What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[eljr]

A tribute to 911, never forget:



Reich: WTC 9 / 11

[eljr]

A tribute to 911, never forget:



Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls

[bart]

Magdalena Kožená - Yefim Bronfman - Nostalgia
Qobuz 24/96




I'm a Magdalena Kožená fan.
The piano player isn't too bad either.
Works I didn't know that well.

Songs of love, longing and innocence. On this third Pentatone album "Nostalgia", Magdalena Kožená presents Bartók’s Village Scenes, Mussorgsky’s The Nursery and a selection of Brahms songs, together with acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman. Sung in Slovak, Russian and German, these songs on love, longing and innocence show three master composers transforming folk traditions into their unique musical styles. Kožená demonstrates her vocal mastery once more, and this recording with Bronfman is the result of a two-decades-spanning congenial artistic partnership. © Pentatone

[bart]

Saint-Saëns
Orchestre de Picardie, Benjamin Levy
Geneviève Laurenceau, violin
Qobuz 24/88.2




Very good performances from this Amiens based ensemble.
I'm missing the bottom end in this recording though.

The centenary of the death of Saint-Saëns has inspired French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau to create a programme of contrasts for her many-faceted instrument, which in her hands becomes both intimate and virtuosic, chamber music and concertante all in one. This Saint-Saëns memorial year is an invitation to the more adventurous spirits to explore some of his less familiar works. Among them is French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau, who has devised this album with herself as soloist as an extended poem of varied stanzas profiling "a rather different Saint-Saëns, whose warm and luminous elegance of style gives the instruments a singing voice – singing not only with virtuosity but with a profound sense of humanity".

Other voices the violin encounters are the cello of Yan Levionnois (for La Muse et le poète, a kind of symphonic poem for duo), and the harp of Pauline Haas (in a little jewel, the Fantaisie for violin and harp). Further partners in this dialogue are the Orchestre de Picardie under the baton of Benjamin Levy (in the Violin Concerto No. 1, and the Romances Op. 37 and Op. 48).

As a double act of tribute from one violinist to another, Geneviève Laurenceau also gives us the pyrotechnics of Eugène Ysaÿe’s virtuoso Caprice, based on Saint-Saëns’s Étude en forme de valse Op. 52 No. 6. Ysaÿe was closely associated with Saint-Saëns, and gave the first performance of La Muse et le poète.

Geneviève Laurenceau presents all these rarely-heard works (covering the period from the late 1850s to 1910) with consummate mastery. She is completely at ease, generously outgoing in all musical partnerships and in every situation, from the most intimate moments to the height of symphonic ecstasy, as she shows "to what extent Saint-Saëns’s instrumental style is permeated by the voice, its theatricality and drama, and its often abrupt shifts of mood or character". Clearly, for her this French repertoire is more than a passion: it is her musical mother tongue. © naive classique

[bart]

Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa
Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne
Renaud Capuçon
Qobuz 24/96




Second release with music from Pärt this week, and I can recommend this one full-heartedly!

"Arvo Pärt's music takes us from darkness to light", says Renaud Capuçon. "It looks relatively simple on paper, but each note needs to have its own life as it undergoes change. This music is not just relaxing - it has a depth and drama". Renaud Capuçon is the artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. His first recording with the ensemble is devoted to the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and among the eight works on the album are Spiegel im Spiegel, Tabula Rasa and Silouan's Song. © Erato

[joel_hifi]

[joel_hifi]

[joel_hifi]

Originally Posted by bart

Joel, we'll let you study the 22.5K posts first and then you'll have to do an entry exam!

Glenn Gould is a good choice.
He's a great singer.

Still catching up on the 23.7K posts but couldn't resist a little groaning in the meantime...

[bart]

Originally Posted by joel_hifi

Still catching up on the 23.7K posts but couldn't resist a little groaning in the meantime...

The Keith Jarrett of classical!

[bart]

The Musical Universe of
Andreas Pevernage
Chansons, Motets, Madrigals
Utopia Ensemble
Qobuz 24/96




Quite some splendid polyphony releases lately.
This is well sung, well recorded, and an inspiring listen.
Nice discovery of a lesser known Flemish composer.

Andreas Pevernage (1542/3–1591) is best remembered today as the choirmaster of Antwerp Cathedral and as the composer of several picture motets that are now classified as masterpieces of Flemish culture. Whilst Pevernage spent his entire professional career in Flanders, which may well have contributed to his music being less well known today, he was nonetheless considered as the equal of Orlandus Lassus, Clemens non Papa and Giaches de Wert during his lifetime: the quality of his music is in no wise inferior to the works of his more famous contemporaries. Pevernage adopted the innovations of the Italian madrigal and also breathed new life into the chansons of the Low Countries. This selection of works, mostly for five parts, is an invitation to discover his stylistic and creative diversity. © Ramée