What are you listening today and WHY – Only one rule, see first post

[simorag]

Strings Theory

Here is a gorgeous list of albums featuring strings in wildly variegated settings, exploring diverse colors, musical styles and conceptions of harmony.

Anomaly, the debut of the young UK Sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun is a joy for the ears. His sitar is the main character of the album, but the rich list of guest accompanying him provides additional layers of contamination and emotion and make the listening of this skillfully engineered recording especially immersive.

A more intimate experience comes from this Jordanian / Greek, violin / lute duo. Also in this case, Eastern and Western, folkloristic, classical and modern suggestions are intertwined. The interaction is almost improvisatory, with beautifully lyrical passages and more rytmically alive, almost recitative and declamatory. The recorded sound is full, warm, with a tasteful, naturalistic balance of stereo separation and connecting tissue between the performers.

Getting back to western culture, Haydn seems the ideal landing spot, as possibly the father of the classical quartet, which he took from a somewhat subdued entertainment form for the court to a highly expressive and sophisticated musical language, spreading his influence for centuries. Opus 20 n. 5 is one of my favorites and this performance is blessed by a very organic, smooth timbre, and a pleasing weight of the cello.

 

[treitz3]

@simorag - thanks for that first suggestion. I am listening to it now and while different? I can dig it!

Tom

 

[Bloomie]

Synth-pop, Disco, Nu-Funk with a SERIOUS George Michael ViBE!!!!
Apply SERIOUS CRANK and get your badass down on the dance floor.

So wonderfully retro and simultaneously timely.

 

[A-Line]

Because classical piano is good for the soul

 

[A-Line]

Live Streaming Flamenco Radio right now located in Seville,Spain.

I find Spanish Gypsy guitar & music fascinating, especially with all of the Spanish dancers at live performances. Much different than classical guitar which I also like.
It all started with me buying my first Carlos Montoya record many many years ago.

 

[Al M.]

This 80 minute symphony in this interpretation and recording, my favorite one, is exciting as hell.

It was written by Olivier Messiaen between 1946 and 1948 as a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and ranks as one of the towering symphonic achievements of the 20th century.

The symphony is written for large orchestra. It is an explosion of orchestral color, in a seductive blend of instrumental color and harmonies that Messiaen was a master of. The music is immensely varied, but there are common themes pervading many of the 10 movements. The music, singing of joy, passion and love, is often excited in its mood, while there are many pensive, mysterious moments as well.

In the fifth movement "Joie du sang de etoiles" (Joy in the Blood of the Stars) the diverse phrases follow each other with great speed, yet the musical logic is at the same time imaginative, tight and compelling. In stark contrast to that great speed of action, the music in the following "Jardin du sommeil d'amour" (Garden of the Sleep of Love) is dreamily slow and revels in subtleties.

The polyphony is often extraordinarily complex. If you have a system that can cleanly separate instrumental strands you are in for a treat. This recording gives you an exceptionally transparent window into the complex score without reading it.

The judgment of tempi and phrasing by the conductor Antoni Wit is excellent, and the playing by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra is phenomenal in its precision, powerful passion and refinement. A world class orchestra. I have seen them live in Prague in 2012, an unforgettable experience. The prominent piano part is brilliantly played by Francois Weigel, and Thomas Bloch shows great competence on the Ondes Martenot.

The recording exudes dynamics and energy. It also captures hall ambience extremely well. There is great spatial layering of instruments from front to back of the stage, and especially towards the back there is a luminous halo around the instruments, caused by hall reflections, which acoustically lights up the space.

I have listened to the symphony again 3 times over the last few days and it keeps being exciting and rewarding, with each time allowing me to uncover its musical secrets and details more closely. I have also heard the symphony twice live, recently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons and Yuya Wang on the piano, and one time in the early 90s in The Netherlands in Vredenburg, Utrecht.

 

[ssfas]

This seems to be a @simorag thread and a good thing as we seem to share pleasure in certain recordings, some below, but he also listed Savall's recording of Septem Verba Christi in Cruce, I remember when it came out and it's one of his very best.


