What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

This morning I was in the mood for some very early singing this morning.
Usually my go-to for that is the Ensemble Organaum, but picked this from Spotify by Sequential instead:



I don't know which female singer is on the 2nd track, but it sounds very uncomfortable.... Like someone is choking a chicken...

It is Barbara Thornton --  I like this chicken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbJesq0GJCo

[Que]

Only one possibility it seems:

Performers for the Philippe le Chancelier CD:
Sequentia, Ensemble für Musik des Mittelalters
Barbara Thornton (voice, organetto), Benjamin Bagby (voice, harp), Margriet Tindemans (fiddle)
with participation of:
Eric Menzel (voice), Edmond Brownless (voice), Stephen Grant (voice), Richard Corbeil (voice)

Yes, I had already confirmed that it was (the late) Barbara Thornton from an online picture of the track list in the booklet. She also sings the solo long before the last track with a hard edged, quite strained voice.

[Madiel]

Medtner: 3 Romances, op.3

[AnotherSpin]

CD 1,2

[Todd]

Still working through this bog download.  Knee deep in Purcell's The Masque in Dioclesian.

[brewski]

Watching the final concert, live from the Donaueschinger Festival in Germany, in outstanding audio and video. All of the composers are new to me.

Mirela Ivičević: Red Thread Mermaid für Orchester
Naomi Pinnock: I put lines down and wipe them away für Orchester
Laure M. Hiendl: The deepest continuity is paradoxically that which continually restarts and renews itself für Orchester
Hanna Hartman: Advanced Weather Information Processing System für Orchester und Elektronik

SWR Experimentalstudio
SWR Symphonieorchester
Elena Schwarz, conductor

[Florestan]

Mirela Ivičević: Red Thread Mermaid für Orchester
Naomi Pinnock: I put lines down and wipe them away für Orchester
Laure M. Hiendl: The deepest continuity is paradoxically that which continually restarts and renews itself für Orchester
Hanna Hartman: Advanced Weather Information Processing System für Orchester und Elektronik

Looks like a competition: who comes up with the most contrived title. 

[brewski]

Looks like a competition: who comes up with the most contrived title. 

  Elsewhere, a friend commented on "long titles coming back into style."

[hopefullytrusting]

So, I started off my search today with the name Boguslaw - I don't know why exactly, but at the way I say it in my head sounds badass, which led me to Boguslaw Jakubowski, a clarinetist, and per Presto - has a single recording of the works of Magdalena Cynk, a Polish composer I've never heard of. The piece I selected is Planetoidy, and it is made up of two sections: 3784 Chopin and 16689 Vistula 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyCzbfb0sHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9mzEDlLUtc

It starts off in a manner that I love - with a solo clarinet - I love that hollow sound - it then passes it to the strings then to the piano et al. - in a round, as it were. There are clear folk elements, which, for me, makes the piece more appealing - they sound Jewish to me, but this is me also exoticizing. It then goes off into this parallel octave section, which is something I've not heard before, but it gives off hints of 12-tone, and I love how seamlessly it blended into the melody, which is now reminding of me of music I've heard around the Shivah - it is very mournful, and I love how it ends - abrupt - with one last sting.

The second section starts off similar to the first with a solo clarinet, but then the piano came before the strings, and the melody here has a lot more moving pieces, but it still retains what I would say is a Jewish element - but it cold be Polish, but I've always heard such tunes in a Jewish context not a Polish one, and maybe Poland has a much deeper history with the the Jews than I know - I know pretty much nothing about Poland. The piano is far more dominant, which I don't like - especially when you have the clarinet which could be doing some of that lifting.

The second section, in my opinion, is not as good as the first - the relationship between the first and second sections - feels like a single and its b-side, when the b-side truly is a b-side. There is some good momentum and motive development, but it lingers just a bit too long - it is 2 minutes longer than the first, and you can feel it. It raises for me the question of when does a composition begin-end - like books make sense to me, even ones with unclear narratives or ones built with no narratives - but music, at least for right now, is simply a mystery to me. There seems to be little connection between the start and the finish other than the composer said so, and one shouldn't trust the author or composer when it comes to their own work, but then who else can you trust?

First section - high, high recommendation.
Second section - just a recommendation.

[Harry]

I have played this set the last few days continuously. Not bad at all, maybe not the latest in style and performance practice, but enjoyable nevertheless. The recordings are sometimes okay, and sometimes mediocre, but for the money this one would be a good intro into the chamber music by J.S. Bach. No real disappointments.

[prémont]

I have played this set the last few days continuously. Not bad at all, maybe not the latest in style and performance practice, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Might be an advantage.

[Iota]

Bach: Goldberg Variations,
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)

There were times when I thought Olafsson's fast tempi threatened to depart the bounds of musical reality, but ultimately the strength of his vision and extraordinary control made absolute sense of them. Indeed in Var.29, which is perhaps the craziest example of all, at the end Var.30 emerges from it with such a vaulting sense of joy that it feels as if it reverberates back through the whole piece.
His voicing throughout is impeccable, parts sing and glow in their individual freedom, his touch, ornaments and pretty much everything radiate transparency, and the work's arc emerges with tangible and powerful clarity. A very special performance. 

[André]

There are 4 discs in this series. 4 hours of charming, inconsequential two-piano music. This is volume 2. I bought it on the marketplace for peanuts. I do not intend to explore the other volumes.

