Tír Na HiFi

Isn´t she adorable Fergus?

Listening this afternoon to a recent purchase, a beautiful recording of music by a neglected mid-17th century French master, Étienne Moulinié, as conducted by Sébastien Daucé with Ensemble Correspondances.  I feel that Daucé could be one of Harmonia Mundi's most important signings of recent years.  His debut recording for the label was an utterly gorgeous performance of music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and I was also extremely impressed by an earlier recording he made for Zig Zag which concentrated on the sacred music of Antoine Boesset.  All three CDs are performed with a sense of purity, calm and stillness that I find emotionally captivating.

Some of this mornings and last nights listening....

This is such a special and gorgeous performance of Dvorak´s hauntingly beautiful Stabat Mater that it is a great tragedy that RCA had to withdrew it almost as soon as it reached the stores. Word says that a problem with the contract of bass Franz Hawlata was the problem. Harnoncourt whose grandmother was Czech is a natural Dvorak conductor as he has shown in several recordings, and here, conducting Kubelik´s chorus and orchestra live in Munich, everything falls beautifully into place. The soprano is the heavenly voiced Luba Orgonasova, and the tenor is the now popular Piotr Beczala. Truly an outstanding recording that shouldn´t be condemned to limbo, as it happened -tragically- for nearly 30 years with Kubelik´s Meistersinger recording.

Listened to this set of Schubert Symphonies under the baton of Kertész over the weekend....





....it is a set that I have liked since I first bought it; he does the early Classical symphonies very well.

Brahms: Sonatas for Violin & Piano....

Joyce is back and singing -if that is possible- better than ever. Her last glorious CD was Drama Queens released almost 2 years ago, and now she returns to Belcanto, with a program of music composed for those legendary divas that reigned in the Teatro San Carlo at the beginning of the XIX Century.
The well known items are Romeo´s aria from I Capuleti e I Montecchi and the last scene from Maria Stuarda that DiDonato has been singing so memorably lately. Not that rare either is Rossini´s Zelmira, but what about Pacini´s Stella di Napoli and Saffo? or Valentini´s Il Sonnambulo and Carafa´s Le Nozze di Lammermoor?

Joyce DiDonato is at the height of her powers: the voice sails from top to bottom with insolent ease, she has every trick under her sleeve, in these frighteningly difficult music nothing sounds labored or strained (as iss often the case with Fleming in this repertoire) and everything is truly sung, even grandly sung, not crooned (Bartoli anyone?). Her singing is as brilliant and exciting as was Sutherland´s in the Art of the Prima Donna or Caballe´s in her Rossini Rarities album, she is THAT good.
Smart woman that she is, and with impeccable taste too, she hired baroque violinist and now conductor Riccardo Minasi, who recorded such a fine Tamerlano for Naïve this year. Minasi is a big Belcanto lover and his care is evident in every aria. He also was involved in the preparation of Norma´s critical edition that Bartoli recorded 2 years ago -but that was not his fault-.

I have already heard thrice this CD and can´t stop playing it.

Listening tonight to two CDs of Tchaikovsky's beautiful music for solo piano.  First up was Mikhail Pletnev's touchingly sincere and direct performance of the 18 pieces that comprise his Opus 72.  And then I listened to a more recent release, the recording debut of the young Russian, Pavel Kolesnikov, and his very sensitive and delicate performances of The Seasons and Six Morceux.  All of this music is strongly reminiscient of Chopin and Schumann and I was also reminded of Grieg's Lyric Pieces.  This is certainly not music that requires virtuosic ability but it demands a refined sensitivity on the pianist's part to unlock its melodic and very personal charms.

I have no idea who Tossy Spivakovsky or Tauno Hannikainen are but this was a very good rendition of the Sibelius Violin Concerto....