Box Blather

Started by Ken B, April 19, 2014, 07:07:51 PM

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Maestro267

So I've ordered a box of Beethoven chamber music. Complete violin sonatas, cello sonatas, string trios and piano trios.

Jo498

Quote from: Maestro267 on November 11, 2021, 01:34:45 AM
So I've ordered a box of Beethoven chamber music. Complete violin sonatas, cello sonatas, string trios and piano trios.

Which recordings?
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Maestro267

It has arrived now.

Zukerman, Du Pre, Barenboim, Perlman, Harrell etc.

classicalgeek

An Ansermet box ("Ernest Ansermet - The Stereo Years") set to release in February 2022:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/stereo-years/hnum/10767645

No cover yet - JPC is the only place I've seen it. There's a lot of overlap with his French Music, Russian Music, and European Tradition boxes that were released several years ago. But there's a lot of mono recordings in those boxes that won't be included in the new one. Which begs the question: is Decca planning to release an Ansermet mono box as well?

So much great music, so little time...

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

Mookalafalas

Quote from: classicalgeek on November 12, 2021, 01:38:08 PM
An Ansermet box ("Ernest Ansermet - The Stereo Years") set to release in February 2022:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/stereo-years/hnum/10767645

No cover yet - JPC is the only place I've seen it. There's a lot of overlap with his French Music, Russian Music, and European Tradition boxes that were released several years ago. But there's a lot of mono recordings in those boxes that won't be included in the new one. Which begs the question: is Decca planning to release an Ansermet mono box as well?

88 cds. Pretty robust.  I have the French and Russian boxes, so will be steering clear of this one. Probably :-\
It's all good...

classicalgeek

#1205
Quote from: Mookalafalas on November 13, 2021, 04:25:03 PM
88 cds. Pretty robust.  I have the French and Russian boxes, so will be steering clear of this one. Probably :-\

I missed out on those boxes when they were first released, so I'm at least considering the 88 CD stereo box. The OSR may not have been among the world's best orchestras, but they have a distinctive timbre that really works well in a lot of these pieces.

The Zoltan Kocsis Decca box (it's been covered in this thread) apparently will now be released on February 4: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/zoltan-kocsis-complete-philips-recordings/hnum/10686774

And there's a Heinrich Schiff Decca box slated for mid-February: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/heinrich-schiff-collection-ltd/hnum/10770089 - I think Warner needs to issue an H. Schiff box too. His Bach Cello Suites on EMI were my go-to recording!
So much great music, so little time...

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

Mirror Image

Quote from: Mookalafalas on November 13, 2021, 04:25:03 PM
88 cds. Pretty robust.  I have the French and Russian boxes, so will be steering clear of this one. Probably :-\

+1

JBS

Cross post from WAYLT2

TD


CD 107
Elgar
Dream of Gerontius Part II

Live recording (mono) Manchester 23 March 1951
Barbirolli conducting Halle Orchestra and Chorus
Marjorie Thomas contralto
Parry Jones tenor

Tape hiss, a passage from which three bars are missing, audience noise, and the unexplained absence of Part I probably explain why it's never been released before.

This is effectively the last CD of the box: CD 108 is a collection of rehearsal excerpts, CD 109 audio "documentary" about Barbirolli, neither of which I am very interested in hearing.

I think the box is worth getting. If you don't want the whole shebang, I recommend getting the new remastered sets of Barbirolli conducting Sibelius, Mahler, & Elgar, plus the RVW recordings, the three operas (Dido & Aeneas, Madama Butterfly, Otello), the Brahms piano and double concertos, and the Janet Baker recordings of Mahler, Berlioz, and Ravel song cycles.
The remastering is sufficiently good enough to justify getting them even if you have previous issues.

[Of course, by the time you buy all that, you'd probably be spending the price of the complete set anyway.]

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Mirror Image

Quote from: JBS on March 29, 2022, 09:31:35 AM
Cross post from WAYLT2

TD


CD 107
Elgar
Dream of Gerontius Part II

Live recording (mono) Manchester 23 March 1951
Barbirolli conducting Halle Orchestra and Chorus
Marjorie Thomas contralto
Parry Jones tenor

Tape hiss, a passage from which three bars are missing, audience noise, and the unexplained absence of Part I probably explain why it's never been released before.