He listed the Dante piece by Thomas Ades, I've not heard the recording, but I have seen the ballet twice, once conducted by Thomas Ades when it was first produced about 3 years ago and this year conducted by Koen Kessels. It's quite an epic piece, with great designs by Tacita Dean. Due to the cost of these things, it was a co-production between the LA Phil, Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet.

Anyway, I read about this chap Uriel Herman, who was a touring classical pianist. He tells the story that he was often told off by teachers for improvising Chopin and the like, so he gave up classical and formed a jazz band and now does what he likes. And he does it brilliantly. He signed with a London label called Ubuntu Music and made this album, which I streamed and loved it. His manager persuaded Ronnie Scott's to give him an early slot on a Tuesday evening, so the wife and I went along - and he brought the house down! And he played variations on Chopin. What an evening, and his band was joined by a fantastic trumpeter called Yefrim Valdes. His Bowie encore was a hoot.

Two weeks later war broke out in Israel and he told me had to cancel a tour of South America, because it was not fair on his wife as they have a small son, only about 2 years old. Well worth looking out for.

The Uriel Herman Quartet dazzle at Ronnie Scott’s

The acclaimed Israeli pianist put on an enchanting show featuring guest trumpeter Yelfris Valdés

www.jazzwise.com

 

[Balle Clorin]

A great guitarists and good guy who died suddenly and too young in car accident 26 years ago.
I was going back in my musical history and had forgotten how great he was. The reason for revisiting old songs was that I had my childhood friend visiting for New Year’s . he’s has got Alzheimer for 6 years now and talking is difficult but we can still enjoy music together, he played in a band too but now he can only hum along … but he likes to hear the old stuff we used to listen to as students together.

Marius Müller (musician) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Bloomie]

I have no idea why Warner Classics does what it does, and I am NOT complaining. No sir. No indeed. I marvel at their exquisite taste, and this repackaging of The Great Cello Concertos by Jacqueline du Pre have made its way to us/me in 2025 as a SACD release.

With it being Jacqueline, along with the likes of John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent, and Daniel Barenboim, is a "WHY" even necessary? She was taken from us far too young. My late uncle, who turned me on to classical music and Hi-Fi in my early teens, was such a fan and had all of her recordings on GRUNDIG open reels. He was in the merchant marines and would play the tapes shipboard, when NOT on duty.

 

[Republicoftexas69]

Because I am in a trippy mood.

 

[metei]

I have no idea why Warner Classics does what it does, and I am NOT complaining. No sir. No indeed. I marvel at their exquisite taste, and this repackaging of The Great Cello Concertos by Jacqueline du Pre have made its way to us/me in 2025 as a SACD release.

With it being Jacqueline, along with the likes of John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent, and Daniel Barenboim, is a "WHY" even necessary? She was taken from us far too young. My late uncle, who turned me on to classical music and Hi-Fi in my early teens, was such a fan and had all of her recordings on GRUNDIG open reels. He was in the merchant marines and would play the tapes shipboard, when NOT on duty.


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My new SACD player just arrived, to celebrate it, I ordered a few albums, one of them is this one. Closed that tab, opened WB and saw Your post :]]

 

[simorag]

A magnificent Mahler 5th performance, and a spectacular recording.

All the contrasts, being emotional, dynamics, textural, are magisterially rendered by the conductor, the marvelous orchestra, the acoustics of the hall, and the sound engineering.

It is generally on the austere side, almost solemn at times, but it does not miss the tragic, the grotesque, the sensuous and the fragile moments, that are presented in an organic (i.e. not too disjointed or episodic as it sometimes happens), hence even more cogent, fashion.

 

[simorag]

.. and this is one of my all-time favorite albums... I don't find here the glacial Michelangeli that is sometimes portrayed. The emotion is there, but it's delivered with composed elegance, with all the dedication to the quality/purity of sound that is typical of ABM. These mazurkas lack nothing: the rhapsodic touch, the dance, the melancholy, the episodes of near-desperation. A microcosm I always dive into for new discoveries.

