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

naim_nymph posted:

apye! posted:

Followed by...

Stephane Pompougnac - Hotel Costes Vol.1, on vinyl

First listen post Tranquility, wow!!

Image pinched off Amazon for you, Andy : )

It's probably quite tranquil in Hotel Costes for those who can afford it! : D

Thanks Debs, have just bought vol.2 as well, just need to give it a clean before playing. 

Great sounding production giving the best of some good songwriting.

naim_nymph posted:

apye! posted:

Followed by...

Stephane Pompougnac - Hotel Costes Vol.1, on vinyl

First listen post Tranquility, wow!!

Image pinched off Amazon for you, Andy : )

It's probably quite tranquil in Hotel Costes for those who can afford it! : D

Good call, i have all of this series and love them all. Great music...we continue!!!

The end of an Alanis Morisette  gig on Sky Arts, caught the last 30 minutes of it when I turned on the TV to check whether the WI/Pakistan Test had started, then immediately had to pause when my sister rang, so watching after it had finished. She seems less acerbic and angry than her young self, but very accomplished, Ironic seems OK to me, You Learn works for me, I think I prefer it to the JLP  rendition  by a mile. I like where her voice has gone, and she has a crack band. Sound quality not good because I'm watching my  2008 mid-range Panasonic TV through the TV speakers, but music counts.

Jimmy Smith - The Boss

Jimmy Smith - Organ

George Benson - Guitar

Donald Bailey - Drums

Staying with Jimmy Smith.

Next up:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):  Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (abridged)

Karl Erb (tenor) | Willem Ravelli (bass) | Jo Vincent (soprano) | Ilona Durigo (contralto) | Louis van tulder (tenor) | Hermann Schey (bass-baritone) | Amsterdam Toonkunst Choir | "Zanglust" Boys' Choir | Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam | Willem Mengelberg

So if I draw a line for tempo / style from just the left-field recordings I am listening to that might be considered to fall outside of today's mainstream recordings you will find Mengelberg closest to Klemperer but much more liberal / romantic, hence, the most extreme compared to anything over the past 50 or 60 years.

Tempos (slowest to fastest): | Mengelberg => Klemperer => Münchinger => Richter => Rilling........ |...........Gardiner and virtually everyone else with the quickest tempos today.

For most people today maybe Rilling is the stopping point for as what most can tolerate.  For someone with a real love for this work then Münchinger and Richter will enlighten.  Next level of obsession and Klemperer will enthrall with his piety.

So Mengelberg?  He conducted this work every year from 1899 through to the recording date of this disc on April 2, 1939.  These days his highly romanticized view (which was the style for pretty much a century) since Mendelssohn discovered this score.  Can you imagine that in 1750 when Bach died that he was already considered to be out of style and so he virtually was nearly forgotten.  By highly romanticized, I mean that he took many liberties with the tempo, dynamics, rubato, overall sound etc.   I would say tempo wise, Klemperer and Mengelberg are around the same timing but it is hard to tell as this Mengelberg is not a complete recording.  A good couple of hand fulls of selections are dropped (maybe to work with the recording length on 78's).

So fair warning.  If Klemperer is not your thing, then this surely will not make you happy.  Recording quality is variable on the Mengelberg.  So with so much going against it, why is this recording still very special?  As an extra aside, I personally find this recording very ominous and erie at times.  Not sure if I did not see the date April 1939 I would still read this into the outcome but it is a given now none-the-less. 

The passion and human emotion that comes through at various times is palpable.  Especially in the chorales / choruses.  Near the end hearing "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" or "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder"  is almost like having an out of body experience.  Very haunting and so full of emotion it is unreal.  

I suppose as a pianist, I am attuned to this flexibility in interpretation and desire emotion in the music I listen to.  You become this way from a rigorous habit of having to learn music and of course to learn it correctly you have to force yourself to learn it very slowly - note by note.  Maybe because of this I have grown to like music that is played at slower tempos.  My brain knows all the melodies / harmonies and it just gets better when I synthesize it slowly and let it soak in to my soul.  So in essence, all these super fast paces just turn into a performance rather than an experience.  

I have listened to the Mengelberg three times since yesterday.  First time was challenging but each successive listen it just grew more and more special as one begins to put all the pieces together.  I am currently listening to a fast version of the work by an unnamed conductor.  No need to name him as they all sound the same now.  Fast with absolutely no character or heart.

Returning for a moment to the chorales / choruses I have always wondered if the so called scholars of today are correct about historical and stylistic pronouncements?  Maybe?  Maybe not?  In any case, when you sing like some of what comes through on this recording with the chorales and choruses you experience the spiritual aspects of the human soul and this is worth every thing compared to just opinions of scholars.  Look what it has given us - hundreds of sheep like recordings all the same because no one anymore will take a chance to go against the grain.  I really respect those who simply follow their hearts; this is always the correct way to a beautiful outcome. 

Finishing up the Mengelberg post....

Final Chorus: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ_d-erPkOA

The whole recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGlizfFR6p4

For interest (**very good!!**):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rqtjHTPPw8

WAV CD rip. Having just  listened to 30 minutes of a recent AM  gig on TV, I was inspired to go back to the album I first heard, it's still an album that grabs me, 25 or so years on, I reckon any music that works in your 20s and your 50s is good music (or I haven't grown up).

Hammersmith Odeon '78...3 CD set from Zappa Records...very well recorded!

Eoink posted:

WAV CD rip. Having just  listened to 30 minutes of a recent AM  gig on TV, I was inspired to go back to the album I first heard, it's still an album that grabs me, 25 or so years on, I reckon any music that works in your 20s and your 50s is good music (or I haven't grown up).

 

 

This is one of my go to albums, I love it. I bought the CD because a writer for "Fast Bikes" magazine talked about it before anybody I knew had heard of Alanis. Don't grow up, who wants that!!

apye! posted:

naim_nymph posted:

apye! posted:

Followed by...

Stephane Pompougnac - Hotel Costes Vol.1, on vinyl

First listen post Tranquility, wow!!

Image pinched off Amazon for you, Andy : )

It's probably quite tranquil in Hotel Costes for those who can afford it! : D

Thanks Debs, have just bought vol.2 as well, just need to give it a clean before playing. 

Andy, imo vol.2 is even better than vol.1 : )

I was playing vol.2 on CD in my car yesterday -  the driving experience certainly becomes far more pleasurable.

Wouldn't be surprised if you vote Vol.2 your no.1 Kabin album of the month ; )

Debs

Florestan posted:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):  Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (abridg

Returning for a moment to the chorales / choruses I have always wondered if the so called scholars of today are correct about historical and stylistic pronouncements?  Maybe?  Maybe not?  In any case, when you sing like some of what comes through on this recording with the chorales and choruses you experience the spiritual aspects of the human soul and t

Thanks Florestan. I love the fast recordings that you are not so fond of, the Harnoncourt made my 20 most listened to post, but I also love earlier performances, I have a Klemperer I love, I'll pick up the Mengelberg in the next few days, thanks for the referral.

For most works I'd prefer to have 4 very different performances, say a scratchy partial 1930s, then a 1960s and so on,  than 4  very similar ones. Of course, that doesn't preclude things like the 2015 Hewitt Goldbergs as well as the 1999.

Recorded in 1987:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKoPp9ArLwI

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

Listening on the train through Bose noise cancelling headphones. I still think I prefer her version with Charles Dutoit, but since I only have that on vinyl, this version is a good second choice.