I’ll get to the Rachmaninoff after this. One of the best Handel performances available.
Thanks. Then it’s the Rugby… 
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wonderful selections, thank you.
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I’ve been going through my BIS recordings available via Qobuz streaming. This is a gorgeous recording of all the string quintets, clarinet and horn quintets:
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Thank you for this. Bought this week and love it.
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I am quite partial to last year’s releases by Ottavio Dantone’s Accademia Bizantina. They did complete interpretations of the Opus 3 and Opus 6 concerti… And they are working on Corelli’s Opus 6… until now, only some teasers have been released as singles… I am waiting for the complete release!
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I see you added the recent Cinquecento recording devoted to Daser.
I strongly suggest that you also listen to the other recent Daser recoding by the Huelgas Ensemble:
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In fact I did know about your liking for Sara Mingardo, and I am a fan, too…
What I don’t know is if you have been following Sara’s pupil Lea Desandre’s still very young career. Yesterday her third solo album in as many years was released on Erato, and just like the two albums from 2021 and 2022, it is a very fine release indeed.
It is a quite audacious release, too. Accompanied only by Thomas Dunford’s theorbo lute, the programme covers French love songs from three centuries, from the Baroque to Belle Époque Melodies and modern French chanson… Amongst many more, there’s a precious rendition of Reynaldo Hahn’s À Chloris… very beautiful…
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Cappella Romana yesterday released their most recent album, with music by Pärt. As most albums by this vocal ensemble, it is a beautiful album and recommended listening for fans of Pärt’s.
But to me their most stunning album was released in 2019, with medieval Byzantine chants, using a sophisticated technical process to recreate in studio the extreme reverberation of sound, characteristic of the Hagia Sophia in modern Istanbul. This was done, as it was not allowed to record human voices inside the Hagia Sophia…
There’s quite a lot of information online about this album and its process, and it’s extremely interesting to read up on it…
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More interesting recommendations. I’ve not listened to Lea Desandre yet. Or @Nathan_Wilkes Daser works. I’ll queue those up before the Rugby this evening.
Meanwhile I’m listening to this, which is excellent. I added it to my library in August but couldn’t find it on this thread so apologies if it has already been posted. Fischer’s work appeared in 1695 but remained unkown and unrecorded until 2007.
The excellent, informative review says the following:
“CPO’s Les Journal du Printemps, Op. 1, is urgently recommended to any listener who values Baroque orchestral music; anyone who loves Handel’s “Water Music” Suites will be in for a treat here.”
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Lukas Geniušas on this month’s International Piano cover. Nice to have the never previously recorded Rachmaninov Piano Sonata 1 original version to listen to. But is it?
After reading an article in International Piano about Romanian pianist, Dinu Lipatti, who died in 1950 at 33 y from Hodgkin’s disease, and decided to have a listen to his performance of Maurice Ravel’s Alborado del Gracioso (No. 4 in Miroirs), which was described as his most impressive recording. Could only find it on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcFqXGfQzdY and it was an impressive performance with remarkable articulation and dynamics.
Decided to extend this listening adventure to other performers, three of which I’ll bring to attention. The first is by Ann Queffélec, who @CoralRad kindly brought to my attention
The second is by Italian Beatrice Rana. Have a listen to these two performances (or better yet, to their entire Miroirs performances) for a fine example of how different dynamics (one of the performers follows Ravel’s markings, the other does not. I’ll let you figure out which) can utterly transform a piece.
Lastly, I listened to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s performance for yet another interpretation by a Ravel master. Wonderful.
Miroirs is a wonderful composition, often performed in orchestral arrangement. Maurice Ravel was part of a group calling themselves (as cheeky artistic outsiders at the time) Les Apaches. Each piece is dedicated to a member. I particularly enjoy Noctuelles (Night moths). Ravel and his friend, Léon-Paul Fargue, would often go for nighttime walks in Paris, carrying on intense discussions of whatever came up. I find his title humorous and memory-evoking. Who didn’t have an intellectually flitting night moth time of life with a pleasantly argumentative friend? The question is, does the night moth live on?
Each piece has a title reflected in the score. Ravel himself orchestrated Une barque sur l’océan and Alborado del gracioso (the jester’s Aubade).
Please share any favorite orchestrated versions with the group.
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I greatly enjoy her recordings. For some reason, I’ve avoided her Goldberg Variations. Will now correct that, given her excellent Ravel recording. Thank you for stimulating this listen. Now listening to yet another wonderful Miroirs version, by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Beautiful dynamics/colors. Next up, Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s Miroirs. I absolutely love all his Messiaen recordings.
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I love the Bavouzet Debussy and Ravel recordings.
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Also my current favorite. While I greatly enjoy the many gradations in Beatrice Rana’s dynamics on her Miroirs recording, I think it may exceed Ravel’s notations. She has a lightness of touch that can occasionally nearly vanish a line (one writer puts it, “like the Cheshire Cat’s smile”). I will return to this recording, though, particularly because I so enjoy her Noctuelles. Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s Miroirs recording has dynamics and the incredible timing he uses to such amazing effect with his Messiaen performances. This doesn’t seem Ravellian, but I still enjoy it.
thank you for posting this; it really is exceptional.
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Another BIS recording:
Although there are no shortages of great recordings of these two, if you care about these works you should give this one a listen:
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Thank you for the recommendation @Nathan_Wilkes, I’ll definitely check out the Daser by the Huelgas Ensemble. 
The two recordings are quite different in some ways, because Huelgas uses women on the top voice whereas Cinquecento uses only male voices. I find the sound of the Cinquecento recording beguiling, partly because of the 6, 7, and 8 part writing on display. Some singers do in fact overlap between the recordings.
Daser is interesting because of the two halves of his career, first Catholic and then Protestant (and the resulting impact on his musical style).
For those interested, the Huelgas liner notes include a link to the scores of the two masses on the recording.
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