What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Bonehelm]

Thanks to Gustav for the trick to get around NML:



Absolutely heavenly.

[Que]

See my comments HERE.

Q

[Peregrine]

Mozart, K.239 'Serenata notturna', K.320 'Posthorn' - BPO/Böhm

Glorious playing, beginning of the 'Posthorn' serenade builds to a lovely crescendo 

[val]

WEBER:  Abu Hassan             / with Edda Moser, Gedda, Sawallisch


A beautiful little Singspiel with a remarkable orchestration. Moser and Kurt Moll are perfect, Sawallisch conducts with energy and enthusiasm. Only Gedda seems having vocal problems.

But the work deserved to be better known. Each number is a pure delight.

[Que]

See my comments HERE.

Q

[marvinbrown]

  I'm consumed by Puccini this weekend, now listening to this:

 

  This opera is delightful, it often gets overshadowed by Puccini's "Big 4"- Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme and Turandot, but I much prefer it to Turandot. It has wonderfull choruses and that piano duet at the opening of the opera is just heart-aching.

This recording also includes excerpts from Le Villi the first of Puccini's stage operas.  Puccini entered Le Villi into a competition, he did not win that day.  Funny how his latter operas would come to dominate the stages of the world's opera houses.  Don't you just love it when the crtitics and judges are WRONG about talent- and in the case of Puccini DEAD WRONG!!!   

  marvin

[Que]

As per request by Novitiate, some comments - posted here by lack of a proper Händel thread.
I'm still looking for a volunteer to start and maintain one... . No ardent Händelians around? Besides those who decided to start a whole new forum instead? 

Anyway, on this recording. The - to me - at first not so obvious combination of Händel and a French ensemble under a French conductor, works remarkably well. But then again, these pieces were written by a young Händel during his stay in Rome, and they are firmly rooted in Italian motet style.
Minkowksi does an exceptionally good job: a very elegant, finely grained and expressive performance. And do not fear: it's lively but never hurried or in overdrive. On the contrary: this is a performance where the music "breathes" and unfolds naturally. Of course Magdalena Kožená is a delight and a big asset to this recording. Annick Massis is nice as well, though there a vocal climax in the 1st motet where she has difficulty to keep her voice in check. The choral singing is, obviously, not in smooth and ethereal British style. Which suits this music IMO fine. The chorus is anything but rough, though the surface has more "texture" and the result is IMO more intimate.

For the Dixit Dominus the most obvious competitor is Gardiner's 1st recording on Erato: which does have British chorus (and some "Gardiner-patented" overdrive). I guess the choice is a matter of taste. Though the programming of the Minkowski disc, which combines pieces from the same period - and a few rarely recorded**, is another point in its favour.

** There is a 2CD "Carmelite Vespers" set, which includes the Dixit Dominus, by Andrew Parrot (Virgin). Haven't heard it.

Q

[gmstudio]

Finally got this from the library...a beautiful way (so far) to start of a cold, snowy Saturday morning...

[Que]

Q

[greg]

i like this amazon customer review:

This recording of Feldman's First (numbered) String Quartet came out initially in 1994 on the Koch label. This was out of print for quite a few years until Naxos picked it up and rereleased it in late 2005. This is quite different to the Second String Quartet (although if you insert this inbetween discs of either recording of SQII, it would fall into place quite well). Whereas SQII is a series of many pages of shuffled and rearranged recurring ideas that are strung together, SQI is a long stream of consciousness, a slowly evolving landscape. There are some later pages though in SQI that certainly foreshadow many types of elements in SQII (the repeated motives at the 70' mark to the end come to mind). I have always been used to Feldman's music, to a point that the late long works, such as "For Philip Guston," started to grow wonderfully on me and seem endlessly brief. As with just about everything in Feldman's oeuvre, you don't simply listen to it to be entertained and satisfied; you commit to it, you live it, like being with a very good friend or watching a baseball game, where time is not of the greatest importance (it's too bad that Feldman never saw "Seinfeld," that show about nothing, and yet about everything). There is ebb, flow. There are surprises, some startling (take, for example, the first instance of a very loud eight note cluster twenty minutes in, which will occur three more times in the next fifteen minutes in different lengths, then disappear, never to be heard again after that), some reminiscent (like the fast pizzicato figures about 55' in, which reminds this writer of the first of Webern's Op.5 Five Movements for String Quartet), some items that come around at periodic intervals, other items come but once, never again to be encountered. And yet for all its length, I have listened to it many, many times in the last five years that it now seems to whiz past me like a Webern Bagatelle, that's how much I have become used to it. To listen to this piece is simply a matter of letting go (could there be something Zen in there?), letting things just happen, accepting, absorbing, breathing. In a way, simply be.

[Lilas Pastia]

John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych, for piano and orchestra. On Lyrita. A very original work, full of colourful incidentals, it carries a strong musical line within a traditional 3-movement concerto structure.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio and Shostakovich: Trio no. 2. Rosamunde Trio (founded by pianist Martino Tirimo). Excellent performances of these two masterworks.

Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker and Orchestral Suites 3 and 4. Antal Dorati (Concertgebouw Orch in the ballet, New Philharmonia in the suites). To my ears, this recording of the Nutcracker is possibly the most beautiful orchestral recording ever made. The orchestra is at its magnificent best and it's impossible to imagine more alluring and tonally gorgeous playing than this, especially heard in such lustrous, resonant yet well-defined acoustics. Priceless. After this, the suites are a bit of a letdown, although they were not intended as 'major' works. The orchestra and recorded sound are not on a par with the Amsterdam Nutcraker either, but they play solidly. The third Suite has always been a favourite of mine, and it's easily on a par with symphonies 2 and 5, better than 3 but not as good as 1, 4 and of course 6. Still, a not inconsiderable achievement. Dorati's conducting is solid and unsentimental.

[BachQ]

i like this amazon customer review:

SQI is a long stream of consciousness, a slowly evolving landscape.

"Slowly evolving"?  Most definitely ........

[Harry]

Pedro de Escobar. (1465-1535)

Requiem.

Ensemble Gilles Binchois.

This recording on Virgin from 1998 must be the best version I heard so far. First of all this recording stuns me, so good it is, and furthermore the voices are amazing, they touch your heart profoundly and deeply. They put in the right amount of passion, and religious seal, and blend all perfectly together. The Basses, Philippe Balloy & Jacques Bona, give a firm foundation to the Tenors, in which the counters blend well.
This is going on my short list for best recording of 2007.
Amazing.

[greg]

Right now, i'm just listening to "On the Dnieper Suite", since it's the only one that is really new to me....

[not edward]

Another very fine Das Lied, though I confess to a preference for Baker's voice in the contralto role.



One of the best recommendations I ever got on GMG. Are there any other Mehta recordings this good?

[Harry]

Samuel Scheidt. (1587-1654)

Ludi Musici I, II, III, IV.
-Selection-

Musica Fiata. (On period instruments)/Roland Wilson.

O dear me, this a nother clear winner in the field. Imagine...hundreds of years ago this guy wrote such fine music, and we sitting here in our comfy chairs with wine and smoked salmon, followed by a stiff single malt. His world and my world so different and yet we enjoy both the music he has written. Wish he knew this.
This recording from 2003 is excellent, and it takes some beating before you will find such a fine performance as this one.....

[Bogey]

About to start:

[wintersway]

Q

Most excellent choice Q!

[wintersway]

Good morning/day to all!

[rubio]

Haydn symphonies no. 26, 42, 43, 44, 48 and 49 by Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music.