I would not wish us to lose this helpful, informative and entertaining thread (which has blossomed since I started it some years ago). Please let’s keep it to the stimualting place it has been to date. We all have our opinions—let’s debate them in our usual civilised manner. 
Stephen
I agree. Informed discussion indeed.
The very kind postman has just delivered a very enticing record box from DGG, containing two LPs of Maurizio Pollini’s first recordings of the Brahms Concertos.
The Wiener Philharmonlker are conducted in the First by Karl Bõhm, who died shortly after the recording was made, so Pollini’s childhood friend Claudio Abbado took over conducting duties for the Second.
This replaces a pair of ancient LPs, which I’ll give away in my local pub.
Pollini made new recordings of the Brahms concertos, with Christian Thielemann in Dresden (if my memory is correct), but I’ll stick with the lovely old recordings with which I’m familiar.
It will be fascinating to compare these records with the set made by the great Emil Gilels with Eugen Jochum conducting the Berliners, made for DGG just slightly earlier. A real clash of titans.
Found it - a numbered Decca boxset of 2000 copies (LP). Hmm…£237 on one site, £70 on another. Think I’ll go for the latter 
Found an interesting discussion online of Collins’ cycle, pro and anti. Look forward to hearing it for myself.
There’s also a reissue on Beulah, CD only I think. Don’t know if that’s a full set.
You’ve done well. I can’t remember now what I paid for my set last year, but £70 seems a good price.
And…ordered. Looking forward to hearing Collins on the 3rd. The only conductor (I read) to follow Sibelius’ speed markings in the middle part.
Next up, having greatly enjoyed Segerstam’s Kullervo as well as some incidental (is that the right term? Jederman etc) pieces, a quick search for his Sibelius cycle on CD.
Two very prominent birthdays today, 31st March:
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685 (d.1750)
Joseph Haydn on this day in 1732 (d.1809)
As I’ve said before, I find Hurwitz’s outbursts useful, if he scolds something, then it’s okay to listen. And vice versa. In the end, I agree with colleague here that everyone has the right to have his own opinion. With one correction, no one has their own opinion, all our thoughts and conclusions from them are conditioned from the outside. Therefore, it makes no sense to blame anyone for anything. Every one deserves compassion.
Has anyone here listened to the Blomstedt/FS Sibelius set? I generally like Blomstedt’s rare recordings, and the few of his Sibelius symphonies I’ve listened to are fine to me. Would be curious to hear from other fans, informed or just interested.
I haven’t, I’m afraid, but hopefully someone here has as I’m always interested to read impressions of the various Sibelius sets out there.
Yes. It’s excellent. I assume the FS you quote refers to the San Francisco SO.
Right, the letter S is missing, SFS.
Building a Library on BBC Radio3 is always great inspiration. Just noticed they have updated their list of recommendations from 1999 to mid 2021. An Excel is here:
BBC R3 BAL Rec 1999-2021 Excel
A nice set of recommendations. Thank you for posting it 
It would be best if organised by composer. I’m as good with computers as I am at Nuclear Physics… I’ll wait till my son visits this weekend
since its in excel you can sort and filter by composer. They also offer pdfs if you just want a static copy eg to print
Thanks to you pointing this fine recording out, I received my copy today from discogs. I got it for $15 shipped and it is about as mint as I could hope for. The jacket is in perfect shape, and after my normal deep clean of incoming used records it plays as new. Not a click or pop to be heard, and the vinyl is shiny and looks new. Score! I am glad to have this.
Also in my mailbox today, was the complete set of Beethoven Quartets by the Amadeus Quartet. This is the box set of 10-LPs on DG that was a reissue of the original early 60s set on DGG. The box condition is a little on the dodgy side. It has some color fading for age and it smelled musky. My wife – “the nose” – noticed that as soon as I opened the shipping box. The records inside were somewhat soiled. In fact, side 9 had a clump of dirt on it. This is something the seller graded Mint-. Really?
Anyway, I have run discs 1, 4 and 5 thru my deep clean regimen. The dirt clump on side 9 (disc 5) disappeared, and I cannot tell it was ever there. The vinyl on these three discs look shiny and new now. Discs 4 and 5 are the Rasumovsky Quartets. When I went to play these they wouldn’t fit on my TT spindle. On closer examination the spindle holes had no marks whatsoever, and I had to use an LP drill to fix them for fitment on my platter spindle. I think they had never been played. Who the hell buys a complete set of Beethoven String Quartets and doesn’t play the Rasumovskys?
Anyway, despite the dirty condition of the discs, and the dodgy condition of the box, the two discs I’ve played so far sound like new. No ticks, pops, surface noise, scratches. Sounds great. I hope the other seven discs are a repeat of the first three after I deep clean them.
I have also bought the Amadeus Quartet’s complete Beethoven on DGG LPs recently, but it has a different photo on the cover.
I wonder why? I know that the Amadeus only made one Beethoven set.
I’m looking forward to comparing and contrasting their records with the other set that I have bought again, the brilliant Quartetto Italiano.
It would be great to be able to find a new set of the Vegh Quartet’s Beethoven, but that seems a wish too far at present.
The set I bought is a reissue of the original records, but just repackaged. It doesn’t have the fancy linen box DGG used in the 60s, and the labels are DG rather than the original DGG “Tulips” labels. But they are the same recordings made 1960-63. Other reissues for different markets might even have other box art. I paid less than $50 shipped for the 10-LP set.
I have the Quatuor Vegh set, but have never seen it for sale. I acquired my set new in the mid-80s.
I listened to the DG(G) Amadeus Op.59. #1 today, and now I’m playing the Philips Quartetto Italiano of the same work. I think the SQ of the latter is better. However, I really like the Philips sound of the early 70s, especially for chamber music and solo piano (i.e. Brendel). Offhand I think I like the latter performance better too.
Edit: Quartetto Italiano OP. 59. No. 1 is much better, IMO. It just has an energy, enthusiasm and dynamics I never noticed with the Amadeus. I need to break out my Vegh now.
