What are you listening to now?

[LKB]

That sounds wonderful.  I got to hear Haitink conduct the Boston Symphony in Mahler's Second about 10 years ago at Tanglewood.  It was a great night all around.

TD, more of that heavy Germanic diet:

Mozart: Fantasy in C minor, Sonata in C minor
Mitsuko Uchida
[asin]B0000501PH[/asin]

I envy you sir, M2 is where I live. I've performed it from the chorus six times, most recently in 2014, and it's about the most exciting thing I've ever done out of bed. Even soloing for Beethoven's Ninth doesn't compare. So attending a performance with BH conducting the BSO... Yeah, I'd pay a pretty penny for that all right...

Wistfully,

LKB

[Mirror Image]

Now:



These CDs come free with BBC Music Magazine. I haven't heard this Pärt one yet. Sounds quite nice so far.

This is the worst performance of Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten I've ever heard. It's almost as if the presence of the orchestra has had the life drained from it. Edward Gardner is usually a fine conductor, but he has no affinity for this music judging from this performance. Sigh...I have no desire to move forward with this particular recording.

[TheGSMoeller]

Saariaho is still a composer I struggle with, but I'd love to know how you get on with her music, Greg. Maybe I'm missing something?

I wish I knew the key to breaking that struggle, John. But I really admire the freedom of Saariaho's music, the transcendence quality of the tone.

[kishnevi]

+1. The more I hear of Gardiner's pilgrimage the more I love it.

Yes. Of the three complete cycles I own, I like Gardiner most. (The other two being Leonhardt/Harnoncourt and Rilling.)

However, if you include non complete sets, I would have to rate Herreweghe the best.

I wish I knew the key to breaking that struggle, John. But I really admire the freedom of Saariaho's music, the transcendence quality of the tone.

I'm with John. I have that Ondine set, and found nothing I could relate to.
TD
Non classical
The Idan Raichel Project

[Parsifal]

Mozart Quintet in E-flat KV614

[asin]B000065TV7[/asin]

There are no words for this.

[kyjo]

Dvorak's Symphony no. 4 from this set:

[asin]B00JOX77GE[/asin]

I'm definitely enjoying this work more the second time around. This slow movement is really beautiful, even though its main theme is very clearly influenced by Tannhauser.

[Que]

Morning listening whilst sipping lots of hot tea with ginger, honey and lime:

[asin]B0081XYBVW[/asin]
Q

[Harry]

Morning listening whilst sipping lots of hot tea with ginger, honey and lime:

[asin]B0081XYBVW[/asin]
Q

Right, you forgot the malt dear friend. A hot toddy works wonders, especially for your mood.
I hope that the flu or cold does not get you!

[Que]

Right, you forgot the malt dear friend. A hot toddy works wonders, especially for your mood.
I hope that the flu or cold does not get you!

The flu already got to me...hence the quantities of hot tea

But I'll keep the idea of a strong drink in mind...

Q

[Que]

Auditioning a recent purchase:

[asin]B001GHQ708[/asin]

This disc with its not very original title didn't particularly attract my attention....
That is until I became infatuated with the voice of Nuria Rial.

Behind the title is in fact a cleverly composed programme of Early & Baroque arias dedicated to the Holy Virgin from South Germany, the Habsburgian Empire and Italy.
The list of composers inludes familiar as well as unfamiliar names.
And Bell'Arte Salzburg turns out to be a splendid period ensemble, and also provides an instrumental opening and interlude.

Recommended! 

And currently cheap (€4) at jpc.de......

Q

[Florestan]

Get well quick, Que!

My listenings during the weekend:



Hat tip to Mandryka!

If you like what he does there you'll like Francesco Tristano Schlime's Frescobaldi recording, which has a similar feeling of a stoned jazz pianist in a club in the early hours of the morning.

