What download have you bought?

[Bryn]

Gosh yes - I better get in there quick on that one...!

Incidentally, Vol. 4 of Antonini's fascinating "Haydn 2032" series on Alpha is out now, with 60,70 and 12...

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/haydn-2032-vol-4-il-distratto-giovanni-antonini-riccardo-novaro-il-giardino-armonico/3760014196744

I had mixed responses to the earlier releases but never found them less than compelling...

The cover image of the latter certainly is rather distracting.

[Beef Oven!]

The cover image of the latter certainly is rather distracting.

Shame, the covers hitherto have been rather good, IMV. Maybe I’ll get used to this latest one.

[Beef Oven!]

Stockhausen - Helikopter Streichquartett
Arditti String Quartet

83p 16 bit CD quality download from Qobuz. The CD is going for £97.90 on Amazon!

[jayne lee wilson]

The cover image of the latter certainly is rather distracting.

.....each 2032 booklet develops a very individualised & quite extensive photo-essay or gallery running throughout it, sourced from the Magnum agency... at times thematically linking the images to the release titles - strikingly so in filosofo, solo e pensoso etc...

Perhaps less obvious in the present release, but certainly a pleasant distraction from that all-too-undistracting Distratto....
Alpha do care for their visuals, as you'll recall from the portraits and Mythical Tableaux adorning Schoonderwoerd's Beethoven and Mozart Concerto Cycles....

[Bryn]

.....each 2032 booklet develops a very individualised & quite extensive photo-essay or gallery running throughout it, sourced from the Magnum agency... at times thematically linking the images to the release titles - strikingly so in filosofo, solo e pensoso etc...

Perhaps less obvious in the present release, but certainly a pleasant distraction from that all-too-undistracting Distratto....
Alpha do care for their visuals, as you'll recall from the portraits and Mythical Tableaux adorning Schoonderwoerd's Beethoven and Mozart Concerto Cycles....

I have to admit I have not yet listened to the Antonini Distratto (still sitting on a hard drive awaiting re-naming of tracks before burning to audio DVD-R). It's a work I was unfamiliar with, so yesterday I decided to listen to one of the alternative recordings I have during the drive to work. I left grabbing a disc to the last minute and could find neither copy of the Hogwood, nor even the Adam Fischer, so had to resort to Russell Davies. Well at least it gave me some idea of the work, and it was obvious enough that light and shade were there to be brought out. It's just that they were not. This morning I found where I had 'safely hidden' the Hogwoods (both boxes). What a difference! Now to sort the Antonini. With your comments, it seems I must prepare for disappointment.

My "distracting" comment was, of course, a throw away. I very much enjoy the Alpha approach to illustrating their packaging, much as I do those for BIS's Brautigam Mozart keyboard concertos, in their different way.

[Richard Barrett]

I've been mentioning Kagel a bit in the last week or two, and I'm going to do so again because my latest download purchases have been of his work.

Firstly the complete cello music by the Nomos ensemble, which begins with the classic Match for two cellos and percussion (where the two cellos take part in a contest to see who can come up with the most madly virtuosic "extended techniques" and the percussion acts as referee) and ends with the beautiful Motetten for eight cellos, one of a few late works in which Kagel seems finally to have achieved a hard-won reconciliation with music, its history and geography. This really isn't the case with the other new download, a new complete recording of Stücke der Windrose by Ensemble Aleph. In the course of eight pieces, each named after one of the points of the compass and varying in duration between five and twenty minutes, Kagel uses a "salon orchestra" (clarinet, solo strings, piano, harmonium and a massive armoury of percussive and other effects) to disassemble and reassemble the idea of "world music" in a sort of cubistic way. Both are very well performed. The second (a double CD) is certainly much preferable to the rather clinical recordings of the same piece spread over a number of separate discs by the Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw. The first reminds me of the importance to Kagel of his collaboration with the late cellist Siegfried Palm (for whom most of the pieces were written) but the Motetten are worth the price of the download on their own.

[Beef Oven!]

I've been mentioning Kagel a bit in the last week or two, and I'm going to do so again because my latest download purchases have been of his work.

