What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by AudioNut

What the heck is POLYPHONY? My music education stopped at baroque.

Hi Julian indeed!
Good to see you here again my friend!


Here you go:

polyphony | pəˈlifənē |
noun (plural polyphonies) Music
the style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other.
• a composition written, played, or sung in polyphony.
• (on an electronic keyboard or synthesizer) the number of notes or voices that can be played simultaneously without loss.
DERIVATIVES
polyphonist | -fənist | noun
polyphonous | -fənəs | adjective
ORIGIN
early 19th century: from Greek poluphōnia, from polu- ‘many’ + phōnē ‘sound’.

[bart]

Originally Posted by AudioNut

Listening to . . . . . G. F. Handel - Organ Concertos Op. 4

Ton Koopman
The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra





Here, Koopman directs the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra himself, playing an 1831 instrument by Heuricus Dominicus Lindsen

I have long preferred the recording of these concertos by Daniel Chorzempa on the organ, with the Concerto Amsterdam, Jaap Schroder, Conducting . . . but upon hearing the Ton Koopman, I have a new favorite. A wonderful recording.

And, being a true baroque aficionado, I do love the Handel Organ Concertos.

We saw him live a couple of years ago.
Solo on the organ.
He's a musician and conductor of utmost meticulousness.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Tchaikovsky - String Quartet No. 1 - Souvenir de Florence
Novus Quartet
Lise Berthaud
Ophélie Gaillard
Qobuz 24/88.2




Energetic yet delicate, I do like their style of playing!

After an audacious first-record dedicated to Webern, Beethoven and Yun, the young musicians of the Novus Quartet interpret with passion two essential works of Tchaikovsky’s chamber music: the First Quartet and the Sextuor « Souvenir de Florence » – for this work, the musicians are joined by two guests, cellist Ophélie Gaillard and violist Lise Berthaud. These two works, which are like milestones in the career of the Russian composer (the first is written in 1871, the second in 1887), show Tchaikovsky’s inclination for popular melodies. Clarity and technique serving musical expression, the fiery strings of the Novus Quartet spread a warm sound that impresses by its homogeneity, intensely invites to melancholy in slow movements, and fully transcribed the exaltation of Tchaikovsky’s poetic universe. © Aparté

Wonderful album.

[bart]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

Haydn: Concerti per Esterházy
Gli Incogniti, Amandine Beyer, Marco Ceccato
Harmonia Mundi (2018), 24/88

This is an outstanding recording.

Playing this again into my waiting room.
Wonderful.

[Portioli]

Bernstein M5 VPO 1987 Proms



https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08kvnrv

The best Mahler's 5th i have ever heard.

[bart]

Frédéric Chopin - Mazurkas, valses & autres danses
Arthur Schoonderwoerd, piano Ignace Pleyel 1836




Well played, on a historical instrument.

[jimtranr]

Analog-sourced 2-disc 24/96 DAD rip. Spacious and dynamic.

[audioguy3107]

[ehoove]

Igor Stravinsky
Le Sacre Du Printemps - Petrouchka - L'oiseau De Feu - The Firebird - Der Feuervogel
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado Conducting
Fabulous 2 LP set!
Deutsche Grammophon 413 209-1 GIX2
Regards,
Jim

[bart]

Originally Posted by 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

This was playing into the practice today...