Elsa Dreisig|Invocation
a real favourite
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Tomaso Albinoni Oboe Concertos | Pierre Pierlot, oboe | I Solisti Venici, Claudio Scimone | Erato (1969) | On Qobuz
Pierre Pierlot, conductor Philippe Pierlot’s father, was an excellent oboist. The dialog between him and Claudio Scimone’s I Solisti Veneti here is captivating.
Typical of Erato’s recordings of that period, the interpretation is very smoth and sound quality quite laid back. That makes for a very pleasant listening, but it also forces the auditor to really pay attention to grasp the finest details, of which there are plenty.
Claude
3 Likes
Sinopoli was a fantastic Bruckner conductor and his 8th is an underrated masterpiece. Recorded in the studio, it is also among the best recorded around.
At 85 mins, it comfortably fits a 90 min CD-R, which avoids the need to swap discs in the middle of the work.
Cheers
EJ
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How do you review this one. As Fazil has sometimes great recordings and sometimes notos great ?
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Hi Bert. He’s not for purists and takes quite a few liberties with the text (ignored / added accents) to tell his vision. I love that - and that he never phones it in. For me he’s taken over from the young Pogorelich as one of the most interesting pianists around.
cheers
EJ
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Oistrakh was a master for sure. I was recently lucky enough to find this set at Oxfam. Also nice to have as several are Concerti that I don’t have any other vinyl versions of.
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It took guts for Say to record the Beethoven sonatas and he wasn’t spared by the critics. But if you’re open to genuinely unique, inspired and searching performances, he is fantastic.
Cheers
EJ
6 Likes
Thanks. Thoroughly enjoying all.
Yeah Say is a bit underrated in general by the official review community. But he does have a unique point of view on how to play different kind of well known pieces. Also his Mozart is interesting to listen to….
Classic CD (Magazine) Issue 48 / April 1994 : )
Track 1: Rossini / Le Cenerentola - Act 2: “Una volta c’era un re” (2:22) [DDD]
Cecilia Bartoli
Orchestra del Teatro Comuale di Bologna / Chailly / Decca 436 902-2
~ < < > > ~
Buon compleanno! Cecilia Bartoli
born 4th June 1966 Roma, Italia
<<>>
Did anyone here collect these 'Classic CD mags?
Doesn’t seem like 32 years ago i first thumbed through this issue whilst enjoying the CD on my recently purchased naim audio CDS player… and young Cecilia was then only 27 
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Another Tosca that was considered good but not quite top tier in the day, and which has aged very, very well. Te Kanawa is a warm and vulnerable Tosca, going against type (not much jealousy here) against Nucci as straight up villain (not much of a schemer). Aragall fits well in this concept, he sings well but doesn’t shine like Carreras or Domingo. Solti’s conducting is superb, and sound remains excellent.
Cheers
EJ
2 Likes
The latest album from John Wilson and the London Sinfonia covers repertoire that seems to have rather fallen out of concert programmes but I have a soft spot for it.
I also have most of these pieces in performances by Charles Dutoit with the Montreal SO and had an interesting time yesterday evening comparing them. Wilson’s excellent players brought out the brilliant orchestration of these works more effectively, but Dutoit occasionally had a little more forward momentum. The Montreal recordings were classic Decca of the period and have worn their age well, but Chandos’ sound is quite outstanding — one of the very best orchestral recordings I’ve heard. So, a points win for Wilson.
BTW this is such tuneful stuff, so well played, it might be a good choice for someone coming new to the world of classical music.
Roger
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Last night I saw James Baillieu and Lise Davidsen present songs from Schubert. Having been generally respectful of the genre – and of her outstanding accompanist – for D.852 (“Die Allmacht”) Davidsen took off the regulator and sang it as an aria.
I now know, for a stone cold fact, that one of the great tragedies of Western culture is that Schubert never lived to write opera.
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And from Thursday night, the New York Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov doing Bruckner 8th.
Verdict: I think the NYP just isn’t a Bruckner orchestra.
The hall doesn’t help. Geffen doesn’t have the volume to allow Bruckner’s soundscapes to develop. That said, I think you could but this band in the Musikverein, and Bruckner still wouldn’t work super well for them.
The NYP is like an SR-71 Blackbird: t’s unstable at low speeds. It needs the temperature and pressure of Mach 3 to really come together. They are still Mahler’s orchestra. They need to be operating at the limits of adhesion, with speed and wit and edge and crazy, to really show what they can do. They need to show a bit of bra strap under their Dior, and that’s not Bruckner’s dress code.
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