Purchases Today

Started by Dungeon Master, February 24, 2013, 01:39:50 PM

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Madiel

#30860
Quote from: ritter on January 20, 2022, 04:33:11 AM


Went for two releases I think will be more useful and interesting to me:


This is an ultra-complete set of Debussy's songs (it presents 42 songs more than any previous such set, and 14 world première recordings). Of the 5 singers involved, I know Magali Léger, Marie-Ánge Todorovich, and François Le Roux, and they should be very good in this repertoire. The pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer is a faculty member of the Jacobs School at Indiana University, and plays a Blüthner piano that belonged to Debussy.


While the claims about ultra-completeness might have been correct at the time it was recorded in 2012/released in 2014, the blurb refers to a set released in the 1980s as its benchmark for comparison of "any previous such set". I doubt very much it eclipses the Hyperion series of 4 albums, or the various complete sets released for the centenary of Debussy's death.

I mean, if you like the particular performers and performances, fine, but I wouldn't get it on the basis of having tonnes of otherwise unrecorded songs. By now they've been recorded multiple times.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

JBS

Quote from: Madiel on January 20, 2022, 06:22:15 PM
While the claims about ultra-completeness might have been correct at the time it was recorded in 2012/released in 2014, the blurb refers to a set released in the 1980s as its benchmark for comparison of "any previous such set". I doubt very much it eclipses the Hyperion series of 4 albums, or the various complete sets released for the centenary of Debussy's death.

I mean, if you like the particular performers and performances, fine, but I wouldn't get it on the basis of having tonnes of otherwise unrecorded songs. By now they've been recorded multiple times.

The Warner Debussy set includes (if I counted correctly) 15 songs from this exact set. (Perhaps the 14 "world premiere recordings"?)

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Mirror Image

#30862
Quote from: Madiel on January 20, 2022, 06:22:15 PM
While the claims about ultra-completeness might have been correct at the time it was recorded in 2012/released in 2014, the blurb refers to a set released in the 1980s as its benchmark for comparison of "any previous such set". I doubt very much it eclipses the Hyperion series of 4 albums, or the various complete sets released for the centenary of Debussy's death.

I mean, if you like the particular performers and performances, fine, but I wouldn't get it on the basis of having tonnes of otherwise unrecorded songs. By now they've been recorded multiple times.

I actually didn't think much of the Hyperion series, tbh. Many of the vocalists just didn't feel right to me. I do like the Véronique Dietschy/Philippe Cassard/et. al. recordings very much (many of them included in the Debussy Complete DG set). One of the high points of the Debussy Harmonia Mundi series was actually this 2-CD set:


Mirror Image

Just bought:



I was in the market for some better recordings of these works as the performances in the Saint-Saëns Warner set just weren't that satisfying to me. Hyperion is usually a reliable label, especially in chamber music.

TheGSMoeller


Madiel

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 20, 2022, 06:59:38 PM
I actually didn't think much of the Hyperion series, tbh. Many of the vocalists just didn't feel right to me. I do like the Véronique Dietschy/Philippe Cassard/et. al. recordings very much (many of them included in the Debussy Complete DG set). One of the high points of the Debussy Harmonia Mundi series was actually this 2-CD set:



Okay, interesting. I'm perfectly happy with the Hyperion series. Malcolm Martineau is an excellent pianist and I had no issue with the choice of singers (including the soprano for all the super-high songs the young Debussy wrote for Madame Vasnier).

You may recall that I;m extremely fond of Dietschy and Cassard as a pairing myself - though that's centred on their Faure, I've listened to the Debussy online.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

ritter

Quote from: Madiel on January 20, 2022, 06:22:15 PM
While the claims about ultra-completeness might have been correct at the time it was recorded in 2012/released in 2014, the blurb refers to a set released in the 1980s as its benchmark for comparison of "any previous such set". I doubt very much it eclipses the Hyperion series of 4 albums, or the various complete sets released for the centenary of Debussy's death.

