What are you listening to now?

[Brian]

Someone was raving about this set here at GMG, and I decided to get them. Then I found out I already had them in the super cheapy Sony complete LvB box.  And then I forgot all about them.
  Finally actually playing them, and they are stellar.  The playing, the sound. It's like they are in the room.  Worth the price of the box on their own (and actually, everything in that box is really good--I've really fallen for Zinman's symph cycle as well).

[asin]B002XDE9GI[/asin]

EDIT: turns out I am NOT listening to this set, but an earlier cycle by the same musicians.

Hate to tell you this, but the sound on the pictured (2008) set is leaps and bounds better still. In fact Foghorn Classics releases, almost all of them produced by Judith Sherman, are my benchmark for how a chamber music album should sound.

Oh yeah, and the ASQ is amazing 

[SonicMan46]

Tchaikovsky, Peter - Symphonies et al w/ Mikhail Pletnev & the Russian National Orchestra - CD 2 at the moment.

Goetz, Hermann - Piano Quartet & Quintet w/ Oliver Triendl and others shown below on the cover art - new acquisition - purchased based on a recent review in the newest issue of Fanfare, and will replace my other CD (third image below) of these same works (reviews of both attached).  Dave

   

[Brian]

Trying out this new Glagolitic Mass recording.

[Karl Henning]

Ravel
Schéhérazade
Anne Sofie von Otter
Clevelanders
M. Boulez, presiding

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

[aligreto]

Haydn: Trumpet Concerto....

[The new erato]

Trying out this new Glagolitic Mass recording.

Certainly nothing wrong with the orchestra! (I was at a concert following the recording).

Janet Baket singing English folksongs in arrangements by Haydn from this set:

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Sublime!

[Karl Henning]

Trying out this new Glagolitic Mass recording.

The Mša glagolskaja is an orchestral work, is it? 

[North Star]

The Mša glagolskaja is an orchestral work, is it? 

If Otce nás (Our Father) counts as one, then why not.  0:)

[(poco) Sforzando]

Hate to tell you this, but the sound on the pictured (2008) set is leaps and bounds better still. In fact Foghorn Classics releases, almost all of them produced by Judith Sherman, are my benchmark for how a chamber music album should sound.

Oh yeah, and the ASQ is amazing 

Oh, right, right. This was what you mentioned when we were having lunch, and my mind being its usual foghorn I promptly forgot about it. Is this the set you especially liked?

[Karl Henning]

Ravel
Le tombeau de Couperin
Clevelanders
M. Boulez, presiding

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

[James]

https://www.youtube.com/v/J_36x1_LKgg

[The new erato]

[asin]B00BWE3HGM[/asin]

Sublime!

It gets more sublime: Brahms op 28 - 4 Duets for Alto and Baritone with Fi-Di and Barenboim. Holy Crap - words fail me.

[Brian]

Oh, right, right. This was what you mentioned when we were having lunch, and my mind being its usual foghorn I promptly forgot about it. Is this the set you especially liked?

Yup. The only thing I dislike about the Foghorn Classics label in general is that on certain early CDs, they tacked on an actual foghorn sound at the end.

Now, it's a matter of taste. The ASQ is what I might call a "hedonist" quartet - the ensemble sound is luxurious, achingly beautiful, and they understand that strength. That does not mean they stint on excitement, nor does it mean they trade in Celibidachian self-indulgence. But at times the recordings (of Brahms, Schumann, Beethoven, whomever) can seem like a rebuttal against, say, the Alban Berg or Hagen Quartets.

[aligreto]

Grieg: Piano Concerto played by Dinu Lipatti....

[(poco) Sforzando]

Yup. The only thing I dislike about the Foghorn Classics label in general is that on certain early CDs, they tacked on an actual foghorn sound at the end.

That might be suitable for the last scene in Peter Grimes, but it would seem like a rather odd ending to K. 387.

But if you rip the audio to a WAV using a program like Exact Audio Copy, then edit out the foghorn in something like Audition or Audacity and burn your own CD, you're foghorn-free.

Now, it's a matter of taste. The ASQ is what I might call a "hedonist" quartet - the ensemble sound is luxurious, achingly beautiful, and they understand that strength. That does not mean they stint on excitement, nor does it mean they trade in Celibidachian self-indulgence. But at times the recordings (of Brahms, Schumann, Beethoven, whomever) can seem like a rebuttal against, say, the Alban Berg or Hagen Quartets.

Before I spring for yet another set of the LvB's, are there any other CDs of theirs you particularly like?

[aligreto]

Bax: Sonata for Flute and Harp....

[Brian]

That might be suitable for the last scene in Peter Grimes, but it would seem like a rather odd ending to K. 387.

But if you rip the audio to a WAV using a program like Exact Audio Copy, then edit out the foghorn in something like Audition or Audacity and burn your own CD, you're foghorn-free.

Before I spring for yet another set of the LvB's, are there any other CDs of theirs you particularly like?

Yeah, a one-disc sampler is a better idea since their discs are not bargain-price. (The cellist and I are pen-pals; he says Foghorn is struggling to stay afloat, and when they recorded the Arte Nova LvB set in the 1990s, they never made a dollar from it.) I love all their Brahms recordings; they seem to have a special gift for him in particular. The Brahms/Schumann piano quintet CD is spectacular, and the string quintets are hot on its heels. Your mileage may vary on the contemporary composers they've recorded (Cesar Cano and Cindy Cox; they like the letter C), and I haven't heard their Shostakovich at all. The Gershwin CD is sadly a definite miss.

[Todd]

Three of the Haydn Quartets.

[Karl Henning]

No surprise:

Ravel
Pavane pour une Infante défunte
Clevelanders
M. Boulez, presiding

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

[kishnevi]

The Mša glagolskaja is an orchestral work, is it? 

Decca thinks so, too: it's the final work in this set.
[asin]B0001Y4JH0[/asin]