Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #27)

Jim, how do you like Mengelberg's M4 on this set?

 

Minor "SCORE" at a Garage Sale this past weekend......
Bran new cello sealed......$.25 (25 cents)

 

All the more exciting due to it is live recording in Avery Fisher Hall -- a place which I believe some controversy exists regarding its acoustical assets. Or am I wrong about that?

 

I have not gotten that far yet. I am taking it slow as I traverse my whole M collection. But I will get around to it soon.

 

Agreed, the profusion of labels is maddening. However, as I understand it, the Belock-issues didn't use that many.

Here's the one on my mono-version of the Moussorgsky.



Roger Gordon over at Positive Feedback says as follows:

Fortunately, it is very easy to tell the Belock pressings from the later pressings via the labels. Belock initially used a silver/turquoise label with the earliest of these using a wooden dowel on the outside edge of the inner sleeve just as Angel did on their earliest releases. The second and final Belock label was purple/gold with a picture of a mountain on it. The early Everest recordings can be found with either silver/turquoise or purple mountain labels. The later Belock pressings are only on the purple mountain label. Interestingly, the sound between the first and second Belock pressings of the same recording is different. The silver/turquoise pressings have more accurate timbre and tonality. The purple mountain pressings are more dynamic. Which you will prefer is a matter of personal preference. I collect both.

Belock used the label below in 1959, however - so that should be added to Gordon's list of preferred labels.

 

Not so much acoustical assets, as acoustical liabilities. And all the attempted fixes have made it downright ugly as well.

 

The reason why you don't want to take the brown acid

Like this. It was the same folks that did The Met in NY and Dorothy Chandler in L.A. Crazy that places this bad sounding ever got off the ground.

On the other hand, it sounds like the DGG crew recorded around the hall, using plenty of spot mikes and little black boxes with blinking red lights to fake the hall sound. "Good Though", like Utah Phillips used to always say.

 

I don't have a problem with the Met. I was there on Monday to see and hear the Mariinsky Ballet/Orchestra. The sound was excellent.

Admittedly, in NYC nothing compares with Carnegie Hall for orchestral performances.

 

I can't seem to stop listening to the Trio Wanderer cd of Shostakovich & Copland Piano Trios. I can also recommend the Trio Wanderer cd of Haydn Piano Trios.

 

This set has been excellent so far ...

 

Now playing the following CD, reconstructed/remastered by Ward Marston for a first listen ...

 

How are you likin' Moiseiwitsch, Stuart?

 

I think he was an outstanding pianist and possessed a level of virtuosity unrivalled by most modern-day pianists. Ward Marston did a superb job to bring back to life the Rachmaninoff's recordings I am listening to now ...

 

Cool.

Now playing Beethoven's Opus 59/1 from :

 

Few pianists could play the "main" movement of Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini as beautifully as Moiseiwitsch did ...

 

What do you mean by main movement? Do you mean the famous one?

 

That was what I meant - the most famous movement from that work ...

 

How many people, like me, didn't realize until relatively recently that that famous tune is just the original theme played upside down? Did you notice it yourself or did someone else point it out? Whichever way you look at it, it's a true stroke of genius.

 

Wow, I never knew that. And yes, it is genius!

 

If you can read music, this gives you an idea how he does it (although he transposes the original key from A to D flat):

 

Yes, I can read music. My old theory professor would say that's proper voice leading, contrary motion. I wonder if that's how he discovered the melody, by composing a bass line for the original tune.

 

Thanks for the very useful response!

 

Absolutely. What a lovely recording made in 1938 at the EMI Abbey Road Studio ...

 

Now playing....



This I got a few years ago but never gave it a proper listening.
Some of Bach's most famous fugues and preludes are presented through a very romantic view, not bad for relaxing in the warm Florida summer night.