What are you listening to now?

[Karl Henning]

Not a Valentine, no.

http://www.youtube.com/v/tN3aMOrzEb8

[Baron Scarpia]

I have to go back to the Solomon and Hagen Quartet recordings to refresh the palette. I remember seeing the Smithson Quartet recordings for very cheap some time ago and inextricably passing on it.

Slightly different plan gave the Alban Berg Quartet a spin. (These were the first recordings of the Mozart String Quartets I heard. I had them on Telefunken vinyl, now I have Teldec CDs)

Gorgeous. In particular the magic of the Menuetto in the A major quartet KV464 returned to me. There is a four note phrase that is passed back and forth among the instruments which is absolutely ghostly in the Alban Berg Quartet recording. No other recording has reproduced the effect for me.

Anyway, still not my favorite works by Mozart, but the Haydn quartets have come back to life for me.

I see the recordings are being reissued.

[asin]B0743JLS7X[/asin]

[North Star]

This is exquisite, and no, I am not surprised 

Indeed. I wonder if those Ensemble Inégal recordings of Zelenka will eventually be boxed up . . .  (not holding my breath)


Thread-duty - Fresh from the mail
Cavalli
Heroines of the Venetian Baroque, Disc 1
Mariana Flores (soprano), Anna Reinhold (mezzo)
Cappella Mediterranea
Clematis
Leonardo García Alarcón

The music and performances - from Flores & Reinhold, as well as the accompanying instrumentalists - are both exquisite, as is the presentation. Mariana Flores' voice can be too much for the microphone at times, resulting in some distortion, but it's rare enough.
[asin]B011TQQUOS[/asin]

[Mahlerian]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor Op. 131
Alban Berg Quartet
[asin]B008DK3PJC[/asin]

[Baron Scarpia]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor Op. 131
Alban Berg Quartet
[asin]B008DK3PJC[/asin]

Does that edition include live or studio recordings?

[Mahlerian]

Does that edition include live or studio recordings?

Studio.

[Baron Scarpia]

Studio.

Hmm, maybe I should reconsider. I lost interest in the ABQ when they moved to EMI. I found EMI engineering much less attractive than Telefunken/Teldec, and the move more-or-less corresponded to the time their original viola player left. It's been a long time, maybe time for a reappraisal.

[listener]

Philippe ROGIER (c.1561-1596): 3 Motets, Mass Ego sum qui sum
Magnificat (the name of the group, not another work on the disc) Philip Cave cond.
REGER:  12 Pieces, op. 59, 4 chorales from op. 79,  4 Prelude-and-Fugues op. 85, 3 more..
Rosalind Haas, Albiez Organ, Frankfurt am Main

[Mandryka]

The sense that anything can happen at any moment is not there.

I had lunch today with a well known string quartet, who shall remain nameless, and who are well up in Mozart and Haydn. Anyway, I thought I would try this idea out on them, though I misremembered what you had exactly said and suggested that this was a difference between Mozart and Haydn (Mozart predictable, Haydn not)

To my great surprise, they all agreed with you.

When I read it yesterday I listened to the Italiano, and briefly to the Cambini Paris quartet, who are HIP. I think part of the issue comes from the Italiano's upholstered sound and lyricism, and their slight tendency to identify a voice as the main one and push it forward at the expense of the rest. However I'm not sure that the "problem" is not a "feature" of the music.

I like the six quartets for Haydn, some more than others, and on the whole,I like them more than I like Haydn op 33. But I can't explain why, I just do. And anyway, your comparison wasn't with Haydn.

[San Antone]

Music for Compline : Tallis | Byrd | Sheppard
Stilo Antico :



Beautiful.

[Baron Scarpia]

I had lunch today with a well known string quartet, who shall remain nameless, and who are well up in Mozart and Haydn. Anyway, I thought I would try this idea out on them, though I misremembered what you had exactly said and suggested that this was a difference between Mozart and Haydn (Mozart predictable, Haydn not)

To my great surprise, they all agreed with you.

When I read it yesterday I listened to the Italiano, and briefly to the Cambini Paris quartet, who are HIP. I think part of the issue comes from the Italiano's upholstered sound and lyricism, and their slight tendency to identify a voice as the main one and push it forward at the expense of the rest. However I'm not sure that the "problem" is not a "feature" of the music.

I like the six quartets for Haydn, some more than others, and on the whole,I like them more than I like Haydn op 33. But I can't explain why, I just do. And anyway, your comparison wasn't with Haydn.

You seem to have inverted my impression, which is that in Mozart's most characteristic music 'anything can happen' (i.e., a quasi-operatic aria or dance can suddenly appear, or playful motif can trigger an intense fugato, etc) whereas in the music of Haydn there is more stylistic consistency and a greater sense that the music is being worked out predictably. My impression is that, in the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, Mozart inhabits Haydn's less whimsical style and becomes less unpredictable.

So, your string quartet disagrees with me. Oh well.

[Karl Henning]

Brahms
Paganini Variations (Book I), Op.35
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy

[San Antone]

Morton Feldman : For Bunita Marcus | Palais de mari
Sabine Liebner

[Mahlerian]

Another listen to

Mozart: Requiem in D minor K626
Sibylla Rubens, Annette Markert, Ian Bostridge, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Orchestre des Champs Élysées, cond. Herreweghe
[asin]B0743X369G[/asin]

[Spineur]

A delight.

This is indeed the best volume in the serie.  The Notturni, the pieces lyriques and all the transcriptions are as you said, a ravishing delight.  In vol 1, the fogli volanti are also charming.  The weakest CD is vol 4, which contains the unpublished works.  If Sgambati didnt bother publishing them, there is a reason.

[Florestan]

This is indeed the best volume in the serie.  The Notturni, the pieces lyriques and all the transcriptions are as you said, a ravishing delight.  In vol 1, the fogli volanti are also charming.  The weakest CD is vol 4, which contains the unpublished works.  If Sgambati didnt bother publishing them, there is a reason.

Thanks. Have you heard Sgambati's chamber music (two piano quintets and a string quartet)? It's excellent as well.

[Karl Henning]

kh
Sonata for Clarinet & Piano, Op.136
only MIDI as yet

[North Star]

Haydn
Symphony No. 99 in E flat major (1793)
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Frans Brüggen
[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

[Harry]

Second rerun.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2018/02/de-caix-dhervelois-louis-1680-1759_15.html?spref=tw

[Karl Henning]

Haydn
Symphony No. 99 in E flat major (1793)
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Frans Brüggen
[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

Sweet, Karlo!