Tír Na HiFi

Excellent stuff Seán....Solti, the VPO and Decca engineers....sure you couldn't fail!!!

Haydn String Quartets Op. 9 Nos. 3 & 4....

Seán wrote:

Richard Wagner
Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries
Das Rheingold: Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla
Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music (from Die Walküre)
Siegfried: Forest Murmurs
Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung: finale
Wiener Philharmoniker
Georg Solti conducting

I bought this set from Arkiv. I didn't know what to expect and as the orchestras were conducted by Georg Solti I know that I would not be disappointed. Well nothing prepared me for the musical onslaught that greeted me when I played the second disc. I am not familiar with Wagner's music and this recording is an absolute revelation to me. The Decca recordings engineers did a wonderful job so that the sound of the Wiener in all of its glory is clear and distinctive. Solti and the VPO are a class apart on this recording. This music is of another world.....it's fabulous............................WOW!

I remember borrowing the Ring operas from Solti's cycle from the record library in the 70s. I was listening to them on the family's old valve record player which wasn't great, but I did enjoy them... in parts: I found that there were also very long boring bits! Maybe they've left those out in that compilation. Certainly Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung alwats makes the hairs on the back of neck stand on end in a good performance.

Ciaran wrote:

Seán wrote:

Richard Wagner
Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries
Das Rheingold: Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla
Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music (from Die Walküre)
Siegfried: Forest Murmurs
Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung: finale
Wiener Philharmoniker
Georg Solti conducting

I bought this set from Arkiv. I didn't know what to expect and as the orchestras were conducted by Georg Solti I know that I would not be disappointed. Well nothing prepared me for the musical onslaught that greeted me when I played the second disc. I am not familiar with Wagner's music and this recording is an absolute revelation to me. The Decca recordings engineers did a wonderful job so that the sound of the Wiener in all of its glory is clear and distinctive. Solti and the VPO are a class apart on this recording. This music is of another world.....it's fabulous............................WOW!

I remember borrowing the Ring operas from Solti's cycle from the record library in the 70s. I was listening to them on the family's old valve record player which wasn't great, but I did enjoy them... in parts: I found that there were also very long boring bits! Maybe they've left those out in that compilation. Certainly Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung alwats makes the hairs on the back of neck stand on end in a good performance.

The second CD in the set contains instrumental extracts from Wagner's Ring Cycle and is merely 45 minutes in length, it really is great music. I am not familiar with the rest of the cycle.

Working my way through this monstrous set slowly. This time it was BMV593, 594, 596, 721, 539. The first 3 are organ transcriptions of 3 Vivaldi concerti.

Seán, PM sent.

fergus wrote:Seán, PM sent.

Fergus, reply sent.

The beautiful and gentle music of Johann Schelle....

Vespers by Lotti



a Venetian composer contemporary with Vivaldi, admired by Bach, Händel and Zelenka. Lovely music, I'm delighted to have discovered it.

Speaking of Bach:



Isabelle Faust's new CD of BWV 1004-6 is awe-inspiring. It's interesting that female violinists seem to have been making this their own lately: Mullova is stunning and Rachel Podger is very thoughtful. Reviews suggest that Alina Ibragimova's



new recording is also worth hearing. Whatever about that, I was transfixed by Faust's playing of BWV 1004, I couldn't believe I would ever be impressed by anyone again after Mullova, particularly hearing her play the Chaconne from this at the NCH a few months ago.

Reynaldo Hahn's l'Heure Exquise had lodged in my head after hearing it on the radio recently, so I dug out Susan Graham's lovely CD of his songs



and listened to that one twice, then a few others. After that, why not some Debussy songs?



In Sandrine Piau's recital she's accompanied by Jos van Immerseel on a period Erard. Nice!

Finally some Chopin Nocturnes played by Nelson Freire:



Poerful! Disturbing and strange as Chopin always is or ought to be!