What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

D959.  Finishing up a Lonquich-Schubert-Schumann musical sandwich for the day.

[nakulanb]

Mozart - Piano Sonatas - Horowitz

(3/10/13)

[Karl Henning]

FJ Haydn
Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major

My first exposure to Haydn, in band transcription. Love at first hearing!

[Karl Henning]

Chopin - Impromptus & Allegro de concert
Idil Biret
Naxos 8.554538

How do you like them?

[Karl Henning]

FJ Haydn
Keyboard Concerto 3 in F Major, Hob. XVIII:3
Keyboard Concerto 4 in G Major, Hob. XVIII:4
Keyboard Concerto 11 in D Major, Hob. XVIII:11

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Manchester Camerata - Gábor Takács-Nagy

Bavouzet does love embellishments, doesn't he. It will take me a while to come to terms with one of his cadenzas in Hob. XVIII:3, one where I half-expected Karen Carpenter to come out singing Yesterday Once More.
VS

All the "Papa" love does my soul good.

[JBS]

FJ Haydn
Keyboard Concerto 3 in F Major, Hob. XVIII:3
Keyboard Concerto 4 in G Major, Hob. XVIII:4
Keyboard Concerto 11 in D Major, Hob. XVIII:11

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Manchester Camerata - Gábor Takács-Nagy

Bavouzet does love embellishments, doesn't he. It will take me a while to come to terms with one of his cadenzas in Hob. XVIII:3, one where I half-expected Karen Carpenter to come out singing Yesterday Once More.
VS

What do you think of his Mozart concertos (if you've heard any of them)?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Walton cello concerto.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Bach WTC2.

[Madiel]

It will take me a few hours to know whether I've found another top-rank Vivaldi opera recording, but the signs from the first couple of scenes are VERY good.

Stay tuned for which opera I'm talking about. 

[AnotherSpin]

Motets from Northern France the Cambrai Manuscript A 410

Graindelavoix - Björn Schmelzer

[Spotted Horses]

Walton cello concerto.

The Big Piatigorsky box is one of the few that I regret missing.

[AnotherSpin]

There's no doubt that Bach's Trio Sonatas have filled my room more often than any other music over the past year.

I'll listen to them once again. I didn't choose the Rübsam recording as a deliberate commemoration, it simply caught my eye in Qobuz's favorites list. And yet, perhaps this encounter was not a coincidence after all.

[Que]

This morning a recording by De Labyrintho of which I didn't know it existed until I encountered it in a 2nd hand store in Brussels last summer:



Featured are motets by Josquin Desprez on the ancestry (genealogy) of Christ, based on the texts from the Liber generationis Jesu Christi (St Matthew). I saved it for some seasonal listening.

[Roasted Swan]

The Big Piatigorsky box is one of the few that I regret missing.

I know he commissioned the Walton - but I don't feel Piatigorsky is really inside the idiom of this work.  To my ears he tries to make it too overtly 'big' and virtuosic.  Not helped by a Living Stereo recording that is not as fine as many others from that source.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi: Atenaide



The only one of four operas that Vivaldi wrote for Florence that has survived intact. And consequently, the only Vivaldi opera that can still be performed and recorded in the same theatre it was originally written for. Which is where this recording was made. I also believe it's the longest opera in the Naive series (3 hours 40 minutes).

The version that's survived is actually a later revision by Vivaldi that might never have been performed in his lifetime. What little evidence there is suggests that it wasn't a great success when originally staged. Which surprises me, because frankly I think this is one of the best librettos out of any of them. The plot is of a fairly standard 'royal marriages' variety, but the whole thing makes sense and has twists in just the right places to keep the action going. Acts One and Three both have significant conversations where people are misunderstanding each other, and the misunderstandings are believable and come out of the information each person has.

There's really only one moment that felt a little forced to me, but really it's exactly the same kind of "a character is going to withhold information for a minute for dramatic effect" that you could readily encounter today.

The performance is really very solid throughout. Sardelli again demonstrates his ability to be punchy without ever getting that aggressive, hard edge that some others get when exaggerating the drama (and indeed in his contribution to the liner notes, he gives a quick slap to such conductors). I admit just occasionally I wanted the music to have extra bounce but that's a very minor point. All of the singers are good, with Sandrine Piau in the title role particularly excellent and I also enjoyed Paul Agnew as her father. But none of them gave me any moments of disappointment at all.

It's getting a little hard to remember for certain, but I think this goes into my top 3 for the operas thus far. I like the conductor/orchestra, I like all the singers, and I like the plot. That's a trifecta that I'm pretty happy with.

[Mandryka]

D959.  Finishing up a Lonquich-Schubert-Schumann musical sandwich for the day.

I see the sonatas here now as a recording where the concept (Schubert groping in the dark etc) is more interesting than the actual performances. I think I prefer his first Schubert CDs , though I'm not totally sold on either any more.

[Traverso]

Nicola Matteis, Suite in D major
M. Deguchi, Baroque violin & Asako Ueda, theorbo & Baroque guitar

Lovely....

[DavidW]

There's no doubt that Bach's Trio Sonatas have filled my room more often than any other music over the past year.

I'll listen to them once again. I didn't choose the Rübsam recording as a deliberate commemoration, it simply caught my eye in Qobuz's favorites list. And yet, perhaps this encounter was not a coincidence after all.

Several years ago, Bach's trio sonatas were my most listened-to works of the year.

[Harry]

Dame de Deuil.
Musical offerings for Marguerite of Austria. (1480-1530)
La Morra.

A Etcetera-Klara collaboration. An interesting release, with some minor drawbacks. First of all recitations of text, and the somewhat overbearing sound. A lot of reverb, and a piercing sound, especially when the Soprano does her bit. Els Janssens has a somewhat flat expression, a voice that gets on your nerves after a while. One of the few La Morra recordings which I will not hold dear.

[Lisztianwagner]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on Christmas Carols
Hodie

Gavin Williams (organ), John Barrow (bass-baritone), Guildford Cathedral Choir
Barry Rose & Choir of Guildford Cathedral String Orchestra
Richard Lewis (tenor), Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), John Shirley-Quirk (bass-baritone)
Bach Choir, Westminster Abbey Choir
David Willcocks & London Symphony Orchestra