Schmitt lived a long life, and presumably had time on his hands when he was not teaching, writing concert reviews for the newspaper Le Temps or traveling abroad, so he can be forgiven for indulging in these collections of short pieces.

Nice piano sound, with just enough separation.

[Linz]

Guido Cantelli CD 8
Paul Dukas L'Apprenti sorcier, Philharmonia Orchestra, Guido Cantelli
Manuel De Falla El sombrero de tres picoes, Philharmonia Orchestra, Guido Cantelli
Maurice Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No, 2, Philharmonia Orchestra, Guido Cantelli
César Franck Symphony in D Minor, FWV 48. NBC Symphony Orchestra, Guido Cantelli

[Madiel]

Bach: In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97

[SimonNZ]

[Madiel]

Dvorak: A Hero's Song



Big and indeed heroic. I'll need to have another listen to grasp the structure a little more, but enjoyable.

EDIT: Fun fact, the premiere was conducted by Mahler!

[JBS]

So, I started off my search today with the name Boguslaw - I don't know why exactly, but at the way I say it in my head sounds badass, which led me to Boguslaw Jakubowski, a clarinetist, and per Presto - has a single recording of the works of Magdalena Cynk, a Polish composer I've never heard of. The piece I selected is Planetoidy, and it is made up of two sections: 3784 Chopin and 16689 Vistula 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyCzbfb0sHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9mzEDlLUtc

It starts off in a manner that I love - with a solo clarinet - I love that hollow sound - it then passes it to the strings then to the piano et al. - in a round, as it were. There are clear folk elements, which, for me, makes the piece more appealing - they sound Jewish to me, but this is me also exoticizing. It then goes off into this parallel octave section, which is something I've not heard before, but it gives off hints of 12-tone, and I love how seamlessly it blended into the melody, which is now reminding of me of music I've heard around the Shivah - it is very mournful, and I love how it ends - abrupt - with one last sting.

The second section starts off similar to the first with a solo clarinet, but then the piano came before the strings, and the melody here has a lot more moving pieces, but it still retains what I would say is a Jewish element - but it cold be Polish, but I've always heard such tunes in a Jewish context not a Polish one, and maybe Poland has a much deeper history with the the Jews than I know - I know pretty much nothing about Poland. The piano is far more dominant, which I don't like - especially when you have the clarinet which could be doing some of that lifting.

The second section, in my opinion, is not as good as the first - the relationship between the first and second sections - feels like a single and its b-side, when the b-side truly is a b-side. There is some good momentum and motive development, but it lingers just a bit too long - it is 2 minutes longer than the first, and you can feel it. It raises for me the question of when does a composition begin-end - like books make sense to me, even ones with unclear narratives or ones built with no narratives - but music, at least for right now, is simply a mystery to me. There seems to be little connection between the start and the finish other than the composer said so, and one shouldn't trust the author or composer when it comes to their own work, but then who else can you trust?

First section - high, high recommendation.
Second section - just a recommendation.

I will listen to it later. I should note that, technically, there is no music for Shivah, because music is generally forbidden during mourning, especially the deep mourning of the Shivah week. The "Jewish" flavor of the music reflects the fact that folk music of the surrounding culture had huge impact on Jewish folk music both in Europe and MENA, so Ashkenazi music is a close cousin to Eastern European folk music, and Mizrachi to MENA folk music.  So what you heard could be either Polish or Jewish in origin.

As to what I'm listening to now...

[hopefullytrusting]

I will listen to it later. I should note that, technically, there is no music for Shivah, because music is generally forbidden during mourning, especially the deep mourning of the Shivah week. The "Jewish" flavor of the music reflects the fact that folk music of the surrounding culture had huge impact on Jewish folk music both in Europe and MENA, so Ashkenazi music is a close cousin to Eastern European folk music, and Mizrachi to MENA folk music.  So what you heard could be either Polish or Jewish in origin.

First and foremost, thanks for this informative post, as I didn't know that, but I was referring to one of the greatest videogames ever made - The Shivah by Dave Gilbert:



It has one of the greatest boss battles, especially if you are like me, and you go in completely blind knowing almost nothing about Jewish culture, lol.

[hopefullytrusting]

Staying on the Jewish path, I queried Gemini about classical music and the term "kaddish," which I only know because of Leonard Bernstein, and he was the first recommendation, but the second was Salomone Rossi, and Gemini described it as joyous, so I selected that work: Yitgadal veyitkadesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAJXZTGc56A

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, a kaddish is a hymn praising G-d, but this was demarcated as a full kaddish, so I asked Gemini what that was, and according to it in includes an extra paragraph beseeching G-d to accept the prayers of the Jewish people, so I understand, a bit, the framing, but, of course, I do not speak the language nor did I seek out a translation, so I am only appreciating it on sonic front, so only partial hermeneutics.

I do agree with the term joyous, but I don't find that term enough - the work feels holy to me, sacred - which is unusual, as all the masses and requiems I've heard are simply compositional forms/genres, but this gives the feeling of what chant does for me when it comes to the Christian faith - there is a purity to it, the lines are so clear, the music so flowing and lyrical - it is one constant uplift, as it were, and it is moving in only one direction - forward, onward, upward.

That is also an important point. If this was placed on a disc of Christian chant, I would not be able to differentiate it from the rest. There is nothing distinct in it for me - there is no tunefulness, as it were. It is glory; it is righteous aka entering the aesthetic realm of the Kantian sublime, but, for me, it is just another song amongst other songs.

High, high recommendation.