Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #35)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Mar 17, 2012.

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  1. rpd

    rpd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville
    So disappointed. The item looks great, but all 9 LP's are very noisy. Gosh, they look good, but almost unlistenable...are at least very distracting to hear this level of noise...

    I need to try my VPI on these...but I can tell from experience that this kind of noise will not go away

    Darn!
     
  2. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I heard a track on the radio this morning Mendelssohn Transcription. Neue Liebe (New Love). I wasn't that impressed, but that's more the piece than anything. It was playing on a crappy kitchen radio so that could have something to do with it. Though usually if I like the music, I'll like it on crappy sources too.

    I've been tempted.
     
  3. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    It was the transcriptions that appealed to me most about the set -- you won't find most of them anywhere else.

    Review by Charles Rosen of a new book on Liszt as transcriber, with a nice, short overview of Liszt's career: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/feb/23/super-power-franz-liszt/?pagination=false
     
  4. COLLECTOR MAN:

    You said it better than I could. You hit the bull in the rear.

    Congratulations on your "fair, honest, and candid" remarks, regarding "imposters".

    Your excellent "highlighted" remarks is much appreciated.

    I can hear the applause and the stomping of feet in the concert hall. Ha.

    Cheers, Long Plan Fan
     
  5. Maria Callas

    Sings Great Opera Arias from French Operas

    Orchestre National de la RTF

    Georges Pretre, conducting

    Gluck: "Orphee et Eurydice"

    Gluck: "Alceste"

    Bizet: "Carmen"

    Saint-Saens: "Samson et Dalila"

    Gounod: "Romeo et Juliette"

    Thomas: "Mignon"

    Massenet: "Le Cid"

    Charpentier: "Louise"

    EMI Angel Records 35882 Stereo
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Opera Gala

    Favorite ensembles sung by 34 great starts of the world opera!

    Music from

    Lucia Di Lammermoor [ Sextet ]

    La Boheme [ Quartet ]

    Carmen [ Quintet ]

    Faust [ Trio ]

    Martha [ Quartet ]

    The Barber of Seville [Quintet ]

    Der Rosenkavalier [ Trio ]

    Die Meistersinger [ Quintet ]

    The Abduction from the Seraglio [ Vaudeville Finale ]

    EMI Angel Records 36361
     

    Attached Files:

  7. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    Long Play Fan, could I just remind you of this part of the Collector Man post that seems to have upset you?

    "Please forgive me for the following strong comments directed - not at you or any SHF member that may hold a similar view. I respect the fact you enjoyed it, for the background purpose, you suitably used it.. "

    You like opera highlights--he doesn't. Can't we all just get along?
     
  8. Bizet: Carmen Suites No 1 and 2 and L'Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 and 2

    National Philharmonic Orchestra

    Leopold Stokowski (He was 95 years young when he recorded this album)

    Columbia Masterworks M34503 Stereo CBS 1977
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Verdi Opera Choruses

    Aida

    Macbeth

    Il Trovatore

    Nabucco

    Otello

    I Lobardi

    Don Carlos

    Chor der Staatsoper Dresden (Dresden State Opera Chorus)

    Staatskapelle Dresden (Dresden State Orchestra)

    Silvio Varviso

    Philips Digital Stereo 412 235-1

    Recorded in Dresden in December of 1983

    Made in the Netherlands
     

    Attached Files:

  10. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Thanks for the heads up. Must say, though, that Raff at least figured in some of my "youthful indiscretion" LPs from college (anybody else remember the old Vox Candide label?), which at the time I greeted with all the enthusiasm of the not-yet-immersed, but nowadays, when the radio stations seem suddenly to have "discovered" him, I keep finding myself scratching my head and saying, "Whatever did I hear in his stuff?" Kinda like what I've thought about the little Clara Schumann that I've heard: pretty generic Romantic fare, well crafted but routine, has been my reaction for the most part. (Based on the pathetically little that's out there, at least that's come my way, it's Fanny Mendelssohn who gets my vote for "unjustly neglected female Romantic composer." But then, if you drop the "female" descriptor, brother Felix gets much the same accolade, once you get away from the violin cto., the "Italian" sym., the standard Midsummer Night's Dream bits, and maybe the octet.)

    I gather that Victor made its extravagant recording because the work was extremely popular with church choirs back then and so could be expected to sell quite briskly, thank you very much. The music seems more or less to have disappeared since, at least in this country, although I have just the faintest inklinig that it may live on in the English choral repertory. I have the set in its original 78 RPM incarnation, but I'll spare you a photo; suffice it to say that the thing spans six records, twelve sides.
     
