Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #28)

Morning? It's well into the afternoon.

 

Musta forgot to turn the clocks ahead. Wait, isn't it "fall back?"

Now playing:



From an amazon review:

 

Did they have the Lute 5cd box from Paul O'Dette? its great!

 

Knew you'd approve.

BTW, I see the 4CD set of Szell's Haydn is selling for under $13 new at amazon, but I can't pull the trigger, since I have all but two (88 and 104) of the symphony recordings in the set already.

 

Speaking of Szell, the complete Szell/Mozart original jacket box is on Spotify. The Szell/Marcellus performance of the clarinet concerto is arguably the greatest recording of that work (at least on a modern A clarinet). Marcellus was the principal clarinettist in the Cleveland Orchestra.

Unfortunately it does not include the Casadesus/Szell concertos.

The box does include some recordings of Szell on piano.

 

I didn't discover the sale till the end of the day just before I had to leave for work. I went back to their site the next day and sale was over already!

I need some nice lute works for my collection as well.

 

I am too cheap to pay for Spotify, so the loud commercial interruptions have prevented me form using it for anything other than sampling, which is OK, as that was the main reason I signed on with them anyway. BTW, I have invites to Spotify if anyone still needs one, just PM me.

 

Re: bang for your buck:

If you like Dowland, Bis has this:

http://www.amazon.com/John-Dowland-...=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1314970252&sr=1-3

Also Hopkinson Smith's recordings on Astree are excellent, although many seem OOP (but not his Bach).

 

Although its classical selection leaves a lot to be desired (not that it's bad mind you but still there is quite a few that is missing), I would definitely recommend Spotify Premium, it can be a great tool for discovering new music and artists.

For instance, I just discovered pianist Claude Frank and his Beethoven cycle through Spotify. Such a great musician, how come that I 've never heard his name before? Beats me.

Anyway, I had a subscription to yourmusic but after it closed I took that money and put it to Spotify and I am very glad that I did.

 

Here's the cover of Claude Frank's Complete Beethoven Sonatas that I mentioned above.



Who else other than George knew this pianist?
Very definitely recommended.

 

I imagine his teacher, Artur Schnabel, knew him.

 

I bet

 

His daughter, Pamela, is a lovely violinist. I heard them in a joint recital a few years ago. I also attended his 50th anniversary recital.

I agree with 5-String. Even if I exclude classical music, Spotify premium is a great value for me. Certainly for new, popular music I dare to say the sound quality for premium would approach that on a CD (on the assumption that most new CDs are not very good). I had already started substituting mp3s for physical media for new releases (unless I saw an indication here that the recording was of higher quality). On that basis alone, using Spotify instead makes it a break-even process (and of course eliminates the annoyance of a disappointing purchase).

As for classical, I was listening to Andre Previn's EMI recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and it sounded fine.

I posted a link to a New York Times article either in this thread or a Spotify thread. Searching takes a bit of effort, and UMG's refusal to offer longer tracks is simply stupid (so you can get two movements of a work, but not the third). But EMI is very well represented, and Sony offers an ample selection from its library. Naxos is good too.

I can even use Spotify without a computer with my Squeezebox Touch via a plug-in.

 

Yeah I have a excellent Dowland with O'Dette.
I believe it's OOP and the price keeps going up and up.
It can be found now and then on ebay for reasonable dinero.
You find it for the right price Guys.....GRAB IT! (Got mine ULN $12.99)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ils?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1298871136&sr=1-4&seller=

 

Yes, they recorded a set the LvB sonatas. I don't have it, but I hear it's good.

For this, I think Spotify is great. You get to hear more than a 20 second sample before buying, something especially essential for Classical.

 

Great news for anyone interested in Celi's Bruckner (thank you George, btw):

http://multivariate-life.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-chance-to-acquire-inimitable.html

 

I have come around to Scriabin over the last couple years. And this recital is one of the main reasons. Great LP. Ideal music for the small hours.

• Scriabin - Ruth Laredo [Connoisseur Society 1970 LP, Producer: Alan Silver, Engineer: David B. Jones, Piano: Baldwin SD-10, Mastered at Sterling Sound by Lee Hulko]
  -Eight Etudes, Op. 42
  -Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp major, Op. 53
  -Sonata No. 7 in F-sharp major 'White Mass', Op. 64
  -Sonata No. 9 in F major 'Black Mass', Op. 68

 

Whatever happened to this young lad?
Sound bites of his performances sound amazing.
Esp for someone 10-11yrs old!!

From what I find He never went on with Classical.....right? wrong?

 

I've said it before, I'll say it again, nothing beats Mozart in the morning!

 

Have you heard her studio recordings of those works? I recall that they weren't so good.

I bought her Rach preludes this week on the cheap and plan to listen to them soon.

 

Always a pleasure!

 

I just wiki'd that sonata and came across this gem - WTF?

"The first movement, in sonata form, offers a classic example of a fake-out of an essential expositional closure half-cadence postmedial caesura extending the secondary theme zone and deferring the essential expositional closure to the next perfect authentic cadence."

I mean, I have a full classical and theoretical training, but even that was all Greek to me!

 

Me too. Sounds like the Wiki author is a bit of a show off.

FWIW, Casadesus recorded more than just one Mozart sonata. Why SONY decided to leave the others (at least four more) is beyond me.

 

I not only know him, I have the set! It's an excellent set. I also have his violin sonatas with his daughter. I admit to not having listened to that yet.

This morning I have on Louis Lortie's more recent set of Chopin Etudes, recorded in 2008 and available in HD FLAC and video from this Web site: http://www.plushmusic.tv/channels/E7W/louis-lorties-channel.html

This is just extraordinary pianism, the kind I feel blessed to hear; deep feeling and thought for these pieces presented with seemingly limitless virtuosity.

According to his Web site's calendar, the closest he comes to where I live this year is DC in October. I may try to make that trip.