Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #11)

Now playing this lovely recording:

 

Yes, I am referring to used CD's. I'm a lucky guy out here, I must say, what with all the great used finds, CD and vinyl. Ormandy titles on Sony are ubiquitous in the bins. Early 90's Sony Essential Classics reissues, especially. Here is a link to Amazon, all cheap and in stock.

 

Yeah, I love to go digging in the bins when I have the money. Much more fun than pointing and clicking over at amazon.

 

I was just listening to an 1988 pressing of Ravel - Piano Concertos (Abbado) on the Deutsche Grammophon label (Made in UK) and the sound started to break up. The disc looks very nice so I was not expecting any problems. Seems disc rot has set in. Tried scanning it into my computer and it was taking a very long time (indicative of a problem). Has anyone heard this disc? Too bad, I was enjoying the music.

 

Been listening to another nice Ormandy (on CD this time)...an extra treat is the fabulous Emil Gilels on piano..

 

listening to Leinsdorf's RCA recording of Mahler 5 (1963) on 1990 Silver Seal cd-not bad.

 

Where is your sense of "GREEN" audio-ness?

I almost always buy used!
It's my way of recycling....that is if they are like new....otherwise I don't want em.
1 out of 10 Cd's I get are spanky new...bout what it works out to.
Not to mention I save a HUGE wad of cash buying used.....the savings means more Cd's for my money!

 

Ralph Dopmeyer just ran onto a Goldberg!

Them's some chilly Goldbergs.

Don't know who I like doing the Goldbergs on harpsichord these days, still have Scott Ross but rarely play it. Love Perhaia's SACD, it's about as fine-grained and detailed a performance as one could hope to find.

Sound ain't half-bad either, considering that it's pure DSD.

Then there are the Gouldbergs which are about as sui generis as Bogey's smoke or Brando's leather jacket, the posture of James Dean as he's leaning on a brick wall or the motion of Bernstein's hands as he explains Ballad of a Thin Man..

 

I'm normally quite happy to buy used for performances or masterings not otherwise available.

 

"All Strung Out"

Oh yeah, and as much as I adore the skeezy institution of the brick and motar crypts that supply us with regular doses of vinyl and polycarbonate, I have succumbed to the Circe-like subductions of the Amazons.

Nothing like having your latest musical addiction delivered semi-fresh & piping hot to your front door.

 

needle droppin' a fairly rare one on Melodiya

I'm making a CD-R of this 20th Century composer's work tonight. A bit on the obscure side of things. I have four LPs of his works, they need digital preservation, the job is up to me.

Amazing stuff, with a good "edge," but still accessible.

Jaan Rääts - Symphony No. 7 Op. 47 / Piano Quintet #3 Op. 38 / Preludes from the cycle "24 Preludes" Op. 33

Neeme Järvi conducting the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rein Rannap - Piano

Melodiya S10 05943

 

Agree? Disagree?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/arts/music/28chopinweb.html?ref=music

 

I'm a big Scarlatti fan. I have a 3 disc selection from Scott Ross's cycle. On piano I have the Horowitz disc as well as a disc by Alexis Weissenberg. And I treasure a disc of guitar transcriptions performed by Narciso Yepes.

 

If You Have a SACD player and don't have Murray Perahia's Études, then you're crazy.

Agree with this:

. . .The pianist who has won the broadest consensus for his exemplary Chopin is probably Arthur Rubinstein. He emerged when the use of expressive rubato and Romantic liberties in Chopin was rampant. In that context he was a model of refinement and taste, with no loss of rhapsodic fancy and imagination. You can trust him in any Chopin. And as a proud Polish artist playing Chopin’s mazurkas, which evoked a Polish dance form, he was unrivaled. I especially love his later recordings of the 51 Mazurkas, made in 1965 and 1966, when he was nearly 80. Even in the sprightly mazurkas his playing is subtly melancholic and mystical.

A pianist who can play the 24 Chopin Études can play anything. People may not think of Murray Perahia, that poet of the keyboard, as a dazzling virtuoso type. But he conquers the études on his stunning 2002 release, while bringing out the musical riches of these milestone piano pieces. . .

. . .Then there is the magnificent Dinu Lipatti, who was just building his recorded legacy when he died of cancer in 1950, at 33. A musician of uncommon sensitivity and intelligence, he was an exquisite Chopin player. His complete Chopin recordings have been issued in a two-disc set, including the First Piano Concerto, the Third Sonata, the 14 waltzes, selected nocturnes and mazurkas, and an incomparable account of the deceptively complex Barcarolle. . .

