What are you listening 3 now?

[Kalevala]

Fill your boots.

Thank you!  Will do so a bit later as I soon need to haul me ar*e outside soon to do some gardening as it might rain later on today.

K

[Traverso]

Bach

Vol.6 CD 6

 

[Harry]

It is amazing how valid this box, in terms of interpretation, and its sublime SOTA sound quality still is If you have this box there is no need to replace it by anything better, there isn't. My two cents anyway. I have played this 6 CD set in one go, and frankly I did not feel the need to stop.
With sharp accents and a pulsating attack, the musicians around  Pinnock underscore how brilliantly they can deliver their own interpretation of Handel. Very transparent, effectively layered, present to the point of sometimes creating effects that seem almost intimate.  Those familiar with Handel's orchestral works from traditional symphony concerts will find Pinnock's performance strange. However, once you've become accustomed to it, you'll hardly return to the conventional style, which, compared to the coherent mastery with which Handel is played today, seems amateurish and antiquated. The recording of Water Music is far superior to any conventional interpretation in terms of color, clarity, and richness of tension.  Actually everything is.

[Philo]

A Lady at the Virginals: Gwendolyn Toth plays six keyboards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ggLmJogGSY

ARTEK presents Gwendolyn Toth on muselar, regal, virginal, lautenwerk, organ, & harpsichord
Music by Orlando Gibbons and other virginalist composers, in honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of Gibbons.

[Linz]

Gustav Mahler Das Lied von der Erde
Thomas Hampson, tenor, Stuart Skelton, baritone
San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas

[Justice Roberts]

JSB Toccatas.

[Roasted Swan]

Gustav Mahler Das Lied von der Erde
Thomas Hampson, tenor, Stuart Skelton, baritone
San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas

Thomas wearing his tight trousers for this performance then......?

[Philo]

GIOF LIVE STREAM – ORGAN AND HARPSICHORD CONCERT – Sweelinck and Virginalists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgBhdZFhh6w

Sweelinck and Virginalists
Manderscheidt-organ (1640), Muselaar/Virginal,
Edoardo Bellotti, Catalina Vicens, Joel Speerstra, Ulrika Davidsson

[Justice Roberts]

Jordi Savall – Granada Eterna. @Traverso I was wondering if you like the recording.

[Cato]

Fill your boots.

Oh my, I have not heard Stravinsky's Agon in years!  Thanks for the link!


Recently..."written at the request of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for Professor Eugen Jochum."

[Madiel]

Vivaldi: La Senna Festeggiante



(A few of the early volume's covers weren't done by the same photographer. It shows... the flatness of this one is not great. Ahem.)

The first volume not done at Mondovi (near Turin, the location of the library that generated the idea for the series). Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano are based in Rome. Actually it's really the second volume from him but let's not get into that right now.

The text of La Senna Festeggiante is nothing more than constant fawning over the new French king, and seems very over the top to this modern listener, but this is basically a piece of dinner entertainment so allowances should be made.

And the music is pretty great. Performance-wise this really is very good. Alessandrini typically has a certain lightness and bounce which is very apt in this context, and each aria has distinct character. There are just a couple of times where I think he might push the music a tiny bit faster than ideal - it's on the edge of breathlessness but doesn't quite tip over. But this is only a couple of times.

All 3 singers are very good. While I think the soprano Juanita Lascarro is the one I enjoyed the most overall, each of them had moments where they really caught my ear.

4 stars out of 5.

[Philo]

A lecture on meantone by Mimi Waitzman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcjl7MCRYaw

Followed, by: Simone Pierini, harpsichord and muselaar @ I CONCERTI DI CAMPAGNA. 08.09.2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ64PfRWr4U

Simone Pierini, harpsichord after A. Migliai and muselaar mother and child after A. Ruckers

[Spotted Horses]

Haydn Piano Sonata No 56 is wonderful. A two movement piece, the first is an Andante con espressione which makes brilliant use of functional dissonance. Brautigam is perfect, Schornhelm is also very satisfying.

Piano Sonata No 57 was less impressive. The outer movements are a bit bland to my ear, although the central slow movement (minor key) is attractive.

[Brian]

Moving on now to another streaming disc, and another first listen, that I would never find in the wild...

Laberinto, in three movements, tells the story of Theseus and the Minotaur in bold, dark colors, with two sets of timpani, contrabassoon, and more orchestral goodies. The first movement is properly trapped in the labyrinth, with all sorts of frightening shadows and scares. Theseus and Ariadne meet to a syncopated beat, then the music shifts to an episode that's equal parts tender and creepy, like Mompou crossed with Honegger. The finale is the exaltation of the Minotaur, so naturally it is a wild, freaky ride. Fascinating stuff!

I'm guessing Folia Daliniana is a short ballet based on the works of Salvador Dali. It takes the form of a 15-minute episodic arc that is - surprise - a woodwind concerto! Each wind player takes a solo "scene", progressing from flute to oboe to clarinet to bassoon. There is definitely a surrealist sense of humor and surprise that evokes Dali for me. In fact, the bassoon episode reminds me of the donkey clopping along in Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite!

Sortilegis is an eight-minute funky scherzo-like thing. Simfonia mediterranea is a nicely proportioned neoclassical symphony or sinfonietta (22ish minutes in the classical four movements). Unlike a classical form, however, every single movement fuses elements of fast and slow music in rhapsodic forms. The first movement's sunny flute theme gradually gets sleepy. The adagio is interrupted at 1:30 by a melody so catchy and expressive that I figure it must be a folk tune. The scherzo is a uniquely weird combo of cheery pastoral and occasional atonal elements. And then the finale is an "andante vigoroso" with plenty of bass drum interruptions, leading to a forceful ending. This work goes on a peculiar journey. But then again, everything Montsalvatge did was peculiar and original.

[brewski]

A fascinating graduation recital streamed last night (thankfully archived) with Annis Cheuk Lam Ma on viola and some help from colleagues. Every spring, the Curtis Institute does a fantastic job with these, capturing artists at the start of what will likely be great careers, in outstanding audio and video.

Rebecca Clarke: Passacaglia on an Old English Tune
Paul Coletti: From My Heart
Arthur Benjamin: Sonata (with Thomas Weaver, piano)
Britten: Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland (with Weaver)
Garth Knox: Quartet for One
Dillon Scott: Until Next Time (with violists Dillon Scott, Kay Ito, and Nazeeh Shahid)

[71 dB]

César Franck - Symphony in D minor
Orchestre des Champs Elysées
Philippe Herreweghe
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901771

[Cato]

Haydn Piano Sonata No 56 is wonderful. A two movement piece, the first is an Andante con espressione which makes brilliant use of functional dissonance. Brautigam is perfect, Schornhelm is also very satisfying.

Piano Sonata No 57 was less impressive. The outer movements are a bit bland to my ear, although the central slow movement (minor key) is attractive.

That is some drawing on the cover!   

Is the "piano teacher" or admirer a cleric or some sort of roué ?   

[Iota]

Debussy: En blanc et noir, pour piano à quatre mains
Martha Argerich (piano), Stephen Kovacevich (piano)

Music for me that gets right under the skin (I think that's probably true true for all the music he wrote in this late period). There's a melancholy in the slow middle movement which feels very personal, and though both outer movements are colourful and high energy, the mood of this middle movement feels the beating heart of the piece. A brilliant performance.
 

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major, 1885 Version. Ed.Leopold Nowak
Bayerissches Staatskaorchester, Kent Nagano

[Lisztianwagner]

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.9

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker