Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #57)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Jul 1, 2014.

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  1. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Guillaume Dufay: Music of Burgundy. Beckett, Musica Reservata, Philips.

    Jantina Noorman's voice has a plaintive quality suited to these songs.

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  2. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    I worked as a rackjobber in the mid-seventies, so I witnessed the market's transition from 8-track to cassette. Seeing the quality cassettes pictured here is kind of a revelation to me, as none of the big-box accounts I serviced in those days had any need for classical music in any format. In my experience, cassettes were seen as a more reliable mobile format, not as a deliverer of quality audio in the home. For close to 30 years, the LP was the only practical format for quality. Some of my more well-heeled audiophile friends were playing some reel-to-reel, and they sounded mighty fine. But they were expensive and selection was limited.
     
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  3. alankin1

    alankin1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philly
    Now playing:
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    — Piano Concerto No.5 Op.73 "Emperor" — Vienna Symphony Orchestra — Zubin Mehta
    — Choral Fantasy Op.80 — Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Lehrergesangverein — Wilfried Boettcher
    Alfred Brendel
    , piano (Brilliant Classics — Vox)

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  4. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    :righton:
     
  5. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Dowland - A Pilgrimes Solace 1612" performed by The Consort Of Musicke on L'Oiseau-Lyre.

    (The lovely and talented) Emma Kirkby - soprano
    Glenda Simpson - soprano
    John York Skinner - countertenor
    Martyn Hill - tenor
    David Thomas - bass

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  6. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Time Stands Still - Lute songs on the theme of mutability and metamorphosis by John Dowland and his contemporaries" performed by Emma Kirkby and Anthony Rooley on Hyperion.

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  7. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier" performed by Wanda Landowska on RCA (A "New Orthophonic" High Fidelity Recording!)

    No documentation with this 6-disc vinyl re-issue, but think I read somewhere that this wasn't recorded on your everyday harpsichord but on a harpsichord-ish instrument that she had built for her by Pleyel. Can't find a link for this at the moment; anybody know more? Thanks

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  8. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Hummel - Piano Sonatas Op. 81 & Op. 106" performed by Malcolm Binns on L'Oiseau-Lyre.

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    Joe071 likes this.
  9. I've been going through this one again, from start to finish. Really a beautiful set and so well put together, from the packaging to the recordings. While not an "audiophile" set, it makes up for it in performance. The period feel is the main draw.

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    Say, listen, I'm going to the experts. Claude Debussy - I'm looking for audiophile recordings. I'm sure there's not a one-stop-shop for all of his works (one could only dream), but what in your collective opinions would be the cream of the crop for the best recordings that just scream "audiophile?"
     
  10. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Oh yeah, it was awful and justifies all of Sir Thomas Beecham's rude comments as regards the harpsichord. The biggest single difference is a metal harp instead of wood. Much louder but much more metallic. And Landowska was more of a piano player than a harpsichord player, attacking chords whole instead of rolling them, as harpsichordists were instructed to do in the time of Couperin and Lully. It should be noted that Wanda Landowska paved the way for all harpsichordists that followed. I have owned these recordings several times but don't feel the need to return to them. Right now Davitt Moroney on Harmonia Mundi is my favorite among harpsichord recordings of the WTC. I am not at all adverse to piano renditions of Bach's polyphonic keyboard colossus.

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    The most successful Landowska recordings, to these ears, are her wartime series of Scarlatti, a composer active when the fortepiano first appeared. It had been reissued numerous times on various EMI marquees.

    The link offers a history and thorough description of the Pleyel:

    http://www.harpsichord.org.uk/EH/Vol2/No5/pleyel.pdf
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2014
  11. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Start with Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Boston Symphony Orchestra, RCA "Living Stereo" SACDs of 'La Mer" and another with "Images", you will doubtless find the couplings agreeable as well.

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  12. Oh cool! Right on! Saint-Saens #3 scratches another itch.
     
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  13. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Pretty much, the entire "Living Stereo" SACD series is worthwhile—master tapes range from awesome to indifferent but tape to digits transfer is exemplary for the entire series. If you think you want it, you probably should get it. As the bulk are easily obtainable I suggest getting them while they are still being manufactured. Have to say as regards audio qua audio that the Munch/BSO recording of "Images" is a favorite.
     
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  14. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Very true, they did a great job. To my ears the series is musically more variable, though. I have most of the Reiner SACDs - even though I also have the big Reiner box - and they are excellent, and so are the others I have.
     
  15. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    ... In some of which antiaircraft fire is audible in the background; she was recording them in Paris during the German invasion.
     
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  16. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Bach - Suites Nos. 1 And 4" performed by the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard on Philips.

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  17. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Used prerecorded cassettes tend to be a dicey proposition in my experience. You never know when one has been played on a machine with magnetized heads (bye, bye high frequencies) or one one that chews tapes or whether it was recorded on stock prone to dropouts. And of course if your cassette player is out of calibration (a high probability if the machine hasn't been recently serviced and has much age on it, as nearly all do), the pitch will be off and the Dolby circuit will shave off too much high end (for whatever reason, Dolby error in my experience nearly always skews in the direction of too much "trim"). God help you if the cassette was in Dolby C! The most common problem I've had is old cassettes shedding their pressure pads, perhaps not so much of an issue with higher-end dual-capstan Nakamichi decks, which were designed not to engage the pressure pad to begin with, but enough to render the tape useless on pretty much anything less exalted. Yes, you can do surgery to glue the little pad back on or to cannibalize another cassette and swap in its pressure pad/spring assembly, but let's be honest: do you really want to take that kind of effort for an elderly 25-cent example of a format that usually offered less than top rank sound to begin with?

    Believe it or not, the Penguin People seriously pushed cassette as a preferable format to LP. I always thought they were :crazy: that way, but then, for me that assessment wasn't necessarily limited to their opinions about formats ;).
     
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  18. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Mozart - Sonate en la mineur K 310 & Fantaisie en re mineur K 397/Schubert - Wanderer-Fantasie" performed by Brigitte Engerer on DDF Recordings.

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  19. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Schubert - Lieder" performed by Lucia Popp accompanied by Irwin Gage on EMI.

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  20. Soulpope

    Soulpope Common one

    Location:
    Vienna, Austria
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    Therof the Mozart recodings....
     
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  21. Soulpope

    Soulpope Common one

    Location:
    Vienna, Austria
    NP :

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  22. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, "Brahms - Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 100" performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter and Alexis Weissenberg on EMI.

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  23. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Now on the turntable, Side 3 from "Ravel - The Complete Songs" on EMI.

    Teresa Berganza
    Felicity Lott
    Mady Mesple
    Jessye Norman
    Gabriel Bacquier
    Jose Van Dam
    Dalton Baldwin
    Michel Debost
    Renaud Fontanarosa
    Orchestra of the Capitole de Toulouse
    Chamber Ensemble from the Orchestre de Paris
    Michel Plasson

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  24. Soulpope

    Soulpope Common one

    Location:
    Vienna, Austria
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    Suprisingly Vinyl only (I believe there was a japanese limited Edition CD, otherwise only extracts of subject LP saw the light of day via CD)......fabulous angel-like singing by Ms. Popp....
     
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  25. Hey, I just saw that one can get both of these off of HD Tracks in 24/88. I've yet to purchase anything from HD Tracks. What do you think; make the leap?
     
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