Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #51)

I have a 3 disc set of the complete chamber music of Debussy performed by members of the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center. Includes some pretty obscure wors.
As for Ravel, I am looking forward to playing the Rubinstein/Heifetz/Piatigorsky performance of the trio, which I last heard on LP several decades ago.

 

Very cool. Was it released commercially?

 

On its way, and thanks. You've cited this before in these threads -- this time I'm taking action. (So far, my threat to curtail Amazon purchases since they raised the min shipping to $3.99 has come to naught. )

Franck's presence here reminds me of his describing his former student Debussy's string quartet as "C'est de la musique sur les pointes d'aiguilles", which translates roughly to "nerve-end music", which was not meant as a compliment. Apparently, theirs was a prickly relationship.

 

Sounds like you need Amazon Prime.

 

...and the omnipresent Franck sta. reminds me that if you are looking for some off-the-beaten-path chamber music, Franck's piano trios op. 1 nos. 1 and 2 are both worth a lot more hearings than they seem to receive, although if forced to choose I'd say no. 1 is the better. (Not as sold on op. 1/3, but maybe it will grow on me with time, or maybe I haven't heard the "right" performance yet.) For no. 1, I recommend the Munich Piano Trio on the now-alas-apparently-defunct Calig label; for no. 2, there's a complete set of Franck's music for piano trio (2 CDs) on the always-expensive Dynamic label that's quite nice, although I like the other account of op. 1/1 better. On the other hand, the Dynamic set contains some other very nice music that probably is otherwise hard to find. (And, of course, the omnipresent vln. sta., which brings us back to where we started!)

Here's the Calig disc:



...and here's the one on Dynamic:

 

Anent the Calig disc, I should add that what gives it the nod, for me, is the performers' evident passion for this score.
They really play it as if it were "important" music; I can't imagine anyone making a stronger case for it.

Which brings me back to the Kurt Woss account of Beethoven's 7th Sym. that I praised an iteration or so back in this thread. As you doubtless have zealously committed to memory , he led a scrappy band in this recording around 1950 for the American Remington label, the granddaddy of all budget classical LP lines. Having reminded myself of this diamond in the rough, ever since then, off and on (more the former than the latter) I've been trying to get a good dub to my computer. Now, aside from sometimes pulling off surprising feats of A&R legerdemain, Remington was notable for its determined avoidance of decent pressing quality, even by the modest standards of 1950. I have two copies of the Beethoven record, and I tried dubbing each more than once, always, until last night, with less than success, sometimes because of equipment issues and sometimes because they just sounded awful.* Well, cutting to the chase, last night I gave up on attempting this feat with the Shure V15V-xMR cartridge-cum-stock-high-end-stylus and started trying other approaches, even at one point pressing into service a 2.5 mil truncated elliptical intended for 78s. In the end, the solution turned out to be nothing else than a lowly Shure M97-xE; suddenly a lot of surface noise and, more importantly, boatloads of distortion just plain disappeared, and this sonic sow's ear became, if not a silk purse, at least a decently tanned pigskin pocketbook.

So, the bottom line: if you are trying to play or transfer material from Remington LPs, don't assume that the "best" cartridge is actually the best cartridge. I know that from this point forward the M97 will become my first resort in these cases.

*[And when I say something sounds awful, trust me, it sounds awful.]

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, for $79/yr I still have to order discs at Amazon's inflated rate, which, even without shipping charges is still very often higher than secondary vendors with $4 shipping.

 

So the bottom line is by knocking off some fidelity, you've ended up with better sound?

 

Now playing:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerti Nos.1-4 K37, K39, K40, K41
— Murray Perahia — English Chamber Orchestra (CBS Records Masterworks – Sony Classics)

 

Yeah, Prime never seemed like a good idea to me for that very reason. And of course, anyone can get free shipping from amazon anyway (without paying for Prime), simply by ordering at least $35 in amazon goods.

 

Counter-intuitive, I know, I think it's a matter of the lower-end Shure's maximum performance still far exceeding anything the record had to offer coupled with vagaries of stylus configuration. With that decidedly lo-fi record, the complex geometry of the V15V-xMR's stylus evidently bought me nothing but better-recovered surface noise; I think there was little or no musical signal there to be extracted by its greater powers of resolution. I also have the impression it didn't fit the groove well--at least, that's what it sounded like, a case of a stylus undersized for the groove (this is a not uncommon problem when playing 78s, one reason for keeping a selection of different-sized styli on hand). Lots of background noise and distortion on peaks. In fact, that's what got me to trying other options; the sym. is spread, by itself, over two reasonably well-filled sides, and I got to thinking that the groove may well be wider than the modern stereo microgrooves for which the high-end Shure stylus was designed. This was, after all, a record produced by an off brand, ultra-shoestring operation just after the introduction of the LP, when I imagine standards were still at least somewhat fluid. In this case--admittedly, not what I would have expected up front!--a simple elliptical proved to give better performance.

 

Yes, on Delos.

 

I've got it wishlisted, thanks!

 

Now Listening To

Dvorak. Symphony 3. Kertesz. UK early ffrr.

This is the best of Dvorak's early symphonies. I'm not sure why he didn't include it in his abbreviated canon because it is as good as some of the 5 he did bless. A fine performance by Kertesz with excellent sonics.

 

That is hard to tell. When I was in grad school, I attended a course taught by Peter D. Lax. Lax won the equivalent of the Nobel Prize (Abel Prize) in mathematics and has been equated to Albert Einstein in mathematics but he was not the best teacher. I have the complete Bach Organ Works by the English organist Margaret Phillips in my collection. Phillips was a student of Marie-Claire Alain. Based on what I have heard, she is no Marie-Claire Alain ...

 

I only have his CD set, which is excellent ...

 

Now playing CD2 of the following set, which is a live recording with DVD for a first listen ...

 

Sounds like a dreadful fade-out (!) about one minute to the end of the final piece from Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps, "Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus", by Barenboim/Tétard/Desurmont/Yordanof on DG (1979), a recording apparently authorized by the composer.

Now is it really a fade-out / can a piano player actually quiet down in a jiffy, like that?

Are fade-outs more a common practice in recording classical music than I was aware of (part time/"Sunday" classical fan here)?

 

Listened to a few items from this set of the solo piano works, including the suite Out of Doors.
Zoltan Kocsis
Bartok: Complete Solo Piano Works.
Decca box, 2010
Formerly on Philips

 

Then I sampled the Bartok String Quartets again with the Hungarian Quartet. Even with this excellent recording, I am still not 'loving' all of these quartets.
Someday, maybe

 

This should be a terrific combo, a Hungarian ensemble playing Bartok.

 

More baroque works. Now playing the following CD, another recent arrival for a first listen ...

 

If you have not already, try this one. The Anissimov is great also.

What a great work. Those descending augmented chords right before the coda in the final movement never fail to blow my mind.

 

That disc is essential IMO. It is a killer.

 

It is a real surprise that these harpsichord sonatas by this minor Italian composer have such a nice rhythm and flow to them ...