What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Coopmv]

Now playing a little French baroque, the CD arrived from MDT late last week ...

[Bogey]

First listen.  This sounds very nice indeed.  It sits right in the groove of what I think this symphony should shound like.  And the sound!  Those Telarc engineers have always been something special.  This sounds much better than the Decca recordings at the Masonic Auditorium from the same era.  It was recorded on a Sony 1610 too, which is just about as old skool as you can get when it comes to A/D converters.  It's warm, smooth and detailed, which are often not characteristics attributed to early digital.  This one's a winner (I still like Vänskä on BIS too).  Recorded 1985:

*throws arms up, attempts back flip.....nothing that traction cannot fix....*

[Brian]

RACHMANINOV | Piano Concerto No 3
Martha Argerich
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

The only blemish on this performance is the fact that Argerich chooses the inferior first-movement cadenza; other than that (and even during that portion) this performance is simply jaw-dropping. If it weren't for the coughing, I would not believe this is live. Holy cow.

[nut-job]

I have this SACD set ...

I have Jarvi's earlier symphony cycle with the same orchestra on BIS, which I generally enjoy.  I am attracted by the idea of an SACD release, but don't have a great deal of faith in DG in the area of audio engineering.

[RussellG]

I have Jarvi's earlier symphony cycle with the same orchestra on BIS, which I generally enjoy.  I am attracted by the idea of an SACD release, but don't have a great deal of faith in DG in the area of audio engineering.

True, their recording technique often lagged behind the likes of Decca and Philips, but the DG SACD's I have of HvK's Beethoven symphonies are a huge improvement on "The Originals" series remasters, which I universally dislike.  They sound very dry and lifeless.  It would be nice to think their other SACD's are of the same standard 

Of course the HvK's are analog masters - the Jarvi's would be digital.

[Coopmv]

I have Jarvi's earlier symphony cycle with the same orchestra on BIS, which I generally enjoy.  I am attracted by the idea of an SACD release, but don't have a great deal of faith in DG in the area of audio engineering.

Can't be of much help here since I can only play the stereo layer of these hybrids because I do not have a SACD player ...

[RussellG]

Can't be of much help here since I can only play the stereo layer of these hybrids because I do not have a SACD player ...

I'm talking only about the Redbook layer on the SACD's too, although if anything, the hi-rez layer should be even better.

[Lethevich]

Inspired my Martin Lind, I am listening to Handley's Chandos account of Bax's elusive 7th symphony. Massive and unfolding on its own terms, with less struggle than the preceeding works, it is beguiling and perhaps patience-testing. Extended rhapsodic passages, a structure in there somewhere which when inflated to this proportion is hard to discern. When it bites you it is hard to stop listening... basically, it is 100% Bax.

[Brian]

I have Jarvi's earlier symphony cycle with the same orchestra on BIS, which I generally enjoy.  I am attracted by the idea of an SACD release, but don't have a great deal of faith in DG in the area of audio engineering.

I don't have a great deal of faith in Jarvi in the area of performances he's recorded more recently...

[Coopmv]

I don't have a great deal of faith in Jarvi in the area of performances he's recorded more recently...

Jarvi's Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1, 5 & 6 with the GSO on BIS, all SACD's, sound just fine to me ...

[Brian]

ADAMS | Shaker Loops
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Edo de Waart

Friend and I are having a music-sharing evening. His turn to choose. 

What should I play next?!

[Jay F]

Can't be of much help here since I can only play the stereo layer of these hybrids because I do not have a SACD player ...

What you ought to do, Stuart, is stop spending money on CDs temporarily, and buy that SACD player you've been talking about. You've probably got the world's largest unplayed SACD collection by now.

[RussellG]

Second listen.  I'm really warming to this performance.  It reminds me a lot of my first M1:  Levi on Telarc.  I was less impressed, however, with the other M1 I picked up this weekend:  Tennstedt/London Phil.

Recorded 1993:

[Renfield]

Second listen.  I'm really warming to this performance.  It reminds me a lot of my first M1:  Levi on Telarc.  I was less impressed, however, with the other M1 I picked up this weekend:  Tennstedt/London Phil.

Recorded 1993:

Hah. I can't help but think: "where does that man find all these exotic Mahler recordings?" I can name you a dozen (maybe two dozen!) Mahler 1sts I'd consider before one by the Florida Philharmonic; but this is (very) likely my M-style elitism showing.

[And no offense or condescension whatsoever meant, with this.

I'm only intending to illustrate how alien the same repertory can look, for someone used to entirely different points of reference! ]


P.S.: That Tennstedt is indeed rather unimpressive, but do sample his live Chicago account if ever you come across it - it's quite special.

[RussellG]

Hah. I can't help but think: "where does that man find all these exotic Mahler recordings?" I can name you a dozen (maybe two dozen!) Mahler 1sts I'd consider before one by the Florida Philharmonic; but this is (very) likely my M-style elitism showing.

Normally I wouldn't look twice at a CD by a conductor I've never heard of and an ensemble from a part of the world I associate more with, ummm, tennis and breeding 'gators, than world-beating Mahler performances (no offense to Floridians intended - I'm sure it's a lovely state).  However a little birdy told me to check this recording out, and I'm glad I did.  Crikey, the Florida Phil is so obscure it doesn't even exist any more!

[Brian]

Tonight my friend and I alternated choosing our music selections whilst studying. Here were our musics (my choices are the odd-numbered ones, his the evens):

RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No 3 (Argerich, RSO Berlin, Chailly)
ADAMS: Shaker Loops (San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart)
FUCHS: Sixteen Fantasy Etudes for Solo Viola (Jeanne Mallow)
[deviation from the usual order: while my friend was finding something to play, I added LALO: Scherzo in D minor (Royal Phil, Yondani Butt). Then he resumed:]
LALO: Symphonie espagnole (Bell, Montreal, Dutoit)
GINASTERA: Estancia, the complete ballet (LSO, Ben-Dur)
GERSHWIN: Catfish Row, Symphonic Suite on Themes from Porgy and Bess (Chicago, Levine)

[val]

SCHUMANN:   Carnaval, Arabesque, Bunte Blätter             / Yuri Egorov

A good version of the Carnaval, but I still prefer Freire, Rubinstein or even Gelber.

The best of this CD is Egorov's very poetic and subtle version of the Bunte Blätter, the best I heard, even better than Richter or Engel.

[haydnguy]

DEBUSSY: Children's Corner, Images I, Images II.
Michelangeli

Love Michelageli !!

[karlhenning]

Sergei Sergeyevich
Evgeny Onegin, melodrama in 16 scenes, Opus 71
Premiere complete recording

[Bogey]

Sergei Sergeyevich
Evgeny Onegin, melodrama in 16 scenes, Opus 71
Premiere complete recording

Saw this on the purchase thread, Karl.  Your thoughts please when you get a chance.  Usually the Chandos label comes through.