What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[PaulR]

.[asin]B007VLHPEU[/asin]
'Orango'

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Violin Concerto. Words cannot express how deeply beautiful this music is by Linde. Linde's suicide at age 37 makes the rhapsodic elements of this concerto all the more poignant.

[Fafner]

Good morning!

Now listening to:
SIBELIUS, J.: Sibelius Edition, Vol. 12 - Symphonies
Lahti Symphony Orchestra

[otare]

The Tchaikovsky violin concerto played by Vadim Repin, Marrinsky O. and Valery Gergiev. This is way better than the Hilary Hahn recording I was so dissatisfied with the other day. Fire, excitement, virtuosity - it is all there. A magnificent recording.



from this box set:

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

First listen.

CD I.

Harpsichord after Johannes Ruckers, Antwerp 1638.

First impression is very good, well measured, with a clear see through the music. Stella is very precise and careful in his phrasing. Sound is good too.

[Octave]

Haydn: SEVEN LAST WORDS [Jordi Savall et al - Alia Vox]
The DVD, not the SACD.  I'm perfectly happy with this disc---my first classical music DVD!---and the PCM audio sounds great to me (which means now I have an incipient DVD habit to contend with in addition to the other addictions); but for instrumental music, I personally find visuals to be an unwelcome distraction from the music, even when the visuals are tastefully done, as they are here.  Unless you have a taste for the prostrations of others (and this is an online forum, after all), the footage of priests and processionals might be considered strictly optional.  From a labour standpoint, I am happy to see Maestro Savall letting his players dress semi-casual, even for filming.  I'm a fan of Jose Saramago, but the extras on the DVD are probably about as crucial as the images: questionably relevant and probably not worth a re-purchase.  Thanks to the GMG Haydn Haus crew et al for commentary on this SLW and other versions of the same.
FWIW, I got the DVD from B.R.O. for ~US$10. 

And on the inexplicably-replaying-old-possessions front:

A little J.S. Bach keyboard music from the Brilliant megalith (Belder's GOLDBERGs, ITALIAN CONCERTO, etc; Asperen's ENGLISH SUITES). 

Also the choral music from Bernstein/NYPO's Haydn collection on Sony (the black 12cd) as a refresher for some new (old-)Haydn adventures.

Schubert: LE VOYAGE MAGNIFIQUE [Maria João Pires' "Impromptus" - DG, 2cd]
Partially inspired by a question from George, and also by hearing Pires' Chopin in the soundtrack to Manoel de Oliveira's film THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA, a little coincidence as they both happened on more or less the same day.

[val]

SCHOECK:       Notturno                 / Christian Gerhaher, Rosamunde Quartet

One of the best works of Schoeck, based on the wonderful poems of Lenau. In my opinion, Schoeck was the best composer of Lieder in German language after Hugo Wolf (not forgetting some masterpieces of Schönberg, Strauss, Hindemith and Frank Martin).

[Fafner]

The Tchaikovsky violin concerto played by Vadim Repin, Marrinsky O. and Valery Gergiev. This is way better than the Hilary Hahn recording I was so dissatisfied with the other day. Fire, excitement, virtuosity - it is all there. A magnificent recording.

What was so wrong with the Hahn recording? I own it and I do like it quite a bit.

[otare]

I found it boring. No fire, no excitement, no taking chances. Just too nice.

[jlaurson]

Franzerl Schubert
Symphonies
Minkowski / LMdLG
Naive
German link - UK link

The 8th ("Unfinished") Symphony is a step above 5/4. Terrific finale (like the 4th), nice instrumental touches throughout. The 6th is a mellower creature altogether, and does not stand out.

[Octave]

[....] from this box set:

Otare or others, what do you think of the quality of the performances in this box set generally?  I got a strong recommendations for the Stravinsky/Scriabin disc, but I know nothing else, aside from the concertos disc you just mentioned.  I know almost nothing by Gergiev; I liked this Prokofiev ROMEO/JULIET, though I really had no point of reference for it.

[jlaurson]

Otare or others, what do you think of the quality of the performances in this box set generally?  I got a strong recommendations for the Stravinsky/Scriabin disc, but I know nothing else, aside from the concertos disc you just mentioned.  I know almost nothing by Gergiev; I liked this Prokofiev ROMEO/JULIET, though I really had no point of reference for it.

Prokofiev Scythian Suite is very good.
His Rachmaninoff I do not care for: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/02/lang-lang-gergiev-in-rachmaninov.html
His DSCH is OK to very good, but the 5th is not a must-have.
The Stravinsky / Scriabin albums, however, are spectacular.
The Tchaikovsky is indeed one of the best modern recordings of that work... Repin at his best.
I much enjoy the conveniently condensed Nutcracker.
The rest I don't know or don't remember.

[otare]

Otare or others, what do you think of the quality of the performances in this box set generally?  I got a strong recommendations for the Stravinsky/Scriabin disc, but I know nothing else, aside from the concertos disc you just mentioned.  I know almost nothing by Gergiev; I liked this Prokofiev ROMEO/JULIET, though I really had no point of reference for it.

I have so far only heard Alexander Nevsky and the Tchaikovsky and Miaskovsky violin concertos. The Tchaikovsky is very good - the best I have heard in a long time. Alexander Nevsky was also very good. The recording of the Miaskovsky concerto was nice, but not spectacular. I got the set cheaply from amazon.es and am very satified with it so far.

[Octave]

Thanks for the Gergiev input, Jens and Otare.

[Henk]

Now:



Listening to Agon. Great performance.

I was not very fond of it, listening to it in the record store. What do you like about it, John?

Listening to:
[asin]B007SPPMV2[/asin]

Great, a bit humourless but it fits the music.

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

First listen.

I've got this disc from CPO for free, due to the fact that I probably ordered enough in 2012. And with a nice hand written card. O, well!
This is a composer that was unknown to me. He seems to have been a highly accomplished fiddler, and was taught by Somis, and praised by Handel no less. Five Sinfonias on this disc. The first two early Sinfonias are instrumental merely with strings and Harpsichord And some with wind instruments added. This is very entertaining music that will please most. They will not blow your socks off, but they will keep you company in a friendly and eloquent style. Well instrumented and to my ears perfectly played. Sound is good too.



The cover art is gorgeous.
Jean Etienne Liotard. Bildnis der Maria Adelaide, lesend. Florenz, Galleria degli Uffizi.

[The new erato]

The Tchaikovsky is indeed one of the best modern recordings of that work... Repin at his best.

For those primarily interested in that, isn't there a Repim box set?

[Sadko]

Sviatoslav Richter

plays Schubert, Chopin, Franck, Bartók

[asin]B000001HCT[/asin]

[Sadko]

SCHOECK:       Notturno                 / Christian Gerhaher, Rosamunde Quartet

One of the best works of Schoeck, based on the wonderful poems of Lenau. In my opinion, Schoeck was the best composer of Lieder in German language after Hugo Wolf (not forgetting some masterpieces of Schönberg, Strauss, Hindemith and Frank Martin).

My favourite of his works is the song cycle "Elegie" op. 36.

[otare]

For those primarily interested in taht, isn't there a Repim box set?

There is a set on Warner (10 CDs, £26 amazon.co.uk), but the Decca recordings are not on that set.