What are you listening 2 now?

[steve ridgway]

Berio - Eindrücke

[Mookalafalas]

I realize this isn't available in most places (by regular channels, anyway). I've just started it, but initial impression is     (Equivalent to Todd's very chunky pizza)

[steve ridgway]

Ligeti - San Francisco Polyphony

[AnotherSpin]

I realize this isn't available in most places (by regular channels, anyway). I've just started it, but initial impression is     (Equivalent to Todd's very chunky pizza)

It is available in Qobuz (UK), I listened yesterday.

[Que]

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure.  I am not really sure if I got this as part of a larger set, but I know it was Haitink and was a part of his Mahler cycle.  I couldnt find it on my amazon history, and the actual CD set is at my parents house (along with all of my CDs. I haven't bought any music since I moved to my house in 2019 )

If it is part of a cycle, you posted the correct picture.   That is the 1969 Philips recordings.
The other two with the RCO are live and from 1968 (Q disc) and the recently released 2001 recording (RCO).

[Que]

This morning a recording with rare repertoire and of rare beauty:

 

Stimmwerck was disbanded in 2019 but they made some stellar recordings, even if they are too few...

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Oct/Flos_virginum_7779372.htm

[AnotherSpin]

If it is part of a cycle, you posted the correct picture.   That is the 1989 Philips recordings.
The other two with the RCO are live and from 1968 (Q disc) and the recently released 2001 recording (RCO).

If I remember correctly, Haitink's recordings with the RCO were made in the 1960s and early 1970s. Somewhere in my archives I had digitizations of the original vinyls.

[Que]

If I remember correctly, Haitink's recordings with the RCO were made in the 1960s and early 1970s. Somewhere in my archives I had digitizations of the original vinyls.

You are absolutely right, my bad... the Philips RCO was recorded in 1969. Not such a great performance BTW, compared to the rest of the cycle.

[Madiel]

One of the mid-70s LPs of Holmboe string quartets.

[Que]

On Spotify:



Nice, very nice. The way I remembered it from the live concert, but then with a richer, better sounding harpsichord (or the church acoustic at the concert was not so great). Rondeau has a very considered, introspective but quite florid style.  The frequent use of hesitations is well judged and balanced with a good rhythmic pulse and a keen eye for the overall structure/musical architecture.

This is what I had expected Moroney (Harmonia Mundi) to sound like, but that was a big dissapointment... Which he made up for with his later recording of the organ works.

[Madiel]

Thommessen: String Quartet no.4, Felix Remix



The Felix in question being Mendelssohn, specifically the scherzo of op.44/2. Kind of what would happen if he bumped into Norgard occasionally.

It's emphatically not the reason I bought this album and to be honest I doubt I'll listen to it very often. It's not terrible, in fact on listen number 2 it's quite good, but also not something I find that interesting. It's only 9 minutes long so not that substantial as a quartet. And according to the liner notes Thommessen has for several decades basing his compositions on reworkings of existing compositions, and... well it's quite literally derivative.

[AnotherSpin]

You are absolutely right, my bad... the Philips RCO was recorded in 1969. Not such a great performance BTW, compared to the rest of the cycle.

I'm re-listening to Mahler's 6th with Haitink, the Concertgebouw recording. I've often seen it criticized as too light, too superficial, too easy on the ear. My impression is that the people who say this are usually the ones who believe there is no Mahler without Bernstein, that is, without the exaggeration, the hypertrophy, the almost comical gesturing that Bernstein brought to the scores.

Yes, Haitink's Sixth is scandalously beautiful, flowing, and natural. Where's the scream? Where's the blood? Where's the apocalypse that some expect every time the hammer falls?

It's interesting to put this in historical perspective. If I remember correctly, Haitink's cycle was the very first complete studio cycle of Mahler symphonies in the modern era, a time when no real performance canon for Mahler had yet solidified in the recording age. In a way, Haitink was setting the rules, or at least proposing a possible grammar. But those rules were soon rewritten by conductors who felt Mahler needed more exaggeration, more visceral drama, more overt tragedy.

A personal note: for many years my absolute favorite Sixth was Barbirolli's with the New Philharmonia. Anyone who knows that recording knows what I'm talking about - the emotions are dialed up to eleven, the despair is almost operatic. Today it strikes me as somehow unnatural, forced, even a little hysterical. Perhaps that's exactly why Haitink's version feels so liberating and truthful to me right now: it trusts the music to speak without shouting, and it lets the tragedy emerge from clarity rather than from added histrionics. Less blood on the floor, more truth in the air.

Added: Btw, who decided that Mahler's Sixth Symphony is "Tragic"? As far as I know, Mahler himself never gave it that title, and the symphony was written during one of the happiest periods of his life. It is often said that this label came from Alma Mahler, but I am not so sure we should take her words seriously in this case.

[Madiel]

Nielsen: An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands



It somehow manages to remind me of Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead. Only far less gloomy.

[Madiel]

Tubin: Symphony no.3 in D minor, 'Heroic'



One of the 2 symphonies composed during the Soviet occupation in World War 2. Though BIS doesn't use the 'Heroic' label, there is solid evidence for it.

It has its moments, though to be honest I don't find it as strong as the 2nd symphony. But Tubin sure knows how to write a big climax.

[Harry]

Musica Strumentale A Cremona Al Tempo di Stradivari.
Musica instrumentale a Cremona al tempo di Stradivari"). Merula: Conzon detta La Dada; Canzon detta La Maruta; Ballo detto Il Pollicio Anonymus: Aria detta La bella Pedrina +Piazzi: Balletti II & VI Visconti: Sonatas op. 1 No. 2 & 7; Preludio for violin Zani: Sonatas op.1 No.1 & op.5 No.8 Zuccari: Sonata op.1 No.12.

Andrea Rognoni, Violin. Ensemble L'Aura Soave Cremona.
Recorded, 2008 at S. Giorgio - Pizzo - Fontanelle (Parma)

Beautiful music no doubt about that, and not often recorded. The interpretation is top notch, fine musicians to boot. It is a bit rough and ready playing, and the recording does not really help to make the music more pleasing to the ears. A bit hard and forward, so the volume must be adapted. Still I like it very much. If your in for an adventure and ready for a rough ride, this is it.

[AnotherSpin]

Tubin: Symphony no.3 in D minor, 'Heroic'



One of the 2 symphonies composed during the Soviet occupation in World War 2. Though BIS doesn't use the 'Heroic' label, there is solid evidence for it.

It has its moments, though to be honest I don't find it as strong as the 2nd symphony. But Tubin sure knows how to write a big climax.

This is not critique - just to clarify, because your words could be read as implying that Estonia was occupied by the Russians only during World War II, the occupation actually lasted from the summer of 1940 until the summer of 1991.

[AnotherSpin]

CD 1

[Todd]

[Madiel]

This is not critique - just to clarify, because your words could be read as implying that Estonia was occupied by the Russians only during World War II, the occupation actually lasted from the summer of 1940 until the summer of 1991.

Yes, I meant while Tubin was there. He went into exile.

[Harry]

LA LIRA D'ESPÉRIA, II Galicia.
Cantos de terra e danzas Antigas.
Jordi Savall, rebec, vièle ténor & rebel morisco (rebab).
Pedro Estevan, cloches, pandereta, tamburello, adufe, darbuka & tambour.
David Mayoral, req, pandereta, pandeiro, adufe & tambour.
Recorded in 2014, Collégiale de Cardona (Catalogne).

Fascinating music, as per usual in a sublime interpretation and perfectly recorded. It's a pleasure rediscovering the recordings with Jordi Savall. there is a first volume also, and I will play that one soon.