E Power Biggs – The Four Great Toccattas and Fugues: The Four Antiphonal Organs of the Cathedral of Freiburg Played Simultaneously (1974) Recorded October 1 – 9, 1973 2003 Sony Classical SS 87983 single-layer 5.1 multi-channel SACD
My favorite American sopranos are Arleen Auger and Sylvia McNair ... Can't say I have a favorite mezzo.
Now playing the familiar (to me) Mozart "Posthorn" Serenade (No.9 in D Major), K.320 from this Columbia Masterworks record I bought in 1971. George Szell leading Members of the Cleveland Orchestra. Below I've photographed a portion of the inner sleeve where Columbia is advertising their "Beethoven Bicentennial Specials"... something that was all the rage among the Classical divisions of record companies back in 1970-71.
I have the original LP release. Promoted as "A Quadraphonic Spectacular" back in the day, with each of the 4 antiphonal organs assigned to separate channels. The matrix encoding on the LP, however, hardly compares to your SACD with discrete channel separation... but it was novel at the time.
On Spotify, "Heinrich von Meissen - Der Taugenhort" performed by Per-Sonat on Christophorus. Mystical reflections in the Middle Ages
BIS' latest wunderkind. He plays well, but the repertoire is not engaging for me. Great sound. (One great aspect of Qobuz is that it's easy to delete an unappealing recording!)
On Spotify, "Baroque Consolation - Sacred Arias at the Imperial Viennese Court" performed by Oltremontano on Accent.
IIRC, Nonesuch LP's used to sell at $4.99 back in the day. So the pre-recorded cassette tape probably sold for $3.99 ...
Nonesuch records originally sold for $2.50 (list) when the company first launched in 1964. When I bought my first one in 1970 the retail price was up to $2.98, but that was still half of what a Columbia or RCA LP sold for at the time. I have some Nonesuch cassettes, but I don't recall what I paid for them.
Spotify has this Debussy collection streaming. A download is tempting but the space required for optimal quality is prohibitive. So I enjoy it on my jaunts around town. Can't seem to find any online listing for the various tracks, though. Highly recommended, nonetheless. Why is classical album art is hideously banal?
He was only born 26 years after the death of Charlemagne the Great ... Talking about being ancient! Charlemagne - Wikipedia
I think by the mid to late 70's, the Nonesuch LP's were probably selling for $3.99 but cassette tapes for the same recordings generally were sold for less ...
You're probably right. I know they didn't stay $2.98 for long. BTW, here is a Nonesuch "Demonstration" record that was produced in the mid-'60s as a sampler of their catalog. The back of the jacket shows several of their colorful albums that were in print at that time. In the upper left corner, you can see that this demo record retailed for "$1.00," yet my record shop gave it to me for free... and I suspect many were just handed out gratis to frequent customers. Along with the record (all baroque music), a small booklet inside listed upcoming releases and "The Nonesuch Story"...the latter mentioning the records listed for $2.50. I love their fanciful original art, which really stood out in the bins:
There's a peculiar Anglophilia - especially in New England - and a concomitant tendency to undervalue American musicians that used to be the default position of many, but has largely been abandoned. I understand the Brits sometimes had a somewhat similar attitude towards the continent, which has also largely dissipated.
Yes, I think their artwork was and still is unparalleled in the classical world. Too bad there hasn't been anything of the sort since. I do think classical can use a bit of humour, when tastefully done. And Nonesuch had plenty of both—humour, and good taste.
Don't think Nonesuch has released any new classical recordings in a very long time. It seems WarnerMusic just let it sit there and rot ...
Well, today we get an endless parade of Classical album covers featuring shoeless female musicians in semi revealing clothing........
