What are you listening two?

[fergus]

These are superior interpretations to Dorati

Is that Dorati set the only complete cycle? I have it myself but I found it very very bland and generally uninspiring. But ever since I've heard Goodmans Haydn, few others with the exception of Hogwood have measured up. A pity that they are incomplete cycles.

I share your view on Dorati Dave and I never listen to that set any more. The only other complete cycle that I know of and have is by Fischer. It is played on modern instruments and I like it but others do not; once again it just down to personal taste in these matters.

[Seán]

These are superior interpretations to Dorati

Is that Dorati set the only complete cycle? I have it myself but I found it very very bland and generally uninspiring. But ever since I've heard Goodmans Haydn, few others with the exception of Hogwood have measured up. A pity that they are incomplete cycles.

I share your view on Dorati Dave and I never listen to that set any more. The only other complete cycle that I know of and have is by Fischer. It is played on modern instruments and I like it but others do not; once again it just down to personal taste in these matters.

I like The Dorati cycle because it gives me the opportunity to listen to all of Haydn's Symphonies, it is dated I'll give you that. I have a selection of the Fischer recordings but never warmed to them. The Harnoncourt, Bruggen, Weil, Kuijken and Goodman performances are very enjoyable.

[mcq]

Last night I listened to Rene Jacobs' exceptional new recording of Handel's Orlando (surprisingly released on DG Archiv rather than Jacobs' usual home, Harmonia Mundi).  Like any Jacobs performance, you find yourself utterly enthralled right from the opening notes.  It's an intoxicating experience and, I suspect, may well become my favourite version of Orlando.  I also have versions by Christopher Hogwood and William Christie which I have enjoyed for many years but this new version is at once more gripping than the rather more measured approaches of Hogwood and Christie.  Wonderfully cast with the countertenor of the moment, Bejun Mehta, taking the lead role and Jacobs regulars Sunhae Im, Sophie Karthauser (whose recent recording of Poulenc songs for Harmonia Mundi was something rather special) and Konstantin Wolff taking the supporting roles.  I find myself more and more impressed, though, with Mehta as time goes by.  Max Emmanuel Cencic and Franco Fagioli are more technically gifted but Mehta is the more emotionally expressive and dramatically intense performer (in my opinion, anyway).  Last year's Che puro ciel, an album of 18th  century opera arias that he recorded with Jacobs, was very special and deeply rewarding.

And tonight I'm listening to another recent purchase, the complete string quartets of Mieczyslaw Weinberg as recorded by Quator Danel for CPO.  Weinberg is a composer whose work has aroused a great deal of attention in recent years and, after many years of neglect, has begun to be recorded much more regularly.  This is really great news because the music is quite wonderful.  These quartets share similarities with Shostakovich but do not strike me as being quite as anguished and elemental.  This is subtle, engrossing music that nods in recognition at the influence of Shostakovich and Bartok but displays a full and complete assimilation of the canonical  influence of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (as refracted through a modernist lens).  Rather like Vagn Holmboe in his work for string quartet, this is fresh and original musical thinking that is simultaneously at peace with the past whilst in tune with the present.  Very highly recommended.  

[Seán]

Last night I listened to Rene Jacobs' exceptional new recording of Handel's Orlando (surprisingly released on DG Archiv rather than Jacobs' usual home, Harmonia Mundi).  Like any Jacobs performance, you find yourself utterly enthralled right from the opening notes.  It's an intoxicating experience and, I suspect, may well become my favourite version of Orlando.  I also have versions by Christopher Hogwood and William Christie which I have enjoyed for many years but this new version is at once more gripping than the rather more measured approaches of Hogwood and Christie.  Wonderfully cast with the countertenor of the moment, Bejun Mehta, taking the lead role and Jacobs regulars Sunhae Im, Sophie Karthauser (whose recent recording of Poulenc songs for Harmonia Mundi was something rather special) and Konstantin Wolff taking the supporting roles.  I find myself more and more impressed, though, with Mehta as time goes by.  Max Emmanuel Cencic and Franco Fagioli are more technically gifted but Mehta is the more emotionally expressive and dramatically intense performer (in my opinion, anyway).  Last year's Che puro ciel, an album of 18th  century opera arias that he recorded with Jacobs, was very special and deeply rewarding.

Lovely review as always Paul, I don't have many recordings by Jacobs; I have found that he never disappoints.

And tonight I'm listening to another recent purchase, the complete string quartets of Mieczyslaw Weinberg as recorded by Quator Danel for CPO.  Weinberg is a composer whose work has aroused a great deal of attention in recent years and, after many years of neglect, has begun to be recorded much more regularly.  This is really great news because the music is quite wonderful.  These quartets share similarities with Shostakovich but do not strike me as being quite as anguished and elemental.  This is subtle, engrossing music that nods in recognition at the influence of Shostakovich and Bartok but displays a full and complete assimilation of the canonical  influence of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (as refracted through a modernist lens).  Rather like Vagn Holmboe in his work for string quartet, this is fresh and original musical thinking that is simultaneously at peace with the past whilst in tune with the present.  Very highly recommended.  

