Past Purchases (CLOSED)

[not edward]

Just bought for $6:

This was the disc (which in its original incarnation, came as a freebie with BBC Music Magazine) that convinced me I'd been mistaken in dismissing Tippett after hearing Solti's rendition of Byzantium and his butchery of the 4th symphony as Concerto for Darth Vader, Brass and the Boring Bits of the Orchestra. I think both recordings stand up very well even now; I arguably prefer the greater light and shade in Hickox's 4th and the vigour of Davis' 2nd, but if these were the only recordings I'd heard I would have exactly the same opinion of the works as I do now.

Also bought this, which is out-of-print in like new condition for $10:

[asin]B000000AXX[/asin]

I'm quite fond of this disc too: it's 'lesser' Tippett, certainly, and I'm not convinced the orchestral Heart's Assurance was a good idea (to me, the work loses something of its intimacy in its larger setting), but everything here is charming, and there aren't so many recordings of Divertimento on 'Sellinger's Round' out there.

I only have one more recording of Hickox to go and it's quite expensive (the recording with Triple Concerto and Concerto for Orchestra).

Ooh. I'd forgotten that existed. I'm very satisfied with the Davis recording of this coupling (I have the original single-disc issue from way back when), but a second Concerto for Orchestra--and I see from the timings that the slow movement is significantly broader with Hickox--is a no-brainer. And do I need a fourth Triple Concerto, after Davis, Tippett and ... the other Davis ... ? I don't see why not.

[Sergeant Rock]

Arrived today: the Fleisher/Szell box of Beethoven and Brahms piano concertos. I already have the Brahms but the box is so cheap (17 Euro) I don't mind the duplication.




Sarge

[Mirror Image]

This was the disc (which in its original incarnation, came as a freebie with BBC Music Magazine) that convinced me I'd been mistaken in dismissing Tippett after hearing Solti's rendition of Byzantium and his butchery of the 4th symphony as Concerto for Darth Vader, Brass and the Boring Bits of the Orchestra. I think both recordings stand up very well even now; I arguably prefer the greater light and shade in Hickox's 4th and the vigour of Davis' 2nd, but if these were the only recordings I'd heard I would have exactly the same opinion of the works as I do now.

I'm quite fond of this disc too: it's 'lesser' Tippett, certainly, and I'm not convinced the orchestral Heart's Assurance was a good idea (to me, the work loses something of its intimacy in its larger setting), but everything here is charming, and there aren't so many recordings of Divertimento on 'Sellinger's Round' out there.

Ooh. I'd forgotten that existed. I'm very satisfied with the Davis recording of this coupling (I have the original single-disc issue from way back when), but a second Concerto for Orchestra--and I see from the timings that the slow movement is significantly broader with Hickox--is a no-brainer. And do I need a fourth Triple Concerto, after Davis, Tippett and ... the other Davis ... ? I don't see why not.

Very cool, Edward. Yeah, I remember looking on Amazon last night when I was going to purchase Tippett's own conducted performance of the 2nd and 4th that it was originally issued with BBC Magazine and I could have bought that recording, but I would rather have this reissue, which, hopefully, doesn't come in those cheap slimline jewel cases that come with magazines. Yes, I haven't heard a note of Divertimento on Sellinger's Round, so that's one reason why I bought this Hickox recording plus it will be nice to have another performance of Concerto for Double String Orchestra. I hope you can find a recording of Hickox's Concerto for Orchestra for a good price. I have yet to find one, from a good seller, that's not over $20.

[not edward]

It's also good to buy anything that's from NMC, as they've done a stellar job of documenting post-war British music (and, more recently, also acquiring the rights to valuable out-of-print material). One of the things that most impresses me about them is their completely catholic style--everything from Skempton's tonal minimalism to Ferneyhough and Barrett's most complex creations has appeared there. British new music would undoubtedly be a poorer place without them.

