Recordings That You Are Considering

[Todd]

Entire disc can be streamed, for certain period of time, at Dutch NPO Radio 4 website.

http://www.radio4.nl/diskotabel/plaatpaaloverzicht/

Thanks for the heads up.  I think I shall click that link.

[Ken B]

Whatever else, it was a Herculean endeavor, and commands musical respect.

I assume Liszt played it all. I wonder how many people since have actually done so.

[Ken B]

Alfred Cortot - The Piano Works

[asin]B00LCKYXY6[/asin]

10 discs (performances from 1920s-1940s) for $15 has me wondering if the audio sound is terrible or if this is a questionable label?

Anyone?

I don't know that box, but I have generally been pleased with Membran. You are likely buying old mono radio recordings but I have a half dozen of their boxes and all met or exceeded my expectations.

[Wakefield]

Alfred Cortot - The Piano Works

[asin]B00LCKYXY6[/asin]

10 discs (performances from 1920s-1940s) for $15 has me wondering if the audio sound is terrible or if this is a questionable label?

Anyone?

... for the second part of this question: Jens? 

[jlaurson]

Alfred Cortot - The Piano Works

10 discs (performances from 1920s-1940s) for $15 has me wondering if the audio sound is terrible or if this is a questionable label?

Anyone?

As far as I know and have been (reliably) told, Membran never remasters and, at best, steals re-masterings from other companies. I avoid them like the plague, if more for moral than 'value' reasons.

... for the second part of this question: Jens? 

Indeed. :-) My pet peeve.

[Ken B]

Good to know; I will also avoid them. Which brings me to my next question: I want a Cortot box that includes at least the Liszt B Minor sonata.  Any suggestions?

I am skeptical of the claim. Membran also serves as a disc production and releasing service for very small labels. So just because they don't own the recording doesn't mean it's a pirate.

[Moonfish]

Good to know; I will also avoid them. Which brings me to my next question: I want a Cortot box that includes at least the Liszt B Minor sonata.  Any suggestions?

[asin] B008V1IR4Q[/asin]

[ritter]

I'm not acquiainted with the work of Niccolò Castiglioni. Comments in the appropriate thread in the "Composer Discussion" sub-form have whetted my appetite. I suppose either of these can be a good starting point:

[asin]B00U2OT2J4[/asin]
[asin]B004TNZV8A[/asin]

Any opinions? Thanks in advance! 

Another Italian modernist I'm looking for exposure to is Camillo Togni. A good friend of mine, a fervent mahlerian, was rather impressed by Togni's opiano arrangement of the adagietto from Mahler's Fifth symphony on this CD:

[JCBuckley]

I'm not acquiainted with the work of Niccolò Castiglioni. Comments in the appropriate thread in the "Composer Discussion" sub-form have whetted my appetite. I suppose either of these can be a good starting point:

[asin]B00U2OT2J4[/asin]
[asin]B004TNZV8A[/asin]

Any opinions? Thanks in advance! 

I have the Chandos disc, and wholeheartedly recommend it, along with Alfonso Alberti's recording of Castiglioni's complete piano music [on Col Legno] and the Stradivarius disc of Inverno In-ver and other pieces.

[Moonfish]

There is a new release of Gilardino's music from Brilliant Classics. It sounds intriguing. What do you know about this composer? He is completely unknown to me and I could not find any posts here at GMG. Would you recommend him?

Angelo Gilardino: Complete Music for Solo Guitar 1965-2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Gilardino

http://www.amazon.de/Complete-Music-Solo-Guitar-1965-2013/dp/B0106UFKW6



https://www.youtube.com/v/Dgsg4FSVNdo

https://www.youtube.com/v/dlieQZS2mYY

[ritter]

I have the Chandos disc, and wholeheartedly recommend it, along with Alfonso Alberti's recording of Castiglioni's complete piano music [on Col Legno] and the Stradivarius disc of Inverno In-ver and other pieces.

Thanks for that, JCBuckley! I'll definitely go for the Chandos as a starting point...

[king ubu]

Re: Cortot, I'd advise to go with the EMI/Warner box as well - not a friend of Membran's, though I'm very happy to have their huge Furtwängler box. About these 10CD "wallet" boxes, I've heard and with a few experienced the worst. Those were all jazz sets though, but sound is usually not very good, some material is even MP3-sourced ... but I've not heard nearly as many bad things on their classical sets.

_____________


Has anyone heard this one here:

[asin]B00VAPIK5G[/asin]

[Todd]

This intrigues me.

