What are you listening 2 now?

[steve ridgway]

Stockhausen - Klavierstück IX

Playing the whole album through is too much for me but I enjoyed this 9 minute piece in isolation .

[steve ridgway]

Scriabin - Poème Satanique Op 36

Another piano composition making a nice contrast with the Stockhausen .

[steve ridgway]

Ligeti - Lontano

A work I find particularly absorbing.

[Que]

This arrived (on disc) yesterday:



A mass attributed to Dufay. A rather credible attribution in this case.
But it doesn't really matter: I'd take any mass of that period of Dufay quality, regardless...

[AnotherSpin]

There is a peculiar enchantment in doubtful attributions, particularly when we speak of the works from Josquin's era. Music belongs only in part to any single soul. It is born from the vast collective murmur of the time (voices, chapels, courts, and streets) and dissolves back into that same boundless whole, leaving us to wonder whose hand truly set the notes aflight.

In the end, there never was a composer, only the One humming through many masks.

[Irons]

Schumann: String Quartet No.3



GMG offers a good service in that those who listen to far more music then myself doing hard miles sorting wheat from the chaff. Scrolling through Schumann's thread I read a tempting advocacy of his 3rd String Quartet. For a composer known for waywardness I found the opposite, a perfect example of a string quartet of it's time. I enjoyed the work immensely and hat tip to Kyjo for recommendation. 

[Mandryka]

CHARLES KOECHLIN.
Sonata for  Violin and Piano.
Quintet for Piano and BC.

After listening many times to a box with the complete chamber music by Koechlin, I now started to explore individual releases beginning with the present one. I am impressed by the performance and sound, very much so. The music is magical and deeply mesmerizing, expressionism and impressionism mixed to great effect. Onwards I go, much to explore. Recommendations would be welcome. Please PM them, that way I have quick access searching through Qobuz.

Poèmes d'Automne. Chants de Nectaire, Bk1.

[Que]

I dedcided to do a bit of a catch up on the Naïve Vivaldi series... A recent purchase:

[71 dB]

Hector Berlioz - Requiem
Michael Schade, Tenor
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir
Elora Festival Orchestra
Noel Edison
Naxos 8.554494-95

[Wanderer]

The album contains the "Eroica" and Op. 34 Variations as well as the "Appassionata".

[Harry]

Roberto Valentini.
12 Sonatas for Recorder & Bc.
Ensemble Mediolanum.


This recording presents the world premiere recording of twelve sonatas for recorder and basso continuo by the English composer Roberto Valentini, whose manuscripts have only recently been rediscovered. The manuscript of these twelve sonatas is part of an independent collection of works by the Italian music lover Paolo Antonio Parensi, merchant and gonfalone in Lucca around 1704, which is truly representative of the repertoire. It's cleanly played, with freshness, enthusiasm and excitement. The recording made in 2006 at the Lutheran Church of Florstadt, Germany, gives full play to the recorder, and the higher tones are still acceptable, a little sharpness is to be expected, for the recorder as well as the piccolo are difficult instruments to record. There is something to say for trying this disc out, if it only be for the pleasure vibe this interpretation emits. Tis dark outside and its raining in torrents, so it helps to bring some light.

[Wanderer]

[Todd]

Op 78.

[Todd]

Op 79.

[Madiel]

Ravel, L'heure espagnole.

On OperaVision. It was good seeing it for the first time, not just hearing it. And 4/5 of the cast did really well in the necessary acting to make it funny.

[Todd]

81/a.

[Harry]

Carlo Farina (1600-1640)
Sonate e Canzoni per il Violino con il Basso per sonare.
Performed by: Leila Schayegh, Jörg Halubek, Daniele Caminiti, Jonathan Pesek.
Recorded in 2016, at the Alte Kirche Fautenbach, Achern (Germany).


Carlo Farina's Violin works are among the most curious in music history. Time and again, onomatopoeic sounds such as cat cries, chicken clucking or dogs barking find their way into his compositions. Leila Scheyegh has often recalled unknown composers from the mists of oblivion, and and this is certainly one of them. The low violin position above the chest (instead of at the collarbone), the consistent stringing with four gut strings and a special bowing technique gives her playing a softness and suppleness combined with a highly sensitive response to even the fastest note values, which cannot be taken for granted even in circles of historically informed playing practice. As an interpretation and musical interest it deserves the highest marks, and the sound is stratospheric too. What a treat. Recommended.

