tones
Tones deaf
To me, nothing touches the old Fricsay recording:Unsurprisingly, the best rendition of Les Preludes was…Solti.
To me, nothing touches the old Fricsay recording:Unsurprisingly, the best rendition of Les Preludes was…Solti.
Mirella Freni singing “ Eco. Son giunte al sommo” from Act 1 of Karajan’s Madame Butterfly. Her performance is unbelievable. The Decca recording as you’d hope for. Couldn’t bear Pavarotti in Karajan’s Boheme earlier
Thanks for the recommendation- that’ll go on the Qobuz playlistThat's why I personally prefer Freni's earlier EMI Boheme - she's so fresh-voiced and Gedda is on top form (though I realise he's not everyone's cuppa) and superb conducting from Thomas Schippers, whose early death was a real tragedy. The other men are so-so but those two are excellent.
By coincidence, just heard a very distinctive reading of Mozart’s Requiem on R3 which intrigued me. It turned out to be:Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI: Jerusalem: City of two Peaces - Heavenly Peace and Earthly Peace (La Ville des deux Paix: La Paix celeste et la Paix terrestre).
Music associated with Jerusalem from across quite a few centuries, associated with the different cultures that were dominant over specific periods covered, played excellently on sometimes unfamiliar instruments with some great but - by western standards - less than conventional singing. Of great musical and audio quality, a somewhat different recording which I found refreshing. But it may possibly divide opinion.
This is a couple of CDs. I think the music is best auditioned now and then by historical/cultural period rather than as a whole, but YMMV. There are YouTube performances to sample.