You're welcome. There are several in the liner notes, but that photo attracted my attention... not only for the famous names surrounding Fauré, but the date of the photo -- 1910 -- which is the year my father was born.
Ah, my father was 8 An interesting but very unstable time, with lots of political trouble in the Balkans, four years before the Great War.
I made the decision about five years ago to subscribe to all of Marston's piano releases and have never regretted the decision. Since then, I have picked up all their older piano releases, so I am happy to say I own all of their piano CDs. Marston always releases first rate and rare performances, have superb mastering by Ward Marston and informative liner notes. As a subscriber, I get them shipped to me for free (in the USA it's free, elsewhere they pay half the shipping for subscribers), discounts from time to time and free releases from their Lagniappe Series from time to time. Here's a snapshot of the rarities from this series that I have received from them:
I never tire of hearing these works: Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition and Rachmaninov Preludes. All on piano. Lovely for this Friday afternoon.
I have added Bolet Ambassador Vol 2 to my Marston collection Should be nice exploring these CDs. I went first to Beethoven's piano sonata 17 and the Brahms Intermezzi on disc 1
Shostakovich works on the turntable now. Five Preludes & Fugues and the Piano Concerto No.2. Artia, 1960
My first encounter with Artia, which as far as I can tell was just the American licensee for Supraphon, was Dvorak's 5th Sym. played by the Czech PO under Karel Sejna. I bought it from a guy who ran a (rather steeply priced) record dealer business from his house in the Atlanta area back when I lived there, in the early to mid-'80s. That record has remained a favorite ever since; I love that sym., although if forced I'd admit the last mvt. is not entirely in keeping with the other three. Not long ago I received my first recording of the work on 78s (and if WERM is to be believed, the only one issued in that format), an English Columbia issue by George Weldon and the City of Birmingham Or. Nice performance, although I still like Sejna better; perhaps that impression will shift with greater familiarity. As a matter of interest, the Artia release reflects the mess that publishers have made of Dvorak's symphonic catalogue, as it shows the work both as Sym. 5 and as Sym. 3. (Under the old system, what we know as no. 6 was no. 1, what we know as no. 7 was no. 2, our no. 8 was no. 4, and the "New World" was no. 5).
This morning. Ten sonatas in four parts by Purcell. I always revel in the solemn Adagio of Sonata 6 in G minor. So lovely. Recording is from Retrospect Trio. Linn Records, SACD. Here is a different recording of the same Adagio
I grabbed another box of CDs from my parents house: Here is one I haven't heard in a very long time. Really nice performances on both piano concertos with superb sound quality. I listened to the first piano concerto with Martha Argerich and Abbado not too long ago. I have also been listening to many of Argerich's Lugano CDs, IMO I think she is much better in the studio than live, she is too sloppy in many of those Lugano recordings.
My apologies drh! Somehow I missed this post of yours. I was just searching for your (other) Rostal post. Sadly, no, it seems Mewton-Wood is just as neglected down here as elsewhere. Even the brick & mortar stores, when we still had them, stocked the same popular pianists you find everywhere. You could probably guess who they are. From memory, it was British (gasp, an outsider!) but now Aussie composer Chris Dench who recommended Mewton-Wood to me. He was working at the music store I used to frequent (I was purchasing Art Tatum). They didn't have any in stock (no surprise) but I've managed to find a few pieces over the years. I do have that ABC set and the Dante cds and agree with your comments. Other than what's on the 3CD ABC set, I have a British Music Society CD with the Bliss and Stravinsky Concerti. A Heritage CD with both of the Weber Sonatas. All recommended depending on how you feel about the pieces, of course. I should mention that the British Music Society CDs are now CD-Rs, if that matters. There's a few "legal" downloads I've bought, though I have a hunch they're your Musical Masterpiece Society LPs, digitalized and smothered in noise reduction. I really should get those LPs and do it myself but it's a combination of being too busy and um, too lazy!! I also respect Mewton-Wood for tackling contemporary/modern composers, in contrast to those, um, other "play-it-safe" pianists I didn't mention earlier Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Bliss, Busoni, Shostakovich - how many current pianists today are recording