Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #46)

Continued from here

Welcome!

This thread (and the 45 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, discuss classical works, classical composers, classical performers, etc.

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!

 

Now enjoying the Chopin from this set, performances that are only available here.

 

I'm starting to listen to historical recordings via MOG and potentially on Spotify. To the extent that they are streaming at 320 KBPS (standard for MOG, sometimes for Spotify if reports are correct) I should be getting sound quality equal to what is available on CD. And MOG has a number of NAXOS historical titles.

 

Cool!

The Chopin in the above set was recorded in the fifties, so it sounds great!

What helped me get into (and tolerate) historical recordings is the solo piano ones on the Naxos Historical label. I think the transfers are usually excellent and that at that time in recording history, they were better able to capture solo instruments than orchestral ones. And yes, MP3 320 (if encoded well) should sound very close to FLAC. Let me know if you find any gems!

 

Having lunch with Janis today!

 

Had an urge to hear Brahms Symphony No. 3 today. I pulled out this version by Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. I liked it fine. Engineer: Günter Hermanns. DGG 429 765-2, 1990.

 

CD = 44.1 kbs X 16 bits X 2 channels = 1411 kbps ...
so if the MP3 stream is 320 kbps total, then there a wide discrepancy compared to CD.

The question is whether there's a discernible difference under ordinary, and therefore imperfect listening conditions.

 

I'm still pondering the one replacement set for my late model HvKs...

 

Listening to some early Rubinstein again. Tonight it's these Brahms recordings from 1932 and 1936.

 

Columbia CL 921,one of a number of Ormandy LPs issued in Columbia's pop music series rather than on Columbia Masterworks.the Albeniz is from
a 2-LP set recorded Jan.-Apr. 1956;the Debussy was recorded Mar. 1951.enjoyable performances in decent mono sound.this is a promo copy.

 

these works are new to me & i've played this LP 4 times,absorbing the music,which is very enjoyable.the conductor is Louis Fremaux
& the performances are excellent.this was released in 1976 & doesn't seem to be available on CD.

 

Now enjoying some Mozart in the morning.

 

If this is in reference to my post about historic recordings, please note that recently, when I ripped Gieseking's Debussy to Apple Lossless, the kbps rate was roughly 320K, so I do not believe I am losing much.

 

I have that in the Perahia box. Listened to Perahia play Mozart sonatas over the weekend.

 

Listening to Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (Abbado/LSO via MOG) for the first time in my life. I didn't even know Mendelssohn wrote a choral symphony.

 

Another first listen: Strauss' Oboe Concerto - Nilsson/Jarvi via MOG - thanks Robin

 

Yesterday's absurd vinyl haul—$9 for 20 LPs, mostly Musical Heritage society, all mint. Ton Koopman's Brandenburgs are in there, along with Marie Claire Alain's Bach on organ. Pressing quality is consistently good, haven't had the time to plow through them all but so far, so good.

 

Get Sanderling/Dresden.

 

I have the Gieseking/Debussy on SACD, have owned the [inferior] CD reissues on EMI as well as the surprisingly good LPs, vintage. I don't know what those 320k rips sound like, but if they're anything like the CD reissues, they aren't worth it, sorry.

 

I ripped the CD layer from the SACD. I've gotten similar results in kbps for most of the historical recordings I own. My point is that from a musical information point of view, 320 kbps is enough to capture a historical recording with minimal (if any) loss in quality as compared with the original (or a lossless) rip. Indeed for piano, even modern recordings generally compress to less than 500K using Apple lossless.

 

I'm sure that's true for you, it might be true for me as well. I'm certain that a number of LPs I own have less resolution then would be provided by 320kbps. However, the 1950's Gieseking recordings have long been personal favorites and seem to have perpetually lacked ideal transfers. I haven't played the redbook layer of the Debussy SACDs but found the SACD playback to be nearly equal to my best vintage LPs as regards tone color and superior as regards speed stability. I found two of the earlier EMI CD transfers to be actively bad, with washed out tone color. Have to say I can hear differences between good redbook transfers and good LPs that favor the LPs and that, so far, my needledrops lack all the goodness of the best of the LP sources. And there's no doubt that my LP spinner is better than my digital playback gear. Standard 16 bit implementation eats up bandwidth with no real audio advantages that I can detect My issue in the case of the Gieseking reissues would be the quality of the mastering more than the particular format the in which the recordings are reissued

 

Robin, have you heard Gieseking's pre war Debussy? The best CD transfer is in the Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century series.

 

So we are on thread #45 ...

 

Now enjoying another early Rubinstein gem, maybe my favorite volume from this series yet. Performances are from 1940-46.

 

Just took a look. In Apple lossless, the tracks from my old Gieseking/Debussy Preludes disc ripped at 232-311 kbps; the CD layers of the 4 SACDs ripped at 338-414 kbps . As a comparison, Michelangeli's Preludes ripped at 376-537 kbps. Overall however, there are more modern piano recordings at over 500 kbps (maybe half) than I recalled.