Records recently heard

Saw this somewhere:


and being a fan of (a) organ, (b) brass and (c) the combination of the two, I acquired it. All are arrangements for the instruments of course, bits of everybody's stuff, Purcell, Clarke, Monteverdi, etc., but some wonderfully blazingly sonorous offerings, ending with a short piece by Campra that alone is worth the price of the entire CD.

 

I have just finished playing a 1955 Mono recording of Sibelius Symphony No2 in D Major, Op.43- BBC Symphony Orch- Sir Thomas Beecham- recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall-Dec 8th 1954. Superb performace- superb vinyl EMI quality. There is so much good music out there why bother listening to digitally processed mush when recordings are waiting to be re-discovered- cleaned, cared for and loved. When was the last time you expressed those sort of emotions over a CD?

 

Last night (and the one before, and the one before, and the one before...)

 

Hi Kenneth - we had a seperate thread for music more modern than Mozart here.... basically there is so much discussion of baroque music on this thread that any post on later music tends to get swamped and lost.

http://zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10886

I know what you mean about the vinyl. I got hold of the original LP of Lorin Maazel's VPO Sibelius 5 & 7 a few months ago. the Recording is just amazing, floats out of the speakers like a dream.

Never mind Tones.... we are still wondering why he visits hifi forums when he insists everything sounds the same anyway

 

Aw, come on, Alan, don't exaggerate - you know how I love my ESLs when they're working! I simply don't believe in the magic of vinyl because I've never heard it to be better than CD or even that different (and remember I'm so ancient that I precede CD and have about 400 records). However, I'm happy for those of you who do hear the magic.

 

Only kidding dear boy.....sorry to hear you are having troubles with those ESLs.

 

I find it strange when people say that they are unable to hear the difference between vinyl and CD. It must have something to do with the auality of the system they use, or it could be something more fundamental like poor hearing. To those who suffer the later then that is very sad although Beethoven coped, if it is the former then so be it

 

I find it strange when people say they find major differences between vinyl and CD (discounting clicks and pops as major differences, of course). I personally have never heard any difference, but accept that there can be some. My hearing is fine (apart from the loss of higher frequencies typical of an old fogey) and equipment, while not nearly so grand as some folk on the forum have, was, I thought, up to the job. If it isn't, tough, I haven't got great amounts to spend on hi-fi.

Have you considered that you might want vinyl to sound better, or that you're psychologically passing on the tactile pleasures of vinyl, the whole ritual of playing a record, on to the sound? If so, you wouldn't be the first, nor would you be the last. In any case, those are perfectly reasonable reasons for enjoying vinyl, and if they give you pleasure, go to it and enjoy.

 

There is good vinyl and good CD. I have been impressed by both. However, I too, fail to notice a systematic difference between CD in general and vinyl in general. Except for the pops and cracks, of course.

But I remember, when CD came in, all people were saying that the experience of CD listening was a revellation and yes, it was clearer. After that cartriges probably got better, and nowadays there is something like a cult of the past - valves, vinyl and so on (there is even a brand called 'Jadis': 'in the times of yore').

HiFi is a bog. Our sense of listening is bad and our gullibility is big. So, when in doubt, we just convince ourselves that we actually prefer something in order to justify the huge amounts of money we spend on hi fi.

 

I think you are reading too much into this. I, like you have a large amount of music on CD and, yes it is very very good but a little clinical. I note you are located in Switzerland. Then you might understand that I enjoy owning a Rolex. Not for it's superior time keepng, if I wanted that I would have a cheap quartz watch, no I appreciate that a human has bult a Rolex watch and the movement somehow has a soul, a little like an LP record, not clinical

 

Ahem... It has been argued that there actually is no soul...

For music listening, give the cheap quartz watch any time! I want to listen to the musicians' soul, not the system's.