Firstly the complete cello music by the Nomos ensemble, which begins with the classic Match for two cellos and percussion (where the two cellos take part in a contest to see who can come up with the most madly virtuosic "extended techniques" and the percussion acts as referee) and ends with the beautiful Motetten for eight cellos, one of a few late works in which Kagel seems finally to have achieved a hard-won reconciliation with music, its history and geography. This really isn't the case with the other new download, a new complete recording of Stücke der Windrose by Ensemble Aleph. In the course of eight pieces, each named after one of the points of the compass and varying in duration between five and twenty minutes, Kagel uses a "salon orchestra" (clarinet, solo strings, piano, harmonium and a massive armoury of percussive and other effects) to disassemble and reassemble the idea of "world music" in a sort of cubistic way. Both are very well performed. The second (a double CD) is certainly much preferable to the rather clinical recordings of the same piece spread over a number of separate discs by the Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw. The first reminds me of the importance to Kagel of his collaboration with the late cellist Siegfried Palm (for whom most of the pieces were written) but the Motetten are worth the price of the download on their own.

I’m listening to the Nomos cello performance on Apple Music. Fascinating music (often the case with MK). I notice that the album is available for just £3.99 on Qobuz for a 16 bit CD quality recording. I may purchase it.

[Beef Oven!]

Prompted by the discussion on another thread, I decided to get this. £7.99 from Qobuz for a 16 bit CD quality 2 CD set. Good value, I’d say.

[jayne lee wilson]

24/96, eclassical.... 5

[HighlandDougie]

I've been mentioning Kagel a bit in the last week or two, and I'm going to do so again because my latest download purchases have been of his work.

This really isn't the case with the other new download, a new complete recording of Stücke der Windrose by Ensemble Aleph. In the course of eight pieces, each named after one of the points of the compass and varying in duration between five and twenty minutes, Kagel uses a "salon orchestra" (clarinet, solo strings, piano, harmonium and a massive armoury of percussive and other effects) to disassemble and reassemble the idea of "world music" in a sort of cubistic way. Both are very well performed. The second (a double CD) is certainly much preferable to the rather clinical recordings of the same piece spread over a number of separate discs by the Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw.

I've raved about this CD (oops - not a download) on "What have you been listening to now" but, for me at least, it really was a revelation.

[Richard Barrett]

I've raved about this CD (oops - not a download) on "What have you been listening to now" but, for me at least, it really was a revelation.

Sorry HD, I should have been paying more attention to the other thread!

[teamsaint]

I've raved about this CD (oops - not a download) on "What have you been listening to now" but, for me at least, it really was a revelation.

Well it seems to come highly recommended,and is available on Spotty, so no excuses for not giving it a spin.

[Beef Oven!]

I’ve been listening to Turangalila a fair bit this week. I first bought Chung, Chailly then Wit. I borrowed the Ozawa from a work-colleague and still don’t have a copy myself. I used to have a preference for Chailly, but recently, the more I listen to the Chung, the more I prefer it.

Looking on Qobuz I found the BaL winner, Kent Nagano BPO Aimard/Kim, for a mere £4.15 (16 Bit CD quality) and couldn’t resist!

[Bryn]

I’ve been listening to Turangalila a fair bit this week. I first bought Chung, Chailly then Wit. I borrowed the Ozawa from a work-colleague and still don’t have a copy myself. I used to have a preference for Chailly, but recently, the more I listen to the Chung, the more I prefer it.

Looking on Qobuz I found the BaL winner, Kent Nagano BPO Aimard/Kim, for a mere £4.15 (16 Bit CD quality) and couldn’t resist!

I don't think you will be disappointed. It is from concert performance(s). However, a Gramophone reviewer has decribed it as "overly corporate", whatever that means. Have you tried the Mena? It's my current favourite.

[Richard Barrett]

I don't think you will be disappointed. It is from concert performance(s). However, a Gramophone reviewer has decribed it as "overly corporate", whatever that means. Have you tried the Mena? It's my current favourite.

Recordings of that work are coming so thick and fast these days that it seems every time I listen to it I'm listening to a new recording for the first time. Mena is fantastic. Lintu isn't bad either. Ozawa is a classic that I know every corner of, having listened to it hundreds of times when it had the field almost to itself. I think if I had to choose one it would be Nagano. "Overly corporate" describes the Gramophone quite well, I would say.