I am not familiar with either Weinberg or Quator Daniel, they have obviously made a big impression on you, perhaps I should investigate.

[mcq]

Many thanks, Sean.  With regards to Weinberg, the man had a terribly hard life.  A Polish Jew whose entire family was wiped out by the Nazis in the Second World War, he moved to Russia in search of "a better life".   It was only the personal  intervention of his friend, Shostakovich, that narrowly saved him from the gulag during one of Stalin's anti-Semitic purges.  The surprising thing about the music is how contained it sounds.  It stands apart from Bartok and Shostakovich in its sheer restraint and, given the life the man had, you would expect to hear something more anguished.  Dissonance is utilised sparingly to express feelings of extreme emotion but never disturbs the underlying formal structure of the music.  You really get the sense of a man who lived daily under a great deal of unimaginable pressure but was forced to internalise his emotional traumas for the sake of his own wellbeing.

[Jose Echenique]

DHM was brave to record Gluck´s version of La Clemenza di Tito, perhaps it´s the company´s birthday present for the 300 year old composer. And I say brave, because it´s very long, almost 4 hours long, and comes in 4 cds, though DHM is selling it at the price of 2.
Imperial Court Poet Pietro Metastasio wrote la Clemenza di Tito originally for Antonio Caldara, and since then dozens of composers have used the libretto, Johann Adolf Hasse set it not once but twice, and most famously it was Mozart´s last opera.
It would be silly to compare Mozart´s version to Gluck´s because there are vast differences between them. Gluck´s still belongs to his pre-reform period, so it still dutifully obeys all opera seria strictures: long, elaborate arias that serve the singers well (1752 was still the heyday of the castrato). Mozart had already moved on and made Caterino Mazzolá, to add concertante numbers that the original libretto didn´t have to push forward the action. It´s funny, but we could say that Gluck´s is early Gluck, while Mozart´s is late Mozart, though Gluck (39) was actually older than Mozart (35) when he composed his version.
The enterprise is worthwhile, it was recorded live in November of last year in concert form, it´s as quiet as a studio recording. All the singers are very good, especially Raffaella Milanesi who sings Sesto and Laura Aikin who sings Vitellia. Werner Ehrhardt former first violin of Concerto Köln, has made L´ Arte del Mondo a truly splendid band. So, it´s enjoyable, but as long as Lohengrin.

[fergus]

....And tonight I'm listening to another recent purchase, the complete string quartets of Mieczyslaw Weinberg as recorded by Quator Danel for CPO.  Weinberg is a composer whose work has aroused a great deal of attention in recent years and, after many years of neglect, has begun to be recorded much more regularly.  This is really great news because the music is quite wonderful.  These quartets share similarities with Shostakovich but do not strike me as being quite as anguished and elemental.  This is subtle, engrossing music that nods in recognition at the influence of Shostakovich and Bartok but displays a full and complete assimilation of the canonical  influence of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (as refracted through a modernist lens).  Rather like Vagn Holmboe in his work for string quartet, this is fresh and original musical thinking that is simultaneously at peace with the past whilst in tune with the present.  Very highly recommended.  

I am intrigued by your write up of the Weinberg string quartets Paul. I will certainly look this composer up as I have not come across him before.

[fergus]

Coincidence Pepe; I was only looking at that set on Amazon the other day!

[fergus]

I do not have much of Ancerl's conducting in my collection but what I do have I am impressed with. This LP was a recent purchase....





It is a taught and very fine interpretation of this great work and yet another reason to search out more of this conductor's work.

[mcq]

Listening this evening to a recent purchase, Handel's Siroe, King of Persia (on the Accent label).  This is one of the very few Handel operas that has completely passed me by (I haven't heard Andreas Spering's earlier recording on Harmonia Mundi) and I was very pleased to see this recent live recording from last year's Gottingen Handel Festival being released.  Whilst I certainly would not rate this opera as highly as Theodora or Orlando, the lowly opinion that this work enjoys among Handelian scholars is wholly undeserved.  Once again it takes a fine and deeply rewarding performance such as this to remind us that it is foolish and naive to underestimate any opera from the pen of arguably the greatest composer of secular vocal music that ever lived.  Key to the success of the recording is the sympathetic conducting of Laurence Cummings.  This is not a breathlessly exciting theatrical performance in the manner of Rene Jacobs but is closer to the more measured performances of Handel's operas that Christian Curnyn has produced for Chandos.  Many of the singers are unknown quantities to me apart from Lisandro Abadie (who I found exceptional in Fabio Bonizzoni's recording of Aci, Galatea e Polifermo for the Glossa label) but there is a real sense of an ensemble of singers engaging with their characters and interacting with each other which makes for a really rewarding listening experience.

I followed this with another recent purchase, Midori Seiler's superb recording of the Haydn violin concertos with Concerto Koln (available on Berlin Classics).  These are fiery and passionate performances that remind me a little of Viktoria Mullova's fine performances of the Bach violin concertos that she recorded with Ottavio Dantone's ensemble, Accademia Bizantina, for Onyx last year.  They share with those performances a sense of robustness and muscular expressivity in their approach allied to a keen sensitivity to the underlying elegance that pervades these finely shaped works.