What are you listening 2 now?

[steve ridgway]

Scriabin - 2 Poèmes, Op. 71

[steve ridgway]

Pierre Henry - Spatiodynamisme

[Symphonic Addict]

Yet another engrossing Martinu recording.

[AnotherSpin]

Today, after the night's attack, fires broke out and various buildings were damaged in the historic part of the city, protected by UNESCO. We now await some concern, maybe even deep concern. If we're lucky, maybe an official statement, though of course without naming names. Business as usual.

I, as usual, begin my morning in a musical paradise.

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis - Concret P-H

[steve ridgway]

Ives - Three Places In New England

[AnotherSpin]

[AnotherSpin]

I'm listening again to Massimiliano Stanca's version of the trio sonatas. I'm pretty sure his interpretation is nowhere near the generally accepted one, I mean, the Adagio in the first sonata alone stretches on for over 13 minutes. I love it when music slips beyond time and space and just hangs there in a shimmering nothingness. That's probably what hooks me. I'm not exactly a seasoned pro when it comes to this kind of music anyway.

[Iota]

Scriabin: Sonata No. 2 Op. 19, in G Sharp Minor
Roberto Szidon (piano)

A lovely sonata, and Szidon plays it beautifully. Though in the climax of the first movement development, I had to really buckle in for Szidon's abrupt eruption of wildness, and it seemed a bit much to me.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

What label is that on?  Would be good to have these Batiz recordings back in print.

Luzam. I think the recording is only for download or streaming.



https://www.qobuz.com/ca-en/album/lo-mejor-de-enrique-batiz-vol-3-galindo-revueltas-moncayo-enrique-batiz-london-philharmonic-orchestra-orquesta-filarmonica-de-la-ciudad-de-mexico-orquesta-sinfonica-del-estado-de-mexico/wxwra2tq540yb

[AnotherSpin]

[Mister Sharpe]

Late night listening to BBC3 yielded much that was wonderful and two works that were entirely brand new to me and awesomely wonderful to my ears (and soul):  Langgaard's Rose Garden Songs (here's one of them): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnmy8MCqSlg&list=RDNnmy8MCqSlg&start_radio=1  and Syzmanowski's Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp Minor : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuBw6yJsRTQ&list=RDfuBw6yJsRTQ&start_radio=1

[steve ridgway]

First listen to Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 1

Curiosity now satisfied; not a bad work and the explanation that it suffered from a poorly performed premiere seems reasonable.

[Harry]

Massimiliano Neri (ca. 1620 – after 1670)
Sonate da sonarsi con varij stromenti
Sonatas a 4 Op. 1 Nos. 1, 2, 10 · Canzon a 4 Op. 1 · Sonatas Op. 2 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 14, 15 · Salve Virgo benignissima · Ad charismata caelorum
Concerto Scirocco, Giulia Genini – with the participation of Voces Suaves
Pitch: Strings, organ, harpsichord and theorbos at a=415 Hz (1/4 comma meantone); winds at a=466 Hz (1/4 comma meantone)
Recorded: 2022, Grosser Festsaal, Landgasthof Riehen BL, Switzerland
Cover: The Rape of Europa by Alessandro Turchi ("L'Orbetto")
Streaming: FLAC 96kHz/24bit · SOTA recording.

To be entirely honest, Massimiliano Neri had not made his way into my book of knowns. He was not even hovering on the margins—his music simply hadn't crossed my ears. Which, in a way, is unsurprising: the 17th century is a vast ocean of forgotten names and nearly-lost sonorities. But this disc, a revelation in many respects, makes a persuasive case for remembering Neri.

Son of the famed organist and theorist Giovanni Felice Neri, Massimiliano worked in Cologne and Venice during a fertile musical era shaped by the likes of Monteverdi, Froberger, and Schütz. His Sonate da sonarsi con varij stromenti Op. 2 (1666) are among the earliest printed collections of ensemble sonatas by an Italian composer based in Germany. These pieces, rich in contrast and colour, prefigure the late Baroque trio sonata and orchestral idiom.

What's most striking about this release is Neri's inventive and often dazzling writing for winds. The brilliance of his scoring leaps from the page, nowhere more so than in the Sonata undecima a nove from Opus 2—a work that sparkles with contrapuntal clarity and rhythmic vitality. His imagination seems unflagging, the pen guided by a Muse who dances lightly, never weary. It's hard to fathom why such vivid music fell into obscurity.

