What are you listening today and WHY – Only one rule, see first post

[simorag]

Strings Theory

Here is a gorgeous list of albums featuring strings in wildly variegated settings, exploring diverse colors, musical styles and conceptions of harmony.

Anomaly, the debut of the young UK Sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun is a joy for the ears. His sitar is the main character of the album, but the rich list of guest accompanying him provides additional layers of contamination and emotion and make the listening of this skillfully engineered recording especially immersive.

A more intimate experience comes from this Jordanian / Greek, violin / lute duo. Also in this case, Eastern and Western, folkloristic, classical and modern suggestions are intertwined. The interaction is almost improvisatory, with beautifully lyrical passages and more rytmically alive, almost recitative and declamatory. The recorded sound is full, warm, with a tasteful, naturalistic balance of stereo separation and connecting tissue between the performers.

Getting back to western culture, Haydn seems the ideal landing spot, as possibly the father of the classical quartet, which he took from a somewhat subdued entertainment form for the court to a highly expressive and sophisticated musical language, spreading his influence for centuries. Opus 20 n. 5 is one of my favorites and this performance is blessed by a very organic, smooth timbre, and a pleasing weight of the cello.

 

[treitz3]

@simorag - thanks for that first suggestion. I am listening to it now and while different? I can dig it!

Tom

 

[davidavdavid]

Synth-pop, Disco, Nu-Funk with a SERIOUS George Michael ViBE!!!!
Apply SERIOUS CRANK and get your badass down on the dance floor.

So wonderfully retro and simultaneously timely.

 

[A-Line]

Because classical piano is good for the soul

 

[A-Line]

Live Streaming Flamenco Radio right now located in Seville,Spain.

I find Spanish Gypsy guitar & music fascinating, especially with all of the Spanish dancers at live performances. Much different than classical guitar which I also like.
It all started with me buying my first Carlos Montoya record many many years ago.

 

[Al M.]

This 80 minute symphony in this interpretation and recording, my favorite one, is exciting as hell.

It was written by Olivier Messiaen between 1946 and 1948 as a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and ranks as one of the towering symphonic achievements of the 20th century.

The symphony is written for large orchestra. It is an explosion of orchestral color, in a seductive blend of instrumental color and harmonies that Messiaen was a master of. The music is immensely varied, but there are common themes pervading many of the 10 movements. The music, singing of joy, passion and love, is often excited in its mood, while there are many pensive, mysterious moments as well.

In the fifth movement "Joie du sang de etoiles" (Joy in the Blood of the Stars) the diverse phrases follow each other with great speed, yet the musical logic is at the same time imaginative, tight and compelling. In stark contrast to that great speed of action, the music in the following "Jardin du sommeil d'amour" (Garden of the Sleep of Love) is dreamily slow and revels in subtleties.

The polyphony is often extraordinarily complex. If you have a system that can cleanly separate instrumental strands you are in for a treat. This recording gives you an exceptionally transparent window into the complex score without reading it.

The judgment of tempi and phrasing by the conductor Antoni Wit is excellent, and the playing by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra is phenomenal in its precision, powerful passion and refinement. A world class orchestra. I have seen them live in Prague in 2012, an unforgettable experience. The prominent piano part is brilliantly played by Francois Weigel, and Thomas Bloch shows great competence on the Ondes Martenot.

The recording exudes dynamics and energy. It also captures hall ambience extremely well. There is great spatial layering of instruments from front to back of the stage, and especially towards the back there is a luminous halo around the instruments, caused by hall reflections, which acoustically lights up the space.

I have listened to the symphony again 3 times over the last few days and it keeps being exciting and rewarding, with each time allowing me to uncover its musical secrets and details more closely. I have also heard the symphony twice live, recently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons and Yuya Wang on the piano, and one time in the early 90s in The Netherlands in Vredenburg, Utrecht.

 

[ssfas]

This seems to be a @simorag thread and a good thing as we seem to share pleasure in certain recordings, some below, but he also listed Savall's recording of Septem Verba Christi in Cruce, I remember when it came out and it's one of his very best.


He listed the Dante piece by Thomas Ades, I've not heard the recording, but I have seen the ballet twice, once conducted by Thomas Ades when it was first produced about 3 years ago and this year conducted by Koen Kessels. It's quite an epic piece, with great designs by Tacita Dean. Due to the cost of these things, it was a co-production between the LA Phil, Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet.

Anyway, I read about this chap Uriel Herman, who was a touring classical pianist. He tells the story that he was often told off by teachers for improvising Chopin and the like, so he gave up classical and formed a jazz band and now does what he likes. And he does it brilliantly. He signed with a London label called Ubuntu Music and made this album, which I streamed and loved it. His manager persuaded Ronnie Scott's to give him an early slot on a Tuesday evening, so the wife and I went along - and he brought the house down! And he played variations on Chopin. What an evening, and his band was joined by a fantastic trumpeter called Yefrim Valdes. His Bowie encore was a hoot.

Two weeks later war broke out in Israel and he told me had to cancel a tour of South America, because it was not fair on his wife as they have a small son, only about 2 years old. Well worth looking out for.

The Uriel Herman Quartet dazzle at Ronnie Scott’s

The acclaimed Israeli pianist put on an enchanting show featuring guest trumpeter Yelfris Valdés

www.jazzwise.com

 

[Balle Clorin]

A great guitarists and good guy who died suddenly and too young in car accident 26 years ago.
I was going back in my musical history and had forgotten how great he was. The reason for revisiting old songs was that I had my childhood friend visiting for New Year’s . he’s has got Alzheimer for 6 years now and talking is difficult but we can still enjoy music together, he played in a band too but now he can only hum along … but he likes to hear the old stuff we used to listen to as students together.

Marius Müller (musician) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org