The Classical Music Guide Forums

slofstra

I have it. I like it a great deal. I can't give you an opinion as to how it fits in the overall sweep of all Brahms chamber recordings ( which I'm sure you'll get here ). However, the playing is second to the Stern/Ma/Ax set I own which has more bite (different pieces though) and also the clarinet p...

slofstra

Perhaps I'm not willing to find the time. That's really it I think. In terms of finding everything in a piece - sure - most people don't listen to Mozart polyphonically - really taking it all in - it just sounds kind of pretty. Both Bach and Mozart make fine background music; where you can ignore m...

slofstra

I suppose that instead of the relation 'personally knew' we should substitute 'took a class from'. And the seed could be any of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven, though personally I would also argue for Brahms. I think though that something really changed in the 20th Century which makes comparison difficult if...

slofstra

Mahler in the Seventies. It's all coming back now. 'Heavy Mahler' repackages from every record company. In fact, my first exposure to Mahler was in my late teens. We went to T.O. to see Ken Russell's movie version of the Who's Tommy, and couldn't get in. The adjoining theatre was showing: Ken Russel...

slofstra

Last night, I played for the first time - Stravinksy's Les Noces. Which I bought on karlhenning's recommendation a short while ago. I would only listen to Les Noces or anything by Stravinsky repeatedly because he is a supremely great composer, most of whose works bear hearing again and again as muc...

slofstra

Did I miss any? Dutch? Where are the Dutch? Jan Sweelinck anybody? Louis Andriessen? Keep trying Berio, trust me... :wink: and let's not forget Johannes Ockeghnem if we are praising the Dutch... :D Do you know this one? The liner notes turned me right off for starters: http://g-ec2.images-amazon.co...

slofstra

Last night, I played for the first time - Stravinksy's Les Noces. Which I bought on karlhenning's recommendation a short while ago. I can tell it will take a few listenings to get everything out of this CD. The best way to describe the short piece, 'Les Noces', is that it sounds superficially like t...

slofstra

I can see two factors at work in my own listening history: 1) Pop music is mostly 'hook' based, has high initial impact, but tends to wear out on repeated listenings. I like to play the Beatles '1' about once a year and then I'm good for a while. Some classical music is susceptible to the 'hook' fac...

slofstra

Anyone with wind chimes on their porch has a small (but pleasing) installation. someguy, I have an interesting question for you. This will seem like a huge tangent, but it will make sense I promise. We recently moved into the city from the country and I can't abide the traffic noise where we are; e...

slofstra

In a classical database most of one's information should be in look-up tables and most of the typing should center on the specifics of the recorded performance and the recording itself. While even some of this latter information could (in theory) be provided by a central online database via a web s...

slofstra

On the one hand, I'm embarassed to make such a mistake; on the other, I'm happy for Bruno, whereever he may be.

slofstra

Bruno Walter recorded the Siegfried Idyll six times. John That one really boggles the mind. I did see the Ring last fall. As I recall Siegfried - has no choruses, 75% of the four plus hours is Siegfried singing in that overbearing Wagnerian style. And he's kind of a strange comic buffoon anti-hero....

slofstra

it'd be great to get the kind of complexity you’re hinting at, but like I said, for now, keep it relatively simple, but detailed enough to wet people’s imaginations. I’m going to set mine up with composer nationality and birth/death dates, and objects for personalities and institutions listed and t...

slofstra

There are two issues here. First, retrieval: the database's search engine must be able to retrieve substrings embedded in a field starting at any position in it. Maybe this is standard now, but when I was fiddling with databases in the '80s I'm not sure it was. Second, compactness. If your title fi...

slofstra

John, cool, thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't thought of a selection category, I'll definitely add one. What you described about the other categories is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Did you try to make a database at all? If so I'd be interested to see it. Solve, would you be willing to...

slofstra

Beethoven sonatas have to be one of the favourite topics of discussion on this forum. One night recently, I A-B'd every Appassionata I had - the first movement only. That included: Brendel, Kuerti, Horowitz, Kempff, Arrau, Richter and Barenboim. I'm going to repeat the exercise some time and confirm...