all of them AND the older warhorses. What we really need is someone like the good folk at Eloquence to compile and release Mewton-Wood in a set, as they've done recently with that other Aussie, Eileen Joyce. That's an impressive set, regardless of one's opinion of her and/or the repertoire - she's another not adverse to recording contemporary composers. Joyce perhaps fares a little better as far as being "known", though no doubt due in large part her recent box set. The Eloquence classics website even has a "suggest a release" option. I've emailed and suggested a Mewton-Wood set, twice! Not holding my breath though. Oh, and back to Rostal. I wanted to say that I went ahead and ordered that 10-cd set yesterday and am looking forward to it. Thanks again for alerting me to it
Well, OK, I'll let it pass this time--but don't let it happen again! Thanks for the thorough reply. I hope you'll enjoy the Rostal set--I blush to admit it's still sitting at the head of my "play this next" pile. Life has been unusually crazy of late, ranging from an out-of-town trip of several days to contending with an invasion of squirrels in the attic, and my listening time has been nearly nil. The little that I've had I mostly devoted to a couple of outtakes from a big lot of 78s I received from a friend who was forced to shed them in conjunction with moving to smaller digs. As long as we're on the subject of Australian musicians who should be better known, I should add a reference to pianist/composer/etc., etc., etc. David Stanhope. That man has about the fastest fingers I've ever heard anywhere; his take on the final mvt. of the Beethoven-Liszt 4th Sym. must be heard to be believed. Alas, his records are on Tall Poppies, a label with essentially no US distribution and hence quite expensive here. He did at least some recordings on the first and, as far as I know, only Australian-designed-and-built concert grand piano, made by a company called Stuart & Sons, kinda neat just in itself. I later bought, again at some expense, a set of the complete Beethoven sonatas and concerti also played on one of those instruments, but, alas, the pianist in that case, a Dutchman named Gerard Willems, struck me as more dutiful than inspiring. I gather Stanhope is better known in the world of wind band music than as a pianist; ironically, I have no experience at all with that side of his output.
Ah yes, I have only a few of those Tall Poppies, including "Virtuoso Transcriptions" with that Beethoven-Liszt 4th. Incredible indeed. Glad you mentioned the Stuart & Sons grand piano recordings, btw. I saw it on youtube a while back. Will search for it again when I get home. I think you may have prompted another purchase from me. I've had Stanhope's Godowsky/Chopin disc on my wishlish. Seems like as good a time as any to order! Tall Poppies cds are quite expensive down here as well and consequently I missed quite a few I'd like to have now. The 2CD set I'm considering is particularly expensive (even for Australian prices) with postage to pay on top - I imagine postage to the U.S would certainly be a problem. Anyway, it's this, Buywell Classic Music - 'TEN - David Stanhope (2CD)' CD Label: Tall Poppies, Cat. No. TP230 (or TP 230) or a cheaper single cd, Buywell Classic Music - 'David Stanhope plays' CD Label: Tall Poppies, Cat. No. TP135 (or TP 135) There's a DVD set, but for now it's all up on youtube (you probably know all this, but just in case anyone's interested)
Thanks the reminder about the Godowsky set, which I've also had on a "buy someday" list, and for sharing that--I hadn't thought of YouTube, but I certainly should have, and how interesting to hear the transcriptions "deconstructed" by someone who himself is a composer. I'd never heard the op. 10/1 called "Waterfall" before, either, but I'll confess I like better the name my wife says she and her fellow students gave it when she was in music school: "The Runaway Hymn."
Happy Leonard Bernstein's birthday! For those who have been living on a tiny, uncharted Pacific island under a boulder in a deep cave surrounded by a moat, redundant electronic jamming devices, and the entire army of Liechtenstein on guard patrol, today's his centennial. In honor of the occasion, and just to keep things in perspective, according to Wikipedia (my favorite online resource, the encyclopedia anyone can edit), Claude Debussy "[once] remarked to a colleague that if Wagner, Mozart and Beethoven could come to his door and ask him to play Pelléas to them, he would gladly do so, but if it were Bach, he would be too in awe to dare." Debussy was silent about Bernstein. Judging from what I see and hear everywhere else, he must be the only person in the history of music about whom that can be said. Of course, he had the advantage of dying before Bernstein was born....
