What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

I looked for that set on Amazon. The only offer asks for 1740$, with FREE DELIVERY !!!!

Those are ridiculous prices and of course only meant for the true enthusiast.   I bought my set on eBay quite recently for 50 euros and in mint condition.
It is a fine set and you will not find another that is complete as this one.

[André]

The visual here may be uninformative, if not downright offputting. So, a word about the disc's contents might be appropriate,



All the works here are for solo instrument (one for guitar, another one for flute) or chamber combinations (all involving the guitar, except the string quartet). So we get a varied conspectus of pieces written around the turn of last century (1991-2001). This fine program gave me a hint into Eespere's artistic musical mind. Everything here is measured, tuneful, questing, grounded. Whether it's in the solo guitar, string quartet or chamber combinations, Eespere's music speaks of earthy, sensible concerns. It never attempts to convince, condone or condemn - it speaks its mind simply, with quiet confidence. This is not militant, angry or angsty stuff. Really, I loved it.

[AnotherSpin]

I looked for that set on Amazon. The only offer asks for 1740$, with FREE DELIVERY !!!!

I see this set on Amazon for $81.50 at the moment, and at a couple of other places for a comparable price.

[Tsaraslondon]

My first Messiah and one of the first to make a stab in the direction of HIP. Robert Tear is a bit effortful, but Elizabeth Harwood sings splendidly and Janet Baker is divine. Brings back many memories for me.

[Christo]

Made a long visit yesterday with friend Rudolf Bohr to a beautiful medieval castle, Slot Zuylen, on the outskirts of Utrecht and next to its own -- small -- Reformed church on the river Vecht, the place still an idyll. A time capsule: collections of two noble families -- Belle's was called Van Tuyll van Serooskerken -- who lived there until after World War II have been preserved far and wide, especially some 200 paintings.
In the middle of the 18th century, daughter Belle van Zuylen (1740-1805) lived here (until she married a Swiss at 31 and spent the rest of her life on Lake Geneva as 'Mme de Charrière'). Typically a child of the enlightenment: salons, novels, poetry, correspondences with all the famous names of her times, a collected work in ten thick volumes. One of her pastimes, of course, was composing. On my headphones, the Six menuets pour deux violons, alto et basse.

BTW: four storks with chattering beaks were flying around and sitting on their nest on the roof -- never before we saw those around Christmas.

[Que]

[Madiel]

Mozart: Ballet music for Idomeneo

[Madiel]

Mozart: Oboe Quartet



This is the last thing in the Köchel catalogue before Mozart's arrival in Vienna (well, in K1/K9 numbering, in the K6 version it gets to be 2nd-last). So it seems to be a good landmark to round off my evening. From here on in it'll be the Vienna years... though it looks like for the first couple of those years I'll be listening to quite a lot of fragments. He took a while to get settled?

EDIT: I'd forgotten just how delightful the oboe quartet is, or at least how delightful this performance of it is. Utterly charming.

[Harry]

Renaissance
Chants sacrés.
Quartom.
Recorded: Eglise Saint-Esprit, Montréal (Québec) Canada  2018.

Not performed quite according to the rules, which I think should be applied to this kind of repertoire, but nevertheless satisfies the basic needs of expression. These guys sing as their heart dictates and for a change that is quite okay.
Excellent recording.

[Traverso]

Bach

[vandermolen]

Nice! What's the program?

TD:

The Harrison/Hovhannes disc is especially fine.

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
1920 version for piano duet:

[Cato]

Well worth 15 minutes of your time: Nikolai Tcherepnin's 3 Pieces for Piano!

Te Deum by Jeanne Demessieux: at times reminiscent of things by Miklos Rozsa, but still in her own style.

[Christo]

Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
1920 version for piano duet:

Tomorrow I will hear 'A London', at the Akoesticum, a concert hall just 800 yards from my front door. For the second time in my life, this time by the 'National Youth Orchestra', with a.o. young cello player Matthijs who also sings bass alongside me in our chamber choir. He told me that the conductor -- Jurjen Hempel -- introduced  them into all nine of RVW's symphonies to better understand the context. See: https://www.jeugdorkest.nl/orkest/orkest

The other pieces performed are also sentimental youth favourites: Alborada del Grazioso (Ravel) & Capriccio Italien (Tchaikovsky).

[Cato]

More keyboard works: Sergei Protopopov's Piano Sonata #1, Opus 1, which qualifies as Scriabin's Piano Sonata #11.      

The sound is not the best, but...

[Karl Henning]

Tomorrow I will hear The 'London', at the Akoesticum, a concert hall just 800 yards from my front door. For the second time in my life, this time by the 'National Youth Orchestra', with a.o. a young cello player who also sings bass alongside me in my chamber choir. He told me that the conductor -- Jurjen Hempel -- introduced  them into all nine of RVW's symphonies to understand the context. See: https://www.jeugdorkest.nl/orkest/orkest

The other pieces performed are also sentimental youth favourites: Alborada del Grazioso (Ravel) & Capriccio Italien (Tchaikovsky).

Great program!

[Traverso]

Purcell

[Lisztianwagner]

Claude Debussy
Images pour orchestre

Jean Martinon & Orchestre National De L'ORTF

[Maestro267]

2024 Year in Review, Part 3
Orchestral I

Bridge: There Is a Willow Grows aslant a Brook
BBC NOW/Hickox

Ravel: Tzigane
Perlman (violin)/Boston SO/Ozawa

Huber: Symphony No. 1
Stuttgart PO/Weigle

Brian: Symphony No. 16
London PO/Fredman

Lloyd: Symphony No. 9
BBC PO/Lloyd

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 4 in E Flat Major, 1880 (aka 1878/80) - Ed. Robert Haas, Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim