Dear Andreas, whoever doesn’t just reach for classical music in such proposals has not yet heard the most beautiful sounds in his life. I myself am surprised how you have certainly not only readjusted my musical taste in the last month. Classical music is now again regularly in my listening habit.
This thanks also goes to the many jazz friends, because here too is more gratefully received than I myself would have suspected.
I remain in both genres still bloutiger beginner, because good things take time. Here what I have heard so far today/monthly:
Jörg Halubek is a German organist and harpsichordist who specialized at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in period performance practice. I had known him from several albums accompanying the Swiss violinist Leila Schayegh on the harpsichord, but until recently I wasn’t aware of his organ recordings. This, by the way, has been a direct recommendation by Roon on the ‘New Releases for You’ section on Roon’s home screen.
Last Friday, Berlin Classics released the third and fourth installment of Halubek’s ongoing series Bach Landscapes, on which he plays Bach’s music on different historical instruments in Germany which had direct importance for Bach at his own time—either because Bach himself at one time used to play on the very same instrument, or because a new instrument at the times of Bach introduced technical novelties which would be exploited by Bach within his compositions.
As you can see, the label has decided to give the listeners something to do while listening to the music. Instead of indicating the organ used for the recording, they give geographical coordinates which point to the church where the organ is located. One easy way to do this is using a nicely done online converter to convert the degrees-minutes-seconds into decimal coordinates which can be used in Google Maps.
To find out more about the individual recordings (four albums have been released since 2020) and some background of the organs, you can look up Halubek’s discography on the Berlin Classics website.
Really nice albeit very slimline retrospective from Cherry Red. Three albums and booklet packed with photos.
His first band was recruited by Brian Eno for his backing band, appeared on the second Max Kansas City LP, briefly had none other than Mick Ronson in his band and co-wrote There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis with Kirsty MacColl.
He first came to my attention for his epic performance on the Hope & Anchor front row festival double LP alongside among others Dire Straits, XTC and The Stranglers.
Somehow I have just discovered The Dears (than you Roon!). A true chameleon band-bouncing around the various edges of indie, and making me think of loads of different bands-even within the same song. The vocalist can sound Damon Albarn-esque one moment, and Morissey-esque the next, and then Richard Hawley-like.
Anyhoo-this album is rockier than the others I have tried thus far, and this is a storming track!
I’ve posted this many times. No apologies - the Stabat Mater on here is probably my favourite recording in my library. Fantastic. What a voice Sara Mingardo has.
