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#1

The Diner / Re: What are you currently rea...

Last post by JBS - Today at 08:06:01 PM

I've always wanted to read some George Eliot but never managed to. What is her best novel, in your opinion? The only one that I really shouldn't miss?

I liked Daniel Deronda more than Middlemarch.

#2

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Purchases Today

Last post by JBS - Today at 07:56:09 PM

I think I've mentioned that Toscanini's Traviata was the recording, via a set of 78s that contained only Acts 1 and 2, that hooked me onto opera as a kid.

TD
H/T @Florestan

The recording he listened to doesn't seem to be available on Amazon, but this was: SQs 15, 17, and 18

#3

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by JBS - Today at 07:51:35 PM

This twofer is a treasure trove. Donizetti was a pupil and protege of Giovanni Simone (Johann Simon) Mayr and it shows. He and Rossini were probably the only Italian composers of their time who were thoroughly versed in German music; the difference being that Rossini was an autodidact in this respect, albeit a genius one, whereas Donizetti absorbed it from Mayr's rigorous teaching. His SQs are very accomplished works, full to the brim with interesting, often arresting, ideas and gorgeous melodies, interlocked within a compelling structure and a gripping musical discourse. They are all excellent but if I were to single out one, it must be the SQ No. 14 in D major, which is almost Schubertian in the way Donizetti makes a major key sound as turbulent, distressing and dissonant as a minor one.

The recording is sonic bliss, the instruments placed in genuine stereo manner (to my ears, the order is, from left to right, cello, violin I and II, viola --- which is unusual but highly interesting and effective) and clearly and vividly audible at all times.

This --- and the second volume, also a twofer, which I can hardly wait to begin listening to  --- is highly recommended for fans of both Donizetti* and Classical string quartets. Unqualified Florestan's Stamp of Approval.

* @Tsaraslondon @ritter @nico1616 @JBS

You piqued my interest. See the Purchases Thread.

TD
Ingrid Haebler playing Schubert's Impromptus.

[Marx: Castelli Romani, for piano and orchestra]

#4

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Daverz - Today at 07:27:07 PM

Marx: Castelli Romani, for piano and orchestra

Wonderful music. Its sonorities, orchestration, melodies, make it a captivating work.

This was reissued on Naxos.

#5

The Diner / Re: What TV series are you cur...

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 07:16:21 PM

"Angry cupcake" (!!!)

#6

The Diner / Re: Last Movie You Watched

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 07:09:22 PM

The Return of the King, Extended Interminable Edition. j/k (although, yes, each disc runs longer than any of the earlier ones.) I watched the first disc. Even given my objections, there is a lot to enjoy (hence my sticking with it.) And I watched a 20-minute segment of the Appendix. I feel there's some gaslighting in their presentation of preparing the script. I mean, if all of them "love the books" and know the Ur-text so thoroughly, I don't see how they think it's a sound idea to have Frodo telling Sam to go home on the Morgul stair. this is both inhumanely impractical (what, Sam traipse all the way back to the Shire alone? As if he wouldn't end up being eaten by orcs) as well as a betrayal of the friendship which is the emotional center of the entire story. Visually, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli on the Paths of the Dead is wonderful, but the rewritten scene is pathetic. Instead of Isildur's Heir commanding the faithless dead, we have Aragorn repeating "What say you?" so many times, it could be a drinking game. I'm not crazy about Elrond serving as a courier delivering  Andúril to Aragorn, but let that pass. Pippin tells Denethor that he doesn't know any songs suitable to the hour, but then, rather than singing a cheerful Hobbit Pub song to underscore the point, he sings a poignant number more suited to an Enya EP. I see the reasons for essentially dispensing with "The Scouring of the Shire." So I do not protest moving Saruman's death up to the conference at Orthanc. My only complaint is that in a series of movies with so many wonderful SFX, the nature of Saruman's death is nothing like in Tolkien: it's just a meat puppet dropping from a great height. It does not rank high among my disappointments in the endeavor, but it is a disappointment.

Disc 2. Like "no one tosses a dwarf," "You and whose army" is suited to Marvel Comics, not Middle-Earth. Are you really an admirer of LOTR, do you understand even the least thing about Tolkien, if you don't draw the lesson that language matters? The Shelob's Lair episode is pretty wonderful. For all of The Return of the King, I've been choosy about my quibbles. Overall, the three movies are a magnificent achievement, and magnificent to watch. Could it have been truer to the source? Yes, and ought to have been, and could have been, even with the good embellishments (and some of the embellishments are very good.) As long as I bite my figurative lip here and there, I enjoy it greatly. One mildly funny thing is, in his Gimli make-up/costume, Jn Rhys-Davies fakes me out completely. I do not see Indiana Jones' buddy Sallah.

#7

The Diner / Re: The Cat Thread

Last post by Pohjolas Daughter - Today at 06:45:22 PM

I took Tenille my Russian Blue, to the vet on Jan. 4th because she'd been drinking and urinating a lot more than usual. The diagnosis was diabetes, so I've had to give her insulin injections twice daily since the 6th. If only I could grow a third hand, or just inject myself. 

How is she doing?  And I'm so sorry.

[Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from "Peter Grimes"]

#8

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Musical depictions of the ...

Last post by Peter Power Pop - Today at 06:30:59 PM

Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from "Peter Grimes" (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi)

#9

The Diner / Re: What audio system do you h...

Last post by drogulus - Today at 06:05:59 PM

One more note, sometimes there is a temptation to unpack the ISO to dsf/dff, then convert the dsf/dff to FLAC. When using conventional converters, there can be a clearly audible loss in sound quality after second step. I prefer to keep the dsf/dsf without making FLACs out of it.

    What??? No!! I would never do such a thing.

     My AVR, like almost all modern ones, handles DSD just fine through HDMI. So does my PC through my USB Dac.

#10

The Diner / Re: What audio system do you h...

Last post by AnotherSpin - Today at 05:51:50 PM

I'm seriously thinking of getting a real Oppo again! The cool thing is the reason is I want to rip SACDs. Why I do this? I don't have any SACDs.

     Well, I do have a whole bunch of SACD ISOs I unpack to dsf/dff files. Though in some cases they aren't much different from the CDs, in other cases they are. To me it's immaterial why a Dire Straits song is noticeably better on the SACD. It might have nothing to do with the virtues of DSD. I only care about the result, not the reason for it.

     I suspect the more important reason to do this is that it's the next stage in my project of getting all my music onto my file/folder/disc archive and playback system.

The difference between dsf and FLAC files of the same album may depend on the playback system. On the system I had a few years ago, the difference in sound was more than noticeable, however, not so much now.
 
One more note, sometimes there is a temptation to unpack the ISO to dsf/dff, then convert the dsf/dff to FLAC. When using conventional converters, there can be a clearly audible loss in sound quality after second step. I prefer to keep the dsf/dsf without making FLACs out of it.