What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Bach-Busoni D minor Keyboard Concerto BWV 1052, Lipatti
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4, Menuhin
Schubert Entr'acte music from Rosamunde
Schoenberg Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Eduard van Beinum 

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Goldberg Variations

Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord)

[foxandpeng]

Beethoven
Symphony 3 'Eroica'
Osmo Vänskä
Minnesota Orchestra
BIS

Although not my favourite Beethoven symphony, this is again, well executed.

[André]

A fine, refreshing and interesting program.

Pierné and Schmitt were enthusiastic about the ballet Tombelène and it's easy to see why. Both composers could have written it, I think. The violin concerto is romantic in idiom but its syntax is neo-classical. The composer described it as semi-dionysian and semi-apollonian.

The cello concertino has an interesting and unusual genesis. Devreese originally scored it for 15 winds, 6 double basses, harp, celesta and side drums. This unusual orchestration being an obstacle to performances, the composer rescored it for a small orchestra. The composer's son Frédéric, himself a composer and conductor, re-orchestrated the piece for piccolo, 2 flutes, a single oboe, 2 clarinets, harp and strings. It's not clear why Devreese's re-orchestration needed revamping. I would definitely like to hear the original winds and double basses iteration. In any case, it's a pastoral, reflective piece with no soloist fireworks.

Good performances and sound.

[steve ridgway]

People have developed a harmful habit of assigning meaning to literally everything they see or hear. "This tree is full of meaning!" Or, "That cloud in the sky seems so meaningless." Or even worse, they believe their own entirely automatic reactions are meaningful...

Sometimes I see quite outrageous meanings in things, but generally temporarily in the context of what I'm experiencing at the time.

Currently listening to Ligeti: Three Pieces For Two Pianos although it's not giving me any useful advice for the day ahead .

[AnotherSpin]

Sometimes I see quite outrageous meanings in things, but generally temporarily in the context of what I'm experiencing at the time.

Currently listening to Ligeti: Three Pieces For Two Pianos although it's not giving me any useful advice for the day ahead .

Is it truly you experiencing this or that, or is it something imagined that you've grown accustomed to thinking of as yourself?

[Irons]

Mendelssohn: String Symphonies Nos.9,10 & 12.

A post from DavidW inspired me to spin this. Endlessly innovative and that composed by a 14 year old  beyond understanding. The 9th, my favourite of the three has a first movement that is jaw-dropping good.



A small scale ASMF (13 players) with Neville Marriner directing from first violin desk.

[Que]

An excellent Medieval Christmas recording:

 

The picture does the actual black & silver cover of this reissue in the special 2011 HM Christmas series no justice... Picture of the regular issue on the right

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-13251/

An hilarious description by an editor of The Times:
"Christmas in the Middle Ages was a far more serious matter than coming a-wassailing and ding-donging merrily on high. This is the record for those of you who like to start the celebrations with a nice cold bath and a bit of self-flagellation before you put on your best hair shirt, with austere organum renditions of the prophecy of Christ's birth from the Winchester Troper and Aquitanian sources."

[Christo]

The most stunningly beautiful Christmas cantata of them all, IMHO: Lauda per la Natività del Signore (1930) by Ottorino Respighi:

[Harry]

Arcadia.
See back cover for details.
Leonor de Lera, Baroque Violin.
Nacho Laguna, Theorbo & Baroque Guitar.
Pablo FitzGerald, Archlute & Baroque Guitar, 14 course archlute by Jaume Bosser & José Miguel Moreno. Madrid, 2014
Recorded at Estudio Torrelaguna, Torrelaguna (Spain), 19-22 June 2023.

Leonor de Lera presents mostly diminuitions, the practice of virtuoso ornamentation in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. She applies this practice to pastoral madrigals and songs from the 16th and 17th centuries, which are based on texts by poets such as Giovanni Battista Guarini, Jacopo Sannazaro and Francesco Petrarca. And she does that surprisingly well, and tasteful in the bargain too. The performance is superb, and is the recording. Very enjoyable.

[Madiel]

Is it truly you experiencing this or that, or is it something imagined that you've grown accustomed to thinking of as yourself?

Did I imagine you writing this? Did you imagine you writing it, and are you imagining me writing this?

If you'll excuse me, I'll carry on making basic assumptions about the nature of reality in order to keep functioning.

[Madiel]

Mozart: Zaide



Interesting even in fragmentary form. The performance seems excellent, although the woman singing the character of Zaide rather lacks diction. She makes a beautiful sound though, as does everyone else.

[Que]

Streaming this recording with some rare repertoire! To my knowledge this is the only recording fully dedicated to Guillaume Morlaye, who was the pupil of Italian Alberto da Ripa (Albert de Rippe) and first in the lineage of French composer-lutenists.
Nice performances too.

[Hitch]

Telemann
"Ouvertures à 8" for 3 Oboes, Bassoon, Strings and Basso Continuo, TWV55 (D15, d3, B10)
Zefiro Baroque Orchestra/Bernardini
Arcana

This recording was mentioned in this thread many moons ago but I can't find the particular post, so I don't know who to thank. Not only is Telemann something of a revelation here, the recording itself is very impressive and encourages an investigation of Arcana's catalogue. These ouvertures have me wavering on the brink - do I really want to crack open the door of Telemann's compositional legacy? People have got lost in that enormous mausoleum.

[AnotherSpin]

Did I imagine you writing this? Did you imagine you writing it, and are you imagining me writing this?

If you'll excuse me, I'll carry on making basic assumptions about the nature of reality in order to keep functioning.

Do you really expect me to start explaining something to you?

[Harry]

Streaming this recording with some rare repertoire! To my knowledge this is the only recording fully dedicated to Guillaume Morlaye, who was the pupil of Italian Alberto da Ripa (Albert de Rippe) and first in the lineage of French composer-lutenists.
Nice performances too.

On my playing list!

[Madiel]

Do you really expect me to start explaining something to you?

That one's easy. No.

[Harry]

Rogier Michael c1553–1623.
Christvesper Dresden 1624.
Ensemble Polyharmonique, Alexander Schneider.
Magdalene Harer, Sopran.
Joowon Chung, Sopran.
Alexander Schneider, Alt.
Johannes Gaubitz, Tenor.
Christopher Renz, Tenor.
Matthias Lutze, Bass.
Joan Boronat, Cembalo/Organo.
Andrew Burn, Dulciano.
Elias Conrad Liuto/Tiorba
Vera Schnider, Arpa doppia.

Recorded: KUSPO Münchenstein bei Basel (CH), 10–12 April 2024.

Only a few connoisseurs will be able to say without hesitation who preceded Heinrich Schütz in the post of Dresden Court Kapellmeister. The man was called Rogier Michaels, born in Mons (Belgium) and was one of the last representatives of the Franco-Flemish school of vocal polyphony, which was in demand throughout Europe. In the meantime, however, Italy was setting the tone and the old school had to rethink. Michaels succeeded in this. Among his few surviving works is an innovative Christmas history (1602), which was performed at the Dresden court for 50 (!) years - and all the more astonishing occurrence, as this music by no means trumps with external effects. When the devotional simplicity is combined with Christmas vocal and instrumental movements of the time, the simplicity becomes all the more apparent, and the Christmas Vespers 1624, which the Ensemble Polyharmonique presents here, is still enchanting today.

[steve ridgway]

Is it truly you experiencing this or that, or is it something imagined that you've grown accustomed to thinking of as yourself?

I'm fine with it either way .

[AnotherSpin]

That one's easy. No.

Well, isn't that just wonderful?