Tír Na HiFi

An unusual pair of organs featured on this recording. The most interesting one being the meantone-tuned Wilde-Schnitger organ of St. Jacobi Church, Lüdingworth. Not that most people here will give a sh*t anyway. lol
Anyway, a recommended one for anyone interested in Buxtehude.

I think meantone in this music is incredibly enlightening, and my eyes were totally opened the first time I heard Buxtehude in this tuning. It's strange to our ears in some ways, but you really get a sense of the colour of the keys, and the jarring effect of modulations to remote keys. Other-worldly almost.

should please Simon...

Mozart composed this oratorio when he was 14 for the city of Padua, it´s very beautiful although there have been too few recordings. The best known, made in the mid 70´s for Philips was conducted by Vittorio Negri and was superbly sung by the great Swedish contralto Birgit Finnilä and Norwegian soprano Kari Lovaas.
The importance of this new recording is that it´s the first on period instruments. L´ Orfeo Barockorchester is a fine orchestra, with several recordings in CPO and other labels, so it´s very sad to report that the singing is mediocre at best. Margot Oitzinger, who claims to be a contralto, has an unimportant voice to put it kindly, and although Christian Zenker, the tenor, is not that bad, he can´t compete with Claes Hakon Ahnsjo in the Philips recording.
Right now Rinaldo Alessandrini is performing the work with contralto Sonia Prina, let´s hope there´s a recording.

this is a version full of drama, with some great orchestration and soloists...

Jared wrote:

this is a version full of drama, with some great orchestration and soloists...

And it´s also one of the few in English, adapted by Haydn himself.
I´m so old that I actually heard live all the artists in this recording: Heather Harper, marvelous soprano, she came to Mexico City in 1976 to sing Mozart´s Mass K.427, John-Shirley Quirk also visited us around the same time to sing Handel´s Judas Maccabeus, and of course Colin Davis, I was fortunate to hear many times over the years. Looking back at his career I think his finest recordings were made in the 60´s and 70´s, and this Seasons is a good example of his art at it´s finest.

Jose Echenique wrote:And it´s also one of the few in English, adapted by Haydn himself.
I´m so old that I actually heard live all the artists in this recording: Heather Harper, marvelous soprano, she came to Mexico City in 1976 to sing Mozart´s Mass K.427, John-Shirley Quirk also visited us around the same time to sing Handel´s Judas Maccabeus, and of course Colin Davis, I was fortunate to hear many times over the years. Looking back at his career I think his finest recordings were made in the 60´s and 70´s, and this Seasons is a good example of his art at it´s finest.

Thanks Pepe, the guides appear to be unanimous in saying this is still the finest Seasons to have been performed in English, and I can believe it... it's amazing this was recorded in the late '60s, because it is still so fresh and vibrant in it's sound. For many, this often struggles to hold the attention by the side of the more dramatic creation, but Davis certainly makes a good case for the oratorio here, and his soloists are very fine.



anyway, Vol 1 has arrived... and it's wonderful!

DaveF wrote:

I think that Kubelik does Schumann very well.