What are you listening 2 now?

[AnotherSpin]

Gilles Binchois
John Dunstable
Leonel Power
Guillaume Dufay

La Reverdie

[Que]

The album unfolds across three realms: musica terrestris, Ars musica and Laudatio Dei, evoking a triptych of existence, the earthly, the artful and the sacred. Though modest in means, the music traverses a remarkable expanse, relying not on known names but on the quiet authority of its own voice. Anonymity here is not absence but a form of pure presence.

The sound is spare yet never static. It moves with a lucid joy, like light filtering through stained glass. Plucked strings, gentle percussion and breathy winds offer a natural balance, free from excess or embellishment. The restraint is striking, especially given the skeletal nature of the original scores. Voices intertwine not as a choir but as a shared breath, a single pulse of time. The recording has a live feeling, untouched by studio artifice, a testament to music as a state of being rather than a crafted object.

I actually didn't know that recording - noted!

[Que]

Morning listening:



This is the other Jacob Regnart recording that Cinquecento made, with two masses based on the melodies of German hymns.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Oct/Regnart-masses-CDA68369.htm

https://earlymusicreview.com/regnart-missa-christ-ist-erstanden/

[Que]

Spanish Baroque;



Listening to the 1st disc with sacred music of this set with music by Cristóbal Galán.

https://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/Lauda_LAU010.html

PS This is nice, mainstream 17th century Spanish Baroque music. But Galán is on the more conservative side, doesn't really stand out.
So for this particularly interested in Spanish Baroque, or in Recasens and his ensemble - since it is the performances that tip the scale here.

[Traverso]

Mozart

CD 7

image hosting site

embed code kopiëren voor forum

[Que]

[Madiel]

Vivaldi: Tito Manlio



This is an interesting one, and pretty good. But it's not known if it was ever performed at the time, because it was written for the wedding celebrations of Mantua's governor... and the wedding was called off.

Vivaldi did use some of the music when he was asked to contribute to a collaborative version of Tito Manlio soon afterwards (the libretto being one that had been around for a bit and used by a number of composers), and the liner notes say that he also reused other arias later. But there's no record to confirm the full version was heard in the 18th century.

And it's a good score, with more variety than some, in part because in Mantua there were no real financial constraints on Vivaldi. You want to write for a big orchestra with many solo instruments? Done! There's also a fair bit of structural variety, such as several duets.

The story is fairly good, maybe a little static but in general it makes sense. It's somewhat based on an incident from Roman history, with Tito being an extraordinarily rigid character who put his own son to death... except that the Italian Baroque couldn't abide things ending badly so there's a rather forced happy resolution instead.

Dantone and Accademia Bizantina demonstrate again they're amongst the most reliable participants in the Naive series, and all the main singers are good (I found one of the minor roles just a fraction wobbly, but mostly in one scene).

Highlights? Well, there are some particularly beautiful arias in Act 3. The first scene is set in a prison at night and is enchanting. And a little later there's this stunner, which is one of the arias Vivaldi reused in the next Tito Manlio.

[Madiel]

Haydn: Mass in B flat, the 'Theresa' mass.

[San Antone]

Debussy & Szymanowski: Quartets
Belcea Quartet

After a wait of three years (and a slight change of personnel), the Belcea Quartet return to Debussy, revisiting the work with which they made their recorded debut a quarter of a century ago. It's here complemented by two quartets from Szymanowski from 1917 and 1927 - exhibiting a musical language that the Belcea's members express a particular fondness for.

[Linz]

Guido Cantelli CD 7
Claude Debussy Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, CD 87
La Mer CD 111
Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, CD 130
Maurice Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19
Philharmonia Orchestra, Guido Cantelli[

[JBS]

Vivaldi: Tito Manlio



This is an interesting one, and pretty good. But it's not known if it was ever performed at the time, because it was written for the wedding celebrations of Mantua's governor... and the wedding was called off.

Vivaldi did use some of the music when he was asked to contribute to a collaborative version of Tito Manlio soon afterwards (the libretto being one that had been around for a bit and used by a number of composers), and the liner notes say that he also reused other arias later. But there's no record to confirm the full version was heard in the 18th century.

And it's a good score, with more variety than some, in part because in Mantua there were no real financial constraints on Vivaldi. You want to write for a big orchestra with many solo instruments? Done! There's also a fair bit of structural variety, such as several duets.

The story is fairly good, maybe a little static but in general it makes sense. It's somewhat based on an incident from Roman history, with Tito being an extraordinarily rigid character who put his own son to death... except that the Italian Baroque couldn't abide things ending badly so there's a rather forced happy resolution instead.

