What Are You Listening To?

[Hermes2020]

I have several Alexandre Tharaud recordings, including, notably, his Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel, and Noches en los jardines de Espana by Falla. I think the performance equals the reference recording by Alicia de Larrocha and sounds better as well. Here is the first part.

 

[Hermes2020]

I can't resist posting parts 2 and 3 of Tharaud's brilliant performance of Noches en los jardines de Espana as well.

 

[Hermes2020]

A few days ago I discovered Peter Mattei's performance of Mahler's song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn. His interpretation, and the orchestral accompaniment by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jochen Rieder, are just perfect. The recorded sound is brilliant as well, reproducing Mattei's perfect German diction clearly. I just had to have it and purchased it online this morning.

Here is the humorous song Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt, in which Mahler makes fun of a priest preaching to the fish in a stream, to no effect on them at all. The balance of his voice with the orchestra is perfect.

 

[stlukesguild]

Brautigam’s historically correct performances of Mozart’s piano concertos… played on a fortepiano… are simply marvelous… as is the sound quality as expected from BIS.

 

[stlukesguild]

It seems like a day for Mozart. I tend to lean toward the historically informed performances for Mozart,Haydn, Bach and other earlier composers as opposed to the more bombastic interpretations employing large Romantic-era scaled orchestras… but there are always exceptions. Leonard Bernstein is a magnificent interpreter of Haydn… and Josef Krips’s Mozart is just as splendid… at once muscular (when called for) and delicate. I’m currently listening to disc 1 of this box set: Symphonies 21-25.

 

[stlukesguild]

Mozart’s greatest works certainly include his piano concertos… alongside his 5 violin concertos, his works for clarinet, his choral works, and I know Brian would agree: his operas. Believe it or not, Brian, back when we’re on the Classical Music forum the question was raised as to what 10 operas you believed were the greatest. I only included one Wagner opera… Tristan und Isolde, 4 Mozart Operas, two by Richard Strauss, Carmen, La Traviata, and Aida.

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[brianvds]

View attachment 52966

Brautigam’s historically correct performances of Mozart’s piano concertos… played on a fortepiano… are simply marvelous… as is the sound quality as expected from BIS.

What a peculiar album cover - he should have let us design him one.

View attachment 52972

It seems like a day for Mozart. I tend to lean toward the historically informed performances for Mozart,Haydn, Bach and other earlier composers as opposed to the more bombastic interpretations employing large Romantic-era scaled orchestras… but there are always exceptions. Leonard Bernstein is a magnificent interpreter of Haydn… and Josef Krips’s Mozart is just as splendid… at once muscular (when called for) and delicate. I’m currently listening to disc 1 of this box set: Symphonies 21-25.

When I was a teen, we ordered a box set of the Beethoven symphonies conducted by Krips. That was the first time I heard all nine.

 

[stlukesguild]

I have this Krips box set… in a metal tin . The first box set of Beethoven’s symphonies that I remember us having was a set by Furtwangler.

Right now I listening to a disc of piano trios by Schubert and Schumann performed by Arthur Rubinstein.

While visiting our older daughter we found out she had picked up her violin again. She was pretty good as a teen and throughout college performing in the Oberlin Youth Orchestra… but she decided to take up finance over the violin. She performed a bit for us and we discussed her favorite violinists… including Hilary Hahn and Anne-Sophie Mütter… two of my favorites as well. Henryk Szeryng who plays on this disc is no slouch either… to say nothing about Pierre Fournier on cello.

 

[Enyaw]

Jimmy Hendrix.

 

[stlukesguild]

Any specific recording?

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[Enyaw]

No, just intrigued with the music and stories of the man. Along the watchtower and Purple Haze are among my faves.

 

[stlukesguild]

This is volume 2 of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage recordings. These recordings of Bach’s cantatas by the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and various singers conducted by John Eliot Gardner were recorded “live” in various venues… hence the “pilgrimage”. This volume consists of 2 discs recorded in the Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris, and in the Fraumünster, Zurich. It includes cantatas BWV 2, 10, 76, 21, & 135 as well as a choral work by Schütz, and Bach’s Concerto for Flute, Violin, and Harpsichord BWV 1044. I have some 15 volumes of this set, all of Gardiner’s earlier recordings of Bach’s cantatas collected in this set:

I also have some 12 or so volumes of the recordings by the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki which are almost too icily perfect. The single complete set of the cantatas which I have were recorded by Helmuth Rilling in the 1980s. This was the first complete recording of these works. This set was recorded on Teldec and both the performances and the sound is quite impressive. In spite of owning such a complete set, I tend to jump back and forth between various interpretations including others beyond Gardiner, Suzuki, and Rilling.