This is effectively the last CD of the box: CD 108 is a collection of rehearsal excerpts, CD 109 audio "documentary" about Barbirolli, neither of which I am very interested in hearing.

I think the box is worth getting. If you don't want the whole shebang, I recommend getting the new remastered sets of Barbirolli conducting Sibelius, Mahler, & Elgar, plus the RVW recordings, the three operas (Dido & Aeneas, Madama Butterfly, Otello), the Brahms piano and double concertos, and the Janet Baker recordings of Mahler, Berlioz, and Ravel song cycles.
The remastering is sufficiently good enough to justify getting them even if you have previous issues.

[Of course, by the time you buy all that, you'd probably be spending the price of the complete set anyway.]

It looks like a lovely set, Jeffrey, but there's repertoire in it that I have zero interest in and not to mention all of the duplication I'd have. But, if someone is coming to Barbirolli's recordings for the first-time and end up loving his conducting by doing some sampling online, then I can see it being a worthy addition to someone's collection. His Mahler, Sibelius, RVW, Elgar and Delius are some of the best out there.

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on March 29, 2022, 09:31:35 AM
Cross post from WAYLT2

TD


CD 107
Elgar
Dream of Gerontius Part II

Live recording (mono) Manchester 23 March 1951
Barbirolli conducting Halle Orchestra and Chorus
Marjorie Thomas contralto
Parry Jones tenor

Tape hiss, a passage from which three bars are missing, audience noise, and the unexplained absence of Part I probably explain why it's never been released before.

This is effectively the last CD of the box: CD 108 is a collection of rehearsal excerpts, CD 109 audio "documentary" about Barbirolli, neither of which I am very interested in hearing.

I think the box is worth getting. If you don't want the whole shebang, I recommend getting the new remastered sets of Barbirolli conducting Sibelius, Mahler, & Elgar, plus the RVW recordings, the three operas (Dido & Aeneas, Madama Butterfly, Otello), the Brahms piano and double concertos, and the Janet Baker recordings of Mahler, Berlioz, and Ravel song cycles.
The remastering is sufficiently good enough to justify getting them even if you have previous issues.

[Of course, by the time you buy all that, you'd probably be spending the price of the complete set anyway.]

An entirely worthwhile investment, I agree, although as yet I am only in the 40s.
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

JBS

I've now completed a run through of the Erato Georges (Gyorgy) Cziffra Complete Studio Recordings set.

Since I had shortly before done a run through of the Erato Samson François Complete Recordings set,

I thought I would do a barebones comparison.
TL:DR
The Francois set is preferable to the Cziffra

First off, there's more in the SF set (54 CDs and a DVD vs 41 CDs).
Second, the SF includes a good deal more in concert recordings (no doubt reflected in title not limiting itself to studio recordings in the way the GC set does).
The GC set includes in its 41 CDs a CD and a half of orchestral recordings conducted by Georges Cziffra Jr, a conductor who died young. These are solidly performed but not the sort to be sought after for their own sake.
The GC set is organized by composer and work for the solo piano works, so all the Liszt is together, etc. Concertos are grouped in the back. This approach makes apparent how often Cziffra re-recorded some works, and also how limited his repertoire was: Liszt is the biggest component.
The SF set is arranged chronologically over the pianist's career, so repeated recordings are spaced out. Francois's repertoire had a wider reach, although not as Liszt focused and not as concerto heavy.. He also composed music, including a film score whose recording is included in the set.
The GC has a significant drawback: there is no track listing or index of works performed, so to find a particular recording requires going through the CDs one by one if you want to listen to a particular work.
The SF does not have this problem.
Sonics obviously vary within each set depending on.the age of the recording.

Finally, a highly subjective point: I prefer SF to GC as pianists. SF was (to me) more poetic, GC more flashy. SF did more Chopin and was in the middle of a complete traversal of Debussy's piano works at the time of his death. GC's Debussy was.limited to just a few works. The best Debussy in the GC set in fact is the La Mer conducted by Cziffra fils.

I would advise getting the SF box if interested in these pianists, but only the small set of Cziffra's Liszt

Although that means forgoing the first recordings of works recorded more than once (most important, the Hungarian Rhapsodies).

