Tír Na HiFi

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No's 1 & 2
Staatskapelle Dresden
Herbert Bolmstedt - conducting.

I have listened to the first 2 CD's so far. Impressive performances to say the least.

I've been listening today to some excellent sacred choral music courtesy of Wilfried Rombach and his very fine Ensemble Officium. All of these discs are available on Christophorus.





There is a beautifully pared-down intensity to these quite solemn performances which seems entirely fitting for this repertoire and which I personally find very moving. Very highly recommended.

Very interesting looking discs Paul!

Buxtehude – CD 4 of the Complete Organ Works [for Easter] played by Urlik Spang-Hanssen....



Simon, the stand-out pieces for me on this disc were....

Ciacona in C BuxWV 159
Praeludium in E BuxWv 141
Fuga in C BuxWV 174
Tocatta in F BuxWV 156
Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein BuxWV 210
Canzona in C BuxWV 166

Haydn: Trumpet Concerto....

Thanks Fergus, I know some of those but none well. I like the look of those discs too mcq.

DaveF wrote:

I have listened to the first 2 CD's so far. Impressive performances to say the least.

Well it is Doctor Reiner after all.
I have to confess that when I consider the performances of all of the conductors that I have in my collection the one who stands out for me as being consistently brilliant is, Fritz Reiner. I do not normally seek out recordings of Dickie Strauss's music (sorry Fergus), but I have that box set in my amazon.fr basket because it has Reiner conducting the CSO, I must order it soon.

Paul, those disc covers from Christophorus are beautiful, if the music sounds as good as they look then it must be very special indeed.

It is truly exquisite music, Sean. Really great sacred choral music like this just seeps into your bones and consumes you completely.

I've also been listening tonight to Schutz's Matthaus Passion as performed by Ars Nova Copenhagen and directed by Paul Hillier (DaCapo). An intense experience and a quite superb climax to Hillier's series of Schutz recordings on DaCapo, which collectively must form a career highlight for Hillier.



And finally, I played O Gente Brunette, a serenely beautiful disc of Franco-Flemish Renaissance polyphony as sung by Odhecation and directed by Paolo Da Col (and available on Ramee).