What are you listening 2 now?

[71 dB]

Chopin - Impromptus & Allegro de concert
Idil Biret
Naxos 8.554538

[Traverso]

Bach

CD 18

This is almost the last CD in this 19-piece set.
I enjoyed listening to it. Each CD begins with a beautifully performed organ chorale. This is followed by the corresponding chorale, sung a cappella, on which the cantatas are based. For me, it certainly adds value because it forms the foundation of the cantatas.
Tomorrow, the final CD.

[Traverso]

Mozart

String Quartets KV 465 & KV 590

[PaulR]

Shostakovich: Symphony #8

[Harry]

Mr. DEMACHY (seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle)
Pièces de violle en musique et en tablature, Paris, 1685.
ROMINA LISCНКА, basse de viole.
Basse de viole 7 cordes, modèle français, Walter Schmidt, Vienne 2002.
Recorded, 2012 at the Eglise Saint-Remy de Franc-Waret (Belgique).

This music brings you back to the realm of silence and equilibrium. Hectic is gone, just the notes of de Basse de viole, that floats in my ears, by one of my favourite players on the instrument. She is a marvel in projecting the music in such a way that it brings the composer near, quite near. Helped by a beautiful sonorous instrument, which is also a marvel in balance in every one of the 7 strings and by a dark hued resonant body. Fine sound, pristine ambiance, very near and intimate, it like sharing the same seat as Romina Lischka, and also your arms moving to and fro with bow in hand, while caressing the instrument. And that connects me with a composer that evokes the same emotions in me, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, which is a great compliment me thinks.

[Todd]

It's been a minute since I last listened to this, and while my memories were exceedingly positive to begin with, this fresh listening made me appreciate it all the more.  Lonquich's touch in the Messiaen is phenomenal, and his Gaspard layers in nuance with the virtuosity. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Nutcracker. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski. 1956 stereo recording.

[PaulR]

Neilsen: Violin Concerto

[Harry]

Luz del Alva
Spanish songs and instrumental works from early Renaissance.
Cancionero Musical de Palacio.
(The famous Cancionero Musical de Palacio, which was composed over several decades, impressively demonstrates the diversity and artistry of music at the Spanish court in the late 15th and early 16th centuries with its more than 450 pieces.)
La Morra Ensemble- (Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen, Corina Marti, Michael Gondko, Tore Eketorp).
Recorded in March, 2011 at the Heiligkreuzkirche, Binningen, Switzerland.
Cover: Mediterranean portolan chart, Spain, c. 1575

Breathtakingly beautiful, really quite a surprise, that Arianna Savall could sing so well and on pitch. I heard other things of her that were to say it mildly, not pleasant. On the whole this disc by the ensemble La Morra is amongst their best they ever produced. Well they almost are all in that category. The music is fascinating, the recording is SOTA. You do not get this any better.

[PaulR]

Weinberg: Symphony #6

[ritter]

First listen to this historic live concert of Igor Stravinsky conducting the Orchestre National de France and the French Radio Chorus, at the Théâtre des Chamos-Elysées in Paris on May 19th, 1952, Oedipus Rex (with Léopold Simoneau, Eugenia Zareska, and Bernard Cottret among the vocal soloists, and Jean Cocteau lui-mème as the narrator) and Scènes de ballet.

CD1 of this set:

[PaulR]

Weinberg: Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra

[71 dB]

TV: Yle Teema & Fem: Radion sinfoniaorkesterin konsertti 

Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, concert overture, Op. 21
Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
Hans Werner Henze: Symphony No. 8
Felix Mendelssohn: Incidental music from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61


Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Truls Mørk, cello
Hannu Lintu, conductor

Henze's 8th Symphony was included in the concert because it is inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

For same reason I experience a mild taste of oranges in my mouth whenever listening to cello concertos. Must be a strange synesthesia thing...  Fortunately the taste of oranges is good. 

[SonicMan46]

Spohr, Louis (1784-1859) - Double Quartets & Clarinet Concertos w/ the performers on the cover art - was able to secure the book "Louis Spohr - A Critical Biography" by Clive Brown published in 1984 (Spohr's bicentennial) from the Wake Forest Library (gave me a year to return it so not too popular -  ) - so, pulling out my recordings (around 30 or so discs) of this quite popular violinist/composer in the first half of the 19th century.  Dave

   

 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Penderecki, Arutiunian, Khachaturian, and Fazıl Say trumpet concertos.

[ritter]

Riccardo Malipiero's String Quartet No. 3, played by the Quartetto di Milano, and Konzertstück per Paolo Franci (for solo cello), performed by Luca De Muro.

From this beautifully produced, not commercially available box set with 5 books and a double CD, published in 2004 as a tribute to the composer on the 20th anniversary of his death.



The 1974 studio recording of the SQ No. 3 was here reissued for the first time on CD, while the work for solo cello was specifically recorded for the occasion.

The SQ No. 3 is a concise work, lasting just under 22 minutes, but a very effective one. It combines 12-tone austerity with lyrical expressiveness most remarkably, particularly in the molto lento third movement. The whole work makes the most of what the SQ medium has to offer. Great stuff.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The complete Nutcracker would be a Desert Island work for me - I love it to an almost irrational degree.  But I strongly dislike this performance (as well as a similarly forced and impatient single disc version from Gergiev).  The playing and recording is excellent - but this should not be treated as simply a virtuoso display piece with a train to catch!  The curious thing - its why I find Jarvi pere a deeply confusing conductor! - is that he recorded Act II back in his Chandos/SNO glory days here -



and it is wonderful.  Warmly affectionate - oh that Pas de Deux gets me every time - ripely recorded - everything you want.  I wish they'd recorded the complete ballet back then.  These newer versions are just wrong on every level - impossible to dance to and lacking the space and room to emotional engage.  Like I said - very confusing.......

What's your (and other member's) favorite piece in the Nutcracker?  Mine is Russian Dance. I don't think it sounds like Russian or Slavic. 

[ritter]

Sticking to the Italian novecento, with the Dallapiccola pieces on this disc:



We get the delightful Piccolo concerto per Muriel Couvreux (with pianist Aldo Orvieto) and the Heine-based solo cantata  An Matilde (with soprano Livia Rado). Marco Angius conducts the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.

Both works are from the early WW2 years, but couldn't be more different in outlook and conception: the concerto a sunny, diatonic piece, the cantata a stern, Webernian work (but always with Dallapiccola's trademark "dodecaphonic lyricism", or "lyrical dodecaphony", if you prefer  .

[Roasted Swan]

What's your (and other member's) favorite piece in the Nutcracker?  Mine is Russian Dance. I don't think it sounds like Russian or Slavic. 

The Pine Forest - one long arc of building emotion.  The lead into it gets me every single time...

[Cato]

A Beethoven week (Dec. 16th/Baptism on the 17th):