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The classical what are you listening to now ? thread.

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It's almost unfair. Mönkemeyer is preternaturally talented at picking out pieces to play on his instrument, and if he can't find enough, transcribing them on his own, as he does with most of the works on the disc. The avid music fan has no defenses against the violist's trickery. The disc has the successful combo of the Schumanns and Brahms. Bob gets most of the disc time, but Brahms and Clara get love, too. The disc opens with Bunte Blatter, of all works, and if the tenor changes a bit - it's sunnier than normal - it not only works, it works fantastically well. Everything works. Clara's Aus Romanzen Op 22 fares better. Mönkemeyer and Nicholas Rimmer join the great Ragna Schirmer in making a strong case for the composer's music. It's wonderful, and at times meltingly beautiful. It is also impossible to listen to Brahms' An die Nachtigall, Op 46/4 and not feel a smile gently appear on one's face. I dare any reader to listen and find out. While one could hope for bigger, more substantive works, the small works and collections end up working swell. The disc is basically a lieder recital with Mönkemeyer's alto fiddle taking the place of a voice. Superb sound, as expected, with Rimmer and cellist Hannah Weber adding perfect support. Seriously, Mönkemeyer is the man.


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Monkemeyer is something. I suggest his viola take on three Bach Cello Suites, with the new works second disc. One can hear the full extent of his refinement, tone, and technique in that set.
 
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Good lord almighty. I knew Maximilian Hornung could play the cello, but man, does this pairing of both Haydn concertos and the Concerto for Cello and Strings by Vaja Azarashvili exceed expectations. Up high or down low, blazing fast or searchingly slow, this dude displays absolute command of his instrument that I've not heard bettered in the two marquee works. Ditto his interpretations. I can't even say that I prefer Pierre Fournier here. Pierre Fournier! The Azarashvili works is sandwiched between the two, and the Soviet-cum-French work makes me think I really need to hear Hornung in DSCH. And everything else. Thank goodness his Strauss is on the docket. Based on their blockbuster Schubert symphony cycle, I already knew Antonello Manacorda and the Potsdam band rock. They lend perfect support to the soloist. The engineers lend perfect sound to the effort.


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CPE Bach...Vol.16 of Complete Keyboard Concertos...just wonderful.
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Interesting little snippet from an article in the Telegraph a no. of years ago...


CPE Bach was once more famous than his father, the great JS Bach. To mark the younger Bach's tercentenary,
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By Ivan Hewett

2:00PM GMT 07 Mar 2014


“Many indeed strove to reach up to the level of this colossus, but they were hardly able even to lick his knees.” That estimate of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach from a contemporary critic makes us smile. But in his eccentric way the critic was only expressing what everyone thought.

Right up to his old age in the 1780s, when Mozart’s star was rising in Vienna and Haydn was in his prime, CPE Bach was thought of as the greatest. Mozart called him “the father of us all,” and Beethoven kept treasured manuscript copies of his music.

As for his father, JS Bach, hardly any one remembered him. Yet fifty years later CPE Bach had disappeared, and the revival of his father’s music had just begun. Such are the vagaries of reputation in classical music.
 
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I'm currently listening to this Rattle/BPO version of Gurrelieder by Schoenberg. It's my first time listening to Schoenberg and so far I really like it. Oh, and I picked it up yesterday in a charity shop for 50p and it's in mint condition - sometimes charity shops are too charitable!

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windhoek said:
I'm currently listening to this Rattle/BPO version of Gurrelieder by Schoenberg. It's my first time listening to Schoenberg and so far I really like it. Oh, and I picked it up yesterday in a charity shop for 50p and it's in mint condition - sometimes charity shops are too charitable!

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Click to expand...

Glad your enjoying Gurrelieder - its a stonker of a piece - but get yourself another version as that Rattle version sucks (IMO of course). Chailly/DSO Berlin or Ozawa/Boston or Abbado/VPO all much better!


