Album of the Evening

[Musicophile]

Just picked this one up and it's pretty darn near absolutely amazing. Excellent relaxing music and just to be enjoyed. I was sitting out on the back patio with this turned up as the sun was setting and just really enjoyed the heck out of this one. About half way through I came back in and finished listening from the sweet spot. Excellent quality.

 

This truly is a very deep subject (The Well).

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Fully agree. Did you get the high res?

[Musicophile]

The only high res is in High Resolution Audio

 

Thanks,

 

Roch

Yes that's where I got it

[Musicophile]

No, I didn't see the high-res version... I bet that would be really great! Where is the Hi-Res version at?

HIGHRESAUDIO | Home of audiophile music - Tord Gustavsen Quartet - The Well

 

Not sure if they take US orders though.

[Musicophile]

Rusconi: Revolution

 

 

Quite innovative stuff: Esbjörn Svensson meets Progressive Rock. Heard them for the first time last week live in Paris. A Swiss trio, but regularly based in Berlin as well. Worth checking out

 

Avishai Cohen: At Home

 

 

Interesting contemporary trio jazz.

[Musicophile]

Added to queue in my next amazon order.

 

Question....

More free style or with a melodic foundation?

There's enough melody around for my taste. I'm not a big fan of freestyle only. Rhythm is his strength though, and you can clearly hear his bass driving every song.

[Musicophile]

Beethoven: Violin Sonata - Faust - Melnikov (redbook).

 

 

I'm generally a big fan of Isabelle Faust, but this is probably her masterpiece.

[Musicophile]

Jonas Kaufmann: Die schöne Müllerin (redbook).

 

[Musicophile]

And, for a change:

 

[Musicophile]

And, last one for today:

 

Schumann: Symphonies 3&4, Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra (24/44)

 

 

I can really recommend this album, fresh, wild, different to the usual more polished Schumann recordings. Plus good (if not outstanding) sonics.

[Musicophile]

Bach: Mass in b minor - Herreweghe - 2012 recording (phi)

 

 

Herreweghe recorded the potentially greatest liturgical work Bach ever wrote (ok, the passions come close) 3 times, and got better every time doing it. Very nice sonics in this 24/44 recording.

[Musicophile]

Knopfler, Privateering, 24/96. Nice background music but very far away from the thrill of the Dire Straits self-titled album or Communiqué or Making Movies. I am sure that high res is totally useless on this one (which is highly compressed dynamically), but I am too lazy to convert it to 24/48 or 16/44 to compare, and anyway I may never listen to this recording again.

 

Joni Mitchell, DCC gold XLD rip. This is much more interesting musically than Knopfler's privateering IMO.

Savall, Bach's Brandeburg Concertos SACD. This is, of course, on a completely different level compared with the two pop discs above. Outstanding music, outstanding interpretation, excellent sound quality.

 

 

Candice Parise and the Swing Band Rive Droite Rive Gauche, 16/44 (XLD rip of CD). Well, this is not JS Bach, but the music is pleasant, the musicians are very good, and the singer is quite nice to hear (even if I do not find her voice very rich but at least it is not tweaked through signal processing tools as is too often the case now with jazz or pop singers). But what is striking is the sound quality of the recording: this may be the most natural sound I have ever heard on my system. In particular, I could not believe such spatial precision was possible when I started playing the disc, but it was there.

Agree on both Privateering (what a disappointment) and Savall, my latest addition to my collection of Brandenburgs.

[Musicophile]

Excellent suggestion for tonight. Thanks guys!

 

 

Hadn't listened to Nikolai for ages, although I really feel I grew up with this piece (at the time played by Karajan though...)

[Musicophile]

My current favorite Don Giovanni:

 

Yannick Nezet Seguin / Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with DiDonato, Damrau, and Villazon.

 

[Musicophile]

+1

 

My other favorite audio version: Mozart: Don Giovanni / Jacobs, Weisser, Et Al | ArkivMusic

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Yep!

 

And this one:

 

 

Back to topic:

 

To relax in the evening:

 

[Musicophile]

Brand new album from Beacon, "The Ways We Separate"

 

This is a stellar release with excellent sonics. For those wanting to "dip the toe" in the electronic music scene, this album would a terrific point of entry. More of a mellow, romantic, dreamy, synth pop feel to it. This is the perfect late night music experience.

 

 

 

Just listening to it. Nice recommendation!

[Musicophile]

@musicophile: Happy to return the favor. I have about 5-6 albums I have purchased based upon your recommendations. I listened to The Helge Lien Trio - Hello Troll, over the weekend (purchased this album, as well as Natsukashii based on your recommendation).

