Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #68)

Now: Schubert: Duos for Piano and Violin: Fantaisie, D934; Sonata, D574; Rondo brillant, D895 - Alexander Melnikov and Isabelle Faust - Harmonia Mundi France

 

How's that? I mean, when you wrote about another Faust & Melnikov record, you noticed that "there's a sharp edge to the violin and piano at times, in forte passages." I put then this Sonata D.574 record on but couldn't notice any serious issues with it. (On computer though, but with external dac & o.k. good headphones at the moment.)

 

You're talking about different recordings, the one I mentioned earlier and the one above, and I'm listening via my Naim CD5 XS CD-player including DAC, Naim Nait XS2 amp and a pair of KEF LS50 monitor speakers while you are using your computer, an external DAC and headphones, which makes comparing difficult. However, some Harmonia Mundi France chamber music and instrumental recordings of recent years have a tendency to be a bit harsh in forte passages. The one above sounds better in that respect than the one mentioned earlier, though.

 

I ordered it on the 3rd and they're waiting for stock.

 

It was a great price so probably a lot of people went for it. Hope they restock soon.

 

Now: Dvořák: Piano Trio 4, Op.90 - Alexander Melnikov, Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras - Harmonia Mundi France

 

I have just downloaded from Linn: Ingrid Fliter in 24/192 and am playing it back through my Yamaha MG16/XU that has 24/192 usb IO dacs. I am playing the files through Sony Sound-Forge that handles up to 24/192. It is my first listen to 24/192 and in this recording the piano sounds the best I have heard a piano and I have a number of SACDs and 4 players, but none of them what you might consider high-end: 3 Sony DVP/NS-755's and one Yamaha S-1800. I bought my first Sony new years ago and really enjoyed it for all my disc spinning and then bought the other 2 Sony's used off EBay for under $40 each and they work perfectly. I do like the Yamaha as it plays SACDs and DVD-As. The Sony's will play all of my 2496 burned DVD-Rs that I make with Cirlinca software. Yamaha doesn't say who their 24/192 chip-set is from, but I would say it sounds very good, as good as I've heard. It may be that Yamaha's little MG10/XU that only has 4 mic pre-amps, but does include Lexicon reverbs and the same 24/192 usb chip set, just might be a great buy at $199 for a computer IO device. I like my big Yamaha mixer.

I have become such a fan of 2496 and the fact that I cannot burn the 24/192 files to DVD-R is a big drawback to me, but the 2496 files sound so good that 24/192 is just there. They are both very close in quality, at least to my old ears. It if often hard to go back to redbook unless it is very well done. I would say that the presentation of pianos on SACDs is slightly softer in the high end, but still excellent. Piano's and violins do have a little edge to them naturally. Not everything needs to be "soft-focus".

The Linn downloads are highly recommended and a great value considering the high prices of 180 gram vinyl these days. I for one am not paying $40-$80 for new vinyl, virgin or not. The Linn prices are way below that.

 

Oops, that should be Piano Trio 3, Op.65, of course. Their recording of Piano Trio 4, Op.90 is coupled with the Dvořák Cello Concerto.

 

Now: Schumann: Violin Sonatas: 1, Op.105; 2, Op.121; 3, Op.posth. - Isabelle Faust with Silke Avenhaus – CPO (recorded in 1999)

 

I also think that some of those recordings may have been made with the microphones too close to the instruments.

 

Today, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, the Toccatas (which are spread across 2 CDs for some reason), and The Art of Fugue. That's a lot of counterpoint in one day! Exemplary playing and sound.

 

This 5CD-set with Claudio Arrau's 1969-1976 Liszt solo recordings for Philips arrived from Italy within 2 days (!) - haven't listened to any of it yet:



It cost me 22 euros plus change, including shipping.

 

My 78 RPM recordings are the Naxos History Recordings CD's ...

 

As a cat lover, it's worth it for the cover alone, not to mention magical playing!

 

The reason I posted it was the fact that it took only 2 days to arrive from Italy. Usually packages from or to that country take a lot longer, if they arrive at all... Fortunately, the seller used a private carrier, not the Italian postal service.

 

A package from Italy to the Netherlands actually travels shorter distance than a package shipped from CA to CT, though I have never received a package from CA in two days ...

 

The Italian postal service has a bad reputation; it takes ages for packages to arrive even over the shortest distances and sometimes they disappear without trace... I've had a few very bad experiences with packages I sent to Italy; never again.

 

I have news for you. The USPS is not much better than the Italian postal service ...

 

Now playing CD40 - Schubert Mass in A by Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Chorus Viennensis and Bruno Weil - not expecting much since I do not know anything about Bruno Weil, from the following box for a first listen ...

 

I really wish there was more Celibidache on vinyl.

 

I listened to a very interesting album earlier today, Flutention: Flowersongs. It's an album of music for 3 flutes. I liked it a lot.

 

Now playing CD1 from the following twofer (my 78 RPM recording ) from my JS Bach collection ...

 

Nice table! Much more so than the first couple with which I started, and it's great you're thinking of starting with 78s--welcome to the club. How wide a range around 78 RPM does it cover? If you want to explore acoustic recordings (those made before 1925 by the horn-and-diaphragm method), as a practical matter you want it to run at least from 75 to a bit over 80. That won't get you everything, but it will cover the most common speeds (for example, many Victor masters were done at 75; Columbia nominally ran at 80, as did paper label Pathe; the etched label Pathes ran closer to 90). If you plan to stick to electric recordings, speed range isn't much of an issue, as those pretty quickly standardized at 78.

 

And here's my copy (34 disks):