What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[jlaurson]

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750),
Cantatas v.11
J.E.Gardiner / EBO
SDG

Lovely, largely... but Sara Mingardo's "vibrato" (i.e. perma-wobble) is not pleasant.

1 - Jeesus - you actually listen to then as well?

2 - This series is largely veryy enjoyable, though unavoidably irregular. I like the designs too!

3 - I used to like Mingardo - has she developed in the wrong direction?

4 - I guess some degree of vibrato is unavoidable in this day and age, but I'd wish at least the HIP-conscious conductors gave more ttentetion to it; Jacobs seems to be another case.

1.) What *are* you implying?
2.) True. I *love* that series and I *want* it to be excellent. But it's not as good as I'd want it to be and it tends to be overrated by softballing critics.
3.) I, too, have positive associations with the name Sara Mingardo. But that first aria here is a mess. That was 10 years ago, though, and I'd hesitate to read any "direction" into it... it may well just have been a bad day. I must have Vivaldi's "Armida" somewhere; a more recent recording (naive); that would give more insight.
4.) I think we've actually seen a considerable reduction of vocal vibrato in early music over the last 20 years. Clarion voices like C.Sampson's, for example, are--literally--pure delight (when she choses or is asked to sing w/out vibrato). Nor is vibrato inappropriate. Various styles and quantities of vocal vibrato have always been used by adult singers. But in this case we're not talking a nicely resonant vibrato but we're bordering goat-wobble. [Of course the last 20 years have had an impact on me; I'd never have called it that if I had come of age 30 years ago... an age when things like Erika Koeth were allowed to roam free*.]

* I'm being unfair to the lady, of course... there was a lot (esp. in her youth) that was very good and not marred by her excessive vibrato. But unfortunately I got to acquainted with her as Adele (Karajan's awful Decca 'Gala' recording of the Fledermaus) and that is beyond that pale.

[jlaurson]

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

[The new erato]

I need to travel countryside and check out how goats wobble.

[Harry]

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Geez what a large font size you write in, do you think we are blind as bats?

[mahler10th]

Geez what a large font size you write in, do you think we are blind as bats?

LOL     LOL    LOL 

[springrite]

Geez what a large font size you write in, do you think we are blind as bats?

I had to take off my reading glasses for that. "I can see! I can see!"

[Harry]

From this fine box that features our famous Dutch cellist, CD I containing 2 Concertos for Cello and Orchestra No. 7 & 10, and 2 Symphonies opus 12, No. 4 & opus 21, No. 5.
Needless almost to say, that these recordings grace you ears, and all that are involved in the music making. O, and despite what the box says its Bijlsma.


Tafelmusik, Jeanne Lamon.
Recorded in 1988.

[jlaurson]

J.P. Rameau (1683 – 1764),
"A Basket of Wild Strawberries"
Select Keyboard Works
Tzimon Barto
Ondine

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

[Brian]

A total dud. I'm not putting an Amazon tag because you don't want to waste your money on this. Sloppily managed Fourth and a Fifth Symphony in which the French horns in the finale actually sound ugly. I thought that was impossible!

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

I would have answered "Staatskapelle Dresden," but they really didn't produce much of interest in the recent Peter Bruns recording, where Bruns did a lot of the work. Great flautist in the slow movement, though. I would definitely enjoy a Vasily Petrenko/Liverpool recording though - an expert accompanist who always brings out rich detail in romantic scores.

[DavidRoss]

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Who else but Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra?  (With, maybe, Sol Gabetta?)

Hah!  I just looked it up and discovered that Fischer and the BFO already recorded it, with Wispelwey!  Duh!  (Anyone heard it?)

[Harry]

[asin]B0001HQ2S6[/asin]

As per usual, a very fine disc!

[jlaurson]

Question / Survey:

What Orchestra (and maybe with which conductor) would you find interesting
for a new recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Who else but Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra?  (With, maybe, Sol Gabetta?)

