What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

Polish Lute Music of the Renaissance.
Joachim Held, Lute.
Recorded 2019. No PDF file.

When I bought it some years ago as a CD, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the music, recording and performance. Within certain parameters I like Held's art. This is one of them. I am too lazy to fish it out of my collection for details about venue and lute.

[VonStupp]

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

Alas, I have not, although I understand the Haydn concertos are a microcosm of his approach in Mozart. Added ornamentation in static passages, willful cadenzas honoring Gulda, a sense of collaboration between piano and orchestra.
VS

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

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.

I like Lloyd Webber.

[Traverso]

Historische Orgeln aus Holland – Historic organs of Holland

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Nutcracker Suite, Markevitch.

[VonStupp]

Jean Sibelius
In the Stream of Life

Gerald Finley, baritone
Bergen PO - Edward Gardner

I was really blown away by this recital of orchestrated songs from Sibelius. It is especially well programmed, and Finley's baritone is appealing throughout.

Gardner's filler tone poems excite me less.
VS

[Que]

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.

I quite agree... I wasn't a 100% sold on this one either.

[Que]

Elegant in a stately, expansive way. Backhaus solid playing sails through what feels like a sea of Viennese strings... I really like the cadenzas he uses.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Hovhaness: Music for Harp. Kondonassis.

[prémont]

Elegant in a stately, expansive way. Backhaus solid playing sails through what feels like a sea of Viennese strings... I really like the cadenzas he uses.

The cadenza in the first movement is by Carl Reinecke.

[JBS]

CD 4
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart Opus 132
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Beethoven Opus 86 (orchestral version)
Bamberger Symphoniker
Horst Stein conductor

[AnotherSpin]

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

For decades I took little interest in organ music. The reasons hardly matter now. At the same time, for just as long, I habitually listened to Bach's works, like the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the French and English Suites, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and others, almost exclusively in performances on the modern piano.

This year, everything changed. Now I rarely listen to Bach on the piano, if at all. And at just the right moment, I arrived at the Trio Sonatas, since unlike the cycles mentioned above, the Trio Sonatas, BWV 525 to 530, are not performed on the piano. Or are they?

[JBS]

For decades I took little interest in organ music. The reasons hardly matter now. At the same time, for just as long, I habitually listened to Bach's works, like the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the French and English Suites, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and others, almost exclusively in performances on the modern piano.

This year, everything changed. Now I rarely listen to Bach on the piano, if at all. And at just the right moment, I arrived at the Trio Sonatas, since unlike the cycles mentioned above, the Trio Sonatas, BWV 525 to 530, are not performed on the piano. Or are they?

There are arrangements for baroque chamber ensemble. For example, this is the instrumentation used on Florilegium's recording.

Track Listings
1   Trio Sonata in G Major BWV 525 (Originally in E Flat Major Flute, Violin, Cello, Harpsichord
2   Trio Sonata in G Major BWV530 Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Harpsichord
3   Trio Sonata in D Major Bwv529 (Originally in C Major) Flute, Harpsichord,
4   Trio Sonata in E minor BWV 528 Viola/Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Cello, Lute
5   Trio Sonata in G minor Bwv527 (Originally in D minor)Piccolo Cello, Harpsichord,
6   Trio Sonata in E minor Bwv526 (Originally in C minor)Flute, Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Lute, Harpsichord

[JBS]

TD

Rudolf Buchbinder
Beethoven
Variations for piano WoO 63-66, 68

9 Variations on a March by Dressler in c minor
6 Variations on a Swiss Song in F major
24 Variations on Righini's Aria "Venni amore" in D major
13 Variations on the Arietta "Es war einmal ein alter Mann" from Dittersdorf's Das Rote Käppchen in A major
12 Variations on the "Menuet a la Vigano" from Haibel's Le nozze disturbate in C major.

So three composers and three stage works whose only claim to enduring fame derives from Beethoven deciding to play around with a bit of their music.

[prémont]

This year, everything changed. Now I rarely listen to Bach on the piano, if at all. And at just the right moment, I arrived at the Trio Sonatas, since unlike the cycles mentioned above, the Trio Sonatas, BWV 525 to 530, are not performed on the piano. Or are they?

