What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by Kal Rubinson

For the performances. The sound is not outstanding.

Absolutely agreed.
But it touches my soul as few other Beethoven 5s and 7s are able to.
It's like Bessie Smith's 'Stormy Weather', it's been sung by many, but few came even close to move me as much as she did.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by bart

Absolutely agreed.
But it touches my soul as few other Beethoven 5s and 7s are able to.
It's like Bessie Smith's 'Stormy Weather', it's been sung by many, but few came even close to move me as much as she did.

Yup. If you want to hear brilliant and inspiring performances in spectacular multichannel, try the RRs with Honeck and Pittsburgh. Not the same, of course, as Kleiber, but worth hearing.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Philip Glass - Metamorphosis - The Hours
Lavinia Meijer, harp
Qobuz 24/192




Fantastic!
Mesmerising is a good word to describe this.
These are not just some simple tunes.

Just listened to this in the car (once more).
I'm more and more appreciating Glass.

[jimtranr]

SACD rip. Ravishingly sweet sonics.

[Antonmb]

Bach: Leipzig Chorales; Schübler Chorales; Canonic Variations
James Johnstone, organ
Metronome (2021), via Qobuz

I’m enjoying this set, performed on the Treutmann organ, built around the time Bach was composing.

IMG_0756.jpg

[bart]

Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton - Album für de Frau - scenes from the Schumanns' Lieder
Qobuz 24/96




We're Sampson fans, own a couple of SACDs with her.
This is a jewel.
Middleton is the perfect company for her.

For the first four years of their marriage, Robert and Clara Schumann kept a joint diary, a project which Robert described as "a record of our wishes and our hopes, and the means whereby we may convey to one another any requests we may have to make, for which words may not suffice...". In the imaginative recital "Album für die Frau", Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton combine songs by both composers into something similar – the depiction of a relationship seen through the eyes of both parties.

Using the eight songs from Robert’s song cycle Frauenliebe und –leben to poems by Adalbert von Chamisso as the framework, they add songs as well as some piano solos in order to create a fuller and more complex picture. The result seems to suggest that the experiences of our "Frau" are richer than Chamisso and Robert Schumann imagined: while love, marriage and motherhood dominated much of Clara Schumann’s life, Robert’s death in 1856 signaled the start of a four-decade widowhood during which she resumed her stellar career as a pianist.

As a team, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have released a number of acclaimed discs, including "Fleurs", featuring flower-themed songs by composers from Purcell to Richard Strauss and Britten, "A Verlaine Songbook", exploring settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and "A Soprano’s Schubertiade", a Schubert anthology. © BIS Records

[bart]

Aeternum: Latvian Composers for the Centenary of Latvia
State Choir Latvia, Māris Sirmais
Qobuz 24/44.1




Very beautiful, accessible music.

In anticipation of Latvia’s centenary, the State Choir “Latvija” and its artistic director, Maris Sirmais, announced their idea for a special and lasting gift to Latvia – a new, rich repertoire of choir songs that could be sung by both professional and amateur choirs. Thus they established a creative laboratory in which seventy-seven composers wrote new music for choir.

In five concerts over a period of three years, Sirmais and his choir premiered this gift of songs at the Ziedonis Hall of the National Library of Latvia. The songs had been created by composers already considered modern Latvian classics, accomplished composers of the middle generation and even young talents still studying at the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music as well as Latvian composers living abroad and composers with a background in popular music. Each composer chose one of five elements – fire, water, earth, sky, love – as inspiration while composing. Some of the resulting works clearly represent their corresponding element in sound, while others approach it more generally and abstractly. Still others touch upon the element only remotely, as a thread between lines of text.

Conductor Maris Sirmais: "The works composed as a result of this initiative are dedicated to the best amateur choirs in Latvia, who will not keep this collection of songs only to themselves but through them will also introduce the wider world to the high quality of Latvian music in terms of both composition and performance. This project was developed with the goal of creating real and lasting spiritual values that will continue to live in the Latvian and global choir literature long after our country’s centenary. We can take pride in the fact that such a relatively small nation has so many composers who are ready and able to create music of such high quality. We can also be proud of having so many choirs that can perform this music at such a high level". © Skani

[bart]

A remastered re-release from this week:

Debussy - Two Nocturnes: Nuages and Fêtes
Respighi - The Pines Of Rome
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
Qobuz 24/96




The 'Pines' was recorded Jan. '46, brought out on 78 rpm, then in '48 coupled with the Debussy works here on one of the first LPs.
A bit of nostalgia, and I'll return to better sounding recordings after this.

[bart]

Pēteris Vasks - Musica Serena - Musica Dolorosa - Musica Appassionata - Klātbūtne
Uladzimir Sinkevich
Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ivan Repušic ́
Qobuz 24/48




A couple of intense, at moments dark (Musica Dolorosa), but always very moving (especially the 'Concerto for cello & string orchestra No. 2 ('Klātbūtne')) works.

All the works of the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks on this release are written for string orchestra: the three connected compositions Musica serena (2015), Musica dolorosa (1983) and Musica appassionata (2002), and also Vasks' Concerto No 2 for Violoncello and Strings, also known as "Klatbutne" (“Presence”, 2011-2012).

Vasks' three instrumental pieces here are light-hearted, tragic (dealing with the death of his sister as well as the political situation in Latvia at the time), and passionate, providing an overview of the diversity of his work across a timespan of almost three decades. His deeply spiritual Cello Concerto, which was premiered by Sol Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and conducted by Candida Thompson in Ghent, refers in its title to the pure being of his music - which is present, without distance, in every movement of the bow. The beauty that Peteris Vasks evokes in his works would not be possible without the experience of violence and cruelty in this world. He grew up in a country deprived of liberty, and because of his faith and his artistic convictions he was subjected to reprisals from Russian cultural doctrine. His father, a Baptist pastor, was considered an "enemy of the state", and his homeland was under Soviet control. As a result Vasks developed a vision of freedom and subtle protest in his music.

Vasks' expressive, direct and often deliberately simple music quickly became the mouthpiece of the long-suppressed Latvian people, giving the nation a proud voice that can be heard worldwide. Today, alongside Arvo Pärt and Erkki Sven-Tüür, Peteris Vasks is one of the most famous composers from the Baltic states of the former Soviet Union. On April 16, 2021, the music world will celebrate his 75th birthday. © BR-Klassik

[Antonmb]

Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Pierre Fournier, cello; Friedrich Gulda, piano
Deutsche Grammophon (2019/1992), vinyl

These works were recorded in 1959 and released in various separate recordings in 1960 and beyond. The complete collection was first issued in 1992, and remastered/reissued here on 180g vinyl in 2019. The sound is very good. While the playing may seem dated to some, I find these performances still very beautiful and worth having in the collection.