What are you listening 2 now?

[AnotherSpin]

J.S.Bach: French Overture - In memory of Gustav Leonhardt

Yoshio Watanabe

[Que]

[Harry]

In general I like most of Stile Antico's recordings. This is one of them.

[Harry]

Biagio Marini & Dario Castello.
Canzonas,Sonatas & Madrigali.
2 CD'S.
La Fenice, Jean Tubery.


Recorded in 1996-1998 this double CD still marks the excellence of those days, and the sheer musicality, with a honest expression. It is how I personally like to hear the music from this era, and thus I cherish the recording now playing in sumptuous colours. The line up of ensemble and soloists is impressive, and both composers rank in my favourites list. The recording is brilliant, just right, a natural sound with intimacy that makes you feel embraced. The music will do the rest

[Que]

A new Bach recording by Celine Frisch! I'll have to let it sink in, but not surprisingly it is a competitive one. Though I don't think it will move Christophe Rousset from the top of my list of favourites. It is a more free, and less structured than I prefer. Sound wise I have more reservations. The choice for a harpsichord after Vater, which are magnificent instruments, leads at times to "thunderous" effects. This seems to be enhanced by the reverberating acoustics - sounds like a church to me - with even a small echo at times.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi violin concertos

Concerto in G minor, RV 327
Concerto in E major, RV 263a
Concerto in C major, RV 181/181a [both finales are included]



This might be the best of the violin volumes thus far (though of course that's only 4 of them, there are plenty to go, and I'm not doing direct enough comparisons to be definitive on this). For one thing it's very nicely recorded, a clear and balanced acoustic and an appealing violin tone.

But also, all the playing seems very musical. Concertos and movements are given a lot of distinct personality without it ever feeling exaggerated. The music is only being pushed in directions that, to my ears at least, it actually wants to go. The result is an album where listening to several concertos in a row is a pleasant and engaging experience. While it's not how I've done it this time around, I could conceive myself playing the album from beginning to end and having my attention held throughout.

[Madiel]

Dvorak

Hussite Overture
Festival March



Possibly not top-drawer Dvorak, though the Hussite Overture was apparently a particularly popular work in his lifetime. Maybe I need to listen to it a few times to get a hold of its form.

But even second-drawer Dvorak is well worth hearing. And the Festival March is uncomplicated celebratory fun.

EDIT: A second listen was indeed helpful.

[Madiel]

Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss



Again, I like this rather better than Pulcinella. I wonder if it's just the recording of Pulcinella that I'm not wild about, but it's Marriner and he's supposed to be pretty good.

But the pair of Volkov discs are definitely a good source for the later, non-Ballet-Russes ballets.

[Cato]

Recently...thanks to Dayton Classical Radio...


It might be time to investigate more of Heinrich Marschner's music!

My brother has been a big fan of Paul Creston: not unlike Marschner, perhaps under-rated and overlooked (?)...

A more "American-sounding" work would be difficult to find!

And I just wrote elsewhere on GMG about Rafael Kubelik, and this wonderful recording from c. 50 years ago is not be missed:


Mahler: Symphony #6

And we have Kubelik conducting, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing, the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Sodom und Gomorrah Gesangs-Szene:

[Harry]

Rerun.


A marvelous rendition of both works, love them both, the Metamorphic Variations being my favourite work.
Sound in general is SOTA, but in the Miracle in the Gorbals the sound engineer is fiddling too much with his buttons, trying to get the somewhat shrill Violins under control, which does not really work, and the sound tends to shift, which is a pity. The rest of the spectrum is really very good.

[Traverso]

Dowland

Lachrimae

After a long time, finally a new recording with Skip Sempé and his ensemble, just received.

[Todd]

Disc nine, Schubert.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Rerun.


A marvelous rendition of both works, love them both, the Metamorphic Variations being my favourite work.
Sound in general is SOTA, but in the Miracle in the Gorbals the sound engineer is fiddling too much with his buttons, trying to get the somewhat shrill Violins under control, which does not really work, and the sound tends to shift, which is a pity. The rest of the spectrum is really very good.

I listened to the recording two days ago. Very good recording!

[Harry]

Sigismondo d'India.
Mottetti-1610.
Gli Affetti Musicali, Claudio Chiavazza.

