What are you listening two?

[fergus]

Sinopoli and Schumann? Some day perhaps.

You [eventually] trusted me on Hogwood's Mozart - just plant a small seed in the dark recesses of your mind to remember that I heartily second this Sinopoli's Schumann recommendation by Pepe.

[Seán]

Sinopoli and Schumann? Some day perhaps.

You [eventually] trusted me on Hogwood's Mozart - just plant a small seed in the dark recesses of your mind to remember that I heartily second this Sinopoli's Schumann recommendation by Pepe.

Alas dear Fergus there a universe of a difference between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Schumann. I adore Mozart's music but Schumann's orchestral repertoire is hard going. I must return to the recordings in my collection again soon but I do not expect to buy any more recordings of his orchestral music for many years to come.

[Seán]

CD 6

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony no 20 in D major, K 133
Symphony no 21 in A major, K 134
Lucio Silla, K 135: Overture
Symphony no 50 in D major, K 161/163 (141a)
The Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood conducting.

These are immensely enjoyable performances. I am really looking forward to Mozart's later works, what I have listened to so far has really whet my appetite for his more sophisticated orchestral repertoire.

[fergus]

Alas dear Fergus there a universe of a difference between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Schumann. I adore Mozart's music but Schumann's orchestral repertoire is hard going. I must return to the recordings in my collection again soon but I do not expect to buy any more recordings of his orchestral music for many years to come.

And there is the point Seán; Schumann seemed so much more effortless to me with Sinopoli.

[fergus]

Some modern Irish classical music....





....which includes two wonderful concertos.

[Jose Echenique]

Cosi Fan Tutte is the most duplicated work in my library and now I must have close to 40 versions.
This supreme masterpiece always draws the best from it´s performers, I can´t think of a half hearted effort in the vast discography. Certainly not from Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis who admirably managed to get SONY to record in studio the Da Ponte trilogy, something that not even William Christie managed in Harmonia Mundi and then in ERATO.
Of course recording in Perm, in the middle of the Urals must have helped, it must be very cheap.
Currentzis like in the previously issued Le Nozze di Figaro, got several weeks of rehearsal to polish every little detail, probably not since the times of Walter Legge and John Culshaw, a studio recording got these many rehearsals. The time was well spent, everybody seems on his toes, unusually but quite correctly Currentzis allows appoggiaturas [not written decorations in the arias usually improvised by the singers]. There is an unanimity of purpose from all and it is a very fine performance, so where does it stand?
Difficult to say, the competition is tremendous. Among HIP versions I like better the superb René Jacobs, it´s as well rehearsed and prepared and his singers are in general better, and in the case of the Fiordiligi much better. Simone Kermes for Curretzis is an acquired taste: the voice is thin and somewhat characterless, the role lies low for her, she manages the low notes as whispers, but I feel this live wouldn´t work. Fortunately she sings the role straight, without her usual eccentricities, but hell, there are so many divine Fiordiligis [Lisa della Casa, Lella Cuberli, Margaret Price, Leontyne Price, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Gundula Janowitz, Kiri Te Kanawa, Montserrat Caballé and yes, Vèronique Gens for Jacobs] that one has to say that La Kermes just doesn´t belong to their ranks. The Dorabella is much more pleasing, Malena Ernman is a singer to watch, the voice is attractive, and she tries to be lively, but she too can´t erase memories of goddesses like Teresa Berganza, Frederica von Stade, Christa Ludwig or Tatiana Troyanos, but in her own terms she does well. The Despina is even better, Anna Kasyan sings well as is very funny, an enjoyable performance. Tenor Kenneth Tarver also sings well but lacks personality, especially when compared with super star tenors like Leopold Simoneau, Alfredo Kraus, Luigi Alva, Francisco Araiza and Hans-Peter Blochwitz. The role of Ferrando is fiendishly difficult, in the XIX Century no less than Rubini had it in his repertoire, now tenors seem more capable of solving the technical difficulties, Tarver sounds very comfortable indeed, but a more positive and memorable personality is missing. The Don Alfonso, Konstantin Wolff, is another competent but slightly unmemorable performer. You just have to hear a Sesto Bruscantini or a Gabriel Bacquier to see how much more you can get from the role. And last but not least, Christopher Maltman as Guglielmo is the one performance I liked a lot: virile, elegant, stylish and engaging, very fine indeed.
I was all the more disappointed that Guglielmo´s discarded aria "Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo" was not included. Now many recordings have it, and since it´s so cheap to record in Perm, there´s no excuse for omitting it.
So, not a general recommendation in spite of a good recording because of the competition.

