What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Offenbach - Colorature
Jodie Devos, soprano
Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Laurent Campellone
Qobuz 24/96




Belgian soprano Devos scored well in the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Voice a couple of years ago.
I didn't expect much of this album, but was curious.
In fact, these are quite enjoyable pieces and Jodie Devos shines.

The elegant Jodie Devos puts her talents to work in service of a fairly unknown known side of Offenbach, taking on several somewhat-forgotten pieces which call for very specific voices, known in Offenbach’s day by names such as "chanteuse d’agilité", "chanteuse à roulade" or "première chanteuse légère". Of course, everyone knows the tune of the doll Olympia from Tales of Hoffmann, or the telling of the death of Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld, but the substantial repertoire of the composer's smaller pieces (which he generally referred to as "operettas" to distinguish them from his larger works, his famous opéras bouffe) contains a number of virtuoso arias for coloratura soprano. In them, we hear the vocal imitation of the jeu perlé piano technique or of Paganini's "flying staccato", in which unstinting bravura hides the real difficulty behind something apparently easy. But the difference from many bel canto composers, who merely show off vocals and melody, is that Offenbach knows how to charge these things with emotion, with textual significance, with personality, and with contrasts: simple mechanics never take precedence over diversity. This record allows us to discover a neat little collection of sadly little-known works which are well overdue a return to the French stage. © SM/Qobuz

Listening again, after the splendid review it got in 'Stereo' (very decent German magazine) this month.
The music is not entirely to my taste, but Jodie Devos is truly fantastic, and the recording is excellent.

[bart]

Domenico Scarlatti - Mandolin Sonatas
Pizzicar Galante
Qobuz 24/96




Interesting and relaxing album.
Ideal for late night listening.

Scarlatti and the mandolin: this recording provides a fascinating and unusual encounter between one of the most important composers of the baroque period and an instrument that originated in Naples and enjoyed great popularity throughout Europe, especially in Paris and in other European capitals during the 18th century. The Pizzicar Galante ensemble, founded in Paris in 2012 by mandolinist Anna Schivazappa and harpsichordist Fabio Antonio Falcone, reveals hidden aspects of these musical gems from the Italian Baroque. Drawing inspiration from a mysterious 18th-century French manuscript containing the first movement of Scarlatti’s Sonata K 89, preceded by the indication ‘Sonatina per mandolino e cimbalo’, the musicians deliver a fresh and original interpretation of these works. The music is full of contrasts, rich in virtuoso passages, surprises and effects but also full of sweetness and humour, combined with a certain meditative melancholy. Specialized in the Italian repertoire for mandolin and basso continuo, Pizzicar Galante gives voice to different instrumental timbres. Among these, the charming, crystal-clear sound of an original 18th-century Neapolitan mandolin: an absolute rarity that makes this recording truly unique. © Arcana

[ehoove]

Sonic Fireworks Volume II
Music for Organ, Brass & Percussion
Atlanta Brass Ensemble and Richard Morris Organist
Crystal Clear Records CCS-7011 (Direct to Disc)
Regards,
Jim

[eljr]

Cello Octet Amsterdam / Maki Namekawa
Philip Glass: Motion Picture

Release Date August 17, 2018
Duration54:14
Genre
Avant-Garde
Classical
Styles
Film Score
Minimalism
Recording DateOctober, 2017
Recording Location
Oosterkerk, Zeist, The Netherlands

[bart]

Originally Posted by eljr

Cello Octet Amsterdam / Maki Namekawa
Philip Glass: Motion Picture

Release Date August 17, 2018
Duration54:14
Genre
Avant-Garde
Classical
Styles
Film Score
Minimalism
Recording DateOctober, 2017
Recording Location
Oosterkerk, Zeist, The Netherlands

Good to see you back here Ed!

[bart]

Giovanni Benedetto Platti - Sonate à tre
Radio Antiqua
Qobuz 24/96




Lovely music from a composer I had never heard of before.
Good sound too.

Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born in northern Italy and spent some of his youth in Venice, where his father was a violetta player at St Mark’s, before he received his court appointment as an oboist and violinist at the court chapel of Würzburg in 1722. Two years later, the music-loving and cello-playing count of Schönborn, Rudolf Franz Erwein, had managed to secure him as a musician for his own household at his small residence in the county of Wiesentheid. Platti composed - in addition to his ordinary ouptut for worldly and spiritual occasions - for the cello, the Count’s favourite instrument: a dozen sonatas, 28 concerti, 6 duets and over 21 trio sonatas in which the two melodic instruments are not playing at the same height. The music collection of the counts of Schönborn-Wiesentheid very probably consists of Erwein’s personal music library and is today an important historical music archive. Radio Antiqua present in partly world premiere six trio sonatas from that collection, which the count could presumably have played with Platti. © Ramée

[bart]

Philip Glass - The Hours - Metamorphosis - Mad Rush
Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Qobuz 24/96

[Antonmb]

Longing for Paradise -
Elgar: Soliloquy
R. Strauss: Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D major AV. 144
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Goossens: Concerto in One Movement op. 45
Albrecht Mayer, clarinet
Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša conducting
DG (2019), via Qobuz

Lovely music and very nice performances and recording.

[bart]

Farid Sheek - The Journey of the Return
via Qobuz




Short but nice.

[bart]

More Glass...

Philip Glass - American Piano Music - Two pianos & Piano four hands
Make Nawekama
Dennis Russell Davies
via Qobuz




Very good interpretations of these wonderful works.
Listening to Glass gives another kind of aural pleasure than for example listening to Mozart or Bach.
It's more like getting into a form of trance, if that makes sense...