What Are You Listening To?

[stlukesguild]

Evergreen pieces, reworked for just about every instrument you care to mention too, and with every new instrument, one gets something new out of them, and you also want to go relisten them in the original form for cello. I'm in one of my periodic recorder manias; here's the same piece on recorder…

Rachel Rodger recorded a marvelous version on violin:

 

[stlukesguild]

Hermes, have you heard Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d-minor played on violin? There are some musicologists who suggest the work was originally written for the violin:

 

[stlukesguild]

This is quite marvellous.

Yes it is The Magic Flute may just be my favorite opera. I remember when I used to participate on a classical music forum (with Brian). We were asked once to make a list of our 10 favorite operas. Four of mine were by Mozart: The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte.

 

[Hermes2020]

Hermes, have you heard Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d-minor played on violin? There are some musicologists who suggest the work was originally written for the violin:

Yes, I have. I wasn't aware that it may have been written for the violin. I usually prefer works in their original form, with the exception of some orchestrations of Debussy solo piano works. An example is Percy Grainger's orchestral version of Pagodes, from Debussy's solo piano suite called Estampes, which I adore and listen to very often in the original form:

Here is Grainger's orchestral version, which works for me:

 

[Hermes2020]

I am so happy today that I have acquired Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir's 2023 recording of the Bach Cello Suites. Her performance is heavenly, with an unbelievably realistic recording at an impressive bitrate of more than 5000 kilobits per second.

Oh great! Another recording of the cello suites that I’ll need to acquire . I know Brian has repeatedly expressed dismay with those Classical music aficionados who collect multiple recordings of the same works… but I am more likely to do this now than I am to seek out new works unknown to me. As I don’t have my CDs all available to me right now I can’t tell you every recording of the cello suites that I have. Off the top of my head I have recordings by Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker (2 or 3 different recordings), Mstislav Rostropovich, Pablo Casals, Mischa Maisky, Yo Yo Ma, and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Fournier and Starker remain my favorites. I also love the live recording by Rostropovich on an old Soviet label.

I have to admit that I also acquire multiple recordings of my favourite compositions, in the never-ending quest to find the "perfect" one that sounds just right to my amateur ears. All the Bach cello suite recordings you mention have passed through my hands and ears. My current favourites that are also in my possession are by Antonio Meneses, Gavriel Lipkind, Hemdrik Dam Thomsen, Marko Ylonen, and of course the latest acquisition played by Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir. I think the hunt is part of the fun!

All my CDs are stored away and I haven't touched them in a long time, since converting them all to lossless FLAC files. The files are stored on a tiny 4 terabyte USB drive connected to my Cambridge Audio CXN network player, which is controlled remotely from my phone or desktop PC. I can play any of several thousand works at will, without touching anything but a keypad. I have not bought CDs for years. I buy FLAC files online and download them onto my hard drive. I recommend that you do the same; you will not regret it. If anyone wants a more detailed tutorial on the whole process, just let me know.

 

[stlukesguild]

Hermes… I certainly would be interested in the process. Although I might miss some of the box sets with all their illustrations, graphics, and liner notes I already find streaming through Spotify far more convenient.

 

[Hermes2020]

Hermes… I certainly would be interested in the process. Although I might miss some of the box sets with all their illustrations, graphics, and liner notes I already find streaming through Spotify far more convenient.

I have converted all my CDs into a format that is played on a network streamer. It is controlled remotely by my cell phone, desktop PC, or my Samsung tablet. Here is a detailed description of the process I used to set up my music system.

I use the free program called Exact Audio Copy, downloaded from its website https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download to convert my music CDs into files that are stored on the hard drive in my desktop PC. Instead of giving a long description here, I can recommend the following YouTube video that describes the steps very well:

An important decision to make is which file format to use. I think most people are familiar with a format called MP3, that yields small files, but has the drawback of being a lossy format, since it compresses the music and is not true high fidelity quality. It is OK for pop music, but in my opinion it is not suitable for classical music. I recommend saving the music in a file format called FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), which preserves the quality of the original CD. For the same reason, I always pay a bit more for FLAC files when I buy music online, instead of the cheaper MP3 versions.

To get the cover art I usually use a program called Album Art Downloader (https://sourceforge.net/projects/album-art/) to download better quality covers myself. The meta data (all the extra information about the conductor and orchestra, and so on) are stored inside the FLAC file as an ID3 tag. I like to clean up the ID3 tags and add missing information with the program called TagScanner (download from https://www.xdlab.ru/en/).

