What's playing today ?

Thanks for the reccy on the Kings Singers Golden Age, tones. I bought a copy on eBay and received it yesterday. Very beautiful indeed! Yup, strongly recommended.

 

Now here's an interesting thing! On Saturdays, DRS2 (the Swiss radio station that does classical) has a programme called Diskothek im Zwei, where a piece of music is taken and various versions (usually five of them) are analysed by invited experts (the same excerpts are played one after the other), with a final recommendation. I often hear this on the car radio as I drive around. And the Saturday before last, it was this very piece:

http://www.drs2.ch/www/de/drs2/sendungen/diskothek-im-zwei/2633.sh10044637.html

You see that the panel recommended the new recording by Marc-André Hamelin, so I've ordered that. As you say, fascinatingly different and ear-catching. The panel put your Stephen Drury version in second place.

It's also a blind test - the reviewers don't know who's playing, until they decide to eliminate several at the end of the first round, and the finalists only when a winner is declared.

 

Yup, I'm sure that the excerpt I heard on the radio that started my interest was Hamelin. Very impressive and on my Want List - at one point Hamelin whistles along with the music, well it's part of the music, of course! - in line with Rzewski's instructions (sadly, Drury doesn't do this - most don't) and it was amazingly, heart-breakingly moving!

 

Just downloaded a torrent of the SF Opera world premier broadcast of Philip Glass' opera Appomattox in flac format.

Wonderful stuff (if you like Glass, I suppose). The ending of the American Civil War at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, using original letters between Grant and Lee as source for some of the libretto.

Andrew Shore is always good - here singing Ulysses S. Grant - and the sound is very good, an fm broadcast.

 

Coo - a new Glass opera. I just love Akhnaten. I can't wait for this to come out on DVD!

Have just been listening to symphonies 1 & 2 by Herman Koppel - a fascinating and enjoyable post-Brahms/Sibelius with more than a hint of, curiously, Vaughan Williams orchestral extravaganza. Not so sure about his 3rd and 4th symphonies .... he seems to be trying to find a more individual voice of his own by crossing Sibelius and Hindemith (among others) ... not sure it works. But if you like big-boned, well orchestrated romantic symphonies with more than a hint of Sibelius - try 1 & 2!

 

Having heard lots of plinky plonk music at the Heathrow show, I retaliated by listening to Bach's violin partitas adapted for lute and played by Nigel North on Linn: now that's real plinky plonk!

http://www.linnrecords.com/collection-bach-on-the-lute-box-set.aspx

 

Bach Organ Music - Prelude & Fugue in D Major, Fantasia and Fugue in C Minor, Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, Tocatta in E Major

My Lord, this kicks arse on my tannoys!

 

Bach organ on big Tannoys? - yup, I bet that works a treat.
____

Today:

Gordon Jacob - 1st symphony. Excellent! Stirring stuff.

York Bowen - violin concerto. Also excellent - immediately impressive from the first bar!

 

Heard some of these on my way into Basel on Saturday and bought this (I should never listen to Swiss radio). Quite different from Bach keyboard works - less intense and (it seems to this particular ignoramus) contrapuntally rigorous, but freer in form and thoroughly enjoyable listening. The lady plays well and is nicely recorded. However, to my ears, her recording of the "Harmonious Blacksmith" variations isn't as good as Murray Perahia's, which is one of my favourite bits of piano playing. To my ears, it's worth the price of the CD alone:

 

Sergej Vasil’evič Rakhmaninov: Symphonie n° 2 en mi mineur, op. 27
Iván Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra
Channel Classics

 

Just played Frank Martin's "Golgotha" for the first time. Avoided him for years on the strength of a piece I didn't like ages ago. Well worth a listen. Anybody heard the Ozi Bassoon sonatas besides me-they're wonderful (on Accent-Danny Bond being the blowhard)

 

i'm listening to Don Moen's songs...

 

With her magical voice, i love it. Through the rain, pop song performed by singer Mariah Carey. I love its music video. It is not just a music but a story between a mother or guardian and the a child in dilemma. this a comeback music for Mariah.

 

Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge, before going to bed.

:SLEEP:



Played by André Isoir, on the neo-baroque Grenzing organ (1982) of Saint-Cyprien-en-Périgard.
Haven't really made up my mind about who is my favourite KdF on organ, but at least I think that this instrument is very well suited for this great composition.

For what it's worth: I was very much impressed by Helmut Walcha (DG) and Hans Fagius (BIS). But actually this part of the discussion belongs to the Bach organ thread ....

.... maybe some of us will meet again there?

Good night!

 

Had a bit of Brahms on. One of my recent charity shop liberations! Most involving

 

Tchaikovsky- Francesca da Rimini/Bizet- Sym No.1 in C (Chesky). Love this for da Rimini. The build up for the climax will fill you with anticipation.

 

Straightforward, but very nice, well recorded renditions of the two "warhorse" trumpet concerti.

 

Fine stuff for a rainy Wednesday afternoon whilst you're waiting for the plaster to dry before slapping on some emulsion.

 

Richard Egarr's WTC I. From a long absence of listening to tonal music since I have been delving into Renaissance music and nothing else.

 

Dear Rodrigo,

And what do you think of it? Dare I say, that I find the tuning interesting, the general sound of the instrument beautiful, but the interpretation rather introvert, bordering the inarticulate. Bach is more than sheer beauty.

Regards,