What are you listening to?

[Ciaran]

The new Simone Kermes CD:



Colori d'Amore: more obscure opera arias like the last one, Lava, and like that one, including many which have not been recorded before. I didn't find it as exciting as Lava, but still very good.

A selection from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs on SACD



with Christiane Oelze and Michael Volle and the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz. Absolutely glorious! Wonderful sound, delightful performance. Unusually it includes Urlicht and Das himmlische Leben, usually heard as movements of Symphonies 2 and 4. This means that Das himmlische Leben is heard immediately after Das irdische Leben, which seems apt.

Motets by Alessandro Melani,



probably unheard for 200 years until Concerto Italiano took them up. These were released in 2010 having languished in the vaults since 2006. Absolutely delightful!

And the best new Bach Cantata CD I've heard for a good while:



The Bach Players, an English one-to-a-part ensemble in woondeeful performances of Cantatas 61 and 97, together with a Suite (Ouverture) by Erlebach and some settings of the tune Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen used by Bach in several works, including BWV 97.

[fergus]

JSB – Christmas Oratorio Part 4....



I feel that this is a particularly beautiful section of this work.

[fergus]

Irecently heard extracts from the this recording and I was well impressed....

[fergus]

Beethoven – Symphonies Nos. 5 Klemperer....



Another fine performance but there was a first stumble in this cycle for me in the final movement which for me was played too slowly but, more importantly for me, it did not have enough bite or spirit to it.

[fergus]

Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony....



This is the only version that I have of this work.

[mcq]

Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony....



This is the only version that I have of this work.

That's a great cycle on Chandos, Fergus, but the best versions I've heard of the last three masterpieces are these by Evgeny Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic. I really can't recommend this 2-CD set highly enough.

[Ciaran]

Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony....



This is the only version that I have of this work.

That's a great cycle on Chandos, Fergus, but the best versions I've heard of the last three masterpieces are these by Evgeny Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic. I really can't recommend this 2-CD set highly enough.

I've only recently discovered the Manfred Symphony myself... I heard it on the radio and thought "that sounds just like a Tchaikovsky symphony, but I don't know it: I wonder what it is?" and it turned out to be the Manfred Symphony. I've been listening to the version recorded by the Russsian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev



which I've been enjoying very much. I heartily endorse mcq's recommendation of the Leningrad Philharmonic/Mravinsky CDs of symphonies 4-6.

[mcq]

Pletnev's version of the Manfred is the best I've heard. I have it in this excellent 3-CD set coupled with all of Tchaikovsky's tone poems. DG have recently reissued these performances in conjunction with Pletnev's recordings of the symphonies (which I have not heard). He has also recorded my favourite version of The Sleeping Beauty (also pictured).

[fergus]

That's a great cycle on Chandos, Fergus, but the best versions I've heard of the last three masterpieces are these by Evgeny Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic. I really can't recommend this 2-CD set highly enough.

I've only recently discovered the Manfred Symphony myself... I heard it on the radio and thought "that sounds just like a Tchaikovsky symphony, but I don't know it: I wonder what it is?" and it turned out to be the Manfred Symphony. I've been listening to the version recorded by the Russsian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev



which I've been enjoying very much. I heartily endorse mcq's recommendation of the Leningrad Philharmonic/Mravinsky CDs of symphonies 4-6.

Thanks for the recommendation on the symphonies guys....as it happens I actually have that set and I also think that it is very fine!

I will definitely look into that Pletnev Manfred....

[fergus]

JSB – Cantatas BWV58 & BWV153 for the Sunday after New Year....