What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Antonmb]

Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 2 - KV 80, KV 458 (The Hunt), KV 499 (Hoffmeister Quartet)
Armida Quartett
CAvi Music (2019), via Qobuz

Very nice recording.

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[jimtranr]

CD rip. Delightful program in excellent sound.

[Antonmb]

Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 3 - K. 155, 168, 172, 387, 575, 590
Armida Quartett
CAvi Music (2020), via Qobuz

More Mozart from Armida. This is an excellent recording and great performances.

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[jimtranr]

CD rip.

[Antonmb]

Beethoven: Piano Trios Vol. 1
Van Baerle Trio
Challenge Classics, 2017, via Qobuz

My go-to has been the Borodin Trio. These performances have better sound and are a bit crisper pacing, the Borodin has a more relaxed flow. Very enjoyable.

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[ehoove]

La Mer
Debussy
Don Juan
Strauss
Chicago Symphony
Carl Reiner Conducting
Excellent Living Stereo from 1961
RCA Victor LSC-2462
Regards,
Jim

[jimtranr]

Marc-Andre Hamelin performs twenty piano miniatures by mostly "obscure" pianist-composers (including the pianist himself).

[bart]

Lise Davidsen
Beethoven - Wagner -Verdi
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder
Qobuz 24/96




New release.
First listen.
We liked this.
Beautiful voice.
Elder is a composer we've seen live with the Hallé Orchestra.
I think he's one of the best conductors nowadays.

For her second recital, soprano Lise Davidsen offers a more aesthetically varied repertoire than her first, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In this previous outing, she tackled some Wagner arias (Tannhäuser) and pages by Richard Strauss, including the Vier letzte Lieder – Qobuzissime. Here she remains in the midst of the nineteenth century, covering Beethoven's dramatic Ah Perfido! as well as Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, and including some of the hits of Italian Romantic opera, such as Pace, pace, mio Dio from La Forza del destino or Ave Maria, piena di grazia from Otello (Verdi). Cherubini's extract from Medea is included almost for its curiosity value! Throughout this recital, which is perhaps more satisfying than the first, a very attentive Sir Mark Elder weaves an orchestral backdrop of great finesse, which allow his soprano (Wagner) to shine. Yet one feels that he needs the stage, and a live audience, to be able to work all of his magic, a bit like Leonie Rysanek once did. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

[bart]

Copland / Bernstein / Rózsa - A Clarinet in America
Alexander Fiterstein
English Chamber Orchestra, Chris Hopkins
Qobuz 24/96




Wonderful album.
Copland's Clarinet Concerto is one of my favourite works for the instrument (originally written for Benny Goodman).
The other pieces are also excellent, the clarinet is well recorded, as are the other musicians.


The clarinet has long been embraced by American composers for its jauntiness and jazzy flexibility (think of that slide opening Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue), qualities heard in abundance on this album. We hear Leonard Bernstein’s Cuban-influenced Sonata, and the Sonatina by Budapest-born Miklós Rózsa, who made his name as a Hollywood movie composer.

These pieces are bookended by two Aaron Copland works, his Concerto, writen for American jazz clarinettist and ‘King of Swing’, Benny Goodman, and his Sonata. Fiterstein’s playing with the Tesla Quartet was praised by "The Arts Des"k as “impressive” and “heart-stopping”. "The Washington Post" described his playing as “dazzling in its spectrum of colours, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness” and "The New York Times" described him as “a clarinettist with a warm tone and powerful technique”. © Orchid Classics

[bart]

Forqueray - Forqueray Unchained
André Lislevand
Jadran Duncumb
Paola Erdas
Qobuz 24/96




Well done!
Lislevand is still so young (28), but already a big name in ancient music.
He also did the production, sound engineering and editing.
Pieces from Forqueray, but also De Visée, Marais, Couperin.