What are you listening 2 now?

[Que]

I seem to have bought a lot of Organ music from Brilliant, and yes this one too, and as far as I remember I quite liked it.

Nice music, very nice organ. 

[Lisztianwagner]

For Schönberg's death anniversary:

Arnold Schönberg
Verklärte Nacht
Variations For Orchestra

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker



Verklärte Nacht is such an intense and passionately expressive composition, so irresistible with its exasperated chromaticism, that it leaves always overlwhelmed. Variations for Orchestra is absolutely a masterpiece too.

[Papy Oli]

Great! 

The conductor Herreweghe once quipped: "Life is too short to listen to Telemann". He was obviously very wrong...  But in his defence: until not that long ago Telemann performances were abismal and deadly boring... But in the right hands and in the right pieces, his witty, polyglot style comes to life.

Based on the albums I have streamed so far and really enjoyed, I have a mixed bag of ageing:

- Wind Concertos & String concertos (Musica Antiqua Köln - i haven't tried the various CPO series for mixed instruments)
- Tafelmusik (M.A.K. again and the Freiburger Barockorchester)
- Fantasias for flute (Berthold Kuijken, also Lazarevitch)
- Fantasias for violin (Grumiaux & Guglielmo)
- Paris Quartets (Freiburger again and also the Kuijkens with Leonhardt)
- Trio sonatas & other Scherzi (Parnassi Musici)
- Suite in A minor and Double Concertos (Oberlinger)

Any other artists/ensemble worth a listening to please?

[Traverso]

Beethoven

CD 1

Violin Sonatas 1-2 & 3

Henryk Szeryng & Ingrid Haebler

[pjme]

Most of his chamber music is still unknown to me, but I do want to get familiar with it in the future.

This might interest you:

The first movement is in Milhaud's late "busy lilliputtian abstract shimmering" flecked with lyricism style
The second movement is a long, very slow build up to a percussion laden climax
The third movement is short, fun, exiting, very rythmical and has a virtuoso role for the military drum.

l'Homme et son désir is indeed a fascinating, very original (little) work, inspired by the Brazilian jungle and scored for a wordless vocal quartet, a handful of instruments (flute, harp, trumpet, clarinet...) and a large percussion section .

[Madiel]

Weber/Berlioz: Invitation to the Dance



The sound quality of the recording (Cluytens, 1965) is a little bit disappointing. It sounds thinner than other things I know from the same period, and not as good as the Irving recordings from 1959 and 1961 that I've already heard in this box. It weirdly reminds me of watching Looney Tunes cartoons.

[Harry]

Johannes Tinctoris. c. 1435-1511
Secret Consolations.
Italian & French Chansons, Motets, Mass movements, & Instrumental Music.
Le Miroir De Musique, Baptiste Romain.
Recording: Beuggen, Schloßkirche, June 2016.
Cover illustration, Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464), Mary Magdalene reading.
Streaming Qobuz.

Already the third CD from this ensemble I streamed on Qobuz. And what a beautiful adventurous journey it is. Much is to be found in the expression of the music by this ensemble, for to my ears it sounds authentic to the core. A subjective issue of course, and personal, for I have no idea how the music was performed at the time it was composed. But if it comes to Late Middle Ages and Renaissance music, this ensemble definitively hits a nerv with me. The voices flow as easily and harmoniously as I could wish for, and there is unity and balance in this choir and solo voices. Extremely well done and recorded.
The PDF file attached, is a treasure trove of info, about music time & composer, and the people involved. The good thing is that through Roon I can enlarge all the PDF files, and thus the small print gets readable for my old eyes.

[Madiel]

Sibelius: Symphony no.6

[Harry]

Zdenek Fibich.
Piano Quartet opus 11.
Piano Quintet opus 42.
Ensemble Villa Musica.
Recorded in 1997 at the Fürstliche Reitbahn, Arolsen.
Streamed by Qobuz.

Fibich is a composer close to my heart. Melodious, passionate, digging deep in your emotions, it brings the fruits of joy and compassion. Especially in such good performances, and more then adequate sound. The impression is one of uplifting, natural, completely unpretentious music-making without effort. It doesn't get any better.

