Tír Na HiFi

^^ I'm pleased you've enjoyed them...

fergus wrote:

The Debussy is a very fine piece with a beautiful slow movement made all the more poignant by the ravishing playing. However, I was really very taken with the Ravel!! This is a gorgeous disc with wonderful chamber music on it!

I love Ravel's SQ. I can only try and imagine what it must sound like when played by the Italian's. I'll have to get that CD, in fact I want to get everything available by the Quartetto Italiano, I'm smitten, I'm afraid.

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:

The Debussy is a very fine piece with a beautiful slow movement made all the more poignant by the ravishing playing. However, I was really very taken with the Ravel!! This is a gorgeous disc with wonderful chamber music on it!

I love Ravel's SQ. I can only try and imagine what it must sound like when played by the Italian's. I'll have to get that CD, in fact I want to get everything available by the Quartetto Italiano, I'm smitten, I'm afraid.

It is a wonderful disc Seán and something that I did not really notice on first listen was the wonderful tones of the instruments that are captured on the recording!

This is a lovely disc with the Hymns being sung in plainchant and the Responses being sung in polyphony all sometimes interspersed with lovely, gentle organ music.

after having spent the past week on firstly Brendel's 70's performances of the LvB Piano Sonatas, then having moved onto a couple of rounds of his Piano Concertos with Bernard Haitink & the LPO, I have moved over to a comparison with another relatively new purchase:



I think you can imagine that these are two very different sets of performances; the Brendel's trend to be fairly mellow, sensitive, measured and a little understated, although very beautifully performed for all that; the Pollini live perfomances from the mid '90s are considerably more fiery and energetic, with upbeat tempos... exhilerating, but I can't imagine they'd be everyone's cup of tea. I must admit, I do find this to be one of the principle fascinations about CM as a genre; that fact that you can purchase two sets of performances of the same body of work, and find such variations in interpretation...

Jared wrote: I think you can imagine that these are two very different sets of performances; the Brendel's trend to be fairly mellow, sensitive, measured and a little understated, although very beautifully performed for all that; the Pollini live perfomances from the mid '90s are considerably more fiery and energetic, with upbeat tempos... exhilerating, but I can't imagine they'd be everyone's cup of tea. I must admit, I do find this to be one of the principle fascinations about CM as a genre; that fact that you can purchase two sets of performances of the same body of work, and find such variations in interpretation...

Sounds like just the kind of Beethoven performance for me!

Disc 1 which contains the Coronation Mass, Missa Solemnis and the Credo Messe....



....These are all very well played and sung and the stand out performers for me are the choir who collectively sing with great passion and assertiveness.

On vinyl,

Disc 1 of this mammoth 12 piece vinyl set.