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One of the reasons I so love BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ series is how it unearths real jewels. The dynamics of this recording startled me, and it is a 1980s digital recording. The presenter acknowledged difficulties in recommending this, given what emerged about the conductor, but stated that in the 1980s, Montreal had some of the best players in the world. More to explore, there.
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It was also a Radio 3 show that surprised me in another way.
I had listened to the below ‘Carmen’ excerpt, and felt rather despairing about the way the record companies promote some singers.
But as I listened to a morning show, a Puccini aria caught my attention, and I thought it must have been one of the greats from the middle of the last century. But I couldn’t quite place it.
I looked at the schedule, and was delighted to find it was Jonathan Tetelman, and not someone who was no longer with us. Worth a listen, and hopefully he will not be pushed into heavier roles too soon.
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There are a ton of wonderful releases from the Montreal/Dutoit partnership, many of them warhorses like The Planets and Scheherazade, but also some very good Debussy and Ravel.
and the sound quality is uniformly spectacular.
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Yes, ‘The Planets’ was a total demonstration recording. I always thought their ‘Swan Lake’ was one of the best.
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Thank you all for the wonderful recommendations since my last visit.
Here are some recent releases including a number of impressive transcriptions by gifted instrumentalists.
I believe Ms. Humphreys has appeared in this blog previously. Some of her transcriptions here seem a reach, but are, nonetheless superbly executed. I love her In Manus Tuas (Caroline Upshaw), Idyll (Cyril Scott) and Tinctures of the Skies (Sarah Frances Jenkins). A wonderful solo violin performance.
Here is one for those of us loving transcribed Bach, the Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006 for guitar by Franz Halász. My violin-imprinted brain finds this both challenging and delightful to listen to. Hard to sonically emulate Bach’s remarkable double, triple and quadruple stops with the guitar (guitar chords don’t do them justice), but Mr. Halász does amazing service to these iconic compositions with his chosen instrument.
Tiffany Poon is a pianist of remarkable sensitivity and I thoroughly enjoyed this recording, particularly the Arabeske and the Davidsbündlertänze. Her Arabeske holds its own with Evgeny Kissin’s, Stephen Hough’s, Artur Rubenstein’s and Walter Gieseking’s performances. You may find her liner notes a bit self-indulgent, but that is musically neither here nor there.
I couldn’t resist having a listen to a group named the Chaos String Quartet. They are anything but. Their selections from the 18th (Haydn), 19th (Fanny Hensel (neé Mendelssohn) and 20th (Ligeti) centuries have almost nothing in common, save being string quartet compositions. The Haydn No. 23 is more than OK. The Ligeti Métamorphoses nocturnes is absolutely spellbinding and the Fanny Hensel String Quartet in E-flat major is as good as the composition allows it to be. The Allegro molto vivace in this piece is superb and seems as if Fanny tapped into some serious juice in this movement. I enjoy stretched recordings like these, particularly when performed with such relish and recorded so well.
Lastly, and speaking of cello, I was intrigued by this recording by Jeremias Fliedl, coming as highly recommended as it did in June’s BBC Music. It is highly imaginative and the overdubbing exercise for Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras is intriguing. I’d be interested in hearing from others here what their impressions of this recording performed and engineered by Mr. Fliedl are. He trained, in part, with the redoubtable Heinrich Schiff.
Grist for the auditory mill.
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Purchased the Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symphony and Chorus Orff: Carmina Burana Telarc LP when it first came out (as well as the Kunzel Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 1812 Overture. Had to have it to “test” your sound system). Just picked up the CD versions at the local library for sale at 1$.
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I also loved their version of “Pictures”…for years was my fav, but can hardly go wrong with numerous others…Reiner, Szell, Ormandy, Karajan, Jarvi (Cincy)…though my Slatkin multichannel SACD version prob my fav…but this Dutoit version is great and all their Montreal work needs a nice hi res rerelease!
D
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Wonderful recording. Once one has heard the theorbo (and I greatly appreciate your introducing me to splendid recordings in which is it used to great effect), there’s nothing else for it, particularly when played by a master. Jakob Lindberg’s learned liner notes are also excellent. There is reference to composers Alessandro Piccinini, Giovanni Kapsperger and Bellerofonte Castaldi, who composed solo works for the theorbo. Are you aware of any recordings of these composer’s works for this instrument? I’m not complaining about Robert de Visée’s wonderful compositions, mind. Just curious.
Thank you again.
From the back of my head, two Kapsberger albums come to my mind…
Edit: I just looked through my hearted albums, and I missed the possibly best of the three:
As to Castaldi and Piccinini, they are beautifully covered on yet another album by Lindberg; the cover photograph also makes it impactful clear that the theorbo is not an instrument you should take up, if you’re living in a smallish city dwelling…
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@bill_perkins, I found the Ligeti the most compelling of the three pieces on this recording, though I don’t think it displaces the Arditti or Hagen versions (for me). Thanks for inspiring me to listen.
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The picture reminds me of a scene from the movie Airplane, where a guitarist blithely walks to his seat, bonking every seated passenger he passes with his shouldered guitar. Now, if he’d had a theorbo…, I can see the script, “a theorbo player comes with his instrument to the boarding gate…, bedlam ensues”
Thank you for the recommendations/reminders (I know you’ve previously mentioned these). Just wondering if any stand out to you. Thank you.
@Nathan_Wilkes and thank you for the excellent recommendations. I’ve heard the Hagen Quartett Ligeti Métamorphoses nocturnes and they are splendid, but tonight I will enjoy the Arditti Quartet’s version.
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The Pluhar/Spaeter album regrettably is not available for streaming…
The lutenist Mónica Pustilnik from Argentina has another beautiful album with music by Piccinini, but on archlute, not theorbo… it’s beautifully recorded, too…
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Performed by Virginia Symphony, our local symphony orchestra, and Bela Fleck. 
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another Shaw/Atlanta recording spectacular, it’s now coupled with the Berlioz Requiem.
Jerome Hines was originally scheduled to sing Mefistofele, but he became ill, and my friend John Cheek stepped in at the last minute, and did a wonderful job.
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Thank you to @Arindal and @woodford for the Verdi Requiem recommendations.
I’m still moving through them but, so far, I really like the following:
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Next up:
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I probably should listen to the Abbado, but I can’t abide Raimondi.
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On the subject of Opera and Verdi, I was astonished to discover that Roon now delivers Opera lyrics in the same way as Rock/Pop lyrics - ie fully synchronised to the singing. I haven’t been following this Community for a few weeks, so this may be old news to you. For me, it’s a wonderful revelation and may even improve my Italian! See attached screenshot for an example.
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Correction - unfortunately this album just repeats the lyrics for La donna e mobile throughout! So I am not sure if this is Roon functionality or it’s just picking up some random metadata. Either way, it would be great to see this as a future piece of Roon functionality for the Classical community.