What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by Kal Rubinson

5.0 over phones?

Ha ha ha Kal.
Every step we take, every breath we make, you'll be watching us!


Technically possible... but I prefer my speakers.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by bart

Ha ha ha Kal.
Every step we take, every breath we make, you'll be watching us!

I know. It was just the contrast that stopped me. See this:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...27/post-710964

[JemHadar]

Víkingur Ólafsson | Reflections

Claude Debussy and some Jean-Philippe Rameau...very distinctive interpretations and reworks...I like this one a lot...sure to ruffle some feathers

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by Jem666

Víkingur Ólafsson | Reflections

Claude Debussy and some Jean-Philippe Rameau...very distinctive interpretations and reworks...I like this one a lot...sure to ruffle some feathers

I liked it as well, enough to buy the download. I’ve been impressed with his work. I also enjoyed these two:
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[Antonmb]

Bach and Beyond, Part 1
Jennifer Koh, violin
Cedille (2012), via Qobuz

Bach partitas interspersed with other solo violin pieces. The selections are always interesting, and beautifully performed and recorded. I don’t know how this one slipped under my radar.

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[bart]

Joseph Haydn - Twelve Trios for Transverse Flute, Violin and Violoncello
Barthold Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken
Wieland Kuijken
via Qobuz




This was playing gently into the practice today.

This double-disc reissue combines two releases by Barthold, Sigiswald, and Wieland Kuijken, respectively from 1978 and 1986. The earlier one, especially, dates from the years when historical-performance philosophies were first applied to music of the Classical era, and both recordings have held up well. Barthold Kuijken's gentle transverse flute blends in with the other two instruments in a way that's difficult to achieve with a modern flute. The works are all incidental pieces by Haydn, written for his princely employer at Esterháza. All are in three movements, although the sequence of the three is hardly duplicated at all. They are pleasant examples of background music, with short movements artfully arranged so as to draw the listener's ear to a single affecting detail, and the Kuijkens deliver ingratiating performances without a hint of the severity that sometimes afflicts Baroque specialists playing Classical music.
There are a few caveats for the buyer. The two discs don't form a sonic whole and haven't even been dynamically equalized. They don't really form an artistic whole, either. The music is not the advertised "Twelve Trios for transverse flute, violin, and violoncello" of Haydn; the works on the first disc are alternate versions of divertimenti for two violins and cello, while the second consists of baryton trios in an arrangement made during Haydn's day with, the performers argue, Haydn's implicit or explicit approval. Haydn realized that the baryton, a bizarre cello-like instrument with a lot of sympathetic strings, was an instrument played by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and very few others, the reasoning goes, so he composed these works with an eye toward eventual transposition for the forces represented here. The argument is rather detailed, and those with a specific interest in the performance practice of the era will doubtless find it useful. It is a bit exasperating, however, for the general listener who is curious as to what the original versions of these pieces sounded like but who, despite several decades of "authentic" performances, rarely if ever gets to hear them. None of this, however, affects the pleasant, polished, and (as always with Haydn), slightly jocular music heard on these two discs.

© TiVo

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Bach - Concertos for two harpsichords
Olivier Fortin
Emmanuel Frankenberg
Ensemble Masques
Qobuz 24/96




Marvellous interpretations of pieces I never tire hearing.
We saw Olivier Fortin with Skip Sempé a couple of years ago in the intimacy of the Chamber Music Hall in the Brugge Concertgebouw.
Here he can do his - great - thing with his ensemble.
Recommended!

The practice of composing for two keyboard instruments, very common in the illustrious Bach family, naturally achieved its apotheosis with Johann Sebastian, whose three concertos for two harpsichords are performed here by Olivier Fortin and Emmanuel Frankenberg with the Ensemble Masques. These works, particularly the Concerto in C minor, are among the composer’s most admired. They suggest a conception of the concerto specific to Bach: rather than a dialogue between several individual entities, the piece presents a subtle intertwining of melodic lines and blurs the distinction between solo and tutti parts by making them respond to and quote each other, thus illustrating the principle of harmony dear to the composer. Finally, the recording on two harpsichords of the Prelude and Fugue BWV 552, originally composed for organ, is in keeping with the nineteenth-century tradition of transposing Bach’s works with the aim of giving their refined polyphony greater clarity. © Naxos

One of the better releases of 2020.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Oboe Concertos - Symphonies Wq. 180 & 181
Akademie für Alte Musik, Georg Kallweit
Xenia Löffler, oboe
Qobuz 24/96




We can always expect this fantastic ensemble to deliver the goods.
This is the case here also.
New release from this week.

Enjoying this again.

[bart]

Originally Posted by Jem666

Víkingur Ólafsson | Reflections

Claude Debussy and some Jean-Philippe Rameau...very distinctive interpretations and reworks...I like this one a lot...sure to ruffle some feathers

Jacques... streaming it now (Qobuz 24/96).

Really different from the Debussy/Rameau album he brought out last year.
I wrote then: "Surprisingly nice marriage of 2 composers coming from a totally different era".

This creates an atmosphere, totally unlike in nature and form.
It has to be listened as a whole.
I really dig it.

[Antonmb]

Schumann: Fantasia in C, Op.17; Novelettes, Op.21, No’s.1 and 2
Arthur Rubinstein
RCA Red Seal ARL1-3427 (1965), vinyl

From the vinyl shelves this evening: beautiful music played as only Rubinstein could.

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