Finally got round to listening to the Bezuidenhout segment, and enthralling listening it was too. In particular, the Alla Turca finale of K331 sparkled in a way in which even a great Mozartian such as Schiff cannot manage on a later grand. The concerto excerpts were equally enlightening. Clearly there are gains and losses when this repertoire is played on replica instruments (even KB admitted as much) with some very thin, reedy violin tuning at times. Elsewhere. the trumpets and percussion were ebulliently festive in a way in which their modern counterparts cannot match. Moreover, Bezuidenhout made an excellent interviewee, never falling prey to the trap of being too chummy/matey with AMcG which can mar otherwise interesting interviews. Not a trace of a Sarf Efriken accent either.
Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.
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Yes, and KB was not dismissive of those who chose to use the concert grand in this repertoire, though he made his own preference clear. I'm still not entirely convinced about the use of ornamentation - not denying of course that its use is historically justified, only that now its use may be artificial and mannered and not, as it presumably was in the C18, instinctive and improvisatory. I have heard it done well, but there are times in the Mozart concertos where I would wish the piano part played unadorned: in the conclusion to the F-sharp minor slow movement of K488 for instance.
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Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostI bought the Bezuidenhout/Mullejans/Freiburg disc of K453 & K482 when it came out and have hymned its sonic & musical qualities many times since! I don't listen to a lot of Mozart now but I often go back to this one - a great CD!
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Caught up with the CD Review segment on Brahms's German Requiem broadcast yesterday. Very interesting...
On the totally unfair basis of the extracts played, Gergiev's tempo relationships seemed all wrong to me, a lumpy and mannered performance.
But on the same unfair basis, the recording on Berlin Classics featuring the Dresdner Kreuzchor & Dresdner Philharmonie under the choir's chorus master Roderich Kreile sounded wonderful to me....
... and I'm sitting entranced by it on the big hifi here having acquired the download version
Choir, orchestra, interpretation and recording quality (it's a live performance in the Kreuzkirche last November) are wonderful - airy and atmospheric yet detailed, rich orchestral and choral sound but leavened by the freshness of the impeccable boys' voices on the top line. Pity about the soprano but you can't have everything"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Listening to today's CD review, it seemed to me that this is Radio 3 at its very best. Andrew McGregor discusses, interviews and comments as though listeners are intelligent people. Music that may not have interested me before now seems worth investigating. Unlike when listening to weekday Radio 3 programmes, I have never been tempted to switch off. Indeed, on leaving the room to answer the door, I wanted to return as soon as possible - a feeling I never get during Breakfast/Essential Classics/In Tune an all similar CFM/R2 programmes.
To Andrew McGregor and CD Review:
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Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View PostListening to today's CD review, it seemed to me that this is Radio 3 at its very best. Andrew McGregor discusses, interviews and comments as though listeners are intelligent people. Music that may not have interested me before now seems worth investigating. Unlike when listening to weekday Radio 3 programmes, I have never been tempted to switch off. Indeed, on leaving the room to answer the door, I wanted to return as soon as possible - a feeling I never get during Breakfast/Essential Classics/In Tune an all similar CFM/R2 programmes.
To Andrew McGregor and CD Review:
The Sculthorpe, piece, for instance, was a great discovery.
Every time I hear his work I am strongly drawn to it, but haven't got round to proper investigation.I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.
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I agree - and I think that if any listener had been magically transported from the 1970s to hear this morning's programme, they would have recognized the standards as not dissimilar to those they took for granted.
Are there, I wonder, any listener figures to suggest which morning programmes on R3 attract the greater number of listeners?[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]
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Don Petter
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Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostAre there, I wonder, any listener figures to suggest which morning programmes on R3 attract the greater number of listeners?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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... I liked what I heard of the Maometto 2do this morning. I also liked Flora Wilson's comment on the bravura brass playing - that it was very jolly and exciting to hear the blare of loud trombones and tubas - but that this was not what Rossini wd have been expecting - narrower bore trombones and quieter ophicleides being his intention. Maometto Secundo seems to be an important transitional work; it wd be marvellous to have an appropriately coloured HIPP version...
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post... I liked what I heard of the Maometto 2do this morning. I also liked Flora Wilson's comment on the bravura brass playing - that it was very jolly and exciting to hear the blare of loud trombones and tubas - but that this was not what Rossini wd have been expecting - narrower bore trombones and quieter ophicleides being his intention. Maometto Secundo seems to be an important transitional work; it wd be marvellous to have an appropriately coloured HIPP version...
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Black Swan
I have agree with most of the comments. I only listened to selective bits before 9:30 and after 10:30 as I purposely missed the BAL section as I had no interest. But I did enjoy the rest.
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