What are you listening to now?

[Wakefield]

First listen:



I like very much what I'm listening to. Nothing hectic here, the music breathes freedom and elegance.

BTW, it's great to see Terakado and Uemura recording this Rameau's fantastic collection again. 

[Tsaraslondon]

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   ).

One of the greatest operas ever written, in my opinion, and Davis is definitely the way to go, either in this recording or the later live one he did with LSO.

It's a pity you can't warm to Vickers. I think he is magnificent and one of the main reasons I prefer this recording to the later one. I also prefer Veasey to De Young (though Baker is even better in the final scenes she recorded under Alexander Gibson).

Still, if you have a problem with Vickers, try the later one. You may prefer Ben Heppner. He doesn't have Vickers's intensity, but makes the more conventionally attractive sound.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

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.

"Pallid by comparison" is right for both the DVD and the cd versions of Fleming's (though her voice sounds more silvery on the cd than it does on her later DVD re-make) when compared with Callas'.

Callas has such tremendous volume and flexibility to her voice with her Armida. I really can't see any other singer having the ability to do what she did in terms of raw athleticism as well as imaginative dramatic insight. . .

You're so right about the Proch.

But I love the Proch 'because of' Callas and 'only because of' Callas.

She takes a bunch of empty-but-fiendishly-impossible note spinning and turns it into fiercely emotional utterance that is technical perfection.

Any lesser singer attempting this piece would bore me to tears. Not so with La Divina though.

[The new erato]

I know that Alagna seems to come in for a lot of bashing these days, but in the right repertoire he was an appreciable singer , and he was always at his best in French music.

His Werther is superb.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Mutter's Prokofiev and Respighi certainly do the cute photogenic cover justice.

Yes, incendiary playing. Although they'd probably do well to dress her in a hazmat suit.

[Tsaraslondon]

His Werther is superb.

Absolutely without question. I did a comparative review of five favorite version recently - Pappano, Davis, Cohen, Plasson and Pretre. They all have their merits, but the Pappano won on points.

[North Star]

Gershwin
Songbook
Hamelin
https://www.youtube.com/v/mJ9o6PPSL88

[Mandryka]

One of the greatest operas ever written, in my opinion, and Davis is definitely the way to go, either in this recording or the later live one he did with LSO.

It's a pity you can't warm to Vickers. I think he is magnificent and one of the main reasons I prefer this recording to the later one. I also prefer Veasey to De Young (though Baker is even better in the final scenes she recorded under Alexander Gibson).

Did you see the Visconti production with the wolfhounds?

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Yes, incendiary playing. Although they'd probably do well to dress her in a hazmat suit.

Mutter's just too hot and fierce- she sets off fire alarms wherever she goes. I know how she feels. 

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

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   ).

Funny how different we all are.

Vickers is Uber-heroic to me.

The pleasant Dutoit recording was my introduction to Troyens- but when I heard the Davis, the emotional Richter scale for me was REV-EL-A-TORY. I had never experienced such exuberant joy in Berlioz before.

My only cavil with it is that the horns on his "Royal Hunt and Storm" don't have the heroic intensity of his later LSO remake- where they practically melt from the heat.

- Cheers to your acquisition.

<Clink.>

[North Star]

Alessandro Melani (1639-1703)
Motets
Rinaldo Alessandrini & Concerto Italiano
[asin]B003GW1OSQ[/asin]

[Harry]

Alessandro Melani (1639-1703)
Motets
Rinaldo Alessandrini & Concerto Italiano
[asin]B003GW1OSQ[/asin]

For me this is the best CD in the box I bought a while ago. Truly magical.

[North Star]

For me this is the best CD in the box I bought a while ago. Truly magical.

Magical indeed, Harry. I'm not going to attempt ranking the CDs in that truly magnificent Magnificat box, though, as I'd only end up putting the one I happen to be listening first.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Strange and beautiful music.

Have you by any chance heard Mingardo's recording of Merula's Hor ch'é tempo di morire, "canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nanna"[/b]? 

https://www.youtube.com/v/W0ZV8IklstY

North-y, I finally got to listen to this last night undisturbed. Thank you again for the honorable mention.

I can't say that its my cup of tea or demitasse of espresso- but who knows? Perhaps some other time I'll resonate to it. 

[Que]

Magical indeed, Harry. I'm not going to attempt ranking the CDs in that truly magnificent Magnificat box, though, as I'd only end up putting the one I happen to be listening first.

An absolutely GREAT set!  One of the GMG secrets....

Listening now:

[asin]B007R8BVEC[/asin]

AllMusic Review by James Manheim

"It is astonishing," writes conductor Manfred Huss in his fine notes to this BIS release, that none of Schubert's stage works has entered the operatic repertoire, "and it is even harder to understand why not even the overtures have earned a secure place among the standard repertoire of every symphony orchestra." That may be overstating the case, but only slightly; these are gems of the (mostly) first part of Schubert's career, and any one of them could liven up a program of orchestral music. They are short sonata-form movements, many of them with slow introductions that prefigure the drama in some way (and do indeed make you want to hear the operas, which are mostly small in scale and wouldn't cost that much to produce). The most interesting ones are perhaps the earliest and the latest; the overture to the unfinished Der Spiegelritter (track 2), composed in 1811 when Schubert was 14, shows in its pregnant opening octaves that the young Schubert got what was going on in Beethoven even as most of his contemporaries were still struggling. The language of the last three overtures is strikingly progressive. Hear the quasi-pentatonic melodies of the singspiel Die Verschworenen (Der häusliche Krieg was an alternate title; the original, meaning "The Conspirators," was censored), which sound like nothing so much as Dvorák. Huss and his period-instrument Haydn Sinfonietta Wien have developed a reputation for finding neglected works by major Classical-era composers and giving them clean, sympathetic performances; they have rarely done as well as they do here. A real find for Schubert lovers.

Q

[aligreto]

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

Thank you for that.

[aligreto]

Borodin: Symphony No. 2....

[North Star]

North-y, I finally got to listen to this last night undisturbed. Thank you again for the honorable mention.

I can't say that its my cup of tea or demitasse of espresso- but who knows? Perhaps some other time I'll resonate to it.

It is certainly a unique piece, Marsch.

An absolutely GREAT set!  One of the GMG secrets....

Yes indeed.

[SimonNZ]

on the radio:

Britten's Choral Dances From Gloriana - Polyphony, Stephen Layton

[André]

J.S. Bach: sonatas 1-3 for solo violin. Fiddlers from the older generation like Rosand, Milstein, Haendel or even Heifetz present these works with utter seriousness of purpose and an almost gritty instrumental response to the music's many moods. It's like they're bent on intimidating the listener. Among those I prefer Rosand and Haendel. Fantastic music, great music making.