What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

@Traverso

You posted yesterday your Bizet collection and asked for my opinion but now I see the post is gone. You have some terrific Carmen recordings. The Djamileh one is a peach, as is the La jolie fille de Perth.

I recommend you these recordings as well:

[Harry]

Hans Judenkönig (ca.1450–1525).
>>Die Kunst der »Lautenschläger<<
Max Hattwich 6-String Renaissance-Lute. Alfonso Marin (2019) after Georg Gerle (ca. 1580).
Recording: 4-5 May, 12-13 October 2022, and 12 February 2023 at B-Sharp Studios Berlin Blankenburg (Germany).


A recommendation by @Que, at least he played it and seemed to be okay with it. To my ears it sounds subdued in a good way. All frills and tatters are absent, and thus Hattwich concentrates on the notes only, and pureness of tone. And so it  takes us into the music rooms of the bourgeois and aristocratic houses of the German Renaissance. Well recorded and performed.

[Florestan]

[vandermolen]

Magnard: Symphony No.3
L'Orch de la SR/Ansermet

[Florestan]

[Traverso]

@Traverso

You posted yesterday your Bizet collection and asked for my opinion but now I see the post is gone. You have some terrific Carmen recordings. The Djamileh one is a peach, as is the La jolie fille de Perth.

I recommend you these recordings as well:

Hi Andrei,here they are again and I like to know your favorite Carmen of these recordings.Solti is my first choice but they are all very fine in my opinion.

[Florestan]

Hi Andrei,here they are again and I like to know your favorite Carmen of these recordings.Solti is my first choice but they are all very fine in my opinion.

Solti for me as well, then Beecham and Karajan. I've not yet heard the Abbado.

But my favoritest Carmen still remains the one I imprinted on in my early teens:



Actually, the best thing you can do is to get the DVD:



I shall never forget the sheer exhilaration and excitement that watching it in cinema caused me to experience. I had never heard or seen anything like that. I was absolutely spellbound and my love for Bizet and opera in general was born on the spot. I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing that I saw it a second time and urged my parents, God bless their souls, to join me for a third session, which they happily obliged. I even urged my classmates (I must have been in the 6th grade, I think) to join me for a fourth but that time I had no success at all.

[Traverso]

Solti for me as well, then Beecham and Karajan. I've not yet heard the Abbado.

But my favoritest Carmen still remains the one I imprinted on in my early teens:



Actually, the best thing you can do is to get the DVD:



I shall never forget the sheer exhilaration and excitement that watching it in cinema caused me to experience. I had never heard or seen anything like that. I was absolutely spellbound and my love for Bizet and opera in general was born on the spot. I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing that I saw it a second time and urged my parents, God bless their souls, to join me for a third session, which they happily obliged. I even urged my classmates (I must have been in the 6th grade, I think) to join me for a fourth but that time I had no success at all.

Thank you Andrei for revealing your thoughts and experiences with Carmen. I will definitely go after the Maazel recording. Thank you for your sympathetic and endearing answer.

[Harry]

Eduard Nápravník.
Complete Piano Trios.
See back cover for details.
Spyros Piano Trio.
Recorded: August 2016 at the Konzerthaus der Abtei, Marienmünster.

As far as I know this is the first time I hear music from this composer, and apart from that he is quite unknown and unloved. Not much music is recorded of him. Listening to the piano trios I think this is a worthwhile rediscovery! Music that fits perfectly in its time, and the music is creative and melodious. SOTA sound.

[André]

Brun: Symphonies 1 and 2

After Frankel's symphonic traversal, Brun is the next composer in that matter. I had previously admired and liked his powerful first symphony in the epic key of B minor, and now the impression I get of it is even bigger. This is a great piece, quite cohesive in its development. Both the first and the second symphonies show some expressions we might call 'Brahmsian' and it's more accentuated in the latter. Brun benefits development over melodies and it shows in both symphonies. In the first one I don't miss the great tunes, but in the second one I do a little.

I love this composer. It takes a while to get used to the cragginess and thick textures, but he's an authentic Original.

[Florestan]

[André]

Eh, everyone does not have to like everything. I am impressed you tried so many versions before deciding it wasn't for you.

Deep (very deep) down lies a pining Mozart fan. 😍

[Traverso]

Chamber works composed by Michael Torke:

[Todd]

[Harry]

RICHARD FLURY.
STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1 AND 4.
Colla Parte Quartet.
Recorded on 14–15 April 2021 in the SRF Radio Studio, Brunnenhof, Zurich (String Quartet No. 1) and on 12–13, December 2022 in the Reformed Church, Oberbalm, Canton Bern (String Quartet No. 4).

After I had listened to the second volume is this series I remembered that I did not listen to the first volume, although I thought I did. So corrected hereby. There are only good things I can say about this volume. The music is inviting, as if four musicians have a conversation with each other, highly animated and vigorous in their arguments. The detailing throughout the music is remarkable, as is the concentration the musicians put into it. A fine composer he is!
The sound is intimate has a warm glow.

[kyjo]

Made a one day business trip to Lisbon today, and in my car, driving home from the airport, caught the last movement of Mahler's Sixth recorded live at this year's Proms (September 6). Simon Rattle conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

I hadn't listened to the work in years, and tonight it unnerved me (in a negative way). I could mostly hear the excess, the schmalz and the kitsch (those violin solos!  ), and only a few moments stood out as truly magnificent. I clearly have fallen out with Mahler's music over the past couple of years. Maybe it's a temporary thing, maybe not...

Seine Zeit ist vergangen?

Although the Sixth is my favorite Mahler symphony, I can sympathize with your views of the composer overall. Unlike the majority of classical music listeners (it seems), I can only take his music in relatively small doses. IMO most of his works have become annoyingly overplayed these days, indisputably great though they are.

[Maestro267]

The spacing on the title makes me think this should be Top Gear: The Opera.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Solti for me as well, then Beecham and Karajan. I've not yet heard the Abbado.

But my favoritest Carmen still remains the one I imprinted on in my early teens:



Actually, the best thing you can do is to get the DVD:



I shall never forget the sheer exhilaration and excitement that watching it in cinema caused me to experience. I had never heard or seen anything like that. I was absolutely spellbound and my love for Bizet and opera in general was born on the spot. I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing that I saw it a second time and urged my parents, God bless their souls, to join me for a third session, which they happily obliged. I even urged my classmates (I must have been in the 6th grade, I think) to join me for a fourth but that time I had no success at all.

Francesco Rosi is one of my favorite movie directors. I like his cinematography and camera angles. While Carmen is good, my favorites are Christ Stopped at Eboli (originally written by Carlo Levi) and Chronicle of a Death Foretold (originally written by Garcia Marquez).

[Madiel]

Bridge: String Quartets 3 and 4

When I got acquainted with these two quartets, I remember finding them thorny and unpleasant. Now I think they're masterpieces or close to them. It never ceases to surprise me how musical tastes evolve over the time. Sometimes with some composers and works, you go from liking to disliking. But in this case it was the other way around.

For me, Bridge's late chamber music is the very peak of his output.

[Madiel]

Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel, op.109



I find it harder to follow the story of this symphonic poem than The Water Goblin or The Noon Witch. Possibly it's sheer length is a factor.

But after trying this recording again (Harnoncourt), I then found that someone has done a very good analysis on YouTube, lining up Erben's story with the score. It was incredibly helpful. Wow, Dvorak really does put in a lot of detail with characters having themes and instruments associated with them. But it also showed me that some of the things I'd expect to be super dramatic aren't quite as dramatic, musically, as in those previous 2 poems. The murder isn't all that noisy.