[Seán]

Cosi Fan Tutte is the most duplicated work in my library and now I must have close to 40 versions.
This supreme masterpiece always draws the best from it´s performers, I can´t think of a half hearted effort in the vast discography. Certainly not from Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis who admirably managed to get SONY to record in studio the Da Ponte trilogy, something that not even William Christie managed in Harmonia Mundi and then in ERATO.
Of course recording in Perm, in the middle of the Urals must have helped, it must be very cheap.
Currentzis like in the previously issued Le Nozze di Figaro, got several weeks of rehearsal to polish every little detail, probably not since the times of Walter Legge and John Culshaw, a studio recording got these many rehearsals. The time was well spent, everybody seems on his toes, unusually but quite correctly Currentzis allows appoggiaturas [not written decorations in the arias usually improvised by the singers]. There is an unanimity of purpose from all and it is a very fine performance, so where does it stand?
Difficult to say, the competition is tremendous. Among HIP versions I like better the superb René Jacobs, it´s as well rehearsed and prepared and his singers are in general better, and in the case of the Fiordiligi much better. Simone Kermes for Curretzis is an acquired taste: the voice is thin and somewhat characterless, the role lies low for her, she manages the low notes as whispers, but I feel this live wouldn´t work. Fortunately she sings the role straight, without her usual eccentricities, but hell, there are so many divine Fiordiligis [Lisa della Casa, Lella Cuberli, Margaret Price, Leontyne Price, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Gundula Janowitz, Kiri Te Kanawa, Montserrat Caballé and yes, Vèronique Gens for Jacobs] that one has to say that La Kermes just doesn´t belong to their ranks. The Dorabella is much more pleasing, Malena Ernman is a singer to watch, the voice is attractive, and she tries to be lively, but she too can´t erase memories of goddesses like Teresa Berganza, Frederica von Stade, Christa Ludwig or Tatiana Troyanos, but in her own terms she does well. The Despina is even better, Anna Kasyan sings well as is very funny, an enjoyable performance. Tenor Kenneth Tarver also sings well but lacks personality, especially when compared with super star tenors like Leopold Simoneau, Alfredo Kraus, Luigi Alva, Francisco Araiza and Hans-Peter Blochwitz. The role of Ferrando is fiendishly difficult, in the XIX Century no less than Rubini had it in his repertoire, now tenors seem more capable of solving the technical difficulties, Tarver sounds very comfortable indeed, but a more positive and memorable personality is missing. The Don Alfonso, Konstantin Wolff, is another competent but slightly unmemorable performer. You just have to hear a Sesto Bruscantini or a Gabriel Bacquier to see how much more you can get from the role. And last but not least, Christopher Maltman as Guglielmo is the one performance I liked a lot: virile, elegant, stylish and engaging, very fine indeed.
I was all the more disappointed that Guglielmo´s discarded aria "Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo" was not included. Now many recordings have it, and since it´s so cheap to record in Perm, there´s no excuse for omitting it.
So, not a general recommendation in spite of a good recording because of the competition.

That is a hugely entertaining and informative read Pepe, many thanks for that.

[Jose Echenique]

Ha,ha, thank you Seán, never get me started in Cosí fan Tutte!

[mcq]

Two wonderful discs tonight to kick off the weekend's listening.  

First up was a cello/piano recital featuring cellist Danjulo Ishizaka in his recording debut and Onyx regular Shai Wosner in repertoire by Grieg, Janacek and Kodaly.  The Grieg sonata is a lovely piece, all too rarely performed, Janacek's Pohadka is a delicious flight of the imagination and the Kodaly suite for a solo cello is quite simply a masterpiece, one of the central works in the cello repertoire which Britten must have studied a great deal when working on his own masterly cello suites.



Secondly, a superb performance of the Debussy, Ravel and Saint-Saens string quartets by the Modigliani Quartet.  The Debussy and Ravel are timeless masterpieces that remain quintessentially and uniquely modern and the Saint-Saens is a wonderfully rewarding piece, exhibiting a tender lyricism and effervescent charm which serves as a fine counterbalance to its more adventurous couplings.  A profoundly satisfying disc.

[mcq]

Kirill Gerstein in repertoire from Mussorgsky and Schumann.  His Pictures at an Exhibition is a studied, thoughtful reading, analytical in approach and imbued with a great deal of solemnity.  These are qualities that are perhaps more usually associated with Schumann's piano music than Mussorgsky's, which makes Gerstein's success here very impressive.  Other pianists take Pictures at a faster pace and relish its virtuosic aspects whereas Gerstein is audibly thinking about the music at each and every step from a philosophical perspective.  The sense of lightness in his playing is very impressive; the impression is that of a refined outlook where everything inessential that impedes the flow of the music is excised.  There is no underlining or exaggeration of musical climaxes which is sometimes confused with a lack of passionate intensity or forward momentum but Gerstein's sense of intensity is cerebral rather than emotional and, crucially, his structural grasp of the music is unerring so that his inward, ruminative approach pays dividends with repeated listening.  The chosen coupling, Schumann's Carnaval, is an intelligent one, beautifully and sensitively played, and it is really only by listening to the Mussorgsky in the context of the Schumann that you really gain an insight into how Gerstein approaches Pictures at an Exhibition.  A very enlightening disc.  I look forward to hearing Gerstein's versions of the Prokofiev (no. 2) and Tchaikovsky (no. 1) piano concertos which have recently been released.