What Are You Listening To?

[stlukesguild]

Peter Lieberson composed this cycle of songs setting poems by the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. They were composed for his wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. IMO this cycle ranks with Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs. Lorraine would tragically die not long after this marvelous recording… at the age of 52.

 

[brianvds]

Rather nice performance of this uplifting piece...

 

[Hermes2020]

That's heavenly, Brian. David Zinman is always reliable and just can't seem to do anything wrong, to my ears at least. I have his complete Beethoven and Mahler symphony cycles, both with the Tonhalle-Orchester in Zürich. I can recommend them if you are looking for excellent performances of those works in modern high resolution recordings.

 

[brianvds]

That's heavenly, Brian. David Zinman is always reliable and just can't seem to do anything wrong, to my ears at least. I have his complete Beethoven and Mahler symphony cycles, both with the Tonhalle-Orchester in Zürich. I can recommend them if you are looking for excellent performances of those works in modern high resolution recordings.

The sound quality here is also good - with this work, the louder passages have a tendency to distort, but not here.

 

[stlukesguild]

Bach’s Cello Suites rank among my favorite works. Rostropovich’s studio recording of the suites have long ranked among the finest… but have never been among my favorites… with the exception of this live Soviet recording. It is at once muscular and fluid.

 

[Hermes2020]

I share your love of the Cello Suites, as well as your opinion of the Rostropovich recordings.

 

[Hermes2020]

The Agnus Dei from The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. Wait for the trumpet at 1:53.

 

[stlukesguild]

Handel with Joyce Didonato.

 

[Hermes2020]

A deeply moving performance by Yunchan Lim of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, conducted by Marin Alsop.

 

[brianvds]

A YouTube recommendation:

People find it either boring or mesmerizing, with few in between. I tend to fall in the latter group.

 

[Hermes2020]

Me too. I love Glass.

 

[stlukesguild]

I like Glass as well. Oddly enough it was one his most dense pieces… Einstein on the Beach… that first introduced me to opera. The first opera I saw in person was far more mainstream: Aida… and it completely seduced me.

The last two months I’ve been organizing the new house after our move and assembling endless pieces of furniture… including 8 book shelves. Over the last couple of weeks I completed… or nearly completed the office/den/library (I still need a good office chair and a new laptop). I picked up a good Bluetooth CD player which connects to my JBL speakers so I can finally listen to my CDs. Last night I listened to Werner Güra’s recording of Schubert’s Winterreise … arguably his greatest song cycle which ends with the masterful Der Leiermann … which is almost a tonal work… like Middle Eastern music or Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.

Right now I’m listening to Mahler’s Symphony no. 9 conducted by Klaus Tennstedt:

 

[stlukesguild]

Die Winterreise is one of those works of which I must have a dozen different recording. At a certain point I started collecting different recordings of favorite works as opposed to newer works (speaking of Classical music). I found such gave me greater pleasure.

 

[stlukesguild]

Kempff is my go-to for Beethoven’s piano sonatas… although I have several others: Alfred Brenden, Emil Gilles (unfortunately, not the complete 32) and various favorites by Mitsuko Uchida, Rubinstein, Steven Kovacevich, Sviatoslav Richter, etc… Currently listening to disc 4 from this set: sonatas nos. 12-15 which include the evergreens: the “Moonlight Sonata” and the “Pastoral”.

 

[stlukesguild]

Heading off in another direction altogether:

 

[stlukesguild]

7:00 AM… it’s freezing out… 27° F outside… 18° F with the wind chill … I’m listening to this… that somehow seems suited:

Besides their marvelous performances of many less-well-known/obscure repertoire (medieval/Renaissance Armenian works with strong Middle-Eastern influences) Jordi Savall’s CD’s were frequently packaged exquisitely. This disc comes with an illustrated book on the performances, the music, and the culture… and must be at least a inch thick.

 

[Hermes2020]

... (I still need a good office chair and a new laptop). ...

I can recommend the Aeron chair. It's been supporting my back and butt extremely comfortably for 20 years and, unlike me, is showing no signs of age at all. That's Herman Miller quality. If you want a chair that does not have the all the adjustment controls of the Aeron, look at one of the Setu chairs (Herman Miller, again). My daughter has one and I am plotting ways to steal it.

 

[stlukesguild]

Returning to “Classical Music” from the Classical Era.

 

[stlukesguild]

I first stumbled upon Magdalena Kožená seeing her lovely face on this CD while browsing Borders… back when there still were CDs and Borders book stores. Beyond the singer’s attractiveness I was equally seduced by the fact that this was a two-disc set for the price of a single disc. I was more than pleasantly surprised by what a marvelous singer she was. I soon found myself collecting every recording she released… while Simon Rattle must have been even more seduced and married her. Magdalena Kožená… now Lady Rattle remains an exquisite singer… a Czech-born mezzo-soprano whose most recent recording was released earlier this year featuring songs by Debussy & Messiaen performed along side of Mitsuko Uchida.

This album contains an array of music: Back, Handel, Mozart, Massenet, Czech composers etc…

 

[stlukesguild]

A good number of Baroque composers composed sonatas for solo instruments (violin, cello…) or a small ensemble (often violin,cello, and keyboard). I find many of these more interesting than many of the endless Baroque concerti grossi. In part I suspect this is due to the fact that these sonatas were often written to be performed by the composers or friends and demanded far more virtuosity.. The performers on this Leclair disc are all virtuosos: John Holloway on violin, Jaap ter Linden on cello, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on harpsichord.