Life beyond audio this past week: Olympics coverage is taking precedence for my discretionary time! Some incredible stories happening throughout the competitions. Glad to hear you like the Doc Watson and Mendelssohn LPs, Joe. They are awfully nice! I still need to get Doc Watson's "Southbound" and the two Cisco reissues of the Joan Baez LPs. Aaggh, my wish list at Red Trumpet is getting longer again. . |
An afternoon of music with friends; what a treat! Ray Brown Trio: Soular Energy (Pure Audiophile) Laudate II (Proprius) Menotti: Violin Concerto (Reference Recordings) Rochberg: String Quartet No 3 (Nonesuch) Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, Borodin Qt (Decca) Shostakovich: Sym 5, Previn/LSO (EMI) Holly Cole: Romantically Helpless/One Trick Pony (Grooveland) Supertramp: Crime of the Century/School All analogue, all vinyl, all great music to share. . |
Ray, VPI offers the advantage of a platter that fully supports the LP and is sturdy enough to use as a platform for "scrubbing" the surface of the LP using your preferred cleaning fluid and brush (e.g., Disc Doctor or Records Research). I've used a VPI Model 17 pretty intensively for 18 years, and it still runs like a champ; they are very sturdily built. Either the VPI 16.5 or the 17 would be a great addition. OTOH, the manual cleaning process with Disc Doctor works pretty well without a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner adds a lot of convenience, but a more important key to excellent cleaning of your vinyl is using a good cleaning fluid and and good brushes, like the Disc Doctor. I say this after having been a dedicated user of home brew cleaning solutions with my VPI for many years, and being a DD skeptic. NO MORE! After an experience at Lloyd Walker's house, where he took one of my "clean" records, plopped it on top of his VPI 17 and cleaned it with Disc Doctor fluid using a DD brush, the improvement in clarity was so immediately apparent that I become a convert on the spot and have never looked back. . |
Today: John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman, Impulse AS-40, Speakers Corner reissue (from the analogue master tapes) Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac Wild Child Butler, Analogue Productions Original recording, d-to-d. If you like blues and you haven't listened to the APO releases, you are missing some wonderful performances in great sound! Pettersson, Sym 8, Commissiona/BaltimoreSO, DGG 2531 176. Great music, excellent performance, fanastic recording - this is NOT the typical DGG sound. Recorded under the direction of Robert Wood (Telarc), this recording has a natural soundstage, extended frequency response, very good dynamic range and no obvious mult-miking. Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Perlman and Ozawa/BSO, DGG. Very nice performance by a young feisty Perlman. Unfortunately, typcial DGG multi-mike mess for sound. Berg Violin Concerto - wonderful work for lovers of great 20th Century music. From the same LP above. . |
Ray Brown Trio, "Soular Energy" Pure Audiophile PA-002 Bill Berry, "Shortcake" Pure Audiophile PA-004 (again!) Whatever Stan Ricker is doing with his revised half-speed mastering process on these Pure Audiophile LPs, the results are simply stunning. I just had to come back to these LPs again tonight both for the superb musicianship and to wallow in the incredible sonics! The inner detail, leading edge transient response and dynamics on these LPs are very special. . |
So far today: Rickie Lee Jones: "Rickie Lee Jones" Rickie Lee Jones: "Pirates" (thanks Sbank !!) Sonny Rollins: "Way Out West", Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue "Die Rohre - The Tube, A Baroque Delight for the Ears" Tacet L74 (all tube recording and mastering chain, delightful Baroque music in every good sound) Itzhak Perlman & Pinchas Zukerman: "Duets for 2 Violins" - a surprisingly good Angel pressing (S-37406) of this 1977 collaboration. |
Ray: Thanks! For those interested, I just checked to see if American IV is still available on vinyl, and it is: http://www.redtrumpet.com/software/item.php?item=17745&sid=1170596972 |
