What are you listening to now?

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Hear, hear, Blair. A magnificent symphony and performance. I've heard several performances of the 5th before stumbling across Thomson's (Previn, Boult, Haitink, Handley, Barbirolli, etc.), but it was Thomson who turned this symphony into something unforgettable for me.

The Thomson is the performance I play the most- although I do like the dramatic and dashing reading of the mid-forties Barbirolli immensely. It's just a pity about the sound.

[Mirror Image]

The Thomson is the performance I play the most- although I do like the dramatic and dashing reading of the mid-forties Barbirolli immensely. It's just a pity about the sound.

Being quite particular about audio quality, if it's not to my liking then that's when I usually exit stage left.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Being quite particular about audio quality, if it's not to my liking then that's when I usually exit stage left.

I understand your sentiments (you're just like my best friend) although I don't share them.

I love great sound but unfortunately a very large swathe of my all time favorite performances are with less than ideal sound. . .



Speaking of 'GREAT' sound though, have you heard the Honeck/PSO Mahler's Third on Exton?- its the best 'sounding Mahler recording I've ever heard. The clarity of texture is stellar and the hammering digital slam of the climaxes is unrivaled.

The 'reading' on the other hand is a bit uneven for my dramatic tastes and inclinations- but I will say that the outer parts of the first movement are the most heroic I've ever heard (next to the live Tennstedt, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra performance which just daisy-cuts everything).

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Anna Maria Labin makes a lovely, Schwarzkopf-esque 'Elisabeth' (that's the actual name of the character in the operetta, I kid you not) in her "Ich bin verliebt"  from Lehar's Schon is die Welt.

- so that makes her "Elisabeth Minor."

Why "Elisabeth Major" (Duchess Schwarzkopf Herself) never recorded this delightful bon bon is beyond me. 

[Mirror Image]

I understand your sentiments (you're just like my best friend) although I don't share them.

I love great sound but unfortunately a very large swathe of my all time favorite performances are with less than ideal sound. . .



Speaking of 'GREAT' sound though, have you heard the Honeck/PSO Mahler's Third on Exton?- its the best 'sounding Mahler recording I've ever heard. The clarity of texture is stellar and the hammering digital slam of the climaxes is unrivaled.

The 'reading' on the other hand is a bit uneven for my dramatic tastes and inclinations- but I will say that the outer parts of the first movement are the most heroic I've ever heard (next to the live Tennstedt, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra performance which just daisy-cuts everything).

Perhaps I was a bit over zealous in my last post concerning audio quality. A lot of my favorite performances are in less than ideal sound, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the audio quality is bad or distracting. I'm mainly referring to historical recordings or recordings where the tape hiss sounds like it's a swarm of bees.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Perhaps I was a bit over zealous in my last post concerning audio quality. A lot of my favorite performances are in less than ideal sound, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the audio quality is bad or distracting. I'm mainly referring to historical recordings or recordings where the tape hiss sounds like it's a swarm of bees.

Quite understood,  John. Ha.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

- But even 'then' I can still amiably endure the beehive if the performance is off the charts.





Cases in point?: Maria Callas' early fifties Florence Proch Variations and Armida- both of which have some of the greatest singing I have ever heard anywhere.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I just listened to Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony no. 2, op. 38, on Spotify after the recent interesting posts about it....

[SimonNZ]

Tristan Murail's L'esprit des dunes - David Robertson, cond.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Prokofiev, second violin sonata, op. 94a, transcription from flute to violin by Prokofiev. Primo stuff. Works this good don't deserve their neglect.



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[SimonNZ]

George Aperghis' Avis de tempête - Ictus Ensemble

[Que]

Just in:

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Every time there is more interesting harpsichord music just around the corner!
A Polish recording of Dresden based Christlieb Siegmund Binder, who wrote in a transitional style between late Baroque and the early Classical, Galant style.
I already love it... This must be a pretty significant and underrated composer by the sound of it.

Q

[Monsieur Croche]

Stravinsky ~ Concerto in D for [small] string orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmS0fUASrW8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Yq3B5Nd_E

as pithy-plangent- sweet - pithy as ever....

[Harry]

Table pounding for a whole series....oh no $$$$$$$ 

I bought the whole series for 10 € a piece. It was worth it though.
I advertised it on my blog and GMG, but no one seem to have need of them.

[The new erato]

11 studies for 11 players. Seems like I good work (it's just started) in good sound.

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[Tsaraslondon]

A stunning display of virtuoso Mozart arias. I don't think I've ever heard the Queen of the Night's arias sung with such force and bite, and such accuracy. You certainly wouldn't want to mess with this Queen. Moser is also wonderful in the fireworks of Martern aller Arten, and makes an excellent Elettra and Vitellia, though her voice becomes rather colourless in the lower reaches of Vitellia's Non piu di fiori. It always surprises me Moser didn't record more.

[SimonNZ]

Christophe Bertrand's Scales - Ensemble Intercontemporain, Matthis Pintscher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUD2_VSzMtU

I predict that one day Bertrand's suicide in 2010 at age 29 will be considered one of the very great losses / tragedies of classical music, or rather: much more widely so than it is already

[Tsaraslondon]

Quite understood,  John. Ha.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

- But even 'then' I can still amiably endure the beehive if the performance is off the charts.





Cases in point?: Maria Callas' early fifties Florence Proch Variations and Armida- both of which have some of the greatest singing I have ever heard anywhere.

Staggering. Callas's Armida is superhuman, which is probably about right for a sorceress. Fleming, on both CD and DVD and in much better sound of course, is pallid by comparison, where Callas just bursts through the decidedly lo-fi sound.

The Proch is an empty piece, and I wonder why she even bothered with it, but, my God, what singing! That a voice of such power and penetration could sing with such flexibility and accuracy is little short of miraculous.

[Tsaraslondon]

You can get it for a pittance on Amazon- $0.01 used or $7.95 new:

http://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-Williams-Marshall-Roberts-Hic/dp/B00000DP54/ref=sr_1_23?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1452824461&sr=1-23&keywords=vaughan-williams+sea

Only available as part of the Thomson VW complete symphonies on Amazon UK 

[SimonNZ]

Matthias Pintscher's Idyll - performers unknown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YnNP_mI7t4

[ritter]

My used (but near-mint) copy of this arrived today (bought via amazon from Oxfam):

[asin]B0000040Y0[/asin]
I am increasingly convinced that Les Troyens is one of the greatest operas of all time, and I wanted to complement my Dutoit set (which I bought when it first came out in the early 90s) with this pioneering effort by Colin Davis.

I've gone straight to Acts IV and V, and this recording is a great achievement (but I must confess that--once again--I simply cannot warm to Jon Vickers's singing   ).