What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XI)

One of the best albums of that year in jazz...

Recorded in the late 90s in connection with a series of performances, this Don Giovanni headlines Bryn Terfel in his considerable prime as Leporello, a role to which he is more suited to than the Don himself, and Simon Keenlyside as his master. The performance really resolves around these two; Abbado gives them all the room they need, sometimes at the expense of dramatic momentum. The other singers are well cast - I particularly enjoy Carmela Remigio's smallish but very beautiful voice. As an ensemble, the singers do not meet the standard set by Giulini in his famous '59 EMI recording, but otherwise, this is a really good entry of an often recorded but not often well realized opera.

EJ

Fresh from my mailbox for a first listen. Great album with the quintessential Crazy Horse sound and typical superb SQ.

An homage to the Polish composer and jazz pianist Krysztof Komeda who died in 1969 at the age of 38.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTfyQOqThM

24/88.2 from Linn Records

Tom Petty. The Last DJ. On CD from 2002. Playing this on my shop boombox after several CDs from the early 1990's, first thing I had to do was turn down the volume from 9 to 6. It's very loud. Not on par with his earlier albums but good enough while getting some work done. I think Petty's best album from this millennium is "Mudcrutch" and it's a very good one.

Streaming | Deezer Elite

(2014)

Thanks for the heads up dayjay, my first listen to this and really enjoying it.

Good start of the Saturday morning

Continuing with this fine trio...

Bruckner's 8th - one of my 'mini-obsessions' in classical music. Whatever you may think of Karajan, this  8th - recorded not long before his death - is a monumental achievement.

EJ

Streaming | CD FLAC rip

(1987)

My second fish course this morning.

Uccellini's sonatas are fairly typical for the 17th century Italian baroque - meant to impress technically, not much going on below the surface. This is a CD I don't revisit often, but every once in a while it's great for the Saturday morning. Lucy van Dael and friends are excellent.

EJ

Superb trio and a first class recording.

FLAC via UQ2 Chord 2Qute for that 'in the room' feeling.

G

Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head.  For a group that can send me to sleep with the majority of their  albums I'd forgotten what a cracking job they did on this one.  Sounds pretty good too.  flac via Audirvana/Hugo

John Eliot Gardiner & Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists Playing Bach Cantatas BWV 91, BWV 121, BWV 40 and BWV 110.

This morning during my workout. one of the best Rush albums

In the same workout, one of my favorite Led zeppelin albums....

Highly relaxing jazz album, my recent favorite....

A fine choice sir!  And especially good in 24 bit, the 2015 version being slightly better in my view.  Enjoy 

Just listened to a few tracks on YouTube. Will definitely be passing on this one. Her albums have been getting increasingly boring.

Streaming | FLAC ripped CD 1 of 2

An easy way to listen to some of his best sellers. 

Franz Schubert: András Schiff (playing on his Franz Bormann, Vienna, c. 1820 Fortepiano)

Ungarische Melodie in B minor, D 817

Piano Sonata in G major, D 894

Moments musicaux, D 780

Allegretto in C minor, D 915

Impromptus, D 935

Piano Sonata in B flat major, D 960

To put in to words my opinion on this album is difficult.  I want very much to like the 'sound' world of the Fortepiano played on here.  For curiosity sake; for education sake; for hardcore tradition sake; for the sake of style; all valid positions and very interesting in themselves.  Like looking at a century old photograph or a leaf/ flower found in an old family bible that your great grandmother put there.  This brings a sense of nostalgia that is very special to experience and cannot be reverse engineered.

However, in the case of a preserved leaf you would never want (or need) to modernize it.  You cannot improve upon it and it is the fact that there is a special link to your past that is the special aspect that would hold one in nostalgic bliss anyway.

In the case of a very old photo, I do not think you would want to replace that either but there is a stronger case today for wishing for both; a current photo to go alongside the historic one (if this were possible).  The old photo for nostalgic reasons and the current photo for a more realistic sense of meaning that we could relate to in current times.

I think in the end this is how I would characterize this type of recording.  One that is of value and very interesting to me but this is not a sound world (at least at this point in life) that I desire to listen to on a daily basis.  I would not endorse the majority of modern (meaning the past century) piano recordings either as necessarily having the perfect sonics or outcome either though.  Based on sound alone, there is a rather small field of candidates that get it very close to being pleasing (for me). But when one does find a modern recording that does it right then there is no going back anymore.  This spoils all the arguments for style and tradition and in my opinion does more for the musical understanding and my emotional response than hearing the same on an historic instrument that simply has major shortcomings and lacks pleasing attributes.

It was really only a few decades after Schubert's death in 1828 that piano develop finally came in to its own.  Very little has changed in piano development since 1840/1850 because at this point and onwards most every composer composed for and played on a grand piano.  

The recording quality is very good here as usual for ECM.  Schiff is Schiff. The music is still there as Schubert can only be.  The sum of the parts though add up to the whole though only and does not exceed the whole simply due to the sound world of the chosen instrument.