What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[PerfectWagnerite]

Oh come on ! Those are like $180 headphones. YOu can get the 515s for about half that and they sound pretty damn good also.

Or you can spend 10 bucks on these:


SONY MDR-E828LP which sounds amazing. Don't laugh, give them a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised. My wife uses them for her IPOD or ITOUCH or whatever and she says they are 100x better than the crap the Apple provided.

[Bonehelm]

Oh come on ! Those are like $180 headphones. YOu can get the 515s for about half that and they sound pretty damn good also.

Or you can spend 10 bucks on these:


SONY MDR-E828LP which sounds amazing. Don't laugh, give them a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised. My wife uses them for her IPOD or ITOUCH or whatever and she says they are 100x better than the crap the Apple provided.

I can't believe some fanboys are sticking to their white and grey "Apple officially certified" earbuds with their ipods. You might as well listen to 24kbps overseas radio broadcast with that kind of sound quality provided by them...

[PerfectWagnerite]

I can't believe some fanboys are sticking to their white and grey "Apple officially certified" earbuds with their ipods. You might as well listen to 24kbps overseas radio broadcast with that kind of sound quality provided by them...

99% of the people I see using IPODS are using the Apple headphones. It hurts me to see that since if you you the right headphones the IPOD actually sounds pretty good.

[Todd]

Asheknazy's take on the Diabellis.  Pleasant, energetic, well played, and in excellent sound.  I wanted it to be even better, but it's still not half bad.

[M forever]

Oh come on ! Those are like $180 headphones. YOu can get the 515s for about half that and they sound pretty damn good also.

They're OK but not necessarily for "classical music", certainly not for complex orchestral or vocal music. And they don't pretend to be either. Otherwise, Sennheiser wouldn't make such a wide range of headphones. Different tools for different applications. For the kind of music we often talk about, they certainly not "pretty damn good". Now I know why your perception of recorded sound quality is sometimes so far off the mark.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Mahler, Third symphony (Chailly)

Good performance. And - I can hear the acoustics of the 'Grote Zaal' of the Concertgebouw, where I've been so often. 

[greg]

Schnittke 1st and 2nd Violin Sonatas, while reading the scores.

These were really surprising, i'm tempted to say the best violin sonatas ever written, even better than those of Brahms and Prokofiev. And that is saying a lot.... just beyond amazing, perfect mixture of atonal and tonal writing in a way that's always surprising yet has a solid structure at the same time. Just what i want to hear.  0:)

[M forever]

Mahler, Third symphony (Chailly)

Good performance. And - I can hear the acoustics of the 'Grote Zaal' of the Concertgebouw, where I've been so often. 

I was very disappointed by that, surprisingly, because Chailly is one of the conductors whose interpretations of Mahler's music I value most highly. Some of the recordings from his cycle are among my favorites - especially the 5th which I find simply stunningly good and musically very interesting and cinvincing. Chailly is one of the conductors who can organize a large-scale work in a coherent frame while still paying attention to and putting all the details in place. That is what I miss in his reading of the 3rd. Too much detail seems to go under in the broad flood of sound that passes by the listener. I think he misses the essential "Wunderhorn poetry" ingredient of the music and sees it as a very large, heavy, dark symphonic monolith with not too much fine inner detail. I think the outer dimensions of the music do not need to be emphasized though, they are simply there anyway. There is so much detail in that performance which is undercharacterized and simply not "happening" - unlike in the 5th in which everything really "speaks". But yes, it does sound kind of "nice", big, rich, warm but too much detail is lost in the sound source. I have listened to this several times over, hoping that I simply didn't "get" the concept the first time(s), but even though a wide spectrum of interpretive approaches is what I look for when I listen to various interpretations, I haven't been able to "reconcile" myself with this recording 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well-argued piece, M forever. I must admit - I wasn't all that keen on Chailly during his period at the Concertgebouw. And I was a bit suspicious of his Mahler credentials. Since then I have come to appreciate some of the recordings I have heard - the Fifth, as you say, and his Eighth... Your criticism of the Third - I can't yet concur or disagree. I'll have to listen to it more often. But don't you think the Scherzo, for instance, is very delicately done? It has all kinds of telling detail. I can find some 'Wunderhorn' poetry there.

