What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Vivaldi! Yes! With exclamation mark!



The 'Voices' box set that I bought to get 5 of the Vivaldi Edition volumes also includes this... which turns out to be a glorified sampler. You get some/all (I don't know which yet) of Lemieux's arias from the 3 operas she's appeared in from the Edition (Orlando furioso, La fida ninfa and Griselda), plus bits of another non-Edition album (Nisi Dominus/Stabat Mater).  A couple of times other singers are involved alongside. No lyrics included.

It's all a bit choppy. Not least because all of these albums were with Spinosi/Ensemble Matheus, so the style tends towards abrupt.** Maybe there will be some slower arias later, but the first few tracks are all the same kind of playing and singing... and it's already wearing my patience a bit. EDIT: Track 5 is a fraction calmer, but only a minute long, and then we're back into breathless animation again.

Quite frankly I'm not sure I'll ever listen to this again (just think, I've ruined it's mint status for resale  ). There's really no point. For the first three-quarters of it I have the exact same recordings in the full operas, and if I particularly want to isolate Lemieux's arias I can do it there. For the last quarter... you don't even get a complete Stabat Mater, which is a solo work, and I have 2 complete recordings of it anyway so I don't need these fragments.

I don't especially mind that they chose to put a different album in with the Vivaldi Edition ones. A few of the boxes did this, and one of the other ones I bought gave me a recorder concertos disc that was at least somewhat interesting. But this? This is really disappointing. Not least because Naive definitely had other options for filling the last slot in the box set.


**I'm kind of wishing that Florestan/Andrei hadn't specifically pointed this out. I mean, he's absolutely correct, and I had to an extent noticed it myself, but Dear God it's impossible to ignore now and I'm not happy. I don't know if this album is worse - because of the arias, because Lemieux is a favourite singer who embraces the same style - or whether I'm going to be unable to like the couple of remaining operas now because I'm focused on the problem. Just play to the end of the phrase without a sudden diminuendo, dammit!

[Roasted Swan]

Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful comment. I believe it is possible to be a striking artist without fully understanding the tradition or even the meaning of the music; there is no contradiction in that. That said, I am interested in Sibelius as Sibelius, not Sibelius as Bernstein. The composer's name could be replaced with any other .

Yes indeed!

I wish there was a hard-copy CD, especially as the cover art is so good!

I'm hoping/assuming that Onyx will release a "full-length" CD to include some couplings.  Much as they did with a couple of Manze's RVW series.  BTW - I've listened to a couple of online streamed samples from the yet-to-be-released new Chandos/Bliss disc (Miracle in the Gorbals etc) and it sounds pretty sensational too!

[Todd]

[ritter]

This CD with world-première recordings of unpublished juvenilia (plus two later piano pieces — the composer did not write for solo piano after 1963 for more than 20 years) by Pierre Boulez, played by Ralph van Raat, was released last Friday, and delivered to me today. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

My copy is signed: "to Johan, from Adriano, 1999" because I received it from him at the time when I sent him some Dutch recordings for his Respighi collection.

Wonderful! Nice album.

[AnotherSpin]

[Linz]

Ferde Grofé Grande Canyon Suite
The Philadelphia Orchestre, Eugene Ormandy

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, 1889 Version (aka 1888/89) Ed. Leopold Nowak
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartmut Haenchen

[Lisztianwagner]

First listen to this recording:

Arnold Schönberg
Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11
Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19
Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23
Piano Pieces, Op. 33a & 33b
Suite for Piano, Op. 25

Pianist: Paul Jacobs

[ritter]

First listen to this recording:

Arnold Schönberg
Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11
Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19
Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23
Piano Pieces, Op. 33a & 33b
Suite for Piano, Op. 25

Pianist: Paul Jacobs

One of my very favourite pianists ever! I was listening to this recording a couple of days ago... 

[Lisztianwagner]

One of my very favourite pianists ever! I was listening to this recording a couple of days ago... 

I remember you were, since I didn't know that recording, you made me curious about it; gorgeous performances so far, very thrilling.

[prémont]

Inspired by this, I was going to listen to a bunch of versions of Chopin's Op.25 No.12.

Sadly, that ended before it began because I found the best version straightaway: Sokolov - live - encore - 1987.

How can you say it's the best when you haven't heard the others?

[Spotted Horses]

How can you say it's the best when you haven't heard the others?

He recognized that his pleasure center had been saturated and further comparisons would be useless. It is a blessing.

[Todd]

[hopefullytrusting]

How can you say it's the best when you haven't heard the others?

@Spotted Horses got it

[Linz]

Dmitri ShostakovichSymphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93
Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Sladkovsky

[Spotted Horses]

Finished this release, from Les Vents Francais



I wouldn't typically listen through a collection of works by different composers, but this one was so compelling it became the exception to the rule.

I came to it while looking for recordings of the Hindemith Wind Quintet (Kleine Kammermusik), and this was was by far my favorite among those I listened to. Continuing, Le Cheminee du roi Rene (Milhaud) 6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (Ligeti) are miraculous. 3 Pieces breves (Ibert) Sonatina for Oboe and Bassoon (Jolivet) Humoresk (Zemlinski) Summer Music (Barber) were very satisfying performances. A Wind Quintet (Taffenel) was rather prosaic, I thought, and the transcription of Le Tombeau de Couperin a dreary horror.

Now I've just started listening to another release in the series from Les Vents Francais, Moderniste



The first selection, Sonata for Flute, Oboe Clarinet and Piano by Milhaud, is another miracle. In contrast to the Milhaud, Le Cheminee du roi Rene, this is kaleidoscope Milhaud, full of wild key changes and polytonal harmony.

[Mister Sharpe]

Just had to interrupt my Sibelius marathon (apostasy!, I know), as my curiosity about the recording premiere of Howard Hanson's symphonic poem Before the Dawn was distracting me. Thanks and a tip 'o the derby to Symphonic Addict whose post brought it to my attention.  Happily, it's on YouTube so I got to try before I buy (which I will).  This is an early work, Op.17 from 1920, and so predates the better-known Arctic Symphony. It's very short (under 7 minutes) and while it has all the majesty and polyphonic prowess fans associate with the composer, to me it lacks the structural strength and conviction of the later work.  Still, it is interesting and (along with his California Forest Play ) it won Hanson the American Academy's Rome Prize the next year! 

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, 1878 Version Ed. Robert Haas
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan

[Daverz]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 - Claudio Arrao, Dresden Staatskapelle, Colin Davis

Beethoven: Triple Concerto - Claudio Arrau, Henryk Szeryng, Janos Starker

Delightful!