Ella Fiztgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, Verve - the lady is incredible! Even through the surface noise of these 50 year old records, I just get lost in her incredible singing. And a supporting cast that includes Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Petersen, Ray Brown, and more is nothing to sneeze at. [I'd love to hear the Speakers Corner reissue for even better sound quality: I just can't quite justify the price for the 4LP set. :-( ] Doc & Merle Watson's Guitar Album, Flying Fish FF301 Joan Baez, Volume 2, Vanguard VRS 9094 - just a wonderful vocalist and her guitar, mono. . |
Ray, glad you like Home Again; the a capella "Pretty Saro" cut is a particular favorite of mine on this LP. When I first heard this LP, I'd recently watched the film "Songcatcher" (a fictionalized account of the real work of collecting traditional songs in Appalachia in the early 1900's) which included a rendition of this song. When I heard Doc Watson sing Pretty Saro, his rendition really grabbed me. . |
Tonight: comparative listening to 33 rpm vs. 45 rpm versions of some of Classic Records' RCA reissues. So far, there is no contest sonically (did anyone suspect otherwise?). But, my question in doing this was: "Did the mastering of the 45 rpm versions avoid the hard brittle top end plaguing some of the early 33 rpm issues sufficiently to make it worth the gamble of buying a few more of the 45s to replace other disappointing early release 33s?" So far, the answer is "YES" for the following LPs (listening to selected tracks on each): "Clair de Lune" RCA LSC-2326 - the sound of strings on the 33 rpm is brittle in the upper frequencies to the point I don't find it enjoyable to listen to (at least on my system). The 45 rpm does not have this problem: the string tone is smooth and extended. Definitely not polite and rolled off like many of the originals (so don't come here looking for that original "Shaded Dog" sound; this is more like what I expect to hear in an excellent "contemporary" recording. The 45 rpm also has all the other virtues we've come to expect of this media. "Gonoud: Faust/Bizet: Carmen Suite" LSC-2449 - The 33 rpm version of this is much better, and much more listenable, than I recalled. The top end has some of that brittleness and hard edge to it, but not nearly so much as some others. Just every now and then the massed strings jump out and BITE. Still..., the 45 rpm version is simply soooo muuucch better in so many respects. "Belioz: Symphony Fantastique" LSC-1900 - MUCH improved string tone on the 45 rpm version. The 33 rpm is not as bad as I recalled, as with LSC-2449; but the 45 rpm is a very distinct improvement in every respect. (And still my favorite performance with a modern orchestra is the Freccia/RPO reissued on Chesky CR 1. (If you can find it and have a choice, get the 180 gram, not the lighter weight first pressing run). Conclusion? For me I will go ahead with some additional 45 rpm Classic Record purchases (such as the Sibelius/Finlandia LSC-2336 which sounds so sad on the 33 rpm version and is such a GREAT performance and recording, and such as the Reiner/Spain LSC- 2230), but cautiously. . |
Playing now: Varese: Ameriques; Milhaud: L'homme et son desir; Honegger: Pacific 231, Abravanel/UtahSO, Vanguard SRV 274 Classic Records reissue - WOW! Planned for later: Pentangle: "Cruel Sister", Reprise 6430 Na Cabarfeidh: "stick it in your ear" - highland pipes, whistles, drums, guitars - these guys can play! Pentangle: "Basket of Light" Sonny Rollins: "Way Out West" (45 rpm reissue from Analogue Production's Fantasy series). And, as it is now getting later in the evening (and no one else has posted so I can still edit this post), the significant other has gone to bed so music with a lot of bass energy is no longer an option. So let's move to "music-with-no-bass": Renaissance music for viola da gamba, lute and voice: "Songs of a Travelling Apprentice" Cohen/CambridgeConsort, Titanic TI 19. (If you enjoy early music, the recordings on the Titanic label are very worthwhile picking up whenever you see them. Nice performances that are well recorded.) As an aside, here was another example of what a difference a good record cleaning fluid can make to the sound of an LP. I'd cleaned this LP originally (some years back when first purchased) with a home brew alchohol-based solution and VPI RCM. I hadn't played this LP for several years, and listening tonight, I was bothered by some sibilance I just couldn't eliminate (VTA adjustment, add a touch of dampening, nothing worked). So, since I'd never cleaned this "clean" record with Disc Doctor, back it went for a quick clean using my recently adopted Disc Doctor regimen. BINGO: no more sibilance. . |
