Purchases Today

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

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ritter

Quote from: MusicTurner on September 18, 2022, 08:18:57 AM
8)

The villa of 20 rooms seemed to be rather sparsely decorated with modernist furniture, when it was for sale for a mere 2.8 mio Euros in 2017-18.
Some wanted it to become a memorial site, or a centre for classical music; but after reading your post, I haven't been able to trace any actual buyer.

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/villa-with-a-musical-legacy-pierre-boulez-s-home-in-baden-baden-96561
https://hub.americanorchestras.org/2018/05/14/pierre-boulezs-heirs-to-sell-baden-baden-mansion-decorated-in-midcentury-modern-style/
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/streit-um-boulez-villa-in-baden-baden-gedenkstaette-oder-100.html
Yep...I don't know what happened in the end...  ::)

Regards,


Peter Power Pop

#32801

Peter Power Pop


Peter Power Pop


Peter Power Pop


Roasted Swan

Quote from: Peter Power Pop on September 19, 2022, 08:15:57 PM
Big English Music Box



At last! Another fan of these crazily good value downloads from ClassicSelect.  Even when they are not the "freebie of the week" here in the UK most of these just cost £1 per 'set'.  All 3 of these boxes have same genuinely very fine performances/recordings in them - the music is a given anyway.  I've written about the English box before - I used that set as my walking-the-dog music for the last week and not a single poor performance and a couple that are amongst my favourites regardless of format in crowded fields.  The Americana box also features some cracking performances licenced from Tring - the Carl Davis/RPO/Bernstein is as good as any I know - and that includes all the usual suspects.  But the interest is the inclusion of the original Bernstein Anniversaries and Copland rare piano music.  Stokowski doing Virgil Thomson is a classic and you also get some Henry Cowell, a Gould Latin-American Symphonette and even some Ives.  OK the latter are NOT the best versions by any means but still good to hear.

Likewise the Russian Box - more Tring - a good Rach Symphony 2 with Vernon Handley for example but interesting to hear the San Diego SO do the orchestration of the 5 Rach Etudes Tableaux.  Mackerras' "Pictures" was well respected back in the day, quite a bit from Mata in Dallas (always an impressive combination) and Abravanel in Utah.  If you like these there are lots more similarly impressive sets to check out.  Let us know what you think!

Peter Power Pop

#32806
Quote from: Roasted Swan on September 19, 2022, 11:08:35 PM
At last! Another fan of these crazily good value downloads from ClassicSelect.  Even when they are not the "freebie of the week" here in the UK most of these just cost £1 per 'set'.  All 3 of these boxes have same genuinely very fine performances/recordings in them - the music is a given anyway.  I've written about the English box before - I used that set as my walking-the-dog music for the last week and not a single poor performance and a couple that are amongst my favourites regardless of format in crowded fields.  The Americana box also features some cracking performances licenced from Tring - the Carl Davis/RPO/Bernstein is as good as any I know - and that includes all the usual suspects.  But the interest is the inclusion of the original Bernstein Anniversaries and Copland rare piano music.  Stokowski doing Virgil Thomson is a classic and you also get some Henry Cowell, a Gould Latin-American Symphonette and even some Ives.  OK the latter are NOT the best versions by any means but still good to hear.

Likewise the Russian Box - more Tring - a good Rach Symphony 2 with Vernon Handley for example but interesting to hear the San Diego SO do the orchestration of the 5 Rach Etudes Tableaux.  Mackerras' "Pictures" was well respected back in the day, quite a bit from Mata in Dallas (always an impressive combination) and Abravanel in Utah.  If you like these there are lots more similarly impressive sets to check out.  Let us know what you think!

What set off this cheapy-cheapy music spree was getting an email from ClassicSelect World offering this for $0.00:

Big Choral Music Box, Volume 5: Early Music



For the princely sum of zip/nada/zilch, I wasn't going to pass that up.

I went to the website to see what else they had going cheap (here), and found the Russian, American, English, and French boxes for AU$2 each. That's unbeatable (even if some of the performances may end up being not the best available).

