Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #64)

I'm familiar only with the Symphony Fantastique from this set, which is a very impressive performance with stunning sonics. I think you can't go wrong with Dutoit in French repertoire.

 

Thanks Fafner! I have gained the impression that Colin Davis is the route to go with Berlioz, but I am curious about Dutoit!

 

I'll attest to the sound quality. I would expect Colin Davis to be more restrained in this music.

 

Now playing:
Franz Schubert – Symphony No.9 in C Major D944 "The Great"
— Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks — Carlo Maria Giulini (Sony Classical)

 

Colin Davis was my first "Symphony Fantastique" and I didn't get it. In fact, over the years, while I grew to appreciate it (through Davis and other recordings) I didn't get it until I heard Dorati on Mercury. Over the top, maybe, but for me that's what makes this music work.

 

Just listened to "Become Ocean" by John Luther Adams. Most impressed. Sound was quite good via Spotify.

 

First spin.

 

The liner notes go on and on about the pure tube recording gear--and that the signal never passed through transistors, not even when converted to DSD for the SACD mastering. The results are wonderful: rich, warm string tone without a hint of glare. The performances are excellent, too. This is a stereo, not a multi-channel SACD.

 

Some of Gergiev's Philips recordings (i.e. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky discs) were supposedly recorded via tube equipment, and they sound great.

 

I guess it's easier to just post the cover of this than digging out the individual releases. I have been listening to about 4 CDs worth of music from the above set. Pollini's technique is as impressive as always and his relentless drive works in a number of these works, but when more emotion or playfulness is called for, he fails miserably. Overall, a mixed bag. For a consistent set with great technique and the requisite playfulness, get Gulda's Amadeo set (also on Brilliant Classics and Decca Eloquence with the Concertos.)

 

I agree.

The earlier the recording, the better in my opinion. I didn't like the more recent ones at all.

 

Is it any good?

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/classical-music-corner-thread-64.400411/page-34#post-11632465

 

Thanks. I have more than enough versions of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas and will skip this box ...

 

So do you still consider the box by Annie Fischer the best version out there?

 

Yes. Gulda is close behind her, though.

 

I have both boxes and about a dozen of other versions. I am done with collecting Beethoven Piano Sonatas ...

I have significantly bolstered my collection of piano works since I joined CMC.

 

Yes, I have a few of those and they do sound great. It's hard to know to what degree one aspect of a recording can impact the sound since there are so many variables.

 

And then you play it on a solid state CD player.

Vinyl vs digital arguments are nothing compared to some of the tube vs solid state arguments I have been in.

 

Now listening to "Beethoven/Britten - Violin Concertos" performed by Janine Jansen with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/London Symphony Orchestra led by Paavo Jarvi on Decca.

 

Still slowly reading Allen Shawn's book about Schoenberg, and also now reading Schoenberg's own famous harmony text book (a wonderful Christmas gift), so spinning this one last night as I slowly spend some time with Schoenberg's great works. Not only an outstanding performance but another amazing, Marc Aubort recording, Joanna Nickrenz production and Robert Ludwig mastering. That team's early '70s recordings are probably my favorite sounding recordings ever.

 

Yesterday's "Difficult Listening Hour" [two hours, actually]. Note, my garage is hovering around 45° fahrenheit in the afternoon these days, auditioning the Frankenstereo is more challenging than usual. But now that I have surround I'm hearing all sorts of things I haven't before. Allen & I have discovered that the Mode Xenakis stereo CDs of Musique Concrete easily turn into surround mixes. The two flavors of faux surround that seem to work best are Dolby Pro Logic II and an Onkyo present 'Studio Mix." Xenakis Hibiki Hana Ma and Polytope de Cluny are electroacoustic works originally intended for eight-channel playback. Hibiki Hana Ma is varied in tone color and very dramatic, Polytope de Cluny is coloristic and comparatively subdued. being an architect as well as a composer and mathematician, Xenakis takes full command of the spatial potential in these works:



The next item is the Ornette Coleman/Howard Shore soundtrack for the Cronenberg film of William S. Burrough's Naked Lunch. This music is the most successful "Third Stream" experiment I've heard from Ornette Coleman, probably the most musical of all of Coleman's recordings. The nature of this work, with lots of orchestration of strings, seemingly coated in several layers of digital effects, really brings the "Classical" elements to the fore, with many sections of the work reminiscent of some of the more intense British concert music of the 1950's. Highly recommended for the adventurous:

 

Now listening to "Bach - Cantatas BWV 9, 94 & 187" from the "Sigiswald Kuijken & La Petite Bande Edition" box set on DHM.

 

Found a rather good short biography of Iannis Xenakis:

Iannis Xenakis (born 1922), Greek-French composer and architect, was one of the first to react against the post-Weberian serialists and pointillists who dominated music in the 1950s. Initially, his most notable achievement was the invention of "stochastic" music based on the mathematical laws of probability. This is a method of composition which uses mathematical formulae to calculate the length and intensity of each sound. As his career has progressed, he became one of the world's best-known composers of electronic music, or music generated by computers.

. . . the rest . . . . . of the story . . .

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/iannis-xenakis