Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

Jose Echenique wrote:

That concert is one that I definitely envy you Pepe; also duly noted that you were seated in among all the ladies my friend!!

I , too, really envy you Pepe, I LOVE the Freiburger Barackorchester. I am too much of a gentleman to comment on your seating arrangements suffice it to say that I envy you there too. LOL

I hope the Freiburger Barockorchester visits Ireland before long, because they make an AWESOME sound ha, ha, I can´t understand why they haven´t been there before. They are also the NICEST of people, so generous, they gave masterclasses in period performance to musical students between the concerts. Besides Mexico City they also gave concerts in the cities of Puebla and Mérida, way up in the Yucatán Peninsula (very far from Mexico City).
This is maybe their ninth or tenth visit to Mexico. I think they like the weather and the food :-)

I also found out that one of the players is married to wonderful soprano Carolyn Sampson, too bad they didn´t bring her as soloist.

fergus wrote:

Jose Echenique wrote:

That concert is one that I definitely envy you Pepe; also duly noted that you were seated in among all the ladies my friend!!

I´m not that gentleman dear Fergus! I took the pictures!

Mozart: Zaide





I have always found this opera to be a little different due to the large amount of the spoken word in it. Obviously the story unfolds therein but I find it somewhat fragments the wonderful music.

from one Mozart disk to another...

I can believe it's taken me this long to delve into Mozart's piano music for 4 hands/ 2 pianos, but it's predictably delightful stuff...

Two Schubert Octets...





Two beautiful works here, particularly D. 803 and two fine performances from this ensemble.

Two wonderful performances from Mackerras/The London Philharmonic of Dvorak's Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9....

Next up was a collection of Vivaldi Violin Concertos....

This morning I've been listening to a number of recent purchases.

First of all, Christian Gerhaher's magnificent recent recording of the three great Mahler song cycles (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder and Ruckert-lieder).  I adored his Mahler recital a few years ago with pianist Gerold Huber and I've been eagerly awaiting his recording of these song cycles with impatience.  Simply put, these are overwhelmingly powerful performances that - I believe - can rank among the greatest this beautiful and deeply poignant music has ever received.  Gerhaher sings with a beautifully judged sense of sensitivity, tenderness and genuine understanding for the very profound gravity of the original texts.   One unforgettable highlight is Gerhaher's performance of Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen.  There is no vulgar over-emoting here, but rather his finely judged sense of understated reserve acutely emphasises the profound melancholia that lies at the heart of this music.  I don't think I've ever been so shaken and moved by a performance of this piece. A true master singer in the form of his life.  His partner in this music, Kent Nagano (conducting the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal), provides notably sensitive and sympathetic accompaniment.  (I am very anxious to hear their earlier collaboration together, a performance of Das Lied von der Erde with Klaus Florian Vogt.) 

And then I listened to Christine Schafer's most recent release, a recording of three of Bach's cantatas - BWV82 Ich habe genug, BWV199 Mein herz schwimmt im blut and BWV 84 Ich bin vernugt mit meinem Glucke.  Schafer's blend of emotional acuity allied to a strong sense of dramatic intelligence has consistently impressed me throughout her career (especially with her performances of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Handel) and I've been very much looking forward to her return to Bach.  These are intense performances, very movingly  performed by Schafer who is sensitively accompanied by  a chamber orchestra drawn from the ranks of the Berlin Philharmonic.  The scale of the instrumental forces is very well judged as is the sense of an individuated performance of great clarity rather than a homogenously blended one (which is key for the use of modern instruments in baroque repertoire, in my opinion). What came to mind more than once during these exquisite performances was the great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's recording of Ich habe genug and Mein herz schwimmt im Blut for Nonesuch in 2003 (a mere three years before her tragic passing).  It shares with that recording an achingly powerful and strikingly direct redemptive channelling of deep faith that communicates with great fervour an acquiescence with the sinful transgressions of life, the immanence of death and the consolation of the nearness of one's God, but, perhaps most of all, a very vivid sense of a singer utterly consumed and transported by the music.  

Next was Andras Schiff's recent recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.  As always with Schiff, what you are presented with is playing that is a model of technical clarity and intellectual insight that is informed by warmth, tenderness, wit and fire as the music demands it.  Here we have two different recordings of one of Beethoven's greatest instrumental masterpeces performed, alternately, on a 1921 Bechstein piano and an 1820 Brodmann fortepiano.  The differences in the tonal palettes of the two instruments afford us two different and equally illuminating perspectives on the music.  There is certainly more of a tactile intimacy in the fortepiano utilised here in contrast to the piano's broader dynamic range but somewhat shallower tone.  These are no mere technical exercises but Schiff, ever the scholar both of the instrument as well as the music, subtly adapts his interpretation of the music to suit the capabilities of the instrument.  The results are very rewarding, with more of a sense of inward reflection and studied repose than Andreas Staier's and Paul Lewis's rather more exuberant performances on, respectively, fortepano and modern grand.  The couplings - Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 132 and 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126 - are also performed with the same clarity of vision that informs the readings of the Diabellis.  A wonderful recording by one of the very greatest of living pianists.  

Finally, I've been listening to Nelson Goerner's Debussy recital on Zig Zag.  This is a rich and varied programme - comprising L'Isle Joyeuse, Book 1 of Images, Book 2 of Etudes as well as the complete set of Estampes - that are given technically assured and very delicately poised performances by Goerner.  This is some of the most evocative music ever written, a matchless palette of colour and texture, light and shade that requires a total and complete command of the tonal sonorities offered by the piano.  Goerner delivers understated performances of great refinement yet which strike a rare balance between cool objectivity and emotional warmth.  There is sensuousness here but it is hinted at rather than articulated bluntly by Goerner.  Some of the best Debussy of recent years has appeared as part of complete traversals (most notably by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on Chandos and Noriko Ogawa on BIS) but this is the most satisfying mixed Debussy recital I've heard since Nelson Freire's for Decca.

It certainly looks like you have made some fine purchases ther Paul. The Bach and the Mahler certainly will be looked up.