My new purchase : a Japanese single-layer SHM-SACD reissue!
What are you currently listening to (Classical)?
- Thread starter Bachtoven
- Start date
Excellent sacd
@CKKeung Imagine my surprise at finding this import available for immediate delivery stateside. Thanks.
Fireworks and then Vivaldi after getting home tonight. Multiple bombastic soloists and pairings!
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Fireworks and then Vivaldi after getting home tonight. Multiple bombastic soloists and pairings!
So circling back to you my friend, I had the opportunity to listen this morning to the 3rd Symphony. It is very competently done, and I feel a fool saying this - I mean who am I to offer any criticism of any conductor or orchestra - but I could not love it as much as the BSO under Andris Nelsons.
I hate to say it, but for me the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra is, respectfully, for me simply not as good here as the BSO, and I thought Mr Wigglesworth struggled to gel with them - it didn't seem quiet 'right'. The string sections in particular seemed to me to have a slightly odd tempo to them. I couldn't really get on top of it, or more correctly I couldn't really settle with it.
Still - all very competent and no doubt a wonderful SACD - but for me it lacked the out and out blood sport that are the Russians.
I shall try and Numbers 1 & 2 in due course.
I would be very interested in your thoughts once you get the SACD and hear the NRPO here.
Thank you for pointing me in the direction of the recording - I certainly don't regret listening to it. BIS? - well excellent as always.
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The last couple of evenings I have been listening to this to fall asleep to. I commonly do this: have gentle music playing while I drift off. This is aptly named.
Cat: Aparté – AP001
It is a 2009 recording with the wonderful Ophélie Gaillard. I love her playing, and have great admiration for the feeling she brings to each piece. Recording is excellent, IMHO.
It is a collection of works, and an album which I enjoyed very much indeed.
Cat: Aparté – AP001
It is a 2009 recording with the wonderful Ophélie Gaillard. I love her playing, and have great admiration for the feeling she brings to each piece. Recording is excellent, IMHO.
It is a collection of works, and an album which I enjoyed very much indeed.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Its on the circuit for a reason!
Isn't the BPO a complete beast of an orchestra? Verges on unruly. Love them.
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A few days ago I listened to this. I enjoyed it. Beautiful voice. First time I have heard these pieces. I generally like Sibelius. But then I like Finns.
The cover art alone got me interested enough to dive in. Worth a quick stream IMHO.
So much music released every single day. Literally do not have time to listen to 1/100 of it.
Chandos: lovely recording by the engineers. Can't locate the catalogue number, but it was released 2 July - so brand new.
This from another site
"Written in 1913 for the diva Aino Ackté, the tone poem Luonnotar draws on text from the Finnish national epic poem, the Kalevala. Its virtuosic demands are ably met here by award-wining soprano Lise Davidsen, who also feature in the Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande, music re-worked by Sibelius from his incidental music written for the first performances of Maeterlinck’s play in Helsinki, in 1905, in Swedish. The tone poem Tapiola, from 1926, is Sibelius’ last great masterpiece and evokes the forests of his native Finland. The programme is completed by a pair of much earlier works, Rakastava and Vårsång (Spring Song)"
The cover art alone got me interested enough to dive in. Worth a quick stream IMHO.
So much music released every single day. Literally do not have time to listen to 1/100 of it.
Chandos: lovely recording by the engineers. Can't locate the catalogue number, but it was released 2 July - so brand new.
This from another site
"Written in 1913 for the diva Aino Ackté, the tone poem Luonnotar draws on text from the Finnish national epic poem, the Kalevala. Its virtuosic demands are ably met here by award-wining soprano Lise Davidsen, who also feature in the Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande, music re-worked by Sibelius from his incidental music written for the first performances of Maeterlinck’s play in Helsinki, in 1905, in Swedish. The tone poem Tapiola, from 1926, is Sibelius’ last great masterpiece and evokes the forests of his native Finland. The programme is completed by a pair of much earlier works, Rakastava and Vårsång (Spring Song)"
This last night - an absolute classic of a recording, very well known, by one of my favourite pianists. For me I prefer Moravec's renditions of Chopin and I like Perahia for everything. But who can criticism Pollini.
Nothing much to say about this one: it has been extensively reviewed in the past, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Chopin recordings.
From Gramophone Magazine:
Recorded 1972
The 24 Etudes of Chopin’s Opp 10 and 25, although dating from his twenties, remain among the most perfect specimens of the genre ever known, with all technical challenges – and they are formidable – dissolved into the purest poetry. With his own transcendental technique (and there are few living pianists who can rival it), Pollini makes you unaware that problems even exist – as for instance in Op 10 No 10 in A flat, where the listener is swept along in an effortless stream of melody. The first and last of the same set in C major and C minor have an imperious strength and drive; likewise the last three impassioned outpourings of Op 25.
Lifelong dislike of a heart worn on the sleeve makes him less than intimately confiding in more personal contexts such as No 3 in E major and No 6 in E flat minor from Op 10, or the nostalgic middle section of No 5 in E minor and the searing No 7 in C sharp minor from Op 25. Like the playing, so the recording itself could profitably be a little warmer at times, but it’s a princely disc all the same.
Chopin: Etudes Opp.10 & 25, Maurizio Pollini
Around half the tracks have the Maestro Listening Guide on PP, which I very much enjoy reading as the music unfolds.Nothing much to say about this one: it has been extensively reviewed in the past, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Chopin recordings.
From Gramophone Magazine:
Recorded 1972
The 24 Etudes of Chopin’s Opp 10 and 25, although dating from his twenties, remain among the most perfect specimens of the genre ever known, with all technical challenges – and they are formidable – dissolved into the purest poetry. With his own transcendental technique (and there are few living pianists who can rival it), Pollini makes you unaware that problems even exist – as for instance in Op 10 No 10 in A flat, where the listener is swept along in an effortless stream of melody. The first and last of the same set in C major and C minor have an imperious strength and drive; likewise the last three impassioned outpourings of Op 25.
Lifelong dislike of a heart worn on the sleeve makes him less than intimately confiding in more personal contexts such as No 3 in E major and No 6 in E flat minor from Op 10, or the nostalgic middle section of No 5 in E minor and the searing No 7 in C sharp minor from Op 25. Like the playing, so the recording itself could profitably be a little warmer at times, but it’s a princely disc all the same.
I recently bought that, too. The room has a bit of a hollow sound, but his playing is sensational.
I have No.11 from that set--it's excellent. The bass drum whacks in the second movement will give one's woofers/subwoofers something to think about!
I am a bit of a nut about Luonnotar and this one is outstanding. So is the recording.
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