Dantone and Accademia Bizantina demonstrate again they're amongst the most reliable participants in the Naive series, and all the main singers are good (I found one of the minor roles just a fraction wobbly, but mostly in one scene).

Highlights? Well, there are some particularly beautiful arias in Act 3. The first scene is set in a prison at night and is enchanting. And a little later there's this stunner, which is one of the arias Vivaldi reused in the next Tito Manlio.

That was the very first Vivaldi opera I got, and fairly early in my Naive purchases.

But what's the aria? It's coming up as "video unavailable".

TD
Sonny Rollins

[Spotted Horses]

Yet, another wonderful piece I found by accident: Honegger's Trois Contrepoint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I0nU9_aQBM

I love its jaunty open, and I love that it fits into that Les Six/Satie-inspired fugal movements - there is so many of these quite serious pieces in the form of ditties - almost mocking and satirical, but there is no venom only respect, and a clear demonstration that the compositions associated with their names are works of superior intentionality - there is nothing accidental or incidental about the path they have selected for themselves, as one might presume, as they are demonstrably masters of the craft.

As with most intricate counterpoint, it is held together with delicacy and gentleness. This is a work that is not meant to be played in a grand room, but around the fireplace at an inn and not a wretched bed and breakfast. There is more than enough to chew on, but - per Satie - nothing overstays its welcome, but, at least for me, it does leave me wanting more - it leaves my tummy rumblin', as one feels after having eaten fried rice - it is all that damn sodium.

I was not expecting this from Honegger, so that will probably be a path I'll be taking eventually, once I exhaust my current USA obsession.

High recommendation.

Wow. A lovely piece. Amazing the way he (to my ear) channels Bach, infusing the style with his own 20th century sensibility. I listened to what seems to be the only commercial recording of the music, in the Timpani set of Honegger chamber music. I have to explore that set. Listening to Honegger is always rewarding. Seems like when I decide to explore a composer it involves setting aside my exploration of another composer.

[hopefullytrusting]

Boguslaw Furtok with Ewa Warykiewicz play Giovanni Bottesini's Lucia di Lammermoor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQWmPxDS90

Came across this recording looking for recordings of Saint-Lubin. There is just nothing that sounds like a double bass, such deep resonance with each bow stroke. It feels so dense and weighty, but, of course, it is lyrically lush as this is work is inspired by one of the greatest operas ever. I will admit that the double bass does seem like a lot of work, and that might be the reason for its rarity in the repertoire, but so many classical music would be improved by eliminating violins and replacing them with double basses - who cares about purity - the composer is dead - all I care about is the sound - something that John Cage definitely got right as he sought to shift "serious" music - I am an anti-trebleite.

[Spotted Horses]

Listened to Martinu's six Polkas one more time. It wasn't my imagination the first time. The first four are disappointingly conventional (for Martinu) but No 5 is wonderfully quirky and No 6 is berserk.

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony no. 4 in E Flat Major, 1878/80 Version (1880 with Bruckner's 1886 revisions) - Ed. Leopold Nowak
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

[71 dB]

TV: Yle Teema & Fem: Radion sinfoniaorkesterin konsertti

Väinö Raitio: Kuutamo Jupiterissa ("Moonlight in Jupiter")
W. A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-Flat Major, K 482*
Edward Elgar: Symphony No. 1 in A Flat Major, Op. 55.

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jan Lisiecki, Piano*
Nicholas Collon, conductor

[Florestan]

CD 6

"For me, art, and especially music, exist to elevate us as far as possible above everyday existence" --- Gabriel Fauré

Well, Mozart's music is as far as possible from our everyday existence. Serenity instead of neurosis, gaiety instead of despondency, order instead of chaos, beauty instead of ugliness. Melancholy without despair, sensuality without titillation, frivolity without buffoonery, faith without naivety. Childlike but not childish, moral but not preachy, personal but not self-centered, civilized but not artificial. I know of no other major composer who ticks all these boxes, save Haydn --- and it's no coincidence they were contemporaries and held each other in the highest esteem.

[Iota]

Debussy: Études pour piano
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Bavouzet is such an enchanter in this kind of repertoire, these are sensational. He's like a favourite grandfather making a fairy tale come alive as he reads to his grandchild, every page seeming to conjure up some new gust of magic.

[Florestan]

Debussy: Études pour piano
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Bavouzet is such an enchanter in this kind of repertoire, these are sensational. He's like a favourite grandfather making a fairy tale come alive as he reads to his grandchild, every page seeming to conjure up some new gust of magic.

.

Love the comparison.

[Linz]

Sergiu Celibidache CD 7
Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 in B Flat op. 100
Michael Tippet Ritual Dances
London Symphony Orchestra, Sergiu Celibidache