On dodgy turntable right now, Jacqueline Du Pré - Daniel Barenboim - English Chamber Orchestra – Haydn: Cello Concerto In C / Boccherini: Cello Concerto In B Flat
Digging into my "basement tapes" I have been playing some that have no performer identification. When I made these tapes from library CDs in the 90s I recorded information in loose-leaf notebooks. I dug those out but so far I haven't been able to locate information for some of the tapes. It's an interesting experience to enjoy excellent performances & only have the tape titles like 'Byrd/The Great Service/Anthems and Motets' and 'Haydn/Paris Symphonies, Nos. 82-85.' I did check the library catalog, but had no luck there, so the CDs must have been discarded or not returned.
I just listened to this on Qobuz--it's now my favorite version of "Pictures at an Exhibition." Each "picture" is so characterful, and his virtuosity is astounding. Excellent sound, too.
Been listening to this material tonight, albeit from within the Ansermet French Music box. I am beginning to think I would pay good money for a Lalo boxed set!
Never been let down by a Nonesuch record yet. They're always excellent. And also deserve praise for excellent cover art design, and superb liner notes, and Edward Tatnall Canby's one of my favorite audio and music writers.
I'll have to check this out on Spotify, then. It's a measure of the esteem in which I hold Richter's long-ago recording that I keep coming back to it, given how dire the sound quality was, even for 1958.
Listened to Levit's Beethoven Piano Sonatas set again, this time to several early sonatas on (free) Spotify, and it's growing on me. His playing is certainly not unengaging, on the contrary. I'll have to hear some more, but it's a candidate for my to-buy-list. One can't have enough Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles
I am at a loss. Sony bought out Columbia and the following Sony box in my collection claims to be the Complete Sony Recordings and yet it does not have Scriabin Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 ...
That's probably because he recorded Scriabin's Piano Sonatas for Melodiya, not Columbia, and Sony doesn't have the rights.
Saga was originally a UK label, not Russian. Their releases included licensed Russian recordings. Saga (5) Olympia wasn't Russian either, it was based in the UK and also released licensed Russian recordings. Olympia (2)
Addition to my post above about Saga and Olympia: state-owned Melodiya, the Soviet Union's record monopoly at the time, was the only label in Soviet times.
@J.A.W. Thanks for pointing this out. I have noticed just about all the artists on Olympia are Russian on recordings I have come across and thereby assume it is a Russian label ...
On the LP jacket, I noticed Columbia on the upper left corner and Melodiya on the lower left. Looks like Columbia had licensed the recording from Melodiya and that licensing agreement did not extend to a Sony box ...
The licensing agreement probably expired long before the Sony box was planned. Melodiya used to license their recordings to a myriad of Western labels, and when a license expired they sometimes licensed the recordings again to another label.
Listening to CD 47 from "Leonard Bernstein - The Symphony Edition" on Sony. Schumann - Symphony No. 1 'Spring' / Symphony No. 2
