What are you listening to?

[DaveF]

^^ my Savall collection is also rather limited, but his Biber choral disks are for me, right on the money...

I was probably unlucky with the Bach recording.

You've mentioned this before Sean and yes you were unlucky with that recording. I have it myself and its the only Savall recording that I dislike. Everything else he's done is nearly unbeatable and rarely get poor reviews. Definitely worth checking out more recordings of his.

[DaveF]

I liked those concerti a lot. The Freiburger Barockorchester is playing here on the 21st.
Have tickets :-)

Lucky you Jose! :-)
Enjoy!

[Jose Echenique]

quite simply sumptuous...

I have very few Jordi Savall recordings, his Bach Brandenburg and very little else, they leave me cold.

I like Savall a lot, but I have to say that I´m allergic to his late wife and present daughter.

[Jose Echenique]

Oberto conte di San Bonifacio was Verdi´s very first opera. It has only had 2 recordings and both are excellent. The oldest is in the ORFEO label and boasts Carlo Bergonzi and Rolando Panerai, Verdi Royalty, but DECCA´s (originally Philips) more recent recording scores with the Russian soprano and mezzo, both are sensational, and sir Neville Marriner, an unexpected Verdian, does a very good job.

[fergus]

Earlier, from the Eton Choirbook....

[mcq]

I've been listening to the remainder of Boulez's performances of Mahler over the weekend and I have to say that my initial impressions have been confirmed.  These are dedicated, committed, serious performances which require the listener to put aside other, more familiar, interpretations and listen to the music anew with a set of fresh ears.  Personally, I find it fascinating to listen to an interpretive viewpoint that challenges my understanding of a particular piece.  It is the structural and textural clarity of Boulez's performances that I find very interesting.  Bruno Walter once remarked that, in Mahler's music, "All his singularities of mood, his excesses of passions, his outpourings of the heart are seized and united according to a plan dictated to by his sovereign sense of form", to which Boulez is especially alert.  These are deliberately objective readings which eschew any maudlin sentimentality. There is no artificial spotlighting of the emotional waypoints on one's journey.  Nothing is exaggerated here and there is a straightforward  directness about these performances that I find very appealing.  Boulez does not seek to exaggerate the emotional crescendoes but, rather, allows the emotions that Mahler inscribed into the music to gradually come to the surface and present themselves to the listener, and, as a result, each work seems to blossom naturally of its own accord.  The transparency of the orchestral textures is strikingly apparent, with the individual  instrumental timbres delineated with great care by Boulez.  His sense of pacing is secure - internal tension at all times is beautifully sustained - and the sense of a lyrical release of this tension can be quite overwhelming - for example, the entrance of the mezzo in movement 4 of the Second Symphony, or the hushed entrance of the choral forces in movement 5 of that same work, or the child's rapturous vision of heaven in the closing movement of the Fourth.  The sense of tenderness and affection communicated here utterly negates any sterotypical concept of Boulez as clinical and cold in his emotional outlook.

Perhaps the finest performances here are the vocal works.  Boulez's marshalling of the immense forces required for the mighty Eighth is particularly noteworthy, resulting in a searing performance that is overwhelming and all-enveloping as a direct and very personal confession of faith.  Das Lied von der Erde, which is perhaps Mahler's finest single achievement, is given a transcendent performance of great depth and emotional sweep, beautifully sung by Violeta Urmana and Michael Schade, and informed throughout by Boulez's trademark clarity of line in which each phrase is lovingly sculpted and every nuance in the score gently teased out for maximum expressivity.  

The collective result is, to my mind, utterly compelling.  These are thought-provoking interpretations that pay sincere homage to the musical architecture of Mahler's scores as well as their emotional riches.  It is perhaps a direct result of Boulez's sober, deliberately objective reading of this music that the emotional response appears more natural, more hard-won and more genuine.   In Boulez's hands, I detect a greater sense of hope than many other conductors find - in the reading of the Ninth in particular - and a growing realisation that life is not defined solely by suffering and fear, by sorrow and despair, but in a gradual coming to terms with the very transitory nature of life.  This concept of cathartic growth and transformative change is beautifully encapsulated by Boulez in the Ninth's closing Adagio, a movement that simply, calmly, tranquilly flows with a sense of delicacy and rapture that is just breathtaking.

[fergus]

I've been listening to the remainder of Boulez's performances of Mahler over the weekend and I have to say that my initial impressions have been confirmed.  These are dedicated, committed, serious performances which require the listener to put aside other, more familiar, interpretations and listen to the music anew with a set of fresh ears.  Personally, I find it fascinating to listen to an interpretive viewpoint that challenges my understanding of a particular piece.  It is the structural and textural clarity of Boulez's performances that I find very interesting....  

My interestest is piqued Paul I must say. I confess that I find it difficult to come to terms with a pared down string section for Mahler coupled with more brisk speeds. It does sound challenging indeed and as you say that is something that we need sometimes.

