Really freakish weather in the UK at the moment! I actually woke up last night as the wind was roaring through the trees around our block with such force. Not heard anything like it in the 25 years we have been here! This would be a non-event in parts of the US of course but it certainly grabbed my attention!
Storms as reported here in Staffordshire with the Black Country Flood Alerts and power cuts as Storm Eleanor hits North Staffordshire Storm Eleanor hits West Midlands: 300 homes without power, trees uprooted and blocked roads during disruption
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, let by Michael Tilson Thomas. Recorded at EMI Studio One, Abbey Road, London, 1982.
Now streaming on Amazon, a first listen to "Ministriles Reales" performed by Hesperion XX & Hesperion XXI led by Jordi Savall on AliaVox.
This is the first I have heard about this story. Amazing. Karajan had long opposed having women in his orchestra but he wanted to hire her for the BPO whilst the orchestra didn't! Only the year before did the BPO hire their first woman for the orchestra in 1982. Thankfully times have changed! KARAJAN AND ORCHESTRA CLASH OVER CLARINETIST
Great stuff. This reminds me I have booked for some lovely looking concerts this year. I'm pleased I booked a long time ago for the now sold-out Argerich, Jansen & Maisky Trio at the Barbican on Feb 6. They are playing Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 in E minor and Tchaikovsky Trio in A minor. Should be heavenly ...
What a strange cover picture. I listened to the new Schumann set from Tilson Thomas and found it dead boring. No tension at all, it sounded like a stroll on a sunday afternoon. And that is not what Schumann is about!
Well, this new arrival was a huge disappointment! Despite being billed as "sealed," it's an obvious re-seal and it has clearly been played! Side one has some scrapes, a fingerprint, and residue from a previous cleaning. Side two has many ticks/pops. Plus, the Stravinsky has decidedly inferior sound compared to the Ravel: compressed and boxy. Weissenberg's playing is commanding, as always, but not enough to compensate for the sonic issues! Back it goes to the Amazon seller.
Anyone who has any experience with vinyl knows what a factory sealed LP looks like--the plastic is much tighter for one thing.
Not easy to change tradition. It had taken years before women were allowed to perform in Bach choral works. For a very long time, only men and boys were allowed to sing in those works ...
Sibelius: Lemminkainen Suite, Luonnotar, The Bard Scottish National Orch. Sir Alexander Gibson 1978/2004 Chandos CHAN 6586 End of analogue era recording but what recordings, atmospheric and well played.
The utility company has already made robo call warning of potential power outage caused by the strong wind from the snowstorm that is moving into the northeast starting midnight ...
CD from the third Living Presence box. Originally released by Philips, a joint recording effort with Mercury. Disc 1-Sonatas 1, 2 & 3.
I only bought one used classical record sight-unseen from a trusted Japanese seller on eBay. All of my other used classical vinyl was visually inspected by me in a store before purchasing.
Now streaming on Amazon, "In the Midst of Life - Music from the Baldwin Partbooks II" performed by Contrapunctus led by Owen Rees on Signum.
I waited one month for this LP to arrive from Russia—it was worth it! Beautiful, bold playing with sound to match. Nearly silent surfaces, too.
I'm getting close to that! The main problem is new or audiophile remastered LPs are getting very expensive. For a while, when my renewed interest in vinyl was at its peak, I was buying LPs just to have the music in that format. Now, I plan to buy them mainly if they are the only version of the music that I want, such as the Bach shown above.