New Releases

[Madiel]

I'm sure we could have an entire thread devoted to ridiculously over-the-top and pretentious promotional statements.

Indeed. I suspect the only thing that would hold it back from rivalling the "worst covers" thread is that some of the awful things one finds in booklets might have to be typed rather than copy-pasted.

[Brian]

That one might be worse than Valery Afanassiev. It's astonishing how few ideas it contains, and how many registers of irritation it moves through.

[Brian]

Looks like everyone is putting their best food forward for OCTOBER to get on your Christmas lists!



"The founder of La Tempête has made very personal choices for this recording, notably concerning the composition of the orchestra, which he has enriched with instruments from different cultures, including the serpent and the chitarrone. He has added 'fauxbourdons', simple improvised chants deriving from folk tradition. The colours of the voices in these Vespers are also very unusual: Bestion follows in the tradition of oral polyphony as it still exists in Corsica, Sardinia and Georgia."



What a starry lineup there. The encore is an arrangement of a tango from Schnittke's opera "Life with an Idiot".



14:26 / 14:08 / 14:31 / 22:38





and finally, holy sh!t at how bad this cover is:

[Brian]

OCTOBER continues...



Brahms CD clocks in at 81:25



Giltburg plays a Fazioli here





Includes triple concerto (Kolja Blacher, Johannes Moser) and Eroica Variations.





The Quatuor Ebene is launching a recording of the Beethoven cycle, recorded live in various places around the world ("Vienna, Philadelphia, Tokyo, São Paulo, Melbourne, Nairobi and Paris"):





And this fall from Hyperion:



And in case your Christmas list needs some boxes:



35 CDs



24 CDs including a rehearsal disc



77 CDs

Also a similar Complete Columbia Collection for Zubin Mehta with 97 CDs - yeesh! No offense if you love Zubin Mehta, but does anyone love Zubin Mehta that much?

No art yet, but RCA reissue boxes of Guarneri Quartet Beethoven, and of L'Archibudelli Beethoven.

[Brian]

A random comment: all the great old artists back in the golden age used to record all the same stuff!! I love buying these Big Boxes - I have Rubinstein, Perahia, Barenboim solo, Previn Sony, Bernstein Sony edition, etc. But aside from Previn, it feels like everyone active in the 50s-60s was recording all the same music. Like, someone is gonna come in here and say "Naxos is doing Beethoven concertos, ugh." But the Rubinstein box alone has more Beethoven concerto cycles (3) than the Naxos catalog does (2)!

I keep getting tempted by things like the Emanuel Ax box, or Juilliard box, or Walter NYPO box, and then look at the contents and go, "oh, I already have Szell doing this...and Lenny...and Rubinstein...and (fill in blank)". Even Previn did a Beethoven cycle, but the rest of his box is enjoyably eclectic. (For non-replication of repertoire, Salonen reigns supreme.)

That said...the Monteux one is unusually tempting because Monteux is unusually awesome and in a cross-section of repertoire that I dearly love.

[JBS]

A random comment: all the great old artists back in the golden age used to record all the same stuff!! I love buying these Big Boxes - I have Rubinstein, Perahia, Barenboim solo, Previn Sony, Bernstein Sony edition, etc. But aside from Previn, it feels like everyone active in the 50s-60s was recording all the same music. Like, someone is gonna come in here and say "Naxos is doing Beethoven concertos, ugh." But the Rubinstein box alone has more Beethoven concerto cycles (3) than the Naxos catalog does (2)!

I keep getting tempted by things like the Emanuel Ax box, or Juilliard box, or Walter NYPO box, and then look at the contents and go, "oh, I already have Szell doing this...and Lenny...and Rubinstein...and (fill in blank)". Even Previn did a Beethoven cycle, but the rest of his box is enjoyably eclectic. (For non-replication of repertoire, Salonen reigns supreme.)

That said...the Monteux one is unusually tempting because Monteux is unusually awesome and in a cross-section of repertoire that I dearly love.

Another factor is that if you have a set devoted to soloist X, then you have his recordings with Conductor Y,   and the set devoted to Conductor Y will have the same recordings! (and of course, vice versa, if you bought Conductor Y's box first).

