What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Haffner]

Gotterdammerung (Levine Met DvD)

I still enjoy this one, but walk away feeling less impressed with Siegfried than ever. Behrens as Brunnhilde is often a better actress than singer, which is okay.

[Brian]

I didn't listen to any music today.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Gotterdammerung (Levine Met DvD)

I still enjoy this one, but walk away feeling less impressed with Siegfried than ever. Behrens as Brunnhilde is often a better actress than singer, which is okay.

For what it is worth Jerusalem's Siegfried is probably as good as it is going to get the past 20 years or so. I know, it isn't saying much but he basically owns the role by default.

[Bonehelm]

I didn't listen to any music today.

It took 964 pages - and finally someone broke the never-ending chain. O well.

[Dana]

Nothing wrong with that!  Personally, I think RVW is one of the most underrated symphonists around, at least in terms of how often his symphonies appear on concert programs.

*Also pounds the table* Critics can rail all they want about how grotesquely huge the Sea Symphony is, or how boring the Pastoral Symphony is, but those middle four symphonies are terrific! It's a mystery to me how infrequently programmed the Sinfonia Antarctica is played - and a crime how infrequently the 5th & 6th are programmed.

      Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a Vaughan-Williams symphony programmed in any concert series I've looked at in the East.

[Dana]

      Maazel's take on Mahler 5. Bernstein's effort is admirable, but I prefer Maazel, partially because of the slower tempo in the second movement - I think the added weight really works well.

[Harry]

Thomas Tallis.
Music for the Divine Office II.
Chapelle du Ror/Alistair Dixon.
Andrew Benson Wilson, Organ.

Disc 5. Second rerun.

Every bit as exiting as the first time. Simply a wonderful set.

[Valentino]

God morgen, alle sammen!

Mozart: K.466 in d minor. Gulda/VPO/Abbado.

One more spin of this old DG Galleria LP. A wonderful slow movement. Old Friedrich brings out the melancoly, and the central insisting part comes out more as a tale of old battles than anger at the present.

But overall Andsnes is my new top choice in my favourite Mozart PC.

D minor might be my favourite key in Mozart: K.417 and 626 comes to mind.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Goeiemorgen, allemaal!

I am going to listen to Rautavaara, Seventh Symphony, first with Leif Segerstam, then Osmo Vänska.

[Harry]

Goodmorning all & Goedenmorgen Johan.

Rautavaara......that early?
You have my sympathy!

[Valentino]

God Morgen, Harry!

Now some sun to burn away the fog: C major, brought out by Gulda/VPO/Abbado; Mozart PC21 K.467.

[Danny]

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Rautavaara......that early?
You have my sympathy!

Sympathy? It's pure bliss! (And a wonderful stimulus to my writing, to which I am now returning...)

[Harry]

Sympathy? It's sheer bliss! (And a wonderful stimulus to my writing, to which I am now returning...)

Johan if I would begin my early morning with a composer of that might, it will overpower my senses in a most brutal way dear chap.
No offence meant, but I have a sensitive soul, especially before coffee, you understand that, don't you?
So Tallis it is to begin with, some baroque music after that, and than maybe the heavier forces will command the day.
I like slow food, and slow music in the morning....

[Harry]

Muzio Clementi
Sonatas for Piano & Violin.
Volume III.
Opus 13 1-3.
Opus 15 1-2.

Pietro Spada, Fortepiano.
Vincenzo Bolognese, violin.

The third volume allready of this complete survey of Clementi's Sonatas. I am happy with this complete box, in terms of performance, but not however in terms of the sonics. These are new recordings from 2007, yet the engineer Giovanni Fornari, is still not able to record the fortepiano as it should. All I hear is a hollow sound quite unattractive. If you keep the volume low, it is okay. But in a studio, this can be done better, and I hope it will in the rest of the recordings, but I doubt it.
But since there is no complete recording of the works here presented, it will do! For the quality of the works is beyond doubt. Finely chiseled works of great intimacy, well played, with a insightful lilt to it. Both musicians are up to convince you, and they do.

[The new erato]

Stanford, Charles - Piano Quintet & String Quintet w/ Vanbrugh Quartet & Piers Lane/Garth Knox - just discovering this late 19th/early 20th century British composer, so far impressed! 

I recommend the Chandos issue with Songs of the Fleet etc, solid music in sensational sound.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Johan if I would begin my early morning with a composer of that might, it will overpower my senses in a most brutal way dear chap.
No offence meant, but I have a sensitive soul, especially before coffee, you understand that, don't you?
So Tallis it is to begin with, some baroque music after that, and than maybe the heavier forces will command the day.
I like slow food, and slow music in the morning....

I like artistic power and depth at any time of the day, and I don't have breakfast, just a mug of coffee... My temperament is obviously a bit different! 

[Harry]

I like artistic power and depth at any time of the day, and I don't have breakfast, just a mug of coffee... My temperament is obviously a bit different! 

Quite so!
I begin with herbal tea, you see, and work my way slowly to coffee.
The bliss of that, unbelievable.....

[Harry]

Dietrich Buxtehude.
Complete Chamber Music III.
Six Sonatas without Opus numbers.

John Halloway, and Ursula Weiss, Violins.
Jaap ter Linden, and Mogens Rasmussen, Viola da Gamba.
Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Organ and Harpsichord

Second rerun.

Beautifully conceived performances, really topnotch. Played by some of the best period instrument musicians in the world.
Good recording too, by the way.
The music is ravishing, no less.

[Harry]

Johann Strauss.
Wiener Blut.
First act.
Complete recording made in 1954, in London.

I have nothing to complain!
Only good things to tell, like the recording, its sounds very good for 54 years of wear.
All the voices are just perfect. Quality listening time for me.
The young Elisabeth Schwarzkopf has a fine coleratura.
And Erika Koth is on the stage with her distinctive girlish voice.