@Rose River Bear, The latest version of Elgar Enigma Variations that is on its way is by JEG ... I think this will be the last one as I do not see myself getting a version by Bernstein ...
Ran into this Dave Hurwitz post today on the value of good classical music criticism. Thought peeps here would appreciate it as I did. (Found a Value of Music Criticism thread which was, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, closed.)
Now enjoying a first spin of this SACD, which I was lucky to find in a local used store yesterday for a very reasonable price.
Very sorry to hear of his passing. I, too, frequently heard him on the radio back in the '70s hosting various programs. Martin Bookspan was also a regular contributor to Stereo Review magazine, writing a column called "The Basic Repertoire" --where he covered the essential classics in depth, including recommendations on recordings. That project actually began in 1958 (at the time, the magazine was Hi Fi & Music Review). In 1973, he compiled his articles in a book titled, 101 Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers --which I bought and still refer to. As with any music critic, he had is biases... most notably, he was not enamored with the bulk of Karajan's recordings.
Now enjoying this lovely, 2CD set. I am not usually a big fan of vocal classical music, but for Janet Baker, I am happy to make an exception.
Mozart Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K.466 André Previn, Radu Lupu, The London Symphony Orchestra (1977, Angel Records)
Hmmm...are you trying to get me to rise to some bait here? Spurred by stumbling across a broadcast recording that included commentary by William Pierce (BSO/Munch, 10/10/1958), I just recently wrote an article reflecting on how much I miss the older, more reserved school of broadcast announcing of which Mr. Bookspan was another exponent. Time moves on, I suppose, but I'm sorry to hear of his passing--even though, like a couple of others who have commented, I was not aware he was still with us. Going back a LONG time, I think he was involved in the classical music bulletin board on the old Prodigy online service and that I had an exchange or two with him in that context. But it's been so many years, I could be fantasizing; certainly I remember no details of any such conversations beyond that I think they happened. Haven't thought about that outlet in at least a decade. Shifting gears, anybody here have opinions about a pianist named Jeremy Denk? I heard him in a recording of Bach's 6th keyboard partita tonight as I was driving, and maybe I was just in the wrong mood, but it did absolutely nothing for me.
I may have heard of him, but I don't recall hearing him. Now enjoying another recent used SACD find from my local shop:
Now playing the following SACD, a recent arrival for a first listen ... @Rose River Bear, Here is another recent arrival and may be the ONLY SACD among the versions in my collection.
I’ve been dipping into the box in my closet of the RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence SACDs. I bought all of them back in the early 2000’s as they were being released but haven’t even broken the seals on many of them. Today’s listening pleasure was the Mercury Bach Suites/Starker SACD. I’ve been eyeballing the Analogue Productions and Speakers Corner vinyl sets of the Starker but just haven’t pulled the trigger on either.
I only bought one AP Living Stereo SACD, Reiner Sound. I actually prefer the sound of the original cheap CD by a decent margin. The AP sounded cold and analytical to me.
MESSIAEN: Quartet for the End of Time - Luben Yordanoff, Albert Tétard, Claude Desurmont, Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon "20th Century Classics" CD "MADE IN W. GERMANY BY PDO")
Really enjoying listening online to the Complete solo piano works of Ravel by Larissa Dedova at the moment. Great playing with the tempo and feeling I like to this music. Nice recording sound too.. Anyone else listened to it? On cd of this work I already have Vlado Perlemuter which I love
Andre Previn Young Uck Kim Heuchito Ohyama Gary Hoffman Schumann Piano Quartets Quartet, op 47 Quartet, WoO 32 (1829) Premiere Recording RCA Victor Red Seal, 1992 Recorded in Manhattan Center, 1991 This recording is well done. There was no information on the CD cover. Sony did not include any original notes in the box set of Previn's complete RCA and Columbia album collection. I found this from a 1993 review in Gramophone: "The special interest here is the ''world premiere recording'' of Schumann's first Piano Quartet in C minor, completed in March, 1829, when he was still only 18. Though his Leipzig piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck, and other discerning music-loving friends found much in the work to praise after a domestic performance by Schumann and some fellow-students, he himself lost faith in it and the score remained unpublished until the Schumann scholar, Wolfgang Boetticher, prepared a performing edition in 1979. The gem of the four movements is the nimble Minuetto, with a trio (its leading theme reappears in the fourth of his Op. 4 Intermezzos for solo piano) subsequently picked out by him as the moment when he first recognized himself as a ''romantic... departing from the former musical style''. The tenderly spun Andante is winning too, and even though the Beethoven-cum-Schubert-inspired faster flanking movements (the last dominated by an obsessively reiterated dotted rhythm) need—and I think in this performance receive—some pruning, both have an irresistible youthful elan. Andre Previn and his three colleagues cannot be over-praised for coming to the Quartet's rescue with such immediacy and warmth of sympathy. "
Now enjoying Haydn's first five symphonies, as conducted by Hogwood, from the above boxset, which I am hearing for only the second time. Great, vibrant sound.