What are you listening to?

[Jared]

I know exactly where you are coming from with that Jared. I have a recording of that delightful work and Bellini does make that instrument sing in a most delightful and lyrical way. I am delighted that you have discovered it!

well, I do recall you being partial to a bit of oboe, my friend, so I guessed you would have sniffed that one out at some stage!!

[Jose Echenique]

More Wagner from St. Petersburg. It is obvious that the Russians are the "Nouveau Riche", this is a better cast, much better cast indeed, than what the MET offered in their new Walküre. Jonas Kaufmann´s Siegmund is common to both, and what a charismatic and gorgeously sung incestuous twin he is. This is so rare in Wagner these days, a performance sung with real vocal glamour! His sister is almost as good, Anja Kampe as Sieglinde has the power that Wagner demands, but she is also vulnerable and shows a real rapport with Kaufmann. The Hunding is Russian, Mikhail Petrenko, and has one of those rock solid basso voices, but he is not as dangerous sounding as the finest bassos that have recorded the role.
The Brünnhilde is a huge improvement over Deborah Voigt´s disappointing MET performance. Swedish soprano Nina Stemme doesn´t have a huge voice a la Nilsson, she rather recalls Hildegard Behrens, but her Brünnhilde is very satisfying, a very good interpretation indeed. Since these days there are no Heldenbaritons left, Gergiev opted for a Wotan bass, and the best we have in René Pape. This is not usual, other basses have sung the role, the problem is that he sounds too much like Hunding, in fact Pape could have sung a better Hunding than Petrenko, but Wotan doesn´t stretch him, and there is nobility in his portrayal.
The Mariinsky Orchestra now sounds more refined than in their previous recording of Parsifal, and Valery Gergiev knows the score. He has performed The Ring in Russia and elsewhere, he toured NY with the 4 operas a few years ago, and though some have complained that his conducting is not theatrical enough, I can´t hear anything wrong with it. Still, it is SO well sung that it is already an important recording.

[bombasticDarren]

Beethoven - Symphony No.5 (John Nelson, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Naive)

[bombasticDarren]

^^ is it you who'll be financing the redecs Darren, or do you have a nice landlord?

It's being imposed on me and is 'essential', so there's no cost to me

[mcq]

More Wagner from St. Petersburg. It is obvious that the Russians are the "Nouveau Riche", this is a better cast, much better cast indeed, than what the MET offered in their new Walküre. Jonas Kaufmann´s Siegmund is common to both, and what a charismatic and gorgeously sung incestuous twin he is. This is so rare in Wagner these days, a performance sung with real vocal glamour! His sister is almost as good, Anja Kampe as Sieglinde has the power that Wagner demands, but she is also vulnerable and shows a real rapport with Kaufmann. The Hunding is Russian, Mikhail Petrenko, and has one of those rock solid basso voices, but he is not as dangerous sounding as the finest bassos that have recorded the role.
The Brünnhilde is a huge improvement over Deborah Voigt´s disappointing MET performance. Swedish soprano Nina Stemme doesn´t have a huge voice a la Nilsson, she rather recalls Hildegard Behrens, but her Brünnhilde is very satisfying, a very good interpretation indeed. Since these days there are no Heldenbaritons left, Gergiev opted for a Wotan bass, and the best we have in René Pape. This is not usual, other basses have sung the role, the problem is that he sounds too much like Hunding, in fact Pape could have sung a better Hunding than Petrenko, but Wotan doesn´t stretch him, and there is nobility in his portrayal.
The Mariinsky Orchestra now sounds more refined than in their previous recording of Parsifal, and Valery Gergiev knows the score. He has performed The Ring in Russia and elsewhere, he toured NY with the 4 operas a few years ago, and though some have complained that his conducting is not theatrical enough, I can´t hear anything wrong with it. Still, it is SO well sung that it is already an important recording.

Many thanks for that, Jose.  That's a recording I am eagerly awaiting.  Nina Stemme is a wonderful Isolde, so I'm curious to see what she makes of Brunnhilde.  (Irene Theorin would also have been interesting casting - she was very good in Michael Schonwandt's Ring Cycle for the Royal Danish Opera.  She's a very fine actor as well as singer.)  Kurt Rydl would have been a very powerful Hunding - he was very good in this role for Hartmut Haenchen in his Ring cycle with the Netherlands Philharmonic).  One performance I am looking forward to hearing is Anja Kampe.   Nadine Secunde was also a very fine Sieglinde in the Ring cycle for the Netherlands Opera. I haven't yet seen the Met Ring, but one performance I'm very interested in is that of Stephanie Blythe as Fricka.  I'm very fond of a recital of repertoire by Brahms, Wagner and Mahler that Blythe performed under John Nelson (released on the the Virgin label).  She's a singer that appears to spend much of her time in the US and, sadly, doesn't release many recordings.  (I'm very tempted by her performance in Handel's Rinaldo from the Met, recently released on a Decca DVD.)

