The Classical Music Guide Forums

dirkronk

jbuck919 wrote:Durn, I read the subject and was about to go out an buy a metal detector.

This is allowable only if you are wearing big ol' shorts...either oversize plaid Bermudas or safari-style with the giant sewn-on exterior pockets. The dorkier, the better.

Just sayin'...

Dirk

dirkronk

I once found Franck's symphony completely uninspired and uninspiring. Then I heard Mengelberg's version and it finally started to make sense. There was even excitement in the notes. And then I heard Monteux/Chicago, which added the element of good stereo recording (albeit with some compression in th...

dirkronk

Two examples for me. 1. About twenty years back, maybe a bit more, my listening buddy Mark suggested we forego our usual hi-fi evening in favor of a live rendering of Rimsky's Scheherazade by the San Antonio Symphony. The local group was going through some internal ups and downs and I hadn't been in...

dirkronk

I'll recommend it, too, but for a more specific reason. Except for a few performances of Liszt and Chopin (and anything live...I never count Arrau out in a concert setting), I don't really care for the Arrau I hear in post mid-1960s recordings. Often too slow, self-consciously "profound" and...well,...

dirkronk

Wow...must be birthday season! Have a great one, David.

Dirk

dirkronk

Happy birthday, Holden! May many wonderful musical notes fill your ears, today and throughout the year!

Dirk

dirkronk

William Kapell did a few things with Stokowski (though live, I believe, and not planned recordings for official release): a live Prokofiev PC#3 with the NBC Symphony Orchestra...and (IIRC) some de Falla.

Cheers,

Dirk

dirkronk

It would appear the Kaleidoscope CD came out only recently and is one of his very few compilation albums. Might be a good place for me to start, since my library seems to have none of his complete operas. Might just go ahead and spring for that Carmina Burana...since I liked the whole thing, not jus...

dirkronk

At a listening session with friends last night, I heard a chamber version of Orff's Carmina Burana on BIS. I liked it quite a bit, and was particularly impressed by the singing of baritone Peter Mattei. Naturally, I'm curious to know what else he's done and what recordings present his voice in best ...

dirkronk

As I've repeated here often enough, I'm not a fan of many voices, but Caballe is certainly one. When I first heard her voice, back in LP days, it was one of her earliest albums of operatic arias that first attracted me. But the clincher was the first time I heard her sing zarzuelas. Good lord, she w...

dirkronk

That IS the most unusual cover I've seen in a long while. I'm trying to figure out just what the man in front of the lovely lady is attempting to do? Is he adjusting her necklace? :lol: Why, Lance...it's obvious! Pictured here is a simple, should we say "classic" case of bodice malfunction, which t...

dirkronk

val wrote:My favorite is Pierre Monteux: Beethoven's 2nd and 7th Symphonies...

And his 4th (all with the LSO)...my personal all-time favorite of that piece.

Dirk

dirkronk

I went with Monteux, Munch and Paray, based on the conductors from the group whose recordings I love to listen to most often. That said, I do have regrets that I could not include Leibowitz, whose interps almost always act as an aural Q-tip for me...and Ansermet and Martinon, who served to introduce...

dirkronk

I forgot to mention that one of the things that I will always like about Karajan is the epic coiffure. I strive to one day have a 'do the likes of his. :wink: Hence his nickname of 'Fluffy'. Yes, along with "Hairbert" and simply "The Great Coifed One." I was wont to refer to him in these terms a fe...

dirkronk

And a merry Christmas to all from south Texas!

Dirk

dirkronk

I have many renditions of the 6th. What would you think about the idea of Bernstein's recording as the anti-thesis of HvKs, for that era? Sorry, slofstra...I can't give a considered opinion for that suggestion: it's been too many years since I heard Bernstein's New York 6th (and I've only heard his...

dirkronk

Anyway, I have passed over that 1963 Beethoven symphony set so many times; I am going to have to get it next time it's on sale. Does anyone have any reservations about this set? Yes. Two: the entire 6th symphony and the first movement of the 9th. In fact, here's my response on this very forum about...

