Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, May 29, 2015.

  1. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

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  2. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Thanks!!
     
  3. dale 88

    dale 88 Errand Boy for Rhythm

    Location:
    west of sun valley
    Mahler: Symphony No. 4
    London Philharmonic
    Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
    Sofia Fomina, soprano
    LPO, 2019 (from a live performance in 2016)
    [​IMG]
    Well done, but the recorded sound and/or acoustics are not ideal.
     
  4. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
  5. JuniorMaineGuide

    JuniorMaineGuide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boulder, Colorado
  6. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    They might. I got the links from a rabid Beethoven sonata fan.
     
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  7. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Have you (or could you please) compare the sound in the box to any prior masterings?
     
  8. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    The bad news keeps coming: I just read that a fire at the cathedral in Nantes (France) has destroyed its 17th century pipe organ.
     
  9. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Now enjoying this gorgeous piano CD, from the box set at right.
     
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  10. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Now enjoying this all digital recording of this sublime work.
     
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  11. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Wanted to alert folks to this release, as I hadn't seen mention of this, here or elsewhere.
     
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  12. Plano

    Plano If you like moderation you’ll love excess

    Location:
    Half Moon Bay, CA
    Having heard Pinnock play excerpts from the WTC years ago at a wonderful concert in Berkeley, I will definitely seek this recording out. (As an aside, my friend who booked the concert said he was one of the nicest people on the planet). Thanks for the heads up.
     
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  13. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    This is the box I have:[​IMG]
     
  14. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Having largely completed my purge of duplicate 78s, I'm turning my attention to LPs. This morning, while sifting through a mountain of the things destined to go away, I had Toscanini's 1951 commercial recording of the Verdi Requiem, made when the conductor was 84 years old, running for company.

    On the basis of the Dies Irae section as presented there, that is one Almighty God whose anger you do not want to incur!

    Among the LPs, there are three other Toscanini accounts of the Verdi Requiem, all concert recordings, all probably pretty dubious transfers.

    5/27/1938 Helge Roswaenge, Zinka Milanov, Kerstin Thorborg, Nicola Moscona; BBCSO (Arturo Toscanini Society ATS 1108/1109)

    11/23/1940 Jussi Bjorling, Zinka Milanov, Bruna Castagna, Nicola Moscona; NBCSO (Arturo Toscanini Society THS 65031/2)

    6/24/1950 Giacinto Prandelli, Renata Tebaldi, Chloe Elmo, Cesare Siepi; La Scala Or. (ERR Historical Operatic Treasures ERR 115-2)

    Anybody have any opinions about how these stack up against the RCA commercial release? Any thoughts about how these masterings compare to other, later issues? Some snooping around suggests at least some critics like the 1940 one better or at least consider it a strong complement to the RCA; I found next to nothing about the La Scala one.
     
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  15. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Today seems to be a good day for masses, or at least a day when I'm listening, er, en masse. A while back you asked for recommendations of Baroque music, and I just finished revisiting one work worth mentioning that didn't come up earlier: Musica Antiqua Koln joining forces with the Gabrieli Consort in the Missa Salisburgensis of 1682, thought to have been composed by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (later Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber). If you have a 5-channel system and multichannel SACD player, this disc will give every side of it a powerful workout--no "front channels plus ambiance" here, as the work was written to come at its spectators from all directions in the Salzburg Cathedral.

    [​IMG]

    As a celebratory, ceremonial occasional piece marking the 1100th anniversary of Salzburg as a center of Christianity, it was designed to instill awe, and boy does it. Baroque circumstance just doesn't get any more pompous than this. Needless to say, the performers here are not shy about seizing every opportunity to put the work over the top.

    The attribution to Biber is likely but not certain. I can say, however, that Biber is one of my favorite Baroque composers, whose music has a habit of being delightfully eccentric. He was a devoted exponent of scordatura, which is adopting an unconventional tuning for the the violin (or other string instrument). His so-called "mystery sonatas" (named because they echo the mysteries of the rosary, not because of the tuning) are a prime example. Well worth exploring in general, mass or no mass.

    Oh, a word of warning, should you get the Missa: it opens with distant trumpet fanfares. Don't turn them up to normal listening level, because one track later the chorus comes in at full, up front and personal volume and will blast you out of the room.
     
  16. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Now enjoying a lovely performance of the Scriabin Piano Concerto from the above CD.
     
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  17. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Another great romantic concerto, played by one of the best pianists I've ever heard.
     
  18. Ian Roberts

    Ian Roberts Fortune’s always hiding ⚒

    Many thanks. I’ll try to listen over the weekend. I only have a two channel system though not 5.1.
     
  19. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Not to worry. With my usual focus on 78s and early LPs, I'm much more likely to indulge in "one channel" listening myself. I do think multichannel has some value, however, for works like the Missa Salisburgensis or the Berlioz Requiem, which were designed as immersive experiences in the first place; those pieces folks like Gabrielli wrote for St. Mark's in Venice would be another example. For some strange reason, however, those works seldom seem to get the multichannel treatment; instead, it usually seems to end up either reproducing back-of-hall echo for soloists or plopping the listener down in the middle of an ensemble for a possibly interesting but unnatural "music in the round" approach. I wouldn't even bother with it except that it makes possible hearing some of those three-channel masterings from the early days of stereo as they were recorded rather than mixed down into two. Even so, I haven't invested much in multichannel, and I seldom take the trouble to fire it all up; my "5 channel" system (no sub) is cobbled together from gear scavenged (mostly) out of every closet in the house--three amps, three unmatched brands of speaker, and a player I picked up off the roadside from somebody's trash, the one I bought for the purpose years ago having quit working.
     
  20. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I am confused. What do you mean by "back-of-hall echo for soloists?" Most multichannel recordings that I have capture the ambiance of the recording site fairly well with the performers positioned as they are for regular live performances. This includes works such as those you have identified. Are you suggesting that some other performer arrangement should be adopted for recording purposes?
     
  21. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    If I may surmise from your sig line, I'm guessing you're into multichannel in a big way. (Sorry, for no hostile reason not a regular reader of Stereophile--just not enough hours in the day for all the stuff I need to do, which includes writing for TNT-Audio, mostly on matters related to vintage audio.) This thread isn't the place to debate strictly "audio gear" matters--it's deliberately limited to matters directly related to classical music, or nearly so--but suffice it to say what you call "ambiance" I call "hall echo." I don't think that's worth the hassle, but you and others are free to disagree; as noted I'm primarily interested in recordings from the pre-stereo era, and my multichannel setup is an improvisation. I merely mentioned it in the previous post in an effort to reassure Ian Roberts he needn't bypass the recording for want of multichannel capability.
     
  22. dale 88

    dale 88 Errand Boy for Rhythm

    Location:
    west of sun valley
    I couldn't access my Toscanini 1951 version, but I knew I had the Verdi Requiem (Van Kempen) waiting in a stack of CDs to be heard. It is with the Orchestra ... di Santa Cecilia, recorded in 1955 by Philips. An image of the original LP covers:
    [​IMG]
     
  23. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    I am diving into your articles in the vintage section at tnt as time allows.
     
  24. crispi

    crispi Vinyl Archaeologist

    Location:
    Berlin
    :yikes::yikes::yikes:
     
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  25. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Insomnia? Or just brave? Either way, I hope you enjoy, and thanks! :wave:
     
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