Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #62)

I have quite a few of Berman recordings on this label. While the SQ may not be first-rate, the performances were significant for historical reasons ...

 

I have dozens of Epic Stereorama LPs,but that is definitely one I never saw before.

 

I just grabbed one as well, I ordered through Amazon UK.
Total of AUD $83.00 to my door !!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003Z9Q4WG/ref=ox_ya_os_product_refresh_T1

 

That's $15 cheaper than mine from Amazon UK. You must be doing something right.

 

Now listening to Schnabel play D899. #2 was played wonderfully. #3 was a bit fast for me.

This weekend I plan to listen to the rest of this set. I am surprised to see that he only recorded 3 of the sonatas, D850, D959 and D960.

 

Huh ? ........ weird.
I just let it do it's thing at the check-out ?

 

Yeah it's weird. I just ordered the Horowitz Original Jacket Box from Amazon UK. Listed at £93. But at the checkout it went for £77. So it's cost me $152 after postage. Strange.

 

Yeah, it always seems to drop (sometimes quite considerably) between the list price and the checkout, I just presume it involves the VAT and stuff.
As long as the dollars come off hey !

 

The same Horowitz box would cost me $300 from Amazon US! So it's worth comparing Amazons in different countries.

 

Not as surprising as you might think when you consider that the works were definitely exotica at the time. In other words, the surprise is not so much that he recorded so few as that he recorded any at all. A quick check of WERM reveals the following statistics for recordings during the 78 era (the ordinal nos. are as given in WERM; not sure how they stack up today):

Sonatas 1-3 not recorded
4 in a, op. 164 (D 537): 1 recording, Kathleen Long
5 in e not recorded
6 in E-Flat op. 122 (D 568) 1 recording, Kathleen Long
7-12 not recorded
13 in A op. 120 (D 664) 3 recordings, A. Ferber, Robert Casadesus, Myra Hess [the Casadesus is a late set]
14 in a op. 143 (D 784) 2 recordings, Lili Kraus, J. Hunt [Hunt's was "private (non-commercial, but on sale)"]
15 in C (D 840) 1 recording, Ray Lev, with the Krenek completion [late set on the limited ed. Concert Hall label]
16 in a op. 42 (D 845) 1 recording, Lili Kraus
17 in D op. 53 (D 850) 1 complete piano recording, Schnabel; 4 of the last mvt. in a Friedberg arr. for vln. and pno.
18 in G op. 78 (Fantasia) 3 recordings, Kurt Appelbaum, L. Pouishnoff, F.J. Hirt; 6 of last mvt. only [only Pouishnoff was on a major label]
19 in c (D 958) 1 recording, Webster Aitken [for a tiny label]
20 in A (D 959) 1 recording, Schnabel
21 in B-Flat (D 960) 2 recordings, Schnabel and Ernst Victor Wolff

So Schnabel recorded more of the stas. than anyone else. Also, unless I'm much mistaken, one of those Lili Kraus sets is post-WW II, and some of the others (Ferber, Hirt, Appelbaum, and others noted above) were on extremely minor to vanishingly obscure labels, probably on the market only briefly in the larger cities.

 

If you order from Amazon outside the EU the VAT is removed and shipping cost added. That is the price you see at checkout.

 

For me it has always been: both VAT and shipping costs added...

 

Now playing



Besides Tacet's Die Röhre-The Tube, that's my other "hifi record". Actually, sounds quite nice (though the point is of course the surround sound as the cover is advertising). Amazon claims it's been released in 2013, though the right year is 2003 (I've had it for around 10 years so I had to check the year). Hifi-wise Die Röhre-The Tube is a clear winner, but here the Auryn Q gives acceptable recordings of the majority of the best French string quartets.

 

Lucky you! Exact opposite of mr. Alvar Aalto's halls...

 

That's because Finland is a EU member. These rules apply:
- For customers within the EU all EU Amazon stores charge VAT at the rate of the addressee's country at checkout.
- For customers outside the EU all EU Amazon stores deduct VAT at checkout.

 

Actually, now when I think about it it is weirder than that.
Yes, so inside the EU the VAT and shipping is added.
Outside the EU there is no VAT added, but of course there is shipping. However, there is an extra amount deducted from the initial price (about 10-15% or so). So far this only happens with CDs and DVDs when I shop (not with other things such as books). Must be some special tax linked to media of that type? Does anybody know why this extra deduction only applies to CDs/DVDs?

 

In most cases in Europe the sales price you see already includes the VAT. So I think what happens is that once you tell the e-vendor that shipment is to a non-EU country the purchase price is reduced by VAT. The one exception I can think of is MDT which adjusts the purchase price on screen (assuming that it knows who you are). Maybe Presto Classical does this as well.

 

Using Spotify this morning to find some unfamiliar 19th century chamber music. Came across a recording of the Quartetto Italiano performing two quartets by Busoni. Now listening to violin sonatas by Faure on Naxos by Kang and Devoyon. (Couldn't find Collard's recording of these works.)

 

Has MOT followed the footsteps of Ward Marston, i.e. started his own label?

 

No, that CD set is on Music and Arts.

 

All prices on Amazon U.K. include U.K. VAT at currently 20% for CDs. When a CD is ordered by someone within the EU VAT is adjusted to the percentage of the addressee's country; for instance, I'm in the Netherlands and for me the percentage would be adjusted to 21%, the current VAT rate for CDs in my country.

When someone outside the EU orders a CD from Amazon U.K. the price will be divided by a factor of 1.2; for instance, a CD priced at £9 including 20% U.K. VAT will cost a customer outside the EU £7.50.

 

This is the first time I have noticed the name of the reconstruction/remastering engineer being displayed so prominently on the CD cover.

 

Me too. Just goes to show you how good the man's work is and how well Music and Arts knew their audience. Now if they'd just have the sense to use him more and Maggie Payne less. What I have heard of her work has been awful.

 

Thanks for the thorough explanation, J.A.W.!