What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Antonmb]

Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 And 2 / Rondo, Wo0 6
Boris Giltburg, piano
Vasily Petrenko, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Naxos ‎(2019), via Qobuz

An excellent recording. Giltburg is outstanding, and the sound is very good. One minor niggle, the imaging of the piano wanders a bit at times.

[bart]

Weber - Kurpinski - Crusell - Works for Clarinet & Orchestra
ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra, Gregor Bühl
Sharon Kam, clarinet
Qobuz 24/96




Very fresh sounding album.
The Weber (his second) concerto is of course well known.
The Kurpinski and Crusell (first) concertos are nice discoveries.

[bart]

Ernst von Dohnányi - Der Schleier der Pierrette
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ariane Matiakh
Qobuz 24/96




Album of the week on Presto Classical last week.
Interesting, but a second listen is doubtful.

Who would assume today that after its premiere in 1910 Ernst von Dohnányi’s dance pantomime spread like a wildfire over the stages of the world. The Wedding Waltz from Der Schleier der Pierrette could regularly be heard on musical request programmes on the radio, enjoying similar popularity to the waltz sequence from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. Dohnanyi’s choice of the genre of pantomime was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the age that, following the large-scale, plot-laden ballets of late Romanticism, sought to find in pantomime a more intimate and more naturalistic form of expression. It may come as a surprise that the source for Dohnányi derived from none other than Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931), one of the salient representatives of fin-de-siècle Austria. With this first complete recording again an important gap is closed in the knowledge of repertoire of this fascinating epochal time of musical history. © Capriccio

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

This morning
Á 2 Violin Verstimbt: Music for 2 Scordatura Violins & Basso Continuo
Der Musikalische Garten
Ars Produktion 2014

A collection of works by Telemann, Kindermann, Vojta, Schmelzer, and good old Anonymous played beautifully on instruments with scordatura tunings. Wonderful music, playing and recording with gorgeous harmonics and tone.

Nice listening on a chilly spring morning.

[bart]

Oxalys - A Conversation Between Friends




CD 3: Fin de Siècle (= End of Century).


Wonderful chamber music from Debussy, Jongen, Pierné and Caplet.
Composers from France and Belgium.
I adore this box set!

[bart]

Oxalys & Els Van Laethem - Tusschen de Twee - De muzikale poëzie van Guido Gezelle
('In between the two - musical poetry of Guido Gezelle')
via Qobuz




Guido Gezelle was a priest and a poet of my region.
His texts were witty and he invented wonderful new words that had a beautiful sound of their own.
Coompositions by Koen De Cauter and Dick van der Harst.

[bart]

Monsier de Sainte-Colombe et ses filles
Philippe Pierlot - Lucile Boulanger - Myriam Rignol - Rolf Lislevand
Qobuz 24/96




Pieces I know very well.
But they are played in a really marvellous way here.
These players have equalled Jordi Savall on the instrument.
This album goes right into my favourites.
Brilliant, and heartily recommended if you like Sainte-Colombe!

[bart]

Marin Marais - Badinages
Mélisande Corriveau, viole de gambe (viola da gamba)
Eric Milnes, clavecin (harpsichord)
via Qobuz




These are also pieces I've heard dozens of times.
Very good, but not as essential as the previous album.
Good sound.

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by bart

Monsier de Sainte-Colombe et ses filles

Philippe Pierlot - Lucile Boulanger - Myriam Rignol - Rolf Lislevand

Qobuz 24/96









Pieces I know very well.

But they are played in a really marvellous way here.

These players have equal Jordi Savall on the instrument.

This album goes right into my favourites.

Brilliant, and heartily recommended if you like Sainte-Colombe!

Playing it now - wonderful. Thanks Bart.

[bart]

Händel - Works for Viola da Gamba & Harpsichord
Ibrahim Aziz
Masumi Yamamoto
Qobuz 24/96




More viola da gamba in this week's new releases!
Lesser known pieces to me.

Handel wrote a number of obbligato gamba parts with orchestral accompaniment, notably in the cantata Tra le fiamme, the oratorio La Resurrezione and the opera Giulio Cesare, but it is less obvious how he treated the instrument elsewhere as a solo instrument. One clue lies in an autograph manuscript of a violin sonata, where at the foot of the first page the composer writes a few bars of the opening an octave lower in the alto clef, and labels it ‘per la viola da gamba’. It is the feeling of the recording's main soloist that transcriptions like this were fairly common, and may be a reason why there isn’t more surviving solo music for the gamba from the early Georgian period in England including by Handel – the solo gamba very likely played existing music written for other instruments. Aziz uses here this hypothesis as a basis for this programme. As well the original sonata for gamba and continuo that Handel had left us, he includes several transcriptions which he hasmade of his other works, as well as pieces which are attributed to him such as the sonata in C major with obbligato harpsichord and one sonata from a recently unearthed collection called the Kassel Sonatas. © First Hand Records