A wonderful recording and performance made in the year 2000 at the il coro della Chiesa di Santa Chiara, Bra, Italy. Since there is no PDF file I have to guess about the soloists singing in this performance, which is kind of difficult for there are a lot of interchanging soloists. No matter, this is a super relaxed and yet lively feast. d'India gets a royal treatment, in an old fashioned way and much to my liking. Warm, committed, and in excellent diction. No shrillness! Soft toned sopranos, and polite males that match perfectly. Unison and balance is what the instrumentalists add, and make the picture complete. Some unevenness in the male voices here and there, that's all.

The composer described himself as a "nobleman from Palermo" on the title pages of his early works. He most likely received his musical training in Naples at the time when Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, ruled, composed and played music there. As part of his training, D'India traveled throughout northern and central Italy and met almost all the musical greats of his time. He spent a significant part of his life in Modena. He was one of the pioneers of the new monodic style of singing. Like Monteverdi, he was just as proficient in the old, traditional polyphony.
While his secular works are now well documented and have largely been recorded, the same cannot be said of his sacred music. He had his three books of motets published in Venice in the same year that Monteverdi's "Vespro della Beata Vergine" was first performed there.

[Harry]

I listened to the recording two days ago. Very good recording!

I do not deny that my friend.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Looking to the East. Leopold Stokowski · Anahid Ajemian · Maro Ajemian.

[Harry]

Cloudflare seem to have issues, and therefore some folks cannot connect to their streaming services, like tidal, Qobuz and others. They seem to work to get all right again.

[Toni Bernet]

Lili Boulanger: Vieille Prière bouddhique for tenor, choir and orchestra (1917)
Prière quotidienne pour tout l'univers

Lili Boulanger only had 7 years to compose. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. She had been ill since her youth, which prevented her from studying music properly. Nevertheless, at the age of 19 she was the first woman ever to win the prestigious Rome Prize of the Paris Conservatoire. She came from a family of musicians steeped in tradition; her older sister Nadia Boulanger was also a composer.

The subtitle of the composition Vieille Prière bouddhique, which was only published posthumously, is: 'Prière quotidienne pour tout l'univers: Lili Boulanger set a wonderful Buddhist prayer text for peace and tolerance to music, known as "Metta sutta" and translated into French by Suzanne Karpelès. It should be noted that the work was written in the midst of the First World War in 1917.

Just as the prayer text emphasises the concerns of an interreligious dialogue between the world's religions, the composition combines Gregorian and Asian melismas. The sparseness of the choral sound contrasts with the romantic religious understanding of the sweet mood.

More an a Listening Companion cf.

https://www.discoveringsacredmusic.ch/20th-century/boulanger-lili

[Harry]

Andre Cheron. 1695-1766
Sonates en Duo et en trio.
(Sonatas en Duo op.2 Nos.2 & 3, Sonatas en Trio op.1, No.2 & 3; op. 2 no.7)
Affetti Musicali.

Another fine recording on Thorofon made in 1997 at the Petri-Paul Kirche in Bad Münder, Germany. Despite  its age it shows no wear or tear, neither in sound or performance. I am working with pleasure my way through their (Affetti Musicali) recordings and have not been disappointed so far. An excellent bunch of musicians. Little is known of this composer, and what is recorded of him amounts to three CD, two of them are completely filled with works by him, but thats all so far as I could ascertain. Its a mix of Flutes and Violin concertos, and all delightful and easy going. Cheron is played with a true passion.  It is a pleasure to hear how French elegance and Italian brilliance merge naturally in this style of playing.

Chéron was the son of instrument maker Jean-Baptiste Chéron and his wife Anne Felière, and a friend of André Campra, who was the boy's godfather.[  From May 1702, Chéron was trained by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Nicolas Bernier at the Sainte-Chapelle and received a position there as assistant organist in 1713.  He taught harmony and counterpoint to Jean-Marie Leclair, who was only two years younger. He composed more than 20 Grands motets, motets for solo voice, and a cantata, all of which are lost. The sonatas he published himself are the trio sonatas Op.1 (1727) and the duo sonatas for violin (flute) and basso continuo Op.2 (1729). Both collections are in a style typical of Corelli or Couperin, which was conservative for the time.

[AnotherSpin]

Cloudflare seem to have issues, and therefore some folks cannot connect to their streaming services, like tidal, Qobuz and others. They seem to work to get all right again.

No problems with Qobuz today here.