[fergus]

Late listening for the past couple of nights has been a 2 CD set of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words played by Barenboim....

[mcq]

Finishing up this evening with stunning performances by Rudolf Buchbinder  of Mozart's 23rd and 25th piano concertos (accompanied by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting his beloved Concentus Musicus Wien and available on Sony).  Buchbinder is normally heard performing on a modern grand piano and I believe these are his first recordings showcasing his prodigious ability on the fortepiano.  Unlike Ronald Brautigam or Andreas Staier (who seem to have no difficulty in migrating from harpsichord to fortepano to modern grand), Buchbinder usually concentrates his attention on the piano and perhaps it is to Harnoncourt that we owe a word of thanks for these recordings.  What I treasure most in period instrument recordings (rather than any concept of authenticity) is the very tangible sense of intimacy that is conjured up.  What we lose in the dynamic tonal range of the piano, we gain tenfold in the sense of convivial warmth between performer and instrument that is conveyed to the listener.  And here with two of the finest piano concertos of all, we have performances that touch the heart with their elegance and refinement married with Mozart's customary genteel wit and charm (shaded with ripples of deeper, more painful undercurrents that subtly suggest rather than insinuate boldly).  As you would expect from Harnoncourt, the playing of the Concentus Music Wien is beyond reproach, the conductor taking an evident and very playful delight in eliciting all sorts of piquant tonal contrasts from his musicians.  No matter how any versions you have of these masterpieces, you need to hear these very special versions.  Hopefully more is on the way from Harnoncourt and Buchbinder and this isn't simply a one-off.

[Seán]

I've been listening to the remainder of Boulez's performances of Mahler over the weekend and I have to say that my initial impressions have been confirmed.  These are dedicated, committed, serious performances which require the listener to put aside other, more familiar, interpretations and listen to the music anew with a set of fresh ears.  Personally, I find it fascinating to listen to an interpretive viewpoint that challenges my understanding of a particular piece.  It is the structural and textural clarity of Boulez's performances that I find very interesting.  Bruno Walter once remarked that, in Mahler's music, "All his singularities of mood, his excesses of passions, his outpourings of the heart are seized and united according to a plan dictated to by his sovereign sense of form", to which Boulez is especially alert.  These are deliberately objective readings which eschew any maudlin sentimentality. There is no artificial spotlighting of the emotional waypoints on one's journey.  Nothing is exaggerated here and there is a straightforward  directness about these performances that I find very appealing.  Boulez does not seek to exaggerate the emotional crescendoes but, rather, allows the emotions that Mahler inscribed into the music to gradually come to the surface and present themselves to the listener, and, as a result, each work seems to blossom naturally of its own accord.  The transparency of the orchestral textures is strikingly apparent, with the individual  instrumental timbres delineated with great care by Boulez.  His sense of pacing is secure - internal tension at all times is beautifully sustained - and the sense of a lyrical release of this tension can be quite overwhelming - for example, the entrance of the mezzo in movement 4 of the Second Symphony, or the hushed entrance of the choral forces in movement 5 of that same work, or the child's rapturous vision of heaven in the closing movement of the Fourth.  The sense of tenderness and affection communicated here utterly negates any sterotypical concept of Boulez as clinical and cold in his emotional outlook.

Perhaps the finest performances here are the vocal works.  Boulez's marshalling of the immense forces required for the mighty Eighth is particularly noteworthy, resulting in a searing performance that is overwhelming and all-enveloping as a direct and very personal confession of faith.  Das Lied von der Erde, which is perhaps Mahler's finest single achievement, is given a transcendent performance of great depth and emotional sweep, beautifully sung by Violeta Urmana and Michael Schade, and informed throughout by Boulez's trademark clarity of line in which each phrase is lovingly sculpted and every nuance in the score gently teased out for maximum expressivity.  

The collective result is, to my mind, utterly compelling.  These are thought-provoking interpretations that pay sincere homage to the musical architecture of Mahler's scores as well as their emotional riches.  It is perhaps a direct result of Boulez's sober, deliberately objective reading of this music that the emotional response appears more natural, more hard-won and more genuine.   In Boulez's hands, I detect a greater sense of hope than many other conductors find - in the reading of the Ninth in particular - and a growing realisation that life is not defined solely by suffering and fear, by sorrow and despair, but in a gradual coming to terms with the very transitory nature of life.  This concept of cathartic growth and transformative change is beautifully encapsulated by Boulez in the Ninth's closing Adagio, a movement that simply, calmly, tranquilly flows with a sense of delicacy and rapture that is just breathtaking.

That is a very stimulating and thought provoking review Paul, regardless of what I think of your assertions about Das Lied and I am fully in agreement with your comments on the Ninth as a piece of music in that it is a beautiful, life enhancing work rather than a symphony by a man obsessed with death, I am intrigued by your comments on Boulez's treatment of the Ninth. Lovely, thanks Paul.