What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Enjoying this new release. Two decidedly late-Romantic pieces. The SQ is a little long, yet it manages to be very engaging. It seems to me that Walter was a better composer for chamber forces as I recall being disappointed by his rather diffuse Symphony in D minor (on CPO as well).

[Florestan]

Do you know, I've come to enjoy Lélio, myself

Kudos to you, Karl. 

[Todd]

Martinu: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Sung in Czech with an English narration. This is one of my favourite works by Martinu:

I didn't know Belohlávek recorded it.  I dig the work and now I kinda want his take.

[Todd]

A crackerjack D944.

[aligreto]

Vivaldi: Stabat Mater [Spinosi]





This presentation lasts for just under nineteen minutes and is therefore in the medium paced category for this work. It is suitably low key yet very atmospheric in tone. Lemieux's voice is both warm and full and also packs a powerful punch in this music; her voice is quite understatedly robust yet delivers the music very sensitively. The orchestral accompaniment is also very sensitive, yet lively, to the vocal element. The overall tone is solemn, but not oppressively so. This is a very strong performance under the very capable baton of Spinosi who is, I find in my limited exposure to him, very strong in Vivaldi.

[Symphonic Addict]

[Bachtoven]

This is an excellent new release. I need to listen to more Saint-Saëns! (I own a fair amount--he just slips beneath my radar for some reason.)

[Lisztianwagner]

Fryderyk Chopin
Piano Concerto No.2

Arthur Rubinstein (piano)
Alfred Wallenstein & Symphony of The Air

[Madiel]

Okay, but then again how does a computer algorithm come up with asking exactly $1,399.99? Why not $1,400, or $1,350? As far as I know, computer algorithms do just that, ie round up/down the amount.

Well no, not if someone had told then that human beings like prices ending with 9s.

[Madiel]

Okay. I'm still unconvinced that a moderately sane person perceives $1.99 as a significantly lower price than $2.00.

And yet moderately sane marketing strategists have been demonstrating that it works for decades.

[Todd]

The Elgar.

[JBS]

As expected, a second listen improves on the first.

[Mapman]

Saint-George: Violin Concerto in B flat Major, Op.7/2
Vilimec; Preisler: Pilsen Philharmonic

This is good Classical period music, well-performed by the Czech musicians. The tunes seem good; I'd probably remember them after a couple more listens. Sadly the recording quality is not that great. I can't quite describe what is wrong, but it just doesn't sound right. The horns are fairly buried.

[Bachtoven]

Time to wake up the woofers!

[JBS]

Finishing up my jaunt through QM's FJH

[Symphonic Addict]

Not as strong as anything by his compatriots Mahler or Bruckner, but very good on its own terms all the same.

[aligreto]

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 12 [Borodin Quartet]





The tone and the atmosphere of the opening movement is bleak and stark to my ear. The lean and sparse scoring is a major factor in achieving this objective. The lower string registers play a very important part, for me, in the creation of the atmosphere of this movement.
In a very fine contrast the second movement is both thrilling and electrically charged. The musical language here is oftentimes wonderfully jarring, exciting and keenly experienced.
The scoring and the musical language in the final movement reverts to the sparse and bleak tone of the opening movement. I find that it is very harmonic but also very bleak. That pizzicato passage just beyond the halfway point is wonderfully expressive. Following that the harmonic structure of the subsequent passages are wonderfully expressive. The conclusion to the work in this presentation is, once again, very sparse but definitive. 
The playing from the Borodins is wonderfully engaging and excellent and the sound quality of the recording, for me, is both warm and expansive.

[Bachtoven]

Silly cover aside, this is some very impressive playing of formidably difficult music. Great sound, too.

[Symphonic Addict]

Hindemith: Kammermusik 1-3

The whole Kammermusiken or this complete album/recording would be a good choice for Hindemith on Hurwitz's series 'If I could only choose one work by...'. It encapsulates the best of the composer methinks.

[Operafreak]

 Lyapunov: Piano Works, Vol. 2

Florian Noack (piano)