What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Jéliote, haute-contre de Rameau
Reinoud van Mechelen
A Nocte Temporis
Qobuz 24/96




I'm quite fond of van Mechelen's voice.
This album adds to his many very fine releases of last years.

Reinoud van Mechelen and his ensemble A Nocte Temporis continue their "Haute-Contre Trilogy" with Rameau’s favourite singer, Pierre de Jéliote, probably the finest haute-contre in history (Reminder: this is a high tenor voice, not to be confused with the countertenor!). Rameau wrote an enormous amount of music for Jéliote, who was not only a singer but also a guitarist, a cellist and even a composer. The album pays tribute to this native of the Béarn region, who was born in 1713 and died at the ripe old age of eighty-four, with a selection of airs by Rameau (from Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Platée, Castor et Pollux, Les Boréades) but also by Dauvergne, Colin de Blamont, Mondonville, Rebel and Francoeur. Though some are well known, others are much more rarely performed today. © Alpha Classics

[bart]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

Mozart & Contemporaries
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
DG (2021), via Qobuz

I’m very much enjoying this recording from Olafsson, which came up in Presto’s recommended releases this week.

Originally Posted by bart

Wonderful, isn't it.
He's a brilliant player.
His 'toucher', as we say here, is one of the best in the world.
Sound is good too (24/192).

Already giving this another go.
One of the best releases of the last months for sure!

[bart]

Janine Jansen
Antonio Pappano - 12 Stradivari
Qobuz 24/96




This accompanied some administrative work.
We liked it.

[Antonmb]

Bach: Aufs Lautenwerk - Well-Tempered Guitar
Daniel Lippel
Microfest Records (2021), via Qobuz

Lippel performs on a movable fret guitar to produce a “well tempered” tuning similar to a lautenwerk, a keyboard instrument with gut strings. The tone of this instrument is gorgeous, highly recommended. Here’s from ClassicsToday:

“The difficulties of playing these works on the lute–or guitar–are notorious, but unless you’re a serious student of this repertoire, all you will notice here is how easy and natural Lippel makes everything sound. And speaking of sound, it couldn’t be better in its detail and in the way we are situated relative to the instrument–just the right distance to fully appreciate the marvelous tone, and to enjoy the satisfying few moments of a richly-resonant chord as it dies away.”

IMG_3914.jpg

[bart]

J.S. Bach - Brandenburg Concertos
Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin
Isabelle Faust
Antoine Tamestit
via Qobuz




These are some of my favourite works, brought by one of my favourite ensembles, with one of the best violinists in my opinion.
This is an absolute top performance!
I'm on duty for the moment, so it's via a Dali Katch (which actually sounds decent), but it won't be long until I listen to the 24/192 stream on our living room system!


Buoyancy, elegance, crisp rhythmics, precise articulation, bristling timbres… All modes of description that I’m likely to have at some point used to outline the strengths of a Bach Brandenburgs release, when not only do new recordings of this famous Köthen-composed set appear with a steady regularity, but when there’s also a consistency to both the performance standards, and the performance style and decisions that you’ll hear across especially the more recent offerings. Not because Historically Informed Performance ensembles have no imagination, but because Bach was in fact incredibly precise about what he wanted, meaning very little has been left to the imagination. Also because Baroque performances these days are all able to draw on the received wisdom of what is now decades of HIP scholarship and practice.

All that said, this new offering from the Akademie fűr Alte Musik Berlin under its concertmasters Georg Kallweit and Bernhard Forck, feels different. For starters it’s different to the ensemble’s earlier Brandenburgs recording, which now is almost twenty-five years old. Partly this is down to tools, when a quarter of a century ago the instrument-making world hadn’t quite caught up with period performance no longer being a niche enterprise, meaning fewer high-class period copies to be found, and thus more mediocre instruments sitting in the world’s baroque bands. Then it’s also partly due to a change in the continuo department, because this time there’s no double bass – a reflection of the belief that, at time of composition, the “violone grosso” was yet to arrive in Köthen.

Yet it’s not just a matter of lighter continuo textures or an orchestra of top-drawer instruments. Or even of the range of light and shade the orchestra are bringing to their colouring. More, it’s the sense of joyous intimacy and excitement radiating from absolutely everyone, combined with the sheer effortless of the virtuosity you’re hearing at every fresh turn. No doubt this is due in no small part to the presence of the ensemble’s longtime collaborator, violinist Isabelle Faust, and its recent new collaborator violist Antoine Tamestit; because while theirs are hardly “prima donna” star turns (after all, these are democratic, multi-instrument concertos, and Faust and Tamestit have correspondingly submerged themselves into the ensemble), it’s also true that Faust’s solo pyrotechnics in No. 4, and her lovely interplay with the recorders, had me wanting to rewind; and that No. 6 for two violas, two gambas and obligato cello is especially ringing with tonal beauty and sprightly vim. What’s more, the aforementioned lack of double bass has yielded a concluding Allegro for No. 6 that stands as one of the set’s absolute highlights: notably warmly climactic and uplifting, but equally notably light of tread and transparent of texture in a way that’s strikingly, surprisingly successful.

