New releases

[Bryn]

Thanks ER, Straight to the top of my listening list too.

Here are Norm’s thoughts......

https://thecritic.co.uk/malcolm-arno...aster-resonus/

Happy to find it is available to stream from QOBUZ, replete with booklet pdf (including the complete libretto). Perhaps Channel 4 or Sky Arts might realise it in its intended medium (though preferably in colour).

[Edgy 2]

If only we could persuade her to do a few neglected Brits, ER.

Yep,and maybe a complete DG Weinberg cycle (maybe this is in the pipeline)

[MickyD]

Looking forward to this one - the same team has already given us some good Rameau and Mondonville recordings...

[silvestrione]

Back when the shortlist was published I did my annual eyeroll about none of the items chosen for the "contemporary" category being particularly contemporary...

I'd be very interested to know what two or three you'd choose, Richard.

[Richard Barrett]

I'd be very interested to know what two or three you'd choose, Richard.

So would I! They need to be 2019 releases, right?

[jayne lee wilson]

So would I! They need to be 2019 releases, right?

No, 2020 is OK, up to I guess midsummer or so.... The G. original review dates for the Contemporary shortlist were Anderson (12/19) Eötvös (2/20) Adès (5/20)....

I haven't heard them but may yet make the effort (still struggling on with Veress/Bartok...energies low surviving a tough year..... keep laying my weary head among the soothing caresses of Baroque, Mozart etc....)...

Why do you describe them as "not particularly Contemporary" , Richard? A matter of stylistic retrospection, etc...?

[Richard Barrett]

Why do you describe them as "not particularly Contemporary" , Richard? A matter of stylistic retrospection, etc...?

Before getting on to style, there's the fact that it's almost all piano concertos, orchestral music, song cycles etc., and since you mentioned style, Birtwistle's hasn't really evolved much in the last few decades. When I think of "contemporary" I think of something that is a bit more authentically of its own time than that, like Monteverdi's Vespers or the Eroica, and of course many examples from the 20th century as well. All the music in the shortlist embodies a way of thinking about composition - and what composition is - which is at least a hundred years old, even if it's been more or less influenced by more recent ideas. But I will presently put my shortlist where my mouth is!

[teamsaint]

Beethoven Eroica and Coriolan, Jordi Savall , Concert de Nations.

But should I be bypassing this to the new (? I’, assuming all five are new) “ Revolution” recordings?

[Richard Barrett]

So... here are three that spring to mind:

Eliane Radigue, Occam Ocean 2 (released 27/09/19)
Mauro Lanza & Andrea Valle, Systema Naturae (06/03/20)
Chris Mercer, Animal Communication Works (01/06/20)

[jayne lee wilson]

Beethoven Eroica and Coriolan, Jordi Savall , Concert de Nations.

But should I be bypassing this to the new (? I’, assuming all five are new) “ Revolution” recordings?

Yes the 2020 Eroica in the 5-Symphony set is a new one, and I would say an outstanding one as well. Savall's first take on it was reviewed as long ago as 7/97, a positive but qualified response from RO.
PQ has high praise for this new set in the G. Awards issue ("far more finished" than the earlier readings comparatively), but its hard for me to comment much as I ran out of Beethovenian Symphony Steam while traversing the set back in the summer. Nothing but positives though as as I recall....and excellent sound.

[teamsaint]

Yes the 2020 Eroica in the 5-Symphony set is a new one, and I would say an outstanding one as well. Savall's first take on it was reviewed as long ago as 7/97, a positive but qualified response from RO.
PQ has high praise for this new set in the G. Awards issue (mentions the earlier reading's comparative lack of polish), but its hard for me to comment much as I ran out of Beethovenian Symphony Steam while traversing the set back in the summer. Nothing but positives though as as I recall....and excellent sound.

Thanks Jayne.

The other disc I have lined up for a more ot less immediate listen is the new Naxos discs of Guanieri Choros from Orchestra do Estadeo de Sao Paolo

[jayne lee wilson]

So... here are three that spring to mind:

Eliane Radigue, Occam Ocean 2 (released 27/09/19)
Mauro Lanza & Andrea Valle, Systema Naturae (06/03/20)
Chris Mercer, Animal Communication Works (01/06/20)

OK! Occam Ocean 2 playing now......

[silvestrione]

So... here are three that spring to mind:

Eliane Radigue, Occam Ocean 2 (released 27/09/19)
Mauro Lanza & Andrea Valle, Systema Naturae (06/03/20)
Chris Mercer, Animal Communication Works (01/06/20)

Thanks, I shall certainly explore all three.

[cloughie]

A name I was unfamiliar with appeared on the most recent update on fb from Eloquence - Ruth Slenczynska - a 10cd set of America Decca (Brunswick in the UK) recordings from the 50s and 60s - anyone familiar with this now 90 yr old pianist?

[Cockney Sparrow]

I see Cornwall Library Service provides Naxos Music Library access. NML: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?7506-Online-Naxos-music-library/page2

Hope you are a member with the IT. There is an Ivory Classics Discs with more than a cursory biography in the PDF booklet. "Ruth Slenczynska in Concert" Catalogue No.: 70902

Unfortunately I can't copy any of the text but it starts with her father, a mediocre violinist who was so obsessed with having a musical star in his family he sealed her destiny before she was born. And it proceeds from there.....