What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Jean Rondeau - Melancholy Grace
Qobuz 24/192




New release.
Since his fantastic album 'Vertigo', I became a fan of this harpsichordist.
Here he brings us works from the 16th and 17th century. Composers from various parts of Europe.

[ehoove]

Excerpts From the Ballet
Romeo and Juliet
Prokofiev
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Eric Leinsdorf Conducting
Excellent D2D LP!
Sheffield Labs No.8
Regards,
Jim

[ehoove]

The Firebird (Suite 1919 version)
Stravinsky
Music from Prince Igor
Borodin
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Robert Shaw Conducting
Another Excellent Telarc Digital LP
Telarc Records DG-10039
Regards,
Jim

[bart]

Mozart - Gran Partita - Wind Serenades K 361 & 375
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Qobuz 24/96




What a delightful performance.
And terrific sound.
Will be one of my preferred versions of the 'Gran Partita'.

When Mozart took up the popular genre of the serenade, it was to transcend it and lend it new lustre. A festive masterpiece of simplicity and emotion, his Gran Partita quickly became a genuine "hit"! Thanks to the distinctive, spellbinding timbres of their period instruments, the members of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give a unique flavour to these two extraordinary serenades, over which there blows – as it were – a tremendous wind of freedom. © harmonia mundi

[bart]

Mozart - Ombra Compagna - Concert Arias
Il Pomo d'Oro, Antonello Manacorda
Lisette Oropesa
Qobuz 24/192




Presto Classical album of the week, and well deserved so.

Soprano Lisette Oropesa presents her solo debut album "Ombra Compagna", a kaleidoscope of concert arias by Mozart, whose music is very dear to her heart. These concert arias, written for important sopranos in his life, contain the most lavish and virtuosic music Mozart composed, both for the voice and for the orchestra. The emotional centre of the album is the aria Ah, lo previdi, in which the most sublime music accompanies the journey between life and death, as the spirit of a loved one slips away. For Oropesa, to be an “Ombra compagna” means to be with someone in spirit, a comforting yet heart-breaking testament of love. © Pentatone

[bart]

Claudio Monteverdi - Lagrime d'Amante
La Compagnia del Madrigale
Qobuz 24/88.2





A couple of very fine new releases this week.
This ensemble is vocally very strong.

With “Lagrime d’amante”, La Compagnia del Madrigale, so accomplished with 16th- and 17th century Italian music and words, turns its attention afresh to the music of Claudio Monteverdi. This new Glossa release, recorded in Cumiana, outside Turin, faithfully conveys the beauty of the ensemble’s vocal blend in a selection of five-part compositions drawn from the Monteverdi of Cremona, Mantua and Venice, but centring on that cornerstone of his art, the Sixth Book.
The act of singing whilst weeping – as Marco Bizzarini points out in his booklet essay – is somewhat unfeasible, but time after time Monteverdi strove to overcome that improbability by his music, often calling upon the best Italian poetry of the time: here, the fabulously vivid imagery of Torquato Tasso, Battista Guarini and Petrarch are well served by Monteverdi’s musical response.

The programme takes us through various troubled emotional states involving love: a lover dying of love, the “partenza amorosa” (or lovers’ separation), even a shepherd accidentally wounding his loved one, but also the outpouring of grief in the Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro dell’amata, a commissioned madrigal cycle to newly written words lamenting the death in 1608 of the promising singer Caterina Martinelli, a pupil of the composer, but also that of Monteverdi’s wife.
This work and others on this recording involved the lamented bass Daniele Carnovich to whom the group pay tribute; the sessions were completed by Matteo Bellotto. © Glossa

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Allegri - Monteverdi - Anamorfosi
Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre




We're just back home after a most intimate concert with these forces where they brought pieces from this CD.
Amongst them the best Miserere (from Gregorio Allegri) we've ever heard.
The tears came very easily today...

This album is outright magnificent.
Remembering our last 'real' concert...

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

François Couperin - Les Muses Naissantes
La Chambre Claire
Brice Sailly, harpsichord
Emmanuelle de Negri, soprano
Qobuz 24/88.2




This seems a very nice album.
The harpsichordist is tremendous, the soprano a delight with all suppleness to master the difficult melodies.

First album of the day and it's a good one!

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Sainte-Colombe - Concerts à deux violes esgales - Volume III
Les Voix Humaines



I posted about volumes I & II before.
Margaret Little and Susie Napper continue to do a splendid job on this volume.
It seems like these 2 CDs are extra well recorded, compared with other ones I have.
I just ordered volume IV...

We listened to this set on our tube system.
The Avalons do a splendid job with this kind of music!

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Marin Marais - Sainte Colombe - Robert de Visée - En Suite
Romina Lischka, viola da gamba
Sofie Vanden Eynde, theorbo
Qobuz 24/88.2




Wonderful album of the award winning Lischka, born in Vienna but now residing in Belgium (when she's not touring, which she does an awful lot).
Yesterday, the Klara Awards were announced, and this leading lady of the viola da gamba was one of the winners.
We saw her live a couple of years ago and it was a wonderful late night concert in the intimate chamber music hall of the Concertgebouw Brugge.

Back on the main system.
Exciting travel in Covid-times!

Wonderful album in all aspects.
Lischka is a terrific performer, with Vanden Eynde doing a fantastic job as well.