What are you listening 2 now?

[aligreto]

Agricola: Fortuna desperata [Posch]





This is a collection of Alexander Agricola's love songs. The polyphony is rich and very pleasant to my ear. Ensemble Unicorn is a very good ensemble. The vocal elements are excellent and very engaging and the instrumental accompaniments are also rich and engaging texturally and are also very sympathetic to the vocal line. There is a great presence to the recording. I was particularly impressed by the instrumental track De Tous Bien Plaine 1 & 3. This is a wonderful CD!

[Que]

[Todd]

[Brahmsian]

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.

Just love that set to bits!

[Operafreak]

 Telemann: Trio Sonatas

for Recorder, Violin and Continuo

Fabio Biondi (violin), Tripla Concordia: Lorenzo Cavasanti (recorder), Caroline Boersma (cello) & Sergio Ciomei (harpsichord)

[Traverso]

Bach

[aligreto]

Schoenberg: Kammersymphonie No. 1 [Prometheus Ensemble]





This is a powerful and emotion laden driving swirl of energy and excitement. It is electric in places. I like the sonorities and textures in the scoring and this ensemble brings out these features very well.

I will not be listening to this version of the Kammersymphonie No. 2 as it is a piano four hands reduction of the score. Piano four hands reductions of orchestral scores do absolutely nothing for me whatsoever, irrespective of how impressive they might be.

[aligreto]

Just love that set to bits!

Yes, 'tis excellent indeed!

[Spotted Horses]

Malipiero, Symphonies 1, 2.



These works are from early in Malipiero's career when his mode of expression was romantic/impressionistic/lyrical/neoclassical. The symphony No 2 (elegiac) was particularly satisfying, although I generally prefer Malipiero's late, more quirky works. Recorded performances are satisfying.

[DavidW]

I discovered a quartet I had not heard before.  They are great!  I listened to these two recordings yesterday and will probably move onto their Haydn soon.  They are called the Chiaroscuro Quartet.  Anyone heard them before?

[Lisztianwagner]

Schoenberg: Kammersymphonie No. 1 [Prometheus Ensemble]





This is a powerful and emotion laden driving swirl of energy and excitement. It is electric in places. I like the sonorities and textures in the scoring and this ensemble brings out these features very well.

I will not be listening to this version of the Kammersymphonie No. 2 as it is a piano four hands reduction of the score. Piano four hands reductions of orchestral scores do absolutely nothing for me whatsoever, irrespective of how impressive they might be.

Interesting description; I don't know this recording, but it looks great, I'll look for it.

[71 dB]

Now that I have listened to the Paillard Bach boxset once through, it is time to get back to Mozart.

Brilliant Classics boxset, Vol. 3, CD 10: Marches. Capella Istropolitana/Nicol Matt.

Clearly lesser Mozart, but who cares?

[aligreto]

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 12 [Emerson Quartet]





This is a live performance and it is very well performed, recorded and balanced. I also find it to be a warm and engaging recording. The essence of a live performance is a delivery of atmosphere, tension and drama. And so it is here. The overall tone of this presentation is dark and bleak but it also has a high sense of lyricism. In this presentation I think that the Emersons offer a keen sense of both drama and tension.
The atmosphere of this presentation of the second movement is both bleak and tension filled but there is also a strong element of warmth and lyricism in it to my ears. There is also wonderful tension and drama portrayed throughout. The relevant warmth of the recording is a distinguishing factor here, for me. The middle movement concludes with a particularly fine flourish here and it is suitably warmly applauded.
The final movement is very well poised and well delivered here. I like the wonderful delivery of the starkness of the score here. It is suitably bleak! 

[aligreto]

Interesting description; I don't know this recording, but it looks great, I'll look for it.

I do honestely think that it is terrific. I hope that I have not over hyped it and that you enjoy it when you eventually get to hear it.

[Operafreak]

Sibelius & Magnus Lindberg: Violin Concertos

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo

[Harry]

Riccardo Zandonai.
Concerto Romantico for Violin and Orchestra.
Quadri di Segantini.
Orchestra Haydn di Balsano e Trento, Maurizio Dini Ciacci & Giuseppe Graziali.
Violin, Stefano Zanchetta.

This disc is a all time favourite of mine. The sound world created by Zandonai gives me goosebumps. He reaches into a realm seldom encountered, but so magical and far reaching, that although I played this disc a dozen times already, I still discover yet another layer of sublimity.
Fine recording and performance.

[pjme]

Is the music as strange as some of Segantinis paintings? Or is it some very late romantic tone painting?



The evil mothers /  Le cattive madri (1894)



Love at the fountain

[Karl Henning]

Please, recommend me the best Lelio recording in the market. I only listened to Colin Davis.

FWIW (probably a matter of impatience on my part) my first experience of the piece was a live TV broadcast which didn't sell me. No idea, now, who the performers were. Apart from that, the only Lélio I've heard is conducted by Boulez. Obviously I cannot suggest a comparison with the Davis, but only repeat that I like it. FWIW, I have no trouble with either the spoken passages of (say) Stravinsky's Perséphone or with the "untidy" architecture of Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette,

[Karl Henning]

I do honestely think that it is terrific. I hope that I have not over hyped it and that you enjoy it when you eventually get to hear it.

It is indeed superb!

[Spotted Horses]

I discovered a quartet I had not heard before.  They are great!  I listened to these two recordings yesterday and will probably move onto their Haydn soon.  They are called the Chiaroscuro Quartet.  Anyone heard them before?

They perform using gut strings and period bows, so they are HIP-ish. I've not hear any of their recordings, but am curious. I'm a little skeptical about a chamber music ensemble which has such a high profile first violinist, making it less of a conversation of equal voices.