Classical Music Only | What You're Listening to Now, Or Very Recently | Any Mediums :

[bart]

Only a few of us keep it breathing, though.

We can be proud John.

[bart]

Arvo Pärt
Mullova - Järvi
Qobuz 24/48




All well known works, but brought with passion and power yet delicacy by Mullova and Järvi.
Pärt definitely is one of the best composers of our time.
This is magnificent.

Nearly all the pieces on this album were first performed and widely promoted by the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, one of them – Tabula rasa (1977) – being specifically written with his artistry in mind. They are also all products of what Arvo Pärt himself describes as a ‘tintinnabuli’ style, developed by the composer in the 1970s through studying medieval church music. As Pärt has explained: “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements – with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” Tabula rasa and Fratres, both composed in 1977, effectively established Pärt’s international reputation. Tabula rasa is effectively a concerto for two violins with string orchestra and a prepared piano, the latter instrument creating explicitly bell-like sonorities in the work’s slow second movement. Fratres, since its first performance by the Estonian ensemble of early music, Hortus Musicus, has been arranged for various instrumental combinations. The version heard here is the composer’s own, written in 1991 for solo violin, strings and percussion (involving claves and bass drum or tom-tom). Bach has long been an important influence in Pärt’s music, as is evident in his Passacaglia, composed in 2003, and in Darf ich... (May I…) originally composed in 1995 and dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin; Pärt subsequently revised the work in 1999, Kremer giving the premiere of this revised version with his ensemble, Kremerata Baltica. Spiegel im Spiegel, composed in 1978, is one of Pärt’s simplest compositions, a violin unhurriedly playing a mostly stepwise melody over a steadily arpeggiating piano part. © Onyx Classics

[Bachtoven]

Vibrant playing and superb sound.

[bart]

Joining you with Haydn John:

Haydn - Divertimenti per il partiton a tre
Guido Balestracci
Alessandro Tampieri
Bruno Cocset
Qobuz 24/44.1




Very pure, intimate Haydn.
I didn't know these pieces until I heard them now.

Just finished listening to this album again.
Very glad we'll be seeing him live next month!

[bart]

Mozart - Horn Concertos 1 - 4
Camerata Salzburg
Felix Klieser
Qobuz 24/96




Very nice interpretations of these joyful pieces.
This is sooo enjoyable...

[bart]

Bach - Concertos for Organ and Strings
Les Muffatti, Bart Jacobs
Qobuz 24/88.2




Great sound and enthusiastic playing.

This music sounds so familiar to me, yet there is a twist:

Although we know of at least five concertos J.S. Bach wrote for solo organ we have no surviving Bach organ concertos with orchestral accompaniment. Contrast this with the 200+ cantatas: of these, 18 feature organ obbligato, which Bach uses as a solo instrument in arias, choral sections and sinfonias. The most obviously conspicuous date to 1726. In May to November of that year, Bach composed six cantatas which assign a prominent solo role to the organ. Most of these are reworkings of movements of lost violin and oboe concertos written in Bach’s time at Weimar and Köthen. Why Bach wrote such a number of obbligato organ cantatas in such a short period remains unknown. One possible explanation may lie in Dresden, where Bach had given a concert on the new Silbermann organ in the Sophienkirche in 1725. Some scholars think that, in addition to other organ works, he also performed organ concertos, or at least a few earlier versions of the sinfonias, with obbligato organ and strings in order to show off the organ. From the cantatas mentioned above, along with the related violin and harpsichord concertos, it is perfectly possible to reconstruct a number of three-movement organ concertos of this type. By using this method, we hope to bring some of the music which Bach may have performed in Dresden in 1725 back to life. © Ramée/Outhere


It is a terrific album.
I've seen Jacobs live, and heard interviews with him.
Seems like one of the more 'serious' and earnest Bach interpreters.

