What are you listening to now?

[Harry]

Some Christmas music, for after all until  the "three kings" its a bit Christmas.
A recording much praised in all international classical magazines, including Gramophone.
And its a fine performance indeed.

[Que]

This morning first snow of this winter, just too late for Christmas ...

Starting the day off with another Chistmas mass on HM, this time French Baroque "organ mass", incoprorating a revival of the use of traditional plain-chant, chant composed by André Campra, combined with organ improvisations by Pérès and two concluding chorals by Delalande... The organ used is the old Clicquot organ in Houdan. On paper it perhaps seems like a mishmash but it works and sounds great!

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This version comes with full liner notes.

Quiz question: when was Gregorian chant composed? Most people figure it was some indeterminate point in the Middle Ages. In fact, new chants were being composed (by, among many others, Dufay and Palestrina) at least through the 18th century. For example, 17th-century France saw an effort to Gallicize plainchant: virtually the entire liturgical repertory was recomposed in French Baroque style--including trills and ornaments. (Think of monks singing Couperin.) This recording by Marcel Pérès, who has done fascinating work reviving chant from many different times and places, re-creates a 17th-century Parisian Mass for Christmas Day, using a contemporary missal compiled for Nôtre-Dame as well as chants by Campra and Delalande. The superb singing by Ensemble Organum and the boys of Les Pages de la Chapelle is more accessible than that on some of Pérès's other recordings. Best of all, following old French practice for festal Masses, verses of chant alternate with verses improvised on the organ: playing a fine 17th-century instrument, Pérès improvises the organ verses himself, exercising musical skills many of his fans didn't know he had. --Matthew Westphal

[Harry]

A legendary Weihnachts Oratorium, because it featured the best Counter tenor I have ever heard, Yoshikazu Mera. He backed out of the Bach project to concentrate on silly pop music, and thereby robbing us from his voice. Robert von Bahr told me, that they did almost all they could do to keep him on board, but he thought that he could express himself better in avantgarde pop music. And that is a bloody shame.

[Que]

Teil 3. Am 3. Weihnachstage



Reissue (without texts or notes): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000V9M0JE/?tag=goodmusicguideco

Q

[The new erato]

Another nice Chistmas item on Ricercar that I spotted too late:



Q

You've seen this 1 star review?:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/German-Baroque-Sacred-Music-Christmas/dp/B00NB7LG4I/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1419680582&sr=1-3&keywords=ricercar+christmas

[Harry]

Thats only about the booklet really, and therefore silly to rate it with 1 star.

[The new erato]

Pretty relevant information at least for a set of mainly vocal music, and where much of it (ie Graupner) is pretty unknown.

[Harry]

Pretty relevant information at least for a set of mainly vocal music, and where much of it (ie Graponer) is pretty unknown.

Sure but not warranting 1 star Erato

[EigenUser]

Awesome, Nate! I'm glad you're listening to this work. I just wished I had told you to listen to the Rozhdestvensky performance. Let me know what you think of this symphony.

Too dark for me. I'm glad I listened, for sure, but I have trouble relating to so much cold despair in music (which likely explains why my favorite Shostakovich symphony is his 9th). It isn't that I don't ever listen to 'sad' music, but I like warmer 'sad' music (i.e the adagio-finale of Mahler's 9th would be a perfect example). Of course, I partially understand why the circumstances he was in would lead him to write something like this (Ii read a little bit about his later work while I was listening last night).

Is there a 'lighter' work by Schnittke that you might recommend?

Currently, Ligeti's Piano Concerto. Nothing sad here!
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[Que]

You've seen this 1 star review?:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/German-Baroque-Sacred-Music-Christmas/dp/B00NB7LG4I/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1419680582&sr=1-3&keywords=ricercar+christmas

Thanks! A pity... Because: no texts, NO deal... I had higher expectations of this label...

Q

[The new erato]

Thanks! A pity... Because: no texts, NO deal... I had higher expectations of this label...

Q

So have I. 

[Harry]

Some pretty nifty Christmas singing.

[Que]

Continuation of disc 5 from this set:

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Q

[Harry]

And than this beautiful disc, Christmas music that makes your heart leap....

[Harry]

Continuation of disc 5 from this set:

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Q

A joyful travail, is it not?

[Que]

A joyful travail, is it not?

A gorgeous set - will definitely end up on my listing of favourite purchases of 2014 , that I will post sometime in the coming days.

Q

[Harry]

Christmas music.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/12/from-my-collection-2004-rosenmuller.html?spref=tw

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Nice, different but interesting!

Q

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Hate to criticize a cadeau, BUT :  while entirely 'competent,' to me the playing lacks the drama, the brio, the élan that makes Scarlatti one of the truly great, truly exciting composers. 

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

For a long time I've felt the weakness of not having heard much (beyond the most well-known) of Brahms' choral works.  He's the composer I'm closest to, have read more about and listen to most often, so I felt I had to correct this deficiency.  This is not a superb performance or recording by any means, but I've heard enough already to recognize the greatness of Brahms' choral production and most of it of an entirely different order than his keyboard, chamber and symphonic compositions.

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[Bogey]

This year I want to explore the music outside of composers known for their film scores like that of Rózsa.  Rózsa alone left us 90+ film scores to listen to, but also many classical compositions, including over 40 with an opus number.