Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love

[dualazmak]

If you want I can send you my recommendations from Dorian catalogue

Thank you, I already have the full DORIAN Catalogue. A few of your special recommendations will be highly appreciated as now your are already well aware of my music preferences...

We had really nice communication tonight. Now, I will go to bed, it is almost 23:00 in Japan!

 

[PatF]

Thank you, I already have the full DORIAN Catalogue. A few of your special recommendations will be highly appreciated as now your are already well aware of my music preferences...

We had really nice communication tonight. Now, I will go to bed, it is almost 23:00 in Japan!

Good night. I just finished work so you will have some reading tomorrow.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

The title of this thread has been modified into: Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love.

 

[dualazmak]

I also love voice and performance of English tenor, haute-contre tenor, Rogers Covey-Crump.

I have only one CD with his name in the main title as shared in my post #5 on the charming CDA66228 Hyperion for original tunes for the famous Respighi's Suites of "Ancient Airs and Dances" with Paul O'Dette, highly recommended.

You can hear the samplers at the Hyperion site for CDA66228.

I believe I can also hear several of his wonderful performances in the amazing recordings of The Hilliard Ensemble (I have several CDs) in which he participated as main tenor or haute-contre tenor.

 

[PatF]

I also love voice and performance of English tenor, haute-contre tenor, Rogers Covey-Crump.

I have only one CD with his name in the main title as shared in my post #5 on the charming CDA66228 Hyperion for original tunes for the famous Respighi's Suites of "Ancient Airs and Dances" with Paul O'Dette, highly recommended.

You can hear the samplers at the Hyperion site for CDA66228.

I believe I can also hear several of his wonderful performances in the amazing recordings of The Hilliard Ensemble (I have several CDs) in which he participated as main tenor or haute-contre tenor.

Great singer. In my opinion he is still unrivaled in this little Purcell gem - Air "A Prince from glorious" from Ode "Who can from joy refrain ?"

Purcell: Hail! bright Cecilia & Who can from joy refrain?

<p>The last, and greatest, of Purcell’s four Odes to St Cecilia, <i>Hail! bright Cecilia</i> was composed to a text by Nicholas Brady in 1692 in honour of the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians. It is a celebratory work comprised of masterful instrumental sections, majestic...

www.hyperion-records.co.uk

 

[PatF]

Regarding Dorian Record I strongly recommend those:

 

[PatF]

 

[dualazmak]

As I have expanded the scope of this thread to include "and Other Early Music" of stunning recordings, it is inevitable for me to touch on "World Music Heritage" (IMHO) contributions of Tallis Scholars directed by Peter Phillips.

In July 2013, (however,) I decided to stop purchasing any more Gimell Records' CDs/SACDs of Tallis Scholars since at that time I already had (and now have) their 54 CDs in my digital library; I believe these treasure recordings are sufficient enough for me to enjoy the amazing performances (and excellent recording quality) of Tallis Scholars in rest of my life with my recently completed multichannel multi-amplifier audio system.


I assume many of you here on board this thread are also very much familiar with Tallis Scholars. Here, I strictly restrain myself not to go into details of each of the CDs, otherwise,,.

Let me just share the cover arts of the 54 CDs I have as follows. Of course, any of your specific comments and/or discussions on Tallis Scholars will be much welcome on this thread.

 

[dualazmak]

Even though not so well recognized or popular even among early music enthusiasts, Pomerium Musices directed by Alexander Blachly is my another highly fascinating vocal ensemble. So far, I have only 8 CDs of Pomerium Musices (or later-on, simply Pomerium).

Since I have been always greatly impressed by these recordings, performances and recording quality, of Pomerium, let me share with you the details of the tracks of these CDs as follows.

 

[dualazmak]

On this thread, we have already covered stunning recordings of many French lute pieces.

Now, in the expanded perspectives of this thread including "Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love", I would like to cover and discuss attractive and impressive French music in late-Renaissance to Baroque period, again based on my digital music library as well as on your invaluable participations.

Just for our nice bird's-eye view (should I say "bird's-ear listening"?) over French music in the period, let me firstly share with you very nice 20-Box-CD wonderfully recorded during 2002 - 2007 entitled "200 Ans De Musique À Versailles" (Musique Du Baroque Français – MBF 1107, 20xCD Compilation, released in November 2007). It was my great pleasure that one of my early-music-enthusiast friends in France kindly gifted this 20-Box-CD to me in 2008.

Even though you can find the track info of all the CDs here in Discogs site, I believe it would be worthwhile sharing the attached Introduction Booklet PDF (21-page PDF divided into 4 portions) with you all.

I assume it would be also really interesting and important for you to see the details of the track information including the composers, musicians, recording venue, etc; let me share, therefore, each of the index pages in 20-CD PDF booklets as follows.

 

[dualazmak]

For my personal awareness and fascination on Baroque-period French (and English, Italian) music, I have been greatly influenced and educated by the tremendous pioneer efforts by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, even though I have only 20 CDs in my digital library;

and also by William Christie's profound and charming clavecin performances (I only have 4 CDs, though);

 

[dualazmak]

The music composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704) has been always occupying the core of my fascination and interests in French Baroque-period music (I only have these CDs, though);

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

Just for your reference, some interesting discussions are in progress on the thread entitled "Classical Instruments: Historical or Modern?".

So far, I briefly participated that thread with my post here regarding modern piano performances of Francsois Couperin's and Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard (clavecin/harpsichord) works, and also with my post here and here regarding "vibrato or not" especially in Early Music.

