Has anyone here heard these recordings of Bach's organ works? I saw a copy of this set available for a reasonable price and wanted your two cents.
Forgive me if this is not the correct thread - I just acquired about 100 or so classical records that appear to be from the 50s and 60s. As a new classical fan, are there any things I should be looking out for specifically, say certain labels or orchestras?
This by all means is the right thread, and if I may steal a march on founder and de facto moderator George P., welcome! By "look out for," do you mean $$$? Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo from that period are in collectors' demand, if they are in good condition and if they are sufficiently uncommon (in other words, the Van Cliburn record of Tchaikowsky's 1st Piano Concerto sold like hotcakes and, by the laws of supply and demand, is not especially "hot" as a collectible). Early Deutsche Gramophon "tulip label" issues are more desirable than later ones. Otherwise, it's hard to generalize; your best bet is to consult completed auction listings and the like, as some particular records are in demand and others aren't. For example, on the early '50s budget Remington label, recordings by the pianist Etelka Freund tend to go for elevated prices; those by the pianist Felicitas Karrer do not. A set of the Bach violin sonatas by violinist/composer George Enescu on Continental (a relative label of Remington) used to go for huge money; I think they've come down some in recent years. Records of violinist Albert Spalding on Remington went for good money; dunno if they have come down, too. Records of violinist Walter Schneiderhan on Remington may be worth a few dollars at most. And so it goes. If you're talking "recording quality," the reason for popularity of those RCA and Mercury issues is their reputation for excellent recorded sound. On the former, it's really hard to go wrong with the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner, who pulled off the neat and uncommon trick of mating truly top-notch performances to truly top-notch recorded sound, more often than not. Pre-stereo RCA can be variable; for example, the recordings of Arturo Toscanini mate often incandescent performances with problematic sonics. Conductor Leopold Stokowski's recordings usually were technically excellent, but he could be willful as an interpreter. Columbia doesn't get a lot of love in regard to recorded sound, but it had a stable of performers on tap second to none. Those Remingtons I mentioned above had lousy surfaces to begin with and assume far, far more than standard treble rolloff (RIAA equalization had not yet become the norm when they were made), but they captured a surprising number of important veteran artists in their last years and important artists to be early on (and also a lot of artists whose main virtue was that they would record for peanuts). DG was much admired way back when for its silent surfaces, but it doesn't get as much respect for its recording quality, particularly as the label marched into the stereo era. London (English Decca in its US trade name) FFRR and FFSS (for "full frequency range recording" and "full frequency stereo sound") are much admired. Angel (US trade name for EMI) generally isn't. But bear in mind, these are all broad generalities, and individual recordings can vary from them in either direction. If you're talking music, well, that's going to be a matter of your personal taste. My advice would be to play the records and find out what you like. Keep those records out in regular rotation; put the others away for a while and then come back to them. As you get used to the "language" of classical music, which reflects several centuries of changing ideas about how music should sound and how it should be put together, you'll undoubtedly find that at least some pieces initially in the "hard nut to crack" category turn into "I really love this." Also, keep track of which performers are involved in your favorites; if several of your favorites involve, say, Arturo Toscanini or pianist Rudolf Serkin, that's a good clue that you might enjoy exploring more of their recordings down the line. Happy exploring! Please keep us apprised of how it goes. If you want to list some of the records, I'm sure many of the denizens here will be more than happy to chime in about them.
Really appreciate the warm welcome and your informative post. My main thought was to sort out the better sounding records and then give them a listen to determine whether I’d like to keep them or not. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are Living Stereo records as I was familiar with that while sorting through and didn’t pull any. I did find a Living Presence, and there are possibly more in the batch I haven’t sorted through. Most seem to be Columbia and Nonesuch. Are there any specifics to know about Columbia or Nonesuch? I’m a jazz collector so I’m aware of the Columbia labels 6-eye and beyond. Also, assuming there’s a significant portion of the collection I won’t want to keep for myself, what’s the best thing to do with them? Will record stores be interested or would I have trouble giving them away?
From my own limited, local experience, in this day and age, the vast majority of Columbia vintage will not fetch more than a couple of bucks, at best (and in perfect condition). The Nonesuch'es will do better if contemporary material.
Without knowing exactly what you have, your ears are going to be your best guide as to what to keep and what to pass on. It's unlikely that they're going to be very valuable, but if they're well taken care of and they're mostly full works (symphonies, sonatas, concertos, etc) and not "classical melodies"-collection type records then a record store would probably take them. I'm assuming these are American LPs, if you have a stack of European Columbias from the 50s that would be a different story. Columbia during the 50s and 60s had a great roster of performers -- Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Bruno Walter, the Budapest String Quartet, George Szell, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern just to name a few, and there are many more. Their recordings continue to be favorites today as you can see from browsing this thread. Nonesuch at that time issued a lot of 17th- and 18th-century music (Bach, Handel, Telemann, Haydn, Mozart, etc) with colorful covers featuring lesser-known performers. These are popular with LP collectors today because they recorded unusual repertoire, the performances tend to be good, and most didn't make it to CD. Happy listening! If you can, post some pictures of what you have or what you're listening to.
