Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

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

  1. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    I have this on LP as well as part of the Stravinsky CD box set. Enjoy
     
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  2. JuniorMaineGuide

    JuniorMaineGuide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, Colorado
    Agreed on the Endellion -- very high quality. I compared it to the Belcea and Artemis cycles a while back and decided on this one.
     
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  3. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    I'm not familiar with the transfer you made, I do agree with you on that Heifetz. I actually played Thibaud/Casals/Cortot recently, it's wonderful to listen to but I can see how perfectionists would complain about it. This picture is more interesting than the Cortot box art :)

    [​IMG]
     
  4. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    I have some of the set on LP, and what I've played (not even all of what I have) was good. This was the first cycle on records to reach completion. Critics at the time were enthusiastic. The gist of what I've read was that the set started out good and got better, with the performances tending to favor Schneider to begin with but gradually becoming more balanced as the project went along. I have read elsewhere, however, that in fact that progression is how Haydn wrote the works--at the outset, he tended to think somewhat in terms of "first violin with accompaniment" but, as he matured, he progressively shifted to "integrated ensemble of four equal voices." I've never undertaken to play the quartets from one end to the other in order, so I can't really say yea or nay to that from personal experience. Thanks for pointing out that the set has made it to CD, in all events; it's been languishing on my list of sets to complete for years, and now I see completion can be done in one fell swoop. Incidentally, you mentioned the Pascals in Beethoven; that's another set that occupies the same position for me, being one of which I have part on LP but have never completed.
     
  5. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Looking at Casals in that photo, I'm reminded of an old joke, albeit about quartets rather than trios. The definition of a string quartet: a good violinist, a bad violinist, a former violinist, and a guy who hates violinists.
     
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  6. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    :laugh:
     
  7. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    As long as we're on a trip down nostalgia road, sometimes that turns out to be something of a dead end, and last night I had one of those experiences. When I was a kid, one of my favorites in my parents' modest cabinet of records was Mozart's 29th sym. played by George Singer conducting "The Austrian Symphony Orchestra" (probably in fact the Vienna Tonkunstler Or.) on a Remington budget LP from the early '50s. Remington was the granddaddy of all budget classical LP lines, established to sell for less than half the cost of those newfangled LPs from the major labels, and the way it pulled that stunt off was by milking the dire postwar economic circumstances in Europe to the max and paring production costs here in the States to the bone. The performers on Remington were an interesting mix of elder statesmen in the twilight of their careers, like Albert Spalding and Ernst von Dohnanyi; up and comers like a young Jorg Demus; significant figures little recorded elsewhere, like violinist Michelle Auclair; and never-weres like the Tonkunstlers or pianist Felicitas Kerrer. (By no means all of the last group were bad; conductor Kurt Woss, for example, may never have broken into the larger public consciousness, but he was capable of some very convincing music-making.) Pressings were not in vinyl but in some sort of low-end, bumpy, skip-prone plastic called "Websterlite," noisy stuff to begin with, but the label set its treble boost so high that by the time one compensated the surfaces were at least tolerable--or, I should say, *are* tolerable, if you are tolerant, have a suitably flexible preamp, and are lucky enough to get records that haven't been hopelessly degraded by ca. 70 years of kicking around and playback on heavy-tracking dawn-of-the-LP-era turntables. My parents had a fair number of the things, because when they set up housekeeping after the war they had next to no money, and Dad could get a night's musical entertainment on the family hi-fi by picking up a Remington or two at the local department store for a buck or less. By the time I came along and started playing records, those Remingtons were more than a decade old, and most showed distinct signs of the depredations said hi-fi had doled out to them in frequent play.

    Anyhow, be that as it may, as I say, the Mozart 29th was one of my favorites (OK, I was not the most typical of pre-teen kids), and last night I got to thinking I really should transfer it to my server to preserve for future pleasure. I was looking forward to reacquaintance with youthful memories. Well. Turns out to my current ears, the performance is a bit stodgy (probably in part because Remington's unwillingness to pay for retakes encouraged conservative performances), and the orchestra has some noticeable intonation problems right from the start. Not at all the "sit back and go 'aaaah' " experience I was expecting. Better than the perplexingly wrong-headed stuff Thomas Beecham did to that sunny little symphony in his account on 78s, which I transferred a year or thereabouts back, but still. Sighs all 'round....
     