I mean, if you like the particular performers and performances, fine, but I wouldn't get it on the basis of having tonnes of otherwise unrecorded songs. By now they've been recorded multiple times.
Thanks. The idea is to have a complete set that complements those I already own (the multi-artist on the Warner "Complete Works" set --which has, a JBS points out, some of the recordings included in the Haguenauer traversal --, the Dietschy in the DG "Debussy Collection", the Harmoni Mundi selection Mirror Image mentioned, and some odds and ends --e.g. Suzanne Danco on a Diapason compilation, Dawn Upshaw with James Levine, Chrstine Schäfer with Irving Gage, etc.--).

I had bought a single CD of Dietschy's set when it was first released many, many years ago, and really didn't enjoy her voice at all at the time, finding it too "white" and unsteady at points. Now that I have her "complete" on DG, I admit she's quite good in some of the songs, but having her do all them is a bit monotonous (the same problem I have with Tassis Christoyannis' otherwise admirable Reynaldo Hahn 4 CD set on Bru Zane). I haven't listened to Mme. Dietschy's Fauré (which I know you greatly admire).

I hadn`t considered the Hyperion set, but for the time being this Haguenauer traversal will suffice (and it is/was considerably cheaper).

Mirror Image

Quote from: Madiel on January 20, 2022, 10:21:34 PM
Okay, interesting. I'm perfectly happy with the Hyperion series. Malcolm Martineau is an excellent pianist and I had no issue with the choice of singers (including the soprano for all the super-high songs the young Debussy wrote for Madame Vasnier).

You may recall that I'm extremely fond of Dietschy and Cassard as a pairing myself - though that's centred on their Faure, I've listened to the Debussy online.

Yes, some of the vocalists were quite good in the Debussy Hyperion series and Malcolm Martineau certainly can't be faulted as he's an accomplished pianist and certainly excels as an accompanist, which really is his life's work. I also like the assortment of vocalists used in the Debussy Complete Warner set, which I should revisit at some juncture. IIRC, Elly Ameling and Véronique Gens are featured in several of these mélodies --- I love these two vocalists.

André



That 15 disc set will be my indulgence item for all of 2022. I haven't kept the LPs or cassettes from 30-40 years ago (couldn't play them anyway  ;D) but the memories of these performances is still very vivid.

aligreto

Quote from: André on January 21, 2022, 06:56:05 AM


That 15 disc set will be my indulgence item for all of 2022. I haven't kept the LPs or cassettes from 30-40 years ago (couldn't play them anyway  ;D) but the memories of these performances is still very vivid.

Yes, I think that should be a most enjoyable and satisfactory set. Enjoy it.

JBS

Landed today


Besides the symphonies, the 3 CD set contains Capriccio Italien, Romeo & Juliet, and Serenade for Strings in C.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: André on January 21, 2022, 06:56:05 AM


That 15 disc set will be my indulgence item for all of 2022. I haven't kept the LPs or cassettes from 30-40 years ago (couldn't play them anyway  ;D) but the memories of these performances is still very vivid.

Nice!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

vandermolen

Looking forward to hearing these - which arrived yesterday:
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Wanderer


Florestan

Quote from: Wanderer on January 22, 2022, 02:37:12 AM


I presume you already had volume 2.

Btw, what do you think of the Geoffrey Tozer's Chandos series of Medtner's solo piano music?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Todd




Dropped in price a bit, so why not.  All of these discs will be new to my collection, as will almost all the works.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Judith

Just pre-ordered box set
Haydns Symphonies
Marriner/asmf

Looking forward to its arrival next month

André


Karl Henning

Quote from: Judith on January 22, 2022, 08:21:11 AM
Just pre-ordered box set
Haydns Symphonies
Marriner/asmf

Looking forward to its arrival next month

Sweet!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Madiel

Quote from: Wanderer on January 22, 2022, 02:37:12 AM


I definitely want to try out those Medtner albums. It's great that someone is doing a complete set.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!