What are you listening 2 now?

[hopefullytrusting]

My next set of listening:
Joseph Haydn: Symphony 26
Joseph Martin Kraus: Symphonies in C minor AND C-sharp minor
Johann Gottfried Müthel: Minor Keyboard Concertos
Johann Baptist Wanhal: Minor Symphonies
Ernst Wilhelm Wolf: Fantasia and Theme with 13 Variations
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony 25
Carl Nielsen: Complete Symphonies

[DavidW]

I assume that you have listened to several recordings, what is it about the Koopman performances that appeals so much to you?
This cantata BWV151 is nowhere as beautiful as in the performance with Ton Koopman it is really overwhelming with much intimacy ,great vocal singing as well.

Koopman balances light textures and swift tempos with emotional heft and spirituality. Gardiner may sometimes sound too trivial, and Suzuki too spiritual, but Koopman finds a way to honor both without leaning too much one way or the other.

[Spotted Horses]

Lutoskawski, Piano Concerti, Kupiec, Judd



Maybe this post won't be so useful because this recording on the Koch label is out of print and I can't find it on my streaming service or for download. I stumbled on it because I've come to appreciate Ewa Kupiec. Just the sort of thing I expect from Lutoslawski (thorny) and beautifully performed.

[brewski]

Happy 101st birthday, Luigi Nono!

Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz (Live recording from La Scala, Jan. 25, 2024)

Ingo Metzmacher, conductor
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Paolo Zavagna, sound director
Serena Sáenz, soprano

[Traverso]

Koopman balances light textures and swift tempos with emotional heft and spirituality. Gardiner may sometimes sound too trivial, and Suzuki too spiritual, but Koopman finds a way to honor both without leaning too much one way or the other.

 I can agree with that, The cantata BWV151 (I listened to it yesterday) is nowhere as beautiful as in the performance with Ton Koopman it is really overwhelming with intimacy and great vocal singing as well
It seems foolish to me to assume that the recordings with Suzuki are in all cases superior to other recordings. This recording with Koopman is one that I cherish,I really love it very much.
It is therefore not superfluous to state that there are many roads leading to Rome and that the three complete sets that I have not only have a right to exist but also create a different experience due to their different approach.

[Florestan]

there are many roads leading to Rome

I'm sure the Lutheran Bach would not have been too happy about this being said with respect to his cantatas.   

[Traverso]

Mozart

[Florestan]

I started two chronological projects.

As I'm currently reading Robert W. Gutmann's Mozart: A Cultural Biography, I thought it would be an excellent idea to listen to the works mentioned in the book as they appear and which are ipso facto arranged chronologically. And since in the book the Mozarts have just returned home from their 1764-66 Grand Tour which took them to Paris, London, The Hague, Zurich and various other French, English, Dutch and Swiss cities, today I've been listening to the following:

The "Paris" sonatas for keyboard and violin K6-K15
The "London" symphonies K16, K19a
The "Den Haag" symphonies, K19, K22, K. Anh. 221/45a
The piano variations K24 "Laat ons juichen, batavieren" and K25 "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe" (factoid: it was Leopold who suggested to Wolfferl that he should write 7 variations for the latter, as there were 7 United Provinces commonly represented by the anthem)

Tomorrow I'll be listening to the "Dutch" sonatas for keyboard and violin K26-K31, and then back to Salzburg to take the book's cues in the next chapter.

For this project I use the Philips Complete Mozart Edition.



The other project is Chopin. I'm not reading any book on him but I've had the Abdel Rahman El-Bacha's complete traversal of his solo piano music arranged in chronological order for far too long, it's high time to start listening to it. Here's the first disc:

[Traverso]

Bach



As I mentioned yesterday, this Suzuki set is a  (great) alternative but it does not mean that it makes other sets redundant or in any way overshadows them. One can have one's preference but this does not mean that one can or may speak of superior performances that will be the benchmark for many years to come. One may initially be struck by an approach that sounds like a new benchmark. However, if one has listened to it several times, at least for me it happens that when the magic dust has settled, one gives the older recordings their status again.
All too often over the years I have seen that new recordings seems to make the old ones redundant.
This is not serious  and smacks of sales talk.
On the one hand you have a so-called spiritual approach (what's in a name) on the other hand one that tends more towards a more Burgundian way of life and in which other things are in the foreground.
This Suzuki set is very nice and I like to listen to them but they are no replacement for the other ones I have.
Koopman has more flesh on the bones.

[SonicMan46]

Wife & I are now on Mahler in the Great Courses bios with Bob Greenberg, so she wanted to hear a few symphonies - own the two sets below and picked Gary Bertini doing Nos. 4 & 5 - for those interested in David Hurwitz's YouTube videos, he has the one at the bottom (i.e. cycles in boxes at 49 mins! The two sets shown below are at the top of his short 'best' list for boxes).  Dave

 

[Kalevala]

Henry Purcell.
Dido and Aeneas.
Opera in three acts.
See details on back cover.
Choral: Taverner Choir, Taverner Players, and soloists, Andrew Parrott.
Recorded:1981, Rosslyn Hill Chapel, London.

Reference recording, musically and sonically. This whole ensemble performs at their very best, and to my ears it has never been bettered. This is so utterly beautiful, and emotionally deeply moving. A joy it is, the only version I ever bought, for I never felt the need to buy another Dido. This is the best of the very best, etc etc.

I'll have to try and sample that one.  I believe that the only complete one that I have is with Dame Janet Baker.  I still remember when I first watched a video of her (on youtube) at about 10 a.m. and being moved to tears.  She was singing "When I am Laid in Earth".

K

[71 dB]

On TV: Yle Teema & Fem: Radion sinfoniaorkesterin konsertti - Musiikkitalo

Ernest Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Andrè Schuen, baritone
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

[Karl Henning]

Lutoskawski, Piano Concerti, Kupiec, Judd



Maybe this post won't be so useful because this recording on the Koch label is out of print and I can't find it on my streaming service or for download. I stumbled on it because I've come to appreciate Ewa Kupiec. Just the sort of thing I expect from Lutoslawski (thorny) and beautifully performed.

Yes, I've liked Ewa Kupiec (I suspect the surname means something like "Buyer") in anything I've heard her play.

[Karl Henning]

Lutoskawski, Piano Concerti, Kupiec, Judd



Maybe this post won't be so useful because this recording on the Koch label is out of print and I can't find it on my streaming service or for download. I stumbled on it because I've come to appreciate Ewa Kupiec. Just the sort of thing I expect from Lutoslawski (thorny) and beautifully performed.

Some Koch releases have wound up on Naxos.

[Karl Henning]

I'm sure the Lutheran Bach would not have been too happy about this being said with respect to his cantatas. 

But, he was Catholic before he was Lutheran, right?

[Florestan]

But, he was Catholic before he was Lutheran, right?

No. Where did you read that?

[Karl Henning]

No. Where did you read that?

I guess I am simply mistaken. 

[Florestan]

I guess I am simply mistaken.

You may have thought of Johann Christian Bach who converted to Catholicism while in Italy.

[Traverso]

No. Where did you read that?

Before the reformation they all were catholics or sneaky pagans for the sake of self-preservation.

[Florestan]

Before the reformation they all were catholics or sneaky pagans for the sake of self-preservation.

Yes but Bach was born 150 years after the Reformation, when the schism was in full effect.