Ali Akbar Khan (serod) and Sri Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla) on "Maihar" - a marvelous recording by Kavi Alexander, Water Lily Acoustics 10 Earlier this evening: Joan Baez, "In Concert" Vanguard VRS 9112 Cannonball Adderley, "Somethin' Else" Blue Note 1595 (Classic Records reissue) Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue" (Classic Records reissue) |
Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 1, Talich Qt, Supraphon Shostakovich, Pf Quintet, Talich Qt, Supraphon Respighi, Ancient Airs & Dances, Suites 1-3, Marriner/LAChmO, EMI ... Delightful performances above! Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (I could become convinced this was his best album, if it weren't for the fact that I like so many others!) Ray, I see you got the Doc Watson. What do you think? . |
Varese: "Offrandes/Octandre/Integrales/Ecuatorial," Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg (cond), Nonesuch 71269. (Another great recording from the Aubort/Nickrenz team. If you enjoy 20th century music with more "avant-garde" flair and you haven't explored the music of Edgar Varese, don't miss this LP as an opportunity! Also, don't overlook the many other outstanding LPs from the Nonesuch Contempary Music series of recordings. The soprano on the "Offrandes" is the superb Jan DeGaetani: anything she has recorded is well worth exploring, but her remarkable work with contemporay music is particularly compelling.) "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook," Verve MGV 4001/2, Speakers Corner reissue. Great work by Speakers Corner once again. Sonny Rollins: "Saxophone Colossus," Prestige P-7079 Analogue Productions reissue. . |
Congratulations, Dlwask! The night should turn out well for listening. Around here, we're gravitating towards a chamber music evening, but "The Wall," "Who's Next" and "Night at the Opera" all stand beckoning in the wings. If the recently acquired copy of "Ummagumma" were cleaned, I know where I'd be heading. Hmmm..., maybe a short cleaning session is in order! Nope, significant other is headed to bed early so chamber music it will be. Coming up: Malcolm Arnold's "Fantasies" for various instruments, Hyperion series of LPs (great stuff; often lots of fun) Alwyn, String Quartets, Qt of London, Chandos ABRD 1063 (nice performance! but a digital LP with that nasty digital edge on the strings) Crumb, Sonata for Cello, Helmerson -vc, BIS LP65 Hindemith, Sonata for Cello, Helmerson -vc, BIS LP65 (Frans Helmerson is a marvelous cellist who is vastly underappreciated in the U.S. His recordings for BIS in the late '70s are uniformly superb: LP-5, 25, 26, 28, 35, 64. His recordings with BIS continue to date. www.cellist.nl/database/showcellist.asp?id=67) ...{"What? You're a classical music lover and you don't collect BIS recordings?!? ...For shame! You're missing some marvelous recordings.} Bach, Suites for solo cello, Mercury Speakers Corner reissue (just one or two at a time) Villa-Lobos, Various Pieces for Guitar, Mats Bergstrom -gui, Proprius PROP 9521 (one of those ocassional digital recordings that sound superb! two mikes and a DAT recorder, 1989.) That should make for a satisfying evening! . |
Playing now: Pink Floyd: "Wish You Were Here" - Mejames, thanks for the added encouragement... I can't believe how GOOD this early Columbia pressing sounds! I was expecting to find sonic mediocrity, but no way. This pressing sounds really good: clean, open, dynamic. Columbia PC 33453; Deadwax: AL 33453-1A (2A handwritten next to it). The Who: "Who's Next" Hmmm... also better sounding than I was expecting from this MCA label issue (MG7-12888-W3). Makes me wonder what a first pressing Decca pressing would sound like? Just goes to show that increasing the resolution of one's system does NOT make one's ancient well-played LPs sound worse: these never sounded better. Coming up: Suk, String Qt 2, Suk Qt, Supraphon 1111 3370 . |
