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Was in the mood for Arias but instead of the typical female soprano came across a Norwegian Boy Soprano voice of Aksel Ryyvkin. This is different. What a voice!
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I posted this more than 2 years ago, and I believe my taste has evolved. I actually really liked the album this time. Of the three composers on this album, the Estonian Jaan Rääts is surely less well-known to Western European audiences than Arvo Pärt or Henryk Górecki – even though the latter is mainly famous for a single work, the monumental Third Symphony which is far from representing the majority of his output. That said, this, Lerchenmusik – a pun, as "Lerche" is not only the German for skylark, but also the name of the dedicatee – has plenty in common with the famous symphony: a consistently slow tempo, in fact very, very slow; long, breathtaking, sombre chords; and a very substantial theme. The work for clarinet, cello and piano was written in 1985 in a similar vein: perhaps Górecki had grasped what his audiences liked about his language, at least in terms of symphonies: that is, the incantatory, quasi-religious quality. So why disappoint his public? Pärt, for his part, contributes the Mozart-Adagio in memory of Oleg Kagan, in a first version for violin, cello and piano: the revision was made specifically for the musicians on this recording. The composer took a slow movement from the Mozart and put it through several harmonic and thematic metamorphoses. Finally, the Kaleidoskoopilised etüüdid by Jaan Rääts are presented here as a discographic world-first. Their "kaleidoscopic" aspect is created by juxtaposing short thematic, rhythmic, or instrumental cells, like so many minimalist fragments, all jumbled together: just like the effect of looking through a kaleidoscope. © SM/Qobuz
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Stereo: Hegel H590, Grimm Audio MU1, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Burmester 948 - V3 & V6 racks, Vivid Audio G2 Giyas, REL Carbon Special (pair), Silent Angel Bonn N8 Ethernet Switch & Forester F1, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse IC and SE SC, Furutech Digiflux AV: Hegel C-53, Marantz AV8802A, Oppo BDP-203EU, Pioneer Kuro 60", Vivid Audio C1 & V1w's, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse, SE & E Second system (veranda): Halgorythme preamp and monoblocks, Burmester 061, Avalon Avatar, Sharkwire & Wireworld cables Last edited by bart; 11-25-2020 at 05:00 PM. |
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I seem to be coming back to this album. Fascinating!
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Stereo: Hegel H590, Grimm Audio MU1, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Burmester 948 - V3 & V6 racks, Vivid Audio G2 Giyas, REL Carbon Special (pair), Silent Angel Bonn N8 Ethernet Switch & Forester F1, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse IC and SE SC, Furutech Digiflux AV: Hegel C-53, Marantz AV8802A, Oppo BDP-203EU, Pioneer Kuro 60", Vivid Audio C1 & V1w's, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse, SE & E Second system (veranda): Halgorythme preamp and monoblocks, Burmester 061, Avalon Avatar, Sharkwire & Wireworld cables |
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Saint-Saëns: Sonates & Trio
Renaud Capuçon (violin), Edgar Moreau (cello), Bertrand Chamayou (piano) Erato (2020), via Qobuz From this week’s Presto newsletter. A very nice new release.
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Tony D'Agostino Momentum S250 MxV & HD pre; Linn Klimax Organik DSM, SonicTransporter, EtherRegen; Acoustic Signature Typhoon Neo, Koetsu RSP, Boulder 1108; Sf Il Cremonese; Shunyata Everest, Altaira, Sigma & Alpha v2 |
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John Dowland - Complete Solo Lute Music
Jakob Lindberg via Qobuz This 4h 20' set is so relaxing. I don't exaggerate when I say I've played this more than 50 times already. Today it was in the practice.
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Stereo: Hegel H590, Grimm Audio MU1, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Burmester 948 - V3 & V6 racks, Vivid Audio G2 Giyas, REL Carbon Special (pair), Silent Angel Bonn N8 Ethernet Switch & Forester F1, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse IC and SE SC, Furutech Digiflux AV: Hegel C-53, Marantz AV8802A, Oppo BDP-203EU, Pioneer Kuro 60", Vivid Audio C1 & V1w's, Wireworld Platinum Eclipse, SE & E Second system (veranda): Halgorythme preamp and monoblocks, Burmester 061, Avalon Avatar, Sharkwire & Wireworld cables |
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I enjoyed this one.
Composer Józef Koffler was the first Polish champion of Schoenberg's 12-tone system and a modernist whose work, based on this fascinating transcription of Bach's Goldberg Variations for harpsichord, BWV 988, is likely to be worth further investigation. He ran afoul of Stalin's Soviet Union and then, worse, of the Germans when they took over Poland, and he disappeared in the Holocaust. The Goldberg arrangement, composed in 1938, was perhaps intended as something palatable to Soviet conservatives, but it is in no way done by the numbers. For one thing, when Koffler composed the work, the Goldberg Variations were quite new in the public consciousness; they had received their first recording, from harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, just five years earlier. Koffler's version, for a small orchestra of strings and winds, was forgotten and was premiered only in 2019, by many of the forces on this recording: it is extremely artfully done. Koffler deploys his ensemble, generally speaking, in three different ways: with the strings taking Bach's melody line, with wind-and-strings atomization of the melody, and with counterpoint mainly in the winds. He is inspired by the broadly tripartite structure of the variations, with canons mostly making up every third variation, but he departs from this where Bach does, and the entire set retains the unity and growth of the original, with complexity and expressivity growing as if inevitably as the music proceeds. The work would make an ideal complement in concert to Anton Webern's arrangement of the fugue from Bach's Musical Offering, BWV 1079. Historical performance veteran Trevor Pinnock leads a mixed ensemble of young musicians, consisting of members of the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble and students at the Glenn Gould School in Canada, and they play with precision and a fine edge. The Linn label delivers superbly detailed sound from the Britten Studio in Snape Maltings, UK, and the album graphics, showing a Chagall-like shtetl painting by the similarly doomed artist Chara Kowalska, are haunting. A unique release, fully deserving of the commercial success it has received. |
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