Worth emphasising also is that the sense of occasion is by no means limited to where Faust and Tamestit have their solo turns. For instance, I can’t remember having ever been so captivated by the tonal beauty and shaping of the harpsichord’s virtuosities in No. 5’s opening Allegro as I am here by Raphael Alpermann’s glittering figures.

In short, don’t hesitate. This is superb from start to finish. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

[bart]

Psallentes - Hours of Hildegard
The Dendermonde Codex - First Hour
via Qobuz




This is ideal after a very busy night. I've been working for 26 hours.
Von Bingen always charges my batteries.
Looking forward to the next volumes in this project.

The music of Hildegard of Bingen has come down to us in only two sources. One of these is the manuscript that the German mystic had sent to the monks of Villers Abbey in Brabant. Today it is housed at the Abbey of Dendermonde (Belgium). This album by the Psallentes ensemble, specialized in plainchant, is the first part of planned complete recording of the Dendermonde Codex. © Le Bricoleur

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Another gift from 'Santa Bart':

Arvo Pärt - Da Pacem
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Paul Hillier
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ



Marvelous album; as usual Pärt combines old tradition (polyphony) with modern classical in a splendid way.
This is very accessible music.
I picked it up at a very reasonable price but see that it is 4 times more expensive now...

Originally Posted by bart

We listened to the yearly Klara Top 100 this weekend.
The listeners choose the pieces, so you will find a lot of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven of course, but also Carl Jenkins, Gerschwin, Satie and... Pärt!
As a matter of fact, this year, Pärt's 'Spiegel im Spiegel' took place number one!
These times of confinement apparently bring people closer to their inner self, and calm healing pieces gain popularity.

If you don't know any Pärt, you could start with this album. It's moving.

Listening again to this excellent album.
With the recently added subs, I do hear, or rather sense, some low end information I hadn't noticed before.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Pietro Antonio Locatelli - L'Arte del Violono, opera omnia III
Sandrine Cantoreggi, violin
Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Carlo Jans



I consider this more an interesting curiosity than a really beautiful album.
But Cantoreggi surely plays some tremendous violin and the sound is top notch.

I reconsider.
This is in fact agreeable music, incredibly well played, and well recorded by Bert van der Wolf.

[bart]

Buxtehude - Trio Sonatas Op. 2
Arcangelo
Sophie Gent
Jonathan Manson
Thomas Dunford
Jonathan Cohen
Qobuz 24/96




This was perfect on a sunny Sunday morning!
I missed their first trio album.
Just put it in my list of albums.

When Danish composer and organist Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) is predominantly remembered and celebrated for his organ and vocal repertoire, it’s very easy to entirely overlook the fact that his two Books of Trio Sonatas are considered to represent some of that genre’s finest achievements. Combining the stylus phantasticus – a free-form style which frequently feels improvisatory, but with tighter-constructed fugues also part of the package – with the similar experimental style of the sonata concertata, these works offer chamber ensembles a multitude of ways to shine. Which was exactly what harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen and his versatile ensemble Arcangelo did in 2017 when they chose the first book for their first recording devoted entirely to instrumental chamber music. Now, the good news is that their presentation of the second book is no less enjoyable.

Published in 1696, this Second Book showcases the musical internationalism – Baltic, Italian, German, English, French – flourishing in the north German city of Lübeck, where Buxtehude spent the latter half of his life as organist at its Marienkirche; and indeed of Hamburg, where the book’s type was set. Its seven Sonatas also display Buxtehude’s own individualism: through unusual instrumentation which pairs the violin not with an instrument of the same tessitura, but instead with the lower, darker-toned viola da gamba; the use of “soggetti” themes whose notes are conversions of alphabetical letters, using solfège; the extreme rhythmic complexity.

All of this is satisfyingly brought off by Cohen and his ensemble. Violinist Sophie Gent and gambist Jonathan Manson are eminently sympathetic partners, dovetailing and contrasting with each other as and when required, and gliding and skipping with utter naturalness through their successions of rhythmical googlies. Thomas Dunford’s lute support is sparklingly musical. Equally worthy of mention is Cohen’s carefully matched harpsichord, which is a gorgeously, daintily full and resonant copy of a double manual French model by Pierre Donzelague, who would have worked with Rameau, and whose Flemish-influenced instruments are the earliest extant examples of full-sized compass French harpsichords.

Add impeccable balancing and polished engineering, and it’s all very enjoyable indeed. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Mahler - Symphony no. 4
Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer
Miah Persson, soprano




In the SACD sleeve, I see our tickets of a May '18 concert of this symphony with the BFO, with Christiane Karg as soprano.
It was as always with this orchestra, a memorable experience.
We normally attend 2-3 concerts with the BFO each year.
Unfortunately, last spring everything was cancelled of course.

This SACD is wonderful in all aspects.
The 3-D presentation it offers the closest thing to the live performance we are currently craving.

What a marvellous disc!
Sound is really enveloping.