What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[The new erato]

Scintillating playing in the Rachmaninoff!

[Lethevich]

Dupré - Works for Organ, Vol.3 (Naxos)

A really enterprising series, and good music. This disc has pieces for organ and orchestra - they're engaging and melodic.

[Kullervo]

Agon



Métopes, Masques, etc.

[Kullervo]

Schumann - Symphony No. 2 (Szell/Cleveland)

[val]

XENAKIS:  Synaphai; Aroura; Antikhton   / G. Douglas Mage, New Philharmonia, Howarth

Remarkable works, with a deep power of suggestion. Synaphai, exploring the opposition between the piano and the orchestra was always one of my favorite among Xenakis works.

Splendid interpretation.

[Que]

Brandenburg concertos with Hans-Martin Linde and the Linde Consort

Comments HERE.

Q

[Lethevich]

Morning musick:

Cherubini - String quartet nos.1-6 (Melos)

[Que]

Q

[Harry]

Q

It would not come amiss dear Que to tell us/me something about this recording, if you please that is.

[Harry]

Telemann.

Cantatas from the Harmonischen Gottesdienst.

Ingrid Schmithusen, Soprano.
Il Concertino Koln.

Almost needless to say that Schmithusen belongs to one of my favourite singers in the HIP world.
Combined with my favourite composer in the baroque era, this for me is a glimpse of heaven.
Almost complete vibratoless these wonderful compositions reach a level of excellence for me, hard to resist, which is soothing to my nerves after a bombardment of Mozart operas.
The B.C is a fine group of musicians that are very apt in embedding with this lovely and pure voice.
The recording is most excellent to from 1990, licensed from Bayer Records.

[Que]

Almost needless to say that Schmithusen belongs to one of my favourite singers in the HIP world.

Thanks for the tip Harry, I wasn't familiar with her!

..which is soothing to my nerves after a bombardment of Mozart operas.

Listening to this:



Posted my comments HERE

Q

[Harry]

Georg Gerson. (1790-1825)

Overture in D major.
Symphony in E flat major.

Fr. L. Ae. Kunzen. (1761-1817)

Symphony in G minor.

Concerto Copenhagen/Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

The recording from 2004, sounds full and very alert. Detail abound, reasonable front to back, could have been better.
The music is a nice mix of a lot of influences, and some very original ideas. Not world shocking at all, but good entertainment, and professionally written. Fine, but it did not do much for me.
Performance is good, as is the pace of the music.

[Que]

It would not come amiss dear Que to tell us/me something about this recording, if you please that is.

Well, as you know..  ...Bruno Weil is an excellent conductor in Haydn, with Harnoncourt, and also Kuijken one of my preferred conductors in Haydn symphonies. Of the three he is somewhat between Kuijken and Harnoncourt: less mellow and more brilliant and urgent than Kuijken, less rigorous and "severe" than Harnoncourt.
Beautiful and natural recordings done in the mid '90s.

Now on:



Q

[Florestan]

This week-end;

Beethoven
Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano, vol. 1 - David Oistrakh & Lev Oborin

Complete String Trios, vol. 1 - Anne-Sophie Mutter, Bruno Giuranna, Mstislav Rostropovich

I'm falling in love...  

[Harry]

This week-end;

Beethoven
Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano, vol. 1 - David Oistrakh & Lev Oborin

Complete String Trios, vol. 1 - Anne-Sophie Mutter, Bruno Giuranna, Mstislav Rostropovich

I'm falling in love...  

I understand Andrei.....

[Harry]

So without much ado, I have listen to the second disc of this Brilliant twofer!



On the second disc Klaus Mertens is in great form. His fine and melodious voice sings the Cantatas from Telemann most excellent. Wonderful diction, fabulous recording, and Il Concertino Koln on his side, what can go wrong. I say nothing!

[Hector]

Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony.

Overwrought and sentimental and along with every other orchestral work he wrote copied by Hollywood composers for at least two decades.

I've tried with this composer and will continue to do so, I suppose.

Svetlanov. Is there better?

[Scriptavolant]

J.S. Bach: Oboe Concertos with Hommel and Cologne Chamber Orchestra.

Luigi Nono: "La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura" and "Variazioni Canoniche a Carlo Scarpa, Architetto, ai suoi infiniti possibili".

Bruno Maderna: Oboe Concertos with Holliger. I like it more each time, and I couldn't even explain why.

[Haffner]

Haydn

String Quartets Op. 77

Quatuor Festetics

Harmonia Mundi 1991


These must be different from the ones on Arcana from seven years later. Enjoying these. 

Arrrrrgh!!!! I want I want!!!!

[Lilas Pastia]

This Telemann Gottesdienst Cantatas set from Brilliant is a steal. And beautifully produced, too (I love those gatefold sleeves).

Some quartets for bassoon and strings by Franz Danzi. May sound like odd repertoire from a strange territory, but it's nothing we don't already know from Mozart or Haydn's time. Beautiful music, great themes and extremely felicitous writing (some quite adventurous harmonies).

Beethoven symphonies 1 and 6 by Klemperer and the Philharmonia. The Pastorale is a well-known quantity, but I hadn't heard # 1 before. Klemperer's way with these symphonies is big, bony, imposing and uncompromising. It never sounds stodgy though. Very pointed and alert playing (esp. the winds), sharp accents in airy and spacious recordings combine to make it beautiful sounding and gruff at the same time - a good beethovenian combo. I have moved a long way from that kind of Beethoven conception, but when it's as well done as it is here I can't help but be impressed.

Mozart symphonies 40 and 41 by Giulini and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Recorded at the same time as the famous Verdi Requiem or Mozart Don Giovanni, but with much better sound (vintage Kingsway Hall Decca sound). These are among the most startling Mozart recordings I've ever heard. The big, shiny violin sound becomes aurally tiring after a while, but Man! What a fantastic ride we get from Giulini and the orchestra ! Accents are sharp, tempi are swift, string sections sharply individualized (you'll hear viola and cello lines more clearly than in HIP versions), and wind chording is amazingly full and resonant. So much so that the ff chords in 40:I have the harmonie sound as it included trumpets: it's just modern winds and horns playing with piercing brilliance and full tone, but what an effect! Not for everyday consumption, but in these readings Mozart could give Beethoven a ride for his money in the excitment department.