[prémont]

As far as I know and have been (reliably) told, Membran never remasters and, at best, steals re-masterings from other companies.

Have you got any proof? If so, you ought to bring it to the light of the day.

You know, rumors are rumors.

[SonicMan46]

 

This intrigues me.

Hi Todd - will be interested in your thoughts, if you obtain the Kolly-Griffiths recording; I have the one added above w/ Coombs-Brabbins but have not really heard any other performances of these works to compare?  Dave

[jlaurson]

This intrigues me.

And then there's this, of course.


Glazunov
Complete Concertos
J.Serebrier / A.Romanowsky
Russian National Orchestra
Warner

and this:


Glazunov
Piano Concertos
D.Yablonsky & Oxana Yablonskaya
Moscow SO
Naxos

[king ubu]

Have you got any proof? If so, you ought to bring it to the light of the day.

You know, rumors are rumors.

Well no, in such cases, the labels ought to proof us wrong instead. Music and Arts used to have a "hall of shame" mentioning how such labels operate. Seems it's gone with the ugly new website.

What these labels should really prove is that they're operating legally. That would mean: transfer their material from releases that are PD *as releases*, meaning they have to use 78s, LPs, whatever - not just grabbing recent CD reissues (or even MP3, I think it was the Sidney Bechet 10 CD set where I ran some tests that showed something like 98% probabiliy of lossiness in Trader's Little Helper), often making things worse by running some filters (de-hissing, no-noising, whatever).

In jazz, there were labels like Chronological Classics or Masters of Jazz that did very good work (though sound quality with Chronos was sketchy and inconsistent often, plus they always included master takes only), and nowadays there's Avid from the UK - they indeed do seem to make their own transfers from sources that are in public domain. Others more often than not seem to just grab previous reissues and copy them. And some of them (Gambit comes to mind) do plain bootlegs as well, commercially releasing live material of various sources that was never intended for commercial release ... there I wouldn't know the finer details (i.e. if a radio recording was never released for 50 years and is from earlier than 1963, is it legally okay to sell it? morally it's not anyway, and yeah, taking a purely legalistic standpoint is not good enough for me in such cases ... asking money for things nobody really owns seems wrong to me, it's like Nestlé privatizing groundwater resources, I'm actually still waiting for someone to patent air).

[jlaurson]

Well no, in such cases, the labels ought to proof us wrong instead. Music and Arts used to have a "hall of shame" mentioning how such labels operate. Seems it's gone with the ugly new website.

What these labels should really prove is that they're operating legally. That would mean: transfer their material from releases that are PD *as releases*, meaning they have to use 78s, LPs, whatever - not just grabbing recent CD reissues (or even MP3, I think it was the Sidney Bechet 10 CD set where I ran some tests that showed something like 98% probabiliy of lossiness in Trader's Little Helper), often making things worse by running some filters (de-hissing, no-noising, whatever).

In jazz, there were labels like Chronological Classics or Masters of Jazz that did very good work (though sound quality with Chronos was sketchy and inconsistent often, plus they always included master takes only), and nowadays there's Avid from the UK - they indeed do seem to make their own transfers from sources that are in public domain. Others more often than not seem to just grab previous reissues and copy them. And some of them (Gambit comes to mind) do plain bootlegs as well, commercially releasing live material of various sources that was never intended for commercial release ... there I wouldn't know the finer details (i.e. if a radio recording was never released for 50 years and is from earlier than 1963, is it legally okay to sell it? morally it's not anyway, and yeah, taking a purely legalistic standpoint is not good enough for me in such cases ... asking money for things nobody really owns seems wrong to me, it's like Nestlé privatizing groundwater resources, I'm actually still waiting for someone to patent air).

We agree, except on Nestlé & groundwater... providing and pumping clean water surely isn't asking money for things nobody "owns". It's providing a service (a crucially important one, at that) that governments cannot provide (be it ineptitude or lack of will or resources or corruption: you take your pick) or are providing at a far greater cost and/or less quality.

[king ubu]

Okay, this is going into politics, but ... thing is, you have a point - though in a more or less fair society, government wouldn't be a self-service facility for few and would be able to provide such public service to everyone. But something went wrong there in too many places (and is on the way of getting wronger and wronger).

Anyways, back to music ... I ordered the Deshayes disc in the mean time, looking forward to hearing it!

[Moonfish]

Have you got any proof? If so, you ought to bring it to the light of the day.

You know, rumors are rumors.

This review of an Ormandy set from the Membran/Documents label written by our old friend Discophage provides interesting information:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R5KC20VE2UVI5/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000057O6M&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=5174&store=music