I've got the Verdi: Requiem and Britten: War Requiem from Telarc. Their approach to CD was, as far as I know, unique in that they used no compression or limiting at all. The result is an insanely wide dynamic range, which is exactly what many listeners are looking for today. Personally I find it a bit much and have to ride the volume pot a bit to tone it down.
It's always a re-adjustment to go from a Telarc disc to something else. Part of the purpose of an orchestra, particularly one accompanied by chorus, is to offer dynamic contrasts. The sonic fireworks are part of the plan. With Telarc discs, even my modest Music Hall Marimbas can communicate these dynamics, when the conductor presses the gas pedal or stomps the brakes. Why oh why weren't/aren't discs from the much better funded majors like DG and Sony able to do this? The majors sound so polite and restrained, even when the work calls for jolts.
What you say about the majors is certainly true but I've heard a lot of classical music in concert halls and (with maybe the exception of the live 1812 overture!) the extremes of loud & soft are never as great as they are on a Telarc disc, probably because you're trying to generate the same music pressure in a small room. I'm not knocking Telarc (I love the two recordings that I own) but I always feel that there's something of the “careful what you wish for” about their dynamics.
Turnabout is fair play--you spurred me to buy the two recordings you posted. When I checked US Amazon, "Ten" had disappeared, no longer on the site. Which suggests it is becoming unavailable here. And you know what that means--nothing but resellers pricing it into the stratosphere. I figured the time had come, so I ordered from your links. Thank you!
I've seen pretty huge dynamics live, from a single triangle being hit to a full orchestra crescendo with an organ. The 1812 Overture is not the loudest concert I heard, even with the canon shots. That prize goes to Mahler's 2nd
I've never heard Mahler's 2nd live, despite its being on of my favourite symphonies. I have heard the eighth and that was just about my favourite classical concert ever. Still, the 1812 Overture was definitely the loudest I've ever heard; I imagine that the volume of the cannon varies from performance to performance and maybe I heard a particularly loud set!
For those who can get BBC iPlayer, the BBC Proms 'Rattle Conducts Ravel' is available for the next 29 days. Performances include L'enfant et les sortilèges, Ma mère l'Oye, and Shéhérazade.
Stravinsky: COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUM COLLECTION (Sony, 56cd, 2015) Just getting started with this set, listening to earlier/mono recordings I have never heard before. Whatever the merits of the remastering, these earlier recordings sound mostly very listenable. And of course the music means more to me than ever before. I think many of his pieces only gain in power and fun as I revisit them. I remember Forrest Whitaker's Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's BIRD, in a stupor of fever-dream listening to (iirc) RITE, murmuring something like, "What if you could hear every sound in the world at once?" And then visiting Stravinsky at his Hollywood home in the middle of the night, drunk, and having the (other) exiled master close the door in his face.
Korngold: RENDEZVOUS WITH... [Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, et al] (DG, 2cd, 1999) Luscious. Also listened to TOTE STADT for the first time (Leinsdorf's),and really dug it. Oddly enough---or not!---another movie memory, with Von Otter popping up as a ghost-memory, singing Korngold, in the film A LATE QUARTET, a movie I was not crazy about, even if I liked its taste (and its terrific actors). DAS WUNDER comes later this week....cannot wait.
I agree with this. I have seen the Boston Symphony Orchestra live a couple of times, and the dynamics don't seem as great as they do on a Telarc or some of my other classical discs. I have never had trouble hearing any of the quiet parts of a piece live in concert, and the loud parts never get painfully loud. I have had quite a few CDs, I can think of a few Karajan recordings as well as Telarc, where the differences between the soft and the loud is too much and almost requires a hand on the volume knob to be able to hear the quiet parts without getting your ears blown out by a forte!
