Recent posts

#1

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Your favourite Tchaikovsky...

Last post by (poco) Sforzando - Today at 05:24:34 AM

Yours is a good point. I need to revisit that recording. I heard it long enough ago, I have no memory of it.

I envy you.

[Uuno Klami.Chamber Music.See back cover for details.Recorded at the Kuusankoski Hall, 2020.]

#2

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Harry - Today at 05:24:05 AM

Uuno Klami.
Chamber Music.
See back cover for details.
Recorded at the Kuusankoski Hall, 2020.

This is a wonderful surprise, the music I mean! Impressive and deep, even magical. It had huge impact on me. Of course I will try to find more of this composer to listen to. The performance is good, and the sound also, but will look further for other interpretations.

#3

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Papy Oli - Today at 05:19:07 AM

Byrd - Keyboard Music - Davitt Moroney
A few tracks of CD 2.

#4

Composer Discussion / Re: Mozart

Last post by Madiel - Today at 05:16:14 AM

And when do you begin to understand that HIP is not about replicating past performance practice exactly, which is also impossible for obvious reasons.

I think the problem is that some people don't recognise it's impossible, and don't fully engage with asking what the point is.

Anyway, all decent musical performance has to be historically informed. It's necessary to understand basic things about musical styles of different periods and how notation changed over time, no matter how "modern" a performance is, in order to get something that sounds any good.

But equally, being "historically informed" and playing historical instruments doesn't excuse performers who make something that doesn't sound any good. Not for me, anyway. When people excessively prioritise an "authentic" sound to the point where it excuses downright ugly playing (which does happen), it rather reminds me of the days when I listened to Christian pop/rock music. I definitely encountered people who would embrace any music to their theological liking no matter how rubbish the music was as music. I have fond memories of my Bible study group voting to destroy a CD of Christian "music" that was horrible...

Anyway. Moving on.

[La Bohème]

#5

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Purchases Today

Last post by ritter - Today at 05:09:34 AM

My exploration of Italian musical life in the 20th century led me to buy these:



I'm not really a fan of La Bohème, and only have two recordings of it in my collection (because they feature two sopranos I much admire, Bidú Sayão and Katia Ricciarelli), but adding this version by the man who conducted the world première seemed to make sense.

The Harvey Sachs biography of Toscanini was being offered deeply discounted (hardcover edition) on Amazon.com.

[Victor de Sabata]

#6

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by ritter - Today at 05:03:09 AM

First listen to this recent purchase (it was available dirt cheap, new, on Amazon.es):



The main reason to buy this was for the curiosity that concludes the programme, the suite from Victor de Sabata's  ballet Mille e una notte.

The CD starts with Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. TBH, I've never really cared for this concerto (I much prefer the Concerto for the Left Hand), but Chailly and particularly Stefano Bollani deliver a convincing performance.

Small pieces by Stravinsky and Weill complete the disc.

#7

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Que - Today at 04:53:35 AM

Not sure if the world needed another recording of Vivaldi's mandolin concerto RV 425, but it is a very good performance. Of course the less famous mandolin concertos by Giovanni Paisiello, Francesco Lecce and Hummel are the real draw here, laced with concert pieces (not featuring the mandolin) by Galuppi, Paisiello and Haydn.

Great recording, recommended for those into this kind of repertoire.

[Fausto Romitelli]

#8

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by brewski - Today at 04:50:05 AM

Fausto Romitelli: An Index of Metals (Ictus / Donatienne Michel-Dansac, voice / Georges-Elie Octors, conductor). Romitelli's last work, which I hadn't heard in a long time, perhaps since this recording came out in 2005. Went to the home of a sound engineer and listened to it on his superb system, and on this revisit, the score really seems like a weird masterpiece.

Notes from the recording here. Described as a video opera, the score combines live musicians, a soprano, and a prominent role for electric guitar, all combined with electronics in dense layers. Last night it worked fine without the images.

From the notes:

"An Index of Metals bears vigorous witness to this determination to go beyond: sizzling orchestration, electric and psychedelic; a voice which plays on effects, murmurs with reverb, cackles into a megaphone, screams like a pop star; and an electric guitar score of a kind that no 'serious' composer has ever written, sliding across an infinite range of tones with a lightness of touch and blurring of contours."
 

-Bruce

#9

Composer Discussion / Re: Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Cast...

Last post by Daverz - Today at 04:43:47 AM

Count me as a fan of his chamber music, not only of that sonata, but also of his two Piano Quintets, String Trio, Sonata for violin and cello and Sonata quasi una fantasia for violin and piano. In some of those pieces he incorporates Jewish melodies. On the other hand, I haven't warmed to the two Piano Trios yet, the recordings of them don't sound convincing methinks.

There's also a Guitar Quintet:

#10

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by AnotherSpin - Today at 04:29:03 AM

I can let you have his ops 110 and 111 if you like.

PM sent