[foxandpeng]

Valentin Silvestrov
Symphony 6
SWR Stuttgart RSO
Andrey Boreyko
SWR

Ridiculously good. Silvestrov is growing on me very quickly. Primordial chaos, imminent disaster, brooding, ominous....

[Todd]

[Madiel]

Mozart: Symphony no.7



This kid's good.

[VonStupp]

Serenade
Songs of Night and Love
Romantic Partsongs for Male Choir

Schubert: Nachtgesang im Walde, partsongs...
Vaughan Williams: The Vagabond, Loch Lomond, et al.
Carl Sjöberg: Tonerna
Alfvén: Stemning, Serenad (Lindagull)
Bruckner: Mitternacht, Abendhimmel, Abendzauber

Camerata Musica Limberg - Jan Schumacher

A choral arrangement (by VW) of The Vagabond was unexpected; the a cappella chorus covers the piano accompaniment too.

Bruckner's Abendzauber calls for four horns and three yodellers, which leads the imagination further than what musically actually happens.

I also really enjoy the cover art from Caspar David Friedrich. Serenade: Songs of Night and Love

[Madiel]

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.1



EDIT: Damn this is good.

[Harry]

Jerusalem.
City of the two Peaces, Heavenly and Earthly peace.
CD I.
Heavenly Peace: The Prophets of the Apocalypse and of the last Judgement.
Jerusalem, A Jewish City, 1000 BC-AD 70.
Jerusalem, a Christian city, 326-1224.
Jerusalem, a City of Pilgrimage, 383-1250.

Al Darwish (Galilea) Hesperion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall.
From my CD collection.

The music has a fascinating story to tell, and the narrating is revelatory. This release truly speaks of greatness in value of containing well researched effort in reconstructing times out of our past, in which all was different beyond recognition almost, but we might get a glimpse of those days long gone by, who knows.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Zdenek Fibich.
Piano Quartet opus 11.
Piano Quintet opus 42.
Ensemble Villa Musica.
Recorded in 1997 at the Fürstliche Reitbahn, Arolsen.
Streamed by Qobuz.

Fibich is a composer close to my heart. Melodious, passionate, digging deep in your emotions, it brings the fruits of joy and compassion. Especially in such good performances, and more then adequate sound. The impression is one of uplifting, natural, completely unpretentious music-making without effort. It doesn't get any better.

I believe that the only work that I've heard by him is his String Quartet No. 2 in A.

Do you have much of his music Harry?

PD

[Spotted Horses]

I deviated from chronological order to listen to the last three Schubert Piano Sonata. Today finished listening to what is probably my favorite Schubert Sonata, D958, Badura-Skoda



A wonderfully vibrant performance, and I like the sound of this instrument, which is a larger, more substantial fortepiano than the one used on the earlier sonatas. Probably I will listen to Pollini for contrast on a modern instrument, or Zacharias, which was released by EMI but which seems to have disappeared from the marketplace.

[Harry]

I believe that the only work that I've heard by him is his String Quartet No. 2 in A.

Do you have much of his music Harry?

PD

Well yes I have, orchestral as well as chamber music PD, and quite some piano music.

[Karl Henning]

I know my reaction to Shostakovich seems excessive. Perhaps the fact that Russian missiles and drones regularly come at my city has something to do with it. The very minute I opened this page and see posts about Russian music, an alarm sounding outside my window warning of a Russian attack. Someone's going to get killed.


I will not write about Shostakovich anymore. Treasure whatever you want.

All of us are sorry and horrified that the Russian military today is targeting your home, and we heartily hope that you and yours remain safe. The Russian invasion, though, does not justify a dodgy scheme to defame a Russian composer who has been dead almost 50 years. It doesn't alchemically transform assertions into fact.

[brewski]

John Luther Adams: Houses of the Wind - Electro-acoustic works based on the composer's recordings of an Aeolian harp in Alaska. Ethereal, shimmering miminalism, typical of Adams' style.



-Bruce