What are you listening to?

[fergus]

Having recently listened to the wonderful Mahler Symphony cycle by Abbado I decided to dig out Das Lied Von Der Erde so I listened to this version....





I have it on CD also and it is a version that I really like. It strikes the right tone for me in this work and Ferrier's earthy contralto voice is very apt.

[Jose Echenique]

I listened to

9.30am Building a Library
Jan Smaczny explores recordings of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and makes a recommendation.

and was really surprised, as was Rob Cowen, with Jan's first choice:


Kubelik barely got a mention, which did surprise me too:


Building a Library should have a separate thread I feel, one for next August perhaps?

Next week is Shostakovich No. 5, now that will be VERY interesting.

Next to the Kubelik, and with the same fabulous choir and orchestra, is the Harnoncourt recording in RCA, sadly it was almost immediately deleted as it reached the stores because of a contractual disagreement with the basso, who by the way sings very well. A great pity, because by a distance it was the best modern recording. Fortunately I have a copy :-)

[Seán]

Next to the Kubelik, and with the same fabulous choir and orchestra, is the Harnoncourt recording in RCA, sadly it was almost immediately deleted as it reached the stores because of a contractual disagreement with the basso, who by the way sings very well. A great pity, because by a distance it was the best modern recording. Fortunately I have a copy :-)

Well that does not surprise me, well done Pepe.

[Jose Echenique]

That´s why you just HAVE to buy the recordings as soon as they appear, because one never knows.
I really hope RCA manages to rerelease this excellent recording, because Harnoncourt has a very special "feel" for Dvorak.

[Seán]

Very enjoyable.

[Jared]

^^ the music is far more comprehensible than the narrative, Sean... ha ha ha

Percy Grainger: Orchestral Works
Rattle/ CBSO

[Seán]

^^ the music is far more comprehensible than the narrative, Sean... ha ha ha

It is probably just as well that I don't have the text so.

[Jared]

Details of the Stir Fry please before we pass any comments on satisfaction or not!!

the Stir Fry was a Tesco's 'Tip into a Wok and turn up the heat' variety Fergus, and therefore not really worth remarking on.

The Strauss however is a different matter.

I saw the recent Glyndebourne performance on the big screen... apparently it was meant to be 'controversial' but I didn't really find it so, and I was sufficiently intrigued to buy the newly released Blu Ray with the Strauss dream-team of Thielemann and Fleming with the Staatskapelle Dresden. The opera could be said to be an oddity, in that it is an opera about opera... and for this reason, I found it very interesting. Consisting of a 45 minute prologue and 1.30 min one act opera, it really hinges on two sets of opera performers arriving at a country house to perform in front of the owner, a Mr Moneybags with arguably very little taste or real interest in the form. Operas have been commissioned for the evening; an opera buffa about a flighty young woman being chased by 4 different men at once, and an opera seria about Ariadne, arriving on Naxos where she wishes to be left alone to die, after having heard the news of the death of her intended. Upon a whim, Mr Moneybags asks that both operas are performed simultaneously, so they can be over for 9am when the fireworks are to start!

Strauss has great fun with the juxtaposition of the seria and buffa throughout the one act opera, which I guess can be considered a satirical sideswipe at the way in which the art form has been used and portrayed... although in a loving manner!

Interestingly, both versions I have seen have been performed in a cartoonish, zany and highly colourful manner, with highly original costumes and eccentric stage sets... I guess that's probably the best way to pull it off and for me... well I will look forward to seeing it again!

[fergus]

Cheers for that description of you viewing Jared.

I don't fancy that Stir Fry though.

[fergus]