[fergus]

I know exactly where you are coming from with that Jared. I have a recording of that delightful work and Bellini does make that instrument sing in a most delightful and lyrical way. I am delighted that you have discovered it!

well, I do recall you being partial to a bit of oboe, my friend, so I guessed you would have sniffed that one out at some stage!!

Well you were quite right too and thank you for that Jared.

[Jose Echenique]

More Wagner from St. Petersburg. It is obvious that the Russians are the "Nouveau Riche", this is a better cast, much better cast indeed, than what the MET offered in their new Walküre. Jonas Kaufmann´s Siegmund is common to both, and what a charismatic and gorgeously sung incestuous twin he is. This is so rare in Wagner these days, a performance sung with real vocal glamour! His sister is almost as good, Anja Kampe as Sieglinde has the power that Wagner demands, but she is also vulnerable and shows a real rapport with Kaufmann. The Hunding is Russian, Mikhail Petrenko, and has one of those rock solid basso voices, but he is not as dangerous sounding as the finest bassos that have recorded the role.
The Brünnhilde is a huge improvement over Deborah Voigt´s disappointing MET performance. Swedish soprano Nina Stemme doesn´t have a huge voice a la Nilsson, she rather recalls Hildegard Behrens, but her Brünnhilde is very satisfying, a very good interpretation indeed. Since these days there are no Heldenbaritons left, Gergiev opted for a Wotan bass, and the best we have in René Pape. This is not usual, other basses have sung the role, the problem is that he sounds too much like Hunding, in fact Pape could have sung a better Hunding than Petrenko, but Wotan doesn´t stretch him, and there is nobility in his portrayal.
The Mariinsky Orchestra now sounds more refined than in their previous recording of Parsifal, and Valery Gergiev knows the score. He has performed The Ring in Russia and elsewhere, he toured NY with the 4 operas a few years ago, and though some have complained that his conducting is not theatrical enough, I can´t hear anything wrong with it. Still, it is SO well sung that it is already an important recording.

Many thanks for that, Jose.  That's a recording I am eagerly awaiting.  Nina Stemme is a wonderful Isolde, so I'm curious to see what she makes of Brunnhilde.  (Irene Theorin would also have been interesting casting - she was very good in Michael Schonwandt's Ring Cycle for the Royal Danish Opera.  She's a very fine actor as well as singer.)  Kurt Rydl would have been a very powerful Hunding - he was very good in this role for Hartmut Haenchen in his Ring cycle with the Netherlands Philharmonic).  One performance I am looking forward to hearing is Anja Kampe.   Nadine Secunde was also a very fine Sieglinde in the Ring cycle for the Netherlands Opera. I haven't yet seen the Met Ring, but one performance I'm very interested in is that of Stephanie Blythe as Fricka.  I'm very fond of a recital of repertoire by Brahms, Wagner and Mahler that Blythe performed under John Nelson (released on the the Virgin label).  She's a singer that appears to spend much of her time in the US and, sadly, doesn't release many recordings.  (I'm very tempted by her performance in Handel's Rinaldo from the Met, recently released on a Decca DVD.)

Nina Stemme certainly doesn´t disappoint, she sings a very good Brünnhilde. I thought Anja Kampe an excellent Sieglinde, perhaps even better than Nadine Secunde (I have only heard her in the Baremboim Ring), though not as good as Leonie Rysanek or Julia Varady, but certainly very good.
I have heard Kurt Rydl live, some 20 years ago, and I was surprised to find his voice rather small, for Hundings you can´t beat Gottlob Frick, Kurt Moll and Josef Greindl.
The MET Ring is ruined by the tremulous, unstable Brünnhilde of Deborah Voigt, a great pity because I heard her in a concert performance of Salomé about 10 years ago and she was magnificent, when she was really faaaat she poured a Tsunami of voice, but then came the problem of the "little dress" at Covent Garden, had bypass surgery and the voice was ruined for good (thank you Covent Garden).

[Diapason]

It's a long time since I paid "full price" for a disc, but on hearing this at Ciaran's I had to have it. I think this music is amazing, the performance unimaginably excellent, and the recording top drawer. A cracker!

[jaybee]

interesting cover art!

[Ciaran]

It's a long time since I paid "full price" for a disc, but on hearing this at Ciaran's I had to have it. I think this music is amazing, the performance unimaginably excellent, and the recording top drawer. A cracker!

At last you got to hear the second and third movements. The first was quite a challenge to give you: not everyone has the stamina for a 30-minute span of unfamiliar music, however beguiling!

You should come over and try more Alkan!