One of my favourite versions of Steffani’s Stabat Mater.
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Recently mentioned Moscow born, Berlin resident, Zlata Chochieva for her Prokofiev recordings and more recently had the privilege of hearing her perform live in a nicely suited venue. Her Schumann Etudes (Op. 13) were true to the scores and very enjoyable. Sitting next me was a similarly experienced solar orbiter who informed me he owned and played a 1928 Mason & Hamlin grand piano. He found the Schumann splendidly executed, but what really perked up our cochlea was her wonderful immediately pre-intermission Chopin Scherzo No. 4 in E Major (his fourth and only one in a major key). During intermission, pretty much everyone was commenting upon how striking this performance and piece were. Some have characterized this piece as lighter and less profound than much of his other work, but this listener found it, particularly in Ms. Chochieva’s performance, serenely expressive and calling for excellent articulation. She has not recorded this piece to my knowledge, but outstanding performances by others follows. I certainly hope she does record it!
She is well-known for her Rachmaninoff interpretations/performances and she treated us to less commonly heard Preludes (Op. 23 and 32). Although I greatly enjoy Vladimir Ashkenazy’s recording, Ms. Chochieva’s live performance was ever so slightly more acute. Perhaps again an effect of hearing the performance live.
Although she has not recorded these 10 (of 24) preludes, her Rachmaninoff recordings are well worth hearing.
My neighbor and I were both struck by how small her hands are with no seeming impact upon her performance. This time with both an acoustically and visually excellent seat, I was able to observe fingering that kept me fascinated. At one point, her left hand fingers were playing between right hand fingers. Incredibly dextrous. A splendid performance by an outstanding artist!
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If you enjoy solo violin performances of contemporary composers, please have a listen to Simone Porter’s wonderful ad tendo. What caught my eye was the title of a composition by Reena Esmail, Drishti. It stirred a recollection of the Bhagavad Gita I read in Sanskrit in a (metaphorically) previous life. Krishna instructs Arjuna in the art. I wish I could show you the word in Devanagari script. It meant a lot to me at the time and still resonates. It refers to a focused gaze or intense inward focus (hence the album name ad tendo cognate with attention), something listeners here are familiar with. Anyroad, the album caught my eye and recalled said previous, much younger life. The listen was well worth it. The other pieces on this recording, including Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Lachen Verlernt, Olivia Marckx Improvisation on Hildegard von Bingen’s O Virtus Sapientiae and, another highlight for me, Andrew Norman’s Sabina. The recording closes with what appears to be an almost incongruous Biber’s Passacagliain G Minor. Almost, but not if you’ve been paying ad tendo.
Don’t be put off by what, to some, might appear a tendentious cover (I love the cover design). The music is not and I’m surprised there isn’t more Simone Porter recorded work available.
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Bit of a chuckle for the afternoon
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Great multichannel recording.
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Another multichannel goodie
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The back catalog of Simon Standage is worth investigation. There are some hidden gems to be discovered. This is from 1996. I particularly enjoyed the chalumeau pieces.
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Where is the roon home page? Couldn’t find it.
In the mobile app, open the main menu (3 bars at the top left) and Home is the first item. In the Mac/Windows app, look at the left side menu.
In the home page, scroll down until you get to the section Playlists by Roon. Tap on the MORE button at the right to show all the playlists, and look for the one named Classical Community.
Ah. Didn’t occur to me. I thought it was some kind of roon corporate home page.
I find the production of this recording fascinating. As I understand it, they took old piano rolls, recorded by Rachmaninoff, and developed a program to digitize the piano rolls, then ran the result on a Bösendorfer reproducing piano, finally recording that “performance”. In the end, what one is hearing on this recording is Rachmaninoff himself performing with high sound quality of a well produced modern recording. 
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would love to read your impressions of the HDTT releases, performance, sound quality, etc.
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A great new re-release from Mercury Living Presence. Seems to be part of the new “Antal Dorati in London - Volume 2” box set (Antal Dorati in London - Volume 2 - Eloquence: ELQ4847106 - 28 CDs | Presto Music) released last month.
(Volume 1 came out at the same time: Antal Dorati in London - Volume 1 - Eloquence: ELQ4847015 - 29 CDs | Presto Music …I will have to look back at my 3 other MLP box sets and determine what I need, as there seems to be some overlap between these two new sets and the original 3…)
Individual recording here:
This version of Le Boeuf sur le toit is spectacular-sounding, as can be expected. A real, real treat.
Full track listing:
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Listening to some of my favorites this morning starting off slow and easy.
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To date, I’ve bought over 100 albums from HDTT.
For those albums (in the main Pure DSD, so no DXD post-processing), I consider the tape transfers to be top notch.
On some of the albums there is a little ‘tape hiss’ but, for me, that doesn’t detract from the overall listening experience, which is invariably highly dynamic and with great clarity/separation of the various instruments, be it Jazz or Classical.
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