[Bachtoven]

Bach - Concertos for Organ and Strings
Les Muffatti, Bart Jacobs
Qobuz 24/88.2




Great sound and enthusiastic playing.

This music sounds so familiar to me, yet there is a twist:

Although we know of at least five concertos J.S. Bach wrote for solo organ we have no surviving Bach organ concertos with orchestral accompaniment. Contrast this with the 200+ cantatas: of these, 18 feature organ obbligato, which Bach uses as a solo instrument in arias, choral sections and sinfonias. The most obviously conspicuous date to 1726. In May to November of that year, Bach composed six cantatas which assign a prominent solo role to the organ. Most of these are reworkings of movements of lost violin and oboe concertos written in Bach’s time at Weimar and Köthen. Why Bach wrote such a number of obbligato organ cantatas in such a short period remains unknown. One possible explanation may lie in Dresden, where Bach had given a concert on the new Silbermann organ in the Sophienkirche in 1725. Some scholars think that, in addition to other organ works, he also performed organ concertos, or at least a few earlier versions of the sinfonias, with obbligato organ and strings in order to show off the organ. From the cantatas mentioned above, along with the related violin and harpsichord concertos, it is perfectly possible to reconstruct a number of three-movement organ concertos of this type. By using this method, we hope to bring some of the music which Bach may have performed in Dresden in 1725 back to life. © Ramée/Outhere


It is a terrific album.
I've seen Jacobs live, and heard interviews with him.
Seems like one of the more 'serious' and earnest Bach interpreters.

Thank you for sharing this--it's wonderful!

[Bachtoven]

Emphatically not for HIPster purists! Wonderful playing and sound.

[Bachtoven]

I enjoyed his Bach recital so much I thought I'd investigate some of his other recordings--I was not disappointed. This is wonderfully played and recorded.

[Bachtoven]

I'm not sure it will replace the orchestral version, but it's interesting.

[Bachtoven]

Ogdon's Concerto must be among the most difficult Piano Concertos. Whew!

[Bachtoven]

Played to perfection with great sound.

[Bachtoven]

Excellent playing and sound on this LP.

[Bachtoven]

The early digital audio didn't do his tone any favors, but his playing defies belief.

[Bachtoven]

The Hakola Guitar Concerto has a bewildering array of styles--quite a wild ride!

[Bachtoven]

Wow... (24/192 FLAC)

[Bachtoven]

Feeling rather lonely here, folks.

[Bachtoven]

An old favorite.

[bart]

Feeling rather lonely here, folks.

John, abroad for a seminar.
Keep playin'!!

[bart]

Anne Akiko Meyers - Mirror In Mirror
Qobuz 24/96




A recommendation from Kalman Rubinson.
And a good one!
I looked for a multi-channel version, but didn't find one.

The American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers has always had a distinctive programming sense to go with her lush tone (sample the title work, Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, for a splendid example of the latter). But she has perhaps never been more original than on this, her 33rd album. Meyers calls the album one of her most personal projects, and the description holds up even though the recordings were made at several different times. Much of the music was written for her, and she has worked with all the composers or arrangers at one time or another. The sequence of events is unique, with the trio of minimalist works that open the album, all arranged specially for Meyers, not presented as parts of an abstract world of their own -- Glass and Pärt usually get programmed by themselves -- but as participants in a long tradition. They react to Ravel's Tzigane, here offered in a computer realization of its rarely heard original version for luthéal, a sort of piano-cimbalom hybrid. (This is worth the album price by itself.) And they now have inspired successors, such as Polish composer Jakub Ciupinski, who contributes a pair of works for violin and electronics. It's not clear how these were realized in performance, but presumably a visit to an event on Meyers' touring schedule would reveal the secrets; anyhow, they're fascinating and evocative pieces. Meyers' Glass and Pärt also address, and are addressed by, parallel styles closer to Romanticism from John Corigliano and Morten Lauridsen, whose O magnum mysterium fares beautifully in a violin-and-orchestra arrangement. The album is at once intelligently thought out, sensuously beautiful, and deeply spiritual. Highly recommended.

