What are you listening to now?

[king ubu]

wonderful performances, but I guess just not really my kinda repertoire ...

[aligreto]

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast [Loughran]





This is the only version of this work that I own so I have no other listening reference points for comparison. However, I find it to be a strong, dramatic work which is well sung and performed here in a powerful, spirited, exciting and intense presentation; operatic/theatrical almost.

[JBS]

To me the deploration sounds like lapping waves of the sea, waves collide and new waves form.

I absolutely adore the timbre of the top voice. And I like their way of forming vowel sounds, it's not too rich and large, and it's pretty introspective.

It's slow. I find it hard to hear and follow the words.

Re world music R Us, that connection has been part of medieval music interpretation since the 1960s, maybe less so in music as late as this Ockeghem. The one thing we know about this period of music is that it didn't sound like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Everything else is up for grabs.

I followed Ken's link for Schmelzer and Co.   Did not care for the Missa Caput.  That the Youtube algorithm suggested that a video of Inuit throat singing sisters was comparable may be taken as an image of why.   But now listening to their performance of that Ockeghem Deploration, which works much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9tcg1VfKPs

[JBS]

To me the deploration sounds like lapping waves of the sea, waves collide and new waves form.

I absolutely adore the timbre of the top voice. And I like their way of forming vowel sounds, it's not too rich and large, and it's pretty introspective.

It's slow. I find it hard to hear and follow the words.

Re world music R Us, that connection has been part of medieval music interpretation since the 1960s, maybe less so in music as late as this Ockeghem. The one thing we know about this period of music is that it didn't sound like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Everything else is up for grabs.

Having listened, I agree, and I found I did not like the Bordeaux BrokenConsort performance you posted not nearly as well.

[Mandryka]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

[JBS]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

But can't nightingales pray as well?

I suppose you're right about the Graindelavoix, but I found it hard to get past the drone.  There was a similar effect on Beauty Farm's recording of Baudelwyn.  Have you heard that one?

[André]

Very nice. The second concerto is a work of real substance. In between the concertos the orchestra plays the Derby Overture, a fun work with an arnoldian touch (a « lounge » tune in the middle section).

[Harry]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

Told ya so....

[aligreto]

Howells: Sacred music [Rutter]






Magnificat [from the Gloucester Service]
Like as the hart
The fear of the Lord
Long, long ago
All my hope on God is founded

[Mandryka]

But can't nightingales pray as well?

No, as Owl says to Nightingale

you entice those people who are willing to listen to your songs to the joys of the flesh; you're hopeless on the bliss of heaven, since you don't have the voice for it. Everything you sing is about lechery, as there is no holiness in you; nobody's reminded by your chirping of a priest singing in church.

  There was a similar effect on Beauty Farm's recording of Baudelwyn.  Have you heard that one?

No, I haven't.

[JBS]

I followed Ken's link for Schmelzer and Co.   Did not care for the Missa Caput.  That the Youtube algorithm suggested that a video of Inuit throat singing sisters was comparable may be taken as an image of why.   But now listening to their performance of that Ockeghem Deploration, which works much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9tcg1VfKPs

Gave that Kyrie another listen.  The Inuit throat singing bothers me less, but I'm not sure it's a recording I would want to spend money on...

[Malx]

Not so familiar with this one but will investigate.
What do you think of no 9?🎼🎼

Judith, the ninth is a very fine work, one of Bruckner's finest.
I only know the traditional three movement version, never having felt the need to listen to the BPO Rattle recording that features the completion of the finale.

A recording I enjoy (one of many) is the live 1990 recording from the BPO conducted by Barenboim.
Barenboim's conducting hero was Furtwangler so there is a connection with the previous disc I posted - I am listening to it now as I type.

[Kontrapunctus]

I received this set yesterday and started with Op.101 and 109. Wonderful playing and sound.

[listener]

Jacques VALMOND: Concerto for violin, strings and harpsichord op. 5
Alfred FELDER: Ballade for cello, harpsichord and strings
Jacques Valmond, cond. & violin, Alfred Felder, cello,  Erica Valmond, harpsichord
Orchestre de Chambre Estro-Armonico Lucerne

VALERIUS: Dankgebet    DOPPER: Ciaconna Gotica ROENTGEN: 2 Holländer Tänze
Rudolf MENGELBERG: Salve Regoina WAGENAAR: Cyrano de Bergerac – Overture
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam     Willem Mengelberg cond.
The Dopper Ciaconna timing is 19:23. it may have some cuts, I've read

[GioCar]

Walther: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, versus I to IX

[André]

Symphony no 3.

[GioCar]

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E, BWV 566



At about 20 years old, he should have been very happy when he composed that piece.

[Kontrapunctus]

[aligreto]

The Leiden Choirbooks, Vol. II CDs 1 & 2





I have now worked my way through the second volume. Although I am familiar with [to a small extent] and have some of his music in my collection already I was quite taken with the music of Clemens Non Papa in this volume.

[Todd]

Honeck v Honeck.  OK, not really, given that the discs are of rather different works, but I wanted to get a sense of their respective styles in a short time frame. 

Honeck the Lesser leads pals from the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics in somewhat leisurely, comfortable, lovely playing of unchallenging works.  Sound and playing are first rate, and my big takeaway is that I would have rather heard a complete Haffner Serenade than the collection of short pieces on offer.

Honeck the Greater delivers a superior disc overall.  The Eroica is superb, though it doesn't displace established favorites of differing approaches (eg, Toscanini, Klemperer, Giulini, Chailly).  The opening movement falls just shy of possessing the scale and punch I prefer, but the Funeral March is fantastically great.  Honeck makes it the definitive center of gravity of the work, and while his band always does great work, the horns do especially noteworthy work.  The work ends with a great set of variations.  It joins Chailly among favored current century recordings for me.  The disc also has Strauss' First Horn Concerto, which, for people who really like the work, is quite well done.  I doubt I listen to it again.