What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

Well having Sergei Leiferkus is a good start.

Howard Shelley doesn't hurt, either. His PCs and complete piano music series are excellent.

[Harry]

Newly arrived.

Cipriani Potter.
Orchestral works.
Symphony No.1 in G minor.
Introduzione e Rondo (alla Militaire) in E flat major for Piano and Orchestra.
Overture to Cymbelene.

Claire Huangci, Piano.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Howard Griffiths.

Potter is a great surprise for my system. How can a composer be so forgotten? Especially if his music is of such great quality! I already possessed a recording of his 7th symphony done by Bostock, and knew what to expect, but this is beyond my expectations. He is a excellent orchestrator and does display a wealth of fine melodies, and surpasses many a famous composer from his time. Not only is the symphony embedded in a creative sound, but the work for Piano and orchestra stands out in the same light. Very enjoyable. We should hear the rest of his orchestral works too, but there is no light in the tunnel regarding follow ups. As so often with CPO they recorded some works in 2009, and simply forgot about the rest. I consider the Excecutive producer Burkhard Schmilgun as a very erudite man, and besotted with unknown music, but he let this slip into oblivion. A missed chance!
State of the Art recording and ditto performances.

[Sergeant Rock]

Tchaikovsky Manfred



Sarge

[Todd]

[Que]

French harpsichord music is surely one of my many  guilty pleasures in music...

This set of a "petit maître" from Orléans has pleasantly surprised me with quite a few uniquely expansive suites with 15+ movements.

[Harry]

Newly arrived.

Friedrich Gernsheim.
Violin concertos No.1 opus 42 in D major, & No.2 opus 86 in F major/
Fantasiestück for violin and Orchestra, opus 33 in D major.
Linus Roth, Violin.
Hamburger Symphoniker, Johannes Zurl.

The music is wonderful, and romantic in nature. This is Gernsheim territory in which he excels, played with a lot of passion through a excellent soloist, and orchestra.
This one is added to my large amount of recordings I have of this composer.

[Mahlerbruck]

Another, under the radar, Mahler recording.

Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 4

Armin Jordan
Edith Wiens - Soprano
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande



Overall a nice performance, but sometimes lacking in real Mahler idiom.

[Traverso]

Messiaen





part of this fine set.



 

[Karl Henning]

Franz Schubert's
Symphony No. 3

Jos Van Immerseel, Anima Eterna Brugge

Squeezing some Schubert in before departing for a house-hunting trip to Norfolk...

Good hunting!

[Harry]

Hugo Alfen.
Orchestral Works.
Volume I.
Festival Overture.
Suite from the Mountain King.
Swedish Rhapsody, No. 2.
Symphony No.1 in F minor,
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Niklas Willen.
Last played in 1997.

No that long ago I played these works by Neeme Jarvi, so its comparison time. Well compared to Jarvi these performances lack serious sparkle, and tempos are dragging, it all sounds laboured. Detail in the Henry Wood hall is not that great either. Tim Handley, a excellent sound engineer, does his utmost to get a balanced sound out of this Hall, but Timpani are booming, and the strings sound as if they have to be pulled out by force. If this recording is akin to all the other CD in this series, I am afraid its going to be culled in favour of Jarvi. I just read a review in Gramophone and he more or less agrees with my view. He calls Jarvi as the sparkier more charismatic interpreter. And also mentions his swifter tempos. Wearisome plod in the Swedish Rhapsody etc, etc. Like me he is missing the tingling atmosphere, textural refinement and a sense of enchantment.

[71 dB]

Paillard J.S.Bach boxset arrived today! 

Disc 1: BWV 1052 & 1053

Great great stuff! I like this! If the rest of the boxset is of similar quality, this was an awesome purchase (15 CDs for about 35 euros delivered to my door!). This recording is from 1958, but the sound quality is easily good enough. Very smooth and pleasant sound. No harshness at all. The treble is a bit quiet, but it doesn't ruin anything.

The cover art of the boxset is boring and generic, but the "pockets" for the discs seem to replicate the cover art of the original vinyl releases. I like them a lot.

[Operafreak]

Songs By Wagner, Pfitzner, Strauss

Matthias Goerne (baritone), Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

   

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Symphony No.8

I like Beethoven,I like his eighth symphony and I like the performance of Hans Schmidt Isserstedt and the Wiener Philharmoniker.
I have the impression that these recordings are somewhat undervalued, but they are among the most beautiful I know. Not the smoothness that characterizes Karajan's recordings, but on the contrary with a vital articulation that makes the whole sparkle.
For years Karajan was my champion when it comes to the Beethoven symhonies but those days are gone. Of course the "fifth" (DGG) is still very attractive, it was my first classical LP in the sixties and also in mono, it was cheaper and I had no stereo system anyway.
Some ( modern) performances are performed so fast that the whole can no longer breathe, but I will not name names. 
Recorded in the Sofiensaal, which is often an added value that should not be underestimated. It is always attractive if you can hear the characteristics of the recording location  . Many modern recordings today, however beautiful, often sound anonymous and without a face.

[Karl Henning]

Paillard J.S.Bach boxset arrived today! 

Disc 1: BWV 1052 & 1053

Great great stuff! I like this! If the rest of the boxset is of similar quality, this was an awesome purchase (15 CDs for about 35 euros delivered to my door!). This recording is from 1958, but the sound quality is easily good enough. Very smooth and pleasant sound. No harshness at all. The treble is a bit quiet, but it doesn't ruin anything.

The cover art of the boxset is boring and generic, but the "pockets" for the discs seem to replicate the cover art of the original vinyl releases. I like them a lot.

Nice!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I have to thank Traverso (Jan) for finding the Complete set of Bach's organ works, done by Bram Beekman. I was looking  years for it, but without result, Jan however equipped with a nose like Poirot, found a pristine set,  never played before.

J.S. Bach.
Complete Organ Works.
Volume I.
CD I.
Praeludium Und Fuge In C BWV 547    (10:10)
1-1.1     Praeludium    5:00
1-1.2     Fuge    5:09
1-2        Fantasia Super Komm, Heiliger Geist BWV 651    6:40
1-3        Komm, Heiliger Geist BWV 652    10:07
1-4        An Wasserflüssen Babylon BWV 653    5:19
1-5        Schmücke Dich, O Liebe Seele BWV 654    8:22
1-6        Trio Super Herr Jesu Christ, Dich Zu Uns Wend BWV 655    4:17
1-7        O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig 3 Versus BWV 656    7:41
1-8        Nun Danket Alle Gott BWV 657.
9           Sonata VI in G  BWV 530.  14:53.
Bram Beekman, Organ.
Instrument: Arp Schnitger 1702 in the Aa Church, Groningen, Netherlands.
Pitch: gis'=446 Hz by 10 degrees celsius.
Temperament: Meantone.

I am hugely impressed.  More later.

Wonderful recording.

[JBS]

The linguistic diversity is original rather than due to anyone at Sony. Though how much is because Sibelius actively wanted to muck around and how much is BECAUSE he was regularly selling small pieces to different publishers across Europe is a bit of a chicken-and-egg question.

Some of it has to be due to Sony: the booklet notes give the title of Opus 114 as Five Esquisses, with movement titles given in Finnish with English translations. The track listings stick to German for everything. I think neither Sibelius nor his publishers mucked things up that much.

[Todd]

First birthday disc for the big guy.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

East of Melancholy - Tara Kamangar. The Harvard graduate Iranian-American performs music by Iranian and Russian composers.

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 4 in E Flat Major, Version 1878-80; ed. Robert Haas, Berliner Philharmoniker

[Linz]

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Moutain, Igor Markevitsch