Great piece of trivia on their page for this disc: http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/remembering-tippett

Tippett was the conductor on the first ever recording of Tallis' Spem in alium. Now that I'd never have guessed in a million years.

[kishnevi]

Landed today:
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas 1-9, etc.  Matti Raekallio, piano (Ondine)
Bach Fantasy,  C. Roussett harpsichord (Aparte) (includes various things like the Capriccio on the Departure of a Favorite Brother,  the Aria Variata in A minor, etc.)

Since I posted images already, I won't bother you with them again.

[Mirror Image]

It's also good to buy anything that's from NMC, as they've done a stellar job of documenting post-war British music (and, more recently, also acquiring the rights to valuable out-of-print material). One of the things that most impresses me about them is their completely catholic style--everything from Skempton's tonal minimalism to Ferneyhough and Barrett's most complex creations has appeared there. British new music would undoubtedly be a poorer place without them.

Great piece of trivia on their page for this disc: http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/remembering-tippett

Tippett was the conductor on the first ever recording of Tallis' Spem in alium. Now that I'd never have guessed in a million years.

I'll have to checkout more NMC's recordings. Thanks for the link too, Edward.

[Mirror Image]

Landed today:

[asin]B004HARLC4[/asin]

[asin]B0002VE206[/asin]

[asin]B002JIN1VQ[/asin]

[asin]B001DUJNEA[/asin]

[asin]B000GW8AXQ[/asin]

[asin]B000A2ACLA[/asin]

[asin]B000025ZJT[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Well, I'm not going to find out what they are on Tapatalk ; )

[jlaurson]

Listen what the Cat Dragged In



J.S. Bach
Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Zhu Xiao-Mei
Mirare MIR103
Well possibly my favorite Bach performer. Period. (Well... at least my favorite Bach pianist. Such an instinctive (?) and unpretentious grasp on architecture and musicality...)



J.S. Bach
"The RIAS Bach Cantata Project"
K.Ristenpart, RIAS Ensembles
(29 Cantatas, rec. 1949 - 1952)
Audite



M. Abel
The Dream Gallery
"Seven California Portraits"
Delos
(From the cover's blurb" >>McCarntey, Costello, Sting, P.Gabriel and Bernstein all tried to marry classical and rock. Only maverick composer Mark Abel has achieved an elegant and persuasive listening experience.<< Perhaps I can't judge it fairly, because it's so outside my field of musical expertise... but I shudder at even just hearing clips of every one of those songs. Try yourself on Amazon's clips. If the CD-clips don't work, the mp3 clips will.)



A. Vivaldi
Four Seasons
Jeanne Lamon / Tafelmusik
Tafelmusik (formerly on Sony)



J.S. Bach
Brandenburg Concertos
Jeanne Lamon / Tafelmusik
Tafelmusik (formerly on Sony)
Decade-old re-releases of HIP performances have a tough time in the market... with their "not-quite-at-the-edge-of-performance-practice" quality often cruelly exposed. I felt that way about the "Apollo's Fire" re-issues... which were fine at their time, but misplaced vanity productions in their re-issued form. But I am rather hopeful that Lamon & Tafelmusik still hold up well. Nice to see their own label now.



"The Galileo Project"
"cross section of baroque composers
played live to a backdrop of Hubble
telescope images... fused with 'poetic
narration' and choreography."
Jeanne Lamon / Tafelmusik
Tafelmusik DVD



J. Jongen
"In Flanders Fields v.30"
Complete Music for cello & piano
K.Steylaeerts, P.Kuijken
Phaedra



J. Jongen, C. Franck
"In Flanders Fields v.70"
13 Preludes for piano, op.69 (J)
Prelude, Fugue, and Variations (F)
Prelude, Chorale & Fugue (F)
Hans Ryckelnyck
Phaedra
Part of my continued exploration of the wonderful Joseph Jongen's music... thanks to the equally wonderful, eclectic Phaedra label. Also: is there anything the Kuijken-gang hasn't got their fingers in?



