What are you listening 2 now?

[Iota]

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op.83
Mandelring Quartet

A quartet where every theme, whatever its character, seems weighed upon by a strange bleakness which it is incapable of shaking off. And despite the variety of ideas, they all bear the passive quality of a ticking clock, marking time rather than filling it. Nonetheless its whirring and turning of musical cogs is mildly mesmerising, and it holds the attention well. Another quartet that saves its best till last I think.

[Iota]

Benjamin Britten
Temporal Variations

Nicholas Daniel, oboe
Northern Sinfonia - Steuart Bedford

I don't think I have ever come across these variations before, here orchestrated by Colin Matthews.
VS

I don't think I have either. I'll take a listen.

[Karl Henning]

[Henk]

Bad Russian Guide?

[vandermolen]

That's a great LP! One of the best performances of NYM's poetic 21st Symphony. David Measham's performance stands alongside those by Ormandy, Morton Gould and Svetlanov. I had the original Unicorn LP and never looked back!

[vandermolen]

'Excalibur'Soundtrack (1981), mainly Wagner but also some Orff, Rossini and original material from Trevor Jones. One of my favourite films, especially for Nicol Williamson's performance as Merlin:

[JBS]

Since this landed yesterday, and today is the composer's birthday...

Kerner Lieder Op 35 and Fünf Lieder Op 40, garlanded with six other lieder.

[Henk]

Fryderyk Chopin Piano pieces and Piano Concerto No. 2
Orchestre de Paris, Khatia Buniatishvili

Good recording, a shame that I lost the disc, I got the case with the booklet but the disc is gone somewhere.

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Strauss
Eine Alpensinfonie

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[Que]

L'Horizon Chimérique, Op.118, nos. 1-4   
Romance for Cello And Piano in A Major, Op.69
Berceuse for Violin And Piano in D Major, Op.16
Sonata no.1 for Cello And Piano in D Minor, Op.109   
Romance for Violin And Piano in B-flat Major, Op.28
Nocturne no.13 in B Minor, Op.119
Sonata no.2 for Violin And Piano in E Minor, Op.108

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Wagner orchestral works. Kempe.

[JBS]

This is a 2025 re-issue on Christophorus of a 1994 recording. The recording on Pan released ⏬last year is a new recording.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: John Luther Adams Become Ocean

From this set -




Gorgeous work, but this entire Become Trilogy is truly marvelous, IMHO.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: John Luther Adams The Light That Fills the World

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Last work for the night --- Harrison Seven Pastorales

[Que]

Another recording featuring Busnois' Missa O Crux lignum!
I think the prominence of the counter tenor is an issue here: he beams straight through the music, throwing off the balance between the voices. And I like the idea of songs to be lively, but they sound terribly rushed and unable to bloom. I like the tempi in the mass better (still upbeat) and I think the mass gets a beautiful performance here.

For those that might feel the performances by the "Kapel van de Lage Landen" too restraint or austere, this is definitely a different approach but still with an all male ensemble.

[Wanderer]

Since this landed yesterday, and today is the composer's birthday...

Kerner Lieder Op 35 and Fünf Lieder Op 40, garlanded with six other lieder.

This one has landed here recently as well. Enjoy!

[steve ridgway]

Stravinsky - Petrushka

[Harry]

I am playing around in a box with the Complete Piano music by Brahms, old recordings released in a DGG box, with Ugorski Kempf and Barenboim, e.o. While looking on Qobuz I could not find the box by Idil Biret, a good but dated performance which I have in my CD collection, so I wondering is there a newer complete set? Am I looking in the wrong way to find a complete set of Brahms piano works? Some help would be appreciated.

[Que]

Italian liturgical music from the early 17th century, mostly by an anonymous composer only known as "Carlo G." A bit of Caccini thrown in for good measure.

Lovely music, but it is the Antegnati organ and the superb performances by the ensemble Profeti Della Quinta, aided by Plamena Nikitassova (violin) and Jörg-Andreas Bötticher (organ) that make this recording.