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Jo498

I am not sure about availability but I'd also recommend the 5-disc Chopin-Box with Cziffra. He is very good in the etudes and the 4th ballade and the rest is worthwhile. As I had these 5 CD Chopin and Liszt as well as an Introuvables box, I gladly skipped the big box that would not have added anything I really wanted.

I got the earlier version (only 36 discs but almost all the contents except for a few live pieces and DVD they added, I think) of the Francois box. I have since concluded that I would not have needed that one. It's nice to have but there were/are easily available boxes of the "essential" Francois, i.e. Chopin, Debussy, Ravel although one usually gets only one version in these composer boxes while Francois recorded often several (mono/stereo/live). I don't think I ever got through the big Francois box although I have had it since 2011 or so.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Brian

now $45 at Amazon US and 55 euros at Amazon DE:



Hurwitz video discussion detailing the full contents/performers

expandable photo showing the sleeve art style depicting original costumes:


Madiel

Quote from: Brian on July 10, 2022, 09:21:48 AM
now $45 at Amazon US and 55 euros at Amazon DE:



Hurwitz video discussion detailing the full contents/performers

expandable photo showing the sleeve art style depicting original costumes:



Ohhhh, I'd forgotten about that. Thank you for the reminder.

*goes to watch Hurwitz video*
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Brian

#1214
In possession of the Ballets Russes Warner box now, and I'm marathoning my way through 6 CDs of it today while working from home, having a blast of a time. (Just listened to Auric's fun, but very loud, "Les Facheux", featuring the very French 1970s Monte Carlo orchestra under Igor Markevitch, licensed from something called "Guild Internationale du Disque.")

One amusing note - which has absolutely no effect on the overall quality of the set, and is purely a diversion - is that Warner clearly reordered all the works on different discs late in the planning process. The physical CD 21 lists three works, two of which are on it and one of which is on CD 20 instead. And on the wallet of CD 19, the back cover track listing (admirably detailed - all the CD wallets tell you the premiere date and location of the ballets, in addition to the names of each track) goes from 1-11, then it loses count and starts over again at track 5 instead of proceeding to the number 12  ;D .

Like I said, no real detriment to the experience. But fun to observe.

Today's full playlist:

N. Tcherepnin: Narcisse et Echo. Residentie Orch & Chamber Choir, Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Weber/Berlioz: Invitation to the Waltz. Conservatoire Concerts Orch, Andre Cluytens
Prokofiev: Chout suite. London SO, Claudio Abbado
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe. Rene Duclos Choir, Conservatoire Concerts Orch, Andre Cluytens
[lunch break]
[not from the box] Stanford: Two Fantasy Pieces. Britten Quartet with Thea King
Prokofiev: The Prodigal Son. Sao Paulo SO, Marin Alsop
Auric: Les Facheux. Monte Carlo Opera Orch, Igor Markevitch
Milhaud: Le Train bleu. Monte Carlo Opera Orch, Igor Markevitch
Satie: Jack in the Box. Royal Opera House Orch, John Lanchbery
Stravinsky: The Firebird. Boston SO, Seiji Ozawa

EDIT: Oh, they spelled "Lanchbery" wrong. That is more annoying than the track number thing.

JBS

What recording do they use for the Swan Lake? Previn?

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Madiel

Quote from: JBS on August 04, 2022, 07:18:13 PM
What recording do they use for the Swan Lake? Previn?

Yes.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Madiel

Quote from: Brian on August 04, 2022, 12:28:40 PM
In possession of the Ballets Russes Warner box now, and I'm marathoning my way through 6 CDs of it today while working from home, having a blast of a time. (Just listened to Auric's fun, but very loud, "Les Facheux", featuring the very French 1970s Monte Carlo orchestra under Igor Markevitch, licensed from something called "Guild Internationale du Disque.")

One amusing note - which has absolutely no effect on the overall quality of the set, and is purely a diversion - is that Warner clearly reordered all the works on different discs late in the planning process. The physical CD 21 lists three works, two of which are on it and one of which is on CD 20 instead. And on the wallet of CD 19, the back cover track listing (admirably detailed - all the CD wallets tell you the premiere date and location of the ballets, in addition to the names of each track) goes from 1-11, then it loses count and starts over again at track 5 instead of proceeding to the number 12  ;D .

