Purchases Today

[JBS]

I bought these from presto:



I'm partial to Piston and have never heard his 7h, and Hansons4th may be his greatest symphony judging from the Delos/Naxos cycle.

And I needed a modern sounding example of these, so I bought this which were available cheaply:

Both of them are quite good, especially the Aspects of America CD.

[The new erato]

Very good sonics in true Pentatone fashion.

[Symphonic Addict]

All the more interesting that the conductor's name literally means Blue Water.

I just don't expect it is 'Garbage Music' (pun intended).

[Brian]

I might need to upgrade my Berglund Helsinki Sibelius box because on my old one, the finale of Symphony 5 skipped and stopped playing, even new

Of course I also have the Berglund Bournemouth box but hey...

[springrite]

It was also issued on Australian Eloquence.  I actually have a physical copy somewhere.   



https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/del-tredici-final-alice-2/

I have the same and love this work!

[Mirror Image]

I might need to upgrade my Berglund Helsinki Sibelius box because on my old one, the finale of Symphony 5 skipped and stopped playing, even new

Of course I also have the Berglund Bournemouth box but hey...

I own the Bournemouth set as well but the Tower Records Definition Series set, which sounds unbelievably good. Do you know if this Helsinki set has been remastered? I can't find any indication that it has on any site. The older set contains all of the Bournemouth tone poems but excluded the Helsinki ones if I'm not mistaken, so this is another plus of this set.

[Mirror Image]

Just bought thanks to vers la flamme for the reminder:

[ritter]

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Just bought thanks to vers la flamme for the reminder:

I've owned that set for decades, and remember being impressed by some of the works included in it. I haven't listened to Barraqué in ages, though (except for the Piano Sonata in the recordings of Robert Woodward and Yvonne Loriod). It's time to revisit this music. 

TD:

Some hard to find CDs of Camillo Togni's music.


Barrabas is a short stage work (part of a projected trilogy, the last section of which was never written) on texts by Georg Trakl. The othe short opera on the CD is by Franco Margola, whose music will be completely new to me.



Chamber and vocal music in live recordings from between 1954 and 1985 (with some distinguished artists such as Hans Rosbaud, Severino Gazzelloni and Dorothy Dorow).

And this new release of Pierre Boulez's piano music (details here).

[André]

From a clearance sale at Presto:

[Mirror Image]

I've owned that set for decades, and remember being impressed by some of the world included in it. I haven't listened to Barraqué in ages, though (except for the Piano Sonata in the recordings of Robert Woodward and Yvonne Loriod). It's time to revisit this music.  :)Very

Very nice, Rafael.

[vers la flamme]

Just bought thanks to vers la flamme for the reminder:

Nice! I ordered this the other day too.

[Brian]

I own the Bournemouth set as well but the Tower Records Definition Series set, which sounds unbelievably good. Do you know if this Helsinki set has been remastered? I can't find any indication that it has on any site. The older set contains all of the Bournemouth tone poems but excluded the Helsinki ones if I'm not mistaken, so this is another plus of this set.

No idea about remastering - when it arrives, the individual CD sleeves will say on the back in the fine print whether/when they were remastered - I would be curious if the result is interesting.

[not edward]

Just bought thanks to vers la flamme for the reminder:

Most of this set is great, but skip the piano sonata. It's simply dire compared to Woodward, Henck and others.

[Mirror Image]

Most of this set is great, but skip the piano sonata. It's simply dire compared to Woodward, Henck and others.

I will certainly keep your opinion in mind, edward.

Nice! I ordered this the other day too.

Very cool! Will be curious to know your thoughts on the music whenever you get the chance.

[amw]

One of the worst batches I've ever purchased. Especially Schubert and Bach are the worst. Both Beethovens are average and I'll only keep Mozart Piano Quartet's Mozart Piano Quartets for further listening. Sampling could be very deceitful if you rush.

Sampling works well for me but only up to a point. I can almost always tell whether I will like or dislike a recording within 30 seconds, & have not yet been wrong. But actually getting a measure of its objective quality requires listening to the whole thing.

[Brass Hole]

Sampling works well for me but only up to a point. I can almost always tell whether I will like or dislike a recording within 30 seconds, & have not yet been wrong. But actually getting a measure of its objective quality requires listening to the whole thing.

