What are you listening to now?

[Moonfish]

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius      Sargent   

[asin] B000003XKH[/asin]

I am quite enchanted by Gerontius! 


Schubert: Octet Op 166     Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet

[listener]

RIES:  Overtures: Die Räuberbraut op.156 and Die Hexe von Gyllensteen op.164
Violin Concerto in e op. 24  Concerto for 2 Horns WoO.19
Anton Steck, violin  Teunis van der Zwart and Erwin Weiringa, horns
Die Kölner Akademie    Michael Alexander Willens, cond.
and GODOWSKY transcriptions of Chopin (not the Études), Schubert, Weber and Godard
Carlo Grante, piano

[Wakefield]

LET THE SHOOTOUT BEGIN

[asin]B000GETWHM[/asin]

I'm always curious about the proceeding in this kind of comparisons, so I have this question, Brian: did you listen completely to this Arte Nova set before beginning the comparison with the Foghorn set?

[Wanderer]

Continuing the Liszt-a-thon:

[asin]B000002ZMJ[/asin]

[Wakefield]

Janáček - Piano Works (I)
Slávka Pěchočová, piano

[asin]B002XG8KHO[/asin]

Quickly Mrs. Pěchočová has become my favorite performer in Janáček's solo piano music.

What I love about her interpretation it's her immense ability to convey all that ambience of dark premonitions and subtle threat present in this music. The piano is nicely recorded. Highly recommended.   

[NorthNYMark]

A very satisfying selection of intersting string quartets, performed live:[asin] B000AOCAW2[/asin]

[Florestan]

op. 18/1

[Mookalafalas]

I futzed around forever before finally pulling the trigger on this teldec box.   Now I'm sorry I didn't do it earlier.

[asin] B000000SI1[/asin]

[Florestan]

op. 18/1

The Italiano's are more polished, more refined and have a much more pleasant tone, but that softens the tension a bit and takes away a great deal of the drama; in their hands Beethoven appears as the ideal classicist that Gurn insists he was. 

ABQ's are raw and aggressive, their tone is uncouth at times, but IMO they are more in touch with the spirit of the music; they make the case for a young man determined to take the world by storm.

Although both performances are outstanding, I think ABQ serves Beethoven ideas and ideals better.

[Florestan]

Mozart - Symphony no. 25 in G minor KV 183

Trevor Pinnock / The English Concert

[Karl Henning]

Mozart - Symphony no. 25 in G minor KV 183

Trevor Pinnock / The English Concert

Sweet!

[Florestan]

Hi, Karl!



#68

[Brian]

I'm always curious about the proceeding in this kind of comparisons, so I have this question, Brian: did you listen completely to this Arte Nova set before beginning the comparison with the Foghorn set?

Ah, a misunderstanding! The Arte Nova set just arrived yesterday, while I got the Foghorn set in July. The rules for this comparison are that I will try to listen to the same quartet, from both boxes, consecutively. Many days it will probably be difficult to find time, but I think that if, for example, I listen to the Arte Nova recording tonight and the Foghorn recording Wednesday, and do not listen to any other Beethoven quartet recordings in the interim, then the memory will still be strong enough for a good comparison. Once I finish with a quartet, I'll move on to the next one in both boxes.

By the way, my Arte Nova box has no booklet, no track times, and no cut on the side to make it easier to open. The CDs appear to be burned CD-Rs.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Funny day at the CD/Record Shoppe yesterday.  Among other curiosa, saw Wozzeck shelved in the Comedy Section.  Saw and bought this partly for the music, listening to now, partly I suspect for the Oooops! notice on its cover.  So, who's on third?

[Florestan]

#68

One of the best Adagios ever composed.

[Lisztianwagner]

Maurice Ravel
Sheherazade

[asin]B008KGWWL6[/asin]

[Florestan]

No. 3 in A minor.

Lovely.

[Karl Henning]

One of the best Adagios ever composed.

:-)

[Florestan]

No. 3 in A minor.

Lovely.

Actually this set is a major discovery for me. Paganini's chamber music is delightful and has very little of the dazzling show-offs and the devilishly pyrotechnics he employs in his violin concertos. It's intimate, lyrical and humorous and of course full of lovely tunes.

Looking forward to exploring more, and boy there is more.

[Karl Henning]

Our man Arnold!

http://www.youtube.com/v/NrtmTu1PxY0