[Cato]

Yesterday morning we drove to Detroit to hear the Detroit Symphony at a morning concert.

Mrs. Cato thought, at first, given the morning start (10:45) that it might be a Kinderkonzert with school kids attending, but I found that dubious, given that it contained Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht and the Brahms First Piano Concerto.

So, no, it was not a concert for the school kids: there were buses outside, however, from old-age homes! 

In all the time we lived in Toledo (only 50 miles away), we never could afford to go to a Detroit Symphony concert, when Neemi Järvi was there.  It just was too much.


So, the opening work was Mozart's Magic Flute Overture (nicely done) and then the string section (not all the members, for some reason) played Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht.  The conductor for the concert was Tabita Berglund from Norway: a very good performance and the audience gave a standing ovation for them at the conclusion of the piece.  I might have done things a little differently here and there, and why did the whole string section not participate?  But those are minor quibbles: the drama and the anguish and the salvific transfiguration were there!  Lady Berglund conducted like Leopold Stokowski: no baton!  🙂

Then came the Brahms Piano Concerto #1, not a favorite work, but again, nicely and even powerfully played with Kirill Gerstein as the soloist.

There was applause after the first movement, and Mrs. Cato asked immediately, "Is it over?", a signal that certain longueurs were involved in her reaction to the piece.  With regret, I said that there were still two more movements, which, however, would be shorter than the first.

Certainly the audience was enthusiastic at the end, and gave a standing ovation.  (Of course, in modern-day America, everyone eventually gets a standing ovation out of egalitarian politeness.  😇  )

Mrs. Cato commented, however: "I think I would have liked it better with just the orchestra, as a three movement symphony or something.  It just seemed like there was a lot of banging on the piano, and it didn't fit with the orchestra."  😇

[Harry]

Yesterday morning we drove to Detroit to hear the Detroit Symphony at a morning concert.

Mrs. Cato thought, at first, given the morning start (10:45) that it might be a Kinderkonzert with school kids attending, but I found that dubious, given that it contained Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht and the Brahms First Piano Concerto.

So, no, it was not a concert for the school kids: there were buses outside, however, from old-age homes! 

In all the time we lived in Toledo (only 50 miles away), we never could afford to go to a Detroit Symphony concert, when Neemi Järvi was there.  It just was too much.


So, the opening work was Mozart's Magic Flute Overture (nicely done) and then the string section (not all the members, for some reason) played Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht.  The conductor for the concert was Tabita Berglund from Norway: a very good performance and the audience gave a standing ovation for them at the conclusion of the piece.  I might have done things a little differently here and there, and why did the whole string section not participate?  But those are minor quibbles: the drama and the anguish and the salvific transfiguration were there!  Lady Berglund conducted like Leopold Stokowski: no baton!  🙂

Then came the Brahms Piano Concerto #1, not a favorite work, but again, nicely and even powerfully played with Kirill Gerstein as the soloist.

There was applause after the first movement, and Mrs. Cato asked immediately, "Is it over?", a signal that certain longueurs were involved in her reaction to the piece.  With regret, I said that there were still two more movements, which, however, would be shorter than the first.

Certainly the audience was enthusiastic at the end, and gave a standing ovation.  (Of course, in modern-day America, everyone eventually gets a standing ovation out of egalitarian politeness.  😇  )

Mrs. Cato commented, however: "I think I would have liked it better with just the orchestra, as a three movement symphony or something.  It just seemed like there was a lot of banging on the piano, and it didn't fit with the orchestra."  😇

Thanks for the many peals of Laughter your Epistle gave me, just what I needed.    

[Que]

Continuing my explorations of harpsichord recordings on Brilliant:



Hubert Renotte (1704-1745?) from the Southern (Habsburg) Netherlands and was born in Liége/Luik, I actually quite like his Italianate style. Like other composers from these parts, their geographic/cultural distance from France gave way to mixing in other influences. Excellent performances by Fernando de Luca who plays a beautiful sounding copy of a Blanchet harpsichord from 1754.