[bart]

Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2
Jayson Gilham, piano
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey
via Qobuz




A recommendation from John.
It's good!

[Bachtoven]

^^ Glad you liked it. I prefer Matsuev for the Rachmaninoff and Sudbin for the Medtner, but that is a solid recording.

Excellent playing and sound.

[bart]

Schumann - Dichterliebe & Liederkreis Op. 24
Mark Padmore & Kristian Bezuidenhout




Revisiting this album.
This is what I wrote before:

Less 'perfect' than Fischer-Dieskau and Moore, but I can sense more passion in both musicians (or is it because I saw them live?).
Anyway, a very good CD this.

My CD is signed by both musicians and remembers me of a wonderful evening in the Chamber Music Room in the Concertgebouw Brugge, some 2 years ago, where they performed 'Die schöne Müllerin' from Schubert.
This Schumann disc is equally nice.

[bart]

John Potter & Ambrose Field - Being Dufay




This remains an interesting crossover album.
Medieval meets 21st century...

[bart]

Bach, J S
Cantata BWV170 'Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust'
Cantata BWV54 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde'
Cantata BWV35 'Geist und Seele wird verwirret'
Concerto D'Amsterdam, Klaas Stok
Maarten Engeltjes, counter tenor
Vincent van Laar, organ



I adore these solo cantatas for counter tenor.
This is good, especially the organ.
Is it better than my old standard, Collegium Vocale, with Andreas Scholl? No!
Is it enjoyable? Highly.

Revisiting this album.

[Bachtoven]

No.103. I think I'll stick with Karajan and BPO.

[Bachtoven]

[Bachtoven]

Superb!

[bart]

Barrière - Sonates pour le violoncelle avec la basse continue
Bruno Cocset
Les Basses Réunies




Just back from a concert with Bruno Cocset and Les Basses Réunies.
They played most pieces from their album 'Give Me your Hand'.
Cocset is a top musician.
The nuances he can put in his playing are fantastic.
This being said, I prefer this album to what we heard.
It has more soul than the celtic tunes.

[Bachtoven]

Surprisingly low-key performances, especially by Ricci, and decent but not great sound. All in all, not an essential purchase.

[Bachtoven]

My format is a DSD file. Fantastic playing and sound.

[bart]

Bach - Oboe Concertos
L'Arte del Mondo, Werner Ehrhardt
Céline Moinet, oboe
Qobuz 24/96




This is absolutely delicious... if you care for period instruments... actually even if you don't.
And the oboe is modern.
Sound is impeccable. Wow!

Céline Moinet is often asked why she decided to become an oboe player. She was adamant: she did not want to play a brass or stringed instrument or even a piano – it had to be woodwind. After having begun, as most children do, with the recorder, she turned at age 7 to the oboe, which had captivated her from the word go. On her new album she takes a look at Johann Sebastian Bach: "Here, the oboe becomes the narrator".
Together with the prizewinning instrumental ensemble "l’arte del mondo" under Werner Ehrhardt she combines a historically-informed orchestral sound with her modern Marigaux oboe. The musicians have recorded Bach's three oboe concertos: BWV 1059, 1053r and 1055 as well as the sinfonias to the cantatas Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in which the solo oboe is the focus. "Bach's cantatas were my first port of call. They are a rich, sophisticated source of literature for oboists; one might say they are the quintessence of his music", says Moinet. Following on from her last album centred on Schumann's Romances she enters a very different sound world this time round, though not one that is a stranger to her: she heard Alessandro Marcello's Oboe Concerto very early on, the second movement of which Bach ornamented. "I have strong childhood memories of the work". © Berlin Classics

[Bachtoven]

+1--a wonderful recording.