Composers from the later part of the 20th c. or the 21st, like Rzewski, Cage, Riley, and such. Nonesuch carved itself out a bit of a niche issuing such music. In general, Nonesuch recordings, which sold at a price point between the "major label" level and the "budget" level, featured good performances by less familiar artists; the recordings frequently were excellent technically, but pressing quality tended to be fair to middlin'. [edit] Note that "20th century" takes in composers like Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Britten, Pfitzner, Bartok, Barber, Milhaud, .... None of those guys would be considered "contemporary" any more, I think, although they, or many of them, were definitely in that category as recently as 40 or 50 years ago.
Based on information in this thread and elsewhere I picked what I would assume is the “better” stuff, mostly just going by label. I’ll list here what I’ve picked Nonesuch- Antonio Vivaldi Concerto in A minor For Piccolo and Orchestra Jazz Guitar Bach - Andre Benicholi Four Centuries of Music for The Harp Masterworks for Organ Vol. 9, J.S. Bach The Pleasures of The Royal Courts Michael Praetorius - Polychoral Christmas Music In a Medieval Garden - Instrumental and Vocal Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance Bach - Die Kunst Der Fuge Columbia- The Wondweful Waltzes of Tchaikovsky and Strauss Debussy Quartet in G Minor Op. 10 Dvorak: New World Symphony - Philadelphia Orchestra Tchaikovsky the Swan Lake Ballet Op. 20 - Philadelphia Orchestra Bach Vol 3, Bix Brandenburg Concerti Don Juan - Death and Transfiguration - Philadelphia Orchestra Bartok Mikrokosmos - Vol 1 Books I-II, III-IV, V-VI Rachmaninoff/Symphony No. 2 - Philadelphia Orchestra Stravinsky Firebird Suite - Philadelphia Orchestra Capitol- Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me The Nat King Cole Story Vol. 1 The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra- Espana Stokowski - The String Orchestra Tchaikovsky- Concerto No. 1 in B Flat minor - New Symphony Orchestra of London Concertos Under The Stars - The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra Mercury- Respighi- The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of Rome - Minneapolis Symphony Franck Symphony in D minor - Detroit Symphony Orchestra RCA Victor- The Drum Suite Bach - Mass in B minor - RCA Victor Chorale and Orchestra The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven - Boston Symphony Munch Phillips - Orff Carmina Burana (Imported From Europe sticker) Deutche Grammaphon- Adagio - Albinori, Pachelbel, Boccherini, Respighi - Berliner Philharmoniker Archive Production - German Boroque Music - Series A- Heineich Schutz Let me know if there are any gems, either musically or sound wise
Welcome to the thread! To find the gems, I strongly recommend listening to the records, as one man's gem can be another's trash. And of course, "better" is in the ear of the beholder. I also suggest posting your impressions here. We have a lot of friendly, knowledgeable people who love to discuss classical performances and recordings. That was my goal, in starting this thread twelve years ago, to have a place where people can discuss all things regarding classical music. For me, performance always trumps sound quality in classical music. I have perfectly recorded piano recordings that do absolutely nothing to me and stuff recorded on shellac in the 1930s that is incredibly moving.
And now, some more Moravec. Sound on this CD is a bit clearer than on the Vox 2fer (with Chopin works.) I just compared.
Cleaned up and played the first Deutche Grammaphon record as well as the Mercury Living Presence album. Loved the music on the Grammaphon and the sound quality was good. The Mercury had great dynamics but I wasn’t as enamored with the music
Who is the conductor on the Deutsche Grammophon disc you listened to? Karajan? I'd also like to know who the conductors are on the discs where you didn't mention any, such as (some of) the Mercury, Philips, and Columbia records.
Based on the above, I gather this one was the first DG you played. If it's what I think it is (Karajan/BPO, right? By no means my favorite conductor, but feel free to make your own judgement), note that it's a collection weighted toward single movement outtakes from longer works, in which case, since you like it, you might take it as a starting point to search out complete performances of those pieces as also being likely to please you. If the Mercury you tried was the Respighi, welcome to the club--I've never been terribly fond of him either. The Franck Symphony, on the other hand, has long been a favorite, although I don't know the Detroit SO recording (presumably under Paul Paray?). If you like the music, admittedly something of a hothouse flower, but aren't entirely convinced by the performance, you might want to sample the classic Pierre Monteux/Chicago SO recording on RCA Victor (Living Stereo). Mind you, I'm not dumping on the Mercury issue, which, as noted, I don't know; it may blow you away, and if it does that's great.
I highlighted the recordings that I have and think are great recordings. Enjoy them and let us know what you think. IMO a few of them are the best performances you can get.
The Mercury I played was actually the Franck. I’m definitely going to keep that one as I was impressed sound wise and I’m sure it’s one that I’ll grow to like more over time. I have not listened to many classical recordings so I’m somewhat critiquing on the fly - the DG just felt a bit sweeter and easier on the ears. The Franck was very emotional but was just a bit sharp for my non-classically trained ears