Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #22)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Feb 12, 2011.

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  1. coopmv

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

    Location:
    CT, USA
    So CD was indeed a wonderful invention. With each listen you take on an LP, its sound quality gets progressively degraded due to the wear on the vinyl. We don't have this problem with CD ... :righton:
     
  2. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Funny - I enjoy the quartets, but overall I prefer the trios. I have those recordings of the quartets as an SACD on Pentatone. I also have them as part of a box set of the complete Brahms chamber music that Philips released some time ago (in honor of the centenary of his death maybe?).
     
  3. ron p

    ron p Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I just received an e-mail from Presto Classical. It looks like Sony is releasing a bunch of box sets on April 4th. The prices work out to $3-$4 per disc and feature some classic performances. Any feedback on this bunch? Hopefully it is o.k. to post a link?
    http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/promo.php?promo=261&blurb=261

    Many of these sets look very interesting to me at these prices. Anybody have any opinions or more information on the music contained in these boxes? Is the Rubinstein Chopin the same performances in the RCA brown cd box?
     
  4. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    These are absolute must buys, IMO -

    Casadesus - Mozart
    Gould - Bach
    Szell - Haydn
     
  5. coopmv

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

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Sony is a late comer to the big box party ...
     
  6. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    This date is possible birthdate of Henry Purcell, 1659

    Purcell
    Music for Queen Mary
    A Celebration of the Life and Death of Queen Mary

    Various artists.
    Also with music by John Blow, Thomas Tollet, James Paisible, and Thomas Morley.
    Recorded in Westminster Abbey, 1994
    (Sony SBM)
     

    Attached Files:

  7. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Thanks for the info. I may have to spring for a few of them. What gives with the Maazel Sibelius box..no sixth or seventh symphony? His recording of the seventh is the best on record IMO.

    Ps-The Munch is also pretty much a must have.
     
  8. coopmv

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

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Agree. I also have a few sets in mind ... :righton:
     
  9. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    Any of the erudites in here have experience with these reissues on CD?

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
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  11. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    All I can tell you is that the old German DeCapo vinyl reissue pounds the current Budget CD reissue on EMI into the sand. While I'm not anti-CD, CD seems to be anti-Furtwängler.
     
  12. Zanth

    Zanth Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I was at a local B&M shoppe when I shuffled through their classical section (a separate part of their store) and this was playing:

    [​IMG]

    Wow! I was impressed. I stopped in my tracks, listened for 10 and then put the CD in my stack for the day, paid and raced to the car to spin the disk. It's been going non-stop since Thursday.

    Saint-saens is quickly becoming a top 5 favourite composer for me.

    The ever great Naxos has clips.

    It doesn't hurt that the performers are regulars just up the street from me. Though they recorded in Toronto.
     
  13. jimsumner

    jimsumner Senior Member

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    Wow. The Leinsdorf/Prokofiev and Casadesus/Mozart jump out for me but I could see myself buying at least half of these.

    It's amazing how cheaply one can purchase some of the great recordings of Western Civilization. Like many on this board, I shelled out for a lot of the recent EMI boxes and am slowly working my way through them.

    Maybe, it's overkill but at these prices, who can say no? Not me.
     
  14. OE3

    OE3 Senior Member

  15. OE3

    OE3 Senior Member

    Sony budget boxes

    Szell Haydn, really? On paper it seems it would be charmless and unsmiling, two things Haydn shouldn't be. But I have not heard it. Why is Symphony No. 101 not included??

    These are essential for beginners, IMO:
    • Casadesus - Mozart
    • Rubinstein - Chopin
    • Heifetz - Great Violin Concertos
    • Gould - Bach
    These essential for me but not necessarily everyone:
    • Reiner - R. Strauss
    • Stern - Plays Beethoven (w/ Rose and Istomin Complete Trios and Istomin Complete Violin Sonatas)
    I have all of those, so I am planning to get:
    • Leinsdorf - Prokofiev
    • Munch - Romantic Masterworks
    • Levine - Mahler
    • Wand - Bruckner
    This one not listed at Presto but is already out:
    • Levine - Schumann
     
  16. OE3

    OE3 Senior Member

    I bought this last week for $4 at my local B&M. The late sonatas are beautiful 'throwback' pieces. Stripped to the bone in terms of melody and all the better for it. Naxos at it again!
     
  17. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Those should be amazing!!! And the prices are certainly right as well.

    Are they using previous mastering and just gathering up the works for this box set series?

    I'd grab those two sets as well if I were not allready fairly deep in Shaded Dogs, White Dogs, and Dynaflexi's, etc.