  11. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Stumbled across a real oddity last night. I was playing a recording of the 1812 Overture derived from MK, recorded in the Soviet era, featuring the USSR State SO under Konstantin Ivanov, when much to my surprise at the end the music suddenly lurched into this utterly unrelated ditty, went on in that way for a bit, and then picked back up as expected on to the end of the piece. I imagine it was a bid by the Soviet powers that were to expunge the God Save the Tsar/Czar/whatever theme, rather like airbrushing somebody out of a photo, but the effect is, to put it mildly, bizarre/biTsar/biCzar/take your pick, rather like a badly spliced skating music cut. I inquired of a friend knowlegeable about the more obscure corners of Soviet-era Russian music, and he informs me that the interpolation is part of a chorus from Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar," of course at that time for similar reasons given as "Ivan Susannin." Here's a link from which you can obtain the operative bit:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?x9vpd7kf7655s

    Oh, and worthy of note: my copy of the recording was packaged as part of a Japanese music appreciation set, the second of two devoted to the music of Tchaikowsky. I picked up several of these things, each with two LPs in sleeves bound into a lavish, well-illustrated, slipcased, inch-thick book about the composer and music (but naturally all in Japanese :sigh:), sourced from Japanese Victor and Melodiya, at a benefit sale back in 2000 but hadn't played this one until last night. Somebody in Japan chose this peculiar performance as the 1812 for those who don't know it yet!

    For the, er, record, the remainder of the set includes a performance of the 5th Sym. under Svetlanov, the Serenade for Strings under Kondrashin, and some rather random bits from Swan Lake and Nutcracker under Rozhdestvensky. Haven't played the sym. yet; the ballet bits are beautifully recorded, the serenade rather less so. Also haven't sampled Tchaikowsky volume 1, yet; it contains the 6th sym. and the pno. cto. with Ashkenazy, both under Kivanov, and the vln. cto. with Gutonikov under Rozhdestvensky.
     
  12. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
     
  13. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Here's another suggestion:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=170VHQ2X7T4W501RJFKG

    I know Julius Jacobson. He is an untrained fan of classical music who writes based on his personal response to various works. (It helps that he is friendly with Klaus Heyman of Naxos.)

    Disclosure - I actually haven't read the book. My musical education comes primarily from reading the backs of LP covers.
     
  14. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Leonard Bernstein did a celebrated series of TV programs, ostensibly aimed at young listeners but full of value for older ones as well, back in the '60s. I think they may have resurfaced on DVD; in all events, I'd have a look for them. I know that audio tracks he did on the subject (not sure if derived from the TV series) were available on record at one point, as I have a copy of the set. Which reminds me that I should probably dig it out and give the records a whirl for my 7 yr. old girl.
     
  15. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Give it time. Set your own pace for new discovery. A good 95% or more of the thousands of recordings on my shelves are classical. Still I confess, tucked away on the shelves are some things like Supertramp, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd ,Pat Metheny Group, Vangelis., Tangerine Dream etc and quite a few Broadway shows. And still all loved as well. :righton:
    I can still chuckle at the comments made by a highly respected piano teacher friend told to me, once .I asked him for his report on a social gathering - he had taken up the invitation to attend - at someone grand pretentious grand home. It was an alleged serious music soiree' of Mozart music that was being held - using recordings. His comment: "They had the **@*%#* audicity to pick out and play all of Mozart's music composed from just one particular nominated year. I will tell you now, he wrote a *#%* lot of poor music that year. I finished up ,wanting to cut my wrists by the end of it" :laugh:
     
  16. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Jeepers! This massive parade of sugary opera lollipops is certainly not going to make for a good health musical diet. And one should be mortified to think - they do not include the "Humming Chorus" from Puccini's Madame Blowfly! :D
     
  17. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    There was also a book by Bernstein that complimented his TV series (which may still be available for sale or available from a public library ) Many years ago, - the lasting expression from reading it -he pointed to Beethoven as the undeniable master of Form and clarified why, that was,
    I think he started by even using the famous opening chords of Beethoven's 5th Symphony as a example and progressed from there. I found that Bernstein as well as being a conductor , musician and composer - as a writer - was a perfect educator . Clear. concise and unconfusing - in what he was disciminating.
     
  18. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    What are the forum thoughts about Antal Dorati and the LSO?

    I've read so much negative press about his recordings, yet each one I've got is among my favorite versions. Perhaps it's just a subjective thing but I find them all to be vibrant and exciting. I'm looking now at the Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d'or / Capriccio Espagnol from HDTracks, but some of the reviews are not so good.
     
  19. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Me , the insatiable completist -a year or two back, purchased the EMI released mammoth Callas box- every studio recording Callas ever did - every complete opera and all recital discs - including those originally from the Cetra label All on 71 remastered CD's for $99 Followed up with Universal - France 100CD box of 50 complete operas for $175.which contains as well as current versions ...re-releases of famous (but formerly) OOP versions from around the 60 -80's.
     
  20. WorldB3

    WorldB3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    On the continent.
    Listened to the Shubert Impromptu D 899 of this last night. First impressions are very positive to wow. Need to spend more time with it (which should't be a problem) to comment more.

