What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Vivaldi

Cantata O mie porpore piu belle
Arias from Tito Manlio, Candace and La verita in cimento



(Yes, I'm aware my Italian orthography is lamentably missing necessary accents, some days I would chase them)

Delphine Galou's vocal styling was a little less intrusive in this cantata than the previous one, but I still don't love it.

And she's a good musician when she chooses. The aria "Andro fida e sconsolata" from Tito Manlio is in some ways a real highlight here (and I was chuffed to recognise it from the opera... am I getting to know this stuff?). The instrumental playing is particularly gorgeous, and Galou does a really marvellous job varying the da capo section. It just would be even better if she fluttered around the notes a little less.

What's not so good here is the aria "Semplice non temer" from La verita in cimento, which I again recognised though as much from the words as the music - and possibly I recognise it from insertion in a DIFFERENT opera because I can't find it in the set.  But anyway... The character in question is lying to a couple of other characters, and doing little asides where she basically says "you're stupid if you believe me". And I have memories of enjoying this when I heard it before. But Galou hams up the asides so much it's... it's really bad. Yes, she changes her vocal tone which is arguably what I want from her. But dear Lord, not like this.

[Papy Oli]

Bacewicz: String Quartet No. 2

Silesian Quartet

(Chandos)

An ongoing first foray into this composer after SQ1 yesterday.

[Madiel]

Schumann: 3 Gesänge, op.83



Back when Lieder and Gesänge were slightly different things, a distinction that's making a bit more sense to me as I listen to each kind separately. And then Schumann also wrote Romanzen and Balladen. And sometimes he said Gedichte ("poems").

Hanno Müller-Brachmann sings 2/3 of this opus, and unfortunately he's one my least favourite singers in the Hyperion series. A lot of approximate pitch where he sort of swoops into the note. I've just seen a picture of him and he's kind of cute, actually... but on CD he's disappointing.

The songs themselves are interesting, later Schumann often has curious turns.

[Papy Oli]

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68


Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Sir John Eliot Gardiner

(SDG)

[Madiel]

Poulenc songs from 1940.

Les chemins de l'amour (written for a play, Poulenc in his most popular Paris cafe style)
Colloque (a duet, though they sing one after the other, not together)
Banalités (a collection where the last song is nearly as long as the others combined)

[Papy Oli]

Absolutely - a player who sounds relaxed (in the best sense)

Well put. I had a similar reaction when I discovered Segovia. He lets the music breathe...

[Que]

Some lovely (but not particularly memorable) music from 18th c. Venice here.
The famous oboe concerto receives a good be it not stellar performance (pick Alfredo Bernardini with Zefiro for that).

[Todd]

Op 12.

[Que]

More Italian Baroque stuff... trio sonatas..



http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/CPO_777-030-2.html

[Harry]

Musicque de Ioye.
Works by: Roquelay, Modena, Janequin, Cabezon, Sandrin, Willaert, Costa, Gervaise, Anonymous.
Hesperion XX, Jordi Savall.
Details on the back cover.
Recorded in 1978.

A blast in the past, one I enjoyed very much, recorded before the CD came into existence. An original Astree release. Wonderful music, well performed and certainly superb recorded.  Never was a fan of Montserrat Figuerras singing, and sure enough her somewhat raw voice made me shudder as always. I cannot change that, I would if I could.

[Harry]

More Italian Baroque stuff... trio sonatas..



http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/CPO_777-030-2.html

A superb disc, bought it actually when it was released.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Flemish Romantic Horn Concertos.

[Traverso]

Bach

[DavidW]

Lyrical music for a quiet autumn morning:

[AnotherSpin]

Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck

Genzo Takehisa

St. Catherine Hall　
Matsuyama, Japan

[SonicMan46]

Vivaldi - Flute Works - Barthold Kuijken & Konrad Hunteler use period flutes (first two pics below) - the Francis recording is a mixture of different instruments.  Dave

   

[Harry]

CHRISTOPHER GUNNING
SYMPHONIES 8 & 9.
BBC NATIONAL ORCHESTRA OF WALES, KENNETH WOODS.
Recorded. 2024 at Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millenium Centre, Bute Place, Cardiff.

A new release in this series, and as successful as the previous releases in this series. Gunning is simply a modern composer after my heart. Tonal and balanced he paints a picture in which you can dream away, and create your own personal colours, so every story fits. What you put in you get back thricefold., and that is what Gunning said about the 9th symphony " I think this piece has a strong emotional flavor, but if you try to unravel the story, you end up with your own story - and I think that's absolutely perfect". You get SOTA sound, and an orchestra that feels its way into the music of Gunning. Gorgeous.

[AnotherSpin]

J.S.Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, vol.1 

Yoshio Watanabe

Akiko Sakikawa
The Baroque Baand

[Harry]

Les Flûtes d'Angleterre.
A Delightful Companion.
Works by:
John Baston (1685-1740), Gottfried Keller (1650-1704), William Babell (1690-1723), Andrew Parcham, William Croft (1678-1727),  Mr. Hill (18th century), Giuseppe Sammartini (1695-1750), Robert Carr (1658-1700) Robert Woodcock (1690-1734).

La Pastorella.
Frederic de Roos, Flutes.
Recorded in 2002.

This is one of the best discs I heard this week, on the basis of its performance and SOTA sound which I did not expect. For those that like flute concerts of that era this is an absolute must. The works on this CD are all gems in their genre and will not disappoint in its artistry and creative writing I have to admit that I knew nothing of Frederic de Roos a Dutch Flute player and a very good one at that, but this made me alert and I will try if there are other recordings of worth.

[Spotted Horses]

More from the Honegger Chamber Music set on Timpani



The Colloque and Introduction et danse are small gems. They remind me of the mood of Honegger's Pastoral d'ete, calm but with harmonic tension running beneath the surface. 3 Counrepoints pleased again on repeat listening. Listened to the Clarinet Sonatina again, both the recording from this set and the recording with Tharaud on Harmonia Mundi. Both are satisfying performances, although my interest peaks with the first movement and ebbs by the time I reach the jazzy finale.