 

[dualazmak]

I assume many of you here on this thread would nod your head with your arms crossed looking at this post.

Also, Jordi Savall has been one of the great guides/pilots to the ocean of Early music, especially French Baroque, through his pioneer efforts for the revival (resurrection) of Marin Marais and other French composers; even though so far I have only these 10 treasure gem CDs in my digital library:

 

[Aynsley]

My introduction to lute music was Julian Bream's Music from the Royal Courts of Europe. I still have a copy of the original UK pressing, but am always on the lookout for a digital release.

I'm familiar with perhaps half of the artists in this topic. Two that I haven't seen mentioned, or perhaps that I missed, are Joachim Held and Alberto Crugnola. I have most of Held's recordings and often return to them, especially Polish Lute Music of the Renaissance. Crugnola's 4-disc German Lute Music of the 18th Century is a perennial favorite. I've lost count of the number of times I've listened to it.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello @Aynsley,

Welcome to this Lute and Early Music thread. I am really happy and honored finding your very first post in ASR Forum here on this thread.

Thank you so much for your info on lutenists Joachim Held and Alberto Crugnola who I myself did not know so far.
I did quick search and found this Discogs site on "Polish Lute Music of the Renaissance" (Hänssler Classic – HC19034) by Held, released on August 30 2019.

Fortunately, I can hear each of the 30 sec sampler of all the tracks in Naxos Japan site; really fantastic. I will soon place my purchase order.


I also found this Dicogs site on "German Lute Music Of The 18th Century" (Christophorus – CHR 77355) 4xCD by Alberto Crugnola, released in 2012;

This should be also nice; contains some unknown-for-me German lute composers.

We can find many YouTube video clips of wonderful performances of Alberto Crugnola; one typical clip which I like very much:

I am very happy adding two lutenists Joachim Held and Alberto Crugnola on this thread, thank you again @Aynsley.

 

[Aynsley]

Thanks to OP @dualazmak, I've been listening with great pleasure to Aeolian AEO-509. Both the performance and the recording are excellent. The organ is a modern instrument made by Marcussen and Søn of Denmark, and must have cost a fortune to purchase, ship, and install in Japan.

Most of my favorite organ recordings were made on classic organs in European churches, but I find that modern organs often add subtle nuances and color variations to the standard repertoire.

Anyone looking for this and other deleted CD collections should contact @dualazmak for more information.

AEO-509 Aeolian Records
View attachment 127419

 

[dualazmak]

I've been listening with great pleasure to Aeolian AEO-509. Both the performance and the recording are excellent.

Thank you @Aynsley,

Just for all of our notice, the organist Genzo Takesiha is a blind artist; he completely lost his sight in age of one due to illness.

Yes, one of the really amazing aspects of the CDs from Misawa Classics and Aeolian Records is excellent recording quality. Mr. Yukio Kojima of Kojima Recordings, Inc. has been participating as recording engineer in production of almost all of the CDs.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello @Aynsley and friends here on this thread,

This afternoon, me too have been listening twice to this wonderful organ album, Aeolian AEO-509 "Air for the Organ: LIEBESTER JESU" performed by Genzo TAKEHISA with my multichannel multi-amplifier audio system having L&R large-heavy sub-woofers; I was again much impressed by the heart-felt profound performance, the superb recording quality of rather quiet program with super-clear sound and extremely-high-S/N having preferable hall tone and reverberations.

All of the selection and settings of the microphones, digital recording setup, possibile sound mixing and editing, done by the recording engineer Mr. Yukio Kojima, were just miracle as a whole, I believe.

I also visited the web site of the recording venue "Fukushima Ongakudo Hall" to see the details of the Concert Hall and further information on the magnificent organ;

Then I quickly analyzed one track, track-2 "Herzlich Thut Mich Verlangen / JS Bach", by color spectrum analyzer of Adobe Audition 3.0.1;

As you can easily find, the lowest clear pipe sound is 37 Hz (I confirmed it by placing mouse cursor there and read the numeric info.) We can also see and very faintly hear the low gain sustaining hall (Helmholtz?) resonance/reverberation around 25 Hz -30 Hz which I found preferable, not uncomfortable at all, even needed for the nice reproduction of the hall tone.

Over all, this recording is wonderful and also a nice challenge to our audio system, especially sound cleanliness, S/N, and low-Fq clear reproduction by sub-woofers down to 25 Hz - 50 Hz with the lowest pipe of 37 Hz.

Since I do not use headphones at all, I do not know how properly your (HiFi?) headphone can reproduce the low sound in 25 Hz - 50 Hz zone, if you would enjoy the album with your headphones.

 

[Aynsley]

Since I do not use headphones at all, I do not know how properly your (HiFi?) headphone can reproduce the low sound in 25 Hz - 50 Hz zone, if you would enjoy the album with your headphones.

My headphones and earphones are all budget or entry-level, but I can hear some very low notes in that recording. Whether they're the 37 Hz notes that you measured, I'm not sure.

Out of interest, I went back and listened to all other versions of BWV 727 (Herzlich tut mich verlangen) that I have in my collection:

• Helmut Walcha (1952 and 1970)
• Lionel Rogg (1970)
• Marie-Claire Alain (1978)
• Kay Johannsen (?)

In some recordings the very low notes are audible, in others not so. That could, however, be the result of a combination of instrument, microphone placement, and church acoustics.

Thank you for the information about the Fukushima City Ongakudo. The city has certainly created a first-class concert venue for both performances and practice sessions.