Mozart Divertimenti, Freiburger, Harmoni Mundi
Chopin Ballades, Mr Ashkenazy, Decca
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Mozart Divertimenti, Freiburger, Harmoni Mundi
Chopin Ballades, Mr Ashkenazy, Decca
Ended the day with .... Dvorak Cello Concerto - Rostropovich / Karajan / DG LP. Great performance, but I knew that ... but I was blown away by the excellence of the recorded sound! :scratch: ... my LP rig must be coming along nicely. :)
This last week I've been doing some vinyl rips of a Beethoven symphony cycle I inherited from my Dad: Classics for Pleasure reissues of Andre Cluytens/Berlin Philharmonic EMI recordings from the late 50s/early 60s.
Decent recordings and some very good pressings. Classical/Romantic music is not my usual listening, but I've enjoyed these greatly. Even the 5th. I've a Carlos Kleiber Vienna recording of this that I've always rated, but Cluytens' more measured approach, for me, had a greater, more powerful impact. Kleiber seemed a bit frenetic at times. Need to listen again to the cycle, and maybe post-Baroque pre-Impressionist music isn't all that bad after all :eyebrows:.
Richard - I've just been doing a rip of the second Spohr concerto - which John Denman seems to have discovered, and hunting around for a picture of the disc cover I came upon this little website:Quote:
Originally Posted by Gromit
www.johndenmanclarinet.co.uk
They seem to be offering a CD limited edition of the Onyx LP (which has the Stamitz 3rd concerto as well as the Spohr). Just wondered if you were interested . . .:rolleyes:
Incidentally the sleeve note confirms he was a Professor at Trinity, and also Principal of the Sadlers Well Opera (with which orchestra the Spohr disc was recorded).
I finally finished my new stereo (after two months of building it up, selling off old gear, etc).
It's posted in the Gallery now but I thought I'd share one shot I took of some LPs, two old favorites and two new purchases today:
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/...ck1/albums.jpg
I'll throw in one shot of the system, since you all seem to like vinyl:
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/...jack1/VPI2.jpg
Okay two shots, because I kind of feel proud of this and it sounds so damn good with all the Shostakovich you guys have been forcing me to buy:
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/...1/Harbeth2.jpg
Oh wow ! - Bruno Walter Brahms 4th :thumbsup::thumbsup: the best there is, imho. :) I've got it on CD - just looking for a decent copy on vinyl now. :drool:
Very nice deck, Jack. Is that a VPI arm?
Yes, it's a VPI JMW-10. I've had it (and the VPI Mark 3 'table) for 13 years now. I am looking to upgrade the cartridge, which is the wonderfully smooth Shure M97xe, a bit out of place on this system but actually sounds really good. I need to sell off some more old gear before I do that (unless I just get my old Blue Point Special retipped).
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On the Brahms 4th - yes, yes, yes find a copy somewhere! I have it on SACD, vinyl, and CD. One of my desert island discs
This afternoon:
Havergal Brian - Symphonies 10 and 21 (Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra/James Loughran and Eric Pinkett), Unicorn LP RHS 313
It must be thirty years or more since this one got a play :eek:.
Amazing music, unlike any other composer, really. This was the first ever commercial recording of Brian's music, made a few months before he died, aged 96. Produced by Robert Simpson, who, as a BBC producer had been promoting Brian's music and had got the BBC to agree to broadcast all of Brian's 32 symphonies (22 written after Brian was 80).
For a youth orchestra, the LSSO play remarkably well. It's only the occasional loose ensemble or slightly off intonation that gives their amateur status away. The recording suffers (if that's the right word) from an enormous dynamic range, and muted, distant trumpets could be in the next county.
The music is powerful and uncompromising. There's something of a Shostakovichian (is that a word?) feel to the bleak, desolate passages in the 10th, and the tremendous impact of thunder and wind machines is all the more impressive when it comes, not as a spectacular effect, but as an inevitable consequence of where the music's going. There are some wistful, nobilmente moments (a la Elgar), but comparisons are useless really as the music is totally individual, quirky, and unexpected.
That Brian actually heard very little of his own music didn't seem to matter to him that much, as it was the composing that was important to him. There's a few more recordings around now, so I feel I have to explore more . . . :)
As an aside, with the state of music education in schools these days, could a similar undertaking be made today? Are there County Youth Orchestras any more? With funding cutbacks, music-making is a soft target . . . .
It's sad to hear that the UK is doing the same thing that's been done in the States. Musical enrichment classes largely ended in the 1970s. Performance classes are still popular but have to fight every year to not get cut in favor of math and science classes.Quote:
Originally Posted by morris_minor