What Classical are you listening to?

[Forsooth]

Stabat Mater
Sonya Yoncheva (Hungarian soprano) & Karine Deshayes (French mezzo)
Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736) -- 2016 release
"In 1736, 26-year-old Pergolesi, suffering from tuberculosis, moved to the Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli. During his final year, he composed the Stabat Mater, which contemporaries lauded as a successful introduction of the new galant style into the traditional domain of church music. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater was first published in London, in 1749, eventually becoming the most frequently printed musical composition in the eighteenth century."

 

[Forsooth]

Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo-soprano (Issued 1963)
Kurt Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins (painting by Otto Dix)
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Born July 3, 1939 - Berlin, Germany. The German mezzo-soprano, Brigitte Fassbaender, was the daughter of screen actress Sabine Peters and the celebrated German baritone, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. Growing up in Germany, Brigitte's first love was not music, but theatre. She longed to become an actress like her mother, and it wasn’t until the family settled in Nuremberg after World War II that she began to secretly experiment with her voice. When she felt confident enough, she made a tape of arias and lieder and sent them to her father, who was then the head of the opera department at the Nuremberg Conservatory. Domgraf-Fassbaender promptly took his daughter on as a pupil, and she studied at the conservatory as a mezzo-soprano from 1958 to 1961.

Brigitte Fassbinder
Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender (celebrated baritone) and Sabine Peters (acted in a 1948 Greta Garbo movie)

 

[eljr]

Arturo Toscanini
DISC 3:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (live, April 9, 1933)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (April 9–10, 1936)
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn (April 10, 1936)

 

[eljr]

Amazing and free!

A must watch.

Lang Lang's New York Rhapsody

Friday, November 25 at 9:00 pm on PBS

 

[eljr]

Simone Dinnerstein / A Far Cry
Circles: Piano Concertos by Bach + Glass

Release Date May 11, 2018
Genre
Classical
Styles
Concerto

 

[eljr]

Zuill Bailey / North Carolina Symphony Orchestra
Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante

Release Date May 13, 2016
Duration01:01:54
Genre
Classical
Styles
Concerto
Recording DateFebruary 20, 2015 - February 21, 2015
Recording Location
Meymandi Concert Hall;Raleigh, North Carolina
Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Clonick Hall Studio, Oberlin, Ohio

 

[eljr]

Frieder Bernius
Joseph Haydn: Stabat Mater, Hob. XXbis

Release Date March 2, 2018
Duration59:51
Genre
Classical
Styles
Choral
Recording DateApril 5, 2017 - April 7, 2017
Recording Location
The Ev. Kirche Reutlingen-Gönningen

 

[eljr]

Christian Lindberg / Norrköping Symphony Orchestra
Allan Pettersson: Symphonies 5 & 7

Release Date April 6, 2018
Duration01:22:39
Genre
Classical
Styles
Symphony
Recording DateJanuary, 2017
Recording Location
The Louis De Geer Concert Hall, Norrköping, Sweden

 

[Forsooth]

Carnevale 1729
Ann Hallenberg (On Spotify, this is a 2-disc set)

"The Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg has recorded one of the most fascinating recital of never previously recorded gems. Her recording is made up of excerpts from operas that were showcases during the 1729 Carnival in Venice. The accompaniment is provide by the ensemble Il pomo d’oro under the leadership of the violinist Stefano Montanari. This new production comes only a few months after her resounding recital devoted to the famous castrato Farinelli (Aparté AP 117 – 01/2017).

"Eight reviews have been located so far – all of them extremely favourable. Gramophone, under the pen of David Vickers, has rewarded this production with an Editor’s Choice and BBC Music Magazine has selected it for its disc of the month of September 2017."

 

[Forsooth]

Perpetual Night -- 17th Century Ayres and Songs
Lucile Richardot
Ensemble Correspondances with Sébastien Daucé

"New from Harmonia Mundi, Perpetual Night. a superb recording of ayres and songs from the 17th century, by Ensemble Correspondances with Sébastien Daucé and Lucile Richardot. Ensemble Correspondances are among the foremost exponents of the music of Versailles and the French royalty, so it's good to hear them turn to the music of the Stuart court. Though the songs are in the English language, they are in artistic terms very much attuned to wider European influences. Superlative performances from Ensemble Correspondances with lithe, agile voices, especially the higher voices, male and female, complemented by Lucile Richardot. Her range is impressive, enhancing and integrating the other voices."

 

[Forsooth]

Mariana Flores
Claudio Monteverdi: Lettera Amorosa
Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon (2018 release)
"This is a selection of some of Monteverdi’s most powerfully expressive works on the theme of love and its related emotions of joy, sorrow, devotion, jealousy and loss. It’s performed by the husband-and-wife team of soprano Mariana Flores with Leonardo García Alarcón directing the early music ensemble Cappella Mediterranea."

 

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[eljr]

 

[MR.MAGOO]

If you've heard this opera, the Prologue might sound familiar "Moritat von Mackie Messer" - The Ballad of Mac the Knife, later made famous in the Bobby Darin song "Mack the Knife".

 

[TLS Guy]

This lovely setting of a poem by Goethe. The composer and performer has just turned 13. She has written a significant amount of music over the last 9 years, including a 2 and a half hour opera (her second opera) which has now had two staged performances.

 

[flippo]

Bought this cd at McKays Used Bookstore in Chattanooga. Fantastic album.

 

[Verdinut]

I've just got hold of a discontinued SACD which makes an outstanding demo disc. From what I have read, the recording was made in October 1958, on 3-track 35mm magnetic film which was the best analog recording medium at the time. So you can enjoy the music as it was recorded on the 3 front channels with amazement.

The work which reveals the most dynamic range in my opinion, just having listened to this disc only once, is the Corroboree Ballet Suite by an Australian composer, John Antill. In that work, inspired by Australian aboriginal dance ceremonies, the Didjeridoo is heard as well as bass drums and other various instruments. The other works by Villa-Lobos and Ginastera are very well performed too. You couldn't tell that these recordings were made 60 years ago!

Should you be interested in getting one, there is a pre-owned one on eBay from Portugal at present selling at around $75 + shippng. I was lucky as I picked one up in Canada for C$73 including shipping. But be careful as some sellers are only selling 2 channel stereo CDs and asking a stiff sum. This SACD was produced by Vanguard Classics.