What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Toccata]

A high-voltage performance with sound to match. I hope this is the beginning of a new cycle.

[ehoove]

Night on Bald Mountain
Pictures at an Exhibition
Moussorgsky
The Cleveland Orchestra
Lorin Maazel Conducting
A wonderful piece of Vinyl!
Telarc Records (soundstream Digital) 10042
Regards,
Jim

[bart]

Every evening this week, we've been watching and listening to the Queen Elisabeth Competition - Edition 2019 Violin.



http://cmireb.be/cgi?lg=en&pag=1677


It is the longest competition for musicians in the world; it lasts almost a month.

After the first round and semifinals it is time for the finals this week.
Every evening 2 competitors.
Each plays the compulsory, new, composition** first, and then the Concerto of his/her choice.
**Hakola Kimmo - Fidl, Op. 99.

I have to say, the level is very high this year.
The "weakest" are still excellent.

This competition has seen brilliant winners in the past.
Think of David Oistrakh, Vadim Repin and Ray Chen for example.

[ehoove]

Sonic Fireworks Vol I
Music for Organ, Brass and Percussion
Amazing Recording with the Atlanta Brass Ensemble, and the 59 rank Ruffatti Pipe Organ played by Richard Morris.
Crystal Clear Records CCS-7010 (Direct to Disc)
Regards,
Jim

[Puma Cat]

Christoper Parkening, A Tribute to Segovia

[bart]

Wim Henderickx - Tejas & Other Orchestral Works
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins




Interesting, contemporary compositions.

[bart]

Pierre Guédron - Le Consert des Consorts
Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre




While jogging this morning, I heard pieces from this album on the radio (through my iPod nano).
A really fine album, and we're looking very much forward to the 2 concerts we've booked next season with this fantastic ensemble.

[bart]

Revisiting some older gems in my collection...

[bart]

Vivaldi - Concerti per violino VI 'La Boemia'
Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi
Qobuz 24/88.2




An overdose of Vivaldi's violin concertos is unbearable for me.
But one album, and especially when it is well played and recorded, like this one, is perfect!

Fabio Biondi had his work cut out for him with the complete recordings of Vivaldi's violin concertos, as the Venetian left behind more than 250 works for one, two, three or four violins. Volume VI here offers a group of six concertos written in Prague and Bohemia in the course of his stay there between 1730 and 1731.
Today, musicology has become much more of a science, and it is possible to put a date on these manuscripts by means of a precise analysis of the paper used by the composer if the music doesn't speak for itself. The Antonio Vivaldi of these pieces retains the style for which he is known and loved across Europe. Fabio Biondi notes that as there are only a few hints of Bohemian music in these concertos, which are more resemblant of Vivaldi's younger work. We might conclude that while abroad, the composer was writing pieces which, while new, were destined for use by his beloved students in the Pietà.
Venetian chroniclers from the time often wrote of Vivaldi's virtuoso violin playing, admiring the inventiveness that he brought to the cadenzas of his concertos (the section at the end of a movement which is left open for creative improvisation) and the fantasy that he worked into his improvisations. While we have no proof that Vivaldi was the soloist for his own works during his Bohemian trip, Fabio Biondi, a true connoisseur of Vivaldi's style, clearly aims to apply this spirit to his recordings, and nowhere more so than here. © François Hudry/Qobuz

[Toccata]

The playing and sound more than make up for the lackluster cover.