Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #44)

I didn't know that Fritz Reiner had a couple of discs with the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca. I am listening to the Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche. This session was 1956, produced by John Culshaw and engineered by Gordon Parry and James Brown. I don't think this is going to become my favorite.

 

very good recordings on this set that i got for $.75.Haitink conducts Don Juan,Heldenleben,
Eulenspiegels,Zarathustra & Tod und Verklarung.Jochum conducts waltzes from Rosenkavalier.

 

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!



Toscanini, NBC Symphony, Rossini's "William Tell Overture", a 78 from Aunt Vi. Plays just fine, thank you.

 

Well, here's hoping it turns out better than you expected - let us know what you think about it, because with the Slavonic Dances and two Strauss tone poems (especially Till Eulenspiegel, which is easily my favourite work of his) it looks a rather appealing set.

 

Currently transcribing Artur Schnabel's recording of the Diabelli Variations, a very clean, early Seraphim pressing from Amoeba San Francisco. Also got a copy of Annie Fischer's recording of Beethoven's Third Pisano Concerto on a Heliodor LP from Amoeba's Haight St. outlet.

Prices right now are low for used classical vinyl, for used Classical CDs s well. Spotted a number of SACDs. The nature of those issues/reissues suggested a niche within a niche—unfamiliar ensembles playing central repertoire and familiar performers in historic recordings. There's an awesome memory lode in Ameoba, but as of January, 2013 I would hesitate to call their San Francisco shop "The Happiest Place On Earth". There was a new coffee shop down the street a block or two, near "Escape From New York Pizza". Fixtures, fittings, cups 'n' glassware all spelled out "up-market" with your generic cuppa joe [$2.50] individually prepared in a French Press, carefully timed and served by well dressed young women who probably will end up as lawyers— the whole mis-en-scene designed to make you look at your shoes and wonder where the money went. Ameoba is not up-market. The ways it's down-market suggest dereliction of duty—failing lighting fixtures, self-consciously dingy art direction, that scuffed and torn aesthetic beloved by the skateboard set. Having a mammoth wall of Vinyl Unobtainium and posters going back to Haight-Ashbury's glory days completes the sense of being in some sort of ghost town that's having a ghost jubilee while you're hunting down your Svaitoslav Richter SACDS [they got 'em.]

Allen got their used copy of the Albert Ayler Holy Ghost box, figures. If you collect classical music and are in the area, you have to go there. Who Knows? They might start cleaning up the place and lose their mojo.

 

...and clearly has done so again and again and again and again and again and again and...and...and...and...

For those not familiar with it, DM 605 was a two-record 10" set spreading the overture across all four sides in "drop changer" automatic sequence. The corresponding manual sequence set, the form in which I have it, was M 605. By that point, I think Victor had abandoned "slide changer" sequence sets, but if such existed for this one the designation would have been AM 605. During WW II, shellac, being a product of parts of the world for quite a while in the hands of an unfriendly power, became essentially unobtanium; the record companies held scrap drives to harvest old records, which then would be ground down and recycled, with predictably dire consequences for the quality of wartime surfaces. I shudder to think how many fabulous records from the 1900-1939 period were gratuitously converted into ill-pressed copies of "Kostelanetz and His Orchestra Play Victor Herbert Melodies." Be that as it may, as a means of economizing the scarce basic material Victor at that point discontinued manual sequence sets, too, leaving DM types as the only game in town.

OK, class, history lesson is over for today. There will be a short quiz on Friday.

 

Well, for me, not to my shoes!

 

Nice!

The Fricsay?

 

Aunt Vi knew what she liked.

BTW—"Method" cleaner and Viva towels do a fine job of extracting gunk from the grooves of 78's without irritating those discs fussy surfaces. The PE 2038 turns out to be a fabulous 78 spinner.

 

You betcha, soon to be needle-dropped.

 

The Strauss recordings get pretty much slammed on Classicstoday.

 

I'm surprised because I really like his Strauss on RCA

 

I hadn't seen that, but I would have to agree about the Reiner/Vienna Strauss.

 

I didn't care for the Reiner/Vienna Strauss at all. I am going back to the Rudolph Kempe version. There are only 4 Slavonic Dances here but they are nice performances.

 

My first classical acquisition of the new year (thanks to my revamped "friendship" with JPC.DE who did their best and fixed the weird bug with double debit card authorization) - an authentic Finnish Kullervo on a lovely budget SACD. Love it after the first spin, especially the choir.

 

I just wanted to mention that amazon.com is finally listing the Van Cliburn Complete Album Collection:
http://www.amazon.com/Van-Cliburn-C...words=van+cliburn+-+complete+album+collection

It comes out in the US on 2/12/13

 

geez I think I'll be into that set

I received the Phillips box for christmas this year and its pretty nice. Much nicer than the decca/Mercury boxes. Some of the CD slips are gatefold which is a really nice touch.

 

Yeah I listen to BBC World Service either on my AVR or Shortwave now and then just for that reason!

 

From the review:

I agree with this statement, after the war and up until the mid to late 60s, the american orchestras were better than most of the European ones, especially in the technical execution end of things. War had affected Europe in more than one ways.

 

The Economist is really good for this too

 

Now enjoying an old (and beloved) favorite. Listened to the first quartet this morning and was in heaven, now listening to it's disc mate, the 5th quartet. This is another one of those "why the hell is this classic release OOP?" things.

 

Now listening to quartets 2-4 from the above set.

 

I did a search in the forums to find recommendations for Chopin's Nocturnes. I saw many members recommend Arrau's performance and have been listening to it on Spotify. I've only heard the first disc but so far it's excellent. I previously had only heard Barenboim's performance on DG. I thought I didn't like the Nocturnes that much until I heard Arrau play them.

 

I think Arrau and Moravec get the most praise here. (I like both.)

 

because of Bruno Walters interaction with mahler Im pretty interested in hearing his recordings.

Which are the most desirable? Is the Sony Masters box of 1-5 good? Or did he record it with other orchestras etc.

Ive got no idea where to start