Tír Na HiFi

Symphony No.6 from my own personal favorite Mahler cycle.

A wonderful performance and a great recording too.



and some pics from the recording itself....





I'm assuming that little tv on the bottom pic is so that he can see the conductor. Must take a lot of skill to play in such and enviroment like that.

I've considered buying that album a few times, although the reviews seem a bit mixed. Do you rate it?

(And yes, the TV screen to see the conductor is common. Not as bad as it looks, and definitely not for somebody of the calibre of Daniel Roth. He rules!)

Diapason wrote:I've considered buying that album a few times, although the reviews seem a bit mixed. Do you rate it?

(And yes, the TV screen to see the conductor is common. Not as bad as it looks, and definitely not for somebody of the calibre of Daniel Roth. He rules!)

I'd certainly rate it alright but I have come across a few reviewers who didnt like the balance of the recording, finding it a just too raucous, in particular the last movement. I was thinking of doing this one for my slot in the listening project later in the year but we'll see.
I wonder how your ESL57's would cope with this recording. Organ fireworks! :-)

I don't mind a bit of raucous, and I love that organ SO much I'd prefer to hear it in all its glory, even if it drowns out the entire orchestra. Haven't tried anything like that on the ESLs yet. Don't fancy arcing the panels so soon.

DaveF wrote: and some pics from the recording itself....

Great images from that recording....good idea to include them Dave!

Diapason wrote:I don't mind a bit of raucous, and I love that organ SO much I'd prefer to hear it in all its glory, even if it drowns out the entire orchestra. Haven't tried anything like that on the ESLs yet. Don't fancy arcing the panels so soon.

At around €150.00 minimum per panel that is a sound philosophy Simon!

Symphonies 7 & 8....





No.7: The exposition is well paced and builds nicely to the main theme. I really like this performance as it has a questioning aspect to it which is in return answered by the main theme. The movement concludes strongly. The slow movement is beautifully played and the strings sound gorgeous. It has a lovely gentle, delicate feel to it. The scherzo like third movement is well paced and moves along jauntily and is yet another strong performance. The final movement is taken at break neck speed. It is exciting and exhilarating and I am sure that they all must have collapsed in a heap after its conclusion!

No. 8 is another strong performance. The opening movement is assertive and powerful with good bite in the pacing. The same can be said of the second movement scherzando. The strings play powerfully in the third movement with very appealing contributions from the brass and woodwind sections in the central section. The final movement maintains the spirit of the strong, powerful performances; it is assertive but not aggressively so.

R Strauss Ein Heldenleben....





Grand sweeping strings and fine orchestral textures, particularly the brass, bring out the dramatic details in this work.

I have plenty, and I mean plenty, of recordings of Bach´s glorious sonatas for violin & cembalo.
My long time favourite has been the dream team recording of Fabio Biondi and Rinaldo Alessandrini, but there have been others that really are just as good. Every now and then I like to revisit Francois Fernandez recording with Benjamin Alard. Fernandez is one of the finest Baroque fiddlers around with countless recordings in dozens of labels.
His performance is very different from Biondi´s warm and mediterranean offering.
Fernandez is more strict and almost totally avoids vibrato (Biondi is not shy with vibrato, though only on occasion).
But Fernandez understands like few others the structure and inner works of these sonatas, these are magisterial, exemplary performances. And rather than compete with Biondi, he complements him.