What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

Started by Maciek, April 06, 2007, 02:22:49 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 8 Guests are viewing this topic.

Subotnick

Evening all!

I was reminded today that I used to have a version of Aida featuring Placido Domingo and Grace Bumbry. That box set is one of a few that got lost in my many travels. So, when I saw the following set today, I jumped at the chance of getting hold of it.



The overture is playing as I type and an exquisite rendition it is too!  :D Something tells me I'm in for a treat  ;D Only time for the first act though as I must watch the Ralph Vaughan Williams documentary on BBC4 @ 8PM!

TTFN.
Me.

Harry

Quote from: Wanderer on May 23, 2008, 08:20:40 AM
Järvi's renditions on Chandos are highly recommended. I'd like to investigate Luisi at some point, as well.

Yes, that I can confirm, Jarvi's cycle is highly recommendable.


Que

Quote from: rickardg on May 23, 2008, 06:34:54 AM
Just for fun I bought the Brautigam bundle on eclassical and a Paul Komen disc on iTunes (a grand total of slightly more than 10 euros) for some comparative listening.

Uninterestingly, I have to agree with most earlier posters and online reviewers. I've mainly focused on Sonata No 17 "The Tempest", and if you can call the piece bitter-sweet, then Komen emphasises the sweetness and Brautigam the bitterness. I find Komen more lyrical, his interpretation feels more flexible and cantablile, the phrases are longer while Brautigam is more aggresive and really pounds in the shorter figures.

Which one you prefer would depend on if you prefer your storms to be like a summer thunderstorm or a relentless winter rain storm.

The recordings are both fine to my ears, surprisingly resonant for chamber music (I think I've read somewhere that the Brautigam cycle is recorded in a church), but on the other hand that helps with the fortepianos short sustain.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 17 "The Tempest"
Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano
Paul Komen, fortepiano




A very interesting read! 8) I'm glad LvB on fortepiano gets a lot of exposure on the forum lately. And with really great (forte)pianists like these - that attention is very much deserved. Though I haven't not much of Brautigam's LvB - but all of Komen's - I can recognise my own impressions in your comments. :)

Q

MN Dave

I have the Brautigam. Those fortepianos sure sound dinky.  ;D

Brian

Quote from: Que on May 23, 2008, 10:46:51 AM
A very interesting read! 8) I'm glad LvB on fortepiano gets a lot of exposure on the forum lately. And with really great (forte)pianists like these - that attention is very much deserved. Though I haven't not much of Brautigam's LvB - but all of Komen's - I can recognise my own impressions in your comments. :)

Q
Komen hasn't done all the sonatas yet, has he?  :(

Que

Quote from: Brian on May 23, 2008, 10:56:54 AM
Komen hasn't done all the sonatas yet, has he?  :(

No, we're missing still about three discs, I think.
But I read some online concert notes saying he was recording the remainder.

Q

PerfectWagnerite


Brian

Quote from: Que on May 23, 2008, 11:18:12 AM
No, we're missing still about three discs, I think.
But I read some online concert notes saying he was recording the remainder.

Q
Thank heavens!  :)

BEETHOVEN | Kreutzer Sonata
Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot

rickardg

Quote from: MN Dave on May 23, 2008, 10:49:27 AM
Those fortepianos sure sound dinky.  ;D

Aah, you little troll, you... ;D

Quote from: Que on May 23, 2008, 10:46:51 AM
Though I haven't not much of Brautigam's LvB - but all of Komen's - I can recognise my own impressions in your comments. :)

i've actually had Brautigam's in my shopping basket, but haven't had the courage money to press click the button, and now I'm beginning to think I prefer Komen after all, I do like music to breathe even when very intense.

Quote from: Que on May 23, 2008, 11:18:12 AM
No, we're missing still about three discs, I think.
But I read some online concert notes saying he was recording the remainder.
Wonderful, wasn't the latest released in 2001?  I was starting to think the project had been abandoned. :o

Now playing:
Franz Schubert
String Quartet No 13 in Am "Rosamunde"
Takács Quartet



MN Dave

Quote from: rickardg on May 23, 2008, 12:00:18 PM
Aah, you little troll, you... ;D

It's true. I've been traumatised and will never buy another HIP piano recording ever again.

bhodges

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 23, 2008, 11:35:22 AM
This one youtube:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s1YqQ-6CdXE&feature=related

Some of the funniest sh*t I have ever seen...

...and check out his final scene from Salome;D  Whoever he is, this guy is pretty funny.

--Bruce

MN Dave

Yeah, he's just a punk kid, but I keep playing the thing for some reason.


PerfectWagnerite

Quote from: bhodges on May 23, 2008, 12:06:58 PM
...and check out his final scene from Salome;D  Whoever he is, this guy is pretty funny.

--Bruce
One thing I gotta hand to the kid...he seems to know the scores pretty well.

Is that Birgitt Nilsson singing?

bhodges

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 23, 2008, 12:20:38 PM
One thing I gotta hand to the kid...he seems to know the scores pretty well.

Is that Birgitt Nilsson singing?

I believe so: she and Solti are listed in the tags if you click on "More info."  Just tried some of his Mahler 8 and 9, too.  ;D

--Bruce

PerfectWagnerite

#25475
Quote from: bhodges on May 23, 2008, 12:23:39 PM
I believe so: she and Solti are listed in the tags if you click on "More info."  Just tried some of his Mahler 8 and 9, too.  ;D

--Bruce
Nilsson's is the only "Salome" I have, in any case her voice is pretty unmistakable...

Have you seen this final scene from Der Rosenkavalier?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLsZ5AMQfU

So beautuful I think I am going to cry now. Is there a more beautiful moment in all of opera ?

not edward



I love these performances (and those in the Brahms/Schumann companion volume).
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

J.Z. Herrenberg

#25477
Thanks, Bruce and PW - I am now deep into 'Death and Transfiguration'...  ;D

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 23, 2008, 12:31:38 PM
Have you seen this final scene from Der Rosenkavalier?

So beautuful I think I am going to cry now. Is there a more beautiful moment in all of opera ?

I think I know which moment you are referring to. It's indeed among the most poignant things in all music.

Edit: it's the Trio I had in mind, not the presentation of the Rose...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

bhodges

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on May 23, 2008, 12:31:38 PM
Nilsson's is the only "Salome" I have, in any case her voice is pretty unmistakable...

Have you seen this final scene from Der Rosenkavalier?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLsZ5AMQfU

So beautuful I think I am going to cry now. Is there a more beautiful moment in all of opera ?

That Rosenkavalier scene is quite lovely.  I am not familiar with either Anke Vondung or Maki Mori, and they're excellent.  I wonder where the production was taped...

Jezetha: I doubt we will see a similar interpretation of that Strauss any time soon.  ;D  PS, I found his website: www.wzauscher.com.

--Bruce

The Emperor

Schnittke-Concerto Grosso No. 2 for Violin Cello and Orchestra/ Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (Rozhdestvensky)

First listen, on the Concerto for Viola, sounds amazing!