DG Classics and Analogphonic both did AAA reissues about 5 years ago or so. They are OOP, but you can find copies on Discogs. Someone here did that not too long ago I think.
Decca mono version which I prefer over DG set, IFAIK, is only availble on CD reissue.
In my experience used classical records sound better sometimes, not “usually.” I mostly only go for used where newer reissues are unavailable or they have been transferred to digital before cutting the lacquers.
I used to spend fortunes on those reissues and 9 out of 10 original issues in a good condition sound more natural to my ears. Of course I make some exceptions in some reissue label such as Music Matters.
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I guess we all have our own experience, but I have no idea what you’re playing them on so I have no frame of reference for comparison. The differences to us might also come down – at least in part – to the gear we use for playback.
I have to qualify and say when reissues can often sound better when they are done well. Not all are. The other part is even when the reissues are done well and sound better than originals, the pressing plants can ruin it with crappy quality control. Optimal and Pallas in Germany have been bad in recent years.
Thanks, I have NEVER been able to work out how to buy things from Discogs. These days I don’t even try.
Same here. I will nearly always choose a second or third pressing in reasonable condition over a recent reissue if the prices are comparable.
Notable exceptions: the Music Matters reissues of Larry Young’s Unity and Horace Silver’s Song for My Father are two of the best sounding records I own. I regret not buying more when they were available and affordable.
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He came to play in the Music Conservatory in Torino where I was a student around late 70s/early 80s.
The program was improvisations only. We were not more than 30-40 people in the audience and I felt ashamed for the empty seats.
He was very nice, greeted us and said something like ‘We’ll have some music for a few friends’. I don’t remember what he played. I wish I had been musically more grown up.
Here’s Gulda as a conductor.
It now sounds rather dated ( and the stiff drummer does not help ) but I can appreciate the energy. I wish I could have attended this concert.
What an eccentric - but fascinating - man Friedrich Gulda was! It would have been a blast to meet him over a cup of coffee and cake in Munich (or wherever he used to hang out).
I wonder if he might have slipped a large schnapps into his coffee?
He loved life. Here is a fascinating documentary which shows his personality well.
I love his Mozart. He does not get too serious and there is a sense of humour in his playing.
Really? Buying albums on discogs seems pretty straightforward to me. The hard part is figuring out which one to pick.
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So others tell me every so often! I can’t get it to work for me.
High delivery costs on Discogs often mean the actual price of the product is not competitive.
I stick to Amazon (yes, I know) and eurosellers like momox.
Heard it live in 2014, just before she recorded it for Erato. Excellent performance - she recently conducted Don Giovanni, with Le Concert d’Astrée; that was excellent too. She is not an international star, she is one of those conductors who do sterling work locally, bringing more and more people into the opera house, people who would never listen to an opera. We need more people like her.
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Mravinsky certainly recorded the best versions of those symphonies I have heard. And just a stunning set of recordings all around. Perhaps “definitive”? That term is overused, but in this case, not many folks seem to disagree.
Sadly, my vinyl copies, which came to me when I inherited my grandfather’s record collection, are in middling shape, and although I have tried to clean them by hand, I don’t have a fancy record cleaner to go to work on them! A record cleaner is certainly on my soon-to-buy list.
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Geniusas has recorded Rach’s first sonata on the composer’s own oversized Steinway. His control over the structure isn’t quite as persuasive as Steven Osborne’s, I feel, but Geniusas is very good in his own right, and the unusually deep voiced Steinway is very well recorded. Highly recommended!
Cheers
EJ
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Thank you so much for posting this. What a fascinating man Herr Gulda was!
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Didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. The 7th is taken at a refreshingly slow pace and the orchestra doesn’t lack weight. Dynamic extremes are more limited than those that a modern orchestra is capable of, and coming fresh from Karajan’s 80s cycle, the difference is quite stark. On the other hand, the FBO are a bit freeer, less driven, and delicate, all to benefit I think. Quite the feat they pulled off while led from the front desk violin section.
The Prometheus ballet is new to me. Agreeable music, less ballet like than symphonic perhaps, and a good fit to pair with the symphony (the 3rd would probably even better as its last movement was based on this work) but it’s long and somewhat monochromatic, and I don’t see myself returning to it often.
Cheers
EJ
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DG recently re-released Carlos Kleiber’s never-matched version of Beethoven’s Seventh on LP, with the Vienna Philharmonic playing out of their skins. (Part of the new Original Masters series.)
(Don’t go looking for a copy, as the release is sold out.)