Tír Na HiFi

Jose Echenique wrote: Unfortunately Fergus you will hear far more Raymond Leppard than Francesco Cavalli. Leppard made several "arrangements" of Cavalli and Monteverdi operas in the 1960´s before Harnoncourt and the HIP movement. What he did was to "adapt" the music to the modern symphony orchestra. Monteverdi and Cavalli composed most of their operas for the first public theaters in Venice were the orchestra consisted of 2 violins and continuo, now let´s figure how we translate that into a symphony orchestra.
And even though his arrangements were well intended at the time, now that we have plenty of specialized musicians for this music they sound silly and absurd.

To be honest Pepe I expected something like that so I am under no illusion as to what to expect. I did not know that Jacobs had a version of the same work; I must look it up when I have listened to the Leppard version.aa

Matt: The Glass Violin Concerto is absolutely beautiful... a really amazing work.. ;-)

That is a very interesting selection, Jared, enjoy.

Seán wrote:That is a very interesting selection, Jared, enjoy.

Thanks Sean... I think that out of the group I have listed, only the Karl Jenkins will be heading back to the charity shop... he's a very talented man who was, with Soft Machine, at the forefront of the Progressive Rock scene back in the 1970's, but like Jon Lord, his 'classical' style is enjoyable, but a little too 'crossover/ easy listening' for my tastes, Jenkins's even bordering on the kitsch at times... the other six however are very acceptable inclusions to my collection. I think the Gliere Harp Concerto is delightful, the Glass VC is stunning, the Hoddinott CD a very pleasant surprise and I've always liked a bit of Part...

The Gerhard in particular will take a bit of working on, but all in all, I'm a very happy man.

As you can perhaps guess, I just sold a DVD box set on ebay ;-)

This eclectic little mix will be up for ernest consideration over the coming couple of weeks, as light relief from the 20th Century selection I have been listening to... I'm sure Simes will be most impressed with the serious quantity of Purcell, lying in wait for me... ;-))

Jared wrote:I'm sure Simes will be most impressed with the serious quantity of Purcell, lying in wait for me... ;-))

LOL. But of course!!