Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #42)

When I got this one a few years back it had Penguin Guide Top Award.
Maybe I'm due for a upgrade?

 

I always wanted to get this disc, as it is very well regarded, but never did and now it is OOP and only available on cd-r by ArchivMusic or in a very inflated price from a third party Amazon seller

 

Perhaps EMI will resurrect it.

 

Michael Gordon's 'Timber' .....I originally posted this in the REGULAR music discussion thread, with no comments except my bump. Here's what I said:

I was browsing the classical music section at the local library today when I ran across 'Timber'. Started to play it in the car, and am intrigued!

From Amazon:

A collaboration with Dutch percussion outfit Slagwerk Den Haag, Timber began with Gordon meeting the group in Amsterdam to select instruments for the endeavor. No easy feat when you consider the sheer number of possibilities. Two-by-fours, or more precisely 'simantras' were the choice, and the entirety of the album features Slagwerk's mallet-wielders striking six boards. The glorious overtones produced from this limited array has to be heard to be believed. A spine-tingling shimmer caroms from east to west in the listener's headphones. Sound technicianSem de Jongh's capture of these otherworldly sonic layerings is a bit of recording genius.

 

Well, I hope so!

 

Thanks for the suggestion! Timber seems very interesting.



I know Michael Gordon through his ensemble Bang on a Can. I have their Music for Airports , which is a great remake of Brian Eno's original but nothing else from them or Michael Gordon.

 

I have it and love it. I'm a sucker for anything with mallets. Did the library have it in the original case made out of MDF?

 

Alas, no.....

I have yet to play it on the home system.

I'm NOT a huge fan of classical music, ordinarily. But I was browsing through the G section looking for the Philip Glass section, and ran across it.

I read the liner notes and was intrigued. So here I am.....

 

And is it the same fate for Bernstein "Sinfonia Espansiva" -Neilsen's 3rd Symphony on Columbia? It was released from around the same time. Rightly it helped , achknowleging that Bernstein was championing this 'unknown ' composer. On my shelves , I have the vinyl disc of Ormandy's version of the Neilsen 6th Symphony from around the same decade.

 

My greatest favorite is the 1967 Solti (LSO - Kingsway Hall) recording of the Mahler 2nd with Helen Watts and Heather Harper. Still I also have on the shelves, Klemperer , Abbado, Walter, Stokowski (recorded when he was 92! and just as explosive as ever), Tennsted,Slatkin, Solti (Chicago), and that ....now made infamous EMI Rattle recording. And that is just off the top of my head, as I write.

 

Arleen Auger...once taught by an opera performing tenor , whose late also opera singer - daughter used to come and stay with me.'
Frederica von Stade....since when, she first made her appearances on record, I grabbed everything she did ,that ever came along. She was especially perfect in any French repertiore.

 

Very nice choice.!
, I usually always have CDs going as I scan the Web. Thinking about the comments here about the Prokofiev Violin Concertos, an hour ago, I happened to sort though a pile on my coffee table and came across the Ruggiero Ricci performances with the Lumenburg Radio orchestra to put on the player. The Decca sound for Chung , is noticeably superior. Your buy is a excellent one.

Just finished , listening to the late Malcolm Frager the pianist on a Telarc disc.CD-80280 : titled "Malcolm Frager plays Chopin" . I notice he did not record a terrible lot, but he is a pianist I respected.

 

I'm glad someone got it.

 

Doubtful, but 2nd coming might come earlier for you.

 

Sure!

 

Duh! Man, I feel so stupid.....

 

You 're right, the 3rd was released in 1965, two years after the 5th. The orchestra this time was the Royal Danish Orchestra.
The Ormandy is from 1966 but I have not heard it.
Both Bernstein's and Ormandy's Nielsen recordings were available once as part of this nice collection, now OOP.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=146842

As I was looking through the ArchivMusic site, I found out that Bernstein's Nielsen is actually available in cd-r from ArchivMusic. Personally, I don't like paying full price for a cd-r, but at least this choice is out there for anyone interested in these.

 

I bought it from eBay when it had been already OOP and paid about $13 incl. shipping. Keep on trying!

 

Yesterday received 5 Arte Nova CDs (one single and two two-disc sets) that I bought on sale from ArkivMusic. They all play with static bursts and (sometimes many) backward skips/random mid-track repeats on my oldish JVC player at work, although they all seem to have ripped fine with EAC, and the one track that I tried on my Sony SACD-capable machine at home played just fine. Anybody else find discs on this label to be finicky about machines? The JVC has done fine with every other disc in any kind of decent shape that I've fed it, and I've never heard mistracking like this before from any machine. Keeping fingers crossed it's not the first sign the old boy is giving up the ghost....

Oh, by the way, I can find no sign on the packaging or discs themselves that these things are CD-Rs.

 

Inspired by this topic, I ordered this:



I already have symphony 2 and Song of the Earth but not the other recordings. € 12 retail price at Grooves-inc. Quite a steal!

 

I bought some '50s vintage NHK broadcast reissues from Grooves a while back; they had the best price I could find on the 'Net, and they seemed like good folks with whom to do business. Certainly the shipping was as prompt as one could ask, and the discs arrived in good shape, not beaten to death in the mail.

 

I love grooves-inc! My cd purchasing has gone throught the roof ever since I discovered their site.

 

Enjoying CD 1 from the above set! Mastering by Studio Art and Son, Paris. Out of curiosity, I have already compared some of the transfers from this box to transfers from previous Naxos, Biddulph and EMI issues of the same material. I am happy to report that in most cases the transfers are better in the new box. This box has a more open, fuller piano sound. The only case where I thought the older transfer was better was on some of the Naxos Chopin CDs, where the new EMI box left too much surface noise in, IMO. I am really glad I decided to buy this set (even though I already owned about 90 percent of the contents already in other transfers.) If you've been waiting to check out this pianist, this set is your chance to do it in style!

 

Forgot to mention that my box set (along with the complete Samson Francois set) was ordered from importcds, who ship their stuff through DHL. The nearest DHL site in California to importcds is in Compton. Which can only mean one thing: my Cortot set came from Straight Outta Compton!!