Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #45)

Buy them!

You can't really go wrong with the Dvorak and the Strauss too

 

I like this one.

 

The Richard Strauss is epic. there are other "New World"s I prefer, Szell with Cleveland perhaps being at the top.

The one title I most wanted on the SACD series appeared as a used Shaded Dog today at Rasputin's:



Mind you, the Gold Seal CD reissue of Debussy's Iberia is alright, but there's more in the grooves here than I've heard in the CD counterpart.

 

I have never seen this error message before and I have been shopping at Presto for a few years ...

 

coopmv -

I explained this a couple of posts later. I had inadvertently deleted the image, but replaced it since.

 

really nice Schubert,recorded in 1985.got this today for $1.99.

 

I would suggest that there are a great number of recordings from the Mercury Living Presence series one ought to consider. And, with the upcoming release of the volume 2 collector box, the prices couldn't be better.

As for this Munch, allow me to suggest the Paray as an alternative.

http://www.hpsoundings.com/2013/01/saint-saens-symphony-no-3-mercury-vs-rca/

 

somehow i missed this one.i've never seen it & i don't have the contents on CD,so i may have to
get the Gold Seal.

 

I would not recommend the Tafelmusik recording by Musica Antiqua Köln (though it's better than older recordings by Scola cantorum Basiliensis and Concentus musicus Wien). Recent set by Freiburger Barockorchester is the 21st century gem.

 

Oh, thanks. Regarding more recent performances, I have this one by Musica Amphion



but will surely check out the Freiburger Barockorchester you suggested

 

Anyone else have thoughts on this standpoint? I'd added the MAK to my shopping cart already as I'd heard only good things about them... I would also have added the Pinnock/Bach in a snap, but since I'm already getting a Bach album, will hold it in my Wishlist.

Is this the one you mean, jukes?







Perhaps someone can suggest a really fine MAK album to me?


.

 

WobblyWilly, I believe this is the Tafelmusik Jukes was referring to

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/search.php?searchString=tafelmusik+Barockorchester

 

Yes, WobblyWilly, behind the link Marcel sent (above) is the Freiburg band recording. In my opinion, it's the most delicious recording of Tafelmusik so far. Actually, I even didn't knew about the Grammophone remarks while bying it - one local reviewer had already noticed the strenghts of it. On that matter I just can't disagree with him. Lovely music, lovely playing: lovely recording. Also good background music while working in the kitchen

Marcel, thanks for the Musica Amphion clue. I wasn't aware of that.

 

Well I know already I am going to throw a spanner into the works , but well "here goes"! For the life of me I cannot understand the over-rated mystique of some of the releases from RCA Living Stereo series or that of Mercury's Living Presence. I have already put up the 'protective shield'. Just because something was released under those label banners 'does not make a brilliant recording - either sonically or artistic. Mecury's three microphone recording ...so ?? RCA 's often then 'tizzy signature ' (Living Stereo) sound? Sure there were a few remarkable performances amongst the group, but for any one to think that having attached - associated 'living' labels, guarantees a perfect recording is stretching things, quite a bit. In some cases one finds narrow spread, thinness in musical texture and lack of natural sonic expansion and bloom. Overlooking the fact - also for any recording: the first requisite is the venue...the venue...the venue.

 

Just played the vinyl/Shaded Dog Reiner/Chicago Iberia I rescued from Rasputin's yesterday. I've recorded symphony orchestras numerous times in all sorts of venues. Reiner/Chicago's Iberia is one of the best sounding recordings of a great orchestra in truly great venue I have heard so far.

 

Can you be specific? Which titles exactly are you talking about?

 

I don't usually post in these threads, I love classical music but I'm far from an expert. I have the Living Stereo box, and to me the sound has a warmth and vividness that makes the music very inviting. Maybe as someone who grew up with rock and pop music I like the added "colour"? Anyway, sorry to jump in... but do people find there are certain "signature sounds" to different classical labels at different times? And how would you characterize them?

 

Yes. Not everyone is going to agree, but if you're an audio hound looking for classical earcandy, it usually boils down to favoring certain "House Sound"s over others. Collector Man has pointed out a few favorites. The RCA Living Stereo series is one of the best ever, at least to my ears, as well as our Host's. The Decca/London productions have always been more vivid than others, with a microphone technique that assures pin-point stereo imaging. I run hot and cold with the Living Presence series of Mercury. Sometimes the scale is perfect, often the rooms Mercury's engineers had to work with are second rate. Philips had a smooth and agreeable sound but tended to sound recessed compared to other labels. When Columbia was good, she was very very good. Most of the time, not so much. DGG was fantastic in the 50's/60's, then went crazy with multi-miking, resulting in some surreal productions from HvK, among others. EMI at its best was good, most of their work isn't the best. Among the smaller labels, Hyperion and Astree are stand-outs. I know that Astree's recordings now come under a different label. I know something's got to be missing here, but this is a start.