 

[simorag]

This music seems suspended between dream and reality. It seems to have no propulsive intent, yet it makes you travel. It is never overtly affirmative, yet it has a talkative side. It combines levity, profundity, dance, introspection in such a delicate, pudic way that it makes the listening experience so private and moving.

 

[Lynnot]

For the last few decades summers have been getting hotter here in Europe. On a Sun(ny)day like today here in Westphalia, with temperatures between 80° and 90° F, I prefer a calm, unobtrusive Bossa Nova tune

 

[Al M.]

This music seems suspended between dream and reality. It seems to have no propulsive intent, yet it makes you travel. It is never overtly affirmative, yet it has a talkative side. It combines levity, profundity, dance, introspection in such a delicate, pudic way that it makes the listening experience so private and moving.

View attachment 156029

Thank you very much for this recommendation! I found your description wonderful and very apt. It certainly applies well to the 45-minute cycle of pieces, 'On an Overgrown Path' and to 'In the Mists'.

I find the entire album incredibly engaging music, magnificently composed. I find the two mentioned pieces in particular enchanting, while the others have their excitement as well.. The rich, warm, resonant tone of the piano adds to the enjoyment of the music.

It just so happens that I was in the Janacek Memorial House in Brno (Czechia) this summer:

Leoš Janáček - Janáček Memorial House | leosjanacek

In the footsteps of Leoš Janáček in Brno. Janáček's Memorial House

www.leosjanacek.eu

We drove the two hours from Vienna to Brno because my sister, who is a biologist and fan of Gregor Mendel, wanted to see the Gregor Mendel Museum. While there we discovered that there is also this Janacek House, which we visited as the last destination in the afternoon before driving back. The next post has a few pictures from there that I took, from the entrance and then from the music room.

 

[Al M.]

 

[marty]

I haven't revisited this thread in a while but so glad I did today. Its value, as the directive states in the OP, are the comments as to why the music/sound resonates so deeply with the poster. It is that info which often makes it an album I want to hear. My ire for the numb nuts who continually post only pictures of album covers knows bounds. Why not just post pictures of every album ever recorded? What a waste of everyone's time. Some folks publish their comments regarding the music regularly in other threads (i.e.@Yuen A). I wish everyone did that.

Since Mahler 5 has been discussed by several listeners in this thread, I'd suggest listening to David Hurwitz's sharp review of several M5's here:

This critique is about 5 years old so there are some newer versions he does not mention. But what Hurwitz does is obey the directive of the OP impeccably by providing the specific reasons why some performances light him up whereas others do not (and he does not spare words as to why!). Most importantly, I never fail to learn something from his critiques which I can then take to heart and thanks to the miracle of streaming, basically listen to them for free to see if his views and mine are in alignment.They often are, but occasionally are not. Not unexpected. See what you think!

 

[LL21]

Hi Marty! Listening to the Rachmaninov Symphonies by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra after happening to come across it online and then decided to read up and also saw D Hurwitz review which was categorically positive.

Was discussing composers (new and older) and soundtrack vs classical. Then climactic endings of these symphonies come quite close to soundtracks.

 

[marty]

Lloyd, I lived in St. Louis from 1990-2002 and was a regular at the St. Louis Symphony when Slatkin was their conductor from1979-1996. He put the St. Louis Symphony "on the map" as a very solid national orchestra. (Powell Hall's sonics were world class). He was replaced by the Dutch conductor Hans Vonk until 2002 who unfortunately passed away from ALS in 2004. Slatkin was a popular conductor although some criticized him as being "too Hollywood" as he reminded many of his father, Felix who conducted at Twentieth Century Fox studios and was Sinatra's conductor during his Capitol Record years. I thought Slatkin was very competent and enjoyable. He was also surprisingly, a pretty good Mahlerian although was noted mostly for conducting and championing American composers (Copland, Barber, Ives, Bernstein, William Schuman, John Adams). Frankly, nobody ever played Gershwin's American in Paris or Sousa marches any better than he did. However, to this day, if I hear Barber's Adagio for Strings again, it will be too soon! (He loved playing Barber!)