Great beautiful music.
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This is excellent. Great to hear quality Contralto singers. Thanks.
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A very good deal on the price for the 24/96 DL from Bandcamp as well. Thanks for the reference!
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Tonight in the mood for some Lied evening:
An unusual recording of a complete 90 min. recital. Kudos to the one who has been compiling this conceptual selection of pretty heterogeneous songs and arias for a recital evening around the idea of death, life and fear.
From Bach´s meditative sacred aria-like song ´Komm süßer Tod´ (BWV 478) to the pretty dark warsongs ´Kriegers Ahnung´ by Schubert and ´Revelge´ by Mahler the number of unusually effective yet unknown compositions by well-known composers (Mozart, Brahms, Schumann) is stunning. Particularly enjoyed a lot of songs by Hugo Wolf and Carl Loewe whose ´Erlkönig´ is sung here instead of the more popular Schubert version.
Prégardien is declamating the most natural and emotional way making him one of my favorite Lied tenors. He is sounding not as juvenile on this recording which is merely a problem of 2 of the 3 adoptions of arias (Weber’s Freischütz and Tchaikovsky´s Eugene Onegin). Michael Gees´ playing is simply genius, pretty flexible in dynamics and tempi, a very legato-laden accompaniment.
To conclude this rather heterogeneous set of arias and songs, nothing could beat ´Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen´ from Mahler´s Rückert-Lieder, this pretty slow version was originally the encore to the recital program.
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have always loved the Loewe Erlkönig.
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For a long while, Holst’s The Planets was the only work of his of which I was aware but I heard this in 2009 or so on a terrestrial classical FM station and immediately bought the CD.
Lloyd-Jones and the RSNO really made a great album with this one.
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Absolutely agree, there is a lot to discover among Holst´s rather unknown composition. Would prefer this slightly more vivid release with stunning sound quality conducted by Sir Andrew Davis:
One of the last things I had bought from the Chandos shop before it was sadly closed.
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Concidentially, talking about Holst family, yesterday I was listening a couple of pieces composed by his only dauther, Imogen Holst. Very good music indeed.
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I’ve been listening to this for years on Qobuz and finally decided to purchase the download.
At 19 USD for 8 CDs of music it is a great value, imho.
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@Arindal I also really like that and the other Holst albums released by Chandos during that era.
Andrew Davis is so tremendous with music of the British Isles. Even though some critics considered the Vaughan Williams cycle he did (Teldec) good but a bit average, it is among my favorites.
I like her Eboli very much, on the Karajan Don Carlo.
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I recently listened to her Karajan Amneris, which I don’t think is on any streaming platform, and in Act IV’s trial scene, she is stupendous…possibly my favourite.
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Amazon has it to stream, but I couldn’t find it anywhere else:
I used to have it on CD, but can’t find it now, and I don’t seem to have ripped it, at least not so Roon can find it.
You can also access it on internet archive, and you may be able to download as an mp3 - after they fully recover from their DDOS attack. They also have the libretto here.
I actually re-bought it, and a few other Karajan EMI titles, because I hadn’t ripped them either. It’s very frustrating when you can’t download FLAC anywhere.
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What a great cover!
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I reordered it this morning; for $15 it’s worth hearing again.
I recall both Carreras and Freni sounding a bit over-parted, but Cappuccilli and Baltsa are superb.
the less said about the Ramfis the better.
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I bought too during High Definition Tape Transfers Black Friday sale (40% off if u spend enough)…picked up some albums off my Wishlist…this Munch recording for Readers Digest with Wilkinson/Gerhardt recording/producing is fantastic! The Tchaikovsky Francesca Da Rimini is ON FIRE! The DSD 256 transfers sound incredible and like much of HDTT DSD256 stuff rely makes u think this stuff was recorded yesterday and not decades ago! Def check them out if you haven’t downloaded stuff from them before…pretty impressive selection of amazing recordings!
D
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this recording came up in a FB group, the poster saying he didn’t like Pavarotti’s “bellowing” and ego.
I knew Luciano, and while he certainly had a healthy ego, he was an exceptionally generous colleague, particularly with younger singers.
Had not heard this in a long time, but I found it a very thoughtful, interesting reading. One can occasionally “hear the technique”, but that doesn’t bother me. If anything, the performance as a whole is a bit restrained. it’s not my favorite Tosca, but certainly worth listening to again.
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