F. Chopin
Preludes
Vanessa Perez
Telarc
Telarc's successor, of sorts, to Simone Dinnerstein who has moved on to Sony. Looks similar, but said to sound quite different. That sounds like a good combination to me, right there.



G. Mahler
Symphony No.3
M.Stenz / Gürzenich Orchestra / M.Schuster
Oehms SACD
Oehms/Stenz Mahler cycle continues... on its way to challenge -- and perhaps trump -- the other extant SACD Mahler cycles. It started out with a superb Fifth, and has since continued on a very high, if uneventful level. Bit like Zinman, in that regard. Schuster is a wild beast of a singer -- a controversial (but riveting, I find) Lady Macbeth! Now what to expect of her in Mahler?! She's already done a wonderful Urlicht in the M2 of this cycle.



H. Pfitzner
Palestrina
K.Petrenko / Frankfurt Opera O. & Ch.
Oehms
I want to love Palestrina. I want to love Palestrina. I want to love Palestrina. It's one of my mantras. Man, that piece can be elusive. Brilliant, ingenious, certainly, how Pfitzner uses Palestrina's music and slowly, almost undetectably, makes it completely his own. But whenever I listen to it, live or on record, it's less an experience than I'm trying to make it. Perhaps this recording helps... the production was certainly superior to that of the Bavarian State Opera (http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/7891.html), which had put Palestrina on in the same season. And I can't imagine that K.Petrenko isn't getting much more out of this than the stodgy soup that whatshername-from-hamburg - Simone Young - offered. Where is Christian Thielemann, when you need him. Well, he's bound to put that on in his time in Dresden.



D. Shostakovich, B. Britten, S. Prokofiev
Cello Sonatas
Jamie Walton, Daniel Grimwood
signum Classics
From my favorite this-generation-British-musician and the pianist of my far-and-away-favorite Liszt recording (Années de pèlerinage, sfz music) - the natural companion to Walton's British-Soviet Concerto Cycle on Signum.



J.S. Bach
Orchestral Suties 1 & 4
Sinfonia from BWV 21
Sonata for violin and clavecin No.4 BWV 1017
P.Hantaï / Le Concert Français / A.Beyer et al.
Mirare M017



J.S. Bach
French Suites
Olivier Baumont
Warner
Everyone else has it and likes it... so it was high time to close that gap in my Bach collection.



A. Dvořák
Stabat Mater
W.Sawallisch / CzPO & Ch /
G.Beňačková, O.Wenkel,
P.Dvorský, J.H.Rootering
Supraphon
This recording comes with at least four different covers, but no matter which is the cover, it's always the same sizzling performance... one of the best.



R. Schumann
Symphonies 1 & 3
H.Vonk, K.Tennstedt / Cologne RSO, Berlin Ph
EMI Red Line
Since Tennstedt's Schumann Fourth was my favorite (among the final contenders) in a recent GMG-instigated blind listening test, I wanted both his Schumann-Berlin recordings. On EMI Red Line they're coupled with Vonk's 1st and 2nd, respectively, to form a cycle. Other EMI re-issues of a cheap Schumann-Symphony cycles use all-Vonk.



J.S. Bach
G'berg Variations
F.Bonizzoni
Glossa Platinum
High praise from some quarters here - and available at a good price used/like new on Amazon.



R. Strauss
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,
Divertimento op.86
Orpheus CO
DG
Time to really get that shape-shifting "Divertimento" a.k.a. "Schlagobers" a.k.a. "Dance Suite", a.k.a. Idontknowwhat nailed down. This is one among several recordings meant to do that for me.



E. Melartin
The Six Symphonies
L.Grin / Tampere PO
Ondine
Another overdue addition to the roster of neglected late-romantic symphonies.



F. Liszt / F. Schubert
"Doppelgänger"
Piano transcriptions of Schuber Lieder
Dora Delyska
Gramola



M. Garson, W.A. Mozart, F. Poulenc
"The Facets of a Clarinet"
new SQ5t + Clarinet version of the K.622 concerto
Poulenc Sonata
Garson's "Jazz Variations"
Wilfried Gottwald
Gramola

[Karl Henning]

Gosh, Jens, you've got your work cut out for you.

