Siegfried's Forging Song. Wolfgang Windgassen churning out the banknotes.

(Oh, is that not what it's about? I've learnt something new today.)

Interesting to note that from time to time he would apparently prefer a slightly brisker tempo than Keilberth's...

Picked up as a result of a post from Richard on this very thread.

The instrument's intriguing: a rudra vina, but extensively modified. I'd be fascinated to hear what an unaltered one sounds like. Is the one on this recording the equivalent of Landowska's Pleyel harpsichord?

Thank you, IGI.   You've reminded me of Tatiana Nikolayevas's Shostakovich recital at the Wigmore Hall in the late 80s.     She exuded radiance.

I've just acquired a CD of Shostakovich's Sonata for viola and piano recorded at Eindhoven last May.   A new work to me and the attractively designed booklet, suitably matched in a rectangular slimline casing, tells me that this was his last work which he didn't live to hear performed.   He telephoned the violist of the Beethoven Quartet, Fyodor Druzhinin, a few week's before his death on 9 August 1975, to consult him about the viability of technical details.   The first movement, he said, was a"novella", the second movement a scherzo, the third movement would take the form of an adagio in memory of Beethoven. The music of this adagio promised to be "bright and clear".

The finished work is a fusion of darkness and melancholy yet matched by a spirited tenacity; another reminder of the performance of the complete String Quartets, performed by the Fitzwilliam Str Qt at The Wiggie, circa 1978.

The ETCETERA recording (KTC 1351) - available at a discount from the ever competitive hmv online - is performed by Susanne van Els (viola), Reinbert de Leeuw (piano) and poet/actor Ramsey Nasr recites his Winter Sonata (without viola and piano) which concludes:

                now death

                open and wide
                terrifyingly wide

                I feel no shame

                awaiting you

                there is no shame

and the music is bright
bright and clear   

Thoroughly fantastic pianist, especially in French repertoire (his Fauré is also very well-worth hearing), and also Chopin. Too busy with other things to have the energy to come up with detailed comments about his playing at the moment, other than to agree with the above.

Funny you should say that, incre: I was quite struck by it too. I kept trying to change it into 'radiated exu[d]ance' ... but it wouldn't quite work.

This:



Which is dark and wonderful. It includes Two Songs for Contralto with Viola Obbligato Op.91 both very beautiful and previously unknown by me.

And this:



Which is Janacek's, In the Mists, On An Overgrown Path, and 1. X. 1905, played by Andras Schiff. Mesmerising and emotional stuff.

(I understand that I risk some kind of penalty for using the word 'mesmerising'.)

And? Is it really the most aesthetically successful opera of the late nineteenth century?