Concerto Scirocco gives these works their full due. The ensemble's phrasing is articulate, well-shaped, and responsive, and the pitch contrast between winds and strings—a hallmark of certain German courts—is handled with impressive finesse. The sonic image is crisply rendered, with ample air and definition between the lines. Every chirp, slide, and sparkle is accounted for, drawing the listener into Neri's vivid 17th-century sound world. The acoustics are beautifully judged, giving the winds space to bloom without blurring their bite.

The only slight blemish is the vocal interludes from Voces Suaves. Their delivery lacks sometimes the poise and polish of the instrumentalists, and some unsteadiness in pitch and blend makes these sacred miniatures less satisfying. But their brevity ensures they don't overly distract from the instrumental core.

There is something of the painterly in this music—a chiaroscuro of gesture and texture, a gallery of sonatas each framed by differing instrumentation and mood. Listening, one senses an artist reaching for resonance and majesty, not just function. And at its best, this music does not merely fill the air—it inhabits it, like light spilling through a high, painted window.

Let us hope this is not the last rediscovery of Neri's work. There is gold here, waiting to be lifted from the earth.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Enrique Bátiz live in Madrid.

[steve ridgway]

Radulescu - Capricorn's Nostalgic Crickets II

I much preferred this atonal flute ensemble piece to Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1. Someone has to, that's just the way the universe works .

[AnotherSpin]

[Harry]

Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758).
Overtures & Symphonies:
D major FWV K: D1, D major FWV K: D2, F major FWV K: F4, G major FWV K: G21, G major FWV K: G5.
Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy.
Recorded: 2013, Katharina-Saal der Stadthalle Zerbst/Anhalt, Germany.
Streaming: FLAC 44.1kHz/16 bit, CD quality. PDF file attached.

Among the more unjustly shadowed names in the baroque constellation, Johann Friedrich Fasch shines as a quietly radiant figure—celebrated in his time, admired by J.S. Bach, and yet for long decades eclipsed in modern memory. His music, however, tells a different story: one of lively invention, generous melodic grace, and refined structural intelligence. These overtures and symphonies, drawn from Fasch's orchestral output in Zerbst, offer a delightful glimpse into a composer who straddled the stylistic cusp between late baroque grandeur and early classical clarity.

Each overture unfolds like a miniature suite, full of affective contrasts and elegant surprises. The D major FWV K:D1, for example, opens with a confident flourish, its festive dotted rhythms giving way to gracefully arched melodies and contrapuntal interplay. There is French elegance here, to be sure—Fasch clearly admired the Lullist model—but also a Germanic seriousness that roots the music in deeper soil. The G major FWV K:G5, by contrast, is lighter on its feet, a dance-like conversation where winds and strings flirt and entwine.

Les Amis de Philippe, under the always-intelligent direction of Ludger Rémy, deliver performances of admirable clarity and refinement. There is no overstatement, no attempt to romanticize; rather, they allow Fasch's lines to breathe and shine on their own terms. The playing is crisp and poised, textures are carefully shaped, and the rhythmic articulation brings buoyancy without brittleness.

And yet it is not only brilliance one hears here, but something intimate and inward, too. Fasch's music does not storm the heavens; instead, it draws us into a gentler radiance—measured, poised, yet quietly affecting. In this, one might recall Shakespeare's line from The Merchant of Venice:

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony."

The recording itself is warm and clear, if not quite reference-level, capturing the hall's acoustic with an appropriate balance of space and detail. Instruments are well-placed in the soundstage, the winds particularly benefiting from a rounded, natural tone.

If there is one slight reservation, it lies not with the music nor the ensemble, but perhaps with the interpretive temperature. A touch more daring in the allegros, a bit more expressive freedom in the slower dances, might have brought even greater fire to these pages. Still, this is a finely wrought, elegant presentation of music that deserves far wider attention.

Fasch may not seek the limelight, but he rewards the attentive ear with craftsmanship of the highest order — architecture wrapped in lyricism, dance infused with thought. In this recording, his voice speaks clearly across centuries: civil, poetic, and eminently musical.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2; Suite No. 2.

[brewski]

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2 (Jonathan Swensen, cello / Hugh Wolff, conductor / NEC Philharmonia). A friend who has been obsessed with this piece asked if I had heard it, and though I have, for some reason the first cello concerto has shown up more often in performances.

In any case, he pointed me to this version, which is quite fine.