slofstra

Just a point of clarification. Was it the case that he was applauded after each number, then played another. Or did he just sit down and play a number of encore selections in succession. I assume it was probably the former, but do you feel the audience response begged another selection to be played?

slofstra

William Walton Viola Concerto Symphony No. 2 Naxos/ Daniel/ English Northern Philharmonia http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553402 What is about Walton? He's really not top drawer. The music is pleasant enough, and fairly interesting. Can anyone elucidate this? Personally, I think...

slofstra

Of the 1963 and 1977, which has the better Ninth? Also, was there a third Karajan release of the Beethoven symphones? He actually made four complete sets. There is one from the 50s for EMI with the Philharmonia and another BPO one from the 80s that is in digital sound. That 80s set tends to be safe...

slofstra

Of the 1963 and 1977, which has the better Ninth? Also, was there a third Karajan release of the Beethoven symphones?

slofstra

John F, Your database definition corresponds fairly closely to mine in RLDB. I'll note where mine is different. See what you think. The data files ("tables") to be related were: COMPOSER WORK SELECTION RECORDING PERFORMER NUMBER NOTES COMPOSER is self-explanatory. WORK includes the title and any oth...

slofstra

living_stradivarius wrote:Facebook is a great way of spying on your kids. I'm surprised they had you join.

Umm, I didn't say they asked me to join. But that's a long story.

slofstra

Ok, so this idea just occurred to me as I logged on to Wikipedia. What about some type of Wiki database for our classical recordings? For instance, each album would have its own page. If you have that item in your collection, you add it to your database. If there is no listing for the album you are...

slofstra

That would be AMAZING!!! I love Web 2.0 type stuff! Absolutely So solf, does that mean you'd do any such project in java? I've done java before, it's pretty cool, if so, I'll do any work I do in java, incase this goes anyhwere. cheers, nick The problem with learning JAVA is that it takes hours and ...

slofstra

Christians killed in Turkey How much press did the above story get in the U.S.? This occurred in late April. Here's a conservative magazine in Canada you might enjoy. So far as I know - the only North American publication to print the cartoons mentioned above. I personally find the bias a bit extre...

slofstra

What do people think of Facebook? How about a 'Classical Music Guide' network in FaceBook. It would make an interesting supplementary to the forum here. Someone (i.e. lance or corlyss) would have to act as network administrator and control who gets into the group - e.g. minimum 100 posts here for ex...

slofstra

That would be AMAZING!!! I love Web 2.0 type stuff! I agree. We did a couple of major Web projects last year. It took a long time to get the tools right, and they're pretty hard to do. But there are major benefits - no install time, no PC management issues, short learning curve for users. And you c...

slofstra

From what it sounds, it'll be a fair investment to figure access out, I think you'll find that figuring out 'sql' or 'ajax' is more intensive than learning MS Access. Besides you don't really need to know everything in MS Access to get started. Just run RLDB and follow the manual I provided. AJAX i...

slofstra

Fliegende Hollander, If you can find Office 2000, it has the least amount of copy protection and is quite good enough. If you can't find it, there is a run time kit, it is free and you can download it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243957 However, much better to have full MS Access. MS Access...

slofstra

With RLDB I worked out an approach that works well without being too burdensome - not too many fields, but I can still put in a lot of key information. And a number of optional fields I don't have to utilize. http://www.slofstra.com/Applications/rldb/rldb_maintenance.gif This is the main entry form ...

slofstra

Tonight I played Haitink - DSCH - nos. 2 and 10. The set is going to take a while to get through, and THEN Brendel - Hammerklavier and No. 32 - (early 60s) - exquisite. The two long adagios (one in each sonata) are balm for the jangled nerves. Brendel's 'sturm and drang' may not be as exciting but I...

slofstra

If you'd like to give RLDB a try, let me know and I will send you the latest copy. The advantage is that a comprehensive list of composers, compositions and roles/instruments is already set up. You would however need to have MS Access 2000 or later. (There is a free version of MS Access also, with s...