[bhodges]

Rapsodia Latina (Gloria Lin, piano and Jesús Castro-Balbi, cello) - Pleasant program of music from Argentinean, Brazilian, Mexican and Peruvian composers (many still living), with William Bolcolm thrown in for good measure. 

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Janáček: Suite from From the House of the Dead (František Jílek/Czech Philharmonic) - Very evocative performance, from a conductor new to me.  This 1984 CD also includes suites from The Cunning Little Vixen and Fate.

--Bruce

[M forever]

I wasn't all that keen on Chailly during his period at the Concertgebouw.

Why?

And I was a bit suspicious of his Mahler credentials.

Why?

But don't you think the Scherzo, for instance, is very delicately done? It has all kinds of telling detail. I can find some 'Wunderhorn' poetry there.

I am not criticizing the lack of a concept of framework, or what concept he chose - those are basic interpretive choices which can be discussed, but not really completely dismissed. That would be silly. What disappointed me about this performane wasn't really what they did, but how it was done - not on the level of detail and coherence that I am expecting from that team.
I would have to listen to specifically the 3rd movement again to answer your question, which I will do if I can find the box!

[not edward]

[orbital]

I was in the audience for both concerts, which were fantastic, and it's great that they captured them.  In New York, they are repeating the program on Friday morning (early, 3:00 a.m.) and at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. 

--Bruce

Just watched the broadcast (not all of Mahler I admit  ).  The Bartok... What a great piece

[Bogey]

Today's listening:

AM:


PM

[PaulR]

Shostakovich:  Symphony #13 'Babi Yar' Aleksashkin/Jansons/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

[Harry]

Beethoven.

Violin Sonatas opus 12, no. 1/2/3.

Pinchas Zukerman, Violin.
Marc Neikrug, Piano.

Recorded in 1992 on Sony.

This is the first disc of chambermusic of the big box Sony issued a few months ago, for a super budget price, containing one of the top interpretations of the Symphonies under David Zinman.
Let me say forthwith, I am no admirer of the tone Zukerman is producing, to much of the lament in it, to much Zukerman, and if you are lucky a glimpse of Beethoven in the passing. Neikrug is a excellent pianist however, so what to make of it? This will please many, but alas not me, I find them rather bland, and matter of fact, as if Zukerman is playing on automatic pilot. Granted all the notes are there, and maybe I am full with adversion against this type of musician, but this is not what makes me happy in Beethoven.
The second movement of the first sonata "Andante con moto" is a case in point, the humor and intrinsic warmth is lost on Zukerman, and all he does is shine in your eyes with his pyrotechnics, o, well....
Good recorded sound and believable soundstage.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I wasn't all that keen on Chailly during his period at the Concertgebouw. And I was a bit suspicious of his Mahler credentials.

Why? you ask. Well, you had the line Mengelberg-Van Beinum-Haitink, a Dutch Mahler tradition that I doubted could continue under Chailly. And when I saw him on tv in interviews, the way he talked and presented himself didn't impress me by any particular depth. Chailly is a good musician, though. At best, his enthusiasm carries you along.

[Que]

                   picture is linked

Q

[Harry]

Ludwig Von Beethoven.

Violin Sonatas, opus 23/24.

Pinchas Zukerman, Violin.
Marc Neikrug, Piano.

The second instalment, and more or less the same conclusion, Zukerman plays all the notes perfectly, but wether I like it is another matter alltogether. He seems to know these works inside and out, and that is the way he plays it, in this I find no fault, but I fear I need more from the works presented here. Neikrug is a very good musician, and his playing is a great joy to me. He is a flexible as a snake, and displays beautiful colors. Recording wise all is fine.