First listen to "Mahler - Symphony No. 4" performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Fritz Reiner on RCA. Featuring Lisa Della Casa. I purchased this in 2010 but it got lost on the shelves until today.
I've been streaming British (am I using the right word?) detective shows for a while now. Most recently "No Offence." I can only make out half the dialogue.
Currently I haven't got SACD playback for my stereo system. My Blu-Ray SACD-capable players are in the other room in the home theater system. One day I'll get around to setting something up. Speaking of box sets, I recently looked up the Reiner box set - OOP and forget about it.
No HT for me and even less likely now that I am formally retired, i.e. started Medicare this month ...
These Sony boxes are going OOP way too soon. They should keep 'em in print much longer - if only to teach those private sellers with their insane prices a lesson
I remember the following Karajan Symphony Edition box went up to $300 or higher a few years after it was initially released in 2009 when I bought it on Amazon UK. For a while, it looked like it was OOP, then DG decided to re-release the box and now it no longer has an insane price ... OTOH, the asking price for the following Sony Giulini's box is over $300 when I paid under $40 a few years ago cuz it is OOP Japanese company and German company just do things differently ...
Chopin is still not a favourite of mine, though I like his work better than before. That said, I love the Préludes, Op.28. Both Lhévinne and Rosenthal are great pianists from the so-called "Golden Age of Pianists".
Now playing CD25 - Beethoven Piano Sonatas Nos Nos 30 - 32 from the following box for a first listen ...
Not me. I studied French, Latin & Italian formally & didn't learn any of them. Of course I retain some words & phrases, as well as picking up a little German, but I'm basically monolingual.
First listen to CD 78 from "Claudio Arrau - Complete Philips Recordings" on Decca. Chopin - Scherzos 1-4 / Ballades 1-4
Not sure when this was issued, but there is no doubt of the original list price. Recorded 5/52, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Producer: John Culshaw. Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson. First issued as London LL 358 (10/52). Record is in good shape & sounds quite good.
I believe this is the only stereo Richmond LP I have. Recorded 3/10 & 13/59, Kingsway Hall. Producer: Christopher Raeburn. Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson. Issued 9/59, U.S. only, which is odd since Alwyn was a very well known English conductor & BBC presenter of musical programs.
I speak German and Romanian at about the same mother-tongue level. My English is pretty decent I’d say, but mostly in writing since I’ve been hanging around too much with people speaking broken English and had to dumb down my speaking so they understand me. I also speak French—not as well as the previous three, but conversant. Those are my main 4 languages. Given a few days’ time to adjust my brain, I could add Spanish or Italian to that list. I don’t really speak them, but know enough vocabulary to survive, and understand about 40-50% of it in daily situations, which is enough to get the context or even have simple conversations.
