Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #16)

I trust you and one day I will definitely plug the trigger on some of the BIS productions. What I actually meant - there's hardly a disc of Rachmaninov music in the whole BIS catalog, which could really compete with those good ol' recordings made by the Master himself, currently available on Naxos and a couple of other labels. I put it straight: these are two completely different universes, which will never substitute each other.

 

Casta diva

Now playing CD 1 - Presenting Montserrat Caballe - from this box set, which arrived today from jpc.de.

 

That's most unfortunate when you live outside USA that you can't get the deals we get.

Us USA dudes should count our blessings in that respect!

The Fitzwilliam set is well worth the wait.....hope ya get it soon!

 

But in this case $15 isn't that bad either, even for the Music Heritage Society re-issue (I suppose that's it?). MDT currently has the (supposedly) original London set on offer - and it costs 21 GBP without shipping. What really bothers me - such sluggish delivery time (and this includes not only "USA to Europe" delivery but sometimes even "UK to Europe")...

OTOH, offers from some European e-tailers (as jpc.de and grooves-inc.de) may be great too - there can be double and triple price drops in some cases.

 

I have learned that MHS is a wonderful lil club!
While they place their Musical Heritage Society logo in place of EMI,DG,and many other top labels......
It's the same exact music and cover art....I have saved a TON of money on 2nd hand MHS cuz of this fact.

This Joshua Oratorio is a classic example
Hyperion Name label it's $40....I paid MHS 2nd hand $5!!

A SPECTACULAR CD I might add!!!

 

I haven't listened to that Figaro in a while, but as I recall, the sound is excellent and the performance is good as well.

On the other hand, I am not the biggest fan of Telarc.

 

I think I only own one of their CDs myself and that's because the performances were recommended.

 

$8.99 right now

You can't really argue with that.

 

Do you have the Serkin/Ozawa Beethoven cycle?

 

I would wish so, but quality costs and this is a small independent label that invests in instruments worth a fortune - still for the ovious better sound a small premium is okay and if we talk abut DVD-A or SACD you get hours and hours of music on one CD.
17.90 for a regular CD is not that expensive - okay outside the Euro using countries the prices may be a bit heav..
jpc.de offers TACET recordings, maybe there is the occasional sale going on ?

The cheapest way to hear some of TCET most stunning recordings (along with CHESKY) would be jumping to a large bokstore that caries foreign magazines and get a copy of this months SEREOPLAY magazine from germany.
This has a Bonus Cd called "Perfekte Räumlichkeit sponsoed by German Physiks speakers9. I couldn't believ what I heard, my stereonever sounded that good, the final inthe fled recording of a vitage train pasing by thunder + rain in a forest and finally a bublebee passing by nearly killing my subwwofer with it's ow frequency flight.
What stood out was a guitar duo recorded with 2 mics on top of each other- sounded like 2 guitars woven together and
Markus Schirmer playing Mussorgsky - Gnomus.

This is a CD, that is on my list, too.
Ravel & Mussorsky Pictures & Reflexions.

That Chesky stuff is great, too .
Monty Alexander - Hurricane blows you away, STINg with Englishman orchestra version has a fantastic bass and again it is the space and room ambience sound that is so outstandng - means Räumlichkeit. SPATIALITY
the music is great and that mag costs a few bucks..

 

Is this a factory pressed CD or a CD-R?

 

Now playing for a first listen:

CD 4 - A Richard Strauss Song Recital - from the aforementioned Caballe box set.

 

No it's a factory press....just has MHS Label and not Hyperion....that's the ONLY diff.

 

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön

Just my two cents worth here. Mozart operas? I've heard all of them but really latched on to one, that's the Magic Flute. I've heard a lot of the older recordings, not too many of the latest.

I'd start by urging you to get your hands on Ingmar Berman's movie of the Magic Flute—Trollflöjten. It was produced as a Christmas TV special, shot by Sven Nykvist on the wonderfully grainy and textured Super 16 filmstock and is as beautiful and touching a film as his other Christmas extravaganza, Fanny & Alexander.

