What are you listening to?

[fergus]

Good for you. I have a voucher for amazon.fr and I am tempted to get a copy of the Kempe Strauss set, I really enjoyed listening to Don Quixote so I am keen to go back for more, I don't have any Kempe recordings either, but perhaps I should buy Bach instead? Dunno!

The Kempe set is very good Seán.

[Jose Echenique]

The "concertante symphony" was a French specialty, and even though we now better remember the form thanks to the 2 glorious Mozart symphonies, the French composed quite a few.
In this valuable cd we get several examples of the genre at the time of the Concert Spirituel. Gossec and Grétry are the better known names, but the works of Pieltain and Gresnick are also very enjoyable.
The performances couldn´t be better, the stylish Belgian ensemble Les Agrémens is marvelous, and with the likes of Patrick Cohën-Akenine in the violin and master clarinetist Eric Hoeprich virtuosity is guaranteed.

[Jose Echenique]

This is an excellent cd to accompany the one above to get the full picture of music in Paris at the time of the French Revolution. The Grand Motet was also a French specialty, but of course it´s much older than the concertante symphony. Examples can be found as far back as the early XVII Century, but here we get some of the latter works before the genre disappeared in the early XIX Century.

[Jose Echenique]

Exquisite.

[Jose Echenique]

This is exquisite too of course. The singing of the Monteverdi Choir superb in all departments, what one misses is a boy´s choir, what Bach heard and obviously expected. I´m sure he would have been impressed with Gardiner´s marvelous ensemble, but being the traditionalist that he was, I wouldn´t be too sure that he wouldn´t have still preferred the children sound.

[Diapason]

I don't get that album cover at all. Am I missing something?

[Jose Echenique]

I don't get that album cover at all. Am I missing something?

Maybe Isabella Gardiner is looking after the money and didn´t want to spend in an expensive designer.

[fergus]

This is very fine music that is very well played and Quintet No. 2 is definitely my favourite.

[Jared]

I don't get that album cover at all. Am I missing something?

Maybe Isabella Gardiner is looking after the money and didn´t want to spend in an expensive designer.

Funnily enough, I tend to prefer those esoteric covers. I don't know whether I'm the only one who feels this, but I feel the CM world has become far too 'personality driven' over the past decade or so; it's like you aren't capable of releasing an album containing two Violin Concertos unless you're in your early 20's, gorgeous and wearing an evening dress. What would have happened to Arthur Grumaiux's career if he was starting out now?

[Jared]

Now, here might actually be a Chopin disk for those who don't get on with Chopin. Why? Well, its a disk of the two Piano Concertos performed for what is to all intents and purposes, a Piano Sextet. We have Piano, Violin x2, Viola, Cello and Double Bass which perform these pieces for stripped down chamber orchestra, and in my view it works very well. I think the problem many have with the Chopin PCs is the fact that the orchestra is very much subjugated to (erm, second fiddle? 'scuse me!), to such a dgree that they are merely a backing accompaniment. No-where is this more striking than in the famous Argerich/ Dutoit recording which acts as nothing more than a delightful showpiece for Argerich's genius, whilst I'm not sure why the Montreal actually bothered to show up:



Now with the Chamber version, yes the piano is always going to be in the fore, but other instruments are allowed to intermittently shine in a way I've not heard before, giving the pieces a better framework to appreciate... certainly worth a listen, in my view.