Tír Na HiFi

Listening tonight to a favourite recording, a classic version of one of Telemann's greatest masterpieces, the Paris Quartets.  The Kujiken brothers  -  Barthold, Sigiswald and Wieland  -  are joined by the legendary Gustav Leonhardt in elegant performances of wit, warmth, profundity and immense charm.  Remarkable and timelessly satisfying music.

Finishing up the evening's listening with this wonderful selection of violin sonatas by Locatelli, Leclair, Tartini and Forqueray.  Vibrant, stylish performances of great panache.  Superb.

On the radio I heard some of Isabelle Faust playing the Bach V+H sonatas. I really like her style - a mixture of modern and baroque - with plenty of cool intensity!! But my favourite recording is my LP of Alice Harnoncourt and Herbert Tachezi, issued as a box set some 40 years ago.

Beresford wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:24 am On the radio I heard some of Isabelle Faust playing the Bach V+H sonatas. I really like her style - a mixture of modern and baroque - with plenty of cool intensity!! But my favourite recording is my LP of Alice Harnoncourt and Herbert Tachezi, issued as a box set some 40 years ago.

The Isabelle Faust is nice and lively and very musical too. I'd like to hear the Harnoncourt to compare but I can't find it on Qobuz unfortunately.
Mark

Beresford wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:24 am On the radio I heard some of Isabelle Faust playing the Bach V+H sonatas. I really like her style - a mixture of modern and baroque - with plenty of cool intensity!! But my favourite recording is my LP of Alice Harnoncourt and Herbert Tachezi, issued as a box set some 40 years ago.

My big box of Glenn Gould's Bach has an unexpected DVD of his playing of the violin sonatas with Yehudi Menuhin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_RINQrS8m8. It's the most bizarre coupling of Gould's coruscating brittle pianism with Menuhin's mellifluent vibrato. About as far from the authentic instrument movement as it is possible to be. And yet...
(Is it heresy to say that I quite like it?)

Really lovely album. Has shades of early mike oldfield / pat metheny with a pastoral tone.

Just the thing to welcome in spring.

Mark

A wonderful set of performances of works by a still rather undervalued composer.  Influences of contemporaries such as CPE Bach and the Graun brothers abound but much was evidently also absorbed from a master of an earlier generation, Telemann.  Very highly recommended.

A captivating solo harp recital, rich in interior depth and possessed of an utterly beguiling lyrical charm.  There is an emotional directness here that is quite affecting and which is expressed with a delicacy and lightness of touch.  

An utterly gorgeous oboe recital, lyrical and deftly nuanced, documenting the development of the repertoire for the instrument throughout the baroque period, ending with a harbinger of the classical period in the form of a sonata by CPE Bach.