...so here's the other new composer I've been into (along with Shostakovich) for the past few months that I mentioned in yesterday's post. I'm also proud to say - if I may - that I went against almost every review of this set - both on amazon and ''official'' reviews. Nearly every review complained - some quite vehemently - about the sound quality of this set. The performances were never an issue, just the reverberant recording. After having listened to as many samples as I could, I arrived at the following conclusion: the Collar version on EMI had a thin and bright violin tone - either due to the original recording or the remastering. The Éric Le Sage version, while blessed with a modern recording, was way too dynamic; instead of listening to dreamy chamber music, I felt like I was listening to a Mahler symphony with the widest dynamics possible (think Chailly here). The reverb in the Capuçon version is ideal, in my opinion. These are dreamy and distant-sounding works, best served by this type of sound - kind of like a slightly diffused image used in a film to portray a dream sequence. Anyway, this and the Shostakovich have seen a lot of spins. I'm glad to have these on cds and not on vinyl (did I really say that?)
I don't have a lot by Rattle. Here is one I got last month. I would say the performances & sound are good without being outstanding. The calm 'Apollo' is presented first. Recorded 12/87 & 4/88, Arts Centre, Warwick. Producer: David R. Murray. Engineer: Michael Sheady. Like all EMI classical CDs from that era, they tell you that monitoring used B&W loudspeakers, which also happens to be what I used for playback. This is another Record Club CD, produced under license by BMG.
Now streaming on Spotify, "Palestrina: Vergine Belle - Motets & Madrigals" performed by Akademia directed by Francoise Lasserre on Disques Pierre Verany.
The reason I posted this Django Reinhardt album is that after I bought it I noticed that there are 2 tracks on here that are from JS Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins — Stephen Grappelly and Eddie South are the violinists with Django accompanying them and taking brief solos. Very cool.
On Spotify, first listen to "Handel - Rodelinda" on Archiv. Alan Curtis Conductor - (Il) Complesso Barocco Sonia Prina (soprano) Eduige Vito Priante (bass) Garibaldo Simone Kermes (soprano) Rodelinda Steve Davislim (tenor) Grimoaldo Marie-Nicole Lemieux (alto) Unulfo Mariana Mijanovic (alto) Bertarido
1200 pages coopmv, hardback cover. And this is the condensed 'college' version ! The original 5 book edition ran to over 4000 pages ! bluemoose appears to have given it a thumbs up, so I look forward to my future educational studies
Interesting May pick up the Beethoven from this series - cheap as chips on Amazon. Recently bought these Beethoven books (yes, I am a Ludwig fanboy…..) : I already have the Lewis Lockwood Beethoven book.
I really like Domus for the piano and strings works. They’re my imprint version though so there may some bias in that opinion.
Yes, the bonus is strange. The Capriccio Espagnol is on another CD as well with Cleveland and Maazel in the same box.
I guess because it's the same conductor and orchestra, and I like Capriccio Espagnol, but in this case it killed the mood after listening to Bloch's introspective music. Of course I can always push "Stop".
I have owned this recording for a while. The late Alan Curtis was one of the best in baroque operas ...
I have most if not all the recorded Handel operas in my collection. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find time to listen to them often due to the lengths of the works ...
Not sure what you have, but it sounds like a later CBS repress that slipped by the QC dept. It was originally released in 1964. My copy, which is a 2-eye gray label "Columbia Masterworks," was pressed around 1970. The deadwax matrix markings (read from the spindle out) are: Side 1 XXSM-77422-1H Side 2 XXSM-77423-1AE Hope this helps.
I see it has the "Yamaha Premium Piano" logo on the back, maybe this was a test CD to show how indestructible they are to banging on keys
I have the following Bach Complete Keyboard Works box and they sound great with the virtuosic Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen on the Yamaha piano. So Steinway is not the only game in town ...
Chopin: Waltzes beautifully played by Antonio Barbosa on the turntable now. This is an excellent Connoisseur Society LP from 1971. Mr. Barbosa performs on a Baldwin SD-10 concert grand. A personal side note: As 2018 is the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite films --Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (an early influence that helped launch my personal odyssey into classical music) -- I thought some here might find it interesting to note that the Chopin Waltzes were actually part of the filmmaking process. In the sequence where astronaut Frank Poole (actor Gary Lockwood) jogs and shadow boxes around the spaceship's centrifuge interior, the movie soundtrack is playing the Adagio from Khachaturian's Gayne Ballet Suite... a haunting, somber piece conveying the loneliness of space. However, when Kubrick was filming that sequence (over many takes), he always cued up a recording of Chopin's Waltzes that Lockwood could hear over speakers inside the centrifuge, providing the pace and rhythm for his jogging and boxing! I don't know which LP or which waltz(es), but Kubrick was cueing up a record-- not a tape.
