What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

See HERE!

Been there, bought those.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

This recording -



From this box set -



Listening to Prince Rostislav for the first-time. Sounds wonderful so far.

[Brian]

CD 2, which is all music new to me:

[asin]B002AHJSX6[/asin]

[Todd]

Whoa!  At the beginning of the year, in my first batch of purchases for the year, I bought three discs worth of Jean-Rodolphe Kars' music making – most of his recorded output – and was bowled over by the brilliant artistry.  Included in the three discs was some of the best Messiaen I've heard.  Well, now my last batch of purchases for the year includes two discs of piano music by Alexander Lonquich, and the effect is much the same. 

And once again, some of the finest Messiaen I've heard is included, though here it is the complete Preludes pour piano.  Here is Messiaen as impressionist/mystic/romantic in near-infinite tonal, dynamic, and phrasing flexibility.  Hakon Austbo's recording is fine enough, but he seems more rushed at times (and his tempi contribute to that) and less ethereal and poetic.  Even Herbert Schuch's rendition of Cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu sounds less less fluid, though more purposively modern.

And then there's Faure's Impromptus.  Lonquich may even be better here.  Collard is excellent here, and Thyssens-Valentin better still, but Esteban Sanchez's selections have long been my favorite.  Well, now the Spaniard has an equal, though Lonquich's take is smaller, softer, even more flexible (I thought that impossible), and more graceful.  I guess I'd prefer that the pieces were presented together.  That is literally the only gripe.

This disc of French music also includes Gaspard de la nuit.  Here there are many fine, and fewer great recordings.  (Which recordings fall into which categories varies by listener.)  This version compares with the few.  Ondine is supple, swift, light, except when it needs to swell.  The playing is always beautiful.  Le Gibet is beautiful and desolate in equal measure.  Scarbo is sometimes held back, mysterious, darkly mischievous, and even purposely unclear some of the time, but at others, the playing expands and nearly roars.  It's a peach of a recording. 

An astonishing disc.  A purchase of the year to be sure.  Possibly a purchase of the decade.

[Que]

Morning listening - a return to this set:

[asin]B00004TL2S[/asin]
Q

[Orpheus]

Mahler 8 from here 



What's your favourite 8?

[ritter]

What's your favourite 8?

I'm not really that much into Mahler's Eighth (except for the sublime passages at the end of Part II--from Mater Gloriosa's "Komm! Hebe dich zu höhern Sphären!" onwards), but the performance on disc that I find most succesful on all levels (of those I know, of course--which ar quite a few), is Giuseppe Sinopoli's with the Philharmonia on DG.

[asin]B00005ONMO[/asin]

[Tsaraslondon]

Very dull wet and grey this morning in London town. Let's see if I can brighten it up with Grumiaux and Bach.

[Florestan]

CD 1

EDIT: I couldn´t disagree more with the reviewer at AllMusic who mops the floor with this set. He misses the point entirely: back then people were not writing music for someone to technically and sonically dissect every inch of it, but for other people to enjoy it, and enjoy it mostly in social circumstances. They frequently wrote music specifically for amateur performers (which might very well be the case here --- where I agree with the said reviewer is in that, given Spada´s extensive research on, and knowledge of, Clementi´s music the liner notes are lamentably uninformative) or aimed at the generic public of music-loving people who just wanted to have something to play with relatives and friends in an informal, domestic setting. To shatter the earth with their music, to challenge one´s worldview and beliefs, or to transpose their own neurosis in music was inconceivable for them as it was for the public at large. These are light, unassuming, tuneful works with occasional and brief tinges of melancholy: to expect anything more of them and to fault them for not delivering is widely off the mark.

[aligreto]

Sibelius: Serenade for Violin and Orchestra....

[Orpheus]

I'm not really that much into Mahler's Eighth (except for the sublime passages at the end of Part II--from Mater Gloriosa's "Komm! Hebe dich zu höhern Sphären!" onwards), but the performance on disc that I find most succesful on all levels (of those I know, of course--which ar quite a few), is Giuseppe Sinopoli's with the Philharmonia on DG.

[asin]B00005ONMO[/asin]

Thank you very much for your kindly reply... I'm listening to Mahler 8 repeatedly and I understand why many people consider this symphony the least successful by Gustav. But I disagree . If you expect the Mahler of the previous sixth and seventh symphony (or of the subsequent ninth) with their conflicts and ambiguity we remain disappointed by the apparent lack of tension and harmonic stability. But just think that the same Gustav considered it the best thing he'd written. I give the word to the composer:

