What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[val]

LULLY:    Atys, opera   / Les Arts Florissants, Christie  (Harmonia Mundi)

This is perhaps Lully's best opera. The Prologue is splendid with the colors of the instruments, the rhythm. The first two acts, however, are heavy with the kind of rhetoric declamation that Lully introduced in French vocal music.

But the opera has extraordinary moments: the scene of the Sleep, in the 3rd act, is a model followeed by many compsers (Rameau, Purcell), and the great tragedy of the 5th act, with Atys murdering Sangaride and then killing himself. In this scenes Lully is at the level of Monteverdi.

The interpreters are just acceptable, except the very touching Agnes Mellon in Sangaride and Bernard Deletré, irresistible comedian in the role of the God of the River.

[Que]

LULLY:    Atys, opera   / Les Arts Florissants, Christie  (Harmonia Mundi)

This is perhaps Lully's best opera. The Prologue is splendid with the colors of the instruments, the rhythm. The first two acts, however, are heavy with the kind of rhetoric declamation that Lully introduced in French vocal music.

But the opera has extraordinary moments: the scene of the Sleep, in the 3rd act, is a model followeed by many compsers (Rameau, Purcell), and the great tragedy of the 5th act, with Atys murdering Sangaride and then killing himself. In this scenes Lully is at the level of Monteverdi.

The interpreters are just acceptable, except the very touching Agnes Mellon in Sangaride and Bernard Deletré, irresistible comedian in the role of the God of the River.

Thanks for that Val!
I believe this is still the only recording available, but considering the rising interest in baroque opera it surely won't be long before we get alternatives.

Q

[Que]

Drasko, what do you make of it?

Q

[Que]

Q

[Haffner]

Q

oooOOOOooo.

J. Haydn op.64 Quatuor Mosaiques

[BachQ]

listening to proko pc 3 (ashk)

[johnQpublic]

Gliere - Overture to "Gyul'sara (Sinaisky/Chandos)
Myaskovsky - Symphony #21 (Nikolayev/Audiophile Classics)
Markevitch - Sinfonietta in F (Lyndon-Gee/Marco Polo)
Shostakovich - Suite from "Katerina Ismailova" (Jarvi/Chandos)

[Kullervo]

Last night: Borodin - Piano Quintet (New Budapest Quartet/Ilona Prunyi, piano)

Elgar - Violin Concerto (Groves/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Hugh Bean, violin)

[George]

[longears]

A favorite. 

[Harry]

A favorite. 

The beautiful woman, or the music, or maybe even both........

[locrian]

Rossini: Complete Works for Piano, vol. 1 - Paolo Giacometti

[Que]

Q

[Harry]

Q

That looks like a very old E flat my friend!, if you ask me.

[Bogey]

Q

That looks like a beauty.  How's the transfer Q?

[longears]

The beautiful woman, or the music, or maybe even both........

She's a wonderful violinist (and a beautiful woman), the music is smashing, and the recorded performance is first-rate!

[Bogey]

Discs 1 and 2

[Que]

That looks like a very old E flat my friend!, if you ask me.

All recordings by Columbia made in 1941 (Dvorak) and 1942 (Mozart, Schumann).
Recorded just before the American Federation of Musicians succeeded in getting a recording ban imposed (Note that all members of the Quartet fled Hitler's Germany and that violist Karl Doktor was Jewish... )

That looks like a beauty.  How's the transfer Q?

Splendid.

Q

[sidoze]

did you find this from a marketplace seller? definitely a keeper, though IMO the 5th sonata in Prague is more intense and his smaller pieces don't come close to Sofronitsky or Zhukov

[karlhenning]

The beautiful woman, or the music, or maybe even both........

So, is testosterone necessary to understand this music? I ask only for information . . . .