Tír Na HiFi

That was a lovely post Matt. I enjoyed reading it.

I would not worry too much about not liking certain aspects of eras of Classical Music. We all have some of those. Hopefully, however, we can learn from each other via these threads. Best of luck with Sibelius 5 this month!

The Four Seasons : Another unuique version....I completely forgot about this version! Unfortunately due to my injury I can't climb the stairs to get it down :( So the info. below will have to do! If memory serves me right, I'm sure the late Simon Jeffes from the Penquin Cafe Orchestra makes a contribution to the album....Oh, I remember! He co-produced the album and had a hand in recomposing the score and performs in conjuction with the London Philmonia Orchestra and Thomas W himself. Christopher Warren Green is the soloist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxAhEV_M ... ata_player - Spring...


Thomas Wilbrandt (* 1952 in Bielefeld) is a German composer and conductor.
He studied with Franco Ferrara, Hans Swarowsky and Bruno Maderna in Rome, Vienna and Salzburg and was Assistant to Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic for three years in Berlin and Salzburg. 1980 he founded the Berlin Chamber Academy (Berliner Kammer-Akademie), a forty-piece orchestra originally formed from players of the Berlin Philharmonic, with whom he recorded a highly acclaimed Mozart Series for RCA/Victor. The Berlin Chamber Academy received rapturous reviews for the fresh, vital, and exciting approach of Wilbrandt’s readings, both in concerts played to capacity audiences, and in recordings.
Next to international conducting activities and cooperations with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Wilbrandt became more involved in his own projects and recordings, concentrating on his work as a composer, especially in the field of Avant-garde and electronic music. This led to developed experimentation regarding multimedia content and expression and to the constant exploration of new forms of music presentation. Wilbrandt’s ongoing issue and ambition is to transform and merge sound and vision into a stimulating new dimension.
In its stylistic eclecticism and acknowledgement of tradition, the post-Modernist spirit may serve as a key to understanding Wilbrandt´s music. One of his first major projects was the creation of a totally new kind of fusion between acoustic orchestral playing and digital and electronic instruments and sounds, entitled THE ELECTRIC V., a so far unheard approach to Vivaldi’s famous concert cycle The Four Seasons. The musical style he developed after the formula tradition+innovation = future is unparalleled in uniqueness and originality. The first edition of THE ELECTRIC V. was released in 1984 in twenty countries and rapidly became a worldwide bestseller that was selected by critics as being one of the best available productions on CD/double vinyl in terms both of musical quality and audio technology.

cybot wrote:The Four Seasons : Another unuique version....I completely forgot about this version! Unfortunately due to my injury I can't climb the stairs to get it down :( So the info. below will have to do! If memory serves me right, I'm sure the late Simon Jeffes from the Penquin Cafe Orchestra makes a contribution to the album....Oh, I remember! He co produced the album and had a hand in recomposing the score...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxAhEV_M ... ata_player - Spring...

Dermot, I didn't realise that you had had an accident, I'm very sorry to hear that and I hope that you will soon be on the mend, take care.

I listened to the youtube clip, it is intersting, Vivaldi's music has gorgeous melodies that are open to so many interpretations but I have to confess that one is not for me.

Did you get a chance to listen to my earlier post on Raymond Fol's work from the sixties, complete with vibes too?

Seán wrote:

cybot wrote:The Four Seasons : Another unuique version....I completely forgot about this version! Unfortunately due to my injury I can't climb the stairs to get it down :( So the info. below will have to do! If memory serves me right, I'm sure the late Simon Jeffes from the Penquin Cafe Orchestra makes a contribution to the album....Oh, I remember! He co produced the album and had a hand in recomposing the score...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxAhEV_M ... ata_player - Spring...

Dermot, I didn't realise that you had had an accident, I'm very sorry to hear that and I hope that you will soon be on the mend, take care.

I listened to the youtube clip, it is intersting, Vivaldi's music has gorgeous melodies that are open to so many interpretations but I have to confess that one is not for me.

Did you get a chance to listen to my earlier post on Raymond Fol's work from the sixties, complete with vibes too?

Thanks Seán. Actually I don't care too much for it myself! I must give Raymond's version a listen later....at least, that is something I can do :)

This is an interesting version of the Four Seasons. The orchestral strings sound beautiful throughout. The recording was made in a beautifully warm acoustic which allows the rich tones of the strings to blossom. Each concerto is played on a different Stradivari instrument (three of which were owned by Accardo himself!). Needless to say they sound absolutely wonderful.
One thing of note in relation to this version is the harpsichord continuo which is very prominent in places.
In terms of the overall performance this is not Biondi like. Rather, it is a refined, stately like performance, very measured but quite expressive and explosive enough in the relevant places. It is a little difficult to get a handle on it after just two listening sessions but I like it I must say. Accardo’s playing is magnificent and his tone, needless to say, especially on the sustained notes is an aural delight. It is a reading that has a rich, warm glow to it; even Winter’s chill is somewhat tempered and although not as frigid as I would like it is still a very good performance.