Just listening to Prokofiev's 2nd & 3rd symphonies.... but think I'll have to get better versions than Gergiev/LSO.
 
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Is there anything that Nils Mönkemeyer can't do? Take this disc. Late Spanish baroque works transcribed for viola and played on a modern instrument, with a modern sensibility. Shouldn't really work. But boy, does it work. I take for granted that Mönkemeyer will play perfectly, and he does here, yes he does. The disc is filled with pieces of various degrees of fame. For instance, Boccherini's most famous tune - the Menuett from his G275 string quintet - is transcribed to perfection. Boccherini's La Musica Notturna della Strade is one of the big works, more variable in style, and perfectly executed. Two Soler sonatas and one Scarlatti sonata get the transcription treatment. The Soler are snappy fun, the Scarlatti more luxuriant. There are mixes of fast and slow pieces, the slower pieces allowing the violist to demonstrate his world-leading tonal beauty, the faster pieces allowing him to show off his technical acumen and rhythmic sureness. Every piece works superbly. And then there's the penultimate track: Soler's Fandango, for a chamber ensemble, and undergirded by a big, fat double bass laying down groovy lines. This is the fourth arrangement I've heard of the work, and it is just superb. Of course, one of the other arrangements is from Jordi Savall, so the young hot-shot has an equal to contend with. The extra track closer is a traditional march, and even that is super fine. This disc is a plain old good time, delivered in SOTA sound. Mönkemeyer's musical partners all deliver the goods, playing in perfect harmony with the star. Another hit from Mönkemeyer.


Amazon UK link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LF378CO/?tag=pinkfishmedia-20
 
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It took me a while to work through all of Barbara Harbach's Soler set. The set is recorded very close and sounds exceedingly clear, lending an almost forensic feel to the whole thing. Harbach's playing reinforces that feeling. She tends to play just a bit on the slow side and most definitely on the deliberate side. One can enjoy every note of every arpeggio, every agogic, every everything. Hell, when she plays chords, it seems as though one can hear every individual string being plucked. The playing lacks rhythmic variability and snap in faster sonatas and introspection or poetry or whatever other slow music attributes one may listen for. She's no Frederick Marvin or Marie Luise Hinrichs. But then they play on piano. Harbach's set is an impressive achievement, and I will occasionally pluck out a disc and listen in the future. After completing this set, I think I should sample more Soler via streaming. Alas, there is no single pianist complete keyboard music set, but there are other complete harpsichord sets. I got some listening to do.
 
Haydn ...Concertos for lire...beautiful music for a beautiful sunny day

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The lire organizzata was a peculiar mechanical instrument of the day played like the hurdy-gurdy by turning a crank. It had a wheel, strings, and small keyboard with a range and sound similar to the oboe. Because the instrument included pipes, it was capable of doubling the sound, both by producing the same note at a different timbre, or by doubling the note at the octave. The lire organizzata could play only in the keys of C, G, and F. This limitation, of course, greatly restricted the type and complexity of the music that it could perform...Robin Friedman
 
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Another corker from Mönkemeyer. Four baroque composers - Delalande, Telemann, Corelli, and Bach - make an appearance. The three big works come from Telemann (a proper Viola Concerto), Corelli (a transcribed Violin Sonata), and Bach (a transcription of BWV1052), with small works by Delalande sprinkled throughout. The twin highlights are the Telemann, which is really quite delightful and substantive, and the Corelli, whence the disc receives its name, an extended theme and variations movement, which is as well. Of course, the Bach fares very well - can it be poorly transcribed? (don't answer) - but the others tickled my ears more. Could just be the novelty. Only time will tell, and this disc will receive many spins in the coming years. Superb sound, as expected.


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What could be better than Marriner’s ASMF playing Mozart’s complete symphonies (12 cd set,outstanding sound quality)to watch the cold drenching rain and sleet of Freya outside my window.My few daffodils look the worse for wear but the bright yellow Forsythia stands proud.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005J6Q8E2/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

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