What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

Giovanni Benedetto Platti. (c. 1697–1763)
Trio sonatas from the Schönborn-Wiesentheid collection
Sonate à tre.
RADIO ANTIQUA.
Recorded in April, 2018 at the Koepelkerk, Renswoude, the Netherlands.


In a nutshell, Platti's substantial music is neatly analyzed and delicately brought to life with an appropriate musical mood. Everything is in place, a balanced performance, a superb recording, and authentic awareness. Really a fine and pleasant journey through the music of Platti, afterall he was one of the greats...

[Harry]

Georg Philipp Telemann.
The Complete Violin Concertos.
Volume I.
See back cover for details.
L'Orfeo Barockorchester, Elizabeth Wallfisch.

Telemann probably composed most of his more than 20 surviving violin concertos for his own use. Their mostly moderate technical demands are the consequence of his aesthetic attitude, which strictly rejected a pure display of virtuoso playing without melodic and harmonic connection. But the concertos are nevertheless beautiful works, which can stand repeated listening. It's a matter of expectation I guess. The performances are superb, and the sound is almost SOTA. Telemann is always welcome at my table anyways.

[Madiel]

Mozart-ish music...



Well this originally double-LP set is proving interesting and curious for all sorts of reasons.

For 5 out of the 6 notturni, Mozart is now considered at best the arranger of his friend Gottfried von Jacquin's music (something that has always been a bit of a question, but the new edition of the Köchel catalogue firmly goes with von Jacquin as the actual composer). But what an interesting combination of 3 singers and 3 clarinets/basset horns.

Then the divertimenti, which really aren't that "miniature", are also for a trio of basset horns. And it's not certain that Mozart wrote them. But then I was startled to realise I already know this music because someone arranged them as piano sonatinas (with lots of chopping and changing of what music goes where), and I still have the score from when I learned them as a child. The editor of that edition claimed that it was "generally accepted" that Mozart made the keyboard arrangements himself... which isn't the case now, and given it's not clear that Mozart even wrote the wind version, well...

For the horn duos, only 3 out of 12 appear to be considered definitely authentic, which just makes me wonder where the other 9 came from? Maybe they think Mozart arranged them.

Ahem. Anyway. The music is all very light and diverting, although for some reason the recording seems to have a lot more background noise than the others I've listened to in the Netherlands Wind Ensemble box. Which is a pity.

I'm currently listening to it one LP side at a time, with each "side" ending with 3 of the horn duos.

[Que]

[Harry]

Dieterich Buxtehude.
Organ Works, Vol.2.
Harald Vogel, Organ.
Hus Schnitger Organ, St. Cosmae Stade, 1666-1675.
Pitch: 1 whole tone above normal, a1 = 493 Hz.
Temperament: Modified mean-tone temperament (3 pure tierces).

Arp Schnitger Organ, 1710. Georgskirche Weener.
Temperament: Werckmeister III.
Pitch: a=470 Hz.
Recorded: 1986 & 1988

Still the set for me to go first. In my view Harald Vogel is still the best on the market. His use of all top organs, the superb sound, and the hard to follow excellence of his playing, a Buxtehude as the man himself would have liked to hear. what a pleasure to hear this again. Last time was 2015.

[Harry]

I like this set very much, despite the criticism it had to endure.

[Harry]

Gordon Getty (1933)
Orchestral Music.
See back cover for details.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner.
Recorded April 2009 at Air Lyndhurst Studios, Hampstead, London, UK.

A well recorded and performed disc with music by Gordon Getty, and fun it is. Now and then I stumble over a few works by him, and decided on the basis of what I heard to get a little more of his art. That is no punishment

[Que]

I like this set very much, despite the criticism it had to endure.

Actually, I like it much better this time around than when I got it a couple of years ago!

I'm guessing it had to do with the faster tempi and the more lyrical approach. I never minded the use of ornamentation.

[Iota]

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453
Walter Klien (piano), Minnesota Orchestra, Skrowaczewski

What a glorious creation this work is, one of my favourites. Like many of the concertos it feels as if Mozart is just continuing to write opera, just for different forces. A lovely performance from Klien and Skrowaczewski, duetting like any good pair of Mozart operatic characters.

[Harry]

Actually, I like it much better this time around than when I got it a couple of years ago!

I'm guessing it had to do with the faster tempi and the more lyrical approach. I never minded the use of ornamentation.

