Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

Jose Echenique wrote: I was wondering if the Sixteen´s recording was worth adding to my collection. I love Jephtha dearly, and already have several recordings including the old ARGO version with Neville Marriner, still in modern instruments but very well sung, the Harnoncourt, first HIP recording, the singers and the chorus are not very idiomatic but it carries it´s own weight, The Marcus Creed with the Akademie für Alte Music, some fine things there, but overall not a first choice, the Biondi with his Norwegian orchestra, good conducting, but the sound of the orchestra despite Biondi´s efforts to make it sound HIP, still is very modern, then of course the Gardiner which has been the benchmark for many, many years and for many reasons, and last but not least the fine, live McGegan from the Göttingen Festival with the English Concert. I love them all, but I won´t be able to resist the temptation of the Christophers for long.

Just buy it Pepe; you know that you will buy it eventually as you cannot seem to resist a Handel opera or oratorio.

Jose Echenique wrote:
Of course I will Fergus, the flesh is weak.

fergus wrote:Rossini's Ermione....

mcq wrote:Five discs of quite glorious Renaissance vocal polyphony this evening.  Every time I return to this music I wonder why I ever listen to anything else, so utterly enrapturing is the experience.  The sense of continual forward momentum on an onward rushing river of sound is palpable and grippingly immediate.  Perhaps it is the terracing of the interweaving vocal textures that so grips me, constantly shifting and yet retaining dramatic impetus, or perhaps it is a cumulative sense of overwhelming tranquil beauty, born of an intense and rapt spiritual enquiry that is exultant and radiant to its core, that so transports me.  Whatever it is, this is incredible music.

Jose Echenique wrote:

fergus wrote:Rossini's Ermione....

What a surprise dear Fergus!!! A Rossini opera seria, and a great one. Ermione is a very fine tragedy, and though there´s a newer version in Opera Rara, ERATO´s is still the best. Cecilia Gasdia was an excellent soprano, in her early 20´s she was already singing La Traviata with Carlos Kleiber and Il Viaggio Reims with Abbado, by her mid 40´s she started having vocal problems that cut her career short, but considering that she was already an opera star by the time she was 21, I don´t think we can say her career was too short.
I think she is just splendid in that ERMIONE, so I hope you enjoy it too.