What are you listening 2 now?

[DavidW]

Inspired by the recent Biber posts, this is a great one. I think I've listened to it enough I should probably buy it:



Someday I should listen to Leonhardt's recording.

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major, 1885 Version. Ed.Leopold Nowak, Wiener Philharmoniker, Carlo Mario Giulini

[ritter]

Some more from the Ravel / Lionel Bringuier Tonhalle box (which I'm enjoying quite a lot TBH). CD2, with the Piano Concerto in G major (with Yuja Wang), Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Ma mère l'Oye (complete ballet).

[Cato]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major, 1885 Version. Ed.Leopold Nowak, Wiener Philharmoniker, Carlo Mario Giulini

Carlo Maria Giulini!!!  Did he ever elicit anything other than an excellent performance from an orchestra?

This Bruckner Seventh is another great performance!

[foxandpeng]

Rued Langgaard Symphony no. 1 "Klippepastoaler" ("Mountain Pastoale") Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard

The Langgaard symphonies are really worthwhile 🙂

[Que]

[Linz]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 'Haffner'
Symphony No.39 in E flat major, K543, Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, The Cleveland Orchestra, Georg Szell

[VonStupp]

WA Mozart
Horn Concerto 1 in D Major, K. 412
Horn Concerto 2 in E-flat Major, K. 417
Horn Concerto 3 in E-flat Major, K. 447
Horn Concerto 4 in E-flat Major, K. 495

Dennis Brain, horn
Philharmonia - Herbert von Karajan

Piano Quintet with Winds, K. 452
Dennis Brain Wind Ensemble
   Leonard Brain, oboe
   Stephen Waters, clarinet
   Cecil James, bassoon
   Dennis Brain, horn
   Colin Horsley, piano


Is a historical recording simply one which is merely in mono, or is there some other significance to such an application?

Delightful regardless.
VS

[Karl Henning]

Morton Gould leading the CSO in R-K's Antar:

Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphonic Suite "Antar" (Symphony No. 2), Chicago S.O/Morton Gould 1969 LP restored by Itapirkanmaa

We knew it would be superb!

[Karl Henning]

Tangentially, @Elgarian Redux obliquely led me to this:

@vandermolen will be pleased!

[André]

I've already posted about these two discs a few weeks ago. It baffles me that the symphonies (nos 2, 3 and 5) are not known at all. This is intriguing, sometimes mesmerizing music, quite unlike anything else I've heard. Names like Lyatoshinsky, Genzmer or early Henze come to mind. Not that they have much in common, except maybe the feelings of uncertainty, questioning, groping in the dark, looking at things without quite figuring what it is the eye sees. The funeral march 2nd movement of symphony 3 has a mahlerian wobbly automaton gait to it, the insistent side drum adding a touch of grotesque. Mixa uses percussion to telling effect.

[Madiel]

Mozart: the 'Antretter' Serenade, K.185



Current impression is that the music in the first really big serenade, while pleasant, is not really on the same level as the later works. It's possible I'm also not quite in the right mood, but mostly I think that the 17-year-old Mozart hasn't yet totally mastered the genre the way he will in another 4 or 5 years.

The much later Contredances have a nice feel to them, and the Notturno for 4 orchestras has a surprising restraint to it.

[steve ridgway]

Relevant to this thread, but I'm having a difficult time seeing cover photos that members have linked from Presto Classical. I went on Presto's site and all the images that I try to enlarge have blue squares with question marks, but I looked into permissions and nothing looks out-of-the-ordinary. I'm using Apple Safari. Anyone know what the issue could be? Thanks in advance.

I'm using Safari and haven't noticed any missing covers (so don't know which are from Presto). It might happen if you can't get to Presto's image server, like if your VPN makes it think you're someone they don't approve of 🇮🇷🇰🇵.

[Madiel]

I use Safari when I'm on my iPhone and don't have any problem. I know because I just used a Presto image.

[JBS]

CZ is both conductor and soloist.
Recording dates from October 2000.

[steve ridgway]

I use Safari when I'm on my iPhone and don't have any problem. I know because I just used a Presto image.

Yeah, looks OK @Madiel  .

[Traverso]

Music in Versailles

Gustav Leonahrdt (harpsichord), Sigiswald Kuijken (violin), Wieland Kuijken (viola da gamba)

This is a real beauty from the start followed by a piece from D'Anglebert for cembalo played with great authority.A classic recording.

[hopefullytrusting]

@Der lächelnde Schatten @Que



Not only will you not find a better set for the money, you will not find a better set period. For baroque performances, this has absolutely everything that I am looking for - the tones are full and lush, and the players are in unison. The interplay is airy and light - they're tip-=toeing. It is Mundi, so the production is about as good as it is going to get, and sonically, this feels like it was recorded yesterday. 

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Act III:

Handel
Hercules, HWV 60
David Daniels (alto), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Michel Maldonado (double bass), Yvon Repérant (harpsichord), Claire Giardelli (cello), Mirella Giardelli (organ), Richard Croft (tenor), Sébastian Rouland (chorus master), Lynne Dawson (soprano), Gidon Saks (bass), Marcos Pujol (bass)
Les Musiciens du Louvre, Chorus Of Les Musiciens Du Louvre
Marc Minkowski

From this set -




About Handel's Hercules:

Handel characterized this piece as a "musical drama," to be sung in the theater, but unstaged, rather than either oratorio or opera, but it has been performed as both during its history. Like many of his masterworks, such as Messiah, it was written in a short time, from mid-July to mid-August, but it shows no signs of haste. At its first performances at the King's Theater in London, it was very badly received, and many of the composer's supporters blamed this on the extra-musical vagaries of fashionable society rather than on any deficiencies in the work itself. In addition, Handel had hoped to make his music more accessible to the general public by lowering ticket prices, but this did not draw the larger audiences he had hoped for, which also contributed to his calling off further performances. He was deeply disappointed by its failure, which probably contributed to his later illness. Today it is considered one of his strongest musical-dramatic works, behind only Samson and Semele.

The musical characterization is extremely vivid, though the male characters are rather stock types. The music for Hercules is appropriately robust and extroverted, even a bit simple-minded and pompous. Iole's is deeply tragic, as she relives the death of her father, supported by the almost weeping punctuation of the orchestra. This scene is one of the strongest of the opera, coming immediately after the lively march introducing Hercules and his chained captives, and all the more vivid for the contrast. Later her character is developed a bit more, as she expresses her refusal to consider Hyllas' proposal in firm, dignified music, or the crystalline clarity Handel uses to depict her innocence and compassion for those caught up in the tragedy of Dejanira's jealousy. It is Dejanira herself, though, who is the most three-dimensional of the characters, as we see her love, jealous anger, and final desperate remorse, expressed accordingly in melting pathos, furious runs and biting stacatto phrases, and burningly frenzied lines. Handel's mastery is made clear in the way that even when one emotion dominates, others are hinted at. For example, in her first aria, chromatic phrases alternate between more direct cadences, giving her emotions more complexity and a foreshadowing of the darker side of her love.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

[Elgarian Redux]

Morton Gould leading the CSO in R-K's Antar:

Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphonic Suite "Antar" (Symphony No. 2), Chicago S.O/Morton Gould 1969 LP restored by Itapirkanmaa

We knew it would be superb!

Hoorah! Isn't it a cracker?! And doesn't it prove that @Brian and @vandermolen know what they are talking about?!

(And also I think I've finally figured out what all this business of putting '@' in front of people's names is all about.)