What are you listening 2 now?

[prémont]

Two different and rather special recordings of Sweelinck's Fantasia Chromatica

Sara Johnson Huidobro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8dPs1_5V4U

and Irene de Ruvo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKn3XGK4eHo

[Madiel]

Schumann: 3 Gesänge, op.31

[André]

This sounds way better than the Rubinstein Szeryng Fournier recordings on RCA. Great musicians indeed, but recorded unflatteringly. As much as I don't mind oldish sound for orchestral recordings, it makes me feel I'm hearing the equivalent of curdled milk in chamber music - especially the violin tone.

So, not only is this extremely pleasant to the ear, but I am quite taken with the Münchners' way with Brahms: soulful, songful, imbued with tenderness throughout. Piquant when appropriate (the scherzos), noble and purposeful in the first movements. Extremely satisfying musicianship.

There's another disc with the op 101 trio and the famous g minor piano quartet. That's for tomorrow. Can't wait.

[hopefullytrusting]

Another first listen for an Op. 1 - Berlioz's Waverley Overture with Dutoit leading Montreal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWgg7xx9ew

This is a composer already in full command and control of the orchestra. Right from the jump, you can feel the pulse, the tension - it is palpable, it is visceral. I've also never felt something that falls so brilliantly into the rhetorical 3Ws (well-organized, well-researched, well-written) - it is so concise and precise - not a hair nary out of place. Balance, Coherency, Consistency, Parallelism, Unity - the five grand hallmarks of great rhetorical writing are all here as well. It is so well-constructed - with both a solid choice and information architecture, and it feels scaffolded, which is an amazing thing to feel.

This is, I think, the first piece that I would class as an essay, as you can hear, I think, the rhetorical canons put directly into play alongside the classic narrative approach of intro-body-outro. This is a piece marked with unmistakable intentionality, and every mark is contextualized by both that which came before and that which came after.

This is also the kind of work that inspires others, as it seems simply enough to entice people to think they could do better, then they try and fail, but it is the trying that counts and leads us into worlds beyond and unknown to us.

High recommendation.

[JBS]

1^er Livre Pieces de Viole (1686)
CD 2

[Madiel]

Tubin: Symphony no.1



There are signs that recordings exist of Tubin's first two, pre-symphony orchestral works**, but on the kind of labels that make it hard to work out if I can listen online. So revisiting the 1st symphony it is.

** ETW 12. Estonian Folk Dances
ETW 13. Suite on Estonian Motifs (not, as I keep trying to get Google to understand, the Sinfonietta)

[Mandryka]

Francisco Correa de Arauxo (El Órgano Histórico Español, Vol. 2)

Bernard Foccroulle

I really like this, the modern organs not withstanding. There's a sense of the thrill of discovery in the music making. In fact, it's his second Arauxo recording, there's an earlier on the Ricercar label - and there's a recent third recording on baroque organs.

[Wanderer]

Korngold: "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" from Die tote Stadt (Huw Montague Rendall / Ben Glassberg / Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen). Oh my goodness, what a voice. Looking forward to hearing the rest of this recital disc, which as far as I can tell, has received wide acclaim.

I saw him last year in Billy Budd. What a voice indeed! And this is an excellent recital disc. 

[Wanderer]

[Que]

This arrived on disc:



https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/may08/Dufay_James_cdh55272.htm

Great review by Amazon's Gio: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RTFGNZDKZBB7F/

Some of his words of wisdom:

It's interesting how hard it is to think about evolution without lapsing into a discourse of Progress - of 'Entwicklung', development, improvement. But the bottom line of evolution is contingent and constant change, not improvement. You, dear reader, are no more highly evolved than a green sea turtle, nor any more complex than an army ant; you simply value your own complexity disproportionately.

The history of music also suffers from a discourse of 'development'. Perceptive listeners can still be trapped in the notion that the imitative counterpoint of Josquin is more 'advanced' than the seldom-imitative polytextual polyphony of Dufay. Quatsch! Nobody has ever written more 'advanced' music than Dufay... not Josquin, not Bach, not Beethoven, not Wagner, not even Brian Wilson. You have only your two ears, you know, through which all the ambient sound funnels to your brain, and 'what you hear is what you hear.'

[AnotherSpin]

The Complete Organ Works of Francisco Correa de Arauxo: Correa in the New World 

Robert Bates

CD 1, 2

[Madiel]

Beethoven: Clarinet Trio, op.11

[Todd]

D557.

[AnotherSpin]

I really like this, the modern organs not withstanding. There's a sense of the thrill of discovery in the music making. In fact, it's his second Arauxo recording, there's an earlier on the Ricercar label - and there's a recent third recording on baroque organs.

Yes, I've marked all three of Foccroulle's albums on Qobuz for listening. So far I've made my way through two of them, and I must say I rather like what I've heard.

Curiously, the other recordings in the El Órgano Histórico Español series, performed by different artists, haven't resonated with me much. I've tried five or six, and something about them just doesn't sit right. Maybe it's the harshness of the sound, or something odd in the recording itself.

Or maybe it's simply me; with the constant air raids, power cuts several times a day, and the damp, gloomy weather outside, I seem to gravitate toward music that's gentle, slow-paced, and broadly sedative.

[Mookalafalas]

Aafje Heynis Bach cantata no. 169

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TanwI0TpZtY

  I am smitten

[steve ridgway]

Radulescu - Astray

[hopefullytrusting]

Today's first Op. 1 is Elgar's Romance for Violin and Piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDqga8a7KgY

First time listening, and this is much more what I expect from an Op. 1 - a bit tepid, a bit timid, but still with a strong compositional voice marking it as differentiable. The interplay between the two instruments is dance-like, and you can feel them shift from who is leading who - dynamically, it expands the whole range, and it is extraordinarily tuneful - which is something Elgar is a master of, not dissimilar to Saint-Saens in this ability, although, I've been told when it comes to the ability to actually play they exist in different universes.

This is a safe, first piece - nothing dared, nothing new, in my opinion, offered, although, its ending is probably more modern than what was deemed acceptable at the time, so that is a choice right there, and a good one- For me, any end that is not on the tonic is already better in my book - I am so sick of that end, but nearly all classical music ends that way - for me, that is why I like that Bach didn't finish The Art of Fugue - its current end is perfect; it just stops - same here with Elgar - chord, chord, stop I like that.

The piece is music to the ears, so to say - I would definitely recommend it.

[AnotherSpin]

A splendid recording of Scarlatti sonatas, captured in 1975.

[Todd]

D625.

[SonicMan46]

For a Sunday morn, some more Telemann w/ the wonderful Sergio Azzolini on Baroque bassoon on two of the recordings.  Dave