And, John: You're a Glazunov enthusiast, I see.  God bless you : )

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Gosh, Jens, you've got your work cut out for you.

And, John: You're a Glazunov enthusiast, I see.  God bless you : )

In a short time all Serebrier's Glazunov recordings will be released in a very cheap Warner box, 30 euro's. Symphonies and concertos.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Alexander-Glasunow-1865-1936-S%E4mtliche-Symphonien-Konzerte/hnum/1944841

[The new erato]

Jens; I'm a fully enlisted member of the Jongen fanclub myseld. I have just bought the complete string quartets on 2 discs withe the Gong Quartet.

[jlaurson]

Jens; I'm a fully enlisted member of the Jongen fanclub myseld. I have just bought the complete string quartets on 2 discs withe the Gong Quartet.

!! Those are the works that got me started,  when the first of those discs came out about eight-or-so years ago. I didn't even know his organ concerto, then, which might, in retrospective, be his most famous work.

[Mirror Image]

And, John: You're a Glazunov enthusiast, I see.  God bless you : )

Actually, Karl, I bought these recordings for my Dad. He loves Glazunov's music and Serebrier's recordings were the only ones he was lacking. This said, I do like some of Glazunov's music but I'm going to listen to some more of his music in the next few days.

[mc ukrneal]

Listen what the Cat Dragged In



R. Schumann
Symphonies 1 & 3
H.Vonk, K.Tennstedt / Cologne RSO, Berlin Ph
EMI Red Line
Since Tennstedt's Schumann Fourth was my favorite (among the final contenders) in a recent GMG-instigated blind listening test, I wanted both his Schumann-Berlin recordings. On EMI Red Line they're coupled with Vonk's 1st and 2nd, respectively, to form a cycle. Other EMI re-issues of a cheap Schumann-Symphony cycles use all-Vonk.

I really liked that Tennstedt 4th too. I have and enjoy the Vonk cycle, but I still need to compare against that 4th to see if how it compares. Vonk, in general, doesn't seem to get a whole lot of exposure.

[Karl Henning]

Yeah, the Schumann symphonies are pretty good, for B-grade works ; )

[jlaurson]

I really liked that Tennstedt 4th too. I have and enjoy the Vonk cycle, but I still need to compare against that 4th to see if how it compares. Vonk, in general, doesn't seem to get a whole lot of exposure.

The Tennstedt Schumann CDs are hard to find outside the big Tennstedt-box... I can't find the Red Line discs in the US at all. But in the UK the 4th can be had for just a pound, used. There's a bargain!

[mc ukrneal]

The Tennstedt Schumann CDs are hard to find outside the big Tennstedt-box... I can't find the Red Line discs in the US at all. But in the UK the 4th can be had for just a pound, used. There's a bargain!

I think I saw the 4th at Berkshire too...

[prémont]

But I am rather hopeful that Lamon & Tafelmusik still hold up well.

I do not think they will do, as I was already mildly bored, when I heard the set 10 years ago.
In contrast to the Apollo´s Fire set the Tafelmusik set lacks direction, I think - not in a technical sense but in an artistic sense.

[Papy Oli]

Oehms/Stenz Mahler cycle continues... on its way to challenge -- and perhaps trump -- the other extant SACD Mahler cycles. It started out with a superb Fifth, and has since continued on a very high, if uneventful level. Bit like Zinman, in that regard. Schuster is a wild beast of a singer -- a controversial (but riveting, I find) Lady Macbeth! Now what to expect of her in Mahler?! She's already done a wonderful Urlicht in the M2 of this cycle.

Jens,

How do you rate the Stenz M2 as a whole please ? Just listened to the Amazon samples, seems a bit on the fast side maybe ? thank you.