    I guess I'll get them used some day. Come to think of it, I've not heard a Leinsdorf conducted work on RCA that I didn't like.
     

    Attached Files:

  18. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Szell in Haydn—Yes. On paper it would be charmless and unsmiling, in practice is incisive and full of wit. I'd much rather hear Szell in Haydn than in Mozart. In fact, I'd rather hear Szell in Haydn than just about anything.

    This, by the way, while mostly charmless and unsmiling, is probably the best Haydn symphonic performance I've heard from anybody—no one gets closer to the spirit of Beethoven in Haydn than these people:

    [​IMG]
     
  19. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    The more I hear about that set, Robin, the more interested I become.
     
  20. OE3

    OE3 Senior Member

    Yes, we talked about Kuijken and La Petite Bande a few months ago. Totally agree with you, vital effervescent brilliant Haydn (and check the 'Papa' b.s. at the door). In addition, it is one of only a handful of sets of later Symphonies on period instruments (Brueggen, Koopman's recent one). I have all of LPB's Haydn discs on Virgin Classics and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, about 10 releases. I will have to check out the Szell.
     
  21. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    You must accept your fanboy status. With self-knowledge and acceptance come inner peace, and fewer dancing pineapple emoticons.

    I may acquire a copy myself, and, as an arrogant ignoramus, render a peremptory verdict. That is, if I can look past the cloying Yuja-in-ushanka cover pic.
     
  22. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Comings and goings

    Just heard (thanks to Sirius XM as I returned from taking my daughter to school) of a milestone birthday that as far as I know has otherwise entirely eluded the more popular press: today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Hovhaness. I wish it had drawn more attention and, more importantly, a battery of new recordings, but I suppose I'm not surprised at the neglect; his distinctive voice and the undeniable quality of his best work notwithstanding (and admittedly, like other highly prolific latter-day composers--Reger and Milhaud come to mind--he could be uneven), Hovhaness never seems to get much farther than the fringes of the public consciousness. After noting the occasion, S-XM played his 4th quartet, a piece I'd not heard before that proved to have that strange beauty of sound (and an ebullient fugue) characteristic of this composer and the equally characteristic title "The Ancient Tree." Promised for later this AM, when alas I will be away from my S-XM receiver, are a cello concerto and a no. 60-something symphony. If you're not familiar with his work, the best starting place is probably the classic and justly celebrated Living Stereo CSO/Reiner recording of his second sym., "Mysterious Mountain," but there's a lot more to Hovhaness than that. A personal favorite is his piano suite "Fred the Cat," written in memory of a friend's departed house pet. The final mvt. has the title "Fred the Cat flies to heaven."

    Speaking of passings, here's one worth noting that was marked in the Washington Post obits a few days ago but that I've otherwise not seen mentioned: Eugene Fodor. I never had the good fortune to hear him, but my mother did when he played a concert in Knoxville, TN before he hit the skids, and she was floored by the performance--couldn't stop talking about it for days thereafter. A dispiriting story, his, to put it mildly. :shake: RIP.
     
  23. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
    ---------------
    CDs really suck when it comes to this.

    It was a live recording produced by Ferrera Musica. Sid McLauchlan producer, Stephan Flock recording engineer, Daniel Kemper assistant engineer.
     
  24. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Back again to add my favorite Hovhaness anecdote, courtesy of Wikipedia:

    Lou Harrison reviewed a 1945 concert of Hovhaness' music which included his 1944 concerto for piano and strings, entitled Lousadzak:

    "There is almost nothing occurring most of the time but unison melodies and very lengthy drone basses, which is all very Armenian. It is also very modern indeed in its elegant simplicity and adamant modal integrity, being, in effect, as tight and strong in its way as a twelve-tone work of the Austrian type. There is no harmony either, and the brilliance and excitement of parts of the piano concerto were due entirely to vigor of idea. It really takes a sound musicality to invent a succession of stimulating ideas within the bounds of an unaltered mode and without shifting the home-tone."

    However, as before, there were also critics:

    "The serialists were all there. And so were the Americanists, both Aaron Copland's group and Virgil's. And here was something that had come out of Boston that none of us had ever heard of and was completely different from either. There was nearly a riot in the foyer [during intermission] — everybody shouting. A real whoop-dee-doo."
     
  25. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
    ---------------
    As a fellow ignoramus I have to admit. Two listens has wrought a mountian of opinions just on the 2nd piano concerto. I haven't even tackled the Paganini. Can't get over the fact that it was a live performance too.
     
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