What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Annelien Van Wauwe - Belle époque
Orchestre National de Lille, Alexandre Bloch
Qobuz 24/96




Wonderful release with the Belgian Annelien Van Wauwe.
We've seen her live, she's top!

Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe revives the golden glow of a bygone age on her Pentatone debut album "Belle époque", together with the Orchestre National de Lille and its music director Alexandre Bloch. The programme is built around treasures of French turn-of-the-century music such as Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, Pierné’s Canzonetta and Widor’s Introduction et Rondo (the latter two in arrangements by Jelle Tassyns). "Belle époque" also offers works that display a spiritual kinship to the age, such as Brahms’s First Clarinet Sonata, arranged by Luciano Berio, and a world-premiere recording of Paris-based contemporary composer Manfred Trojahn (Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre).
Annelien van Wauwe is a former BBC New Generation Artist and winner of the renowned Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2018. © Pentatone

We're listening to the SACD now.
As 'friends of the Concertgebouw Brugge' where Van Wauwe is artist in residence this season, we got it as a treat yesterday.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Haydn - String Quartets Op. 20 no. 3 - Op. 74 no. 1 - Op. 76 no. 1
The Amsterdam String Quartet



Some rather early work, and some of his later string quartets.
Well played and excellently recorded.
Channel Records quality!

This was playing in my practice.
Even on a very modest system, you can hear the sound is so much better than on the set I played earlier this week.
Wonderful pieces from the father of the string quartet.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Haydn - String Quartets vol. 2
The Amsterdam String Quartet on historical instruments.



Haydn string quartets are almost all very enjoyable.
This recording gives you a fine performance and good 5.0 sound on top.

Only stereo into the waiting room.
But you can hear these musicians deliver a most enjoyable performance.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Cooling down from the World Cup heat with this excellent acquisition, as it seems so far:



I've been wanting Beethoven's Symphonies in surround for a while now, and this set got splendid reviews everywhere.
Listening to Blu-ray 1: Symphonies 1 - 3.

Very good image and sound for sure, but also the performance gives a impression of 'freshness'.
Conductor as well as musicians are very enthusiastic which adds greatly to the experience.

I have, like most of you, a lot of complete box sets of good Beethoven Symphonies performances.
And also good single symphony albums.

Sometimes, I'm in the mood to also see the orchestra.
And then I usually go to this set.
Image and sound are impeccable (Japanese quality).
And the German musicians really give the best of themselves, conducted by the excellent Mariss Jansons.

Listening and watching the fist Blu-ray (Symphonies 1-3).

[bart]

The Secret Fauré - Orchestral Songs & Suites
Balthasa-Neumann-Chor
Sinfonieorchester Basel, Ivor Bolton
Olga Peretyatko - Benjamin Bruns
Qobuz 24/96




Some lesser known real gems of Fauré.
The music is gorgeous, the sound is good, the booklet is beautiful.
This is a top release!

[bart]

Mozart - Quartets K. 387 & 421 - Divertimento K. 138
Quatuor Van Kuijk
Qobuz 24/96




This is a recommendation in "Stereo" (German magazine).
It is an absolute sonic delight, besides being a top performance of some absolute masterpieces.
I think I never felt the musicians of a string quartet so present in our living room.

After a first album devoted to Mozart quartets (awarded a ‘Choc de Classica’ and a ‘Diapason Découverte’), a second to French music (Debussy, Ravel and Chausson) and a third to two quartets by Schubert, Nos. 10 and 14 (the mythical "Death and the Maiden"), the group founded by Nicolas Van Kuijk returns to its first love by recording more Mozart.
This recording is the second part of an eventual triptych that will contain the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn: No. 14 in G major, K.387, the first of them, was composed in 1782, when Mozart had just arrived on the Viennese musical scene; No. 15 in D minor K421, the second, is the only one in the minor mode and was completed in 1783 while his wife Constanze was in labour – she related that the rising intervals of the second movement recalled her cries from the room next door as he composed. © Alpha Classics/Outhere

[Antonmb]

Telemann: Twelve Fantasias
Patricia McCarty, viola
Ashmont (2006), 16/44 files

Telemann’s violin fantasias transcribed for viola - McCarty’s playing is precise, rhythmic and tuneful, if lacking flourish. A very nice recording.

[ehoove]

Water Musick
George Frederick Handel
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
August Wenzinger Conductor
Very nice presentation and wonderful play and fidelity!
Archive Production ARC 73265
Regards,
Jim

[Formerly YB-2]

An oldie but a goodie. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony. Have not yet figured out how to post pic's from my Chromebook.

[bart]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

An oldie but a goodie. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony. Have not yet figured out how to post pic's from my Chromebook.

Glenn, there you go (unless it was vinyl):