Purchases Today

[Maestro267]

This was a yesterday purchase, but I forgot to post until today. Charity shop browsing has struck gold yet again:

Glazunov: Symphonies 1-8, a.o
Russian State SO/Polyansky (mainly)

A Brilliant Classics 7-fer with the complete(d) symphonies of Alexander Glazunov. I absolutely *adore* the Fifth Symphony, and a complete cycle has been somewhat high on my radar for some time, so to stumble across this box set for a mere £7 was...well, I'm absolutely chuffed.

[Que]

Picked up these used:

[asin]B00069KF4Q[/asin]
[asin]B001N59F8E[/asin]
[asin]B00006C2D7[/asin]
Q

[ritter]

This CD of French mélodies:

[asin]B0184EY9L4[/asin]

I have the Hahn songs of course in other recordings, but it's good to have the two cycles presented here (Chansons grises—poems by Verlaine, including the beautiful L'heure exquise—and the little known Les feuilles blessées—poems by Jean Moréas) complete as published.

My real interest in this CD, though, are the songs by Léon Delafosse, who was rather prominent in his day as a pianist, as well as for being strikingly handsome, but has lapsed into oblivion (not even a Wikipedia article in French or in English). Count Robert de Montesquiou introduced him to the salons of the grand monde in Paris (but later also closed their doors to him), and Marcel Proust was also an admirer for a time (he called him "the angel ", and based the character of Morel in À la recherche... on him). The songs set poems by both Montesquiou—the primary model for Charlus in Proust's novel—and by Proust himself.

Here is the "the angel" Delafosse painted by Sargent (the portrait is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum):

[Florestan]

This CD of French mélodies:

[asin]B0184EY9L4[/asin]

I have the Hahn songs of course in other recordings, but it's good to have the two cycles presented here (Chansons grises—poems by Verlaine, including the beautiful L'heure exquise—and the little known Les feuilles blessées—poems by Jean Moréas) complete as published.

My real interest in this CD, though, are the songs by Léon Delafosse, who was rather prominent in his day as a pianist, as well as for being strikingly handsome, but has lapsed into oblivion (not even a Wikipedia article in French or in English). Count Robert de Montesquiou introduced him to the salons of the grand monde in Paris (but later also closed their doors to him), and Marcel Proust was also an admirer for a time (he called him "the angel ", and based the character of Morel in À la recherche... on him). The songs set poems by both Montesquiou—the primary model for Charlus in Proust's novel—and by Proust himself.

Here is the "the angel" Delafosse painted by Sargent (the portrait is the collection of the Seattle Art Museum):

Am I right in assuming this angel's wings were rainbow-colored? 

[ritter]

Am I right in assuming this angel's wings were rainbow-colored? 

Hard to tell if they were, or whether he was just using his charm and good looks to obtain the promotion of the hugely influential Montesquiou and, less importantly, of Proust, There really is very little biographical information on Delafosse online. The fact is that  the count and the pianist fell out in 1897, and years later Proust wrote—in reply to a friend who asked him to organise a musical soirée with Delafosse: "M. Delafosse, qu'il me serait peu agréable d'avoir chez moi".

This Italian book deals with Delafosse, his relation to Montesquiou and—more tangentially, it seems—with Proust:

[asin]8870968286[/asin]

[Florestan]

Hard to tell if they were, or whether he was just using his charm and good looks to obtain the promotion of the hugely influential Montesquiou and, less importantly, of Proust, There really is very little biographical information on Delafosse online. The fact is that  the count and the pianist fell out in 1897, and years later Proust wrote—in reply to a friend who asked him to organise a musical soirée with Delafosse: "M. Delafosse, qu'il me serait peu agréable d'avoir chez moi".

Well, rainbow-colored jealousy is notoriously bitter. 

I'm kidding (but not too much). Never heard of this intriguing Mr. Delafosse.

[Todd]

More closeout stuff.  This will be the first HIP upright piano recording in my collection.  The Beethoven Trios are only the second complete set I've bought in over twenty years.  It may be another twenty years before I need a third set.  (I will need one eventually, though.)

[JBS]

Ordered this afternoon
[asin]B07XDDHW3X[/asin]
[asin]B07XW8DFMZ[/asin]

The Bach was released last week, the Vivaldi today.

I must remark that Amazon has managed to make ordering as difficult as possible directly from the wishlist. It seems that if you  click buy directly from the list, you don't find out you if are ordering from the cheapest marketplace vendor, not Amazon, until it's in your shopping cart. And when you order from Amazon because it actually has the lowest price, you don't find out it's out of stock until it's in your shopping cart even if ordering off the item page.

[Alek Hidell]

Excellent! Prepare for the loudest hammer blow on record in Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra.