slofstra

Open Ears Festival in Waterloo, ON - April 2007

I didn't make it this year - the article provides an interesting survey of the kinds of new music presented at the festival. Some specific examples of some guy's general classes above are illustrated.

slofstra

While looking at Brahms symphony sets, I noticed the Boehm set was available for < 25$ on Amazon. A little further research led me to the DG Collectors' edition, which represents terrific value, and for me, a buying opportunity. The problem I have now - so many sets!! And my collection is so weak in...

slofstra

Lutoslawski - String Quartet - Kronos Quartet

Amazing - the notes are spaced probabilistically rather than tied to a bar - I think that's what the CD liner said. Anway, an apt description.

After that was over, I listened to half of the Nutcracker - Ballet version - Czech Radio Symphony on Naxos.

slofstra

Hi Nick, no doubt - Takács, their Bartók quartets are really unique. In autumn they're touring the States , if you have the chance to visit a concert, do it! I don't understand why things are put in scroll boxes sometimes. What a horrible way to do a schedule. And further - it doesn't appear they w...

slofstra

duclinea,
Why don't you repost your 'art music' message under a 'new topic' so that it's visible on the list of topics? It might not be seen here. Possible subject: 'Art music - redux'.

slofstra

I think by the time you got to number 40 you could just put the CD player on repeat instead of playing the next 40.

I did see a complete Haydn symphony set for less than $1 a symphony but thought better of it. Much better to have a mish-mash of different Haydn symphonies with different conductors.

slofstra

Lance and moldyoldie,

Which version of MS Works are you using, if I may ask? Apparently MS made a major change with Works 5.0. They are currently at version 8.

slofstra

Thanks for the info, boesendorfer. Like you I sometimes listen to BBC 3, and in my case, CBC 2 (a lot).

I'm wondering if 'Espace 2' has an online play list. This is one of the advantages of listening to BBC and CBC 2. Before I check out Espace 2, perhaps you could let me know.

slofstra

Marissen seems to be an experienced writer and I would expect his final product to be fully annotated. I've done a little research on the web. There's no question that Marissen's credentials are excellent. He's in wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Marissen , and here is a picture and more i...

slofstra

Arggh.. There is a typo in the poem I linked to above. And others I checked are not much better. The phrase in the last verse should be: "sternly stopped".

slofstra

This is probably old news to most of you. These broadcasts were very well attended at our Cineplex here in Waterloo, Ontario. And the attendees I talked to were quite impressed; I didn't make it to any of the performances myself. WSJ article: For a Change, Opera Is Using Technology To Bring Us Toget...

slofstra

I know nothing about legal jurisprudence; I do have a degree in Language and Literature, and have studied a little in Critical Theory. It would seem to me that you may be exposing the limits of inquiry as far as legal jurisprudence is concerned. Matters of law and matters of creative process are hig...

slofstra

slofstra

Gulp. Unfortunately, I'm the old guy in the middle at the back. The other fellas are young bucks half my age (for the most part).

slofstra

Corlyss, We're still having problems communicating by e-mail. I've sent a message to Lance 3 or 4 times now in different formats, and the spam filter must be grabbing it. Why don't you or Lance call me at our main business number on our web page http://www.slofstra.com during regular office hours. A...

slofstra

I had a look at Classi-cat's web site. The program looks more well elaborated than mine. However, they probably have hundreds of users, I have only one (that I know of). But it's hard to tell given there are no screenshots on the web site. If I do more in this direction, it would be with a view to e...

slofstra

I wasn't twisting your words and I have no axe to grind. I couldn't care less whether Marissen is right or wrong. You didn't merely say as you now claim that anyone with average Sunday school knowledge can perform a close reading of the Messiah libretto and see for themselves what it says. I didn't...

slofstra

The implication of the last part is that ripping goes D/A and A/D. Is that true? The first part makes sense.

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Anyone here heard of FaceBook?

DG Collectors Edition - too much!

Opera Is Using Technology To Bring Us Together (WSJ article)