What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

This is an exceptionally sung, played and recorded album, all forces involved at the top of the game. Highly recommended.

Two rave reviews which imo are fully deserved:

https://musicwebinternational.com/2023/01/gaetano-donizetti-signor-gaetano-pentatone/

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/javier-camarena-signor-gaetano

[Traverso]

Sweelinck his sources,his influence Vol.2

[JBS]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Preucil

Thank you.
He joined the Quartet right about the time they switched from RCA to Telarc, so there's nothing with him in this set.

[Que]

Not on Qobuz alas. Tell me about this recording, if you will that is.

Of course.   It's a very nice recording with some rare repertoire. Heavy on the instruments, which not really my thing but it is very well done. It was recorded for Flemish radio but reissued by EtCetera.

Below a link of a review (in Dutch):

https://klara.be/lees/dame-de-deuil-musical-offerings-for-marguerite-of-austria

[Harry]

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750).
(Die Kunst der Fuge - The Art of Fugue (BWV 1080)

Bob van Asperen, Harpsichord by Christian Zell, Hamburg 1741 (Collection Organeum, Weener) in unequal temperament.
Bernhard Klapprott, second harpsichord in mirror fugues (tracks 16-19) Second harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck, Bremen 1996.
Recording 2012, Georgskirche, Weener.


Looking into the distance, characterizes van Asperen's approach, opening his playing to a swinging elegance and poetry of sound, rarely experienced in the 'Art of Fugue. That sums it up really.

[Todd]

[Traverso]

Kaija Saariaho

L'amour de Loin

I was waiting for the DVD but unexpectedly this recording arrived earlier. My intention was to first watch the opera on DVD and then this one. However, I can't wait and start with this one.

 

Hopefully it will arrive this week.

[pjme]

From this ca 1990 CD: Rudolf Escher - Hymne du Grand Meaulnes (1951) / Rotterdam PhO / Jeffrey Tate

This symphonic "meditation" can apparently be seen as a"... twofold tribute. On the one hand, to writer Alain - Fournier (Henri-Alban Fournier (nom de plume Alain-Fournier), who in his only novel (1913) evoked an irreplaceable vision of youth only to be hit by a bullet soon afterwards (1914). On the other hand, the symbolic meaning of the figure Le Grand Meaulnes, as a center of inspired action in a grandly evoked landscape. Escher crossed that landscape, la Sologne, in the heart of France, on bicycle, in 1950. It was still there just as Fournier had described it: gaunt, sterile, a thinly populated region, but full of space and silence":
"Cher pays de Sologne, inutile, taciturne et profond."
For work Escher created: "'long melodies with a  floating and ecstatic character'.

[Harry]

GEORGY CATOIRE (1861–1926).
Piano Works.
See back cover for all info.
Marc-Andre Hamelin Piano.

Highly sensitive, incredibly refined, harmonically independent performance. Awesome! SOTA sound too. It is  lavishly rewarding to listen to Hamelin's piano magic. Music that deserves to regarded with respect and enthusiasm. What a image he creates, so many colours.

[Spotted Horses]

Who is Pruecil?
According to the booklet from this set, the Quartet was
Donald Weilerstein violin 1969-1988
Peter Salaff violin 1969-1995
Martha Strongin Katz viola 1969-1980
Atar Arad viola 1980-1987
Paul Katz cello 1969-1995.

The Opus 18 quartets were recorded at different times during 1975-1978; the LP was released January 1980.

As for @Brian 's analog/digital question, it has this credit:
CDs 1-6/9-20 Analogue tape transfers by Brett Zinn, Iron Mountain Digital Services.
LvB Opus 18 = CDs 13-15
Brahms sextets = CD 16.

Preucil joined the quartet in its final period. He was revealed to have sexually abused young women that he had recruited to his violin master classes and in other professional contexts.

[Todd]

[DavidW]

My favorite M8:

[foxandpeng]

David Maslanka
Symphony 9
Stephen Steele
Illinois State University Wind Symphony
Albany

Vaughan Williams is an outstanding composer. The narration of the Sinfonia Antartica just manages to integrate the spoken word without causing me to feel the cheese. It works. The narrated Preface to Maslanka 9 doesn't. I don't need it, I don't think, and I don't gain anything from it. I love Maslanka and I love poetry, but he could lose Koch's reading of Merwin here without impoverishing the work in any way. Aside from being far too quiet on this recording, leaving the segue into the rest of the symphony needing excessive knob twiddling to right the balance, it just isn't that great.

Maslanka leans into hymnody again here. Not a problem for me, but it is perhaps, his weakest symphony. Perhaps. O Sacred Head Now Wounded is always a winner, so that's a bonus in the finale, but still. A final movement of 39 minutes is possibly too much.

Listen to Maslanka, because there is much to love. Just don't start here.

[Spotted Horses]

Schuman (one 'n') Symphony No 3, Schwarz, Seattle



This symphony seems different than the ones the followed (I've been listening to them in reverse order from eight). More of a brilliant orchestral show piece, compared with the serious, tense tone that seems to characterize the later symphonies. Performance is good. I think I'll listen to Bernstein next. I have a choice of NY Philharmonic recordings from Columbia/Sony (1960) and DG (1987). I think I'll go with 1960, because I'm expecting the sound to be better.

[Harry]

Granville Bantock.
Violin sonatas Nr.1 & 2.
Coronach for Violin and Piano.(Pro Patria mori)
Salve Regina for Violin and Piano, "Hail Queen of Heaven".

Lorraine McAslan, Violin.
Michael Dussek, Piano.
Recorded in 2001 Recital Hall, St Paul's School, Hammerschmidt, London.


Towards the end of his long and active musical career Bantock wrote numerous Chamber music works. A selection of that is recorded on this CD, and I did not realize until now, what beautiful works they are. It is good to be amazed at times, it gets you right back to the point of interest, and that's musical commitment. Be on top when something wondrous comes around, totally unexpected. That's what I call a treat! Right? Very competent musicians are at work here. I have been long an admirer of Lorraine McAslan's Violin playing, and rate her very high on my scale. Michael Dussek was unknown to me, but he is a wonderful musical partner. Very well recorded too!

[classicalgeek]

Brahms
Piano Quartet in G minor, op. 25
Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 60
Piano Quartet in A major. op. 26
3 Intermezzi, op. 117
Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano
Leopold String Trio
(on CD)

[Bachtoven]

[Todd]

[Mandryka]

Top tier Landini.

[SonicMan46]

Schubert, Franz - Impromptus - Uchida vs. Lucchesini; finishing up my Uchida box (last disc of these works) - enjoy both but Lucchesini may have the edge for me - reviews attached, if interested (one by our own Brian on MusicWeb). Dave