What download have you bought?

[Pulcinella]

I will try some choral works next and if anyone has got a recommendation as to where to start on this, I’d very much appreciate it.

Might depend if you prefer accompanied or unaccompanied.
You could try the Strathclyde Motets, or the newly released Stabat Mater.
A friend I'm visiting next week has the SM, and I'm hoping to have time to listen to it through (I confess that I wasn't that taken with some extracts I heard....on Record Review?).

[Beef Oven!]

Might depend if you prefer accompanied or unaccompanied.
You could try the Strathclyde Motets, or the newly released Stabat Mater.
A friend I'm visiting next week has the SM, and I'm hoping to have time to listen to it through (I confess that I wasn't that taken with some extracts I heard....on Record Review?).

Marginal preference for accompanied. I’ll have a look on AppleMusic and Spotify and try a few things out.

I feel I’m missing out. A lot of people rave about him and he really has been prolific. Being an atheist, all the religious context means nothing to me - in fact I find it a bit irritating (but I suppose it’s up to him if he want to believe all that superstitious nonsense). The story of Isobel Gowdie is a much more stimulating context for music.

Anyway, I’ll get the string quartets today, I think they are quite good and we’ll see about the choral works.

[Pulcinella]

Start a thread under Composers, as I'm about to do with Bernstein, and see where it takes us.

[Beef Oven!]

Start a thread under Composers, as I'm about to do with Bernstein, and see where it takes us.

I was thinking of doing that!

Ok, I will.

[Beef Oven!]

James MacMillan - String Quartets 1&2 etc
Emperor String Quartet, Robert Plane, clarinet.

16 bit cd quality download from Qobuz, £7.99

[Beef Oven!]

Bohuslav Martinů - Complete Piano Trios
Smetana Trio. Supraphon Records. Released 18/03/16

16 bit CD quality download, Qobuz, £7.99

BBC Magazine recording of the month

[Beef Oven!]

Sofia Gubaidulina - Complete String Quartets etc
Molinari String Quartet.
2 CD set.
Label: Atma Classique.

Hi-Res download (24 bits - 96.00 kHz) , Qobuz £17.59

[Beef Oven!]

Peter Racine Fricker - String Quartets 1-3

Hi-Res 24/96 download from Qobuz £7.19. Includes a booklet.

Hadn’t realised this had been released! Apparently 3 months ago!

A neglected British composer.

'The Sunday Times' says - “Bartok is in the background of these astringently tonal, superbly crafted — and here splendidly performed — essays, but Fricker has his own touching authority.”

And 'The Strad' - "Compelling, challenging and deeply satisfying British music. Any Bartok or Shostakovich aficionado should enjoy getting to grips with the quartets of Peter Racine Fricker (1920 – 90), which here received magnificently assured, mostly premiere recordings…This is demanding music, and the Villiers Quartet has done well for reviving it with such immersive mastery”

Downloading as I type, I can hardly wait!!!

[Pulcinella]

I bought the Fricker SQs on CD last week (two Naxos CDs for £10 offer in York HMV; also got the Berstein S1/S2, Chagrin symphonies, and some Moeran); I thought you had mentioned them before, but I must have imagined it, then, if they are new to you. Perhaps someone else mentioned them, or it was some other piece(s) by Fricker. Haven't listened yet.

[Beef Oven!]

I bought the Fricker SQs on CD last week (two Naxos CDs for £10 offer in York HMV; also got the Berstein S1/S2, Chagrin symphonies, and some Moeran); I thought you had mentioned them before, but I must have imagined it, then, if they are new to you. Perhaps someone else mentioned them, or it was some other piece(s) by Fricker. Haven't listened yet.

