dutch but in English it sounds a bit like a teenage joke.

Very good booklet I think

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/11/000213911.pdf

It probably was a teenage joke on Mozart's part, preserved out of a context known only to his cousin, left for us to puzzle over like archeologists trying to read a fragmented inscription on an eroded stone.

TD

Wolfgang Brunner is the keyboardist.

The cover of the box set is probably much closer to the feel of this music than that of the original CD.

[Symphonic Addict]

The fifth and last Fifth today

Creston: Symphony No. 5

The antithesis of the Silvestrov: deliberately thunderous, wild, in an explicit take-no-prisoners countenance. This level of fierceness reminded me of Vaughan Williams's Fourth Symphony. Tremendous!

[AnotherSpin]

Silvestrov: Symphony No. 5

It's hard not to be moved by this immensely sorrowful music. However, around the min. 30 onwards it can't sustain its material, it gets a little monotonous in my view.

The recording was made back in 1992. I only discovered this online, as I was rather taken aback at first. These days, one can hardly imagine anyone in Russia performing, let alone recording, the music of a well-known Ukrainian composer. Such behaviour might cost you your job, your freedom, or indeed your life.

By the way, thanks for the mention, I'm listening and I like it. Yakovenko's participation was quite a definite hint, as the recording of Silvestrov's Silent Songs with him is very good.

[AnotherSpin]

Until quite recently the name Apolline Jesupret meant nothing to me. After she was mentioned here on the forum, curiosity led me to two albums of her compositions. Although new music is something I usually approach with a degree of caution, her recordings proved truly remarkable. In the album Lueurs, the vocal sections made a particularly strong impression. To be honest, no similar works come to mind where the singing feels so wild, so fresh, and so engaging at once. I shall certainly be following Apolline Jesupret's music with interest.

[AnotherSpin]

Animals are graceful because they are not performing, they are simply living their lives.
-Osho

The moment I saw this cover, I knew at once that I had to listen to the album. From the description on bandcamp:

A selection of animal sounds was collected and sampled as if they were notes on an orchestral score. This 'animal music' was then reproduced and human instrumentalists played their classical score in dialogue with it. In this way, the animals become musicians and a fusional dialogue is created with the human musicians.

The Bat's song used the bats' ultrasounds and slows them down extremely to bring those within the range audible to humans. These 'songs of the inaudible' are then combined to create a real choir, blending with the discreet voice of the cello.

Fable Ineffable features the songs of whales, dolphins and wolves, accompanied by a string orchestra. This work explores the spiritual connection between humans and animals.

Rest Forest is an ode to our mammal brothers and uses their voices to create a peaceful atmosphere. It includes sounds of bears, jackals, elephants and lynx, among others.

The Prey's Prayer is an imaginary aviary made up of sampled songs and incognito flutes. The piece is akin to a bird's meditation on the human condition.

[Que]

[AnotherSpin]

Philippe Boesmans: Chambres d'à côté
Musiques Nouvelles

More Belgian music to start the day. An intriguing picture of the composer, as if taking shelter under the piano after an air raid warning. Around here, with windowpanes shattered by the blasts, it somehow feels not entirely out of place.

[Mandryka]

1st impression: excellent.

1st impression - it stands to the Mozart quintets as Apponyi Quartet stands to Haydn op 33. This will take a bit of getting used to.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi: L'incoronazione di Dario (The coronation of Darius)



The best opera so far. Noting that I'm only a quarter of the way through them.

Firstly there's the performance. All of the singers are pleasing to listen to, and Accademia Bizantina know how to do this music with punch but also some elegance. While the recording (apparently live, though you'd be hard pressed to tell) does have some strong bass that at times triggers my speaker to make rumbling noises, it never feels like the playing is unnecessarily aggressive. There are only shouty bits of singing when it's appropriate, e.g. from the military character whose attitude is a touch amusing.

Which brings me to the second aspect: the plot makes sense. The characters have personality. It's pretty much the standard fare about who wants power (the title does give away the final outcome), and who loves who. But there's enough texture to the libretto to keep it interesting. One of the best bits is that the elder daughter of the recently deceased king is really quite dim-witted. Some of the things she says are genuinely funny. Dario/Darius isn't especially bright either to be honest... but at least he understands you're only allowed to marry one person at a time.**

So yes, it's very good. Some very fine moments, no obvious downsides (not even some sound effects - when birds are mentioned, they actually let Vivaldi's violin effect illustrate the birds, yay!), and if you care about the plot this one feels a lot less dated than some others.


**It's not that she's especially in favour of polygamy. It's just that people want to marry her because she's the previous king's eldest daughter, and if they seem nice she says yes right away while neglecting to mention that she's already said yes to somebody else, because she doesn't think that's an important thing to know. 

[Que]

I have a soft spot for Spanish Baroque and Recasens and his ensemble are important advocates. A recent purchase:



Recasens did two recordings of music by Carlos Patiño (1600-1675), composer at the court of Philips IV of Spain. A lot of his music was unfortunately lost in a fire at the Alcázar in Madrid (1734) and during the Lisbon earthquake (1755).

https://laudamusica.com/en/product/carlos-patino-musica-vocal-en-castellano/

[Madiel]

Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, op.1/3

[Madiel]

Dvorak: Czech Suite



It's the only work on this newly acquired disc that I already had a recording of. But I've no complaints when it's such a relaxing listen. Some of Dvorak's most genial music.

[Que]

Hat tip JBS!

[Traverso]

Mozart

CD 2

[Madiel]

Balakirev: Russia (earlier known as Second Overture on Russian Themes)



It strikes me as somewhat better than the 'first' Overture. Plenty of orchestral colour. A sound return on my $1 investment.

[Mister Sharpe]

Lucky to find this performance this morning amid many boxes (some organized, some not so much). I also have Shaw's and a few others, Harnoncourt's for certain. I don't think it was mentioned in the Gramophone article I read recently about Vivaldi's Gloria but he wrote a third one, now lost. Who knows? It might be found, someday. Maybe I should check my own archival boxes...

[Madiel]

Sibelius: String Quartet in D minor, op.56 'Voces Intimae'



One of his most important compositions that I didn't yet own a recording of. Fabulous. And it makes me want to go pull out other Sibelius works from the same period. I had a plan for how I was finishing off this evening, but I might need to veer into some songs/piano music circa 1909-10.

[Harry]

Chamber Music: by Rebecca Clark, Frank Bridge, Vaughan Williams.
Natalie Clein, Cello.
Christian Ihle Hadland, Piano.

One could say that Clarke as well as Bridge are still not much celebrated worldwide, while Vaughan Williams is not in need of promoting. I think that having this disc only for Rebecca Clarke's work is worth the price of the CD alone, and Bridge his Cello sonata, is a fine companion although totally different in musical expression. This is the second rerun in a short time between them, because it made quite an impression as why I like Clarke so much and it's again an affirmative hearing it again. She should be praised and be recognized as one of the finest female composers Britain produced. The sound is a bit overblown for the All Saints' Church, in East Finchley, London, has a tad too much reverb, that is a pity, for its ruined of it's intimacy. Apart from that it is an artistic success.

[Madiel]

Sibelius

Eight songs to words by Josephson, op.57
Ten pieces for piano, op.58



I think a lot of people would be particularly surprised by Sibelius' songs from this period. Op.57 and also op.35 (which comes from around here despite the lower number) include highly expressionistic songs with harsh, growling piano parts.

The op.58 piano pieces are quite varied in style, with some bold experiments.

[Todd]

Some mornings, only an S tier recording will do.