Hah!  I just looked it up and discovered that Fischer and the BFO already recorded it, with Wispelwey!  Duh!  (Anyone heard it?)

Too bad, almost... because it's a good suggestion. But they wouldn't and couldn't record it again so soon and I need something that is realistic. Which probably also means a conductor without an exclusive contract.

(I think I actually have it, the Fischer/Wispelwey Dvorak... but not listened to it yet. Probably still in Arlington, in those sofa cracks.)

I would have answered "Staatskapelle Dresden," but they really didn't produce much of interest in the recent Peter Bruns recording, where Bruns did a lot of the work... I would definitely enjoy a Vasily Petrenko/Liverpool recording though...

I don't think you can judge the Dresden StaKap fairly with--all due respect--Bruns & Helmrath... under Thielemann, however... assuming the concerto speaks to him.
Even after the Petrenko infatuation wears off, he's a very fine conductor who could do a great job in that. More to the point: it makes me think of his namesake, Kyrill. That could be very fine stuff, indeed.

How about Czech Philharmonic if/when under Jiří Bělohlávek?

Or Bamberg... Germany's "Czech Orchestra"? Perhaps with A.Nelsons...

Thread duty:

This again... superb and wilfull in a wholly imaginative way.



J.P. Rameau (1683 – 1764),
"A Basket of Wild Strawberries"
Select Keyboard Works
Tzimon Barto
Ondine

[Sergeant Rock]

Dvorak Symphony #2 B flat, Rowicki conducting the LSO




Sarge

[Brian]

Or Bamberg... Germany's "Czech Orchestra"? Perhaps with A.Nelsons...

Now you're talking. Or even Bergen/Litton, now that I think of it.

[Brian]

Dvorak Symphony #2 B flat, Rowicki conducting the LSO




Sarge

I'm listening to exactly the same thing!

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm listening to exactly the same thing!

I'm ahead of you though. I've moved on to the Third now...a more characteristic symphony.

Sarge

[jlaurson]

I'm ahead of you though. I've moved on to the Third now...a more characteristic symphony.

Sarge

Wagner without Words.

[karlhenning]

And who misses those words, honestly? ; )

[Brian]

I'm ahead of you though. I've moved on to the Third now...a more characteristic symphony.

Sarge

Ooh, I don't know about that, I consider the Second the birth of the Dvorak voice and co-birth of the Czech musical style (it was written a year before The Bartered Bride was premiered). The first two movements are pretty verbose, if enjoyable, but despite the Beethoven influence they really sound like nobody else but Dvorak. The scherzo is a Slavonic Dance through and through and the finale has so much in common with music he'd later be writing in slavonic rhapsodies and the Symphony No 6...

Anyway, I'm very slowly (ETA fall 2011?) writing a major essay evaluating the evolution of Dvorak's symphonic style and my fondness for No 2 means it will get a good bit of attention. Now if only I knew who would be interested in publishing such a thing. 


P.S. Always thought No 4 was the "Wagner Without Words" Dvorak, but maybe that's because of the blatant plagiarism at the start of the slow movement.

[kishnevi]

[Of course the last 20 years have had an impact on me; I'd never have called it that if I had come of age 30 years ago... an age when things like Erika Koeth were allowed to roam free*.]

* I'm being unfair to the lady, of course... there was a lot (esp. in her youth) that was very good and not marred by her excessive vibrato. But unfortunately I got to acquainted with her as Adele (Karajan's awful Decca 'Gala' recording of the Fledermaus) and that is beyond that pale.

No, this is beyond the pale:


Exsultate jubilate with Klobucar/Berlin Phil.  The vibrato is so pronounced and so persistent--she can't sing a note without doing it--that I'm not sure it can be called vibrato.  Vibratissimo, perhaps.

Fortunately, it's only slapped on as the last track to fill out the CD (completely different group of performers for the Requiem), but the performance comes perilously close to making this not worth the $6.99 or whatever it retails for.

Thread duty: the laundry machine before doing errands for the day.