Past Purchases (CLOSED)

[Lethevich]

@listener: IIRC Grammophone was offering two of those Beecham boxes as a subscription gift recently, which certainly takes the sting off of the fact that I nowadays only buy it for the reviews.

[Brahmsian]

Fantastic disc, Conor.  The 2nd movement of Schumann's 3rd string quartet is one of my favorite movements of all chamber music.   

[Scarpia]

More obscure composer stuff:


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And this:

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Normally I'm not a big Solti fan, but for Bartok I think he had the right idea.  The Gielen because of some other amazing recordings of his I have heard, and because it was to cheap to resist in a used copy.

[Conor71]

Fantastic disc, Conor.  The 2nd movement of Schumann's 3rd string quartet is one of my favorite movements of all chamber music.   

Nice one Ray! - I look forward to listening to this Disc .

Just recieved this set of Mendelssohn's Complete Chamber Music today as well, cant wait to dig into this one! .

[SonicMan46]

 

Agree w/ Ray - that Naxos CD is the one I've owned for a while; but I just added another (pic inserted above) w/ the Kuijken clan which is also excellent!   

[Todd]

This being a Mahler year, I figured I should try a few cycles I have thus far neglected.  Tennstedt seemed a good place to start.

[listener]

That does sound good. Who's conducting/playing?

I've not yet heard it (the Classic FM Ma Vlast disc).   The Philharmonia Orchestra, Francesco d'Avalos, 1992 performance.
It supplements the 2-disc Talich mono vinyls.

[Conor71]

Agree w/ Ray - that Naxos CD is the one I've owned for a while; but I just added another (pic inserted above) w/ the Kuijken clan which is also excellent!   

Thanks for the suggestion SonicMan - The Kuijken Disc is a HIP performance?.

[Lethevich]

Passionato had a 20% off sale, which meant the lossless incarnation of this finally fell into "tolerable" (£7~) pricerange for a digital-only purchase.

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[SonicMan46]

Thanks for the suggestion SonicMan - The Kuijken Disc is a HIP performance?.

Well, although the Kuijken clan, especially the older members, definitely come from the HIP background, Schumann wrote these 3 String Quartets in the middle of 1842, so I guess that HIP in the sense of late Baroque or Classical performances would not be applicable.  Regarding the instruments used: violin Franciscus Bovis, Nice 1899; violin Pirot, 1804; alto anonyme fin XVIII siecle (viola?); and cello, Filip Kuijken, 1999 - cannot find much information on that 'alto anonyme' but presume a viola type instrument; interestingly, the cello is new, yet by another Kuijken - what a family!

Below is a quote of a paragraph from a rather detailed Wiki article on Chamber Music HERE; obviously, string instruments were changing in the early half of the 19th century and assuming their modern counterparts - not sure about the strings used back then in mid-century?  I'm not a scholar on string playing history but whole books have been written on the topic - may be one of our more esteemed members might post?

Now, this afternoon, I did listen 'back-to-back' to the 3rd SQ by the two groups discussed; first I still love them both, but they do sound different; the timings for the entire discs are virtually identical - nothing is mentioned in either regarding the tuning of the A string?  The Kuijken Quartet have a 'warmer' tone and I like the recorded sound better (i.e. more up front which is my preference) - the Fine Arts Quartet do sound more modern; the sound is a little more distant (correctable w/ volume changes), and the touch on the strings lighter - virtually no vibrato in either performances - BOTTOM line - these are both excellent performances, but I would LOVE to know the difference between the types of 'strings' used on these 2 groups of instruments!  Dave 

Changes in the structure of stringed instruments. At the beginning of the 19th century, luthiers developed new methods of constructing the violin, viola and cello, that gave these instruments a richer tone, more volume and more carrying power.[17] Also at this time, bowmakers made the violin bow longer, with a thicker ribbon of hair under higher tension. This improved the projection of the instrument, and also made possible new bowing techniques. In 1820, Louis Spohr invented the chinrest, which gave violinists more freedom of movement in their left hands, for a more nimble technique. These changes contributed to the effectiveness of public performances in large halls, and expanded the repertoire of techniques available to chamber music composers.

[Mirror Image]

A few of Martinu's symphonies coupled together with my favorite Martinu conductor with one of my favorite orchestras...need I say more? I'm so there...

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...and some more Prokofiev on the way...

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[PaulSC]

alto anonyme fin XVIII siecle (viola?)

Is the source of this text French? It seems to say simply that the viola is from an anonymous maker and dates from the late 18th century.

[PaulSC]

Ravizza - Pescetti: Sonatas
Laganà - Folias Italianas
Immerseel/L'Archibudelli - Schubert: Trout/Arpeggione/Notturno
Authentic Quartet - Werner/Albrechtsberger - Fugues for String Quartet
Helmut Walcha - Bach: The Art of Fugue


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[Que]

Some nice picks there, Paul!

My choice for the day, all of them (Aeolus is a pricey label) have been on my "hitlist" for quite a while!





Q

[The new erato]

[SonicMan46]

Is the source of this text French? It seems to say simply that the viola is from an anonymous maker and dates from the late 18th century.

Paul - yes, the instruments are described in French; that was my assumption also - Dave 

[Scarpia]

Some nice picks there, Paul!

My choice for the day, all of them (Aeolus is a pricey label) have been on my "hitlist" for quite a while!

The look on that kid's face seems to say "what's wrong with that piano, Grandpa?"

[The new erato]

The look on that kid's face seems to say "what's wrong with that piano, Grandpa?"

Or rather "why did you put the kitchen utensils into the piano Granddad?"

[Antoine Marchand]

Is the source of this text French?

Yes, the "first language of Arcana" was the French because it was one of the several labels founded by the French producer Michel Bernstein, early dead four years ago. I think his biography is worth to be read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Bernstein. AFAIK the new owners of the Arcana catalog are Italians, so I don't know if the French will follow being the first language of the label in eventual new releases.

[PaulSC]

Some nice picks there, Paul!

Thanks, and same to you:

My choice for the day, all of them (Aeolus is a pricey label) have been on my "hitlist" for quite a while!





Q

It took a recommendation from Don to get me past the unpromising packaging of that van Asperen Bach disc, which is now a favorite of mine. And as you may know I splurged on that complete Froberger series a while ago (except for vol. 1, which I've never seen on offer as a download).

I hope you enjoy them one and all!