I’m sure it sounds great, but the work is just not important enough to me. Likewise, I was in two minds about buying the Steinberg set because I didn’t care enough for the Hindemith works. On balance I’m glad to have the Holst and Strauss, so not unhappy, but I’d have been much happier just buying those 2 separately had it been an option.
I see. The Hindemith is the highlight of the Steinberg set for me. I could do without the Strauss, and the Holst is quite good, but not my favorite version of the work.
I’m now looking forward to the Karajan/Berliner Bruckner box. Those performances are great, but the mastering of the OG box I have leave a bit to be desired. I think the TOS version will correct all that.
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Hoping you are right JDP. I have that set on order too…
I’m still waiting for domestic preorders to appear. I don’t have it ordered yet, but will as soon as I can. My wife is buying it for my birthday, which is just two days after the August 2 release.
Marriner’s Barbiere di Siviglia, with Francisco Araiza and Agnes Baltsa at the beginning of their careers and under a conductor without much opera experience, turned out to be maybe the work’s best recording. No doubt thanks to Thomas Allen whose Figaro is in a class of his own.
The same team made an equally enjoyable Cenerentola a few years later.
Cheers
EJ
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Full of great melodies and a classic plot (which ends in death by poison), Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is not high art but entertaining from start to finish. The title role calls for a lot of power but not many high notes, so ideal for Scotto at this stage of her career.
Cheers
EJ
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Two particularly lovely charity shop finds from DG late 70’s recordings. I have the Bohm BPO late Mozart Symphonies and they are go to selections, but the sound here with the later VPO recordings is definitely superior and the performance is just beautiful, though less sparkling than the BPO recordings. More ‘Autumnal’ perhaps? Still, a very involving rendition which I’m really glad to have found.
The Violin Concertos are some of Mutter’s earliest and are superb and gripping. Total cost of these 2 discs was £12. 
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Krystian Zimerman - Chopin: Piano Concertos - Polish Festival Orchestra - Recorded 1999
17 CD box set - Deutsche Grammophon - 2009 - 2894778445 - celebration of Chopin’s 200th anniversary. A collection of their best recordings from their catalog.
Whilst listening to this first disc I’m realising the concertos are a first listen for me. Sounding lovely so far. Wonderful playing and recording.
Having listened to both concertos now, I’m really taken aback by how beautiful these compositions are. Wow!
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I’m currently listening to the DG OS reissue of Kleiber’s Beethoven 7. Simply stunning.
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For the first time in several weeks ProStudioMasters has released some DSD downloads of DG recordings. Both seem to be the equivalent of multi-disc sets of Karl Bohm conducting Mozart with the VPO.
Again, I think these are Emil Berliner masterings for Tower Japan, although I’m not 100% sure.
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ProStudioMasters just added the Abbado/Berganza/Domingo Carmen.
Bizarrely in this day and age not available to us in Australia. Odd
Years ago I picked up an EMI box set of Verdi operas. It included Gabriela Santini’s recording of “Simon.”
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At the age of 64, I have finally ‘got’ Beethoven’s 9th!
It’s taken me an age to stop considering it the difficult Symphony in his ouvre. I’d play it occasionally, appreciating its masterful construction, but stopped short of loving it like I instantly loved the 3rd through 8th which I would play far more frequently.
Two things happened in the last few weeks to nudge me over the line. The first was getting hold of a copy of the Klemperer box set of the cycle.
I find this cycle fascinating. Short on the emotional highlighting that many others offer, but architecturally perfect in laying bare the great man’s score.
The other event was attending a live performance in Wells Cathedral on Saturday night.
the Bristol Classical Players are hardly top drawer and at times the wind ensemble struggled, but in spite of that, the sense of occasion with the late evening sun beaming through the stained glass windows in such an inspiring venue and above all, the ‘impossible to recreate with any HiFi’ impact of a live chorus of 85 individuals in an amazing acoustic revealed to me the last movement in a way that I’d just not appreciated. Blissful goosebump stuff!
Postscript: Klemper’s Brahms Symphonies box set is also a new acquisition and has also been a revelation btw. It doesn’t supplant Karajan’s set, but it’s a very different and utterly compelling and riveting set IMV.
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Agree with you on Klemperer. I had his Beethoven cycle on vinyl and CD and his Brahms cycle on CD. Now I have both of them again in the big Klemperer box.