What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[mn dave]

If you like Haydn, the trio CD I listed above is great. I also have the Naxos violin concertos by Haydn on constant rotation in my vehicle.

[mn dave]

It's so good I will now play it again.

[Bulldog]

Bach's French Suites played by harpsichordist Blandine Rannou on Zig Zag.  Beautiful performances with abundant energy in the fast dance movements.

[Kullervo]

Nielsen - String Quartets 1 and 2 (Oslo SQ)

[Drasko]

BTW There is currently a special offer on this label "Accord" - whith many interesting recordings of French and Italian Baroque music - at MDT.

Q

What would be your top 3-5 picks for the French stuff?

[Que]

What would be your top 3-5 picks for the French stuff?

I haven't tried everything in that Accord Baroque series, but my top picks would be:

For the French baroque: definitely the Dandrieu by Olivier Baumont, closely followed by the two volumes of harpsichord music of Louis Couperin by Noëlle Spieth. Not to be missed is, also on account of the participation by Véronique Gens, the Boismortier motets - very colourful. Oops, that's four already!  In chamber music I liked the Rameau Concerts en Sextuor very much indeed. But your money is also well spent on the Le Roux. Personally I wouldn't be without the Leclair violin concerts. Maybe not the most profound masterpieces but with a special, unique flavour and very inventive. And I cannot resist the top shelf violin playing by Daniel Cuillier.




I know - it's a bit much...

Q

[Dundonnell]

A recently released Simax disc of music by Norwegian composers-

David Monrad Johansen's Piano Concerto and the orchestral work 'Pan' and his son Johan Kvandal's Piano Concerto. Both Monrad Johansen's son and Harald Saeverud's son, Ketil Hvoslef, chose to make careers for themselves as composers unencumbered or assisted by their fathers' names.

'Pan' is a work I have on an old LP. It is only 12 minutes long but Monrad Johansen thought of calling it a symphony(he didn't write one). The piece is a fine bit of nature portrait-Norwegian Bax!

Monrad Johansen(Grieg's biographer) was born in 1888 and was the first of the generation of Norwegian composers, following Svendsen, Halvorsen and Sinding, who could be described as genuinely 20th century. The Piano concerto was first performed in the 1950s(the cd notes do not reveal when it was written). It is neo-classical rather than romantic-nationalist and attractive.

Have not listened to the Kvandal yet.

[Christo]

Anyway, if that had been the case, I should have written the Opus 93 very differently 

The Spouse Trap?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The Spouse Trap?

[Dundonnell]

Will it run as long as The Mousetrap?

[bhodges]

Last night, music of Mieczysław Weinberg, by the ARC Ensemble of Toronto, playing two of the pieces on their recent CD, below: the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1945) and the Piano Quintet (1944).  The concert also included From Zhukovsky's Lyrics (1976), a song cycle for bass and piano.

This concert was a revelation: I'd never heard a note of Weinberg's music and was bowled over, especially by the phenomenal Piano Quintet, the most striking in the genre I've heard since discovering Schnittke's.  It's a huge piece--some 45 minutes, if I timed it right--in five movements.  Weinberg's language is not far from Shostakovich, but somehow completely different, perhaps with less brutality and more poetry.  I found it full of imagination, and the ARC group played it as if they'd been studying it for years. 

--Bruce

[Harry]

Mir Gospody.
Russian Orthodox Music
Cantus Ex Corde, Ton Thissen.

One of the best cd's I have, if it comes to RO music.
Blago obraazniej ie Josief, is probably the most moving song, quickly followed by the 25 minutes lasting Panachyda, which is sung in remembrance of the dead, or when people have died. It doesn't matter how many times I have heard or sung it, it makes me cry all the time.
There are two Basso Profundo's on this recording, and they do give me goosebumps.

[Harry]

Folk Music from Greece.
Sirtos Ensemble.
Harmonia Mundi 1991-1993.

Many songs appeal to me on this cd. Its one I have played so many times that I lost count. "Karotseri trava, or Meso pelaga armenizo, or Ti na se kano galani, make me very happy when hearing them.

[mn dave]

[Opus106]

Taking the cue...

Dvorak
String Quartet No. 12, Op. 96
Amadeus String Quartet

[karlhenning]

(* chortle *)

[mn dave]

[Catison]

Reliving some childhood moments, trying to find something to calm down my nerves.

[Keemun]

Schmidt: Symphony No. 4 (Mehta/VPO). 

[Drasko]

I haven't tried everything in that Accord Baroque series, but my top picks would be:

.....the two volumes of harpsichord music of Louis Couperin by Noëlle Spieth.

Thanks! I'm particularly interested in Louis Couperin. Intended to get Sempe's disc on Alpha but that offer ended before I got around to do it. How does Spieth compare with Sempe, and how both compare to Leonhardt (you should have that disc in the box) of whose interpretation I'm massively fond.
Could I bother you to upload one or two pieces from both for comparison, perhaps Courante La Mignon or Sarabande from a minor (La Mineur) suite?

btw I got Rousset Royer disc, excellent! I'll post some samples on French baroque thread.