I remember clearly when it was released and I posted it on GMG, I even had the boldness of recommending it.
Some who purchased it on the basis of my review were in a sense disappointed, so that learned me a lesson not to forget, "Purchase at your own peril" would be my modus operandi if recommending something these days.
If you were among those people disappointed at first, and least it paid out dividends in the end, now didn't it

[Harry]

Richard Wagner(1813–1883)
Orchestral works.
See back cover for details.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi.
Recording venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow; 19 August 2010 (Kaisermarsch) & 21 and 22 March 2011 (other works)

To Wagner fans these works will be of little interest, no debilitating vocals in it!    a prerequisite for me to lavish myself in the wealth and warmth of unloved and unknown works. The Symphonies are a great adventure in which you get Wagner's luscious orchestration as a extra bonus, in which he is able to say much more about himself as in his opera extravaganzas. But that's just my two cents worth. Needless to say I bought them the moment it was released and never regretted it. The other orchestral pieces on this disc prolongs the pleasure in tasting his apt talent to write outside his comfort zone. The performances are first class, Järvi makes it flash and sparkle, with SOTA sound.

[Madiel]

Beethoven: Cello sonata no.1

[Kalevala]

It has been too long since I listened to the Symphony #5 of Tchaikovsky.

The first time I heard it was in the early 1960's: I had found the RCA monaural Boston Symphony recording with Serge Koussevitzky conducting.

It might have been this one from the mid-1940's, re-issued as a high fidelity 33 1/3 record in the 1950's.

That's a great 2-CD set! 

K

[Traverso]

Bach

CD 1  BWV 1001-1003

[Harry]

Franz Schmidt (1874-1939)
Symphony No. 4 in C (1933).
Orchestral Music from "Notre Dame" (1902-1904).
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam, Yakov Kreizberg.
Christiaan Louwens, cello-solo, &  Ad Welleman, trumpet-solo.
Recorded in the Yakult Hall of the "Beurs van Berlage", Amsterdam, 29-30 August 2002.

This is a excellent performance, in fact it's bloody good, and recorded in Reference SOTA sound. I have heard many good interpretations of the Fourth Symphony but this one adds that extra special emotion in it. It is so well conceived, and detailed in it's expression. The orchestral music from "Notre Dame" I did not hear before, and that was my regretted miss. Its gorgeous too.

[pianococo90]

Jean-Luc Herve
Au dehors for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

[Traverso]

Frescobaldi & Louis Couperin



part of this box

[André]

Well, I'll be. I've liked Berwald's music for many years, orchestral or chamber alike, but this incursion into his opera Estrella de Soria was a revelation. I did not expect such a wealth of winning, fully developed musical material: arias, duets, terzetts and various ensembles as well as orchestral pieces (overture, march, interludes). There are no complete recordings of the work and it's never staged in opera houses. Only the overture and a few highlights can be found here and there.

The disc is a highlights one only, but at 72 minutes it presents a fair approximation of what the whole thing probably is. This is a lavish production, complete with excellent singers (soloists and choristers) and orchestral playing, a quadrilingual 124 pages libretto and booklet notes.

This recording stopped at just highlights, but there seems to be a libretto translation problem behind it. It's detailed in the notes but too long a story to report here. In short: the original swedish libretto was adapted from a german play, but contained too many translation errors and incoherences to survive intact. A revival in the 1930s used a new translation but only an abridged version of the work was staged. The musical numbers are almost all there but all the connecting material (dialogues mostly) was left out. So we get a truncated version. The revised version was never committed to disc. Pity.

Musically this is absolutely splendid. There is not a single weak or ordinary passage. Hearing an opera in a language other than Italian, French, German, English or Russian is a rare experience and makes for a slightly disconcerting feeling, as there are no verbal cues one can anchor to. In a sense it adds to the sense of discovery. Recommended !

[hopefullytrusting]

Václav Návrat is doing the lord's work by making sure that Saint-Lubin's music is at least recorded for posterity.

Saint-Lubin's virtuosity surpasses Paganini, but not his ear for compositional-orchestral melody.

Op. 8 - 6 Caprices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6eFLmmY13o

Saint-Lubin is often left to the encore because these really are, in a fairly strict sense, technical showcases, which means that not everything is designed with musicality in mind (these are, in my opinion, mind-blowing to see performed in person - it definitely makes me question the gap between a good violinist and a great one).

[foxandpeng]

Arnold Bax.
Symphony in F, (1907)
Orchestrated by Martin Yates, (2013)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martin Yates.
Recorded: 2013 at the RSNO Centre, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow.

Must say that I am hugely impressed, it really sounds like Bax, even though its orchestrated by Yates. He did a wonderful job, making the score available. I really like it, better this as nothing is my stance. Don't stone me for taking this position please   Well recorded and performed.

I agree completely and like this very much, also.

Some great listening choices in the last 24 hours, Harry!