What are you listening two?

[Seán]

Franz Xaver Richter
Seven string quartets op. 5
Casal Quartett

This is marvellous music, beautifully played, highly recommended.

It didn´t disappoint, right Seán?

No, it most certainly did not. Thanks for the splendid recommendation Pepe.

Excellent quartets formidably played by what is probably the true heir period quartet of the Mosaïques.

A wonderful and astute comparison may I say.

[Adrian]

Enjoyed The Great Composers and their Music.......Wagner....The Ring (Operatic Highlights).



Currently playing is .... The Great Composers & their Music.... Richard Strauss... Der Rosenkavalier (Operatic Highlights).

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Sounds better with Dolby off too!!

[Seán]

I have just finished listening to Record Review and this is truly marvellous:

11.40am Disc of the Week

BACH, J S: Mass in B minor, BWV232
Hannah Morrison (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo), Meg Bragle (alto), Kate Symonds-Joy (alto), Peter Davoren (tenor), Nick Pritchard (tenor), Alex Ashworth (bass), David Shipley (bass), Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)
SDG SDG722 (2CD mid-price)

Carlos Kleiber with the VPO retains the first preference position:

9.30am Building a Library

Nicholas Baragwanath compares recordings of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 and makes a personal recommendation.

For next week's Buiding a Library, Ivan Hewitt surveys recordings of music by Henri Dutilleux.

[Diapason]

How does that B minor Mass compare to JEG's recording from the 80s, I wonder? (I assume it's a different set, right?)

[Seán]

How does that B minor Mass compare to JEG's recording from the 80s, I wonder? (I assume it's a different set, right?)

It is very different. I am sorry but I don't have both copies to compare and contrast. The new version is magnificent.

[Diapason]

Just listened to the opening Kyrie on Spotify on my phone and it sounded top. I might need to pick that up. Thanks Sean.

[Jose Echenique]

When Gardiner recorded the Mass in the 80´s it almost overnight became the standard version. The new one will also become the yardstick against which all others will be measured. The choral and orchestral quality is sublime. But, there´s always a but, now Gardiner uses chorus members for the solo parts, and inevitably they can´t compete with top drawer soloists in other versions. For example Andreas Scholl in the Agnus Dei in Herreweghe´s Harmonia Mundi version, or Hana Blaziková in the first soprano part in the Collegium 1704 version.
But all in all the new Gardiner is a landmark.

[Diapason]

I'm so used to the Parrott recording that when I hear full choruses rather than OVPP it still freaks me out a little bit. Of course, JEG always gets a lightness of movement from His choirs that staves off any potential ponderousness. I haven't listened to this music in ages, but I bought the earlier Gardiner without really ever getting round to digesting it. Definitely think I need to get this one too.

[Seán]

I just couldn't resist listening to this glorious rendition of the Mass in B minor::

[Jose Echenique]

I just couldn't resist listening to this glorious rendition of the Mass in B minor::

That´s the second of Herreweghe´s 3 recordings of the Mass.