You know that you can click on the image and have a full size ?
The image of Boccherini wasn’t low-res
2 Likes
It is Sir Simon Rattle’s Berlin Philharmonics Beethoven cycle recorded in 2015 and issued by the orchestras own label, the Berlin Philharmonic Recordings. The vinyl set is sold out since some time ago, so one has to look in the used vinyl market. I love the sound of these recordings already in the streaming version and have been looking out for a pristine used set for some time. They really resonate with me. The one I got now is almost new.
Here is an interesting interview with Simon Rattle
3 Likes
I picked up this “box” (as digital files) of Debussy’s complete works on sale, yesterday (Warner Brothers, which covers a lot of old labels). I am just beginning to listen to the piano work. Lots of different artists playing (some of it by A. Ciccolini which I used to have a couple of LPs by when I was young). The recordings are uneven, but the interpretations are excellent. What I like most is to listen to all of a composer’s work, not just the typical highlights (so, I didn’t know the “Image oubliées” I am listening to now, for example). It gives you another perspective on the composer (in this case, the Fauré influence for the piano music). Highly recommended.
2 Likes
I have sets of the complete piano works (Bavouzet and Gieseking), orchestral works (Martinon), and chamber works (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center). Plus two recordings of Pelleas et Melisande and quite a few additional recordings of the well-known works. I know I‘m missing the songs, and probably a few other pieces, but I think I’m set.
2 Likes
Thanks I did know that and have heard it a few times. It’s just that Bizet was mentioned in the first post in the Classical one-hit wonders thread, the hit being Carmen. I should have made it clearer my post was ironic.
Roger
1 Like
Yeah, I should have checked that. I’m just so used to them being not that way (iPhone screen dumps). 
1 Like
And sorry for going off topic.
Let’s continue with your wonderful suggestions.
1 Like
Very dramatic performance of Beethoven’s 9th. I felt the urge to listen to the ode to joy and it’s good to hear such a committed delivery.
Cheers
EJ
6 Likes
A bit of a niche interest, I know, but if you love French organ music played well on a great French organ and in 24-bit sound on TIDAL you might like this. You can almost smell the incense, see the shafts of coloured sunlight and feel the mystery.
I have enjoyed dipping into L’Orgue Mystique for years and with the latest iteration of my Naim system the sound is fabulous.
5 Likes
7 Likes
Luxuriating in the stunning sound experience that this LP provides. To me it seems to make many of the DG Original Source issues sound a bit forced and treble forward by comparison and let’s not even try to compare pressing quality vs the DG’s. This is utterly flawless 
.
Very highly recommended if Classical on Vinyl is your thing.
8 Likes
The music is great, and a benchmark performance. I hope the Decca Pure Analogue series does more of the Davis/BSO Sibelius symphonies, or at least #2. However, #5/#7 presented here are the only ones Philips recorded to 4-track 1/2” tape.
1 Like
There’s a series of official videos on Youtube about the recordings behind these releases. I was interested in the 1979 New Years Concert (Decca’s first digital vinyl release). The Original Source LP issue comes from the analogue safety master recorded alongside the digital. But this was considered too dry and close and so artificial reverb has been added during vinyl mastering. I wasn’t best pleased to read that. Thankfully no such thing seems to have been done to the Boston/Davis Sibelius. Glad the pressing is up to the standard of the recording and performances! DGP
1 Like
Based on this Sibelius 5/7, I look forward to getting a few more of the future issues in the series, but have to say that of the 7 on sale Initially, not too many are grabbing me. 3 of them are works already offered in the DG OS range (strange marketing?) and I’m generally not a fan of Solti and haven’t previously liked Haitink’s Mahler either.
Maybe the Alpine Symphony? I think I’ll wait to see feedback from buyers of that one after it’s released.
I grew up with Haitink’s Mahler but have sort of left it behind. I owned the Solti Rite on first release too but wouldn’t really go back to it for performance or sound now. Seems too that Decca has now unleashed the unpleasant low frequency thrum of the Medinah Hall air conditioning on this issue.
The Alpine? Better versions out there. Clearly not marketing to the likes of us! DGP
1 Like
Luban Yordanoff, violin · Albert Tetard, Cello · Claude Desurmont, Clarinet · Daniel Barenboim, piano | Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps | Deutsche Grammophon Acoustic Sounds LP
I always find the Quatuor pour la fin du temps surprisingly comforting for a work composed and created in a German war prisoner camp and based on St. John’s Apocalypse. Notwithstanding one’s religious beliefs - or lack thereof - it certainly fosters meditation.
Sound quality is very good, but as often with DG, the ever present surface noise is annoying.
Claude
5 Likes
I wondered about the possible cause of the hum on the Decca Rite. In the record notes, mention is made of not choosing another Chicago venue to record in because of noisy AC, so they went for Madina instead. Does that suggest the latter venue was quieter? If Medina AC was quiet(er), what could that ‘hum’ be?
Do you have an original, the Speaker Corner reissues, or the more recent DG Classic The Original Source series (TOS) reissue from last year.
I have the Speakers Corner and the TOS reissues. That latter is outstanding, and my copy is excellent quality sonically. No surface noise at all (although the TOS reissues pressed at Optimal have had QA issues in the past, that are hopefully now resolved).
In any case, this is one of the masterpieces of the last century, and a very important piece, not just on it’s own, but in the context of music history and further influence during the era of mid-century composition.
3 Likes