What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Kaliar]

Album : Lute Music II
Composer : Silvius Leopold Weiss
Artist : Jakob Lindberg
Released : 2009
Label : BIS
Format : FLAC (16-bit/44KHz)

At the age of six, Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750) was already proficient enough on the lute to play before the Emperor Leopold I. During a later stay in Italy, his solo playing ‘astonished all the Italians’ according to a contemporary writer. On his return to Germany Weiss became officially engaged at the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden, and by 1740 he was well-known throughout Europe as the finest lutenist of his own or any other generation. As well as playing and teaching, Weiss was an extremely prolific composer for his instrument: more than 100 sonatas (or suites) for solo lute, together with around 90 separate movements, survive. On a previous disc, Jakob Lindberg has visited this impressive œuvre in the company of his own unique 16th-century lute, built by Sixtus Rauwolf. That disc was received with great acclaim, for instance in International Record Review: ‘Too good to be true – Lindberg and his lute are symbiotic partners in some of the most intensely personal music-making I've ever been stopped in my tracks by.’ Other reviewers agreed, and the disc was selected ‘Instrumental Choice of the Month’ in BBC Music Magazine. For the present programme, which includes works from a later part of Weiss career, Lindberg has chosen a baroque lute with 13 courses (or pairs of strings) as more suitable. On it he gives us a Sonata in C major in Weiss’s grandest style and an extrovert Sonata in B flat major. Separating the two is Weiss’s most famous work, both in his own lifetime and today. Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte de Logy is a highly expressive piece which pays homage to the finest of the many excellent aristocratic lutenists from Bohemia, Count Jan Antonin Losy von Losinthal.

Jakob Lindberg is a master of this difficult instrument, I marvel at his artistry and am astonished by his ability to play with so little finger noise !

[bart]

Alessandro Marcello - 6 Concerti "La Cetra"
Camerata Bern



This is very easily accessible baroque from a composer whose music is not performed live much nowadays. He often wrote under the name of Eterio Stinfalico.
Only 47', but it is worth playing from time to time.

[bart]

Alessandro Marcello - Concerto for oboe and strings in D minor - Unpublished Concertos and Cantatas
Venice Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Marcon



More Marcello, and I prefer this album above the one I posted earlier.

[bart]

Staying in Italy:

Nicola Matteis - Ayrs for the violin



Wonderful album, and not so danceable as the Gli Incogniti one.
Sound: Alpha quality.

[Toccata]

Her playing won't be to everyone's taste since she tries to out-dreamy Pogorelich one moment and out-voltage Argerich the next, but there's no denying that she's a supremely gifted pianist who plays with tremendous passion and flair. Excellent sound.





(I heard her play the Liszt Sonata in San Francisco last year--the "demonic" sections all but went off the rails!)

[Kaliar]

Album : Forqueray: Pièces de viole avec la basse continuë (Disc 2)
Composer : Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray
Artists : Paolo Pandolfo, Guido Balestracci, Rolf Lislevand, Eduardo Egüez, Guido Morini
Released : 2011
Label : Glossa
Format : FLAC (16-bit/44KHz)



Disc 2 of a previously mentioned album. If you like viola da gamba, this is a beautiful recording featuring Paolo Pandolfo and many virtuosos!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paolo Pandolfo is an Italian virtuoso player, composer, and teacher of music for the viola da gamba.

He began his studies as a double bass and guitar player, becoming a skilled performer of jazz and popular music.[1][2] In the mid-late 1970s he studied viola da gamba at the Rome Conservatory. In 1979 he co-founded the early music ensemble La Stravaganza, and then moved to Basel, Switzerland in 1981 where he studied with Jordi Savall at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. From 1982 to 1990 Pandolfo was a member of Jordi Savall's early music groups Hespèrion XX and Hespèrion XXI.

Since 1989 Pandolfo has served as professor of viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis — a position previously held by maestros August Wenzinger and Jordi Savall. He also directs, records, and performs regularly with his viola da gamba-oriented early music ensemble Labyrinto, which he co-founded.

[bart]

Monteverdi - Carlo Farina



Renaissance music that sounds a lot less conventional than baroque mostly does!
Skip Sempé and his Capriccio Stravagante are as always outstanding.

[Toccata]

Got this today. While his Liszt might not have quite the superficial thrills of Khatia Buniatishvili's, I think Gilels' is more musically satisfying. Haven't played the Schubert, but I imagine it will be played to perfection.

[cma29]

Hello, friends. I was away on an intense business trip, but that's behind me now.

Now enjoying a recently received box set...

CPE Bach: Symphonies and Concertos
The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel
Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter
Other performers



This is a 6-disc set from Archiv Collector's Edition. I think it's a superb and inexpensive way to get a taste of CPE Bach's genius. I was hoping to discover more new pieces, but discs 2-4 overlap with music I already had. The flute concertos on disc 4 are the same as the cello concertos I have on another BIS Suzuki disc. I will explore the quartets and on disc 5 and choral music on disc 6. The recorded quality is very good (e.g., disc 1) to decent (1970s Richter on disc 2). Overall, a recommended set.

[BeerCan]

Picked up some everest cd for my growing classical collection. First up