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Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Ginastera: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22

Great performance. Great recording.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

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To celebrate purchasing a new pair of gloves (A major event in the life of young man 15+ years on!). I ran around with bare head and hands in -15 F wind chills for an hour or two yesterday.  For months I have struggled to find as clear an explanation for the basis of my listening habits.  Vigorously walking the final mile home, holding a newly acquired copy of Sartre's autobiography tucked under my arm, I was quite resolute there was no way I could possibly comprehend the mindset of someone with a head as fevered as mine was frozen.  

 

Akira Ifukube: Arctic Forest & Shiro Fukai: Cantata 'Heiwa-eno Inori'

Tetsuji Honna, Noriko Sasaki, Yuko Anazawa, Jun Suzuki, Katsunori Kono, Kazutoshi Shinomi

Orchestra Nipponica

 

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I struggle a bit with Prokofiev's Symphonies. Not as much as with Shostakovich's but still... Anyway, I had bought Gergiev's complete set on Decca when it came out because every library should have them.

Today I listened to Op100 and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

 

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"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256)

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2 hours ago, accwai said:

 

Found that Naxos CD on the shelf at a local public library branch very close the the hospital I was staying when I was out of commission a few months back. It's my introduction to Stephen Paulus. As for piano and violin, which duo have you tried? These days piano is mainly used as accompaniment for violin music. True violin/piano duo is actually quite rare.

 

You are a correct my terminology was a bit lacking.  What I should have said was works for violin and piano.  Cello and piano was also quite abundant.  Or voice and piano.  Everything I hit play on was a combination of piano and some other instrument it seemed!

 

This was the first one to jump out at me.  

 

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19 hours ago, rando said:

You are a correct my terminology was a bit lacking.  What I should have said was works for violin and piano.  Cello and piano was also quite abundant.  Or voice and piano.  Everything I hit play on was a combination of piano and some other instrument it seemed!

 

As mentioned before, there is significant difference between piano accompaniment and true duo. In the former case, the main instrument is carrying the melody and piano is there to give harmonic support (most of the time). And it is fair to consider the music to be for the main instrument only.

 

This harmonic support was provided by a combination of harpsichord, lute/theorbo (and cello sometimes) in the old days. But these days, a single piano usually replaces them all. And in pedagogical settings, piano even replaces an entire orchestra. The Seitz concertos in my album of the evening a few days ago was supposed to be full fledged concertos. But Grade 5-8 violin is not serious enough to be given orchestra for accompaniment. Even Bruch and  Mendelssohn violin concertos are accompanied by piano in student concerts.

 

So such is live. If you have problem with the sound of piano, you're pretty much SOL. You can probably go to chamber pieces like string trio or quartets, or go to solo pieces. But that would limit your choices.

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Funny you mention that.  I do listen to a fair amount of trio/quartet/ quintet/sextet/septet/octet music.  Stringed instruments (vocal cords are strings) combined with only a piano for some reason cause me problems.  Contrast that with something like the original version of Brahms Hungarian Dances for one piano, four hands which I do like very much. 

 

Thank you for typing that very educational post.  It is always amazing the information some of you have accumulated.  I had no idea violin pieces were graded.  Even your typo pointed me toward the lack of live music I had been taking in having consequences.

 

Tonight I listened to both versions of  Bartók's Romanian Dances; Sz. 56, BB 68 for solo piano and Sz. 68, BB 76 which he orchestrated for small ensemble .  By far my preference is for the orchestrated version.  

 

 

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Been increasingly noticing streaming on Tidal alone, not through HQP/Roon or the desktop app, lacks vitality.  The holiday trial period is expiring and despite the tendency towards lifeless SQ I'm almost starting to consider it for albums like this a composer search is unlikely to turn up

 

Edit:  Talk about rising from the unknown.  I knew Bernstein and a few other notable conductors composed.  This was a surprise.

 

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17 hours ago, rando said:

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Good one :) Especially like the Vejvanovský and the Stölzel. Johann Nepomuk Hummel for album of the evening, but not his usual trumpet concerto:

 

Hummel: Adagio and Rondo alla Polacca, Violin Concerto, Piano Variations, Potpourri

James Ehnes, Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players


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Three out of the four titles in this album are world premiere recordings.

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On 1/8/2018 at 6:54 PM, accwai said:

 

Musicians don't grow on trees you know :) To nurture the pipeline of talents, significant number of kids are brought through the grades. And this isn't just for violin. Well organized syllabus and exam systems exist for all common string, brass, woodwind and keyboard instruments, and vocal too.

 

In any case, string duos and trios for album of the evening:

 

Friedrich Hermann: 3 Capriccios, Grand Duo Brillant, Suite in D minor

Friedemann Eichhorn, Alexia Eichhorn, Reto Kuppel, Alexander Hülshoff

 

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Also included are world premiere recording of a pair of Variations for 2 violins with viola accompaniment by Johann Paul Eichhorn.

 

Picked this one up last month, really good performance.  Check it out.

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