Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, May 29, 2015.

  1. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

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    Erwin Schulhoff: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS (Alma Quartet, Gutman, 2cd, 2016)

    Not very far into this set, and it's almost the first Schulhoff I've heard. I'll be listening to much more of him over the next month. Seems very heterogeneous, playful, very modern....more modern, maybe, than the hypermodernism of High Serialism and its complex descendents. I feel like it's dated more gracefully. I was amused to learn he'd beaten John Cage to the punch with a 1919 silent piece....realized by ultracomplex means. That is doubly funny and maybe not as prescient as it seems! Not to mention his Sonata Erotica, woof.

    None of the quartet music thus far seems selfconsciously radical or flippant as either of the aforementioned, and I am glad about this. A mournful vein seems to surface often enough?
     
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  2. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

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    Poulenc: ORCHESTRAL & CHORAL WORKS (ONF, Charles Dutoit, Decca, 5cd)

    Revisiting a lot of Poulenc after mainly knowing his music from the excellent 'Oeuvres Complètes' box from EMI. Some other orchestral recordings by Darlington and Immerseel.
    In addition to this, listening to piano and chamber music from Rogé, Nash Ensemble, etc; choral works from Accentus; MAMELLES by Ozawa; and later this week DIALOGUES by Nagano.
     
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  3. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
  4. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    As an audition test, listening to the first surround recording I've played in living memory: Beethoven, Piano Trio no. 2, op. 1 no. 2, by the Storioni Trio Amsterdam on Pentatone (hybrid SACD). Lovely, spirited performance, and the expected warm, vivid recording job by the Pentatone engineers--assuming it isn't licensed, but I think this is one of the label's original recordings, dating as it does to 2005. I'm checking out a "new" player--a Samsung universal job I picked up off the roadside!--to stand in for my ailing Sony, which has developed the dread "won't recognize SACDs as SACDs and plays them as redbook" disease.

    But this foray into modernity will not last long. Yesterday, FedEx brought me one of these: [Review] Graham Slee Accession phono stage

    Hence, I expect I'll be taking a deep dive into accoustic recordings again for a while, as I did back when I wrote the review. Planned inaugural record: two selections in Armenian sung on Columbia ca. WW I by Torcom Bezazian, an Armenian native son who had some success on the international operatic stage, including, I think, at the Met. I know him better from his recordings for Edison, but he (obviously) did not restrict himself to that label. Incidentally, the Columbia record gives the titles in what turns out to be a unique Armenian alphabet. I didn't know there was such a thing, but in fact it has a colorful history; for those interested, more is here: Armenian alphabet - Wikipedia

    [edit] Isn't the Internet wonderful? Just tracked down the recording date for Bezazian's record: February 5, 1915. Recorded in New York.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2018
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  5. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Can't stay away from this set.
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  6. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Kempe's Strauss (Richard, that is :)) is still one of the best in my opinion.
     
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  7. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Yes, I had the vinyl box sets and sold them so I could go out one night, they were always there so could be replaced. Did not happen, was a good night, I think.
     
  8. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    A question for the forum's pianophiles: I have a Royale 78 of three short Chopin works ("Aeolian Harp" and "Black Keys" etudes; waltz in A-Flat) performed by, according to the label, Sigfrid Schneevoigt. Anybody ever heard of a pianist by this name? Google turns up references to a Sigrid (Sundgren-)Schneevoigt, but none to Sigfrid. The recording is not in WERM, although even if it were, that august reference refers to artists by last name and first initial only. Now, knowing Royale's customary indifference--if not outright hostility--to accurate labeling, I expect it's more than possible the label typographer turned "Sigrid" into "Sigfrid," and it's also entirely possible "Sigfrid Schneevoigt" is a pseudonym (as were nearly all the names on Royale's LP labels later down the road). If anyone can shed more light on the issue, I'd be grateful.
     
  9. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Sorry that's a new one on me.
     
  10. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    I love this DAD, especially the Scherehazade section.
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  11. ando here

    ando here Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Pole
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    Mozart Beaux Arts Trio
    The Piano Trios/The Piano Quartets

    The 6 CD set is locked in my player for the day. The sound is excellent for sessions recorded in '67 and '87. And the level of artistry is beyond my powers of description at the moment. So I just listen.
    On virtually all music streaming apps as well.
     
