What are you listening 2 now?

[Papy Oli]

Nice ritual! TD: H/T @Mandryka  and @Papy Oli ...
Quatuor Diotima playing Boulez' Livre pour quatuor. Oh, I like this a very great deal. Oli, I suspect this will not be super helpful but ... firstly, one needs practically to disregard the entire string quartet tradition. Secondly, while my expectation is that the composer has micromanaged the musical materials to a degree frankly beyond my own interest, the effect is a wild freedom. I love it.

Good stuff.

I managed to go through Notations, Eclats and the first Sur Incises today.I am chipping away at it 

[Karl Henning]

Revisiting Chick Corea's pf cto no. 1

Finding this entirely charming. It helps not to regard it as "a piano concerto," but simply as Chick Corea.

[André]

All of the above album



The symphony only.

Despite its early date (1956) the sound of the SOMM disc is wonderfully precise and impactful. Boult's take on the first movement is electrifying. By contrast, Haitink brings out the massiveness of its architecture and the fullness of the orchestration. I like both, but the Boult sounds more 'modern'.

The overtures, violin concerto, cello concerto and two overtures benefit from great conducting, playing and engineering - EMI sound at its best.

[Bachthoven]

Wonderful playing and superb sound on this DSD256 download.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Poulenc piano music.

[Philo]

I'll be honest, up to this point, this has been the only music I've listened to today, lol. It is so good, definitely fighting for my favorite classical piece of all time, but, now, time for a shift.

Not the most exciting music, but it is very agreeable and well-orchestrated; I may revisit this disc though.

Either tonight or tomorrow, this is next:

Paul Dukas Cantates, choeurs et musique symphonique

[Mapman]

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto #2
Dmitri Jr. , Maxim, I Musici de Montreal

On the lighter side of Shostakovich's works, and very fun!



Shostakovich: Symphony #8
Gergiev: Kirov

Definitely not one of Shostakovich's lighter works. There are some really impressive passages of unrelenting intensity in the first movement.

[AnotherSpin]

[Wanderer]

[AnotherSpin]

Gurdjieff said that not every human being is born with a soul. Most people come into the world without one, merely as biological machines, asleep, mechanical, and ultimately transient.

A soul, according to Gurdjieff, must be cultivated deliberately, like a tree. It does not appear automatically through the passage of time or ordinary experience. It requires conscious effort and the intentional accumulation of finer energies.

Above all, it is nourished by the light of love, not sentimental or mechanical affection, but a deliberate, awake force that arises from knowing the truth of oneself.

[prémont]

It's may not be your sort of music, but I've been really enjoying this today, since we started this discussion. I guess I must be ready for it, the time is right for Ferrabosco!

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/alfonso-ferrabosco-ii-complete-music-for-solo-lyra-viol-paolo-pandolfo/tfcx5f1shr2ja

It's not that I don't consider it to be good music, but with much lute and viola da gamba music  from 1500-16oo an air of sameness very often sneaks in long before the cd is played to the end, no matter how thoughtful the programming is. At least when I - as I always do - sit and listen attentively to the music. 

[Mandryka]

It's not that I don't consider it to be good music, but with much lute and viola da gamba music  from 1500-16oo an air of sameness very often sneaks in long before the cd is played to the end, no matter how thoughtful the programming is. At least when I - as I always do - sit and listen attentively to the music.

That's how I feel about the Bach cantatas! It's as if, apart from maybe a dozen or so, I can't distinguish them in memory.

[Madiel]

Haydn: Symphony no.70 in D (major...) (composed 1779)



An absolute gem, and an exercise in having more direct, "simple" D major music compete with more contrapuntal D minor music. The first movement is about propulsion and playing with the pulse in the bar. The andante movement is one of Haydn's double variations, where the minor leads and generally wins. The finale starts off in D minor, in a cunning fashion where the listener is sure to go "wait a minute, what?", before D major eventually wins out.

[Iota]

Stravinsky: The Firebird
Beatrice Rana (piano)

Stunning! Playing like this makes you glad to be alive.

[Madiel]

Mozart songs, K.596, 597 and 598. Using a different singer-pianist combination for each. Strophic songs, fairly uncomplicated, entered into Mozart's catalogue on 14 January 1791.

[prémont]

That's how I feel about the Bach cantatas! It's as if, apart from maybe a dozen or so, I can't distinguish them in memory.

Please don't tell anybody, but I have a bit of the same problem.
Another example would be sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti.

[Harry]

Stylus Phantasticus.
Works by: Carlo Farina (1600-1640) , Giovanni de Macque (1548-1614) , Marco Uccellini (1610-1680) , Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681) , Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (1629-1679) , Giovanni Battista Fontana (1571-1631) , Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644-1704) , Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623-1680) , Ignazio Albertini (1644-1685).

Pacific music works, Stephen Stubbs.
Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin.
William Skeen, bass violin.
Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar and chitarrone.
Maxine Eilander, baroque harp.
Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord.

Recorded: 2018 St.Thomas Chapel, Kenmore, Washington, USA.

I enjoyed this! Relaxed music making, but with enough spirit and movement to make it interesting. The list of composers is impressive, some of them a bit less in the picture as others. Now they can bask alongside the well known composers. The performances are excellent, and the sound good.

[Traverso]

Bach

CD 2


Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kömmt , BWV 151, what a wonderful beautiful cantata...

[Harry]

George Enescu (1881–1955)
Violin sonata, No.3, opus, 25. "dans le caractère populaire roumain" (1926).
Impressions d'enfance, Op. 28 (1940).  Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 6 (1899). Impromptu concertant (1903).
Duo Brüggen-Plank. Marieke Radauer-Plank, Violin. Henrike Brüggen, Piano
Recorded at Jesus-Christus-Kirche Berlin-Dahlem, Germany, 2018.

The playing of the two musicians really gets under your skin, no doubt about that! Technically brilliant, with passionate intonation, emotional depth and an expressive gesture that almost vibrates with tension and drama. A splendor of sound, with delicacy and a wide range of expression. Superb sound and performance.

[Que]

Due to several postings on the listening & purchases threads: