@TonyACT, I have a copy of The New Grove (20 volumes, 1980) and its predecessor Grove's 5th ed. (10 volumes, 1954), both in paperback. I was thrilled when I latched onto each. Nowadays, however, I think there's little or nothing either can do that online resources like my favorite, Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit, do at least as well if not better, and, like George, I haven't cracked either set in ages. For one thing, all printed volumes suffer from having "gatekeepers" who screen out what they deem insufficiently important to merit the cost of space in printed volumes. Fine if the subject you want to study happens to be something that makes the cut; not so good if it isn't. The Internet, for all its faults, emphatically does not have that issue! For example, the Grovesters never saw fit to write a word about the Austrian pianist Friedrich Wuhrer. Look at Wikipedia and you'll find an extensive article initially written by a distinguished expert in the field, a guy with initials D-R-H. Same is true of the Romanian conductor George Georgescu. Same is true of...well, you get the idea. Readability? They read like old-style encyclopedias. The presentation is scholarly but dry. I think that's true more of New Grove than of Grove 5th, but I wouldn't go looking for stimulating bedside reading from either.
Yup, respected up one side and down the other. The standard musical reference for decades. I think it has now gone online as a subscription service, and I'd guess if someone wants a Grove's that's the best way to get it nowadays. Whether it has the "gatekeeper" issue in that form I can't say, although I suspect it might.
Thanks for the information and thoughts. I think I'll hold off the purchase as it was a bit expensive. These can probably do for what I need, picked up on the weekend in excellent condition for $5, though I do like physical references which are professionally edited: (Edit: I like to sit on the sofa with a coffee and flip through a book, browse and find unexpected things - I don't find it as relaxing or workable on a screen).
I am greatly enjoying the high quality of the performances in this ( relatively obscure) cycle. Teldec DMM Lp box set.
Having finished copying the big Brilliant Haydn box a while back, I've started in on the Bach one. When I came to the sinfonia from cantata 29, Wir danken dir Gott, I first played it to confirm it was with orchestra and organ (not entirely clear from the CD sleeve) and then noticed I have a transcription for piano solo by Saint-Saens, performed by one Lauriala Risto (Naxos), so I played that, too. The same music serves as the prelude to the 3d vln. partita, and in that guise Rachmaninoff arranged it for solo piano, so then I moved on to that one (Thomas Labe, Dorian; I have it played by Rachmaninoff himself on 78s, but I haven't gotten around to transferring it to my "server' yet). Interesting comparison between the two transcriptions. The Saint-Saens is brilliant but straightforward; it's a useful reminder that S.-S. was greatly admired in his day not only as a composer but also as a virtuoso pianist. Rachmaninoff's is--well, let's just say the arranger comes shining through. Bachmaninoff, maybe? As to the pianists, about neither of whom I know anything beyond that they did these recordings, Risto gives a bracing, brisk reading; Labe goes far beyond "brisk." Heady stuff.
Continuing my search for a great Prokofiev Symphony No. 6, I listened to this recent recording. It is well recorded. There are some attractive things about it. Inkinen, the conductor, makes it more lyrical than I had heard it before. I am used to it having more of an edge. Haven't decided about this version yet. Pietari Inkinen Deutsche Radio Philharmonie SWR Music, 2020 Prokofiev Symphonies 3 & 6
Further to my posts on the Grove, I picked up this set yesterday: It's lucky I waited, this one is in far better condition than the one I was looking at earlier and at half the price; US $200 including a courier from Melbourne to Canberra. It's the 1980 edition, 1995 revision.
Scriabin Complete Piano Music Brilliant Classics, 2021 8 CDs Dmitri Alexeev, piano Although I haven't quite finished with the last discs, I am already glad to have this set from a major pianist. Very good interpretations. As you probably know, Alexeev won the Leeds Piano Competition many years ago and has recorded for many labels. He provides the interesting notes about the music, some 36 pages. Recorded at Champs Hill and Henry Wood Hall. Mastered by Ken Blair.
Okay, I missed Good Friday but still appropriate music for today. BACH: St. John Passion - The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv CD "MADE IN GERMANY BY PMDC") And yes, that's the cover of the vinyl set.
Just heard of this upload and wanted to share it here, since it features many great pianists of the past.
I was enjoying the Lieutenant Kije Suite music by Prokfiev recently in something on tv and was wondering if there is a recommended high quality recording (or two) for it? Vinyl or CD, sans vocal. Thanks for any guidance. Leaning toward the Philharmonia Orchestra if it doesn't have the vocal bit...
Almost nobody includes the vocal--which, as it happens, I like or even prefer. Of those that don't, my first choice would be the classic RCA Living Stereo edition by Fritz Reiner leading the Chicago SO. Marek Jurowski and WDR SO Koln with Boris Statsenko bar., on CPO 999 976-2 (1-1998), gives it to us both ways--with and without singer. I think I've heard close to every recording of the piece with singer, and that's the only one I'd recommend; in particular, the singers in the Ozawa and Leinsdorf accounts are both pretty lackluster, and while the singer in the old pseudonymous issue on a Royale LP is good, he sings in German, and the orchestral performance is dreadful. As, it being Royale, are the recording quality and surfaces.
Like many, I've been a big fan since I first heard it. I have the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Wit version on Naxos, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra / Kord on Decca, both of which I like. I'll have to give this version a try.
