Sunday 24 December 2006

As is becoming traditional for me during the Christmas period, it was again Bach's Mass in B minor. This just has to be the greatest of all musical works! And in the performance conducted by Klemperer I now find everything I want: balance, beauty of playing and of singing, clarity of texture, grandeur of overall concept. Two and a quarter hours of sheer bliss.

Wednesday 6 December 2006

James Ehnes in Korngold and Walton

Very admiring of a new CD (received this morning) with James Ehnes. The Korngold, Barber and Walton violin concertos. Listened to Korngold and Walton both, of course, Heifetz warhorses. Ehnes is truly excellent; violin playing, and intelligent musicianship, that cannot really be faulted in these two works. To cap it all, the recording (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey, Onyx recording) really makes me believe that recording technology has improved since the 1960s and that, after twenty years of digital recording, good engineers can at last capture violin tone accurately. A major new CD for the collection.