Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #25)

Looks like I will have to get this one sooner or later.

 

Happy Pentecost to all here. Starting the day with Händel's Messiah.

 

"You guys, you're like Puritans are about the Bible. So hung up with words, words."

Don't start me talking
I'll tell everything I know
I'm gonna break up this signified
Somebody's got to go

​

 

Is this a Linn SACD? I never got the chance to buy it, is it good?

 

I have a few of these Audio Fidelity LPs but I don't like the sound. They claim to be audiophile but some of my discs are pressed badly, with sound cutting off from one channel randomly etc.

How do you like them?

 

I'd say yes. But it's the only Messiah I own, so I can't compare it to any other recording. And I have the 24/88.2 download, but I'm sure the SACD sounds great as well.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

Thank you!

Glad you like it . . . it is my favorite Brendel set of Schubert.

 

Eddie, I thought of you while listening to Abbado's 9th yesterday from this box set. It's the old one, w/the VP. I don't know if I'd call it the best I've ever heard, but something about it causes me to really listen to it. It started because there's a sudden lowering in volume as one track becomes the next in the first movement (the four movements are divided into 31 tracks; the first movement has nine). But as I listened, I realized I really like this version. Or, because of its sound quality, I find it eminently listenable, at least.

Anyway, IIRC, M9 is your favorite Mahler, and I wondered if you have this version, and how you like it.

Also, Mr. Abbado has been sick. He had stomach cancer in 2001, I think, and had an operation that has caused him to look less-than-well ever since. I think he's retired now.

 

The Brahms Concerto in B-flat is my favorite piece; I had never heard of either the conductor or soloist on that record however. Did you like it?

 

ECO/Raymond Leppard
Various works by Vivaldi,Albinoni and Corelli rec. 1970
Classics for pleasure CD CFP 4371
A disc I bought in early 1990 new.

 

talk about jumping into the deep end!

 

i'll give it another listen, i haven't had it on in some time. but i do remember that when i bought it, it left a bad taste in my mouth because it was 2 full priced discs and came with all those positive reviews... and not that the playing isn't worthwhile, it just didn't grab me as a performance. i do wonder sometimes with reviews, and realizing that reviewers need to generate a certain buzz about new recordings or they would be out of a job, whether the performances that have all the notes played right are part of what it takes to succeed. i get the sense sometimes that reviewers, many of whom are musicians who don't have performing careers in their own right, sit with the score and if everything is done 'right', the performance is a success. but that's like saying the best performance of shakespeare is the one where you can hear every word. it leaves out the interpretive element or 'what's between the notes'!

 

Really? It was playing in a record store shortly after I bought my first CD player, and it was so beautiful, I had to have it. You could buy 3 mid-priced Polygram-label classical CDs for $25, so I bought Brendel's Mozart 23 & 27, and HVK's Beethoven 9, too. And that was the start of a beautiful obsession that continues to this day.

 

I hope you are not offended, as an American who admires JS Bach above all other composers that have ever lived, I often find Dutch or English ensembles do a better job with Bach works. I prefer most instrumental works by JS Bach performed by the English Concert/Trevor Pinnock and AAM/Christopher Hogwood over MAK/Reinhard Goebel, though I have a good number of recordings by MAK as well. For SMP and other Bach choral works, the Dutch duo Ton Koopman and Jos Veldhoven and their ensembles come to mind, though John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists/Monteverdi Choir are quite good as well ...

 

I have many recordings by Raymond Leppard, mostly on LP. He was really instrumental in bringing back baroque music to the listening public. It all started with his founding of the ECO ...

 

Jay, Some of these early-day Philips CD's have surprising good sound. I bought the following CD used a few months ago and was nicely surprised at its SQ ...

 

Now playing SACD1 from this set, which arrived a few weeks ago from MDT for a first listen ...



I am quite disappointed that I cannot locate the earlier version of SMP by Veldhoven at a less insane price. I would have preferred Johannette Zomer sang the soprano role in this new SACD release ...

 

I bet few of these recordings have been remastered for CD release ...

 

No, not offended at all. And I'm always thankful for any recommendations from someone with your broad knowledge.

 

Now playing SACD2 from this set for a first listen ...

 

I have a pretty good-sized collection of JS Bach works conducted by Karl Richter and Karl Munchinger as well. I think they were the pioneers in bringing performances of JS Bach works back to the listening public. The English conductor Raymond Leppard also deserves much credit for the revival of baroque music in the second half of the 20th century.

I think I was real lucky for having been able to attend a concert of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Munchinger in Carnegie Hall just a few years before he passed away ...

 

I like them, too, Stuart.

 

It is a major disappointment to see the Philips label disappear. It is just not the same when the original recordings were made for Philips and now the same recordings are released by London/Decca ...

 

I will keep these names in mind when I'm looking for more Bach in the future (and I will, since he has become one of my favourite composers as well).

All I know from the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra are these two TACET releases (you have the "Brandenburg Concertos" too, if I remember correctly):





But of course Münchinger is not involved in these.