Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #59)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Aug 15, 2014.

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  1. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Continued from here.

    Welcome!

    This thread (and the 58 that have preceded it) is for all things that relate to Classical Music. Feel free to post what you're listening to, recordings you recommend, recent classical purchases, classical concerts, classical works, classical composers or classical performers.

    Please discuss audio hardware and music formats in threads dedicated to those topics.

    Beginners are especially welcome. Feel free to post any questions that you may have about classical music and/or classical recordings. This includes requests for recommendations for recordings of particular works/composers, etc. We have lots of friendly, respectful and knowledgeable members who will be glad to help you out.

    And as always, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of the regulars (you know who you are) that continue to make this thread an enjoyable, civilized and informative experience! You guys are still the best!

    :wave:
     
  2. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Thanks. Still, that pales in comparison to the forest of mics in most of today's recordings.
     
  3. dale 88

    dale 88 Errand Boy for Rhythm

    Location:
    west of sun valley
    This is a 2005 reissue of the 1983 & 1979 recordings of Prokofiev's complete Cinderella plus the Classical Symphony. It came recommended, but I am not sure this will be my favorite version until I hear some other recordings of the complete ballet.
    Andre Previn
    London Symphony Orchestra
    EMI, 2005
    2 CDs
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Dear George,

    Not knowing your tastes very well, I could only give arbitrary advice. On top of it I only have the Chilingirian on vinyl and have never heard the CD so I can't even assess the relative digital sonics between them and the Doric. Also the Chilingirian only recorded 1 and 3. #2 is a bit more Viennese gemutlich musically and if you really like that style then only the Doric will do.

    However, if your additional questions are prompted by some dissatisfaction with the Doric Qt samples then I would just bite the bullet and get the Chiligirian. Otherwise I don't think it is a big deal either way.
     
  5. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Arggh! I waited to long to register for the Beethoven sonata class at Juilliard, and it was full. So I registered for a class on the romantic symphony. I don't know anything about the teacher. Fingers crossed.
     
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  6. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Thanks again.
     
  7. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I do not have this particular twofer but enjoyed the complete Tchaikovsky Ballet box by Previn on EMI ...

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    I don't know about "Most" recordings, but the recordings I witnessed didn't involve a "Forest of microphones." More than seven but less than "a forest", more like eleven. I'm not saying that there aren't orchestra recordings that have too many spot mikes, I'm saying it's not the norm. More of that sort of thing happened in the seventies when multi-tracked/multi-miked recordings were a happening thing. Mind you, the microphones developed in the forties and fifties have a very different sound character. I have owned/used Schoeps 221b's into an Ampex MX-10 for recording classical music, the character of the sound was radically different from that of 1990's microphones and microphone preamps.
     
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  9. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    I, for one, would be most interested if you'd elaborate. If you care to and this isn't the appropriate venue, I'd be happy to follow to a new thread--just give us the cross reference.
     
  10. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Now: Franck: Symphony in D Minor - Pierre Monteux/Chicago Symphony Orchestra - RCA "Living Stereo" SACD, CD-layer

    [​IMG]
     
  11. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Do you have a link to these? They sound interesting.
     
  12. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    If the discussion gets overly subjective/judgmental in tone things could head south fast. Let me think on it. There's a discussion as regards the history of recording Classical music in there somewhere, but the history of the development of recording and its effect on sound and the performance of music would rapidly expand beyond the concerns of the CMC.

    Short version—before Rock, the standard was live acoustic music. After? Not so much. So the fine-tuning of the parameters of the gear being manufactured adjusted accordingly.
     
  13. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
  14. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Tomorrow's NYTimes has a review by Anthony Tommasini of two new issues of concert performances by famed American teachers (not as well known as performers), Leonard Shure and Howard Karp. AT admits he is "biased" in favor of Shure, as he was one of Shure's students in the late 70's at Boston University, but even adjusting for that "bias," his effusive praise for a 1960 recording of Brahms's First Piano Concerto with Bernstein is quite an endorsement.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/a...ard-shure-and-howard-karp.html?ref=music&_r=0
     
  15. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
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  16. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Understood. Thanks, and let us know if you figure out how to start a thread on the subject, not doomed to rapid escalation into World War III, elsewhere.
     
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  17. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    I'll confess that I'm not terribly familiar with Shure and not at all with Karp. I do have a couple of Shure recordings: Epic LPs, one with Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and one with Schubert's Moments Musicaux and C Minor op. posth. sta. Not sure that I've ever played either--perhaps something to do today. :idea:

    Edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot: my LP cartridge--perhaps appropriately, a Shure :D--needs remounting before I can spin any LPs--one channel way weak. :cussing: I'm pretty confident the headshell is the culprit. That's one reason I've been hewing mostly to 78s of late.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2014
  18. autodidact

    autodidact Forum Resident

    [​IMG]
    The performance is fine, but this is an early early digital recording. 14 bit PCM. The high frequencies are sort of blurry, and if you ever want to know what bad reverb decay sounds like, there isn't a lot of reverb on this CD to start with, but it trails off to a point and then disappears down a black hole once it reaches the digital event horizon. Still, all the notes are there. It just doesn't capture the detail one would wish for. I'm fairly convinced that the US LP added artificial reverb in mastering, so it wouldn't sound so weird. At least my recollection is that the LP has more reverb, whereas this is fairly dry (and foggy).
     
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  19. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    We'd love to have you, Sean!
     
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  20. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    And speaking of 78s, last night my 9-yr-old daughter, who is taking voice lessons, asked a perhaps somewhat fraught question about how boys' voices change as they get older. :help: Not entirely as a diversionary tactic, I pulled down from the shelves 78 RPM generic storage album no. 8 (I'm now well into the 300s, with most containing either 10 or, more often, 12 records), which contains in sleeve 6 a very late 78 (rec. 1949) of Boris Christoff in "Ave Signor" and "Son Lo Spirito" from Boito's Mefistofele. The former, in particular, is a terrifically vivid recording, and my word what a deep, black voice that man had. Not a mean whistler, either! Now, in sleeve 5, I have the same two arias sung by Fyodor Chaliapin, and the comparison was interesting, at least to me. Chaliapin, at least on this record, did not have the same kind of powerful, deep voice, and his recording, predating the War, is rather dim by comparison, but he had it all over Christoff in the "excitement" department--I know which devil I'd prefer to see on stage. Yet another example of how what matters is not just the natural endowment, but how the artist uses it.
     
  21. Joe071

    Joe071 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cayuga
    That should be very interesting. Have fun! :righton:
     
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  22. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing the following CD, which arrived two days ago for a first listen. Lazar Berman was one of pianists that I started to follow when I first got into classical music ...

    [​IMG]
     
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  23. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I count 10 mics for this DG piano recording! (Pierre-Laurent Aimard's new Bach CD--comes out August 19th in the US.)

    [​IMG]
     
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  24. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing the following CD from my Grieg collection for a second listen. I probably bought this CD a decade ago ... LOL

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I was lucky enough to see/hear Berman on his first US tour (and once again a few years later)--he was a force of nature! His legendary set of Liszt Transcendental Etudes just got re-issued on CD:

    [​IMG]
    The sound is awful, but his playing is jaw-dropping!
     
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