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  12. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    If you see the box below for a reasonable price, grab it, it's absolutely wonderful:

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  13. bruce2

    bruce2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut, USA
    I have only one disc by the Beaux Arts Trio. Mendelssohn Trio No. 2 and Smetana Trio. I enjoy it.
     
  14. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
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    Listened to symphonies 39 and the opening of symphony 40 today from the above set. The sound and interpretation is not to my taste. The 40th in particular, I imprinted on Szell's SONY recording and since then, no one else's 40th sounds "right" to me.
     
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  15. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    I don't have that one, but I have many of their recordings. They are all superb!
     
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  16. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
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    Now enjoying CD 01 from this set. Absolutely gorgeous sound quality and performance!
     
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  17. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I had a little less than half of the box which stopped me from buying it. I should buy some of the 20th century discs. I only have the Shostakovitch and I'd like the others.
     
  18. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    I am very impressed with their Shostakovitch. I have one of the trios in this wonderful Original Masters set:

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  19. Marzz

    Marzz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    If it helps, I stumbled upon some info. about the pianist Sigrid (Sundgren-)Schneevoigt, when I was looking for information on Finnish conductor Georg Schneevoigt. She was a talented pianist (studied under William Days and later, F.Busoni) and later married Georg Schneevoigt. They even toured Australia together, before my time but I found a pile of interesting (to me at least) articles/interviews from that period.
    More relevant perhaps, I did find this 1931 recording - the Waltz in D-flat,

    File:Chopin Minute Waltz.ogg - Wikimedia Commons

    I think you're right, that the Royale 78 is simply a misprint. The online 78 discography also lists a Sigfrid but the compilers no doubt simply copied the record labels? Scroll down to #1762,

    Royale 1700 series 78rpm numerical listing discography

    And just for the heck of it, one of the articles from her visit to Australia in 1940...

    "Madam Sundgren likes the moderns, but whether their works will survive along with the old masters she says it is difficult to predict. In pianoforte music she considers there has been no advance on Chopin's. "His is so perfect
    that it is difficult to achieve anything better".

    Now, there's a topic to argue :p

    PIANIST FROM FINLAND - Madam Sundgren - The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) - 1 Aug 1940
    (other articles/interviews are searchable on this site)
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2018
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  20. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Wow--a real wealth of information, indeed! I'll look forward to going through it all when it's not nearly 1:00 AM on a work night....

    Royale 1762 is exactly the record I have, although for some reason the listing omits the Waltz. It's quite possible "Sigfrid" was a misprint--but you never quite know with Royale. In those days, the label not infrequently dubbed records from other labels, usually Central European ones like Ultraphon/Supraphon, and those issues can sound pretty bad. The Marian Anderson records shown in the list as "Europe" (presumably meaning issued only in Europe) would almost certainly fall in that category, with the source material probably being on US Victor. Other Royale 78s were original, at least as far as I know, and can sound somewhat better. I haven't tried the Schneevoigt yet, as just before it turned up I had switched my system over to the preamp for acoustic records, so I don't know yet if it's a dub.

    Anyhow, with the advent of LP, Royale began issuing lots of classical performances snared from European radio b'casts and then labeled with pseudonyms, like conductors "Kurt List" and "Joseph Balzer." Some of these fictions have been identified--for example, no. 1376, Beethoven's 1st Pno. Cto. performed by "Elliott Everet" with the "Berlin Sym. Or." under "Joseph Balzer," is actually a performance by Wilhelm Kempff, not otherwise commercially issued as far as I know, and the Grieg pno. cto. on no. 1264, issued as by "Gerhard Stein" with "Berlin SO" under "Karl List" is actually none other than Friedrich Wuhrer with the VPO under Karl Bohm, issued under true name on US Urania. (Don't quote me on this, but I vaguely remember something about *that* issue being unauthorized and eventually withdrawn after a lawsuit.) Others remain unidentified. One thing you can be sure of with Royale LPs, by the by: in contrast to the brittle but low-end passable surfaces of the Royale 78s, the LPs' surfaces make sandpaper seem like plush velvet. Worst, grittiest, noisiest LP surfaces ever offered to the American record buying public, terrible even when new. Far worse than Remington's, and to say those were below average for their day is to shower them with shameless flattery.
     
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  21. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Do like the Janacek operas.
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  22. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    A great work!
     
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  23. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    More Janacek his Diary of One Who Vanished.
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  24. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
  25. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    Gidon Kremer-Edition Lockenhaus Vol 1/2. Wonderful collection.

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