What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Lethevich]

Nostalgia - one of my first big "discoveries":

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Thanks for that detailed reply.

You're welcome!

The recording you're describing is one I've always been interested in getting hold of, so perhaps I'll do so now - this piece is one that really does need multiple versions. Supraphon must have realised this when they released the Blachut recording as one of their duo discs - two recordings of the same piece on one disc. In this case, the other one is Gedda: his voice is fantastic (perhaps a little too big for the music??); his Czech not bad though even to a non-Czech not as fluent as Blachut's.

Oh, yes, I had forgotten about that Gedda half of the disc. Pretty neat idea by Supraphon.

I could send you links for either or both recordings if you wanted. Other perfomers in both recordings, btw, are Czech, most importantly Palenicek being pianist for both.

Yes, I'd love to have both! Thanks, my friend!

Speaking of pianist, I forgot to mention Lapsansky's contribution on the Straka disc. It's very fine and balances out the singers wonderfully. Couldn't ask for more.

[lukeottevanger]

Speaking of pianist, I forgot to mention Lapsansky's contribution on the Straka disc. It's very fine and balances out the singers wonderfully. Couldn't ask for more.

He's a good pianist, period, I think.

[Que]

Inspired by the revival of the French Baroque Music thread!

And a very good morning to all.

This disc:                                                  From this set:
   

Q

[Que]

Works that have been discussed here lately, though in another recording.



Q

[lukeottevanger]

Interesting. It's been in my Amazon basket for a long time and I finally bit the bullet. I promised myself I'd never say this, as it's been said about far too many composers in the past as a marketing gimmick (Whiteacre and Lauridsen being among the most spectacularly misleading examples) - but this really is rather like Arvo Part at times. Technically and harmonically as well as simply 'because it's tonal, quiet, mostly in a minor key, uses choral voices and strings and the odd cluster-type effect', which is what the comparison usually boils down to. It's rather gorgeous actually, though perhaps it doesn't have the staying power of Part's finest tintinabuli masterpieces.

Iva Bittova is a wonderful musician, btw, and was a selling point of this disc for me - her Janacek disc with the Skampa Quartet is one of the most interesting and beautiful recordings of that composer I know of, even though it's inauthentic to say the least.

[Que]

More Haydn!



Q

[lukeottevanger]

Keep listening to this stunner, since attending a concert a couple of weekends ago at the beautiful home of some local music teachers with a spectacular fortepiano/harpsichord collection. Japanese fortepianist Mariko Koide performed on their 1812 Broadwood, an instrument identical to Beethoven's 1817 instrument except for minor cosmetic differences - and the fact that it sounds even better than his. The op 126 Bagatelles never sounded better, IMO, though Schiff runs them close in his reading on this disc (which is all miniatures - the two sets of Bagatelles plus rare late fragmentary pieces):



A cliche, I know, but both Schiff's performance on Beethoven's own piano and Koide's on the identical one I heard live had the effect of stripping away layers of varnish from this music (yes, sorry, I said it was a cliche, but it's the way I heard things!). In particular, I've never been so struck by the physicality of the sound as by Koide's playing, and especially by Beethoven's incessant use of registral interplay - it's obvious, of course, played on any instrument, but it positively shoved itself in my face on the Broadwood, the way his use of very high and very low registers, and the interaction between the two, takes on an almost narrative role. The unity of tone of a modern piano glosses over this somewhat - but the rougher, powerful bottom end of a Broadwood and the ethereal higher end really dramatise things greatly. The most haunting example - she played it as an encore too - is the last of the op 126 Bagatelles, in which a low droning bass becomes an almost rasping barrel-organ like whisper, whilst fragments of lullaby float above it sweetly metallic like a child's music box, delicate and glowing. Unforgetable - and unreproducable on a modern piano.

Koide was a remarakble player, and is a passionate Beethoven scholar. I loved her justification for playing on the Broadwood - most people play Beethoven on Viennese pianos, she said, because that's what he wrote most of his piano music on. But (she continued) last time she performed 'here' (at the venue the concert was at) she had the chance to play both sorts of piano side-by-side (she reproduced the contrast for us, and it was shocking). She realised with astonishment that, whereas to play Beethoven (all Beethoven) on a Viennese piano requires extra input from the pianist in terms of little touches of pedal here and there etc., on a Broadwood one simply has to obey his markings - there's no feeling that more is required. So, whether or not the music was written on or for a Viennese piano or a Broadwood, her gut feeling was that the instrument Beethoven imagined in his head as 'piano', his Platonic piano, if you like, was something like a Broadwood. Emiprically speaking, it certainly sounded both more convincing and more musically effective to me.

[mozartsneighbor]

[karlhenning]

Speaking of pianist, I forgot to mention Lapsansky's contribution . . . .

He formed a duet together with Soupchonsky, right?

[karlhenning]

(Tea pun, couldn't resist.)

On the Sansa Fuze riding and walking in to work this morning:

Dmitri Dmitriyevich
No. 10 (c# minor) through No. 16 (b-flat minor) of the Opus 87 Preludes & Fugues
Nikolayeva

Sibelius
Night-Ride and Sunrise, Opus 55
Luonnotar, Opus 70
En saga, Opus 9
LSO
Doráti

[lukeottevanger]

Pretty extraordinary.

and volume 3 too, of which I can't find a picture.

Fascinating and giving cause for reflection....

[Harry]

Beethoven.
Miscellaneous Works, for diverse instrumentations.
Bagatelle in a minor, "Fur Elise", Philippe Entremont, piano.
Adagio fur Spieluhr in F major. Rampal/Nordmann, Flute & Harp.
Twelve Contre-dances, Orch. of St. Luke, Tilson Thomas.
Sonatina in C minor & C major. Petri/Hannibal Recorder & Guitar.
Menuet in G major. Berman, Piano.
Violin Concerto, (fragment) in C major. Marius Sima, Violin, Jena PO, Montgomery.
Wellingtons Sieg, Wiener Philharmoniker, Maazel.

A delightfull cd, by all means, and all well performed.

[springrite]

I have 2 of the Camilleri piano discs but have not listened to them since the first and only listening almost 10 years ago. At the time I didn't know what to make of them. No strong impression, but I promised myself to return to them later to see if I'd find something interesting in them.

[mn dave]

Bach cello suites

Schiff

[Catison]

Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 6
Edmund Rubbra - Symphony No. 2
Gavriil Popov - Symphony No. 1

[Hector]

Poor old Ferdinand Ries.

I always imagine him traipsing behind the Great Man, of whom he was a pupil, clearing up after him, stopping him from doing something really stupid and keeping him, at least, relatively clean and presentable.

Poor old Ferdinand Ries but not quite forgotten because his music is not to be sniffed at.

Besides a number of beguiling piano concertante works that Naxos have recorded he was responsible for eight symphonies.

The 4th and 6th are especially fine with clear influences from the Great Teacher.

Howard Griffiths on CPO. Recommended!

[karlhenning]

Igor Fyodorovich
Жарь-птица
CBSO
Rattle

[springrite]

谭盾：
三种音色的间奏

Tan Dun:
Interlude on Three Tone Colors

[mn dave]

LvB violin concerto

Grumiaux