Now enjoying this lovely disc, volume one in the 5 volume series from Naxos, transfers by Ward Marston. Man, his Moonlight Sonata 1st movement is absolutely gorgeous!
Any suggestions for classical CDs to get from CD Japan? I have ton of points expiring in a few months.
If you want sacd, stay away from the ones mastered by Mr. Sugimoto (unless you like his mastering style). Suggestion: George Szell’s SACDs from Tower Records.
So Tower Records is alive and well in Japan? It is "deader" than dead here in the US. Miss those good old days when I spent much time in the b&m stores ...
Now playing CD3 - Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos 3 & 5 by Alexis Weissenberg and the BPO from the following box for a first listen ...
I just purchased Szell/Cleveland Orchestra Beethoven Symphonies cycle SACD from CD Japan. Not 'cheap', but totally worth the money from a sonics AND performance standpoint. The Glenn Gould Bach/Well-Tempered Clavier SACD set is also superb.
This is my favorite Beethoven symphony cycle, but I will more than likely be buying the big Szell box coming out later this year. So I will think hard about this. Usually Sony uses the latest remasterings for their big boxes in which case the Szell box would more than likely be using the DSD mastering converted to CD. I can't hear the difference between hi-res and redbook in a blind test, so I'm just in it for the mastering.
Just took a listen to one of my newest acquisitions, received only yesterday: Schubert's D. 958 sonata in C Minor performed by Webster Aitken, General set MS 9 (3 12" 78 RPM disks, 6 sides). Interesting performance, much faster and more mercurial than the Wuhrer Vox account that has been my touchstone. I couldn't find a lot about Aitken in a brief Google search except that he was Canadian-born, studied with Emil von Sauer and Artur Schnabel, and was noted for having performed a complete cycle of the Schubert stas. in recital in New York in 1938. At the time, these works were basically forgotten or unknown (when asked why he didn't play any of them, Rachmaninoff supposedly replied, "Schubert wrote sonatas?"); I'm guessing my records were a byproduct of these performances. A run at a complete Schubert cycle on LP in competition with Wuhrer foundered when Aitken's sponsoring label went under. Aitken died in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1981. I know even less about the General label, except that it was one of several very small American classical labels that sprang up around that time (others included the likes of Technicord and Gamut), with distribution at most in the largest, mostly East Coast American cities, only to disappear when Japanese expansion early in World War II cut off the supply of shellac to US companies. Even the big guys, RCA and Columbia and Decca, had to resort to scrap drives to harvest old records to be ground down for reuse. I shudder to think how many copies of what today are lost records or fabulous rarities disappeared into the grinders, only to emerge at the far end of the process as "Kostelanetz and His Orchestra Play Victor Herbert Melodies."
Way back when, CD REVIEW occassionally reviewed the best available interpretations of the warhorses, and the Dutoit/Montreal won for PLANETS.
Time for me to check out this recording too ... I have a good number of versions of the Planets but not this version.
Looks like hi-res cassette may be the next big thing after the vinyl resurgence of recent years ... Toshiba Releases "High-Res" Cassette Player
I didn't want to splurge for the expensive Szell Beethoven Symphonies SACD set, but I just ordered the single SACD of the Szell Beethoven Overtures. I don't have a good recording of the Overtures so hopefully this Japanese SACD from 2016 will satisfy!
The late Kurt Masur was a good Beethoven conductor. My wife and I missed his NYE's Beethoven 9th concert with the NYPO in 1999 due to an unexpected blizzard. I was able to attend a few of his other concerts in NY. I did not like the way Masur was treated as his contract was not renewed though he kind of retired after he left NYPO ...
