Recent Purchases

[Ciaran]

Any chance you could make the second image above a bit bigger Ciaran? I can hardly see it! :-P ;-)
That Weckmann Harpsichord disc looks interesting. I might check that one out myself.

Sorry about that: all I could find were tiny or huge!

Andreas Staier has lately been recording with a copy (by Anthony Sidney) after a harpsichord by Hieronÿmus Albrecht Hass, who "created an instrument whose sonority was inspired by the variety and amplitude of the organ". There's this CD, the Bach Early Works (which you have) and recently. the Goldberg Variations (which I must get!). It's a wonderful sound!

[fergus]

I see that you were having a Weckmann Week Ciaran!

[Ciaran]

I see that you were having a Weckmann Week Ciaran!

Weckmann was a big discovery for me around this time last year. I got the Ricercar set of his complete cantatas and was entranced. Not that much by him survives (like Buxtehude, a lot which does survive was collected by Düben in Uppsala and has been preserved in the University Library there), and by now I have multiple versions of most of his works.

A year later, I've discovered Zelenka. This could be a more demanding discovery, as quite a lot of his work survives. On the basis of what I've heard, I'm looking forward to collecting and hearing it!

[Seán]

I see that you were having a Weckmann Week Ciaran!

Weckmann was a big discovery for me around this time last year. I got the Ricercar set of his complete cantatas and was entranced. Not that much by him survives (like Buxtehude, a lot which does survive was collected by Düben in Uppsala and has been preserved in the University Library there), and by now I have multiple versions of most of his works.

A year later, I've discovered Zelenka. This could be a more demanding discovery, as quite a lot of his work survives. On the basis of what I've heard, I'm looking forward to collecting and hearing it!

I noye your comments on Zelenka with interest as I have have a set of his complete symphonies in my Amazon basket:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... d_i=468294

[Ciaran]

My tastes being what they are, I will be focusing on his sacred music to begin with (The Humanity of it! A black atheist cursed with a love of church music!!), but I will be interested in reports from the orchestral front!

[fergus]

I will be honest and admit that I have not heard of Zelenka....must check him out!

[Diapason]

The Humanity of it! A black atheist cursed with a love of church music!!

I hear you brother! I'm tempted to say it's a cross we have to bear, but such imagery is probably out of place in this discussion. Still, I'll probably find time for Allegri's Miserere tomorrow.

[Seán]

The Humanity of it! A black atheist cursed with a love of church music!!

I hear you brother! I'm tempted to say it's a cross we have to bear, but such imagery is probably out of place in this discussion. Still, I'll probably find time for Allegri's Miserere tomorrow.

I am an agnostic and I am trying (hard) "to get into" religious music, so far it's easy to listen to Haydn & Bach for short periods of time.

[Jared]

I am an agnostic and I am trying (hard) "to get into" religious music, so far it's easy to listen to Haydn & Bach for short periods of time.

Sean, I'd probably best describe myself as an atheist, but am a complete sucker, when it comes to:

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Mozart: Requiem, Great Mass in C, Coronation Mass
Dvorak: Requiem, Mass in D
Brahms: Eine Deutsche Requiem
Hummel: Three Masses

If there are any of these magnificent works you don't yet know, then do yourself a favour... ;-))

J

[Diapason]

I'm grateful in one way that religion inspired (and indeed paid for) such great art, so I can easily take a pragmatic view. Besides, times were different when Bach stalked the earth, I'd probably have been a "believer" myself if I'd had the luxury of contemplating such things. I still consider such music good for the soul, I just don't consider that soul to be immortal or in any way separate from the living body!

Anyway, to get back on topic, no recent purchases here. Still looking for gainful employment, so I've no immediate buying plans. I wouldn't mind a few more of those Suzuki boxes, though.