Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #65)

The performance of "Death and Transfiguration" in this set is absolutely riveting.

 

Does anyone know a good contact person in SONY Classical/Masterworks for customer service (name, email, phone). I just discovered that CD 32 in my Julian Bream set is defective, and it is far too late to return to a dealer.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

I can say your best bet is to try a store that still sells new CDs and ask them for a contact number. I searched in vain all over the internet earlier in the week.

 

Have you tried the store or the etailer where you bought the box? I once bought the EMI Sibelius box from MDT, a UK etailer and one of the CD's turned out to be defective. I returned the defective CD to the UK and MDT returned a replacement CD for me and gave me credit for the airmail postage.

 

This does not work a year after purchase. I don't always get around to listening to every disc in a megaset right away. Also, the dealer has notoriously bad customer service. Someone here may know some good people in SONY Masterworks. I'll pay for the disc if necessary, but not a whole new box.

 

Now playing CD14 - The Art of Fuge from the following box for a first listen ...

 

Time for some songs without words, as played by Friedman.

 

I also got a replacement for CD #37 of the Glenn Gould Original Jacket box from Sony. Unfortunately, that was back in 2007 and I do not recall how the replacement was initiated.

 

So...random thought on Saturday night...how many of you do these things?

1) When returning an LP to its sleeve and then the sleeve into the jacket, Side 1 always faces you and the jacket cover because, well, it's supposed to.
2) When returning a CD to its holder, the printing is centered so it's not crooked or upside down the next time you open the jewel case.
3) When returning a CD to its box set, the sleeve goes back to its exact spot in numerical order, because all box set CDs are kept in numerical order.

Surely I'm not the only one...right?

 

We both have this great CD!

 

For 2 and 3, a big yes!

(I don't do LPs)

 

Re: the Tallis Fantasia, courtesy of Robin L (although I read it too ) From Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day":

In September, Hunter would invite her to accompany him to Gloucester Cathedral, where as part of that year's Three Choirs Festival, a new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams would be having its first performance. Ruperta, who despised church music, must have seen some irresistible opening for idle mischief, because she went along wearing a sportive toilette more appropriate to Brighton, with a hat she had always found particularly loathsome but kept handy for occasions just such as this. The composer was conducting two string orchestras set like cantores and decani facing each other across the chancel, with a string quartet between them. The moment Vaughan Williams raised his baton, even before the first notes, something happened to Ruperta. As Phrygian resonances swept the great nave, doubled strings sang back and forth, and nine-part harmonies occupied the bones and blood vessels of those in attendance, very slowly Ruperta began to levitate, nothing vulgar, simply a tactful and stately ascent about halfway to the vaulting, where, tears running without interruption down her face, she floated in the autumnal light above the heads of the audience for the duration of the piece. At the last long diminuendo, she returned calmly to earth and reoccupied herself, never again to pursue her old career of determined pest. She and Hunter, who was vaguely aware that something momentous had befallen her, walked in silence out along the Severn, and it was hours before she could trust herself to speak. "You must never, never forgive me, Hunter," she whispered. "I can never claim forgiveness from anyone. Somehow, I alone, for every single wrong act in my life, must find a right one to balance it. I may not have that much time left."

 

Virgos rule!

 

Nice.

 

1) Not necessarily Side 1, but the next side to be played (IOW, the side that I didn't just listen to)
2) No
3) Of course! If I'm working my way through a first listen, it also goes to the back of the box so I'll know what's next (which also preserves numerical order)

 

Now on the turntable, "Haydn - String Quartet Op. 33 Nos. 3 & 4" performed by The Aeolian String Quartet on Decca.

(pic of the 1997 CD box)

 

Now on the turntable, "French Baroque Lute Music" performed by Toyohiko Satoh on Das Alte Werk.

 

I had those LPs. They may have been my first lute music purchases.

 

You're one too?

 

Biss was surprising. I have never heard Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 1 played with such intensity. The first movement was faster than I've ever heard. I checked out several recordings; maybe Arrau comes close. Biss wrote the liner notes and compared the fourth movement to the Appassionata, and his performance certainly called that to mind.

The recital also included Schumann's entire "Waldszenen," I checked my collection, and it looks like the several pieces performed by Rubinstein may be the only recordings I have. He also did quite well by Berg's Op. 1 Sonata. He concluded with Beethoven's Op. 101, which also had tremendous intensity.

I sit quite close in the 900 seat hall, and I did feel he was pushing the Steinway to its limits. The tuner had to come out at intermission.

 

As I often do on Sundays, I am starting the day with some Bach Cantatas courtesy of John Eliot Gardiner and - in this instance - Spotify.

 

Now enjoying some Satie from the above CD. I don't often play this CD, as he plays too fast for me.

 

Do you listen to Spotify through your audio system, i.e. bypassing your computer?

 

Yes 99% of the time. The Squeezebox software has a Spotify plug-in.