The Classical Music Guide Forums

StephenSutton

[How can con-poseurs soil thousands of pages of music paper with millions of notes and still not manage to create even one tune that deserves to be admired as catchy??? That's the nub...... music with a catchy tune is only one type of music, just as a painting with photographic realism is only one ...

StephenSutton

cant resist a plug here for 'Madrigali: Fire and Roses' (divine art dda25094) which is out next month in UK and USA and on our website now. For a capella small-choir music, a dsic of which we are very proud and have made our CD of the year. Several original madrigals from 16th-17th century by the ma...

StephenSutton

Fair enough that there should be a more explicit distinction between 'front of mag' (paid for) and 'rest of mag' (not paid for). I quite agree with that. The problem is that for indies, and new/perhaps more adventurous musicians, as I said on another thread, there is no other way than to buy some sp...

StephenSutton

Donald Isler has posted several times that none of his CDs have ever been reviewed in Fanfare. He's been offered the standard take an ad package. He refused to take an ad and he's never had a review appear. In other threads, Divine Art has stated that there was a period where they didn't advertise ...

StephenSutton

Besides, no other source today covers American classical record releases more comprehensively than Fanfare, and if you want to keep up with what's new, you really have no better choice. Seeing as they won't review anything by a minor artist or not on a major label unless they advertise I don't see ...

StephenSutton

There's a lot of nonsense here caused by Lebrecht stirring. 1. Reviews in Fanfare are independent, detailed and very rarely matched in depth and knowledge by other mags. 2. Unlike Donald, we get more reviews in Fanfare than in ARG. Yes we advertise in Fanfare now but we only began last year, in orde...

StephenSutton

Holst is a true one-hit-wonder; if it weren't for THE PLANETS he would deserve total oblivion. Gosh, no! Likewise the majority of the world's population have no clue that Vivaldi wrote anything but the 4 wotsits, and Beethoven's Fifth was the only symphony he wrote. I totally agree bland is unaccep...

StephenSutton

Classic version from 1978, by Les Solistes de Paris conducted by H C Fantapie. Not big names I know and not the way the piece would necessarily be sung today; it was an extreme rarity at the time; notes by Robbins Landon who worked with the conductor in preparing the edition; in fact this was made f...

StephenSutton

Watch the relatively cheap "DJ" decks available from many outlets: some of them are excellent - I use Numark TTF decks for 78 playback, recording to PC and public performance. They can produce either phono or line output, I use the latter to channel through a soundcard with external control box (muc...

StephenSutton

I agree too, and Divine Art as a recording group lobbied AGAINST the extension and would strongly argue for a reduction in the USA to synchronise the legislation worldwide. We take this view not from the selfish attitude of those alrady rich but because the main effect wll be to reduce significantly...

StephenSutton

Seeing the thread about Marlboro Music School in Vermont (we have so many great music facilities) prompts me to mention that we also have the Point Counterpoint summer music school which hosts some fabulous young performers. The senior faculty will be presenting their season finale concert at our pl...

StephenSutton

HM. I can only assume what has happened (having been away for a week or so) from the comments, I don't see an official post about the issue. Anyway I am sure I didnt post anything of vital importance except to announce our new releases and several dozen other things.. but it must be right to set up ...

StephenSutton

Volume 6 Rachmaninov is being mastered in front of me as I type - release April. Sonata no. 2, Variations on a Theme of Corelli and a number of Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux, played by Sergei Dukachev ( a real Russian!) Volume 7 again by Dukachev, is for Prokofiev, sonatas 2 and 7, four sections fro...

StephenSutton

Athene ath23016 Tchaikovsky 2nd Piano Concerto/Shostakovich 9th Symphony (Andreas Boyde/Freiburg Philharmonic) - one Fanfare critic said 'the best I have heard' Which one - best Shostakovich 9th or best Tchaikovsky 2nd? The Tchaik. Don't ask me which issue as the backup drive we kept such things on...

StephenSutton

Many happy returns!

StephenSutton

New York ( I think) : Carson Cooman
California: Morten Lauridsen

StephenSutton

Volume 6 Rachmaninov is being mastered in front of me as I type - release April. Sonata no. 2, Variations on a Theme of Corelli and a number of Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux, played by Sergei Dukachev ( a real Russian!) Volume 7 again by Dukachev, is for Prokofiev, sonatas 2 and 7, four sections from...

StephenSutton

I don't think that the list of November and December releases appeared on here, and I have been disrupted by a critical family illness over the past few weeks so with apologies if this is repeating anything here goes for the new releases incluing the February ones which are now available for direct ...

StephenSutton

EMI lost the plot completely when it dropped the HMV label (mid 80s more or less) and then sold the European rights to Columbia back to Sony. No sense of brand/customer loyalty at all.

StephenSutton

quite agree, it will be a melting pot of all styles and more blurred lines between 'contemporary classical' and other genres; we are now working on a number of discs of very new music (from 1930 up to 'still being written' in totally or mainly tonal form, completely free of both classical constraint...

StephenSutton

one more not in the list: music on the light side but no less entertaining and well constructed for that:
Lionel Monckton, composer of English operetta post-Sullivan par excellence, born 150 years ago (1861-1924)

StephenSutton

First Liszt anniversary concert?? Peter Seivewright, between regular trips to the Far East and currently Professor of Music at the University of Trinidad and Tobago will be performing the Liszt Piano Sonata at Brandon Music on Saturday January15. Starts at 7pm, tickets $15. The music cafe will be op...

StephenSutton

Nose is great fun and so off-the wall - I have a 50s L:p recording of it back home in the uk - can;t remember who performs/conducts. First symphonies: for me Nielsen, Mahler and Khachaturian.... the latter contains the first use of many themese he later rather lazily revisited - a totally original s...

StephenSutton

It was Mikuli who co-operated with Chopin on their joint transcription of the 2nd Piano Concerto in piano duo form. An arrangement which to me somehow seems to retain 'orchestral' texture and colour, more so than Grieg's 2-piano version of his Concerto for example.

StephenSutton

Nor did I design the cover which is horrendous (we acquired Athene after this came out and I am looking forward to selling out so we can redesign it!) http://www.divineartrecords.com/CD/graphics/athcd18.jpg His hair cut, his glasses, his tie, his suit, all these need a makeover, grab a Constructivi...

StephenSutton

A warm welcome from me too. As a relative newcomer myself, most of this crowd seem decent on the whole!

StephenSutton

I wasn't going to join in and blow my own trumpet, as we have several piano discs I regard as top class sound (and several which are not); I personally prefer a bright forward sound, I can't stand reverberant "big-hall" solo piano recordings, but accept that this is a personal choice. Also not that ...

StephenSutton

That's new to me too, sounds very interesting. Like Franck: Symphony and the Flute Sonata (or its violin orginal)

StephenSutton

And not just American music of course, but very true. The problem is that sometimes the message is all and the music created to express it is - shall I say utterly dreadful: I speak of those who call themselves 'classical composers' and send demos of bilge.... among which are a few real gems; there ...

StephenSutton

The disgrace of "little" labels is the lack of knowledge of the public in general about their performers and the hidden treasures that they intend to be known. The above from Amazon.com....I couldn't have said it better myself! I CONCUR WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!!! Both as regards Donald's work and little l...

StephenSutton

That's a super list, and will save me a lot of time and work (we have a webpage listing anniversary-composers with recordings in our catalog). Two we have dealt with who are a lot better than often credited are Arensky (piano music - chopinesque -great) and Grainger (yes, often light, but try out th...

StephenSutton

loads of 'em - we packed a few into a CD called 'Orientale' My own personal pick probably Holst's 'Beni Mora' Suite of the top of my head. Michael Finnissy;s 'Folklore' has to be near the top of any exocita list To me as a Khachaturian lover, any music with that super Armenian flavor so include Tjek...

StephenSutton

it makes me think, this association of 'classical music' with 'relaxation' and utter blandness, as we often are approached by people wanting to produce (or worse, who have already produced) CDs of "my new relaxing classical compositions" - I just had some awful stuff sent to me quite seriously and s...