Isn't this a great forum :-)

 

Back to topic:

 

Keith Jarrett: Standards II (redbook).

 

One of my first Keith Jarrett albums, still have the vinyl somewhere. Really well recorded.

 

 

Followed by:

 

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 - Dausgaard (BIS 24/44)

 

 

Will never replace my Furtwängler and Klemperer references, but very nice fresh alternative with great sound quality.

[Musicophile]

You probably already know: Furtwängler's irreplaceable 1951 Hamburg NDR performance is available on SACD from Tahra (I wish the 24/192 digital master from which it's taken were available as download). Also on SACD, Böhm's 1959 BPO studio recording from Esoteric is another favourite in great sound. Also have always liked Horenstein's 1962 LSO (the Reader's Digest/Chesky Gold CD) also in great sound. These three are also all so different in their approaches that I never get tired of any of them.

 

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

I do have 3 different recordings of Furtwängler with no. 1, and the Hamburg one is my favorite, too. Don't have SACD, so will stick to my redbook rip probably. I'm not a big fan of Böhm though. However, the Horenstein sounds interesting. Need to check it out, thanks for the recommendation!

 

Back to topic:

 

 

Cheesy cover, but I really like the album (redbook):

[Musicophile]

Yes, but do you know the Böhm? Maybe, if you happen to not like his music-making for the same reason I rarely do (he ranks rather low on my list of favourite conductors), you should have a listen to this: it's so energetic and exiting, it'll make you wonder what he was on that day, and the orchestral playing is magnificent…

 

It's my favourite Böhm recording apart from two live Bruckner 7ths (Munich, 5 April 1977, and Vienna, 26 September 1976, performances I'd rank in the top four of this symphony, right after Giulini live and the unsurpassed Rosbaud), one of the top half-dozen recordings of Richard Strauß's Till Eulenspiegel tone poem (as well as some of his opera recordings), a fine Tristan, probably the Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Orchestra (the one with Steins, Leister, Seifert and Piesk), plus the - due to Fritz Wunderlich's Tamino - inevitable Magic Flute.

 

Thinking this over now, I must say it probably is my favourite Böhm recording, period.

 

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

Send you a PM to limit the hijacking to this thread :-)

[Musicophile]

Martha Argerich / Nelson Freire: Salzburg

 

[Musicophile]

Continued by Mendelssohn: one of the most underrated piano composers, played very nicely by German pianist Sebastian Knauer.

 

 

And finally, back to the times when Genesis made albums that were little works of art:

 

[Musicophile]

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Jacobs (redbook)

 

[Musicophile]

Kalevi Aho's symphonies No. 2 and 7. Pleasant music, well recorded, but I am not sure I'll give this recording a second listen any time soon.

I'm really impressed how adventurous you are with composers that I've never even heard of!

[Musicophile]

Thanks for the kind words. Since I upgraded to hi-fi from a mid-fi setup in 2011, I discovered that I could enjoy contemporary music that previously just sounded irritating. This, together with the re-discovery of old pop and rock albums, have been the two main benefits of hi-fi to me. In a way, I don't really need my hi-fi system to thoroughly enjoy the music I like best (such as Furtwaengler's wartime recordings of Beethoven and Bruckner or his post-war Brahms 1st in Hamburg), but I need it for more challenging scores.

 

Back on topic: Aldo Romano, Threesome. An enjoyable disc for those who like jazz trio.

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I'll certainly have to look into this more. Any albums you'd recommend worth having? Could even be the subject of a separate thread.

 

Back to topic:

 

Wayne Shorter - Footprints (redbook). Probably my favorite Shorter album.

 

 

Followed by:

 

Mozart: Symphonies No. 38-41 - Mackerras - SCO [24/88]

 

 

This Linn download is one of the rare combinations (like the John Butt Dunendin recordings), where great sound meets reference level conducting. This Prague is my favorite of all times, and I cannot tire of the Jupiter.

[Musicophile]

Shai Maestro Trio: Shai Maestro Trio (24/44)

 

 

One of my favorite new acquisitions.

[Musicophile]

Chopin: The Complete Preludes - Rafal Blechacz

 

 

Rafal Blechacz is probably one of the most underrated pianists of today. Some time ago, I had the pleasure of hearing him and two other winners of the prestgious Chopin contest live in concert in just one week (which is quite a feat, given that the contest is only held every 5 years). The others were Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman. And honestly, the shy young guy who looked like he barely started university was the most impressive.

 

As an anecdote: When he won the Chopin competition in 2005, the jury decided not to give a 2nd price, as the distance to the other participants was just too big.