"I've never written anything like this, in content and style is something completely different from my other work, and it is certainly the biggest thing I've done, I may not have ever worked under the impulse of such duress, was as a vision lightning: suddenly everything was in front of my eyes and it was enough to put it on paper, as if I had been dictated ... This Eighth Symphony presents special characters already for! that combines two poems in different languages, the first part is a Latin hymn, and the second part of nothing less than the final scene of Faust. You wonder? For some time I wanted to make this scene of hermits and closed with Mater glorious, and so different from what they did all the others, that have set to music so sweet and so weak; but right now I had not thought more. By chance I recently had the joy to an old book, and I opened sull'inno Veni, creator spiritus, and suddenly everything is before me: not only the first issue, but the entire first half, and response could not find anything more beautiful than the words of Goethe in the scene of hermits! But also in the form Eighth is something completely new: can you imagine a symphony sung from beginning to end? So far I have used the word and the human voice always just to explain, as a factor expressive synthetic, to say with concise precision possible only to paroia what in purely symphonic would have to express only with huge amplitude. But here the human voice is both a tool; the entire first half is set in a totally symphonic yet is completely sung. Yet it is strange that no one so far has thought of this idea - is the egg of Columbus: the Symphony itself, where the most beautiful instrument that exists is brought to fulfill his destiny - and not only as a sound, because the voice Human is also the bearer of poetic thought".

[Tsaraslondon]

Undemanding for the listener perhaps, but fearsomely demanding for the performer. Mutter tossing off a group of virtuoso gypsy themed works as if they were the easiest things in the world. They aren't.

[Florestan]

the same Gustav considered [the Eighth] the best thing he'd written. I give the word to the composer:

"I've never written anything like this, in content and style is something completely different from my other work, and it is certainly the biggest thing I've done, I may not have ever worked under the impulse of such duress, was as a vision lightning: suddenly everything was in front of my eyes and it was enough to put it on paper, as if I had been dictated ... This Eighth Symphony presents special characters already for! that combines two poems in different languages, the first part is a Latin hymn, and the second part of nothing less than the final scene of Faust. You wonder? For some time I wanted to make this scene of hermits and closed with Mater glorious, and so different from what they did all the others, that have set to music so sweet and so weak; but right now I had not thought more. By chance I recently had the joy to an old book, and I opened sull'inno Veni, creator spiritus, and suddenly everything is before me: not only the first issue, but the entire first half, and response could not find anything more beautiful than the words of Goethe in the scene of hermits! But also in the form Eighth is something completely new: can you imagine a symphony sung from beginning to end? So far I have used the word and the human voice always just to explain, as a factor expressive synthetic, to say with concise precision possible only to paroia what in purely symphonic would have to express only with huge amplitude. But here the human voice is both a tool; the entire first half is set in a totally symphonic yet is completely sung. Yet it is strange that no one so far has thought of this idea - is the egg of Columbus: the Symphony itself, where the most beautiful instrument that exists is brought to fulfill his destiny - and not only as a sound, because the voice Human is also the bearer of poetic thought".

Very interesting. although a bit Google Translate-ish. 

Undemanding for the listener perhaps, but fearsomely demanding for the performer. Mutter tossing off a group of virtuoso gypsy themed works as if they were the easiest things in the world. They aren't.

Mutter is a great violinist and those who accuse her of being just an empty but good-looking virtuosa are wrong, dead wrong in fact. Her Mozart sonatas cycle with Lambert Orkis is absolutely wonderful, the best ever dare I say.

TD



Two mutually exclusive reviews here. I agree with the positive one except in that the Galuppi sonatas are far more appealing than Scarlatti´s, which is an overstatement due perhaps to the overexcitement of discovering something new and high quality. 

Is it just me, or in certain keyboard works the piano is more apt to separate the lines and to emphasise the melodic one than the harpsichord? I have the Ilario Gregoletto harpsichord version too and this is my firm impression.

[Turner]

Generally a CD that is pleasant listening, underlining Arnold´s qualities as Shostakovich light, and yet refreshingly unpredictable at times. 

[Orpheus]

Very interesting. although a bit Google Translate-ish. 

Faster but more innacurate 

[North Star]

First Listen

Louis Couperin
Froberger, Chambonnières

Jovanka Marville
[asin]B000Q6ZVU2[/asin]

[The new erato]

Now:

This recording -

Yes, you are a rock. We depend on you to keep the industry alive.

[Florestan]

First Listen

Louis Couperin
Froberger, Chambonnières

Jovanka Marville
[asin]B000Q6ZVU2[/asin]

Intriguing name she has!...

Your thoughts, please?

[Karl Henning]

First Listen

Louis Couperin
Froberger, Chambonnières

Jovanka Marville
[asin]B000Q6ZVU2[/asin]

I've had that in my car CD tray the past several days, delightful.

[North Star]

Intriguing name she has!...

Your thoughts, please?

First impressions: splendid instrument and music, well recorded and played. Listening now to the passacaille from Couperin's Pièces en do that finishes the disc, great showpiece for the sonorities of the harpsichord.