Indeed. Only catching up with the others. Finished the violin and now into the piano. Walden Pond is sublime and evocative. Some lovely surprises in there.
Indeed. Only catching up with the others. Finished the violin and now into the piano. Walden Pond is sublime and evocative. Some lovely surprises in there.
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One of the most beautiful pieces of music I know, Pfitzner's prelude to act 1 of his opera Palestrina. The first track on this album.
A totally superb performance conducted by Sawallisch - I never realised he was this good!
https://open.spotify.com/album/7CUW6...SBuUsMBuBTlNVw
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Hans Zender. A superb Mahler 9. Quite possibly the best I have heard. Not for everyone, as the finale is played 'straight' rather than drenched in emotion.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7mWrf...RLO4TMtiKJ7IWw
Last edited by jandl100; 24-01-2018 at 19:01.
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Picked up in a charity shop for £1 and in excellent condition. Very pleasant, and interesting to hear the Auvergne dialect.
Now where's that bottle of Matheus rosé?
Barry
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Mm, this Liverpool band get better and better....
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^ I recall back in the days of the Wam classical bLog registering amazement at the world-class playing of the Liverpool Phil - I think that was regarding the Brahms symphony set under Marek Janowski.
Listening now to that Rite of Spring.
Petrenko is not quite a match for Janowski, imo, being a bit hit and miss. But he seems on good form here; very impressive and certainly great playing (and recording).
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Yes I agree he doesn't always hit the mark, but this Rite has a freshness that I'm finding quite captivating. Talking of Onyx recordings, here's another that captured my attention...
Oryx did you say? Bit of a boutique label even back in the day but I've always been a fan .. top quality pressings and a decent recording technique, usually good at capturing the acoustic, though some of the Baroque instrumental stuff hasn't worn that well (mic'd a bit close especially flutes - common at the time) and you can hear a bit of wow sometimes from the tape.
Inspired me to pull out and spin a few old favourites. In each case the instrument is as much a star as the performer.
First a very young (he's still going!) Lionel Rogg, recording some Bach organ music at his home in Geneva in 1967, on a pedal harpsichord. These were used for practice in the baroque period, when it could be difficult to corral a gang of people to push the bellows while your hammered away. Bach owned two, according to his will though there is some discussion as to exactly what they were - pedal harpsichords, or pedal clavichords. The latter are known also to have existed and both have been recreated (to varying degrees of authenticity) in modern times. (I've read it argued that some of the 'simple' organ music - the stuff all we would-be organists learned on - that we know was written for Bach's eldest son, WF - is idiomatic to the pedal harpsichord rather than organ, and pulling it out the other week and looking at it, that could be correct).
The Wittmayer instrument Rogg plays here is very 'revival' - a hefty modern 'concert' instrument most likely from the 1950s, but reminiscent of the sort of monster Wanda Landowska would have been playing in the 1930s - and likely bears little resemblance to anything Bach would have owned in the 18th century, Nevertheless he plays some really spirited (and colourful - it has all sorts of stop combinations) Buxtehude on it .. it's a really engrossing and engaging record.
Rogg also made another harpsichord record for Oryx, which is a bit of a contrast, this is on an original 1730 Ruckers harpsichord from the Netherlands (interestingly, Trevor Pinnock's most recent recording also uses a surviving Ruckers). The tone is rather different - more subtle, and there's no pedalboard - also there's no pyrotechnics in terms of stop swapping. It therefore requires what we see much more in modern harpsichord playing which is a greater use of timing, phrasing and ornamentation to bring light and shade to the performance. And Rogg - an organist really rather than a harpsichordist - does lift his game and is again very fun and musical though in a modern context he would lose a few marks for dodgy ornamentation! Nice combination of tracks - from Buxtehude, Muffat (a Buxtehude contemporary), George Boehm (organist at Luneburg when Bach was a pupil at the choir school) and older piece by the Dutch master Sweenlinck and German contemporary Froberger.
A third Oryx harpsichord + organ record features James Danby playing pedal harpsichord on one side (a Feldberg - like the Wittmayer, a giant modern concert-type harpsichord, but made in Sevenoaks, Kent in the early 60s (As it happens, my little Spinet is also a Feldberg but it seems to be rather more authentic in its pattern) and organ on the other. Danby's instrument I think sounds less authentic than Rogg's and he's less adventurous with the stops, but the Trio Sonata IV from the Klavierubung (again written for WF, but by which time he was a master performer - this is seriously difficult music to play) sounds wondrous on the pedal harpsichord, and again I wonder whether it wasn't conceived, written, polished and played on that instrument initially.
I don't think any of these are available for streaming unfortunately but the some files do seem to be available on MP3 from the entire Oryx library http://www.baroquemusic.org/bmlcatalogue.html