Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

It's just a pity about sound quality. I believe the initial releases were mostly airchecks made by the BBC (and sound very good), but some subsequent releases have been from off-air recordings.

 

As I understand it Kathryn Stott has accompanied Yo-Yo Ma on many of his recordings and performances, and her website says this disc is "a way of celebrating their 30 year partnership."

 

Zehetmair is an excellent violinist. I have some Bach violin piece by him ...

 

Now listening to "Poulenc - Chamber Music" performed by Pascal Roge, Patrick Gallois, Maurice Bourgue, Michel Portal, Amaury Wallez and Andre Cazalet on London.

• Sextour pour piano, flute, hautbois, clarinette, basson et cor
• Sonate pour clarinette et piano
• Sonate pour flute et piano
• Sonate pour hautbois et piano
• Trio pour piano, hautbois et basson

 

Pascal Roge made two recordings of Erik Satie's works. They are my favorites ...

 

Now playing:
Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No.8 Op.88
— Columbia Symphony Orchestra – Bruno Walter (Sony Classical) from:

 

Now listening to "Richard Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra/Ein Heldenleben" performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Fritz Reiner on RCA.

 

A friend recently brought up this disc in an email, so I thought I'd give it a listen since it's been a while. I had forgotten what wonderful and staggeringly difficult pieces they are, as well as how fantastically Scherbakov plays them. Apparently, this disc is out of print, as it sells for $39 to $995 on Amazon! (My friend lost his copy and I researched availability for him.) While I wouldn't pay nearly $1000 for it, 71 minutes of virtuoso music, wonderfully played and recorded for $40 isn't too terrible.

 

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra? If so, Rattle's old crowd.

 

Was just looking at this new Richter set from Melodiya on Amazon. Whopper of a price. George, et al., do you have this? Like it? More or less important than DG, Decca, etc.? Cheers everybody

 

My All Music Guide to Classical just arrived; 1600 pages plus!

It's exactly what I was looking for - composer and conductor biographies and analysis of key works are the core - plus lots and lots of program notes (the sort of things that usually come as liner notes in CDs). It is ideal for all those mega boxed sets I have where the liner notes have been dispensed with. It also has detailed synopses of numerous operas. Thanks again to all here for the advice on various books. As noted earlier it has recommended recordings but is NOT a CD buyer's guide (I wasn't looking for one of those).

 

I don't have it, but George et al do and seem pretty impressed. Out of my league as far as price goes but apparently it really is a limited release and is likely to get more expensive as the restricted number of copies are sold.

 

I am fine with not having it since I am already spread pretty thin, i.e. piano works are not my only focus ...

 

Now listening to "Mozart - Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41" performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker led by Leonard Bernstein on DG.

 

Ah, nothing like quoting myself

Following hot on the heels of parcel delivery, the mailman dropped my bluray copy of Immortal Beloved in the mail just now. I haven't watched it for years but recall that Solti did a fine job with the music; while I remember the film itself not being great there were some memorable scenes. It has 20th Anniversary Edition plastered all over the box but doesn't appear to come with any Extras.

 

This is a favorite and owned by a number of folks at CMC, myself included ...

 

I'll have to give it a try. There were a number of works conducted by Bernstein in the DG 24 Hours box I listened to and I must say that while they were serviceable I wasn't impressed with his conducting. They were mostly Live recordings so maybe I need to listen to some of his studio work.

 

For Bernstein's recordings made after the mid 70's, I prefer his partnership with the VPO as the NYPO went into a steep decline after Bernstein left the orchestra ...

 

Klemperer, I think, is a titanic Brahms conductor because he searches and realizes every phrase and every sonority for its best orchestral timbre, balance and texture...not through sentimentality, but by supreme knowledge of the score and letting Brahms' orchestration truly speak for itself.

 

It's available from classicsonlinhd for $5.99 for CD quality FLAC. The link might be behind a login. It's automatically logging me in.

http://shop.classicsonlinehd.com/albums/53c8ab0c9d29c95d360014fd?type=download

 

Yes, recent CMC posts regarding it prompted me to buy it. $0.01 + shipping from Amazon MP.

 

That's no bargain for those of us who don't like downloads!

 

I have it. Just finished my first listen through the set today, actually. LOVE the set. A shame it is limited edition, because this is the best Richter set ever assembled. Why?

1. Richter preferred to play live. This whole set is live.
2. He preferred to play in Russia. This entire set was recorded in Russia.
3. Richter was at his peak in the 60s and 70s, when this set was recorded.
4. The sound is excellent, no NR and clear, solid overall sound throughout.
5. The presentation is gorgeous. (though the cases bled through a bit, unfortunately.)

I made a short unboxing video that I posted on youtube:

 

Thanks - good to know. There are most likely a few in the 65 CD VPO box that arrived the other day. I have only just peeked into it so far and sampled one CD.

 

Now listening to "Brahms/Tchaikovsky - Violin Concertos" performed by Erica Morini with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by Artur Rodzinski on Westminster.