Just read the review. I don't have much Rachmaninoff in my collection so I may buy this SACD when it's released next month!
I don't have any of those works but I do have works by four of the composers: Vanhal, Gossec, Krauss and Rosetti. Rosetti wrote some very nice music horn concertos that are on releases by CPO. I've never been that impressed by the Vanhal I've heard. That said, classical and baroque are my least favorite periods.
This might interest some of you. I just found out that the German National Archives has digitised many of their newsreel films from the '40s up to the '90s in very good quality. Many short reports are to be found there (including rare footage of Monique Haas recording in the studio of DG in 1949). You can search by keyword or person, everything is catalogued nicely. Here is an 8-minute short of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recording Schubert with Gerald Moore in March 1969, transferred from the original 16mm-footage. You can see them listen to playback of a song recorded the previous day (“Einsamkeit”) and then record another one (“Geheimes”). The studio is Ufa Berlin, according to my research. Unfortunately, they are not on Youtube, so I cannot link to them directly, but you can click here to go to the video.
Great to see. I recently purchased the 2005 reissue of these sessions 21 CDs Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Schubert Lieder DGG, 2005 Here is another photo of these sessions from 1967.
Lisa Della Casa Lieder Recital Decca from the box set Decca Sound: 55 Great Vocal Recitals Decca, 2016 55 CDs All of the CDs have much bonus material. So much so, that 2 discs so far have gone over the usual 80 minute limit, causing my disc player to stop playing somewhere near the end of the disc. I get around it by ripping the contents.
Alexander Markovich Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Neeme Jarvi Chandos, 20114 2 CDs Scharwenka: Complete Piano Concertos
Wow, that looks like something I should check out! I read on Wikipedia that his style is similar to Schumann and Rachmaninoff. Is that your take?
My first spin of this didn't wow me nearly as much as his Beethoven and Chopin did, but I am giving it another try now.
I found the concertos accessible and enjoyable like Rachmaninov, however I do not find it easy to make comparisons among composers. The notes writer mentions Chopin, Liszt and Grieg in the notes about the first concerto. Brahms and Chopin are mentioned in the notes about the second. Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky are mentioned in the notes for the third and fourth concertos. Whether anyone else would find these concertos interesting -- I can't say. I found I did not have any reservations about the pianist. The recorded sound is excellent.
Scharwenka, by the by, made records himself. Mine are both for Columbia; dunno if he visited other labels. The selections are relatively varied but all "core Romantic," so to speak: Chopin's "Valse Brillante," Liszt's "Liebestraum," Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso, and the pianist's own Polish Dance op. 3/1. That last must have been his "greatest hit" of the time, as I have three contemporary recordings of it by other performers--one a bird whistler!
Hi, George, hope you're having a nice Sunday. I had a look at your link, and "guilt by association" had me moving on to Vassily Sapellnikoff, a name not familiar to me previously. That in turn led to a letter Tchaikowsky wrote to him in 1889, which, among other things, outlined the program Tchaikowsky was planning to conduct at a concert a week later. I found interesting how it bears out Tchakowsky's famous admiration for Mozart; two works of that earlier master figure in the concert: [begin quotation] Next week there is a concert at which I am conducting. The programme is: 1) Symphony in D major by Mozart 2) Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky (Brodsky) 3) Excerpts from Mozart's Idomeneo 4) Overture by Taneyev [5] 5) Small pieces for violin [by Spohr and Sarasate] 6) Jota aragonesa by Glinka [end quotation] Even today, Idomeneo is a bit off the beaten Mozart path, and yet there's echt-Romantic Tchaikowsky championing it around 125 years ago, in Russia, at the height of the Romantic period, during the heyday of Russian nationalism. I would certainly love to know how he went about interpreting the music! Incidentally, "Jota Aragonesa" is one of my favorite musical picture postcards, a real delight. In fact, it figured on one of my very first CDs, a collection of Glinka tidbits purchased even before I had a player of my own (a fellow 78 collector had generously given me temporary custody of his while he digested a big haul of shellac platters that had come his way). Not, as it happens, one of my better sounding purchases; the performances, courtesy of the USSR SO led by Evgeny Svetlanov, are first rate, but the Chant du Monde remastering is a fine example of how early CDs gave the format a reputation for steely brightness. Probably drawn from LP masters and not properly rebalanced would be my guess.
This seems to be my day for one thing to lead to another. Anybody else here aware of this? I certainly wasn't, although I knew no. 2 usually gets played in a version by Alexander Siloti that excises much of the music Tchaikowsky wrote for the 2d mvt. The trouble with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor
That's more or less what I said, except, ever prolix, I said "Whoa!" instead of "Wow!" I've ordered a copy of the recording from one of the Amazon resellers; promises to be interesting.
I like it slightly better. It's still too bombastic for me, to use a word in the article that really fits. I still don't really like it though. TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 (1879 Version)
Just started reading EMI producer Walter Legge’s “autobiography”. This funny bit caught my eye: When I was sixty-two, I offered my collection [of 78s] to a venerable Swiss institution, which would accept it only on condition that an endowment for a curator and maintenance be provided also. In one of my better rages, I broke every record into bits and tossed the pieces into Lake Geneva.
I wonder what's in there about the fight between Legge and Klemperer about the dissolution of the Philharmonia Orchestra, the orchestra Legge founded in 1945 and wanted to dissolve in 1964. It got quite ugly and resulted in the formation of the New Philharmonia Orchestra; Legge wanted nothing to do with that, or with Klemperer anymore. I have the "biography" of the orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra: A Record of Achievement 1945-1985, written by Stephen J. Pettitt (1985, Robert Hale Ltd.)
I have posted here before about how one of my favorite symphony recordings is Brahms Symphony No. 4 by Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic. Most would say it is a great performance with mediocre sound quality which I agree with. My copy is an original non-remastered 80s DG CD. In the name of curiosity and research I ordered and just received a Japanese SHM-CD of this album. I usually don't go for remasters or imports like this but I was very curious if it would improve on the sound of the original CD. Well I have been comparing back and forth and the discs sound quite different. The SHM is much more detailed and almost sounds like a different mix. You can hear all of the different instruments more clearly and distinctly. However, the strings seem a little bit recessed and less powerful compared to the original CD. It is obviously a different mastering, but I am not sure if it is the same as the standard US DG Originals remaster as I don't have that one. I can't really decided yet if I prefer the original CD or the SHM. The original has more prominent string sound and a denser, perhaps warmer sound. The SHM is more detailed, and both seem to have excellent dynamic range. Just wanted to share my findings.
You inspired me to listen to a third incarnation of the same recording, this time on Blu-ray in surround 24bit/96kHz. This was included in a DG box with all of Kleiber's DG studio orchestral recordings. The Blu-ray contains the Beethoven 5 & 7, Schubert 3 & 8 (Unfinished), and Brahms 4. I cannot compare with the two versions you mention, and I am not sure if the surround is fake or real (only the Beethoven 5 & 7 have been out on surround before, on a SACD), but it sounds pretty good to me. Addenda: on the SACD version of the Beethoven (which I also have), it is stated "New surround mix and new stereo mix: Andrew Wedman," but if that is true of the Schubert and Brahms on the Blu-ray too I am not sure.
I can't speak for the either of the CD versions or the Blu-ray, but I have an original pressing of the LP and I've always thought it sounded very good. In fact, it's my favorite recording of the Brahms 4th, for both the vigorous performance and (to my ears) very fine sonics.
I've never heard the original CD, nor did I ever hear the SHM-CD. I do have the Originals CD, and I think it sounds very good.