What are you currently listening to (Classical)?

[Rushton]

Open Gate Concert, De TUIN, Irene Verburg, Nemes László Norbert, Netherlands Mixed Youth Choir. Hunnia Records 2025 (Pure DSD256, Stereo) Review HERE

If you love good choral music programs, here is a delightful album for you to consider. The music is diverse, from Hildegard von Bingen, to traditional Armenian, Dutch, Finnish, and Swedish songs, to Bartok, to a modern French chanson made famous by Edith Piaf, to Lennon/McCartney’s Blackbird.

What I find remarkable about this recording, and enjoy so much, is its utter clarity. The Pure DSD256 recording shines in capturing this level of detail while sounding supremely natural and well-balanced in this nicely reverberant performance space. The timbre of the voices is presented beautifully, with individual voices clearly differentiated.

 

[Rushton]

Do you ever find something in your music library that you've not listened to in years, but it is just calling to you to listen today. That is me with this great performance of Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde, the last recording of three made by Bruno Walter in 1960 and his best, imo.

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde - Bruno Walter conducts the New York Philharmonic. HDTT 1960, 2017 (Pure DSD128) HERE
Recorded by Columbia Records Manhattan Center, New York City, April 18 & 25, 1960

If you’re not familiar with this work, Mahler composed it between 1908 and 1909. Described as a symphony when published, it consists of six songs for two singers who take turns singing the songs. It can be performed by a tenor and baritone substituting for the mezzo-soprano, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau did very creditable performances with Kletzki and Bernstein, but I prefer use of the mezzo-soprano. And in this recording we have the American classical mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller who does an admirable job, giving a fittingly serene and understated performance, more like Lieder and less operatic.

 

[Rushton]

This recording by Rachel Podger and her Brecon Baroque is one to which I keep returning. Released earlier this year, Jared Sacks recorded this with DSD256 tracking channels and then mixed it is DXD. Since the DXD 32-bit file is the edit master, that is what I download for listening on our primary system. For Ann's office system, I additionally get the DSD256 release because that sounds better on the DAC in that system. While just a single composer, HIF Biber was inventive and her selections here are varied and most enjoyable. The sound quality is everything you would expect of a Jared Sacks recording. If music of the Baroque is music you enjoy, this is a great album to add to your library, imo.


Just Biber, Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque. Channel Classics 2025 (DSD256, 32-bit DXD, Stereo, MCh) Edit Master Sourced Review HERE

 

[pleroma]

 

[andolink]

3 recordings I've been enjoying very much lately - -

 

[Rushton]

The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble's Suite for a Three Penny Opera is very nicely done. Great recommendation to share!

Not to tread on this nice thread for classical music in all formats, some of you with an interest in high resolution DXD and DSD256 might find the recently started thread "Outstanding Pure DSD256 Downloads with some DXD thrown in..." of interest. While not limited to classical, the conversation is probably 80-90% classical. And a nice segment started up the other day on sharing some of you favorite classical albums for both music and sound quality, beginning here:

Outstanding Pure DSD256 Downloads with some DXD thrown in...

The opne thing it is missing? Compression. There is no compression, the dynamics are completely wide open and unconstrained. Gonzalo considers no compression to be a virtue for any true high resolution recording. Of course, compression is ubiquitous for commercial releases from other labels. No...

www.whatsbestforum.com

There are other classical recording mentioned ealier, but the posts following this include a whole truckload. Hope you check this out and enjoy.

 

[pleroma]

One more post for now, only because the piano concerto is so good!

 

[ravenacustic]

This recording by Rachel Podger and her Brecon Baroque is one to which I keep returning. Released earlier this year, Jared Sacks recorded this with DSD256 tracking channels and then mixed it is DXD. Since the DXD 32-bit file is the edit master, that is what I download for listening on our primary system. For Ann's office system, I additionally get the DSD256 release because that sounds better on the DAC in that system. While just a single composer, HIF Biber was inventive and her selections here are varied and most enjoyable. The sound quality is everything you would expect of a Jared Sacks recording. If music of the Baroque is music you enjoy, this is a great album to add to your library, imo.


Just Biber, Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque. Channel Classics 2025 (DSD256, 32-bit DXD, Stereo, MCh) Edit Master Sourced Review HERE

I will be hearing Rachel Podger performing this coming season in an Early Music Concert in San Diego.

 

[ravenacustic]

The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble's Suite for a Three Penny Opera is very nicely done. Great recommendation to share!

Not to tread on this nice thread for classical music in all formats, some of you with an interest in high resolution DXD and DSD256 might find the recently started thread "Outstanding Pure DSD256 Downloads with some DXD thrown in..." of interest. While not limited to classical, the conversation is probably 80-90% classical. And a nice segment started up the other day on sharing some of you favorite classical albums for both music and sound quality, beginning here:

Outstanding Pure DSD256 Downloads with some DXD thrown in...

The opne thing it is missing? Compression. There is no compression, the dynamics are completely wide open and unconstrained. Gonzalo considers no compression to be a virtue for any true high resolution recording. Of course, compression is ubiquitous for commercial releases from other labels. No...

www.whatsbestforum.com

There are other classical recording mentioned ealier, but the posts following this include a whole truckload. Hope you check this out and enjoy.

I will be hearing Podger at an early music concert in San Diego this coming season.

 

[ravenacustic]

3 recordings I've been enjoying very much lately - -

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I have streamed the Biber. Excellent recording and performance.

 

[flez007]

I just finished Bruckner 4th (Romantic) in E-Flat Major directed by Eugen Jochum (1982)

 

[ravenacustic]

I just finished Bruckner 4th (Romantic) in E-Flat Major directed by Eugen Jochum (1982)

The Bruckner 4th played by the Vienna Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall always sent me home to pull the plug on my system because that sound showed me how far from the real thing audio reproduction is.

 

[pleroma]

 

[pleroma]

Cantus Arcticus - III. Swans Migrating

 

[Rushton]

From the booklet: “At once sensual and existential, this collection of songs—composed across 125 years—meditates on nature and nostalgia, sex and love, the ephemerality of the human spirit, and the eternal, transformative power of art. These song cycles of Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, George Crumb, and Robert Spano coalesce into a testament to the limitless potency and fragility of love—both its resplendent joys and its tender sorrows.”

Nicely performed. Nicely recorded by Daniel Shores in the Sono Luminus studio in Boyce, VA.

 

[andolink]

Enjoying my two most recent acquisitions - -

 

[Rushton]

I've always enjoyed the music of Franz Benda -- glad to see more of it being recorded and released.

 

[Rushton]

Playing now… Enjoying this so far. Nice performances, well recorded.

 

[ravenacustic]

Playing now… Enjoying this so far. Nice performances, well recorded.

Yes Rush I played one of these last night. Very nice recording and performance.

 

[Rushton]

Yes Rush I played one of these last night. Very nice recording and performance.

Long time! Glad to know that you are reading and posting on WBF.