I was a little sad to see the audio files are all VBR MP3s. I was hoping for lossless FLACs, but you can't have everything. (Especially for $2.)

So far, I've only listened to the first of the Russian works, namely the Rachmaninov 2nd Symphony. I'm not a fan of the work (apart from the glorious Big Tune in the Adagio), but the performance by the Royal Philharmonic and Vernon Handley was very good. No complaints there.

I had a quick look at the contents of the other boxes, and in the English set I was pleased to see Handley's version of The Planets. This is what I thought of it when I reviewed it for my Peter's Planets website.

As for the prospect of quite a few of the performances in the boxes originating from the Tring "The Royal Philharmonic Collection" series, I wholeheartedly welcome them. I have a few of those Tring CDs, and like them all. (The Wagner disc, with Vernon Handley, is excellent.)

Onward and upward!

Wanderer

Quote from: ritter on September 18, 2022, 12:39:08 AM
Hi, Tassos! Let me know what you think if that one, please...I found PC4 bizarre (even if I'm an admirer of Cascioli in general)...

Buenos días, Rafael! I'm partial to Cascioli's art, as well, ever since his very first DG album (has there been a more humorously relentless Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen?).

I have heard this embellished version of the Fourth Concerto before, so not really a shock there; it's nice enough as a curio, it's a fascinating glimpse into Beethoven's improvisational attitudes in concert and it's nicely performed (not displacing any favourites, of course), even though I only found about half of my litmus test moments in the first movement performed to my satisfaction. I really appreciate the fact that Cascioli doesn't play that overused Beethoven first movement cadenza that everyone else plays (and which I never really liked). The second movement is the best part of this performance - by absolute standards, it is exceptionally done. Everything else I found mostly excellent, including the transcription of the Violin Concerto, which I'm very fond of (choosing to ignore the cringey designation "Piano Concerto No.6" on the cover). And the fact that I only paid ~6€ (including postage) for it is the icing on the (bizarre but tasty!) cake. 😎


Wanderer


ritter

Quote from: Wanderer on September 20, 2022, 01:36:41 AM
Buenos días, Rafael! I'm partial to Cascioli's art, as well, ever since his very first DG album (has there been a more humorously relentless Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen?).

I have heard this embellished version of the Fourth Concerto before, so not really a shock there; it's nice enough as a curio, it's a fascinating glimpse into Beethoven's improvisational attitudes in concert and it's nicely performed (not displacing any favourites, of course), even though I only found about half of my litmus test moments in the first movement performed to my satisfaction. I really appreciate the fact that Cascioli doesn't play that overused Beethoven first movement cadenza that everyone else plays (and which I never really liked). The second movement is the best part of this performance - by absolute standards, it is exceptionally done. Everything else I found mostly excellent, including the transcription of the Violin Concerto, which I'm very fond of (choosing to ignore the cringey designation "Piano Concerto No.6" on the cover). And the fact that I only paid ~6€ (including postage) for it is the icing on the (bizarre but tasty!) cake. 😎
Thanks for the interesting comments , Tassos. Much appreciated.

This was my reaction when I listened to the PC4 earlier this year:

Quote from: ritter on March 01, 2022, 01:06:48 PM
First listen to this CD (the PC4 on this occasion— the VC-turned-into-a-PC probably tomorrow):



I've been an admirer of Gianluca Cascioli since his debut album on DG was issued when he was a teenager. To have him in a warhorse concerto was a tempting proposition....but, this is an experiment ("fresh Beethoven" says the blurb). Cascioli works with a highly embellished manuscript of the solo part, apparently in Beethoven's handwriting, and that may or may not have been played in public by the composer. The unfamiliar patterns coming from the piano may be interesting (and they start right at the beginning of the piece), but I'm not convinced that they add anything to the intrinsic quality of this great work (apart from bravura pyrotechnics). If we add to that the HIP-ish approach of conductor Riccardo Minasi and his Ensemble Resonanz, with all those acellerandi and ritardandi, and crescendi and decrescendi, dry attacks, etc., etc., we have a performance that, as one Amazon reviewer puts it, is seasickness inducing (I now realise that this is the effect that, in an entirely different context, Mitsuko Uchida's recording of the Debussy Études has on me).

