Some belated listening

[eschiss1]

Thanks to Naxos Music Library and the related iPhone app, I finally got around to hearing recently some operas and oratorios which were reviewed here a year or more ago - the somewhat recent "Columbus" by Herzogenberg (rather good, even very enjoyable, on a first listen, not sure whether I'd spend USD19 next I can to add the mp3s to my collection for repeated listening) ; a one-act Rimsky opera (Kastchei the Immortal) very striking and confirming me in my desire to continue exploring his output; ... also heard Mozart's Clemenza for possibly the first time, incidentally--

but best of all recently (to me, not in release schedule), Spohr's "Der Alchymist" on Orfeo, issued way back in 2011, a work given a lukewarm review in Brown's Spohr biography, but to my ears really quite a delight. (It may have helped that I was able to spread each of them out over several days rather than forcing myself to find a 2-odd hour segment of time I had free to listen to the longer ones in.)

Apologies for not breaking these up into separate posts- which I can delete/edit/redo - but the Spohr definitely I was happily impressed by (not surprised, since I enjoy so much of his music - his  chamber music especially, but impressed; it just seemed that he brought his best and not his worst to the task, always a good thing to be able to say.)