New Releases

[Mandryka]

I have this. Got it together with other 4 Kairos disks realised this year. But I'm yet to find enough free time for it.

Ah, I didn't realise it had been released already. Looking at the Kairos website I just came across this, also just released, which I'm very much enjoying,

[Mirror Image]

Thanks John - will be interested to hear your views when you get round to it.

I haven't posted it, but I did listen to Copland's The City. It was rather enjoyable --- the composer's lyricism was unmistakable (per usual). You'll enjoy it. I'm already familiar with Revueltas' Redes, but I haven't listened to this particular performance of it. It's a cool work.

[Roasted Swan]

I like the look of these two!

I've listened to the Revueltas/Copland.  They are very good and genuinely interesting.  These are "soundtrack" recordings previously released by Naxos on DVD of refurbished versions of the films.  By being complete you get to hear music not present in any other version, also - obviously -  the music is presented in order at the tempi they were conceived for the films (you can find the original film versions still on YouTube - Redes in particular is visually very striking).  The Copland is also very interesting because he wrote it at the time he was coming to terms with the role of the modern composer so moving away from his modernist youth toward the composer-of-the-people role as heard in his Wild West Ballets/Symphony 3 etc.  The City contains elements of both styles - a genuinely interesting missing link in Copland's evolution as a composer.  There is only 1 other version of anything like completeness - "Celluloid Copland" on Telarc which still sounds great.

[prémont]

New recording of Bach's gambe/keyboard sonatas with fortepiano (Viviana Sofrinitsky (fortepiano Silbermann), Sergei Istomin (gambe):

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/bach-sonatas-for-viola-da-gamba-bwv-1027-1029/hnum/10896414

[Mirror Image]

I've listened to the Revueltas/Copland.  They are very good and genuinely interesting.  These are "soundtrack" recordings previously released by Naxos on DVD of refurbished versions of the films.  By being complete you get to hear music not present in any other version, also - obviously -  the music is presented in order at the tempi they were conceived for the films (you can find the original film versions still on YouTube - Redes in particular is visually very striking).  The Copland is also very interesting because he wrote it at the time he was coming to terms with the role of the modern composer so moving away from his modernist youth toward the composer-of-the-people role as heard in his Wild West Ballets/Symphony 3 etc.  The City contains elements of both styles - a genuinely interesting missing link in Copland's evolution as a composer.  There is only 1 other version of anything like completeness - "Celluloid Copland" on Telarc which still sounds great.

Yep and this period of Copland is often referred to as his "Populist" period. Speaking of those DVDs, I actually own the Revueltas one, but I have only watched it one time.

[Todd]

Ms Barbier really should make more solo recordings, so this one is welcome.



If nothing else, the cover photo is well done.

[Mapman]

Didn't someone here request a Netherlands Wind Ensemble box a few days ago? I've bought a lot of music recently, but I might still have to get that.

[Mandryka]

I have this. Got it together with other 4 Kairos disks realised this year. But I'm yet to find enough free time for it.

I'm listening to L'invenzione de la trasparenza now. Can you tell me what it has to do with Dante? I don't have the booklet, just the download.

[Brian]

Didn't someone here request a Netherlands Wind Ensemble box a few days ago? I've bought a lot of music recently, but I might still have to get that.

Yeah, someone mentioned a super-rare out-of-print recording from the group. Definitely intrigued by this box (despite the very nerdy artwork). Eloquence reissues are musically valuable stuff.

[Artem]

I'm listening to L'invenzione de la trasparenza now. Can you tell me what it has to do with Dante? I don't have the booklet, just the download.

The booklet features an excerpt from a book about Sciarrino that discusses that specific composition. To be honest, it all sounds very obscure to me, as I'm not familiar with Dante all that much.

[T. D.]

Good grief, the Kairos booklet is freely available at

https://www.kairos-music.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9120010289194_0015119kai_itunesbooklet.pdf

I have little appetite for gaseous Sciarrino-related prose, but the piece appears to be inspired by the concentric spheres in Dante's Paradiso.

[staxomega]

The piano here has a bit of an uncanny valley effect—at first it just sounds like a regular Bechstein that just maybe hasn't been tuned in a few years, up until a sudden registral or dynamic shift makes you realise it's actually a fortepiano (although still a Bechstein one). Does make me wonder what Schumann would sound like on the piano Jean-Efflam Bavouzet used for his Ravel integral on MDG.

Not interested in listening to the Novelletten in full at the moment but Gesänge der Fruhe is just what I needed this month/year/lifetime, and the instrument does make a difference, although the largest deciding factor that makes it an essential performance is Helmchen's sense of rhythm and flux. I can't obviously say this is the "best" performance but it's probably up there.

The piano sounded distinctly fortepiano to me due to its relative lack of body and decay compared to a concert grand. And in the second movement of Gesänge der Fruhe you can hear mechanical noises. I find myself preferring the darker interpretations that lack the rhythm of Helmchen (Ugorskaja, Kun-Woo Paik), though I can completely see where you are coming from. I'll have to relisten to Helmchen when I don't have a cold. The early 1900 Steinway on that Bavouzet/Ravel disc is gorgeous.

[Brian]

The piano sounded distinctly fortepiano to me due to it's relative lack of body and decay compared to a concert grand. And in the second movement of Gesänge der Fruhe you can hear mechanical noises. I find myself preferring the darker interpretations that lack the rhythm of Helmchen (Ugorskaja, Kun-Woo Paik), though I can completely see where you are coming from. I'll have to relisten to Helmchen when I don't have a cold. The early 1900 Steinway on that Bavouzet/Ravel disc is gorgeous.

I definitely prefer slower interpretation when I'm feeling sick. It's a strange thing.

[staxomega]

I definitely prefer slower interpretation when I'm feeling sick. It's a strange thing.

Damn you, you quoted me before I could correct my error on possessive vs plural its/it's respectively, I don't know how I messed that up, maybe the cold

Edit: I would have to double check, I don't think Ugorskaja plays it that slowly. Kun-Woo Paik probably does though lol.

[Mandryka]

Good grief, the Kairos booklet is freely available at

https://www.kairos-music.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9120010289194_0015119kai_itunesbooklet.pdf

I have little appetite for gaseous Sciarrino-related prose, but the piece appears to be inspired by the concentric spheres in Dante's Paradiso.

I'd say that L'invenzione della trasparenza is probably the most challenge music by Sciarrino I have ever heard, because of the form and the length.

[T. D.]

I'd say that L'invenzione della trasparenza is probably the most challenge music by Sciarrino I have ever heard, because of the form and the length.

I was once a big Sciarrino enthusiast, but tastes changed and I now listen much less often. My head's just not in a Sciarrino place these days, maybe I'll try the piece when the weather brightens up (snow expected the next 3 days).
Can't help whining that I find the prose style embodied by the Sciarrino liner notes (and shared by many modern-oriented labels) one of the lesser-appealing things about contemporary classical music, and it's diminished my enthusiasm. These days I'm much more into improv or free jazz than new (notated) classical works. The pendulum might swing back, but likely not any time soon.

[Camphy]

[foxandpeng]

Greatly looking forward to this release. The first Holmboe SQ issue from the Nightingale Qt last year is excellent.

[Todd]

The DFD box was mentioned previously, and one can see it is a nice, big 106 disc doorstop box.

[Madiel]

The chance for A/B comparisons in Holmboe is most welcome.