New releases

[Mandryka]

Released today, and lined up for streaming later:

JSB: Goldberg variations
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9506827--bach-goldberg-variations

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...erg-variations

In the booklet he says "In the Goldberg Variations, the one thing that rivals Bach’s complete intellectual mastery of his craft is his inspired, creative playfulness." And he does seem to put the emphasis on playfulness.

[Petrushka]

Britten - War Requiem (Decca) - SACD & Vinyl issues.

https://store.deccaclassics.com/products/war-requiem-2sacd-mediabook

Presumably these are 60th anniversary issues even though they aren't labelled as such (vinyl is at bottom of page)

This looks to be a very desirable issue even if it seems to be ridiculously overpriced. I'll probably take the plunge anyway.

[Pulcinella]

In the booklet he says "In the Goldberg Variations, the one thing that rivals Bach’s complete intellectual mastery of his craft is his inspired, creative playfulness." And he does seem to put the emphasis on playfulness.

I certainly enjoyed it as a 'one-off', but found it not one I'd return to often, despite his evident technical skills.

[Bryn]

I certainly enjoyed it as a 'one-off', but found it not one I'd return to often, despite his evident technical skills.

But was it as properly soporific as its origins would suggest it should be?

[Pulcinella]

But was it as properly soporific as its origins would suggest it should be?

Indeed not, at the speeds he zipped through some of the variations.
And in his interview in the Guardian article he debunks the theory and says:

This story contains a truth of the mythological kind, if not the historical. For what music could possibly be better suited to warding off the solitary despair of insomnia (or, by extension, that of human existence itself) than the Goldberg Variations, with their constant interplay of reassuring regularity and exhilarating novelty? Far from lulling anyone to sleep, this is a work very much capable of bringing the suffering insomniac to accept his wakefulness – even cherish it.

[Bryn]

Indeed not, at the speeds he zipped through some of the variations.
And in his interview in the Guardian article he debunks the theory and says:

An exercise in self-justification on his part?

[Dave2002]

Steven Osborne Debussy Etudes.

I heard him play them in a concert and it was terrible - so I’ll be interested to hear this if it’s streaming anywhere.


https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...-pour-le-piano

I have also heard him play these in concerts. I didn't think he was terrible at all - perhaps a case of chacun à son goût, though he may play better or worse from day to day. He didn't have the forcefulness of say Uchida or Livia Rev in some of the pieces - but does that really matter?

[Mandryka]

I have also heard him play these in concerts. I didn't think he was terrible at all - perhaps a case of chacun à son goût, though he may play better or worse from day to day. He didn't have the forcefulness of say Uchida or Livia Rev in some of the pieces - but does that really matter?

Were you at Wigmore Hall? I ask because I just think it was a bad day for him -- it was streaming for a while and someone else I know listened on youtube and agreed with me. But obviously, it could have been just a bad day for me!

Anyway, it's neither here nor there really, the recording will be released very soon, and that's that.

The Debussy etudes are very different from other Debussy material I think. And for me, the pianists who make them work, make them "come off the page", are few and far between. Anthony De Bonaventura, Anatoly Vedernikov, Nina Tichman, Michel Ferber, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's first recording, the Japanese one, sometimes Michel Beroff on Denon and Michael Korstick -- I blow a bit hot and cold about those two

[MickyD]

Here's another intégrale of a contemporary of Rameau from the indefatigable Pieter-Jan Belder. I like what I've heard so far...at under 15 quid for four discs, for me it must be had!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dandrieu-Trois-Livres-Pieces-Clavecin/dp/B0BZBHZG6B/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=2Z9AHZG1OPGAV&keywords=dandrieu&qid=1697213948&sprefix=dandrieu%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-2

[Pulcinella]

Ravel and Falla

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9531363--ravel-piano-concertos-de-falla-nights-in-the-gardens-of-spain

Idiosyncratic and rather bombastic: not for the library but worth a listen. (Imho, of course.)

[FRJames]

Shostakovich - Symphony 8, Kabalevsky - Colas Breugnon Ov
Bournemouth Symphony Orch, Silvestri
ICA Classics

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9540023--shostakovich-symphony-no-8-kabalevsky-colas-breugnon-overture

Out on 10 Nov 2023.

[silvestrione]

Shostakovich - Symphony 8, Kabalevsky - Colas Breugnon Ov
Bournemouth Symphony Orch, Silvestri
ICA Classics

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9540023--shostakovich-symphony-no-8-kabalevsky-colas-breugnon-overture

Out on 10 Nov 2023.

This is exciting indeed. I don't remember hearing this in Bournemouth, though he did Sym 10 more than once. (The Presto site wrongly claims Shostakovich 5 is Silvestri's only other recording of those symphonies, but there is an obscure version of Sym 10, not the only version of this coupling of composer/conductor on Youtube).

[Sir Velo]

New release of Beethoven quartets from the Chiaroscuro promises to be interesting

[RichardB]

New release of Beethoven quartets from the Chiaroscuro promises to be interesting

It certainly does. I shall be downloading that for listening on a long flight tomorrow.

[Bryn]

It certainly does. I shall be downloading that for listening on a long flight tomorrow.

https://www.eclassical.com/beethoven-string-quartets-op-74-op-130-1.html

Replacement final movement. No Grosse Fuge