What are you listening to right now?

Mahler 2, at the two channel linn setup, my wife is not home. (She is an ardent Mahler hater!)

Jurowski / LPO

 

Classical compilation: Power Classics

Johnny Winter: Bootleg Series compilation

SRV box set: discs 1 and 2

Hendrix: Are You Experienced

Clapton: Live In The 70's disc 1

In case you wonder I use an Onkyo DX-390 6 disc changer connected to a Modi multibit DAC or a RTR Chinese DAC. Can listen for hours. Great fun!

 

Wanted to take my YH-1's out for a spin with my BHA-1, and that means classic Jazz.

 

With YH-2s:

 

I don't understand how anyone can hate Mahler ardently. Bottom line is: lots of beautiful melodies! OK, so maybe some symphonies might sound like more of the last one (it's too long since I listened to be specific) but... is that a bad thing?

Have seen, I think, three of them: 1, 2 and of a thousand (I forget it's number).

Linn, eh? Those who like it love it. And if they are lucky they can afford it . Hmmm... A I think a friend had their CD player, but I never heard what I consider the more important bits: amplifier, their famous turntable....

Back to Mahler, can't say I care much for the songs. But then, I don't care much for Western-classical vocal: I'll stick to the orchestral. Hearing the symphonies for the first time was like hearing proper "progressive" rock for the first time: a real Wow, what is that? moment.

 

Not even the Ruckert Lieder? Thomas Hampson singing Um Mitternacht makes me feel alive!

I have a (relatively speaking of course) modest MAJIK dsm with the MAJIK floor standing speakers. For my taste (10 rock albums per year, and 3 - 4 classical / opera albums per day if life / work does not interfere to much) they are fantastic. Some friends found them too analytical, too cold. But with classical they are great. Would love to hear the more high end linn systems one day! (For reference, I am a non modded, non eq-ed HD800s user)

Currently listening too a Vivaldi album. Really well recorded. Great revealer of timbral reproduction quality of a rig. Also great harpsichord (so many sound ugly, depthless).

https://open.spotify.com/album/5Z30ofTgOWT4kP0Yw9CC3o

Listening via Qobuz, high res, instead of Spotify

 

Interesting...not sure that "depth" is exactly what I'd want from a harpsichord. To me, harpsichords are the ultimate in fast, light, effortless playing...the first time I played a harpsichord after years of playing piano was like being used to weights around my ankles and finally having them taken off.

I listened to a bit of the recording you'd linked...I didn't mind most of it (though something about the space they were recording and the way it reverberated in rubbed me the wrong way), but the Four Seasons seemed a little different than I'd have liked...e.g., the Allegro at the beginning of Spring seemed very legato, not dance-y or bouncy enough for my tastes. And my favorite movement, the Largo in the middle of Winter, has a weird wall-of-sound-y quality to it. It's not badly played or anything, it just seems less delicate, less sweet than I'm used to.

That did inspire me to listen to one of my favorite recordings of the Four Seasons, by Rinaldo Alessandrini and the Concerto Italiano:



I absolutely adore just about anything Alessandrini does...it was his Monteverdi recordings that first turned me on to his work, but he just brings so much life and emotion to everything he does it's a joy to listen to. Probably my favorite moment comes really early, when the soloists first come in in Spring, he does a ritardando that just makes the entrance so madrigalesque. In fact, a lot of that particular movement plays a bit fast and loose with the timing, giving it a very free, very emotional quality.

 

Depthless. Perhaps my description is lost in translation. In dutch we would say "spijkerig" -> like nails? I will checkout your recording!

 

Yea, he was wrapped up in himself like an orange peel…

 

Two songs of loss and longing

Jane's Addiction - Then She Did...



For Mahler lovers and the Mahler-curious....
Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Death of Children" from the perspective of a grieving parent)

 

The Brand New Heavies - Getaway

GSMonkey - Waiter! Could I please have some acid-jazz served with a slice of groove?
5 mins later
Waiter - How was your meal, sir?
GSMonkey - The lyrics were a little trite and the chords could use a touch more pepper, but please tell the chef that the vibe was such that I'll be dining here again soon.
Waiter - Very good, sir

 

New Rival Consoles!

 

I do not know where this fits. Once you get into Kingston Wall and The Swans this kind of music simply follows.

 

XTC - Knights in Shining Karma (from "Apple Venus 2", a brilliant listen)
This article about Andy Partridge's personal and song-writing history is also worth a read.

 

For as long as I've been into Early Music, it's pretty criminal that I've never really sat down and listened to some Hildegard von Bingen before now. Medieval music is always fascinating (and rather alien to our modern ears), and actually sitting down and listening to chant is an interesting experience after so long associating chant with being the introduction to what we're really waiting to get to, like in recordings of Renaissance motets and masses, or in Monteverdi's Vespers.

 

Solti's Siegfried!