    [​IMG]
     
  21. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Well, talk about damning with faint phrase in the final two paragraphs! I take it that by the "virtuoso piano compositions" he means mainly the transcriptions, operatic paraphrases and possibly the Hungarian rhapsodies? But even if you factor in original works like the Transcendental Studies there's plenty of other Liszt piano music that is not in the least bit virtuosic and could quite easily be tackled by the gifted amateur with a bit of practice, and even of the stuff that is, it's certainly not virtuosic purely for the sake for showing off. Indeed Liszt's piano music is the quintessence of his creative genius, if not among the finest piano music ever written - the B minor Sonata, Années de pèlerinage (especially the Swiss and Italian books), the Concert Studies, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, the B minor ballade, Consolations and Liebesträume, two polonaises and Variations on a theme from Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, just out of the top of my head. There's also the two piano concertos and plenty of fine organ pieces (the Fantasy and Fugue on the name BACH being probably his masterpiece). I'm pretty sure Les Preludes and several other tone poems are quite often played and the Dante Symphony is still heard quite a bit. And I struggle to recall any moment of "somewhat commonplace inspiration" or one that isn't "in the best of taste" in works like the B minor Sonata, the first two books of Années de pèlerinage, Concert Studies, Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude, the six Consolations, Bach-based piano and organ pieces and the Faust symphony.

    It seems pointless also to compare Liszt with his romantic contemporaries and denigrate him for what he wasn't as he should be assessed on his own very idiosyncratic merits; that's like criticising the Rolling Stones for lacking the tunefulness of the Beatles, the gorgeous backing vocals of the Beach Boys or not having a drummer of the calibre of The Who's. I get the feeling he is trying to be objective about Liszt's strengths and (minor) weaknesses and almost succeeds but just falls down at the final hurdle.
     
  22. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I bought the EMI box as well. I can't remember reading anywhere that they were remastered (and I'm not at home at present to check).
     
  23. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Make no mistake about it, Dorati was a first rank major conductor. His complete Decca cycle of Haydn 104 Symphonies are 'the benchmark'. His Wagner Flying Dutchman with George London is highly respected. That are just two examples. As well he made a devil of a lot of superb recordings for the Mercury label . I gladly have many of Dorati's performances on my shelves. Go with your own subjectivity, trust your feelings as to what you like. -not those of some critic ' paid to give and write his own personal prejudices' who for whatever reason, thinks differently. Being a collector for many many decades, I can remember the reaction to various recordings on their initial release. Now - I think of those that were praised to the hilt but now ridiculed and those that have gradually become recognised after initial damming criticisms. I do not see certain critics that made such silly written comments now come forward to make apologies. We are all supposed to forget those little embarassments, they made One of the biggest laughs I get, is browsing back and reading some of the opinions expressed; in say an old picked up copy of the Perguin Record Guide from around the 90's.- brought for a couple of dollars in a thrift shop. On every page ,one notices blatant omissions of discussion on what was worthy recordings then readily available , due to its Euro -centric bent. Or maybe once again , being reminded of some critic's hell bent favoritism to some artist. No matter what the quality of their artistic performance, actually was.

    Then we had the case where certain magazines' expert critcs' (decidedly Europeon) praising to the hilt "Joyce Hatto" piano recordings , And laughingly, going as far as awarding one or two of them "Records of the Month". ....Yet they were later proven to be TOTAL FAKES! Made up of spliced and deliberately digitally manipulated takes - first stolen and made up from any number of top pianists' perfomances of the same works. Having being created and presented by the said named woman's husband -a once owner of a crappy cheap non de script record label,. It took U.S people to first smell and then 'detect the rat' recordings. Leading even to the ridiculous comparision situation in some cases, where the same Europeon critics had given poorer reviews to the genuine performances than the fake screwed up ones! The wash =up : Where are one or two of those charaltan critics now? ...Still out there - reviewing piano recordings! :laugh:
     
  24. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    I just checked .That statement is on the sides of the box.:)
     
  25. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    In a later reply to the above , you state the surfaces are less than perfect...
    I can remember that vinyl editions of Von Karajan's (1963) Beethoven Symphony box being marketed with 'displayed tulip labelled illustration of the discs' ....being sold like hot cakes and PRESSSED in any number of countries for sale, over the years. It was the 'in - thing ', Even Readers' Digest had an cheap cut price offer on it, at one time.
    Comparision of a fully imported German set and some local produced one - for a start - the German set was made of much thicker vinyl and guaranteed virgin - vinyl During some of those same years there were horror sources of vinyl recordings to avoid. at all costs. You would go into a record shop, look at a recording and straight -away check the label and then wanted to know, EXACTLY its source of manufacture. RCA for instance around their Dynagroove era started a plant in New Zealand. Great if you wanted 'domed musheroom cap' shaped recordings. EMI was into a bit of recycling shop returned vinyl, the list goes on. I vividly remember getting to a new sealed stack of one US made recording that came in... After dirt detection of the first copy when opened : the rest were examined by a staff member - Apparently someone back in the pressing plant - hand packaging the pressings, had greasy food for lunch . Each copy have their same tell tale dirty greasy finger marks around the surfaces' outer edges.
    Then there was the nick names for what was seen as typical complaints : US Philips 'dust sprinkle' surface noise , MGM 'sand paper'. Melodiya's 'road street bitumen'. etc.
    Any wonder some people ran to CD as quick as they could go, not worrying whether it was 16 bit and 44 Kz mastering.
     
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