Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #4)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Jay F, Dec 28, 2008.

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  1. drh

    drh Talking Machine


    Something tells me you guys would *not* enjoy a romp through my record collection. ;) Generally, I don't rely much on labels. I've always worked on the principle that you take your great music making where you find it, and "silent surface" pressings, while nice to have, were a distinctly secondary concern; of about 16,500 LP entries in my catalogue (individual performances, not records), only 331 are on Philips. Philips made some nice records, but it also had some really middle-of-the-road interpreters in its stable. Moreover, while Alfred Brendel's tone, as heard in concert, was not lush, my impression was that it was a good bit warmer and more appealing than it came across in his rather dry Philips recordings.

    By the by, Angels and Columbias may not have been the quietest of pressings, but they were by no means the worst, either. Ever hear an American Royale? Or Allegro? Or Remington? Sandpaper city!
     
  2. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing
     

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  3. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I hear you. But Allegro, if my memory has not failed me, was a budget label while Angel and Columbia charged similar prices as Philips and DG.
     
  4. Andrew

    Andrew Chairman of the Bored



    Interesting. What's the vintage?
     
  5. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I believe it was a 1968 recording ...
     
  6. Jay F

    Jay F New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Well, I guess you smacked us down. Stuart, have you ever felt like such a philipstine?
     
  7. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    No. I fully stand behind the decisions I made 20+ years ago NOT to buy any American pressing LP's. I am much happier owning the Glenn Gould's 80-CD set than owning 80 LP worth of firecracker music ... :righton:
     
  8. Jay F

    Jay F New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    And I still like Alfred Brendel, no matter how many times people call him that other word. Were it not for him, I don't know that I would be listening to classical music the way I have since CDs came out.
     
  9. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I hear you. While Alfred Brendel is no Sviatoslav Richter or Emil Gilels, he is still a tremendous piano virtuoso. I still have a good number of his Philips recordings on LP, not to mention those Vox CD-sets.
     
  10. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing
     

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  11. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Next: One of my favorites. BTW, the disc actually is gold ...
     

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  12. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    No smackdown intended--just making the points that (a) if you let surface noise dictate your choices, you're going to miss some of the best music making on records, and (b) no label, no matter how venerated, has a perfect track record of performances. To take an extreme case of (a), if you want to hear Jean de Reszke, perhaps the most celebrated tenor of the late 19th c., your only choice is transfers of the Mapleson cylinders, which someone once aptly described as like listening to someone singing in a building across the train tracks from you with an express freight running in between.

    "Philipstine"? I like that--I'll have to file it away with the way a record collecting buddy used to sign his letters: "Recordially."
     
  13. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    It all came down to relative values. While I assiduously avoided Columbia, I missed out on some excellent recordings by Rudolf Serkin and Glenn Gould early on, I started picking up their recordings as soon as they were released on CD. While I like Bernstein, but it is Bernstein with the VPO, not the NYPO. Recordings of Bernstein with the VPO were only released in DG anyway.
     
  14. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Ah, but the Serkin and Gould stuff *has* been reissued, and if you don't have it already buying a version with quiet backgrounds makes sense, as long as some fool hasn't killed its impact by running it through Cedar or No-Noise in the interests of suppressing--gasp!--low-level tape hiss. Not everything of merit has been reissued, though, especially from smaller labels, and in such cases surface noise is just part of the game. I'd rather hear, say, Ernst von Dohnanyi perform the Beethoven "Tempest" on a Remington punctuated by constant small arms fire than, say, Lang Lang on the quietest, best-recorded of CDs any day. (And Dohnanyi's "Tempest" recording definitely falls more into the "interesting" than the "definitive" category!)

    As to Bernstein, I tend to prefer him with the NY band. Working with the Vienna guys seems to have drained all the sap out of him, or at least that's been my impression of what I've heard, admittedly not an exhaustive study.
     
  15. 5-String

    5-String μηδὲν ἄγαν

    Location:
    Sunshine State
    About to listen:

    Shostakovich Symphony no 4
    Chicago Symphony Orchestra
    Bernard Haitink

    CSO Resound 2008

    [​IMG]
     
  16. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    That dude has a weird beard. :D
     
  17. OE3

    OE3 Senior Member

    I am curious to know the middle-of-the-road conductors and players to which you refer. In order to steer clear in the future, that is.
     
  18. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing
     

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  19. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I thought that was a partial mug shot ... :winkgrin:
     
  20. Bogey

    Bogey Spy Vinyl User

    Location:
    Colorado
    You are both incorrect. it was taken from the KGB files....you are seeing only what they want you to see.
     
  21. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Next: disc 6 from this set ... Bill, It is taking me forever to finish listening this set and I still have the other Walcha's set on Archive to listen to ...
     

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  22. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Exactly, Uncle Joe was not exactly a fan of Schastokovich ... :winkgrin:
     
  23. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    But is Philips still pressing LP's these days?
     
  24. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
  25. 5-String

    5-String μηδὲν ἄγαν

    Location:
    Sunshine State
    Crazy cover, eh?

    I just finished listening to this. Excellent performance, but that's not surprising since Haitink is always great in Shostakovich.

    Too bad though that CSO has abandoned the SACD.
     
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