dirkronk

Another vote for Dorati. Also this elaboration: good as his Mercury recordings are (and yes, I've had all the ballets for years, vinyl and more recently CD), for the Nutcracker alone I find myself listening most often to Dorati and the Concertgebouw on Philips: the richness of the hall sound and the...

dirkronk

A great loss for his family, friends and students, of course. Also a loss to all of us, I'd say, is that he offered so few widely available recordings beyond his collaborations with Heifetz. I hope that in the aftermath of his death, someone thinks to gather whatever live performance and private rec...

dirkronk

Never heard the Ormandy...to my knowledge anyway. I grew up with excerpts only (mainly the big choruses, natch) played at school or on the radio, until I started collecting classical LPs in the mid to late 1970s. At that point, I got to know the Beecham, the Stokowski excerpts and a couple of others...

dirkronk

Terence Judd, 1957-1979. Pianist...and a fine one. Judd's official verdict was death by misadventure & the family have always strongly denied that he had any suicidal tendencies. Whatever the cause of death he did die tragically young. I was unaware of the "official verdict" (I assume "misadventure...

dirkronk

Terence Judd, 1957-1979. Pianist...and a fine one.

dirkronk

Ah yes. The serenades. On the strength of your past recommendations, Heck, I finally tracked down the Brusilow #1 on vinyl...not the very best condition but more than playable, so I'll be looking for a more pristine copy later. And you were right, he does not disappoint. (Actually, most of his recor...

dirkronk

I miss them. A lot. I still have used venues of course: Half Price Books, CD Exchange (local chain), and a few others. So browsing is still possible, and still fun, especially when big collections suddenly appear. But the big new retail stores that used to specialize--they went away years ago. As I'...

dirkronk

I don't think I've heard Francois in anything & he gets very short shrift from UK critics. He's often portrayed as a showman who wanted to be Cziffra but wasn't as flamboyant. Has he been misrepresented? He most assuredly has. IMO, he did, among other things, the best ever recordings of the Liszt c...

dirkronk

and yet Elvis Costello is one of the folks to whom this quote has been attributed : "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture " Ironical? :? I don't think he "invented" that quote, it does not sound quite like him, he may have repeated it after hearing Martin Mull...we used to watch M...

dirkronk

I have two or three very good music listening buddies whose taste for classical mirrors mine, perhaps another handful or so who are tangentially interested (their main interest is ballet or modern dance or hi-fi equipment), and a whole lot of acquaintances who are aware--because at some point I've t...

dirkronk

As usual, a subject that cannot be anything but a decision as to what pianist's recordings get you in the guts. Agreed. And of course, that's why I listed what I listed. But I've also learned not to let YOUR lists go unheeded, Cliftwood. Ergo, I now officially need to listen to more Chopin by Perah...

dirkronk

Every new recording I hear & is often given rave reviews may strike me as impressive but nowhere near as good as Rubinstein/Horowitz/Gilels. Well, there IS a reason for this. Those guys were g-o-o-d. I had to re-learn to love Rubinstein's stereo recordings, after feeling jaded with his Chopin for a...

dirkronk

-except that man could be so cold . Inhuman, too. I've never understood that appraisal of Reiner...his readings are udually white hot and full of energy and excitement. he could also really lean into beautiful melody when needed...there's a flexibility and suppleness to the phrasing, that seems to ...

dirkronk

Seán wrote: I do feel though that the Reiner/CSO CD is just an incredible performance.

Trust your feelings, Seán.

Dirk

dirkronk

Why do I have the feeling you ARE thinking of getting this set, AND, in the process, become a HEIFETZ FANATIC! Geez, first you add Fiedler, then Horowitz and Rubinstein, and now Heifetz? Wonders will never cease! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: If they are replicas of the original LPs (stereo or mono...

dirkronk

And did the guy make a decent cup of coffee?

Dirk

dirkronk

Well, I'm almost too late, too. But Happy Birthday from south Texas, RebLem.

And many more!

