What are you listening to?

[Jared]

I'm home early from work today; I was sitting in the front room with my lovely wife and Veronica said to me "put on something I'd like", so I did and she does and in surround sound too:



Gustav Mahler
Symphony no. 3
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Michelle DeYoung (Mezzo Soprano)
Bernard Haitink - conducting.

lovely post, Sean... the picture you paint simply couldn't be a better start to the weekend..

Eton Choirbook Vol IV: 'The Flower of all Virginity'.

[Jose Echenique]

The soloists are nowhere as good as in the Solti recording, and Boulez is his usual clinical, analytical self, but I still enjoyed the discipline and sense of purpose of the performance.

A few years ago I bought a copy of Boulez's Mahler 2 with the VPO and I do not like it so I have given his Mahler recordings a wide berth ever since.

Of Boulez Mahler cycle I´d say that the 6th and the 8th are the only 2 worth hearing, perhaps you won´t love them, but they are not negligible either, The Resurrection was not good at all.

[fergus]

This was a very enjoyable listen. The music was very entertaining, moved along briskly and was well played (as one would expect from Concerto Italiano) and sung.

[Jared]

If I don't post in this thread for a little while, it is because whilst I have the Victoria and Eton Choirbook still under consideration, I have just embarked on a major new project, which will probably last for the next 3 weeks or so.. namely familiarisation with:



... partial as I am to a bit of Haydn, as you all know. Anyway, if you're wondering what I'm listening to, it will almost certainly be one of these 62 beauties, or variations... or indeed the piano version of The Seven Last Words...

[fergus]

... partial as I am to a bit of Haydn, as you all know. Anyway, if you're wondering what I'm listening to, it will almost certainly be one of these 62 beauties, or variations... or indeed the piano version of The Seven Last Words...

I have a different set of those works Jared so I am sure that you will find them captivating. Enjoy your odyssey.

[Jose Echenique]

Tomorrow I´ll go to a recital with dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt. You may remember her as the soprano Covent Garden dumped because she was too fat to wear a little black dress in their production of Ariadne auf Naxos a few years ago. Voigt had surgery and lost a lot of weight after that, and unfortunately she also lost some of her powerful voice. I heard her just last year in the MET singing Puccini´s La Fanciulla del West and the voice was unrecognizable, a ghost of it´s former glory. I heard she wasn´t too bad in last month Götterdämmerung at the MET, let´s see if she recovered.
In this Wagner and Strauss cd she can still be heard at her considerable best.

[bombasticDarren]

Prokofiev - Cello Sonata (Lynn Harrell/Vladimir Ashkenazy, Decca)

[bombasticDarren]

Rachmaninoff - Cello Sonata (Lynn Harrell/Vladimir Ashkenazy, Decca)

That one would hold some interest for me Darren.

Me too.

I have very few chamber pieces by the great 20th century Russian composers - I though this would be a good sampler. It is really fine so far and I would urge you to try it - also contains the Shostakovich Piano Quinet (a piece that I love...)

[bombasticDarren]

Dmitry Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1
WDR Sinfonie Orchester Köln
Rudolf Barshai - conducting.

A set that I own, but am saving for a rainy day. Looking forward to working my way through it in due course...

[bombasticDarren]

The soloists are nowhere as good as in the Solti recording, and Boulez is his usual clinical, analytical self, but I still enjoyed the discipline and sense of purpose of the performance.

A few years ago I bought a copy of Boulez's Mahler 2 with the VPO and I do not like it so I have given his Mahler recordings a wide berth ever since.

I like his 6th and 7th symphony readings greatly, the 8th came with high praise but didn't appeal to me. His DLvdE is very good, but perhaps an acquired taste

I notice Amazon are trailing a boxed set of his (now complete) DG Mahler recordings. Interesting....