 

I respect your views, Ken, but I have never heard this "clinical" quality of CD. I have the vinyl and the CD of Pinnock's splendid version of Handel's Water Music. I put one on the LP12, the other in the Meridian. Can I tell the difference? Of course I can! The record clicks and pops and the CD doesn't, otherwise I have to look to see which one is playing. I am very happy with this situation - it means I have two equally splendid forms of music reproduction.

I also have a Rolex, a much-loved GMT-Master that has been my companion for over 30 years and from which I shall never part. However, I confess to preferring my Citizen Nighthawk. I can't vouch for its soul, but it's deadly accurate and needs no batteries.

 

Homaenaje a Revueltas: Ebony Band, Amsterdam/Channel Classics CCS SA 21104

Wonderful tongue-in-cheek music, and a demonstration class recording. Brilliant fun!

 

Currently playing chez PeteH are two wonderful Double Deccas with music by Chausson and Zemlinsky I picked up for £3.99 each in the CD meltdown at Virgin a couple of months back.




Disc 1 of the Chausson features Dutoit and the Montreal SO in the Symphony and Poeme for violin and orchestra, plus the sublime Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, sung here by the baritone Francois Le Roux. Disc 2 is chamber music, specifically the Piano Quartet and the epic 40-minute Concert for the slightly eccentric forces of piano, string quartet and 'solo' violin. Lusciously beautiful music firmly on the Wagner-Strauss axis tonality-wise, if arguably slightly tauter and less ramblingly self-indulgent than that might suggest, the ravishing orchestral songs being a particular highlight. Very good performances and generally excellent sound, except for the slightly dated-sounding 70s analogue recording in the Piano Quartet.

The Zemlinsky inhabits a similar if recognisably slightly more advanced sound-world, the orchestral song-cycle Lyric Symphony in particular sounding very much like Mahler's masterpiece Das Lied von der Erde but with more saturated harmony reminiscent of early Schoenberg and an absolutely sublime, unforgettable ending to the concluding seventh number. The Psalm arrangements in this set were a great surprise for me - mostly tremendously dramatic, full-throated settings for large orchestra and chorus. The playing is beyond reproach and even the chorus is decent (which is lamentably rare!)

 

Am I wrong supposing this to be very modern music?

 

No, you're not wrong, though it depends what you mean by "very"! Revueltas was born one day short of 1900 in Mexico and died in 1940.
The disc is an eclectic mix of compositions from the 1920s and 30s, very well recorded in front of a very quiet live audience and sounds quite sublime on SACD. Sponsored by WDR3.

http://www.channelclassics.com/
In the catalogue section, the "Artist" search look for "Ebony Band Amsterdam".
There's a sound clip on the page.

 

Curiously, I've been listening to Mozart - the d and c minor piano concerts. Great, powerful, emotional and profound music. I always found it is a great pity Mozart could not continue in the vein of his last concerts and symphonies. Really wonderful. The version is the Makerras Brendel one. Modern piano sound - and rather ugly at that -, and the recording seems to be a little too bass heavy.

 

Segovia's 1949 London recordings. His sound was very beautiful. Nice transfers

 

Bach Art of Fugue
Chamber version played by Musica Antiqua Koeln
Reinhard Goebel, dir.

The most recent version (DG Archiv 447 293 2)
has been remastered, and the strings and harpsichords
have a slightly warmer sound than they did on the LPs
which I acuqired first.

 

Art of Fugue

Masolino,

What do you think of the interpretation?
I admit that Goebels Brandenburgs, Orchestral Suites and Musical Offering appeal to me, thanks to the virtuosic soloists, agile rhythm, and slim and transparent sound. And these qualities are present in Goebels Art of Fugue too. My problem is, that I see the work as an idiomatic keyboard work, and I feel that any other scoring has got the character of un-Bachian arrangement. You might as well arrange the French suites for string ensemble. Bach himself made harpsichord-arrangements of some music for strings, but never the other way round. I think we discussed this issue somewhere above.

Badura-Skoda's and van Oort's Mozart are still in my listening queue, I should get the time to listen to some of this soon.

Regards,