Purchases Today

[PaulR]

Aside from the Violin and Cello concertos, the music never really grabbed me.  The 2nd symphony just seems like a mess to me, and the fault is most likely mine.  It just seems cluttered to me. 

[listener]

pre-owned, marked down at Sikoras for Boxing Day
A. SCARLATTI:  Oratorio Humanità e Lucifero
Europa Galante / Fabio Biondi
TANEYEV: Symphony no.4, Duet for soprano and tenor after Tnchaikowsky's Romeo and Juliet
Moscow Radio-TV Orch./Peter Tiboris, cond.
BENDA`:  Romeo and Juliet
Lo Stagione Frankfurt / Michael Schneider
will post the LPs tomorrow

[Mirror Image]

Aside from the Violin and Cello concertos, the music never really grabbed me.  The 2nd symphony just seems like a mess to me, and the fault is most likely mine.  It just seems cluttered to me.

Fair enough. His Symphony No. 2 is one of my favorite works of his and I don't consider it a mess at all but a beautiful conceived masterpiece. The emotional expression in Elgar's music is what gets me every time and what continues to bring me back.

[PaulR]

Fair enough. His Symphony No. 2 is one of my favorite works of his and I don't consider it a mess at all but a beautiful conceived masterpiece. The emotional expression in Elgar's music is what gets me every time and what continues to bring me back.

It could be the recording I have of it.....which do you have?

[Mirror Image]

It could be the recording I have of it.....which do you have?

Perhaps a better question would be which recorded performance don't I have? My reference recording is Andrew Davis/Philharmonia Orchestra on Signum Classics.

[PaulR]

Perhaps a better question would be which recorded performance don't I have? My reference recording is Andrew Davis/Philharmonia Orchestra on Signum Classics.

Forgot who I was talking to for a second

[Mirror Image]

Forgot who I was talking to for a second

[flyingdutchman]

That Prokofiev/Rozhdestvensky set looks mighty tempting.

[Mirror Image]

That Prokofiev/Rozhdestvensky set looks mighty tempting.

Some of the most gnarly Prokofiev symphony performances on record IMHO and some of the most convincing as well. If you can past some of the harshness in the audio quality, it's one of the best around.

[springrite]

Some of the most gnarly Prokofiev symphony performances on record IMHO and some of the most convincing as well. If you can past some of the harshness in the audio quality, it's one of the best around.

With Prokofiev, especially in the first four symphonies, harsh sound may sometimes be a plus.

[Mirror Image]

With Prokofiev, especially in the first four symphonies, harsh should may sometimes be a plus.

This is very true, Paul.

[springrite]

This is very true, Paul.

I do prefer the sound to be clean and clear in #7, though! 

[listener]

I think these half-priced* used LP^s aren't otherwise available
*off the already reduced-for-used prices
TANEYEV:  Symphony no.2 in Eb, Voyage (piano suite)
LA MONTAINE: Piano Concerto      H. STEVENS Symphonic Dances
V. THOMSON  String Quartet 2   Wm. SCHUMAN  Voyage (piano suite)
RAICHEV  Concerto for Orchestra, Sonata-Poem for Violin and Orch.
and I put in an order for the 2-piano 8-hands recording of the MAHLER Symphony no.2

[Que]

An initial, percursory listen is turning out to be rather startling and a bit of a disappointment, actually (I must say that my record dealer warned me this could be the case). This bears little relation to the advanced sound-world of the Recercadas. I've read widely diverging reviews of this disc: one Portuguese commentator apparently said it's "one of the best discs ever"  , while other writers talk openly of "soup of sounds" and of "cacophony"  . I am a bit surprised to find passages sung in backward-looking plainchant, and then others with what seems a "popular" singing style (think of Sicilian folklore  ). Once I've listened to it attentively, I might comment in more depth (but I'm by no means expert in this repertoire  ).

Muchas gracias!

Q

[Ken B]

I do prefer the sound to be clean and clear in #7, though! 

Let's restart an old debate ... Malko is fantastic in 7, sound and performance.

...

*munches popcorn*

[Brian]

Let's restart an old debate ... Malko is fantastic in 7, sound and performance.

...

*munches popcorn*

Well, yes, absolutely. Too bad he uses the wrong ending!

Sarge and I once remarked that the performance which most convincingly makes the wrong ending sound right is Kuchar's.

[PaulR]

Finished my X-Mas gift purchase:

[asin]B00HFDKTC4[/asin][asin]B00004VMCL[/asin][asin]B003S9GOWS[/asin][asin]B000WC38QY[/asin][asin]B00CTBHSNU[/asin][asin]B005MIQG9O[/asin]

[Moonfish]

Finished my X-Mas gift purchase:

[asin]B00CTBHSNU[/asin]

Nice purchases Paul! Merry Christmas!  I have really been enjoying the DHM Schütz box lately. Wonderful (especially the Symphonia Sacrea I & III)! I hope you get as much joy from these recordings as I am!

[mc ukrneal]

Finished my X-Mas gift purchase:

[asin]B003S9GOWS[/asin]

I almost bought this several times over the past few weeks, but ended up getting the one below. It has most of the Rubinstein box along with another 7-8 other discs (15 overall). It was as cheap (if not cheaper, though it then went to much higher prices):
[asin]B002OLV3WW[/asin]

[PaulR]

I almost bought this several times over the past few weeks, but ended up getting the one below. It has most of the Rubinstein box along with another 7-8 other discs (15 overall). It was as cheap (if not cheaper, though it then went to much higher prices):
[asin]B002OLV3WW[/asin]

I got the Rubinstein box basically because of the price, trying to get into Chopin and also constrained by my parents gift limit and trying to get other things as well (not trying to complain about that).

But if I was considering that box, I am glad I didn't look at the review giving it two stars (which probably would have driven me away from it without even looking).