Hi andolink. I was certainly wasn't thinking of you when I posted that. I didn't have anyone in mind in particular; it was more of a general plea for more conversation and to encourage people to share more of their opinions on the music they like (or don't like). You've definitely made me very curious of the type of classical that you listen to and I warmly encourage you to tell us more about it. I admit I haven't listened to that much 20th Century Classical yet, but every time I did I mainly liked it. So I would appreciate some pointers. However, some 20th Century pieces were my gateway drugs into classical: Arvo Pärt, John Adams, Steve Reich, you know, "mainstreamy" stuff.
Now playing CD4 - works by Josquin Desprez and Nicolas Gombert from the following box for a first listen ...
Thank you for this! We love many of the shows you recommended - Midsomer Murders, Morse (and the spin-offs), and Lost and Mad Men but we haven’t seen The Five. We really enjoy Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Dr. Blake, even Murdoch Mysteries which can be a little corny. We will check out The Five, thanks again! P.S. Mozart in the Jungle is Amazon only. I think you can try Prime for free for 30 days. If you do, check out The Man in the High Castle - also very good.
Now on the turntable, first listen to "Menotti - The Unicorn, The Gorgon And The Manticore" performed by The New York City Ballet led by Thomas Schippers on Angel.
Haha, a good point. Yeah, a modern day TT/record would have been better. Maybe they wanted to establish its historical origins? (Or, perhaps they just didn't know better?)
It’s hard to believe that this recording was made in 1964–sounds superb. (Not to mention I scored a mint copy for $1.98!)
So I was listening on Youtube to Beethoven's Fifth conducted by Arthur Nikisch, recorded in 1913 with the Berlin Philharmonic for (Deutsche) Grammophon/His Master's Voice (when they were still the same company). This is one of the first complete recordings of a symphony, recorded using the primitive acoustical process (recording into a horn), during a time when records didn't really were suited for classical music, with short running times and bad sound, which wouldn't be better until more than 10 years later when the electrical process was introduced. You know the story. So the recording. Oh boy, oh boy, where do I start? I really like the conducting—nice tempo choices, good orchestral dynamics (although you can kind of hear this was a smaller version of the orchestra, most certainly due to acoustical contraints at the time). But the orchestra? Absolutely. Terrible. I mean, come on, some of the guys could have mercifully tuned their instruments. Then there's the general slopiness of the playing. Some of the era's mannierisms I like, like the portamenti for example (joining notes by a sort of glissando) which later became unfashionable. But never anyone say that this was a "golden era" of some sort. I think orchestras became much better later on, and recording probably had something to do with it because players could finally listen to themselves and learn from their mistakes.
I've been all the way through the Beethoven Masterworks box and don't remember thinking any are duds. This set of Cello Sonatas certainly isn't. The entire box is consistently excellent IMO. I only duplicated 1 disc when I bought box this 2 years ago. I already had Symphonies 5/7 by Kleiber/Vienna. I don't mind having a spare copy of that one.
Orchestral playing didn't get much better until the mid-20th Century in my opinion, and even then there were still orchestras whose sloppiness was an attack on one's enjoyment of the music - though some may not agree on that last point. When the playing got better orchestras lost a bit of their "soul" according to some people. Same with soloists, some people prefer pianists and violinists from a long gone era, compared to younger generations who are often technically better but sometimes lack depth and/or emotion. I know, this is a simplified picture, but I think there's some truth in it - though I do like some "modern" soloists and dislike some of the older ones myself. [edited to correct an error, I erroneously quoted a post of mine that had nothing to do with crispi's post.]
Now playing CD6 Sonata op. 49 No. 2, op. 53 "Waldstein", op. 54 op. 57 "Appassionata" op. 78 from the following box from my Beethoven collection for a second listen ...
But Gary! My Gort! Wugged and Bachtoven did kiss and make up right here on the thread. (You know what I mean, guys.) Any possible misunderstanding was resolved before your post, I think.
I have the Franck, Chopin and Debussy and at this point can live without the Mozart and Beethoven although I'm sure it's good. The sound on the cds is very good but not surprising as their vinyl is equally good. This may be old news to you more experienced fans but it's something I've noticed in my more recent purchases of classical music. Back in the 70s when I dabbled in classical Supraphone wasn't on my radar at all. Neither was Ivan Moravec.
Yeah, all those former eastern bloc labels were little known in the US back in the day, including the Russian labels Olympia and Melodiya ... I have never owned any vinyl by these labels but heard they were uniformly poor, on par with the likes of RCA and Columbia and perhaps worse. Back in the day, I only bought Western European pressed LP's.
The Supraphone lps I own sound very good. I can't speak of the other labels and my records aren't old (1980s/1990s) so I don't know if that has any bearing on the matter.
