Cool! My Mama had many Archiv Produktion LPs, a bunch of works by Bach, countless cantatas etc.. I felt very fortunate to find several at the sale, I'm in the process of taking photos and then my husband has to clean them so I can file them. I wish I had my own VPI thingy so I would not have to bother him, even though he always says it's a pleasure to do that for me.
Gilels was in fine form that night--he displays staggering feats of virtuosity. The sound of the piano is very distant, almost mono, but reasonably clear, yet the applause is crisp and present. Still, the sound is serviceable and doesn't really detract from his performances. Track listing: Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata no. 21 in C Major, Op.53 "Waldstein" Frederic Chopin: Variations in B-Flat "La ci darem la mano" after Mozart Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata no. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 Claude Debussy: from Images, Book 1. Reflets dans l'eau, Hommage a Rameau, Mouvement Sergei Prokofiev: from Visions fugitives, Op. 22 Maurice Ravel: from Miroirs Alborada del gracioso Encores: Igor Stravinsky: from Trois mouvements de Petrouchka Danse russe Johann Sebastian Bach-Siloti: Prelude in E minor, BWV 855a They had to omit Chopin's Ballade No.1 since several seconds were missing. (It was on the first half of the recital.)
Well it's nice they continue to follow the same tradition in terms of production of very specific oeuvre.
Not that long ago (according to Amazon price monitoring, the second half of 2014), the complete 15 SACD box set was selling for $30. Obviously, it was a steal at that price, but used copies are still quite reasonable, at around $7 a disc. As others have said it's not the best Mahler cycle, but it's a solid one in superior quad sound. IMHO, the best intro to Mahler on regular CD is this:
The back of my CD says the recording was "Previously released as DG 2561 408", which should be a later recording than your LP.
Someone posted this video last year some time. A lunch time concert at the Concertgebou, Maria João Pires was expecting to play a different Mozart concerto than the one the orchestra started playing.
And then she went through with it--playing the unexpected concerto from memory and unprepared. Remarkable.
Just found this release in an Austin, TX Half Price Books: It's a Peters International US release of an original UK release put out by the Oxford University Press. My first Peters International record, so far as I know. Ian Partridge is probably my favorite lyric tenor, and I love these composers. For 2.99, it was a no-brainer. I haven't listened yet--just finished cleaning the lps, which were pretty dusty.
