Henryk Szeryng's Mercury recordings with Antal Doráti, Rafael Kubelík and the Sibelius/Prokofiev Concertos with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky are all included in the Decca box. His RCA recordings are scattered over the big Arthur Rubinstein, Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch Sony/RCA boxes. Hopefully Sony will collect them in a Szeryng/RCA box someday.
IIRC, Hungaroton may be the only record company that does this as my Annie Fischer's Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas had all its CD's sealed in paper sleeves ...
Although it does include Szeryng's DG recordings the box was released on Decca. I don't have it, I checked its contents on the Presto Classical site (I posted a link a while ago) and it does contain quite a lot of stuff I don't really care for, and I'm not sure I'll be getting it.
The preference for mono mixes in pop music is mainly (not always) associated with records that got inferior or at best mediocre stereo mixes. This was of course mainly in the 60s. Engineers spent a lot of time making the pop mono mix because it was the principal way most of their young listeners were going to hear it on cheap record players and the radio. That was not true of classical music where the stereo mix got the most attention and care generally. Also most classical labels in that era used more natural mic'ing techniques well suited to stereo.
I've noticed a trend on a lot of these classical covers which feature the performer: either they look dapper as hell or they look like they fell out of a "fashion mistakes of the *insert decade here*" buzzfeed article.
Yes, went for it after reading about it here (posts by yourself I believe) Arrived from the rainforest.
I've once read a review which claimed this to be the best Quattro Stagioni ever recorded. Is it an overstatement, or does it live up to that title?
My listening selection this morning: CD 55 from the Szell box. Casadesus-Mozart-piano Concertos 26,27. The coffee is steeping in the press.
Can someone (or a few of you) provide me with a few recommendations on "where to start" with Pavarotti? I've always been blown away by his voice, but I own nothing by him (save for the Miss Sarajevo single he did with U2/Passengers). I just picked up his O Sole Mio and Greatest Hits LP's on the cheap on the "Vinyl For Sale" forum, but I'd love to know what the consensus is regarding his "best" or classic LP's.... Thanks!
I generally think that his earlier opera recordings are the best-the first decade plus( but I still bought the big box set of his career work). If you are looking at LP sets only and not CDs there are many of his early Decca operas available in used market.
I liked it a lot, but I have a bunch of other Quattro Stagioni recordings that I enjoy just as much, including the one from Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend giving this a listen.
First listen to CD 2 of new arrival, "Monastic Chant - 12th & 13th C. European Sacred Music" performed by Theatre Of Voices led by Paul Hillier on Harmonia Mundi.
