Once again, record magazines aren't giving ME much!

[Lance]

American Record Guide, Gramophone, Fanfare ... I go through page-by-page eagerly seeking. Perhaps it is my fault that I am finding very little. This is, no doubt, due to my personal interest in more historical performing artists with many exceptions in pianists, vocalists, violinists, conductors, but not present-day conductors, and even repertoire. But even historical recordings are not found frequently. Among the newest ones we can consider historical is the Victoria de los Angeles mega-box from Warner. Perhaps my age ... but I'm leaving much of the newest recordings to the younger set. I may have said something like this before on CMG, but I am noticing it more than ever. Anybody concur with me on this? Ah ... living in the past isn't so bad either!

[mikealdren]

I guess it's a consequence of getting older. We recently moved house and I have now set up my main Hifi system. On Saturday I spent an evening listening to favourite CDs and realised that there were no recent ones. However there are areas where old favourites no longer hold their allure, especially in earlier music where pre HIPP recording often sound very poor. It's also interesting how tempi have speeded up over the years, where Toscanini and Heifetz were derided as speed merchants they now sound very sensible and others often sound very slow.

[Belle]

I guess it's a consequence of getting older. We recently moved house and I have now set up my main Hifi system. On Saturday I spent an evening listening to favourite CDs and realised that there were no recent ones. However there are areas where old favourites no longer hold their allure, especially in earlier music where pre HIPP recording often sound very poor. It's also interesting how tempi have speeded up over the years, where Toscanini and Heifetz were derided as speed merchants they now sound very sensible and others often sound very slow.

Couldn't agree more with this!! I particularly disliked the leaden performances of Klemperer. Somehow HIP put airiness and vitality back into 'ancient music'!! And not at all like Beecham's 'skeletons copulating on a tin roof'!! They were authentic harpsichords and clavichords.

[maestrob]

I guess it's a consequence of getting older. We recently moved house and I have now set up my main Hifi system. On Saturday I spent an evening listening to favourite CDs and realised that there were no recent ones. However there are areas where old favourites no longer hold their allure, especially in earlier music where pre HIPP recording often sound very poor. It's also interesting how tempi have speeded up over the years, where Toscanini and Heifetz were derided as speed merchants they now sound very sensible and others often sound very slow.

Quite right, Mike!

I make it a point, though, to keep up with new releases as best I can, but I find that I'm behind by a few months. I subscribe to both Gramophone and BBC Magazine, and go through them avidly hoping for new discoveries. Out of seven-ten new releases that I preview on Spotify, I find myself buying just one. That's OK by me, with my bulging shelves.

There is so much music being recorded that I select only five star albums from BBC, and editor's choices from Gramophone plus an occasional title that ignites my curiosity. In point of fact, I've built up a collection of megaboxes that will take me a decade or more to properly experience the contents, plus a collection of unopened singles that numbers in the hundreds already.

Interestingly, old favorites are still old favorites and have stood the test of time, but I rarely return to all but a handful, as I find the best newer recordings bring out details that add to the listening experience.

Lord, give me time to hear and fully appreciate it all!

[maestrob]

I guess it's a consequence of getting older. We recently moved house and I have now set up my main Hifi system. On Saturday I spent an evening listening to favourite CDs and realised that there were no recent ones. However there are areas where old favourites no longer hold their allure, especially in earlier music where pre HIPP recording often sound very poor. It's also interesting how tempi have speeded up over the years, where Toscanini and Heifetz were derided as speed merchants they now sound very sensible and others often sound very slow.

Couldn't agree more with this!! I particularly disliked the leaden performances of Klemperer. Somehow HIP put airiness and vitality back into 'ancient music'!! And not at all like Beecham's 'skeletons copulating on a tin roof'!! They were authentic harpsichords and clavichords.

Belle, I quite agree with you here. The best of HIP keeps getting better, and I enjoy those recordings very much. It seems my hero Toscanini had the right idea! He wasn't perfect by any means, but he set the standard for how to approach music, and for that I will forever thank him in my heart.

[Belle]

Those Mercury Living Presence with Toscanini sounded wonderful, though I don't own any myself. A deceased friend of mine was a broadcaster on our national FM network and he used to play these on air from time to time.

[Modernistfan]

I do not believe that Toscanini ever recorded for Mercury Living Presence (then an independent label). He recorded almost exclusively for RCA until he stopped recording in 1954, three years before his death.

[Belle]

I do not believe that Toscanini ever recorded for Mercury Living Presence (then an independent label). He recorded almost exclusively for RCA until he stopped recording in 1954, three years before his death.

Oh OK, senior's moment!!

[THEHORN]

Belle, Klemperer's "leaden performances " were the result the recordings he made in his 70s and 80s for. EMI, now Warner classics . He had serious health problems in his later years , such as a stroke which. left him paralyzed on one side etc.
But if you listen to his earlier recordings before the founding of the famous Philharmonia orchestra in. London which he led for many years , his tempi are not slow at all . In fact, they're highly propulsive . Ironically , Klemperer had a reputation as something of a speed demon . Many of those early recordings are with the orchestra of the Berlin State opera orchestra , the forerunner of today's. Berlin Staatskapelle , which does double duty as an operatic and. concert orchestra .
For example , his recording of the Mendelssohn "Italian " symphony with the Vienna symphony ( not the more famous Vienna Philharmonic ) on Vox , has a finale which is. positively. frenetic ! And not all of his Philharmonia recordings are unduly slow, just some of them , for example his classic Bach St, Matthew passion and. his Mahler 7th symphony . However, Klemperer was often able to make his slow tempi work despite the slowness .

[Belle]

Yes, I was aware of Klemperer's health problems but I haven't really heard any of those earlier performances you've mentioned where the tempi were apparently faster. I do remember a fellow from our community music group arguing with me that there wasn't anything wrong with Klemperer's treatment in those later performances; that these were magisterial. He argued that faster tempi often reduced the sense of structure in a work, and he cited Kleiber's faster Beethoven 7 recorded at the Concertgebouw in 1981 - which I'd brought to the group as the topic was "The Conductor".

I found the Mendelssohn on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlSJMJg6UG8

[barney]

Lance, these magazines are certainly not giving me what I want, which is free lobster thermidor, all the mega-sets and a body 35 years younger! I mean, is that too much to ask?

[Lance]

No, Barney, it's not too much to ask at all. However, there's an old saying: "If you don't ask ... you don't get!" But I guess we really can't complain too much. I already have what I consider to be the best of the best. Yes, technology has improved, and some of those old 78s and early mono and stereo recordings can be made to sound like they were recorded yesterday (almost). The body 35 years younger, however, I would protest if you don't get. That one is important!

Lance, these magazines are certainly not giving me what I want, which is free lobster thermidor, all the mega-sets and a body 35 years younger! I mean, is that too much to ask?

[barney]

No, Barney, it's not too much to ask at all. However, there's an old saying: "If you don't ask ... you don't get!" But I guess we really can't complain too much. I already have what I consider to be the best of the best. Yes, technology has improved, and some of those old 78s and early mono and stereo recordings can be made to sound like they were recorded yesterday (almost). The body 35 years younger, however, I would protest if you don't get. That one is important!

Lance, these magazines are certainly not giving me what I want, which is free lobster thermidor, all the mega-sets and a body 35 years younger! I mean, is that too much to ask?

Thank you, Lance. Characteristically generous.