[Brian]

Another factor is that if you have a set devoted to soloist X, then you have his recordings with Conductor Y,   and the set devoted to Conductor Y will have the same recordings! (and of course, vice versa, if you bought Conductor Y's box first).

Yup!

I also bought a lot of those super cheap all-white Sony boxes that come without booklets, and then of course all of those got repackaged into the big boxes. A very generous friend of mine has accepted the Casadesus/Szell Mozart concertos, Szell Haydn, Previn Vaughan Williams, and Tafelmusik Mozart/Haydn into his home as refugees...well okay he doesn't know about the Tafelmusik ones yet but I think he will be generous enough to welcome them too...

[kyjo]

Surely this ranks amongst the best cover art!

[André]

This month's issue of BBC Music Magazine has this :

[Brian]

Surely this ranks amongst the best cover art!

Well...since you ask...I am a little confused about where she is sitting, it appears to be outdoors but it also has walls and windows... 

[ritter]

Well...since you ask...I am a little confused about where she is sitting, it appears to be outdoors but it also has walls and windows... 

I think it's called a greenhouse....

I think I've never listened to any music by Dohnányi...might be tempted by this next release.

[kyjo]

Well...since you ask...I am a little confused about where she is sitting, it appears to be outdoors but it also has walls and windows... 

Mind you, I wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings...

[kyjo]

This month's issue of BBC Music Magazine has this :

André, the picture isn't appearing.

[André]

Hmmmm.... How about this?



Elgar Cello Concerto with Lloyd-Webber and Tortelier, a 1997 recording
Vaughan Williams, the London Symphony with Andrew Manze and the BBC Scottish symphony, from the BBC Proms, 31.07.2018

[Que]

A random comment: all the great old artists back in the golden age used to record all the same stuff!!

Absolutely. A reason why prefer to pick and choose.... None of Rubinstein's Beethoven concerto cycles is even interesting BTW. And I love Rubinstein...

That said...the Monteux one is unusually tempting because Monteux is unusually awesome and in a cross-section of repertoire that I dearly love.

Agreed, again!  At least his core repertoire was different, and he excelled in it....

Q

[North Star]

Looks like everyone is putting their best food forward for OCTOBER to get on your Christmas lists!

A restaurant critic's dream, huh?  0:)

[Brian]

A restaurant critic's dream, huh?  0:)

haha...the thought never leaves my brain!

[Madiel]

I'm trying to decide the market for a piano version of Dvorak's Stabat Mater.

In terms of recordings I mean. Sure, if a choir wants to sing the Stabat Mater and doesn't have an orchestra handy, go for it, but what listener will want it? Only someone who doesn't know the orchestral version?

[71 dB]

Hmmmm.... How about this?



Elgar Cello Concerto with Lloyd-Webber and Tortelier, a 1997 recording
Vaughan Williams, the London Symphony with Andrew Manze and the BBC Scottish symphony, from the BBC Proms, 31.07.2018

Elgar looks computer generated in that cover...  Original sepia colouring would have looked natural.

[Paul_Thomas]

A random comment: all the great old artists back in the golden age used to record all the same stuff!! I love buying these Big Boxes - I have Rubinstein, Perahia, Barenboim solo, Previn Sony, Bernstein Sony edition, etc. But aside from Previn, it feels like everyone active in the 50s-60s was recording all the same music. Like, someone is gonna come in here and say "Naxos is doing Beethoven concertos, ugh." But the Rubinstein box alone has more Beethoven concerto cycles (3) than the Naxos catalog does (2)!

I keep getting tempted by things like the Emanuel Ax box, or Juilliard box, or Walter NYPO box, and then look at the contents and go, "oh, I already have Szell doing this...and Lenny...and Rubinstein...and (fill in blank)". Even Previn did a Beethoven cycle, but the rest of his box is enjoyably eclectic. (For non-replication of repertoire, Salonen reigns supreme.)

That said...the Monteux one is unusually tempting because Monteux is unusually awesome and in a cross-section of repertoire that I dearly love.

True, but bear in mind that some of these artists lived through a period a genuine and dramatic change in recording technology. Remaking a concerto cycle in stereo from mono is fair enough in my book, and then potentially again with digital recording...