Dirk

dirkronk

Are you ripping them securely with a program like eac or dbpoweramp? I find that I can also rip many faulty CDs (even some badly bronzed ones) with standard ripping programs, but they rip the errors too. A secure ripping method takes longer but finds the errors and if it can't correct them it won't...

dirkronk

Reiner/CSO Kubelik/BSO Dorati/LSO Fricsay/BPO I'll jump back in when I have time to review or at least list all the versions I currently have, but for the moment I'll use your list to highlight my favorites. The Reiner is my go-to version when I simply want a superb straightforward performance. Dor...

dirkronk

Sorry, but it's a boombox. A very good boombox, mind you, if also an overpriced boombox...but just a boombox. If this is all the sound you ask from your "system" then that's great. It'll work fine for you, or so I would assume. In the early 1970s, I owned a Grundig Stereo-Boy, which was an early boo...

dirkronk

josé echenique wrote: And why have to choose one over the other when you can even have both together!

I'm with you, José.

Dirk

dirkronk

Munch had the good fortune to have RCA's "Living Stereo" process available during his tenure with the Boston SO. True, but one kind of annoying thing about Living Stereo in Boston was that they never seemed to tame the hall echo (or delay), so that many of these fine performances are somewhat more ...

dirkronk

Munch may slip beneath my radar when I'm asked to list my all-time favorite conductors, but he WAS pretty impressive in quite a bit of the repertoire. His Schubert 9th is my favorite stereo era version. In Beethoven, he often holds his own even with incredible competition; his 9th is well thought of...

dirkronk

She wasn't really an opera singer , but the early recording of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" is very fine: Well...yes. But the same is true for Elly Ameling, whose pure sweetness of voice vied with that of Ms. Baker in convincing me, many years back, that all classical singers didn't have to bellow o...

dirkronk

Since I have most everything Dame Janet Baker recorded (EMI/Philips-Decca), I did not get the EMI Icon boxed set. I cannot now recall what was in this set. But among the great Baker recordings is a large group of Schubert songs accompanied by the venerable Gerald Moore. Well, this is what's listed ...

dirkronk

Last night, I had a listening session with a fellow LP enthusiast, and I dragged out the boxed set of Mahler song cycles put out by CBS Masterworks in the early 1980s...with Janet Baker doing the Kindertotenlieder with Bernstein & the Israel PO, plus Ludwig and Von Stade in other works with Andrew D...

dirkronk

....I should correct one grievous error in my listing above: :oops: Fischer-Dieskau's one-shot efforts as a maestro were limited (on records) to Schubert's 5th and 8th . He also did Brahms' Fourth and Berlioz' Harold In Italy (with Suk). Actually, he also Conducted and Recorded... Haydn - Cello Con...

dirkronk

Chalkperson wrote:I'm like Barry, I go through periods where I will play about ten different recordings back to back...

Which, based on Lance's comments about the Schubert 9th, would amount to his definition of perdition.

Dirk

dirkronk

Lance wrote:I can't see where EMI mentions that ALL the de Larrocha Hispavox recordings are included in the set.

True. The odd thing is that the box promises the "Complete EMI Recordings"...which, apparently, isn't quite true either, but hey...

Dirk

dirkronk

Furtwangler/Berlin (date unknown, probably early '50s; this is a Vox pressing If that's the Vox Turnabout release, then it's the 1942 recording, according to the Tahra discography. Have you compared? I'm home, I looked in the collection, and it IS a Turnabout issue (though a very early one...silver...

dirkronk

Vox brought out a bunch of wartime German Radio material early in the '50s, like the Krauss-conducted "Rosenkavalier" and some of Strauss's own recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic. (So did other American LP labels like Urania and Mercury.) So that early Vox LP - which I can't find in any discog...

dirkronk

Ormandy (live, '72, w/PO.......way, way, way better than his '67 commercial recording) Maag (live, w/BSO) [/i] These two have me quite curious. Especially the Ormandy. For years, my reaction to Ormandy has been based on his stereo commercial recordings, which tend to generate a big "meh!" However, ...

dirkronk

Furtwangler/Berlin (date unknown, probably early '50s; this is a Vox pressing If that's the Vox Turnabout release, then it's the 1942 recording, according to the Tahra discography. Have you compared? I'll have to look later, when I get home, John. IIRC, it's a pre-Turnabout Vox pressing. Frankly, i...

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