Purchases Today

[jlaurson]

Most of these critics should go back to school and take some writing classes.

Pay peanuts and you get monkeys... few exceptions apart*, amateur reviewism has, alas, become the seemingly only economically feasible way of doing this.

Namely the Hurwitzer, the Bill O'Reilly of classical music reviewism...

[Karl Henning]

I'd have never guessed that posting an offhand disparaging remark about Woelfl's quartets would have inspired the next certified GMG Trendy Composer of the Month.

You must use your power only for good . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Hmmmm 

Yes, a delicate oxymoron!

[Karl Henning]

Extremely lukewarm review on http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Oct13/Shostakovich_sy4_8573188.htm

Let's see . . . the reviewer opens with the Everybody likes this guy, so I'll telegraph that I refuse to like him chestnut, and concludes with the hand-wringing un-conclusion, Try as I might I simply cannot fathom blah blah blah.

I loves me paint-by-numbers reviews . . . .

[Parsifal]

Let's see . . . the reviewer opens with the Everybody likes this guy, so I'll telegraph that I refuse to like him chestnut, and concludes with the hand-wringing un-conclusion, Try as I might I simply cannot fathom blah blah blah.

I loves me paint-by-numbers reviews . . . .

I found it a useful review because it mentioned that there is a Wigglesworth recording of the piece on BIS. 

[Daverz]

I was unmoved by Petrenko's Shostakovich Symphony 10, though I should probably give it another listen.  I think I may pass on his 4.

[Karl Henning]

I found it a useful review because it mentioned that there is a Wigglesworth recording of the piece on BIS. 

You've found the silver lining.

I was unmoved by Petrenko's Shostakovich Symphony 10, though I should probably give it another listen.  I think I may pass on his 4.

YMMV, of course . . . Brian thinks more highly of Petrenko's Tenth than do I, but I do find it a fine account.

And I am on record as finding his Fifth better than many like to give it credit for 

[Brian]

Let's see . . . the reviewer opens with the Everybody likes this guy, so I'll telegraph that I refuse to like him chestnut, and concludes with the hand-wringing un-conclusion, Try as I might I simply cannot fathom blah blah blah.

I loves me paint-by-numbers reviews . . . .

I like Dan, but I don't understand his beef with Petrenko. Every single time a CD comes out, he calls it superficial and "surface"-ish, but does not explain what the differences would be if the recording were less "surface". Is this code for "too exciting"? If not, what is it specifically that he dislikes?

And yes, Petrenko's is my favorite Tenth and next-favorite Ninth (Kreizberg), but Karl and I trade places on the merits of his Fifth. The Sixth was good enough but not special.

[Fafner]

I found it a useful review because it mentioned that there is a Wigglesworth recording of the piece on BIS.

Yes, same here. 

[Karl Henning]

I like Dan, but I don't understand his beef with Petrenko.

Nor do we understand his beef through that review, which is just a litany of dismissive phrases . . . curiously rhetorical, vacuous and/or banal, pawing at the soil, little to engage or inspire, tension slackens alarmingly, much too intent on manicure and polish, what a pity, rhythms lack menace, passes for precious little, a series of diverting, self-indulgent doodles, while pleasing in themselves they add nothing to the essential narrative, we've been here before, and all too often, weak, indecisive, no match for the strength and thrust of the best, nothing more than a mild attack of the vapours, it's all so damn tentative.

[TheGSMoeller]

My final purchase, EVER.......of Shostakovich's 15th that is. I think this puts me in double digits of recordings. But I have a feeling this one may trump them all.

[Karl Henning]

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, Greg . . . just pulled the trigger on a copy for myself.

[jlaurson]

My final purchase, EVER.......of Shostakovich's 15th that is. I think this puts me in double digits of recordings. But I have a feeling this one may trump them all.

In that case I sure hope you already have Kondrashin - Dresden. 



Dip Your Ears, No. 88 (Shostakovich with Kondrashin)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/01/dip-your-ears-no-88.html

[The new erato]

Yes I have. 

[jlaurson]

Yes I have. 

Pheeewww!

[TheGSMoeller]

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, Greg . . . just pulled the trigger on a copy for myself.

Woot!
I have sanderling's with Berlin Symphony, and have heard/read that this Cleveland disc is a smidgen better.

In that case I sure hope you already have Kondrashin - Dresden. 



Dip Your Ears, No. 88 (Shostakovich with Kondrashin)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/01/dip-your-ears-no-88.html

Yes! Based on your rec if I recall. Definitely a top choice.

[springrite]

A minor amendment to the FINAL FINAL order of the year:

Del Tredici: FINAL ALICE (Chicago, Solti)
Sorabji: Transcendental Etudes (1-25 of 100) Ullen 

[TheGSMoeller]

Another one I've been wanting for a while...

[kyjo]

My final purchase, EVER.......of Shostakovich's 15th that is. I think this puts me in double digits of recordings. But I have a feeling this one may trump them all.

Pounds the table! A fantastic recording, Greg.

[Parsifal]

Ordered this from Amazon.co.uk



Did want to wait until a US release for fear that the US government will be overthrown before then.

It is needed as a supplement to this:

[asin]B004HF0PEU[/asin]