What are you listening to now?

[Cato]

Most excellent works from our Karl Henning:


http://www.youtube.com/v/kYWAm11MX4s


http://www.youtube.com/v/hlh61D6COvU

[SonicMan46]

Some cool winds stuff - disc 2....

 

Que - listening to the added CD above; 3 discs which also includes the 3 Piano/Wind Quintets - on modern instruments but an excellence and great sounding performance.  Just put in an order for the other set above on 'period instruments' (already had their Op. 68 disc but not the other two - in addition, own their performance of the Piano/Wind works w/ Christine Schornsheim) - lovely music all around!  Dave

[Wakefield]

JS Bach: Cantatas   (BWV 63, 162, 155)       The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir/Koopman

I am not sure why (yet), but I really enjoy the Koopman forces in these cantatas. Very intimate performances.
The female/male voices are stellar - errr - angelic...!  0:) 0:)

from
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Vols. 1-3 of Koopman's cycle are superb, so I'm not surprised at all. Enjoy! 

[Moonfish]

Sibelius: Violin Concerto     Wicks/The SO of Radio Stockholm/Ehrling

Magnificent! Camilla Wicks plays like a goddess!  Hahn used to be my top choice here, but I am afraid that Wicks' passionate playing wins me over! I wish she recorded many more of the "famous" violin concertos......

[asin] B007TB4766[/asin]

https://www.youtube.com/v/oEEStY8gBco

[Moonfish]

Vols. 1-3 of Koopman's cycle are superb, so I'm not surprised at all. Enjoy! 

Wonderful! Actually so enticing that I am even considering the cycle rather than searching for the individual issues. Did the cycle as a whole come out as well as the early volumes?  In addition, does one really need one more cycle of the cantatas or is that simply an expression of CDCDCD?

[prémont]

Wonderful! Actually so enticing that I am even considering the cycle rather than searching for the individual issues. Did the cycle as a whole come out as well as the early volumes?  In addition, does one really need one more cycle of the cantatas or is that simply an expression of CDCDCD?

I own five cycles (Suzuki, Gardiner, Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, Leusink and Rilling). I would consider my possible purchase of Koopman´s very expensive cycle to reflect an extremely malignant manifestation of CDCDCD, so I try to palliate myself with the ones I have got already. 

[Wakefield]

I own five cycles (Suzuki, Gardiner, Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, Leusink and Rilling). I would consider my possible purchase of Koopman´s very expensive cycle to reflect an extremely malignant manifestation of CDCDCD, so I try to palliate myself with the ones I have got already. 

Six here: I bought the Koopman's sets during a long time, several years indeed, and it was financially painful.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that in this case your reasons are more related to your scarce taste for Koopman than other considerations, am I wrong? 

The only disks (and DVDs) of cantatas I have discarded because of financial reason are those by the  J. S. Bach Foundation of St Gallen. 

[prémont]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that in this case your reasons are more related to your scarce taste for Koopman than other considerations, am I wrong? 

No, I think the Koopman set is too expensive, and I really think I own enough recordings of the cantatas. Other than the ones I mentioned, I own many individual cantata CDs, e.g. Kuijkens 18 CDs, Gardiners Archive cantata set, quite a lot of Herreweghe´s cantata CDs, some by Rifkin and a bulk of cantata CDs by Werner and Roitsch, all in all >400 CDs with Bach cantatas. I would never get the time to listen to Koopman´s set.

[Wakefield]

Wonderful! Actually so enticing that I am even considering the cycle rather than searching for the individual issues. Did the cycle as a whole come out as well as the early volumes?  In addition, does one really need one more cycle of the cantatas or is that simply an expression of CDCDCD?

If I were to be totally honest, I  should have spent more years listening to Leonhard/Harnoncourt, Koopman or Gardiner before to purchase new recordings... but lovers aren't usually too much rational, right? 

About Koopman: his cycle is, in general, quite homogeneous, but I have always had a soft spot for those three first volumes and the following two with profane cantatas.

[North Star]

Bach
Angenehmes Wiederau, BWV 30a
Monika Frimmer (S), Robin Blaze (A), Markus Schäfer (T), Stephan MacLeod (B)
Leonhardt, Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles & Café Zimmermann
[asin]B000VX1RAS[/asin]

[Wakefield]

No, I think the Koopman set is too expensive, and I really think I own enough recordings of the cantatas. Other than the ones I mentioned, I own many individual cantata CDs, e.g. Kuijkens 18 CDs, Gardiners Archive cantata set, quite a lot of Herreweghe´s cantata CDs, some by Rifkin and a bulk of cantata CDs by Werner and Roitsch, all in all >400 CDs with Bach cantatas. I would never get the time to listen to Koopman´s set.