StephenSutton

I CONCUR. but I also think many people should get out of their little boxes and explore 'new' older music too

StephenSutton

Lance wrote:I can hardly wait for this one! What a wonderful idea for Goldstone to make this recording in Curcio's honor! Certainly a must-have for piano aficionados.

in our webstore now with lots of other super new releases. Lance did you get the list of NRs??

StephenSutton

It's a lovely thought but not practical for me as I never have time to investigate other than discs I am working on - 99% of those will be of repertoire I don't know so that takes care of my 'new music exploring' for 2011... and not much point in listing (unless asked) as the CDs won;t be out until ...

StephenSutton

Always good to see a new name - not that long since I joined actually. They seem a good crowd on the whole! Welcome and hope you find the community enjoyable and informative. Here's a thought which I think is true if you consider it carefully: most music by the best known composers (including those ...

StephenSutton

yep.. i don't have that one, years ago I started a website label gallery and got quite a few done (i have over 920 different labels - label names that is not color varriations etc) and lost nearly all of it before I learned about backups... all to do again.

StephenSutton

disagree this time.. the Dvorak concerto I don;t find lame at all - not full of fireworks but as fulfilling as many major concertos. Its always popular when playing in our cafe (the Andreas Boyde version of course)

StephenSutton

Regarding orchestras, John F, you are right and I did say 'most' - where strings were included they were often, as you say, underpinned by woodwind and brass too. I recall working on the 1920 La Scala Faust which we released recently - it was a mighty effort to get the strings audible, but they were...

StephenSutton

Our view (held strongly by our PR manager who has had the same experiences for 20+ years since he was at Sony/BMG) is that the British magazines are still more concerned with 'celebrity' than with actual skill and musicianship - they won't generally print you on the cover unless you are young and ph...

StephenSutton

Personal favorite: D960 Interpretation: no I am biased and there are many great ones, but read the reviews of Goldstone's versions (including his completion of the unfinsihed 'Reliquie' Sonata - Fanfare found them superior to Uchida etc; by the way Uchida and Goldstone shared, with Radu Lupu and oth...

StephenSutton

There's a biog of Peter (a couple of years out of date), and a full discography, which he supplied so it should be accurate, on ou profile page athttp://www.divine-art.co.uk/AS/katin.htm

StephenSutton

Slight corrections: the first disc recordings were made by the Berliner Gramophone Co. founded by Emil Berliner. Later Berliner sold out to Eldridge Johnson, who sacked Berliner, and took legal action to prevent him from making and selling his own invention..Berliner went to Canada and set up. I hav...

StephenSutton

Fanfare is still the 'most comprehensive and stimulating of the crop', as you wrote above, m8. 8) but certainly NOT the case that they review every record they are sent!!! I know for a fact, or I did when I was writing for Fanfare, that its managing editor Joel Flegler did not pick and choose among...

StephenSutton

Stephen, your Leslie Heward/Halle/Moeran Symphony CD is a treasure. I just love it. Heward would have been a major player in the world of the LP if he had not died so tragically during WW 2. Your DA CD's are well done and the supurb variety of composers and performers is amazing. Thank you for givi...

StephenSutton

One solution is to do a monthly browse of record co. websites or subscribe to thier newsletters to get info on all new releases. Most companies will then add reviews when they are published. Our policy is to be honest and lay out all reviews good or bad. Over the last two years we've issued two majo...

StephenSutton

Fanfare is different from the other magazines because every record it's sent gets reviewed at least once - none are left out to save space - and its reviewers can write as long (or short) as they like, and what they write will go into print essentially unedited in-house. Unfortunately the number of...

StephenSutton

Frankly I don't think I would use Amazon for private sales (as oposed to our full catalog) for those reasons.. I sell individual personal items on GEMM but they tend to be old pop singles generally. At least there you can be absolutely certain of what will appear on screen And the digital world is j...

StephenSutton

Mendelssohn music for cello: (Move)
Zoe Kighton, cello
Amir Farid, piano

Super sound and playing; it wasnt until today that I realised I had never heard the Second Cello Sonata; what a sumptious slow movement piano intro....gorgeous..

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