[B]Bach[B - Oboe Concertos
L'Arte del Mondo, Werner Ehrhardt
Céline Moinet, oboe
Qobuz 24/96




This is absolutely delicious... if you care for period instruments... actually even if you don't.
And the oboe is modern.
Sound is impeccable. Wow!

Céline Moinet is often asked why she decided to become an oboe player. She was adamant: she did not want to play a brass or stringed instrument or even a piano – it had to be woodwind. After having begun, as most children do, with the recorder, she turned at age 7 to the oboe, which had captivated her from the word go. On her new album she takes a look at Johann Sebastian Bach: "Here, the oboe becomes the narrator".
Together with the prizewinning instrumental ensemble "l’arte del mondo" under Werner Ehrhardt she combines a historically-informed orchestral sound with her modern Marigaux oboe. The musicians have recorded Bach's three oboe concertos: BWV 1059, 1053r and 1055 as well as the sinfonias to the cantatas Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in which the solo oboe is the focus. "Bach's cantatas were my first port of call. They are a rich, sophisticated source of literature for oboists; one might say they are the quintessence of his music", says Moinet. Following on from her last album centred on Schumann's Romances she enters a very different sound world this time round, though not one that is a stranger to her: she heard Alessandro Marcello's Oboe Concerto very early on, the second movement of which Bach ornamented. "I have strong childhood memories of the work". © Berlin Classics

[bart]

Dowland - 'Whose Heavenly Touch'
Mariana Flores
Hopkinson Smith
Qobuz 24/96




A great album for Dowland lovers.
The Argentinian singer does a great job, Smith is always good on his lute.

"In his darker works, one is abandoned at the depths of a dry well, far from any light, alone with ogres and demons, and just as Dowland goes to extremes in his textual allusions, in a like manner he will twist and turn the lutenist’s hands to wring the excruciating essence from the text. In another moment, he can elicit an almost ferocious capriciousness with as many colours as a rainbow where the lute, which was his instrument of torture a few minutes before, suddenly rises to unexpected heights of lightness and eloquent folly."
It is in such passionate terms as these that lutist Hopkinson Smith describes the music that John Dowland selected for his instrument. This new album dedicated to his famous songs could seem sacrilegious to some aficionados. But the simple music-lover will find in it a source of unparalleled delight. Hopkinson Smith and Mariana Florès have changed the original text by transposing and altering some pages. Anticipating the indignation that such liberties might inspire, the performers point out, correctly, that in those days musical pragmatism was the spice of creativity. Dowland himself left behind several variants of his most famous works.
Argentine soprano Mariana Florès threw herself into this project, both a labour of love and a departure for a performer who tends to sing in Romance languages. With the help of a coach, she has found the perfect English pronunciation, chiselling every syllable with care, working with her lutist friend to find the best colour for Dowland's language and music. It's this mixture of a firm vision and artistic freedom that gives this record such a uniquely enchanting tone. © François Hudry/Qobuz

[still-one]

Northern Lights Choral Works by Ola Gjeilo

[Bachtoven]

The colorful orchestrations are reduced to black and white (quite literally!), but these pieces are enjoyable in their own right in these renditions. Superb playing and very good sound.

[Abendroth]

Here is a newsly published ultra luxurious 2 LP album, full analog record: the French pianist Marcelle MEYER plays a Debussy piano recital = Preludes book I and II, Images I... ( Discophiles Français DF 211 - 212 )
This is a world premiere vinyl edition; the sell of the only 20 copies has started around 4 months ago. This is without any doubt the most beautiful piano LP produced for decades !!
Beauty of sound, beauty of manufacturing : deluxe inside paper text, canvas album, gold lettering hand made... Interested ?! It's edited and available at French Record Company .

[bart]

Mozart - Quartets K. 387 & 421 - Divertimento K. 138
Quatuor Van Kuijk
Qobuz 24/96




This is a recommendation in "Stereo" (German magazine).
It is an absolute sonic delight, besides being a top performance of some absolute masterpieces.
I think I never felt the musicians of a string quartet so present in our living room.

