Listenin' to Classical Music and Conversation

Interesting piece of music to say the least. Shchedrin has written music in very diverse styles.

 

This reissue series was exciting but unfortunately very short-lived. I do recall that the entire Westminster archive was sent to Europe and is stored with DG, Philips, and the other legacy Universal Classics labels there. So luckily they survived the tragic Universal lot fire, but sadly there seems to be no reissue activity.

dan c

 

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take for a shipment from Presto to arrive at down under? Is Canberra still doing better than Melbourne on the Covid-19 front?

A 160-CD Haydn box! There must be quite a few conductors for those symphonies ...

 

Probably all the symphonies are conducted by Ivan Fischer, a great cycle. I havent confirmef this information.

 

Here is an interesting box I bought a number of years ago with a recording of Beethoven Piano Concerto with Gould, Karajan and the BPO. The only recording the two eccentric personalities had ever made together ...

 

Well, not enough reissue activity for such a fantastic label, but there has been some in the past few years. There was a modest box called "The Westminster Legacy" featuring 40 CDs issued in the West, while in Korea, there were two much larger collections which should have been issued by DG for the rest of the world. But alas. There is also a recent collection of Badura-Skoda, perhaps 20-22 CDs, but also not sufficient for his talent an importance. And there was a Scherchen box of 38 CDs in 2016, sadly out of print and a bit pricey these days. I think there may be others, but I can't recall. DGG should do a complete Badura-Skoda, but probably won't, and they should release the two Korean boxes as well, among others... Sad they are neglecting these treasures, but hey, that's the record biz, never well-known for its devotion to art and music...(for the most part).

 

I thought it was Adam Fischer who recorded all the Haydn Symphonies (originally) on Nimbus, which I have ...

 

Sorry, my mistake. Adam Fischer, not Ivan.

 

The BC version of these Haydn Symphonies is certainly a bit cheaper than the Nimbus series - 6 or 8 individual boxes ...

 

Scelsi String Quartets The Arditti.

 

Yes, it's the Fischer series which was originally on Nimbus.

I bought them locally, no more from Presto for now as postage has gone up in price and time during the pandemic. Which luckily is still avoiding Canberra thanks.

[EDIT] They used to take a couple of weeks, now it's more like a couple of months.

 

I have ordered a second hand DVD and BTW also used CD, this one, without actually checking it out:


Someone heard it.? Does it make any sense.? I actually quite appreciate this CD (but here the source material is much older and it's Telarc after all)

I totally agree, I actually discovered this one quite recently - a really lovely recording!

NP (16-44):

 

CD 1.

 

My first Presto shipment during the thick of the pandemic took about a month to arrive. The next one took about 3 weeks and I am now waiting for one that was dispatched yesterday. Doing my part to keep these small merchants alive in these trying times, especially the English speaking small biz ...

 

I have all the above recordings. The Telarc recording is particularly interesting ...

 

For those who have the blue-ray audio experience, how do you play the disc? I just ordered the following box but do not have the foggiest idea as to how to play the blue-ray audio disc. I can play blue-ray DVD on my computer but my universal player may not too old to play the blue-ray variety ...

 

The menu is pretty easy to navigate. The tracklist is for each symphony. 1-4 is Symphony #1, 5-8 is Symphony #2, etc. BTW, this particular disc is 2-channel only.

 

I cheat a bit and don't tend to actually play these as blu-ray discs. A combination of a blu-ray drive on my PC along with MakeMKV and DVD Audio Extractor yields a collection of hi-res FLAC files I can either play at my desk or on the go.

In fairness, that's not nearly the compromise it sounds to be as my desktop PC IS a pretty solid audio rig - probably the best in the house. These Emotiva monitors are phenomenal.

 

Well, since I put the disc in the player, listening to #4.

 

I have that, as two separate Candide LPs if I'm not mistaken. Candide was a division of Vox, along with Turnabout. They issued a lot of more modern music.

 

I would play it on my Oppo 205 Blu-ray player.

 

Stuff I've ordered from Presto recently and throughout the pandemic so far has actually not been especially delayed. Comes surprisingly quickly to the US. It's recordings I've ordered from Spain that have taken up to five weeks (normally about two weeks).