Tír Na HiFi

Romanus Weichlein was a Benedictine monk that worked in Northern Austria in the late XVII Century till he died from the plague in 1706. He was also a throughly trained composer who studied with Biber and others. The Encaenia Musices is a collection of 12 sonatas for s a five-part string ensemble with parts for 2 clarino trumpets.
These sonatas are much in debt to Biber´s magnificent Harmonia Artificioso-Ariosa, but they also show an individual and highly talented composer. It´s gorgeous music, so much so that Ars Antiqua Austria has made 2 recordings of it. The first for Symphonia was made in 1993 and the new one, a much better played version, just released this year though recorded in 2008, is for Pan Classics.

Adams - Violin Concerto (Robert McDuffie/Christoph Eschenbach, Houston Symphony, Telarc)

DaveF wrote:

fergus wrote:

DaveF wrote:

A wonderfully restrained and beautiful recording. This was my introduction to this work and it has yet to be beaten for me. It just strikes the right balance between choir and orchestra for my prefered practice of this Requiem. The inner movements, Sanctus, Pie Jesu and Agnus De are a thing of beauty.

Dave: I am interested in that one but I have read on Amazon of a number of issues with the dynamics being a problem on the recording; choir being recorded too low and then the orchestra blasting in when the vol. has been turned up to compensate for the choir. Any comments?

That's interesting Fergus. I certainly had no problems with the overall balance of the recording. The choir is low in places alright but to me this just adds to the beauty of the piece and just works for me. The orchestra does come in strong in one or two occasions but I wouldnt have used the words 'blasting in'.

Thank you for that Dave....you obviously were not scrambling to turn down the vol. then? That is good to read.

I listened to Bach for a couple of hours today and then returned to a CD I have listened to on a few occasions over the past few days:



I find it very difficult to describe what I make of this recording other than to say that I find it a pure joy to listen to: every singer, particularly the trio of Schwarzkopf, Ludwig & Hoffgen are stunning, the Philharmonia sound wonderful too and the performance is beautifully captured by the sound engineers. The accompanying booklet contains the libretti which really adds to the enjoyment, all in all this is a very satisfying recording.

On the subject of deeply satisfying performances here is my favourite performance of what is probably my favourite Beethoven Quartet:



Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet in F major Op 59 no. 1
Guarneri Quartet

I love it.

Seán wrote:

I find it very difficult to describe what I make of this recording other than to say that I find it a pure joy to listen to: every singer, particularly the trio of Schwarzkopf, Ludwig & Hoffgen are stunning, the Philharmonia sound wonderful too and the performance is beautifully captured by the sound engineers. The accompanying booklet contains the libretti which really adds to the enjoyment, all in all this is a very satisfying recording.

Very interesting comments Seán. I also like all three singers. Ludwig is great to listen to. I am a big fan of Frau Schwarzkopf; many are not, including our good friend Pepe LOL!!! I also think that Hoffgen has a wonderful and unusual voice; I have her singing some Bach Cantatas, one of which is a test CD for me as I find it a rivetting performance.

markof wrote:

how did you like that recording...

I've been listening to the Rostropovich version quite a lot lately... I do love it, and it makes for a deeply impressive tester for how a system deals with the upper reaches of the bass register... ( I'm sure DaveF can suggest a 32' stop recording for the lower reaches!!!)

Seán wrote:I listened to Bach for a couple of hours today and then returned to a CD I have listened to on a few occasions over the past few days:



I find it very difficult to describe what I make of this recording other than to say that I find it a pure joy to listen to: every singer, particularly the trio of Schwarzkopf, Ludwig & Hoffgen are stunning, the Philharmonia sound wonderful too and the performance is beautifully captured by the sound engineers. The accompanying booklet contains the libretti which really adds to the enjoyment, all in all this is a very satisfying recording.

The BIG problem with Klemperer´s Magic Flute was his refusal to record the dialogue. Without the dialogue it kind of sounds like a "highlights" recording. Walter Legge went to great pains to convince him that the dialogue was every bit as much a part of the Magic Flute as the music, but alas, to no avail.
His conducting is indeed extraordinary, and I have always thought Klemperer a superb Mozartian because in spite of the Brucknerian tempos, he acknowledges the importance of the woodwinds in the orchestral texture, favoring a balance that Brüggen or Gardiner might recognize (Karajan for example always favored the strings, that´s why his Mozart performances sound more dated).

The singing in Klemperer´s Magic Flute is also extraordinary. Both Gundula Janowitz and Lucia Popp were making their recording debuts, and both are among the finest exponents of their roles. Gottlob Frick is a god-like Sarastro, quite simply magnificent, and Nicolai Gedda is a youthful, ever stylish Tamino. I don´t like quite as much Walter Berry´s Papageno, but that´s the only disappointment.

The Klemperer recording always came in direct competition with the contemporaneous Böhm recording for DG. That is also one of the finest recordings ever, with unmatched performances by Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Tamino and Papageno. But where it really scores over the Klemperer is in that it includes the dialogue.

jaybee wrote:

markof wrote:

how did you like that recording...

I've been listening to the Rostropovich version quite a lot lately... I do love it, and it makes for a deeply impressive tester for how a system deals with the upper reaches of the bass register... ( I'm sure DaveF can suggest a 32' stop recording for the lower reaches!!!)

It's a fine modern recording, maybe a bit dry. The playing is strong, energetic and aggressive at times .

Of the other performances I'm familiar with (Casals, Du Pré and Yo-Yo Ma) this one is focused closest to the listener, every creak and fingering is up there in the mix and to my ear, is probably the most "clinical sounding" performance of the four.