What are you listening 2 now?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton viola concerto.  Neubauer/Litton.

[JBS]

Which is a bit funny when English is one of the most inconsistent languages for what a squiggle on a page might represent.

As that sentence itself demonstrates.

[Madiel]

As that sentence itself demonstrates.

Great choice of letter. Finding out why the Romans invented the letter G is actually a perfect demonstration of what happens when different languages use the same writing system.

[JBS]

TD


In the form of this set, which might possibly be the first Chopin CDs I ever purchased.

[Bachthoven]

Oh my, a new Eliot Fisk recording! (It was recorded in 2022 but just now saw the light of day.) It's wonderful--full of stunning virtuosity yet still musical. He has added quite a few notes to fill out the textures, which will bother purists, but he says he used Bach's own transcriptions of works as models. Very good sound, too.

[Linz]

Johann Sebastian Bach Per cembalo solo Concerto in G major, BWV 973 after Vivaldi (RV 299)
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
Concerto in D major, BWV 972 after Vivaldi (RV 230)
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 904
Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971
Fugue in C minor, reworked by Richard Egarr, after BWV 906
Richard Egarr

[André]

I can't imagine a disc cover more incongruous as this one when looking at the contents of the disc. It's a solo violin recital. The album is titled after the first movement 'Obsession' of Eugène Ysaÿe's most famous sonata from his op 27. But even that doesn't really make the grade in terms of congruence. The rest of the recital is devoted - mostly - to the three solo violin sonatas by Ivan Khandoshkin (1747-1804). They are separated by two Caprices by Paganini. Ysaÿe's flamboyant second sonata closes the program. Nothing even remotely close to Cassius Clay (?)'s picture of the front cover.

In any case, the real find here is the set of sonatas by Khandoshkin. A contemporary of Haydn, his works are far more advanced harmonically than his dates would lead one to think. Actually there is a clear link with Paganini, Ysaÿe and Kreisler (whose harmonically adventurous Recitative & Scherzo-Caprice op. 8 opens the disc).

Denisova plays with unflappable mastery, her tone gleaming yet penetrating. This is a highly unusual and hugely satisfying recital. The Khandoshkhin sonatas are recorded in a more intimate acoustic than the virtuoso pieces that sandwich them.

[JBS]

I can't imagine a disc cover more incongruous as this one when looking at the contents of the disc. It's a solo violin recital. The album is titled after the first movement 'Obsession' of Eugène Ysaÿe's most famous sonata from his op 27. But even that doesn't really make the grade in terms of congruence. The rest of the recital is devoted - mostly - to the three solo violin sonatas by Ivan Khandoshkin (1747-1804). They are separated by two Caprices by Paganini. Ysaÿe's flamboyant second sonata closes the program. Nothing even remotely close to Cassius Clay (?)'s picture of the front cover.

In any case, the real find here is the set of sonatas by Khandoshkin. A contemporary of Haydn, his works are far more advanced harmonically than his dates would lead one to think. Actually there is a clear link with Paganini, Ysaÿe and Kreisler (whose harmonically adventurous Recitative & Scherzo-Caprice op. 8 opens the disc).

Denisova plays with unflappable mastery, her tone gleaming yet penetrating. This is a highly unusual and hugely satisfying recital. The Khandoshkhin sonatas are recorded in a more intimate acoustic than the virtuoso pieces that sandwich them.

Google gives this as a quote from Muhammad Ali, but none of the links it provides include it. So it might be apocryphal.

"If you're going to make it to the top of your field, you've got to be obsessed. You have to live it on a daily basis."

[Mirror Image]

Thank you, John. I will check the recording.

Enjoy, my friend!

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Sibelius
Jokamies (Jedermann), Op. 83
Tuomas Katajala, Pia Pajala, Nicholas Söderlund
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis
Segerstam



The only other performance of this work is on BIS with Vänskä. I appreciate both performances, but I think I might favor Segerstam just slightly more for his slower tempi. Also, I'm hearing a lot of details that seem to have been kind of obscured in the BIS recording. Anyway, I've always liked this work even though I've always found it kind of oddly structured, but I'm glad that Segerstam recorded it.

[Madiel]

Haydn: String quartet in B flat, op.33/4 (originally the 6th and final quartet of the set)



Edit: Which just makes the ending even cuter.

[Mirror Image]

Last work for the night:

Rautaava
Deux Sérénades (Compl. Kalevi Aho, 2018)
Hilary Hahn (violin)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Mikko Franck



A touching performance. This work was left incomplete, but Rautavaara's former student, Kalevi Aho, finished the second movement.

[Mandryka]

The point is that the "v" is pronounced "vn".

I didn't know that at all.

[Mandryka]

I described this sonata as seeming superficial to me, and I was reacting to the first movement main theme which struck me as Papagano like in it's simplicity,

That's a nice observation. In fact, I think the second movement theme is like a slow song from Magic Flute too.

If you really want weight, then brace yourself for the worst Haydn sonata performance of all time 

[Madiel]

Mozart: Masonic cantata, "Laut verkünde unsre Freude", K.623



His last complete work. 

[Harry]

That's a nice observation. In fact, I think the second movement theme is like a slow song from Magic Flute too.

If you really want weight, then brace yourself for the worst Haydn sonata performance of all time 

That's really bad.......horribile!

[Wanderer]

[Madiel]

Bach, J.S.: Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV 30

[prémont]

I didn't know that at all.

It may also be that her name in Cyrillic isn't spelled in the same way as Tatiana's name. Maybe she in Cyrillic has a n-sound after the v. I have not seen her name spelled i Cyrillic, but the similarity of the names is striking. 

The official fonetic transcription of Татьяна Николаева is Tatiana (or Tatjana) Nikolayeva (or Nikolajeva). In my language we prefer the j instead of y, and c is pronounced like k in Nicolaj.

Edit: My mistake. I have made some investigation and found out that Nikolajeva and Nikolajevna are two different names with different meanings. Nikolajeva is the female form of Nikolajev, which means descendant of Nikolaj in the broadest sense, while Nikolajevna is another name which means Nikolaj's daughter. Excuse me for the confusion.

[Madiel]

Mendelssohn: Psalm 114 (When Israel came from Egypt's land), op.51



The series finally reaches one of the Psalm settings with orchestra that got me interested in this series in the first place. Though to be honest, this particular relatively smaller-scale one does not strike me as outstanding. It has its moments but doesn't bowl me over. The singing/performance seems of good quality of course.