What are you listening 2 now?

[AnotherSpin]

J.S. Bach, Die Toccaten

Ewald Kooiman

[Madiel]

Having fun is also not allowed if those two words are followed by a full stop. But a later full stop is acceptable.

Having a nap (3 words) is fine.

We seem to have one of the most arcane bugs in computing history.

[AnotherSpin]

J.S. Bach, Triosonaten und Fantasien

Ewald Kooiman

[Que]

Motets by Constanzo Festa, the first major Italian composer when the Italian music-scene was still dominated by Franco-Flemish composers and a big influence on Palestrina. This is one of the earlier recordings by Cantica Symphonia, when Kees Boeke was still involved.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi and others: Argippo



The music of the original version of the opera doesn't survive complete. The full score is a pasticcio with a considerable number of insertions from other composers (maybe more than half the arias, though in some cases it's not absolutely certain who wrote what).

And as the liner notes acknowledge, the surviving version isn't wholly satisfactory and shows signs that it might have been a revision-in-progress that wasn't finished. It's musically unbalanced, both in terms of the distribution of arias between characters and also the pacing of arias. In one part there's a cluster of fast and stormy ones, in another there's a cluster of slow ones - beautiful, but lacking contrast.

And the plot is... kind of handled okay, so long as you can handle the absurdity of the basic premise, which is that (a) Zanaida secretly married before the opera began, and (b) it was so dark that she's mistaken as to who she married, and (c) the guy who actually married her is reluctant to come forward. So when the guy she thinks she married has just married somebody else, trouble ensues.

Performances are good. Marie Lys, who I think gets more arias than anyone else, is especially appealing. Delphine Galou is well used as Zanaida who spends the entire opera being tremendously upset (see above plot points). Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante have just the right feel for the music, and the recorded sound is top notch, clear and balanced.

So in short, a work that is not a masterpiece (at least as it's survived to modern times), but it's very well done here.

[Philo]

In my search for pianists I could could slot into my Scarlatti School, I came across David Lively who, while not a fit for the school, is extraordinary in my book - I love the adventure of discovery!

Lively performing Bach's The Art of Fugue
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/6194842



When available, this is one of my litmus tests for the Scarlatti School.

[AnotherSpin]

How many people today, in an age when crowd's taste has been weaponized and turned into a cultural norm, still remember, or ever truly understood, that accessible music does not have to be vulgar or reduced to pandering to the lowest common denominator?

[Irons]

Rimsky-Korsakov Symphony No.2 "Antar"



After reading fulsome praise on Rimsky's composer thread I thought an "Antar" spin was called for. Saying this composer is a great orchestrater is stating the obvious. However, after listening to "Antar" needs to be repeated. Sumptuous but never thick and intricate never sloppy.
I find calling "Antar" a symphony is stretching the term to breaking point but rather an exotic tone poem in four parts to be enjoyed as such.
Great cover. 

[Que]

[Mandryka]

In my search for pianists I could could slot into my Scarlatti School, I came across David Lively who, while not a fit for the school, is extraordinary in my book - I love the adventure of discovery!

Lively performing Bach's The Art of Fugue
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/6194842



When available, this is one of my litmus tests for the Scarlatti School.

I think he's planning to release a new recording of it. I've always thought of him as playing piano like Yvonne Lefébure, though obviously recorded better.

[Papy Oli]

Good morning all,

BWV 130 - 101 - 67 (Ansermet - Watts, Ameling, etc..)

[AnotherSpin]

Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 - Op. 10

Costantino Mastroprimiano, fortepiano

[prémont]

Lively performing Bach's The Art of Fugue
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/6194842

This is in my top five recordings of the AoF on piano. But I don't understand the artistic value of changing the sequence of the contrapuncti. So I have burnt a CDR with the contrapuncti in the order of the first printed edition.

[Madiel]

Sibelius: incidental music for King Christian II

[Harry]

Affetti Musicali
Venetian Music of the Seicento.
Ensemble Colorito.
Recording: Evangelische Laurentiuskirche Usingen, 2018.

The main reason for listening to this recording is the  exploration of the chiaroscuro (chiaroscuro) effects of the compositions in order to find the most diverse moods and colors as well as lively gestures, and in this the ensemble does well. The musicians get more freedom in expressing that goal as in later periods, and due to the chiaroscuro they succeed in conveying something of the spirit of optimism that was palpable at that. In general it works fine with this ensemble, some lapses in keeping a steady tempo, but that's all. A list of composers and compositions that will please almost all of us. It is a good recording, detailed with enough air around the instruments which makes one a participant on a close level, a shared delight so to say.

[Que]

Concertos by the Bach sons.

[Que]

[Harry]

William Alwyn (1905-1985)
Early String Quartets.
Villiers Quartet.
Recorded at Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK. 2019.

In all respects "Most Excellent". A very special voice he has in his SQ. The Villiers does the music proud. The sound leaves no wishes open. I love more of this, for his Chamber music makes me long for more of the same.

[Papy Oli]

JS Bach - Magnificat



Hanneke Van Bork (soprano), Elly Ameling (soprano), Tom Krause (baritone), Helen Watts (contralto), Werner Krenn (tenor)
Wiener Akademie-Chor, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Karl Münchinger

[Todd]

Some choice cuts.