Well, I have concocted a methodology (or model if you will) to evaluate. I have one basic and one very detailed (if I want to probe in detail) list of categories with correlations to evaluate, rhythmic accuracy, tonal quality, musical understanding, stylistic accuracy, interpretative imagination, expressive range, etc  Most of them are "objective" musicological points but they are undoubtedly and inescapably subjective within. For instance, for the standart repertoire communication of the structural high points and turning points of a work are most probably more important for me than usual analytical listener.
To be honest, I rarely use streamers and I installed Spotify very recently in order to see its usefulness with sharing playlists for picky buyers (as opposed to show-off pricks  ) and because I really purchased so many duds this last year, including your example Beghin and I wanted to see if I could avoid them this year. The shorts on the websites can be and are deceptive in my experience and as shown in Exhibit 1A: Schubert

But I'm very surprised with Schubert because of you. Aren't these Mozart works? Isn't there supposed to be a well-defined stylish expressive difference between a romantic work and a classical one? I believe there is a huge misunderstanding of the emotional character of the work and the relationship between the parts within is in play on that performance.

[amw]

But I'm very surprised with Schubert because of you. Aren't these Mozart works? Isn't there supposed to be a well-defined stylish expressive difference between a romantic work and a classical one? I believe there is a huge misunderstanding of the emotional character of the work and the relationship between the parts within is in play on that performance.

I don't remember offhand why I liked the Schubert recording—would have to revisit it. But I do think there is, or can be depending on the interpretation, a great deal of stylistic continuity between Mozart and Schubert, certainly more so than between Schubert and later romantic era composers. Performances that emphasise this continuity often do appeal to me, for example Schnabel's or Badura-Skoda's Schubert recordings, and performances that romanticise Schubert excessively often do not appeal to me, although there are exceptions such as Lucchesini or Eschenbach. My reference recording for those three violin sonatas has remained Ibragimova/Tiberghien and I think I was happy to find a supplement on (well-recorded, good-sounding) period instruments.

I no longer have subscriptions with any streaming services although I still maintain a free account on Deezer. Qobuz was my preferred option, but it became uneconomical.

[Brass Hole]

would have to revisit it. But I do think there is, or can be depending on the interpretation, a great deal of stylistic continuity between Mozart and Schubert, certainly more so than between Schubert and later romantic era composers. Performances that emphasise this continuity often do appeal to me, for example Schnabel's or Badura-Skoda's Schubert recordings, and performances that romanticise Schubert excessively often do not appeal to me, although there are exceptions such as Lucchesini or Eschenbach. My reference recording for those three violin sonatas has remained Ibragimova/Tiberghien and I think I was happy to find a supplement on (well-recorded, good-sounding) period instruments.

Exactly. 1816 is dubbed a "Mozart Year of Schubert" and what I'm saying is I find it overly romanticised for these works, or I'd say even for most of Schubert's output. Please let me know if I'm wrong if you revisit it. I see it's available on Deezer if you don't have the recording.
By the way, I believe last year's Trout Quintet Eschenbach is a dud, too. I'm very sensitive to expressive timing especially in Classical and very early Romantic.

[amw]

Exactly. 1816 is dubbed a "Mozart Year of Schubert" and what I'm saying is I find it overly romanticised for these works, or I'd say even for most of Schubert's output. Please let me know if I'm wrong if you revisit it. I see it's available on Deezer if you don't have the recording.

I will post about it somewhere if/when I do listen to it again (I have the recording as a DDL).

By the way, I believe last year's Trout Quintet Eschenbach is a dud, too. I'm very sensitive to expressive timing especially in Classical and very early Romantic.

I don't know it, I'm thinking of Eschenbach's recordings of D959 and 960, Schwanengesang (w/Goerne), and the four-hand piano music, but I would not recommend those to you either based on your stated preferences here.

[Brass Hole]

Eschenbach's recordings of D959 and 960, Schwanengesang (w/Goerne), and the four-hand piano music, but I would not recommend those to you either based on your stated preferences here.

I replaced Eschenbach's with Kovacevich as my 4th MI D959 a while back. I listen to D960 more rarely every passing year...