Some of the best singing is on older recordings. I find the sound quality of some of these recordings preferable to the sound quality of Telarc's work in most of their vocal recordings. The Karl Bohm led performance on DGG has Fritz Wunderlich as Tamino. If that means anything to you, then you already own the record. If not, note that the sound is above average by DGG standards, the rest of the cast is first rate and that Bohm was a superb Mozart conductor. Solti's 1969 recording for Decca successfully blew Mozart up into Wagnerian proportions and roles are doled out accordingly. Except maybe Cristina Deutekom. Every part is perfectly cast [save the Queen of the Night, oops], with the Vienna Choir Boys putting in a star turn. Klemperer had Walter Legge cook up a dream cast, conducts in his best Brucknerian manner and manages to turn Schikaneder's various plot complications into a pantheistic oratorio. Cutting out the dialog certainly doesn't hurt. Extra marks for casting Lucia Popp as the Bi-Polar Queen and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as one of her minions. Great reverse casting there.

Speaking of the Ingmar Bergman film, it has its virtues as a performance of Mozart's Singspiel. Håkan Hagegård's Papageno is my favorite, his screen performance fetures some of the finest comic acting in any Bergman film. Eric Ericson's shares many of the virtues of Klemperer's performance. Josef Köstlinger is a very effective Tamino.

If it's modern sound and a HIPP interpretation you're looking for, John Elliot Gardiner's occult approach might be a turn on. The liner notes point to the connection of the twenty-two scenes of Die Zauberflote to the twenty-two major arcana and that kinda rarified talk just sends this haunted heart aflame. The Tarot/Kaballah subtext of Die Zauberflote is foregrounded in the performance as well, with Deleted Scenes!! just like yer modern day DVDs. It's a shiny-dark performance, quick and lively and more than a little scary.

 

Kind MHS people! Sorry Hyperion, but I call this "proper beer-saving".

 

No, Serkin was way past his prime by then. I have the earlier recordings with Ormandy/Bernstein and the set on Orfeo with Kubelik. They are all excellent.

 

When videocassettes were first introduced, I asked myself - what movie I might possibly want to own. The first one that occurred to me was The Magic Flute. I've owned it on VHS, as a laser disc and as a DVD.

 

Agreed

 

At the risk of crashing the party.... I've recently acquired an Oppo BDP-83 universal player, which, it turns out, is a scary monster that needs to be fed. I'm gradually acquiring music on SACD, both jazz (including Analogue Productions reissues) and classical (some of the RCA Living Stereo chestnuts, for example).

Does anyone have recommendations for Mahler symphonies on SACD? And, specifically, any thoughts about Jonathan Nott's ongoing cycle on Tudor? His Mahler II has gotten some rather wildly mixed reviews, but as it happens II is the only Mahler symphony I don't own, save in a Pearl CD reissue of a recording by Oscar Fried.

Thanks!....

 

Mmmm...'twas good.

I've never loved Telarc's sound. Not to say I'd complain about it--I just don't know what the big deal is (extrapolators take note: my current system is not the system on which I first heard 99% of the classical music I've ever heard).

I've probably heard and had ten or twelve different versions of Le Nozze di Figaro. Bohm's is the only one I play. I've never heard his Zauberflote, though. Maybe I should. Do you know if all Bohm CD versions do away with the yammering between arias (Phillistine, I know)?

 

Now playing this sublime Rachmaninov SACD for a first listen.

Ashkenazy performs:
Moments musicaux, op. 16
Morceaux de fantasie, op. 3
Fragments (1917)
Pelude, op. posth. (1917)
Zdes' khorosho, op. 21 no. 7 [Transcr. Anon.]
Vocalise, op. 34 no. 14 [Transcr. Kocsis]

A disc for ages, go for it while you can.

 

Have you heard his recording of the complete Rachmaninov preludes?

 

No, I haven't, but now I probably should get them. There are 2 versions available:

#1

#2

Are they the same thing?

 

I have a number of sets of the preludes and his is the best.

Yes, same performance, but #1 has better mastering, plus you get the 2nd piano sonata as well.

 

Wish list updated.