Stephen Gutman's remarkable performances of Rameau keyboard works (vol 1).



Anyone heard SG play these live?  Either way, for me they have the impact I remember feeling on hearing Gould play Bach for the first time. Revelatory. I know Stephen quite well, and this has been a long-standing project for him, realised impeccably.

Schoenberg's String Quartet No.2:

And yes, it keeps on giving.

Volume 5 in the Kuijken series; I'd heard the first 2 and hadn't been tempted, partly because there was some dodgy singing goin' down. But the good folk at Diapason put a track on their cover disc and I liked it enough to give this one a go. And yes, it's worth it.

I see the Egarr recording I mentioned up there has had a review in IRR which, ahem, rather contrasts with the evidence my ears have given me... 

Not that I know of but you're not missing anything. It's critical of both the temperament and the playing. He spends quite a bit of space quoting a misrepresentation of Lehman's theory and doesn't really refer to it beyond suggesting that the reader google Lehman's name. He says the temperament 'reduce[ s] the contrasts between the keys to something resembling the dull uniformity of equal temperament' and then compares it to recordings which to any trained ear are far closer to equal temperament than Lehman's. (His favourite is Beauséjour on Naxos - compare his C# major chord with Egarr's and you'll hear what I mean.) He also calls Egarr's playing 'studiously unexciting', 'safe, slow, legato and almost pianistic'. Fine, I find it flexible and a supple guide through the harmonies which I already know the reviewer can't hear; it's actually a fast non-legato style that I associate with 'pianistic', especially in the preludes, and I'd much rather hear Egarr playing the C minor prelude (say) so you can hear the harmony than someone else hammering through it so fast that all you hear is the harpsichord mechanism not having time to bring out any actual tone.

Don't worry strina, I trust my ears - if not completely, at least more than I trust his

Here by the way the Diapason don't manage any better: 3 tuning forks out of 5 and a review that doesn't even mention the temperament.

Liszt - Complete piano music, volume 27 on Naxos.  Superb stuff!

...or rather a disc of highlights from it. And very fine they are too. Including the first really good recording of that solo Laudate dominum I've heard, I think. I've always been annoyed to find that piece on a CD with a really great singer (Kirkby, Daniels) on the disc but not singing that piece.

I hadn't wanted to take the punt on the full recording but now I reckon I just might.

Tell us more, M Soudain. How are instruments used? and how many? and which ones? and how often? how big is the ripieno vocal ensemble? what's the basic vocal style used? how is intonation managed?

It would be lovely to have a complete recording of SMeS without any major flaws.


Janacek is a recentish discovery of mine too. If you like Vixen I'm sure you'd like Katya Kabanova as well. And probably the others too, though I don't yet know those so well.