Tír Na HiFi

still on the Dvorak and Suk piano disks above. Dvorak's work is exactly as I thought it would be, but Suk's has taken me by surprise a little... quite delicate, introspective studies which seem to be more French than German influenced... perfectly pleasant, but border on the insipid at times, for my tastes.... anyone have any thoughts here?

where is everyone this evening?

you can't ALL be glued to the Eurovision Song Contest?

IIRC, it's never been the same for the Irish since Father Ted & Father Dougal's entry 'My Lovely Horse'.... ;-)

Jared wrote:where is everyone this evening?

you can't ALL be glued to the Eurovision Song Contest?

IIRC, it's never been the same for the Irish since Father Ted & Father Dougal's entry 'My Lovely Horse'.... ;-)

RUGBY dear boy!!! European Cup today.

Jared wrote:where is everyone this evening?

you can't ALL be glued to the Eurovision Song Contest?

IIRC, it's never been the same for the Irish since Father Ted & Father Dougal's entry 'My Lovely Horse'.... ;-)

Heaven's no, I never watch it. Purcell (Ode to St Celia [twice] & Birthday Ode for Queen Mary), Schubert Symphonies 8 & 9 with Bernstein and the NYPO and Duke Ellington's New Orleans Suite (for the second time today). Well you did ask.

We don´t get the Eurovision Song Contest here, but we do get American Idol, and I saw a little bit of the finale yesterday. Not really terrible, especially the girl who won does have a nice voice that if trained could be another Jessye Norman, but in all probability she´s looking more into Aretha Franklin.

So...rather let´s hear those voices that actually trained to develop all their possibilities like German mezzo Ann Hallenberg. This young singer is now all over the place, recording with you name it. She is a favourite of Alan Curtis, and he chose her for this interesting program of arias that Handel wrote for specific singers who couldn´t cope -or didn´t like- the original arias the great Handel wrote for Rinaldo, Ottone, Amadigi and other operas. Most of these arias are recorded for the first time and it´s a treat to hear them. Hallenberg may not have a Joyce DiDonato voice, but she is very, very good. Much recommended!

Been at a live concert all evening. This PM, evening in Europe, I was out and about.

Listening to the Brahms/Schoenberg Piano Quartet in G which was on the program this evening. Robert Craft/Chicago SO on Sony. Leave it to me to enjoy Brahms as seen by Schoenberg...

First dip into a donated vinyl collection. Unfortunately with a lot of surface noise but the sound and performance was very enjoyable!


The rest of the collection is mostly mfp, cfp, Argo etc. But a few DG, Decca and RCA as well.... Must get a Knosti record cleaner soon... ;)

Second dip:

Hilde Gueden Sings Opera and Operetta on Decca Eclipse

Can't find the cover picture, but the vinyl is mint and looks and sounds un-played!

Side 2 is mono recordings "enhanced" for stereo... Not sure about this...

Lovely sound and performances for my uneducated ears though...

^^ enjoy, Claus.

not sure whether it's my imagination, but there do appear to be quite a few 2nd hand Classical vinyl collections changing hands over in Dublin these days...



final run through of these enjoyable disks, for the time being...

Jose Echenique wrote:

Strange cover art on that one.