So, interesting as an experiment? Maybe. Successful? Probably not. Perhaps a second hearing will help me better evaluate the performance, but for now I just find myself longing for Maurizio Pollini and Karl Böhm. ::)
I'm not sure I finally made it to listen to the VC-turned-into-a-PC. Should do so soon (sonce, like you, I really enjoy the work).

Regards,


Operafreak

The true adversary will inspire you with boundless courage.

Lisztianwagner

Just bought the MP3 version of this box set; for 8 cds, it was very cheap:

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Lisztianwagner on September 20, 2022, 03:04:31 AM
Just bought the MP3 version of this box set; for 8 cds, it was very cheap:



great set - I love hearing 2nd Viennese School music played by this kind of orchestra.

Harry

Quote from: absolutelybaching on September 20, 2022, 03:44:37 AM


and


Why I am adding to the 187GB of CD rips I haven't yet catalogued, I cannot quite fathom... :)

The Ballet Russes must be a very interesting set!
Quote from Manuel, born in Spain, currently working at Fawlty Towers.

" I am from Barcelona, I know nothing.............."

Todd

Quote from: Peter Power Pop on September 19, 2022, 11:58:17 PMFor the princely sum of zip/nada/zilch, I wasn't going to pass that up.

If I can scrape together that type of scratch, I may very well buy the set myself.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Peter Power Pop

Quote from: Todd on September 21, 2022, 05:40:34 AM
If I can scrape together that type of scratch, I may very well buy the set myself.

Start saving now.

classicalgeek

Quote from: Lisztianwagner on September 20, 2022, 03:04:31 AM
Just bought the MP3 version of this box set; for 8 cds, it was very cheap:



That's a wonderful set, Ilaria! Really amazing work by the Staatskapelle Dresden, Sinopoli, and the vocal soloists in particular. The Erwartung in this set just blew me away!
So much great music, so little time...

Original compositions and orchestrations: https://www.youtube.com/@jmbrannigan

ritter

#32817
Just orderd this CD from the Camerata Atlântica in Portugal:




It's a mixed bag, but what led me to purchase it was the inclusion of Venezuelan composer Juan Bautista Plaza's delightful Fuga criolla (from 1931). Almost contemporaneous with the first two of Villa-Lobos' Bachianas brasileiras, it's a great example of the amalgamation of classic European forms with a Latin American rhythms and "flavours" (here, the traditional Venezuelan joropo danca).

Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/v/CFgtkXEgUHw
For any classical music lover in Venezuela in the 70s and 80s (I lived there from 1972 to 1986), the Fuga criolla has a special significance, as it was --in a version for synthetiser-- the signature tune of the Emisora Cultural de Caracas (FM 97.7), a radio station specialised in classical music (and which AFAIK is still operative).


Todd







About 25 hours of music for two bucks.  I'm tapped.  Among other items, I get more Bingen, another Monteverdi Vespers, and I finally get to hear Philippe Entremont leading the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Brian

Quote from: Todd on September 22, 2022, 05:23:41 AM
I finally get to hear Philippe Entremont leading the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
This was an interesting Wikipedia diversion. Entremont was principal conductor for two years, and then promoted to music director for only a half season, before the orchestra went broke. His debut as music director was canceled for financial reasons.

But the best part of the Wikipedia page was this tantalizing anecdote: "In 1938, Sergei Prokofiev conducted the orchestra in his First Symphony and performed his First Piano Concerto under the baton of Horace Tureman. The performance was hampered by Prokofiev's demeanor, poor printings of the scores, and insufficient rehearsal time, and pleased neither reviewers nor Prokofiev." I'm not sure if this link will point to the right page, but on pp. 73-74 of this Google Book, you get more juicy gossip about Prokofiev's disastrous visit:

"Prokofiev rudely told Cranmer after the post-concert reception that he 'didn't like anyone who was there.' Despite - or perhaps because of - his bad temper, she decided to win him over, taking him to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at a local movie hall."