Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

A golden oldie. La Mer recorded 11/27/50, Iberia 5/11/51. Good sound for the first & better for the second.

 

I have their Handel Op.3 and Op.6 on order.

 

In Tom Stoppard's Jumpers the philosopher/protagonist is working on a speech/demonstration which, among other matters, addresses Zeno's paradox. He says:

It was precisely this notion of infinite series which in the sixth century BC led the Greek philosopher Zeno to conclude that since an arrow shot towards a target first had to cover half the distance, and then half the remainder, and then half the remainder after that, and so on ad infinitum, the result was, as I will now demonstrate, that though an arrow is always approaching its target, it never quite gets there, and Saint Sebastian died of fright.

 

This inspired me to see what Argo/L'Oiseau Lyre titles I could find on Tidal. Now listening to Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset performing Rameau.

 

Ehh, is there a "new" CD box set of Boulez's Debussy recordings on the market? (I'm still having the old LP box Boulez dirige Debussy with the Cleveland Orchestra.)

 

But it looks like it's out of print.

 

Ouch, so sad. There's clearly a lot more music than on the LP box: 5-CD vs. 3-LP.

By the way, there are newer Debussy recordings by Boulez, and boxed together with his Ravel recordings. I think Imust get this one.

 

Three discs are taken up with Pelleas et Melisande.

 

On the turntable...

 

This disc arrived today. Wow--gorgeous music, beautifully played, and presented in stunning sound.

 

I believe I have this box as well, recorded when Marriner was at his best ...

 

I have those on Philips LP boxes. Who is re-releasting them now, as Philips is history?

 

I'm buying gently used copies on Amazon.

 

This may be old news to some of you, but I just picked up the Blu-Ray audio of Sir Colin Davis's recording of "Messiah" with the London Symphony from 1966. What amazes me is that this was produced by Mercury Records engineer and producer Harold Lawrence and was recorded and mastered using the Mercury Living Presence microphone and recording setup (no level changing during the performance, vacuum tube recording, 3 mike setup for the orchestra etc). On this Blu-Ray disc which was not adjusted or compressed in any way, you can really hear the heritage of "Mercury Living Presence" stereo, although with a bit less "high-end" and slightly "fuller" and more well-balanced sound. If you're a fan of Mercury, this Blu-Ray would be a worthy addition to your collection. The performance is considered a classic as well.

 

ASMF performing Op. 6 was released by Argo/London/Decca (Marriner conducting) and Philips (Iona Brown conducting).

 

Since Universal decided to de-activate the Philips label, they have reissued many Philips recordings on Decca (Claudio Arrau's Beethoven and Liszt, for instance) and they have also licensed Philips material to Channel Classics (such as earlier Iván Fischer recordings). If they decide to reissue Marriner/Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Philips recordings, they'll probably put them out on Decca. Don't know about Universal LP reissues, though, if that was your question.

 

Now listening to Les Basses Reunies playing Frescobaldi (courtesy of Tidal).

 

"objective?" By what meter is any performance more or less objective or more or less personal? The relative perfection you speak of has to do with the ability to edit in post. So if the technology were 40 years older then the Furtwangler recordings would have likely been edited to be note perfect.

 

Listening to Hary Janos - the opera, not just the suite - conducted by Kertesz, again courtesy of Tidal.

 

I already have the original Philips 3-LP box and the 2-CD box and doubt I want to get into another format. I wonder if this remastering to Blu-Ray audio is becoming a new trend ...

 

I am well aware quite a few of you have the following box. Is there a big Celibidache box out there that also includes all the Bruckner Symphonies?

 

There's a long thread (multi-part I think) on Blu-Ray Pure Audio. Let's just say that the selection remains very limited for both popular and classical. I have three classical titles, Mehta conducting Mahler's Second with the VPO, HvK conducting Tchaikovsky ballet music and Solti's Ring - on one disc, together with a hardbound libretto. The last, for which I believe I paid about $60, has been favorably compared with the $700 Japanese SACDs. Which only goes to demonstrate another opportunity lost.

Oh - and of course you can get Carlos Kleiber's Beethoven. Is there a format in which that hasn't been released? Elcassette maybe? DRH - has DG released it yet on cylinders?

 

There's no all Bruckner symphonies by Celibidache commercially available, as far I can tell. I think that in old DG's Stuttgart box there was also other recordings besides the Bruckner recordings by the Stuttgart radio? (But I can remember things wrong, or I just misunderstood what one person onve said...)

 

Argh, you all Kleiber haters...!

 

In my case, I've bought it on LP, CD and SACD. I think that's enough.