Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #61)

While I prefer the Goldberg Variations on the piano, this string trio arrangement by Dmitry Sitkovetsky sheds some interesting light on the voices due to the timbre differences between the three instruments. The SACD audio is excellent.

 

Now playing the following recording from my somewhat limited Shosty collection. Unfortunately, I cannot quite locate an image for the LP ...

 

I have this same Goldberg Variations transcription by another ensemble. Unfortunately, strings just do not work for me. I only prefer GV to be performed on keyboard ...

 

Now playing the following LP from my Grieg collection - it is a London Phase 4 but the image quality is lousy and the color does not look quite right for some reason ...

 

Now playing the following LP from my Schumann collection ...

 

Does anyone know if there is anything special about the London Phase 4 sound?

 

Aah...70 minutes of tortured chromaticism.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_4_Stereo

There was no consensus about the sound quality of Phase 4 at the time. Some liked it, others hated it.

 

I think I may have a CD by the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze. I was also in the city some 20 years ago waiting for a ferry ...

 

It does not sound like the London Phase 4 sound can surpass the PentaTone sound ...

 

Kubelik really had a way with the Bavarians ...

 

First off, unlike the regular "London" classical issues these have more compression than their UK equivalents. Note however that the Phase 4 series was still being mastered and pressed in the UK. Phase 4 recordings tended to use more spot microphones and could get obvious about that spotlighting. On the other hand, they are real good microphones and some of the Phase 4 series are classics, particularly a lot of Leopold Stokowski recordings, his true "Indian Summer." The recording of Beethoven's "Choral" symphony with Stokowski leading the London Symphony Orchestra is a classic as is their recording of Ives' Second Orchestral Set and Olivier Messiaen's L'ascension. So there's classic performances in there but sound tends to step a notch down in this series as compared to the usual stellar Decca product.

 

Next to play: the following LP from my Rachmaninov collection ...

 

Thanks for the info. I think I got all my Phase 4 LP's between mid to late 70's. At the time, J&R Classical seemed to make a big deal out of them ...

 

I could not disagree more with the idea that classical music became homogenous...ever.

 

One thing changed and the change was homogenizing—the sound of French and Russian brass sections used to have a unique plangent timbre rather different than the sound of German trained brass, which tended to be smoother and more blended in their tone production. As Bruckner and Mahler became concert staples those sounds more or less disappeared.

 

That is fascinating. Do you know any recordings that illustrate this?

 

Many things changed. We had the entire HIP movement for one thing. No doubt, artists began to influence one another and learn from one another and by doing so they did broaden their proverbial palettes. But I don't think artists became less individualistic. Would anyone ever accuse artists such as Pogorelich, Kissen, Gould, Argerich etc as being homogenous? They may not be distinctly Russian or Austro-German since those artists did learn from both styles. But I don't see that as homogeneity. I see it as development. I don't think they lost individuality as a result.

 

I quite enjoyed the 8th symphony when I heard it recently, that's a really good piece.

 

Now listening to "Beethoven Symphonies 4 & 5" from "Leonard Bernstein -The Symphony Edition" on Sony.

With the New York Philharmonic.

 

This is a real classics, for some reason I forgot to mention this recording when recently someone asked about the recording's of the fifth. Maybe it's not the "definitive" version, but the pacing is just ideal, not too fast and not too slow and with a lot of tension.

 

Well, you are the new Mr. Big Box ...

 

Next to play: the following LP from my negligible Britten collection (cuz Britten is too modern for me) ...

 

The Argenta/Paris Conservatory 'Symphonie Fantastique", around 1958 or so.