I can play the music files on my PC connected to a small Bose sound system on my desktop, but this isn't real HI-FI. For serious listening, I have the files stored on a 4 terabyte USB drive connected to a Cambridge Audio CXN network player. The network player is controlled by StreamMagic software that runs on my Samsung phone and Tablet, as well as in Windows 11 on my PC (using BlueStacks Android emulation). The network player is connected to a Rotel 90 watts per channel power amplifier. The speakers are 15" Tannoy Amesbury speakers that are full bass reflex cabinets standing 108 cm high.

The network player can play internet radio stations and also supports AirPlay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, and TIDAL Connect.

 

[Artyczar]

All my files are FLAC and are stored on a Sony HAP (High-resolution Audio Player). They sound exactly like the CDs.

 

[Hermes2020]

All my files are FLAC and are stored on a Sony HAP (High-resolution Audio Player). They sound exactly like the CDs.

Yes, the Sony HAP has had good reviews as well. Does it have internal memory? Can you connect an external USB hard drive with your FLAC files to it?

 

[Artyczar]

Yes, but I'm not sure if it has a USB. It's on our home network, and we transfer files from the computer to the HAP. This is how we do it, so we can grab any metadata we need for each album off the internet - if needed. It has a lot of internal memory, but we also have a backup on a cloud (just in case).

 

[john]

It's amazing nowadays. I have a streamer with a 2 gig internal SSD with over four hundred CDs in WAV format with lot's of extra room for more. Storage is now so cheap that MP3 isn't needed. But using any of the streaming services, and I've tried most of them, gives one so much that it almost becomes overwhelming. I just recently moved all my favorite tracks from the services I've used to one service...Qobuz. It's a great time to be a music lover. For 12 bucks a month one has access to millions of records.

 

[stlukesguild]

Of course the gold standard of earlier recordings are those by Walter Gieseking… but I really fell for these recordings by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. I collected them all as they were released… and now they have oozed up Debussy’s complete piano works. I’m currently listening to the Preludes, Book I.

 

[stlukesguild]

We used to frequently visit Cedar Point, an amusement park in Ohio famous for roller coasters. Most of these visits took place during summer vacation. A good number of the rides played waltzes and dances in the manner of Strauss, “ The Waltz King”. Currently on my summer vacation we spent the day playing miniature golf with our older daughter’s family who we are visiting in New Jersey. I’ve been padding out my classical playlists on Spotify. Today I placed a bunch of music by Strauss on my playlist and getting back from golfing in the 90+ degree sun we crashed for a nap before taking everyone out for dinner (Mexican… if ICE hasn’t kidnapped all the cooks). I felt Strauss was perfect listening for the moment. Maybe some Mexican music after dinner. Hmmm who will it be? Sylvester Revueltas? Manuel Ponce? Daniel Càtan (a personal favorite) ?

 

[stlukesguild]

We had our dinner at a Mexican restaurant and so now I’m back home listening to the Mexican composer, Daniel Catàn.

 

[brianvds]

View attachment 49054

 

[Hermes2020]

View attachment 49034

Of course the gold standard of earlier recordings are those by Walter Gieseking… but I really fell for these recordings by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. I collected them all as they were released… and now they have oozed up Debussy’s complete piano works. I’m currently listening to the Preludes, Book I.

I am a great Bavouzet fan. I recently acquired his complete Haydn Piano Sonatas. Here is the Allegro from number 60:

 

[john]

The Only Tune was written for Sam Amidon, a singer and instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, drum) trained in the tradition of American folk music. The “Two Sisters” murder ballad, upon which The Only Tune is based, is an old and widely disseminated invention of the folk tradition, with close relatives across Northern Europe and America.

In most versions of the tale, one sister kills the other over a boy””one is dark, and one is fair; one receives a token of the boy’s love, while the other seethes with envy. When the song is sung in Ireland, for example, her hair is used to string a harp played on the murderess’s wedding day, whereas in this rendition it strings a fiddle-bow.

What most of these songs have in common is this musical necromancy, fashioning a dead body into a musical instrument. Muhly uses the morbid tableau as a metaphor for the acts of violence and dissection inherent in any folk-song arrangement: The Only Tune is split into three distinct sections, each introduced by a turbulent and chaotic prelude. The harmony is embroidered with strange dissonances. Even the lyrics are dismembered and rebuilt, with a nod to the process-driven text setting of minimalist music. – Program Notes © 2007 Daniel Johnson

Dissonant at first but evolves into something morbidly beautiful.

 

[Hermes2020]

Oh, I like that, especially the gradual development of the lyrics at the beginning and the Boulezesque orchestral sounds.

 

[stlukesguild]

Two very different selections.

 

[stlukesguild]

Oh Brian! Nothing wrong with bon-bons from time to time.

Remember, I also love Rococo.