It's crystal clear. Probably I was wrong because you purchased the entire Gardiner's set no so long time ago, but, of course, is quite less expensive.

[Que]

Que - listening to the added CD above; 3 discs which also includes the 3 Piano/Wind Quintets - on modern instruments but an excellence and great sounding performance.  Just put in an order for the other set above on 'period instruments' (already had their Op. 68 disc but not the other two - in addition, own their performance of the Piano/Wind works w/ Christine Schornsheim) - lovely music all around!  Dave

Dave, you probably don't need any encouragement

But I absolutely love the sound of the period wind instruments on this set!

Q

[Moonfish]

If I were to be totally honest, I  should have spent more years listening to Leonhard/Harnoncourt, Koopman or Gardiner before to purchase new recordings... but lovers aren't usually too much rational, right? 

About Koopman: his cycle is, in general, quite homogeneous, but I have always had a soft spot for those three first volumes and the following two with profane cantatas.

I hear you!    I should definitely spend much more time pondering the Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, Gardiner, Leusink and Rilling cycles as well as the numerous incomplete cantata sets before looking on the other side of the fence.  I think it perhaps would be fruitful to focus on individual cantatas rather than obsessing about cycles? The issue for me is that I am finding that my recent sojourns into both the Suzuki and the Koopman cycles quite beautiful and alluring experiences. 

[Moonfish]

I own five cycles (Suzuki, Gardiner, Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, Leusink and Rilling). I would consider my possible purchase of Koopman´s very expensive cycle to reflect an extremely malignant manifestation of CDCDCD, so I try to palliate myself with the ones I have got already. 

Words of wisdom!! 

[Moonfish]

Elgar: Symphony No 2            Hallé Orchestra/Barbirolli

Magnificent performance! Swiftly becoming "Barbirollized"!

[asin] B00000DOCU[/asin]

from

[Ken B]

Moeran, Symphony

Which grows on me steadily.

[Todd]

Charles Rosen.  Disc 9.  Beethoven Op 110 & 106 - the earlier, 1964 recordings of both works.

Op 110 starts the disc off.  Rosen doesn't opt for the transcendental route, rather opting for a cooly analytical approach.  The opening movement is detached and transparent, with every chord, every note given its perfectly weighted due.  The Allegro molto is played fast and strong, but the ending seems slightly off, or different.  The final movement starts off like the second, and moves forward with a sense of relentlessness.  The fugue is a model of clarity and perfectly measured tempo.  There is a form of beauty in the sternness.  The repeated chords build up to a harsh but satisfying final climax before the inverted fugue is played in an identical fashion to the first.  The ending is hard and brittle, but makes sense in this conception.  Rosen almost makes Serkin sound like something of a lightweight.  I like it quite a bit.

Rosen launches into Op 106 with a fast Allegro - around ten minutes - and his lean, bright tone enhances the clarity, but this is not a really large-scale conception.  It is fast and coldly furious.  Ditto the Scherzo, though here Rosen adds some personal touches - a bit of rubato, some flashy tremolos.  Then comes the often ice cold, often intense, occasionally urgent, always desolate, perfectly paced Adagio.  Rosen then plays the Largo at a quick Adagio pace before launching into a fast, crisp, admirably clear fugue.  This is how it should be done.  Or at least one way it should be done.  This is one of the great recordings of the work. 

This is the best disc of the set so far, beating out the Debussy Etudes.

[HIPster]

Playing the 4th and final disc in this set:
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Discs 1,2, and 4 are studio recordings; CD 3 is recorded in front of a live audience. . .

Excellent overall!  Really fine playing and interpretations.

[listener]

Eugen  d'ALBERT:  TIEFLAND
Rudolf Schock, Gerd Feldhoff, Ivan Sardi, Isabell Strauss, Alice Oelke
RIAS Chorus    Berlin Symphony Orch.  Hans Zanotelli, cond.
RUFINATSCHA: Synphonies 1 and 5
Capella Istopolitana, Bratislava     Edgar Seipenbusch, cond.
solid, mid-19th Century, echoing Beethoven particularly in the Scherzo of no.5, and Schumann

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Florida Suite followed by North Country Sketches. Mesmerizing music.