 

You're welcome

 

Thanks Robin. I often love 60s Decca recordings, they seem to have exciting presence with crisp brass and full bass. I got the Philips box, and feel like I can detect a "sound" there too, I'm tempted to say the recordings have "bloom".

I only have a modest system, but I wonder if there are certain compromises to be made with presenting a full orchestral recording in the home. For me, a possibly "coloured" sound might bring more of the music jumping through my speakers than something more neutral? There's a lot of information in classical music, but with those Living Stereo and Decca recordings it doesn't seem like hard work to listen through the textures.

 

These are also my thoughts on the RCA Living Stereo series — especially that awful-sounding Munch Saint-Saëns — exactly. Seeing as I am not a professional musician with the academic training that would lead to tenure as the music director of a major symphony orchestra, though, I would be ill-advised to deride either these RCA or Mercury performances. What basis could I possibly have beyond the quintessential "I know what I like" position that so many of us take to recommend one performance over another to our friends? Or, are we to read as much as we can from the classical music critics then parrot what they have to say? I'll leave those reactions to others who want that sort of recognition.

But on the other hand, having had a rather intense attachment to classical music for nearly 50 years, I can say that I soon began to learn that listening to a record that sounded very good went a long way to enhancing the musical experience for me. That certainly wouldn't detract from my regard for Caruso or Toscanini records, but it would have me viewing such from an altogether different vantage point. I can recall buying my very first copy of the Penguin Stereo Record Guide shortly after its release in 1975 for the purpose of both broadening my musical horizons and collecting knowledge on the recordings that this group of Gramophone critics assessed as both quality recordings and ones that had good sound. I was, for the next decade or so, learning how I might react to the reviews of March, Greenfield or Layton. I had collected almost 3000 classical records by the end of the 70s, and with no place to store them in my small house, I began donating many of them to libraries and public radio stations so that my collection of classical music is about 1000 LPs and CDs today. Frankly I don't have much time left to hear them all again, so I have held onto the ones that were so impressive during my youth, and I view such things as the upcoming Volume 2 of the Mercury Living Presence recordings as a means of hearing some of the legendary recordings of the past for the very first time.

Are these perfect recordings as the collector man suggests they are not? How could I possibly know for certain? I wasn't there, and my experience with live recordings of symphonic music is limited to less than a few dozen performances of the Boston, Chicago, Houston and Washington, D.C. orchestras. As much as I would like to be able to attach some significance to these experiences when judging the sound of recordings, I simply cannot. So I am back to my "I know what I like" position. Just a time or two have I bothered to recommend anything here; it's clear that there are enough others here that can do a better job at than I.

 

Great news on the MLP2 box!

BTW, just listening to the first piece of classical music I'm not that crazy about:



Ashkenazy - Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto. Actually, there are parts of it that I do like, but some of the slower, more rhapsodic, if that's the term, parts seem like the score to bad tearjerkers from the '40s and '50s.

 

Every post on these long and winding CMC threads come with an implied "in my humble opinion" preface, so that should not hinder you from offering your opinion. I have found the regulars here to be remarkably tolerant and understanding.

 

With the RCAs there was a greater range of sonic quality. OTOH the Bob Fine produced Mercuries were never anything less than excellent sonically and the best ones are amongst the most realistic sounding orchestral recordings in the history of recorded music (as were the very best RCAs) So that would be the answer to "so??" You don't have to be a fan of these recordings but if an illusion of being in the concert hall listening to live classical music is the goal then these two catalogs *are* everything they are made out to be. As for the performances...that is subjective. But IMO the RCAs deserve the praise they get while the Mercuries are if anything highly underrated in that department. No, the *labels* are no "guarantee" of excellence but the individual titles that have been touted for their excellence really are that good. IMO

 

Less colored sounding speakers in the home sound more like the real thing. Panel speakers—Magnapans and Electrostatic speakers, for example—do a better job of staying away from the 'boxy' colorations small enclosures impose on the sound, particularly as regards time smear. Brass and piano is much more convincing on good panel speakers. Unfortunately, they often are not practical in many domestic environments, as they has a WAF of zero.