Like I said, no real detriment to the experience. But fun to observe.

Today's full playlist:

N. Tcherepnin: Narcisse et Echo. Residentie Orch & Chamber Choir, Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Weber/Berlioz: Invitation to the Waltz. Conservatoire Concerts Orch, Andre Cluytens
Prokofiev: Chout suite. London SO, Claudio Abbado
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe. Rene Duclos Choir, Conservatoire Concerts Orch, Andre Cluytens
[lunch break]
[not from the box] Stanford: Two Fantasy Pieces. Britten Quartet with Thea King
Prokofiev: The Prodigal Son. Sao Paulo SO, Marin Alsop
Auric: Les Facheux. Monte Carlo Opera Orch, Igor Markevitch
Milhaud: Le Train bleu. Monte Carlo Opera Orch, Igor Markevitch
Satie: Jack in the Box. Royal Opera House Orch, John Lanchbery
Stravinsky: The Firebird. Boston SO, Seiji Ozawa

EDIT: Oh, they spelled "Lanchbery" wrong. That is more annoying than the track number thing.

I'd be interested to hear how you feel about the sound quality. I'm still sampling recordings via iTunes (because while the box is CD only, the great majority of recordings have been made available online including some of the old albums being released just in the last year or two).

Nothing sounds terrible, but some of the older recordings do feel like they show their age with a certain thinness or background hiss. Markevitch, Cluytens, and even Martinon a little.

Interestingly I sampled Irving in the Carnaval orchestration, and it's a 1959 recording but it sounded really good.

Again, nothing sounded BAD, and it was quieter passages where I noticed anything at all, but I don't typically go for recording older than about the mid-1960s and quite a bit of the box is older then that.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

JBS

Quote from: Madiel on August 05, 2022, 02:16:58 AM
Yes.

Thanks. I have that one already.
The more I learn about this box, the less I want it.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Brian

Quote from: Madiel on August 05, 2022, 02:23:56 AM
I'd be interested to hear how you feel about the sound quality. I'm still sampling recordings via iTunes (because while the box is CD only, the great majority of recordings have been made available online including some of the old albums being released just in the last year or two).

Nothing sounds terrible, but some of the older recordings do feel like they show their age with a certain thinness or background hiss. Markevitch, Cluytens, and even Martinon a little.

Interestingly I sampled Irving in the Carnaval orchestration, and it's a 1959 recording but it sounded really good.

Again, nothing sounded BAD, and it was quieter passages where I noticed anything at all, but I don't typically go for recording older than about the mid-1960s and quite a bit of the box is older then that.
The sound varies pretty significantly. It comes from a number of labels - EMI, Erato, Guild Internationale du Disque, Chandos, Marco Polo, Naxos, etc.

I don't much mind the older stereo sound in recordings like Martinon and Cluytens. Partly that's taste, of course, and partly that's because of a post Spotted Horses made a year or two ago which had a transformative effect on my thinking. (I don't think I've ever properly replied to it or thanked him, so hopefully he sees this.) He talked about how the Cluytens Big Box appealed to him because although contemporary recordings offer great sound, virtuosity, and a variety of conducting choices, the orchestras all sound very similar. Consequently, he said, he was mostly only spending Big Box money on the opportunity to hear completely different, now-extinct orchestral sounds. I thought of that a lot yesterday while listening to the Cluytens Daphnis et Chloé, which really is a time warp to another era - HIP, I guess you could say. There's so, so much woodwind and brass vibrato compared to today, in addition to differences in tone. The sound quality just kind of goes along with that. I did notice some percussion bits which were muffled or concealed in the sound picture, but overall it felt like stepping in a time machine.

There was one recording which made me sit upright and take note of how poor the sound was, and, surprisingly, it was a 1970s stereo recording (the Auric and Milhaud featuring Markevitch). Shrill, blatty, and with trumpet notes that make you wince. This is one of the rare instances in the box where no remastering info whatsoever is listed. Many of the CD debuts are newly gone-over.

I have only listened to one mono selection so far (the Tommasini/Scarlatti arrangement "The Good-Humoured Ladies"). It was fine. More colorful than many mono.