From the photo, it looks like that's the very moment he's conducting.

I know I mentioned it somewhere here on GMG (might have been this thread ), but I bought this set too and am awaiting its arrival. It was as cheap for me as it was for André. It's coming from Zoverstocks, though, so I may get it sometime in the next six months.

[Harry]

On the order list.

[prémont]

On the order list.

You will love it, I am sure.

[Harry]

You will love it, I am sure.

The samples sounded gorgeous!

[vers la flamme]

From the photo, it looks like that's the very moment he's conducting.

I know I mentioned it somewhere here on GMG (might have been this thread ), but I bought this set too and am awaiting its arrival. It was as cheap for me as it was for André. It's coming from Zoverstocks, though, so I may get it sometime in the next six months.

I got it from them too. Definitely took at least a month to get to me, but for $11 or $12 for 8 CDs I can't complain. I love these Warner budget reissue boxes, I have 6 or 7 of them now.

[Alek Hidell]

I got it from them too. Definitely took at least a month to get to me, but for $11 or $12 for 8 CDs I can't complain. I love these Warner budget reissue boxes, I have 6 or 7 of them now.

Yes, I suppose it is bad form for me to complain when I'm getting the box so inexpensively. And I am just being flippant, of course - as long as I get it, I don't care how long it takes.

I'm with you, too, on the reissue boxes. I've also picked up several of them for a mere pittance.

[vandermolen]

Ordered today. I simply love the interpretations and above all the sound.

Wonderful performances Harry! Rubbra's 4th Symphony has a most beautiful opening and is, together with his 5th I think his finest symphony. However, I like them all although I haven't really got my head round the choral No.9 yet. No.8, especially in your Lyrita recording is quite a magical work influenced, as far as I recall, by Rubbra's philosophical/spiritual speculations. I don't know the Holst CD quite so well but I really like the 'Invocation'. Basically you can't go wrong with those Lyrita recordings but you need to add Boult's magnificent performance of Symphony 7 (it has a very moving last movement which carries the weight of the musical/spiritual argument) to your collection without delay! It was the only Rubbra's symphony recorded by Boult for Lyrita.
Below is the LP release with a different companion work:

[The new erato]

The usual all over the place purchase:

[ritter]

Ordered from the antipodes (directly from Melba Recordings' website, as the price in the usual internet retailers was prohibitive—let's see how long this takes to travel halfway around the globe, and whether the friendly customs man wants to have a say  ):



Hüseyin Sermet and Kun Woo Païk released a volume 1 of Reynaldo Hahn's complete piano duet music on Auvidis-Valois in the early nineties (a lovely disc that's been in my collection since it was first issued), but volume 2 never materialised. The gap is now filled by Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometto, and this 2 CD set included several world-premiere recordings. Reviews have been very favourable. Pity about the revolting cover image (a painting by Madeleine Lemaire, the now thankfully almost completely forgotten "impératrice des roses", but it was during a summer sojourn at her château de Reveillon that Reynaldo and Proust started their liaison).

Here's the delightful Selfiana, berceuse créole (the fifth of the Sept berceuses (in the aforementioned Valois recording):

https://youtube.com/v/ZR_LP9XjkgM

[Mandryka]

The usual all over the place purchase:

That's a strange bit of music, the mass, the credo. I'll be keen to see what you make of it.

[Harry]

Wonderful performances Harry! Rubbra's 4th Symphony has a most beautiful opening and is, together with his 5th I think his finest symphony. However, I like them all although I haven't really got my head round the choral No.9 yet. No.8, especially in your Lyrita recording is quite a magical work influenced, as far as I recall, by Rubbra's philosophical/spiritual speculations. I don't know the Holst CD quite so well but I really like the 'Invocation'. Basically you can't go wrong with those Lyrita recordings but you need to add Boult's magnificent performance of Symphony 7 (it has a very moving last movement which carries the weight of the musical/spiritual argument) to your collection without delay! It was the only Rubbra's symphony recorded by Boult for Lyrita.
Below is the LP release with a different companion work:

Thank you Jeffrey, I will purchase the performance you recommended, Boult doing the 7th Symphony. Its on my order list!

[vandermolen]

Thank you Jeffrey, I will purchase the performance you recommended, Boult doing the 7th Symphony. Its on my order list!

It can't be missed Harry!
Then your Lyrita Rubbra symphony collection will be complete.


PS just to throw some more temptation your way- this CD features the first (and greatest IMO) performance of Rubbra's 4th Symphony, conducted by Rubbra himself in his military uniform. Allowances have to be made for the sound but this performance should not be missed and you get Boult conducting Symphony 2 (dedicated to Boult I think):