There are at least two recorded arrangements of the trio sonatas for two pianists. This is one of the recordings:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7991198--j-s-bach-6-sonaten-fur-orgel-fur-2-klavieren-zu-4-handen

I don't recall the ones who made the other recording - didn't know their names beforehand - and to be honest, this kind of arrangements interest me very little, so I have passed them by.

[AnotherSpin]

There are arrangements for baroque chamber ensemble. For example, this is the instrumentation used on Florilegium's recording.

Track Listings
1   Trio Sonata in G Major BWV 525 (Originally in E Flat Major Flute, Violin, Cello, Harpsichord
2   Trio Sonata in G Major BWV530 Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Harpsichord
3   Trio Sonata in D Major Bwv529 (Originally in C Major) Flute, Harpsichord,
4   Trio Sonata in E minor BWV 528 Viola/Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Cello, Lute
5   Trio Sonata in G minor Bwv527 (Originally in D minor)Piccolo Cello, Harpsichord,
6   Trio Sonata in E minor Bwv526 (Originally in C minor)Flute, Violin, Viola Da Gamba, Lute, Harpsichord

Of course, I know the versions for ensembles, but I meant solo performances on the piano.

[71 dB]

How do you like them?

This are not new works for me, but on the other hand I haven't listened to this CD for years and years. 

[AnotherSpin]

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.

Groping... Just today I came across this passage from Osho:

"Ordinarily, man lives in a dark night, never knowing any dawn, never knowing any sunrise, just stumbling in the darkness, falling here, falling there, getting wounded. If you look at man's life, the whole of his life is simply a groping, and it is of absolute futility because through groping he never finds the door."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton: Varii Capricci.

@Roasted Swan There is a guitar concerto version (hybrid of Varii Capricci and Five Bagatelles) and it is very likable.

[SonicMan46]

Spohr, Louis (1784-1859) - String Quartets - over the last few days, I've been listening to his string quartets - he wrote 36 over a period of 50 years or so - quoted below is the Marco Polo offering of all of these works in 17 volumes - I've acquired 11 at the moment but have 4 more used ones (all $10 or less) 'in the mail' - Spohr was a major contributor to this genre in the early 19th century until being overshadowed by upcoming composers such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and others.  The works are worth a listen - I'm liking the later ones more, i.e. I think he improved with age -     Dave  (P.S. just showing 3 of the the later Marco Polo recordings).

Spohr String Quartets - Marco Polo Complete Series

V.  1 - Nos. 27 & 28 (Op. 84, Nos. 1 &2)
V.  2 - Nos. 29 & 30 (Op. 84, No. 3 & Op. 93)
V.  3 - Nos. 1, 2, & 5 (Op. 4, Nos. 1/2; Op. 15, No. 2)
V.  4 - Nos. 3, 4, & 6 (Op. 11; Op. 15, No. 1; Op. 27)
V.  5 - Nos. 7 & 8 (Op. 29, Nos. 1 & 2)
V.  6 - Nos. 15 & 16 (Op. 58, Nos. 1 & 2)
V.  7 - Nos. 11 & 12 (Op. 43; Op. 45, No. 1)
V.  8 - Nos. 13 & 14 (Op. 45, Nos. 2 & 3)
V.  9 - Nos. 20 & 21 (Op. 74, Nos. 1 & 2)
V. 10 - Nos. 24 & 25 (Op. 82, Nos. 2 & 3)
V. 11 - Nos. 32 & 34 (Op. 141 & Op. 152)
V. 12 - Nos. 33 & 35 (Op. 146 & Op. 155)
V. 13 - Nos. 9 & 17 (Op. 29, No. 3 & Op. 58, No. 3)
V. 14 - Nos. 31 & 36 (Op. 132 & Op. 157)
V. 15 - Nos. 19 & 22 (Op. 68 & Op. 74, No. 3)
V. 16 - Nos. 23 & 26 (Op. 82, No. 1 & Op. 83)
V. 17 - Nos. 10 & 18 (Op. 30 & Op. 61)