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  8. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Oh, bother. I just looked up that Schneider Quartet set on Amazon, and I guess it must have gone out of print. New copies, of which only five are left, are priced at $120. Used ones start at $82. Again I say: sigh.....
     
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  9. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Spinning-
    [​IMG]
     
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  10. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Who's the conductor on that?
     
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  11. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Various conductors. Solti , Boult and a couple of others.
     
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  12. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Ah, OK, thanks. I have many Double Deccas. Great series. Your post reminded me of my Ravel one. In should spin that again soon.

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I don't have that but I have the four disc Dutoit Ravel set.
     
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  14. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    I would seek out an original copy of the LP in clean condition. The recording itself wasn’t great but the performance was. I do not think remastering would improve the initial limitations of the live recording.
     
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  15. Fastnbulbous

    Fastnbulbous Doubleplus Ungood

    Location:
    Washington DC USA
    I was listening to the radio yesterday, a classical station that picks up this syndicated show where a selected caller is asked to identify a piece of music that's played in a completely different style by a pianist. The song went on for quite a while, and I couldn't for the life of me detect anything in what the guy was playing. I actually got irritated as the song droned on and on, and returned to what I was doing ... when suddenly it hit me. It was a Cat Stevens song called "Morning Has Broken", which I doubt I've heard more than once in the past 25 years. Anyway, the caller was totally clueless, and the announcer said it was indeed a Cat Stevens tune, but couldn't remember the title. The pianist said it was an old English folk tune that Brahms incorporated in some work.

    No particular point to this vignette, just thought I'd share.
     
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  16. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    From Wikipedia: "Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and was inspired by the village of Alfriston in East Sussex, then set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" (it shares this tune with the 19th century Christmas Carol "Child in the Manger"). It is often sung in children's services and in funeralservices.

    English pop musician and folk singer Cat Stevens included a version on his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat. The song became identified with Stevens due to the popularity of this recording. It reached number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number one on the U.S. easy listening chart in 1972,[4] and number four on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts.

    [End quotation]

    I'm not aware of any work by Brahms incorporating the tune--although that certainly doesn't mean anything conclusive. I live in the DC area; what station was it, and what program? I didn't know either of the local NPR affiliates ran anything like that, although WBJC has a knockoff of the old "Music at First Hearing" program called "Face the Music."
     
  17. Fastnbulbous

    Fastnbulbous Doubleplus Ungood

    Location:
    Washington DC USA
    Thanks for the info... I wish I could remember when it came on. This was a Charlottesville station (WTJU-FM) but I'm pretty sure the program was syndicated. Brahms was definitely part of the answer the caller was challenged to find, but I forget which piece it was incorporated in.
     
  18. JuniorMaineGuide

    JuniorMaineGuide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, Colorado
    Thanks for the info. It's too bad about the set being so hard to find.

    re: Pascal Quartet Beethoven, I was lucky to find all of the individual LP's in a Goodwill one day and was attracted by the awesome charcoal portrait of LvB. But if you are interested, it is relatively easy to find the complete set in a box by Classics Record Library. I have seen them in the used bins more than a few times.
     
  19. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Now enjoying this fine set.
     
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  20. JuniorMaineGuide

    JuniorMaineGuide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, Colorado
    Listened to two excellent recordings today that were at one point or another recommended on this thread:

    [​IMG]

    Alban Berg: String Quartet and Lyric Suite. Arditti Quartet / Montaigne.

    [​IMG]

    Debussy: Complete solo piano music. Gordon Fergus-Thompson / ASV.

    I got the 5-disc set which was produced in the UK in the late 80's and when I got home and opened it, it looked like the CDs had bronzed! Luckily they all played through and ripped without problems.
     
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  21. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Ohh! I don't have that one, though Arditti's Schoenberg is superb!

    Whew!! Glad to hear your set is OK. I just checked mine and no bronzing. I left it out for a spin later today or tomorrow.
     
  22. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
  23. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
  24. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
  25. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Enjoying ore from this set (CD 2) tonight. Great performance and sound.
     
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