I certainly would have mentioned the St SQ before, but not this release on Hi-Res. Unless I did and I’ve forgotten - that happens a lot to me these days and it’s a tad worrying. I had to send some papers off a little while ago and was putting it off. I finally said to myself, no more procrastination, get on with it. When I pulled the file, I saw that I’d done it all, signed and posted several weeks ago. I wonder if this is a bad sign in terms of dementia etc, later on in life (sorry to have gone off topic a bit!!).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I certainly would have mentioned the St SQ before, but not this release on Hi-Res. Unless I did and I’ve forgotten - that happens a lot to me these days and it’s a tad worrying. I had to send some papers off a little while ago and was putting it off. I finally said to myself, no more procrastination, get on with it. When I pulled the file, I saw that I’d done it all, signed and posted several weeks ago. I wonder if this is a bad sign in terms of dementia etc, later on in life (sorry to have gone off topic a bit!!).

I hope not - as this is something I experience quite frequently. I put it down to being retired and not having a regular "timetable" set (largely) by somebody else, in which "work" and "life" tasks have to be done by certain times, and with line managers to give "reminders". That, and the fact that there's so much more that we've done and can/have to remember than when we were twenty years younger.

Nonetheless, I was concerned enough to ask for an "Early Onset" blood test just over 18 months ago (there are chemicals that show these things!). Result? Nowt to worry about.


(To all Forumistas with medical training who might know that these tests are not entirely reliable - keep this knowledge to yourselves, huh? )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No - I'm not going to copy and post #191 again. That would be bad taste.

[Beef Oven!]

I hope not - as this is something I experience quite frequently. I put it down to being retired and not having a regular "timetable" set (largely) by somebody else, in which "work" and "life" tasks have to be done by certain times, and with line managers to give "reminders". That, and the fact that there's so much more that we've done and can/have to remember than when we were twenty years younger.

Nonetheless, I was concerned enough to ask for an "Early Onset" blood test just over 18 months ago (there are chemicals that show these things!). Result? Nowt to worry about.


(To all Forumistas with medical training who might know that these tests are not entirely reliable - keep this knowledge to yourselves, huh? )

It’s happened during the period that I’ve been retired too. But I’ve also got older during that time!

A more recent example is that yesterday I picked up my God Mother and went to lunch at my mum’s with my sister. However, I only avoided a cock-up because my mum reminded me the day before. She was so surprised when I said I didn’t know we were all having lunch together, and I was even more surprised when I found I’d confirmed it all in a text to my sister last week! On the one hand, it’s funny, on the other it’s a bit worrying. I think I’d like to take that early onset blood-test.

[jayne lee wilson]

Beef - Ever tried that old reliable, the Reminder Pad? I always have things scribbled on them, main proviso is they have to be somewhere you'll see them each day - near your work desk and/or somewhere in the kitchen/snug etc....a potential benefit is to improve your own inner mnemonic ability, just by the act of writing down....this does seem to work.
...mind you, like most self-employed, I'm far from any concept of retirement at whatever age, and I often have to "plan" Mum's day as well, so....

I looked in early here to cheer up on a dull day, as I have one of my most horrible headaches... so sympathies all-round! Time for that next gallon of coffee....
Lots to look forward to anyway - the sound on these Symphony of the Air transfers ("Brought to you by General Motors" as the announcer says ) is very good, some of the best 1940s restorations I've heard...
(16/44.1, Pristine Audio) - the site works very well, you can try a whole movement from each album, and the downloading is quick and efficient.

[teamsaint]

It’s happened during the period that I’ve been retired too. But I’ve also got older during that time!

A more recent example is that yesterday I picked up my God Mother and went to lunch at my mum’s with my sister. However, I only avoided a cock-up because my mum reminded me the day before. She was so surprised when I said I didn’t know we were all having lunch together, and I was even more surprised when I found I’d confirmed it all in a text to my sister last week! On the one hand, it’s funny, on the other it’s a bit worrying. I think I’d like to take that early onset blood-test.

Perhaps it would help if you organised all the things you need to do in the form of an Amazon wish list ?

I wouldn't do the test, without very good reason/grounds for suspicion, fwiw.