What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

Delicate and introverted Chopin nocturnes from Vitalij Margulis - lovely piano sound on the recording.

[Florestan]

Delicate and introverted Chopin nocturnes from Vitalij Margulis - lovely piano sound on the recording.

Lovely cover art too.

[Traverso]

Bach

The recordings  ( Das Alte Werk)  with Leonhardt will be a lasting love, but these are also very beautiful.

CD 1

BWV 1053-1052 & 1054

[prémont]

CD 1



 For the second time I give this box with the recordings of Isabelle Faust a chance.
Once again it strikes me how everything is subjected to a musical concept that I do not like. It feels as if it has been squeezed into a straitjacket and is subject to a homeopathic dilution that drives me away from enjoying Bach. This is of course my personal opinion.
What I miss most is not letting the music breathe. Quickly to another recording that appeals to me much more.

I'm with you. I have never really warmed to Isabelle Faust.

[VonStupp]

Giacomo Puccini
Tosca: Suite (Rizzi)
Madame Butterfly: Suite (Rizzi)
Preludio Sinfonico
Capriccio Sinfonico
Welsh NOO - Carlo Rizzi

VS

[Linz]

Beethoven Piano Trios op.70 'Ghost', op.97 'Archduke' Wilhelm Kempff, Henryk Szeryng, Pierre Fournier

[André]

Bruckner: symphony no 8.



The remastering has been very beneficial to these famous recordings. Sound is wide-ranging and sufficiently detailed given Schuricht's preference for giving prominence to the main voice and principal secondary voice  (as the notes tell us). IOW this is blended Bruckner sound, keen on horizontal clarity, stressing the musical argument instead of attempting to clarify every strand. Very helpfully the powerful viennese brass section has startlingly individualized sounds. Some brass sections are very homogeneous (Berlin Phil). Not in Vienna: these players are very territorial ! 

The first two movements of the 8th have the granitic, bulldozing confidence displayed in Schuricht's previous recordings in Stuttgart and  Hamburg. Those used the fuller Haas version. In Vienna he used the then newish Nowak with its cuts in the last 2 movements. These amount to some 3 minutes of music, mostly in the finale. The slow movement here is  21:47 vs 26:55 in Hamburg, a considerable difference, mostly attributable to tempo choices (the cuts in the slow movement are minimal). In Vienna Schuricht went for an  urgent yet intensely lyrical view of the movement. Pauses are shortened or barely observed, which gives the different sections a tighter flow. Very valid, if rather unusual: the discography of the Nowak version has well over 200 different recordings and Schuricht's viennese performance is the fastest of them all in that movement !

The finale is quite magnificent. It is a multi-segment movement - more so than usual with this composer. Its history of recomposition, additions, substractions make it sound really episodic in some performances. It takes a lot of skill to hold everything together (the Nowak cuts do help in the middle of the movement). Schuricht launches it very determinedly, waiting for no man in the opening cavalry charge. The WP play gloriously throughout. My favourite moment is the penultimate climax followed by the eerie sonic moonscape just before the launch of the coda. It's perfectly done here. The final orchestral pile-up, from silence to the deafening final chord, is excitingly performed.

[foxandpeng]

Tomás Bretón
Escenas Andaluzas
Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid
Miguel Roa
Naxos

Nice. Not challenging. Tuneful. Relaxing.

[brewski]

Dipping into one of the masterclasses that Joyce DiDonato has been doing this week, livestreamed by Carnegie Hall.

-Bruce

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Radu Lupu's Tokyo 1987 concert with solo Mozart and Chopin, excellent sound, satisfying performances especially in the soulful slow pieces. Well worth seeking out and hearing when you're up for the music.

Sounds good. Have you heard the length of applause?!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

José Antonio Escobar.

[André]

This wonderful disc to debrucknerize my ears a bit. Yun rules !

[DavidW]

[hopefullytrusting]

After reading about J. Haydn's early life on Wikipedia (sweet moses), I came across Nicola Porpora, and I am listening to their 12 Violin Sonatas:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J9qjpg2plOE

[SimonNZ]

Missa "Rorate coeli desuper"
Missa Sanctae Caecilae

[Symphonic Addict]

Landowski: Symphony No. 1 'Jean de la Peur'

Extraordinary. This work is filled with a good dose of momentum and somber atmospheres that grab you until it ends.

[NumberSix]

Kalevi Aho: Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (2004)
Dima Slobodeniouk, Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Bram van Sambeek (Bassoon)


Continuing from last night's Aho concertos. This one is darker than the Timpani Concerto. I bassoon is simultaneously a silly instriument and a haunting one.

[Symphonic Addict]

Kalevi Aho: Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (2004)
Dima Slobodeniouk, Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Bram van Sambeek (Bassoon)


Continuing from last night's Aho concertos. This one is darker than the Timpani Concerto. I bassoon is simultaneously a silly instriument and a haunting one.

I have good memories of that concerto. As in many of his works, he imprints a dark, often dramatic and curt character and that combination ends up gripping.

[Symphonic Addict]

Schnittke: Symphony No. 0

Having revisited the pandemonium of his first symphony the other day, I'm encouraged to continue with this symphony cycle. In spite of it's not proper Schnittke, it's a remarkable piece with a melancholy, moving slow movement.

[NumberSix]

Schnittke: Symphony No. 0

Having revisited the pandemonium of his first symphony the other day, I'm encouraged to continue with this symphony cycle. In spite of it's not proper Schnittke, it's a remarkable piece with a melancholy, moving slow movement.

You're working backwards!