After a first album devoted to Mozart quartets (awarded a ‘Choc de Classica’ and a ‘Diapason Découverte’), a second to French music (Debussy, Ravel and Chausson) and a third to two quartets by Schubert, Nos. 10 and 14 (the mythical "Death and the Maiden"), the group founded by Nicolas Van Kuijk returns to its first love by recording more Mozart.
This recording is the second part of an eventual triptych that will contain the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn: No. 14 in G major, K.387, the first of them, was composed in 1782, when Mozart had just arrived on the Viennese musical scene; No. 15 in D minor K421, the second, is the only one in the minor mode and was completed in 1783 while his wife Constanze was in labour – she related that the rising intervals of the second movement recalled her cries from the room next door as he composed. © Alpha Classics/Outhere

[bart]

Luigi Boccherini - Stabat Mater - 2 arias - Sonata Op. 5.1
Capriola Di Giola
Amaryllis Dieltiens, soprano



Beautiful music!
Well sung, well played, well recorded (in Bruges).


We saw this ensemble this afternoon, in a church in Ostend.
What a good performance (Händel and Porpora)!

[bart]

Gooseflesh!!
Wow.
I do love the Huelgas Ensemble. Have their 15 CD-box.
So I wanted to discover them in surround sound.
This disc brings 9 wonderful pieces together. 1 piece even from a contemporary composer.
But it is the hypnotizing track 3, Qui Habitat, from Josquin Desprez, that leaves me breathless and in tears. Waves of heavenly voices from all sides are enchanting me. This is pure delight!

Listening again to one of my favourite discs.
The complexity, the perfectly interwoven melodies, it is all breathtakingly beautiful.
It intertwines in a harmonious, mesmerising, even hypnotising way.
I don't know much about drugs, but with this kind of musical experience, I'll never need them to be high!

[bart]

La Poesia Cromatica - music of Michelangelo Rossi
Huelgas Ensemble, dir. Paul Van Nevel



Very nice SACD.

We listen a lot to polyphony at home, and we keep coming back to this ensemble.
We're going to see them live in a couple of months too.
They do Flemish polyphonists, but their repertoire is vast, like this Italian composer here.

Michelangelo Rossi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This album contains 13 madrigals never before recorded.

Paul Van Nevel is a genius in discovering new old music and seeing the potential of it.
Wonderful 5.0 recording.
And a nice cover.

We stay with the same ensemble.
More intimate than the album above, but also a gem.

We see this ensemble live almost every year.

[Sean]

Double

[Sean]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bachtoven]

[Bachtoven]

[bart]

David Achtenberg - Bleu Ébène - Complete String Quartets
Quatuor Tana
Qobuz 24/88.2




I quite liked this.
My wife said that the first of the three works made her think too much of her tinnitus.
Modern, daring, but the 2 last works are rather accessible.

[bart]

Cecilia Bartoli - Farinelli
Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Qobuz 24/96




La Bartoli does it again!
What a performance...

There are no current voices that can equal the castrates of Farinelli's era.
For the Belgian motion picture 'Farinelli' that got an Academy Award in the 90s, they had to combine a counter tenor and a female voice.

I have to say that Cecilia Bartoli comes very close here. Wow!

[bart]

To commemorate one of the greatest conductors of the last decades who passed away today:

Mahler - Symphony No. 5
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons




Wonderful symphony of course, but the always excellent Concertgebouw Orchestra is conducted in a brilliant way here.
The recording is fantastic.

You can read here about an evening we spent with the recording engineer Everett Porter:

https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=43436

[bart]

Beethoven - The Symphonies
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons




Blu-ray 3: Symphonies 7-9.

Continuing my tribute to this great conductor.

[SCAudiophile]

Just read a great article on Shostakovich #7;


https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34292312