What are you listening to now?

[Quijote]

Yes, Philip, it is a great piece. I have CD with Barton as soloist. The Clement violin concerto was a great inspiration for Beethoven's violin concerto.

I have you to thank for this, Hofrat. I have the same CD. The jacket notes (for once !) are quite interesting.
Yes, it is a fine work, and I'm glad this has been "re-discovered". How many more works are there like this, I wonder?

[Roehre]

Today (sofar) three works for Advent/christmas attributed to JSBach:

Cantate BWV 141 "Uns ist ein Kind geboren" (now attributed to Johann Kuhnau)

Cantate BWV 142 "Das ist je gewisslich wahr" (a work definitely by Telemann)

Magnificat in a-minor BWV Anh.21 (a work by Melchior Hoffmann)

[Roehre]

Martin 3 Weihnachtslieder (voice/fl/piano, 1947)

Poulenc 4 Motets pour le temps de Noël (1952)

Jolivet Pastorales de Noël

Herzogenberg Mass in e-minor opus 87 (1894)

Lindberg Clarinet concerto (2002)

[Chris]

Listening to Bach's harpsichord arrangements of other composer's concertos tonight, played excellently by Peter Watchorn. I'm completely snowed in after getting about 2 feet of snow today, and somehow it seemed appropriate; the harpsichord reminds me of snow falling.

[Peter]

Bloch - Schelomo, LPO Mackerras/Ofra Harnoy.

[Roehre]

Puccini: Tosca (Callas/di Stefano/Gobi)

Maxwell Davies: O magnum Mysterium (1960)

Strauss: Metamorphosen (version for string quintet)

van Vlijmen: Trimurti - trittico per quartetto d'archi (1981)

[Chris]

Getting ready for Christmas by listening to Philippe Herreweghe's recording of Bach's Leipzig Chrstimas cantatas, BWV 63, 91, 121,133, as well as the early version of the Magnificat, BWV 243a.

[Joy]

We had a very nice Christmas concert over the weekend at church and they played and sang various selections of Handel's Messiah and traditional Christmas music.

[Roehre]

Mathias: Ave Rex op.45 (1969)

Finzi: Dies Natalis opus 8 (1930s)

Ruppe: Kerstcantate (1796)

Michael Berkeley; Piano quintet (2009)

Watkins: Horn trio (2009)

[Roehre]

Stravinsky: Chorale variations "Vom Himmel hoch" (1956)

JSBach: Kanonische Veränderungen über Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her BWV 769

Moulton: Nesciens mater

Schumann: Konzertstück opus 86 and Symphony no.4 (BBC Music magazine CD)

Bax: Christmas Eve (1912)

Birtwistle: Neruda Madrigals (2007)

[Chris]

Listening to something interesting today - Ferdinand Ries' piano quartet arrangement of Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony. It's a very good arrangement, with some unexpected things, and I'm amazed at how effective it is.

[Quijote]

As a little Xmas gift to Chris : JS Bach, Partita No. 3 (E major-ish), BWV 1006, with Jaap Schröder on a baroque violin, but not the curved bow. Still, suits my Christmas mood; rather, there is something "autumnal-cum-winter" in this work for my ears. Purely subjective comment, of course.

[Chris]

As a little Xmas gift to Chris : JS Bach, Partita No. 3 (E major-ish), BWV 1006, with Jaap Schröder on a baroque violin, but not the curved bow. Still, suits my Christmas mood; rather, there is something "autumnal-cum-winter" in this work for my ears. Purely subjective comment, of course.

Why thank you, Philip, it's just what I wanted! The E major partita is my favorite Bach violin piece!

I didn't know Jaap Schröder made any recordings of these pieces without the curved bow, though

[Quijote]

[...]I didn't know Jaap Schröder made any recordings of these pieces without the curved bow, though

Well, as far as I recall he uses a "baroque" bow, but concave, not convex.
I may be confusing my terms here. For me :

Concave shaped bow = the same "curvature" (more or less) as our modern bows;
Convex shaped bow = the inverse "curvature" of the above.

[Chris]

Yes, I know what you meant. I could have sworn Jaap Schröder only recorded these pieces with the "curved" bow, but I just did search on it and couldn't find anything about it, so I may be mistaken and thinking of someone else. Rachel Podger recently recorded the Bach solo violin works, and the reviews are quite good, so I may have to check those out. I have her recording of the accompanied Bach sonatas with Trevor Pinnock, and those are quite good. I'm surprised Andrew Manze has never record the solo sonatas and partitas (or if he did, I have not found it). Arthur Grumiaux's recording I love, even though it is with a modern violin. I almost always prefer Baroque instruments for Bach, but since I do not have a Baroque violin, when I play these pieces, it is naturally more like Grumiaux than a Baroque violinist, so I really connect with his excellent version. Well, actually it sounds nothing like Grumiaux - it sounds more like total crap. I gotta practice more