What are you listening to now?

[SonicMan46]

Beethoven - String Trios w/ the Lendvai String Trio, yet in different outfits - posted earlier on my initial experience w/ these gals in the Röntgen string trios - completely different clothes - probably would be fun to see them live!  A short but outstanding review (5*/5* for performance and sound) from BBC Music Magazine - Dave

 

[Brian]

The non-variation stuff from this:

[Madiel]

Tozer was a great Medtner interpreter and his loss was tragically untimely.
By saying "getting more substantial", do you mean in your appreciation as you listen to them more or as the opus numbers increase? As a genre, the Skazki (best translated as Tales or Legends, not the quaintly incorrect Fairy Tales) do span the entirety of his career.

I mean as the opus numbers increase. Not that the early ones are slight things by any means, but it feels like in the late sets every Skazka is a powerful piece. Of course, it's entirely possible that this is just because I've been paying more attention as I go through this survey, but I did already have a few encounters with Medtner before trying this chronological approach.

[aligreto]

Yes, I think I just needed to get into Strauss' sound-world a bit more. I remember I started off listening to classical with Strauss very much at the forefront of composers I listened to pretty regularly, but I'm not sure exactly where I lost my way with his music, but I started to listen to the naysayers and I began to take on their opinions instead and thinking these naysayers had a point about calling his music 'bombastic garbage' or whatever other negatives they spewed out of their mouths. Never again will I listen to a critic, because a critic is only giving an opinion and there's a saying "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one." Stepping off my soapbox now, I'm really enjoying Kempe's Strauss more now than I ever did.

If I may be so bold as to offer some advice; there are only two critics that you need to listen to and they are your ears. Consequently your own opinion is as valid as anyone else's 
Enjoy your Kempe odyssey.

[Mirror Image]

If I may be so bold as to offer some advice; there are only two critics that you need to listen to and they are your ears. Consequently your own opinion is as valid as anyone else's 
Enjoy your Kempe odyssey.

Thanks, aligreto. That's some great advice.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Sea Drift. A marvelous performance with John Shirley-Quirk singing wonderfully. I prefer this performance to Hickox's later recording on Chandos with Bryn Terfel, but I do like Hickox's performance with Thomas Hampson a lot (a BBC Music Magazine exclusive CD).

[André]

Gilbert and Sullivan: Overtures to the operettas. Naxos

Berg: Lulu. Teresa Stratas, Pierre Boulez. My first ever listening to the complete opera (I know the Suite well from long acquaintance). First impresssion: atonal, but very melodic, even consonant. Nothing abrasive to these delicate ears 

[Todd]

Charles Rosen.  Disc 16.  The Goldbergs.  The one Rosen disc I knew, it's more or less like his AoF.  Excellent, yes, but the field here is much more crowded with great performances.  It's certainly worth hearing multiple times, though.

[Walt Whitman]

Faure: Sonata For Violin And Piano N°.1 In A, Op.13

[Mirror Image]

Boy, it's a ghost town on here tonight....

Anyway, now playing:



Listening to Till Eulenspiegel's Lustige Streiche. Fantastic performance.

[Ken B]

Boy, it's a ghost town on here tonight....

Beethoven, violin sonatas
Caspar Immerseel
Clarence Schroder

[Moonfish]

Beethoven - String Trios w/ the Lendvai String Trio, yet in different outfits - posted earlier on my initial experience w/ these gals in the Röntgen string trios - completely different clothes - probably would be fun to see them live!  A short but outstanding review (5*/5* for performance and sound) from BBC Music Magazine - Dave

 

Dave,
I think you will enjoy this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/v/EcPPy7ul20E

[Que]

Morning listening:

[asin]B0050F6JQE[/asin]
Disc 7 with music for Easter

Comments by Amazon's Giordano Bruno:

Fourth Update: CD7 contains a 'program' of music that might have been performed at an Easter Sunday service of the utmost magnificence: Victoria's Missa Laetatus Sum (Missa I Rejoiced) in twelve voices; his 12-voice motet setting of Psalm 122, which begins with the phrase Laetatus Sum; his 12-voice Magnificat sexti toni; four more liturgical compositions for eight voices; and the Hymn setting Ad Cenam Agnus Providi for four voices. This is the CD that makes most ample uses of instruments -- sackbutts, cornetti, and organ -- not to double the voices but to perform as one of two or three 'choirs' antiphonally. Contrary to most people's expectations, 12-voice polyphony is not inherently more complex than 4-voice or five-voice polyphony; in fact, it's often less daring in rhythms and especially in harmonies. Instead, it's broad and grand, intended to be massively resonant and to demonstrate the magnificence and munificence of its patrons, whether secular or ecclesiastic. The finest exception to that pattern is the Missa 'Et ecce terrae motus' a 12 by Antoine Brumel, the celebrated "Earthquake Mass" which has never yet be recorded as brilliantly as it deserves. Victoria's 12-voice polyphony isn't as original as Brumel's but it's splendidly dramatic and expressive, among the true masterpieces of the genre. This performance of it is overwhelming! Awesome! Sound engineering, as I've said before, isn't quite up to the challenge of such music yet; you'll hear a wee bit of distortion even on the finest system, and you'll wish you could hear the music in three dimensions as you would in a proper live performance, but this is as good as any ensemble or sound studio can provide at present.

[Wanderer]

I mean as the opus numbers increase. Not that the early ones are slight things by any means, but it feels like in the late sets every Skazka is a powerful piece.

I agree. Starting from an already strong position (there are no juvenilia in Medtner, he appears almost fully fledged from the very early opus numbers), he keeps honing his skills as time progresses - evident in the Skazki.

Of course, it's entirely possible that this is just because I've been paying more attention as I go through this survey...

It's partly that, as well. In my experience, further familiarization does reveal more layers in the early opus numbers as well (heck, even the op.1 is magisterial, with its triple polyrhythm and strong poetic resonance, reworked later as one of his most affecting songs/lieder).

[Harry]

Good morning all.
Why not some Harpsichord music, from a master in the trade?

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/02/nichelmann-christoph-harpsichord_11.html?spref=tw

[Que]

Good morning all.
Why not some Harpsichord music, from a master in the trade?

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/02/nichelmann-christoph-harpsichord_11.html?spref=tw

Thansk, I am seriously considering that Nichelman set.   How is harpsichordist Michele Benuzzi?

Q

[Harry]

Thansk, I am seriously considering that Nichelman set.   How is harpsichordist Michele Benuzzi?

Q

I have written about him in my first review, see link on blog, but I may add, that he is thoughtful and articulate, and is accentuating all accents in style. Not a flashy harpsichordist, but one that keeps Nichelmann's soundworld in perspective. Never loses sight of the many felicitous details, and never stepping out of line in terms of dynamics. He has an impressive biography. Apart from that, there is really not much choice in the field if it comes to Nichelmann's music. This set is an excellent start in a complete survey of his music. I can safely recommend this set Que.
The sound is excellent.

[Moonfish]

Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 4 & 5            Berliner Philharmoniker/Karajan

from
[asin] B00JDB4BS4[/asin]

[Que]

I have written about him in my first review, see link on blog, but I may add, that he is thoughtful and articulate, and is accentuating all accents in style. Not a flashy harpsichordist, but one that keeps Nichelmann's soundworld in perspective. Never loses sight of the many felicitous details, and never stepping out of line in terms of dynamics. He has an impressive biography. Apart from that, there is really not much choice in the field if it comes to Nichelmann's music. This set is an excellent start in a complete survey of his music. I can safely recommend this set Que.
The sound is excellent.

Thanks!

[Harry]

Thanks!

Your welcome!