Well, this is not very far off the mark, given that the recording was made in a Paris night club, live. Yes, that's right --- and the audience is possibly the most well-behaved I've ever witnessed on disc: not a cough, not a whisper, nothing. It's as if they were all mesmerized by the music to the point of forgetting themselves. And fascinating the music is, indeed. The sound of the piano (blessed be your soul, signor Cristofori!) turns the whole thing into a poetical and ecstatic, even mystical, experience. I struggle rather hard with Italian Renaissance keyboard music but this disc was right up my alley. I wish more pianists threw off the shackles, and rejected the monopoly, that the ideological HIP brigade have put on and assumed of, early keyboard music performance: Schlime proves convincingly that a pianist with imagination, sensitivity and commitment can work wonders in this repertoire.

Highly recommended.



Hat tip to pjme!

This is a superb "concept album". Michiels plays Dvorak's Poetic Tone Pictures op. 85 and Janacek's On An Overgrown Path, Sonata 1. X. 1905 and In the Mist --- with a difference: the various pieces are interspersed. The result is a truly magical journey through and towards the mysteries and beauties of the Slavic soul. The only quibble I have is that Michiels's breathing is clearly audible, sometimes a bit too close.

Highly recommended.



Hat tip to Tharaud and his sound engineer Cecile Lenoir!

Another conceptual album, another marvel. An inspired and engaging selection of Chopin's music, played with passion and fire. Everything the music calls for (poetry, drama, melancholy, frenzy, serenity, turbulence, resignation, joy, nostalgia, foreboding, you name it) Tharaud delivers in spades. A special mention for the sound: it's splendid, one of the best I've ever heard: full, rich, powerful and above all beautiful, it flows like honey. If you like Chopin, or solo piano music in general, or if you just want to wallow in a sea of wondrous sounds, then you should own this disc. And if you like it, a hat tip to yours truly might follow.

[Florestan]

Now playing:



CD 13

Berceuse, Barcarolle, Bolero, Tarentelle, Souvenir de Paganini etc.

EDIT: it's autumn, I see a massive overdose of Chopin, Brahms, Schubert and Russian Romantics coming. 

[Que]

More Telemania with disc 7:

[asin]B0085U0GJW[/asin]
Overture in D, TWV55:D17 for two trumpets, bassoon, strings and basso continu
Overture in A, TWV55:A2 for strings and basso continuo
Overture in A Minor, TWV55:a2 for recorder, strings and basso continuo
Overture in E Minor, TWV55:e8 'l'Omphale' for two oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo

Review by David Vernier: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=755876

Q

[Florestan]

[Turner]

Shostakovich string quartets - Rubio Quartet / Brilliant 5CD box

Prices for 2nd hand items continue to descend here in shops. Bought this set at a special sale for 1,3 Euros - the first CD does have some scratches, but probably only superficial ones.

For example, they also sold the award-winning Chandos Peter Grimes for the same price, but I withstood the offer.

It´s a fine set with a very beautiful tone, I agree with David Hurwitz that too martial or very aggressive Shostakovich playing can be tiresome at times,
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-11666/
and this set is probably a bit more lyrical, but still certainly not with too subdued contrasts or moods.

I guess I tend to agree with Hurwitz more often than not.

[Todd]

A long-time favorite, it was wonderful to revisit this.  Fricsay's Introduzione is dark and tense, but he maintains a degree of flexibility that someone like Reiner does not.  The winds evoke a nice folk sound in select passages, to boot.  The Giuoco delle coppie is well done, though it lacks the precision of some other versions, but Fricsay makes it sound more musically whole and integral to the complete work.  The Elegia, at a taut 7'12", is dark and eerie when it should be, and biting and intense to a degree not found in others.  In contrast, the somewhat more relaxed Intermezzo interrotto allows the beautiful theme to emerge more lovely than normal, and the interruption to be more comical.  The Finale, at a zippy 9'01", gives equal weighting to both the folk music and formal, structural aspects of the music and generates oodles of excitement.  The excellent mono sound does not hamper things, either.  (And the accompanying MSPC, despite being in mono, is one of the best ever, too.)  Still a favorite.

[Mandryka]

A most  radiant Missa Solemnis from Haitink, warm and human rather than dramatic or boisterous. Beautiful textures and splendid climaxes.

[Florestan]

Earlier:



Now playing:



Disc 1

[Mirror Image]

The 4th:

[Mirror Image]

Now the 5th.