Anthony Tommasini


. . . CHOOSING just five recordings to represent most composers poses a challenge, but doing so for Chopin is especially daunting. His music, so fastidiously wrought and emotionally generous, rewards faithful interpretations while also embracing idiosyncratic approaches; you’re spoiled for choice across a vast temperamental range. But if one thing is clear, it is that any collection must include at least one recording by Arthur Rubinstein, whose keen insights were shaped by a lifelong association with Chopin’s music.

With dozens of options available, I am especially partial to Rubinstein’s magisterial 1959 recordings of the Ballades and Scherzos, made when he was 72. Even this late in Rubinstein’s life his technical capacity holds up. Racing lines in the Scherzo No. 1 will leave you breathless. An overall sense of consideration and rightness permeates this session, and John Pfeiffer’s recording is outstandingly lifelike in a 2004 hybrid Super Audio CD edition, even when played on conventional stereo equipment.

Much the same could be said of Ivan Moravec’s set of the Nocturnes, taped in 1965 by E. Alan Silver for the Connoisseur Society label and issued on CD by Nonesuch in 1991. Even by modern standards the recorded sound is astonishing; you may have to adjust to Mr. Moravec’s breathing and other extraneous sounds. But his extraordinary dynamic shading and gracious shaping of each gemlike work lift his account above a crowded field: truly, this is an essential document. . .

Steve Smith
​

 

I can't take Julian Bream & John Williams 'Together/Together Again' (a Musical Heritage Society two-fer I picked up at a library sale) out of my CD player in the car.

And I'm NOT a huge classical music fan overall.

 

If you have a SACD player and you don't have Perahia's Chopin Etudes, then you're crazy, sayeth Robin? Orig. US Sony SACD long OOP, not even a second-hand Marketplace seller, and Japan SACD reissue priced at a cool $73. I'll keep looking in the bins. Some pianophiles have a thing against Perahia, but I dig his Bach (especially the Partitas, wow) and Mozart. Also thought his latest Beethoven Sonatas disc was excellent, esp. the Pastoral. The Romantics, however, not really anything I want to hear again, on average.

 

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Picked up the bulk of my SACDs when I worked at Borders—we couldn't give 'em away!

Single-layer SACDS often accidently landed in the CD bins—the other clerks didn't know them from Adam, customers would be returning these "CDs" that wouldn't play in their car . . .

I'd send the single-layer SACDs back where they belonged, often buying them on the spot. That was just three years ago.

Have things changed or what?

 

FWIW, I have heard that a lot of editing goes into his CD releases.

 

probably 75 % of my large collection is used. the rest were bought at
sale prices or as cut-outs .i don't think i've ever paid full list price for
anything. as much fun as collecting can be, getting a low price doubles the
pleasure.of course i realize i'm missing some things this way, but it
works for me.

 

Surely nothing like an Annie Fischer release, though, right?

Yeah, most of those Sony single-layers (and especially the 2002-2003 multi-channel archival releases such as Bernstein Britten/Sea Pictures, which I want badly) and Mercury Living Presence titles are OOP and officially 'collectable' now. The Perahia Chopin Etudes has eluded me. You know the story, too cheap to buy full-price when I could, always looking second-hand in LA bins, and now it's officially OOP and I can't find it to save my life.

 

Uhhhh yeah.....what you said!

 

I'm like that with EVERYTHING I buy!
I won't pay full price unless I absolutely hafta.
I don't make a lot of money so I'm big time bargain hunter.

 

Re: Perahia's Chopin Etudes: http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Études...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1275071011&sr=1-2

I think this series of Columbia Masterworks CDs with the orange-y border along all four sides are DSD remasters, intended to be the next wave of SACDs right before Sony declared SACD dead. I have, or had, one of Perahia's Mozart Piano Concertos in this series.

 

That's the one I have. Sounds great, although the first issue (and SACD) was released only a few years prior. Reminds me of going to Borders and seeing four separate US reissues of Gould's Bach Two and Three-Part Inventions -- Anniversary Edition 2002, SACD 1999, Masterworks Heritage 2004, Great Performances 2006.

 

Wow. I have a lot of "collectibles" at this point. I did not know they were OOP.