What are you listening two?

[markof]

[markof]

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[mcq]

Kicking off the weekend in style with Haydn’s Op. 20 and Op. 33 string quartets as performed by the Quatuor Mosaïques whilst indulging in a subtly charming 2015 Meursault from Domaine Parigot. Sheer bliss.

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[cybot]

Beautiful sleeve.....

[markof]

Beautiful sleeve.....

Lovely playing too. In fact the quality of playing and production on the alpha label is very high.

[markof]

[markof]

I had the pleasure of seeing this ensemble last night at the Cork School of Music.
They took us on an extraordinary musical voyage from the 13th. century to the present day - quite the experience.

Mark

[mcq]

Over the past week I have been listening to the first of the two box sets that were issued to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and what a glorious journey it has been. Each disc has offered up an embarrassment of riches to the listener. There is an emphasis on instrumental and choral music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods and the repertoire is richly varied from Lassus and Palestrina to Forqueray and Couperin. Two discs showcasing the masses of Frescobaldi are an undoubted delight as are the recordings of Scarlatti’s St. John Passion and a selection of the great man’s cantatas. But tonight I’m listening to the discs devoted to a favourite of mine, Rameau, specifically the orchestral suites of Hippolyte et Aricie, Platée and Dardanus as well as a complete recording of the one act opera, Pygmalion. What strikes me most about Rameau is his sense of humanity. There is a warmth in his music, an appreciation of kindness and delicacy and mutual respect and an absolute rejection of cruelty and wanton violence, which is perhaps equaled only in the operas of Handel, and I can accord Rameau no higher praise than to equate his achievement with arguably the greatest secular composer of all.