Pink Floyd: "Ummagumma" in an early EMI/Harvest pressing ("Gigi" cover). Some folks don't care for this album, imo its their loss. Early PF showing a lot of where they were headed over the next several years. Eric Bibb: "Good Stuff" Opus3 LP 19603 - 45rpm 2LPs - A nice bluesy mix, with good instrumentalists backing Bibb's vocal and guitar. Recorded "in the moment," no editing after the fact, no overdubbing, in a natural acoustic environment. All-analogue with minimal processing in that classic Opus3 style of great sonics. http://www.opus3records.com/lp_list.html http://www.redtrumpet.com/software/item.php?item=9936&sid=1075172361 Muddy Waters" "Sings Big Bill Broonzy", Chess LP-1444 Speakers Corner reissue. If you like the blues, Get This! http://www.redtrumpet.com/software/item.php?item=20635&sid=1075172361 . |
Playing Now: Stravinsky: “Firebird Ballet,” Stravinsky(cond), Columbia ML 5728 mono – Wow! This old mono LP sure has dynamic impact and clarity. Much better that the stereo “2-eye” copy of this same recording also in my collection. Too bad this copy has some inner groove wear. A classic interpretation of this work by its composer. Coming up: Prokofiev: “Romeo and Juliet, Highlights from the Ballet” Ansermet/L’OrchSuisseRom, London CS 6240 Vaughan Williams: “Sinfonia Antarctica” Previn/LSO, RCA LSC-3066 (Another superb recording by the great Decca recording engineer Kenneth Wilkinson; a great performance to contrast against the Boult/LonPhilO on EMI; may just have to play both performances back-to-back) Rachmaninov: “Etudes-Tableaux” with the incomparable John Ogdon, pf. EMI HQS 1329. . |
Last night with some friends over: Schubert - String Quintet in A "The Trout", Vienna Octet/C.Curzon -pf, Decca SXL 2110 Speakers Corner (Just luscious, with incredible piano contribution by Curzon. One of the great performances and recordings of the Trout Quintet.) Cannonball Adderley - Know What I Mean, Riverside 9433 (45rpm) Analogue Productions reissue (Ridiculously GOOD!) Stravinsky - Firebird Ballet, Dorati, Mercury 45 rpm reissue from Classic Records (My all-time system reference LP) Kodaly - Hary Janos Suite, Kertesz/LSO, Decca SXL 6136 Speakers Corner (Marvelous music, performance and recording. This is out-of-print, so get it now if you want it while it's still available at a few retailers.) Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy, Chess LP 1444 Speakers Corner - Outstanding! Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones, WarnerBros BSK 3296 Isley and Bacharach: Here I am (ok-it's a cd) (after you left Spence; Dan always brings something unique and special!) |
Mahler: Sym 6, Horenstein/StockholmPO, Nonesuch HB 73029 (yes, I'm a Jascha Horenstein fan, love his Mahler 3d on Unicorn/Nonesuch as well. And then there are his wonderful recordings of Panufnik!) Arturo Delmoni: "Songs my mother taught me" NorthStar DS0004 and John Marks Records JMR One (various works for violin and piano, performed with that limpid beauty of tone that Delmoni so characteristically delivers; dripping romanticism! Wonderfully recorded by the superb recording engineer David Hancock.) Mozart: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Shumsky (vn), Balsam (pf), ASV ALH 950, 954, 964 (3 volumes), just pulled out random sides to play. Shumsky is hard to beat in these works. . |
Organ! Bach! Dupre! Alain! Awash in the sounds of the great instrument! Start with a little Karl Richter playing on a delightful tracker organ in Copenhagen one of Bach's Schubler Chorales (DGG 139325), add a beautiful little Triosonata, then the powerful Prelude and Fugue in c minor. Then head to David Payne's performances of Bach Chorale Preludes from a lost manuscript (now found!) on a marvelous Bozeman-Gibson tracker organ (Harmonia Munid HMC 5158) Next, step to Dupre's massive Symphonie-Passion, played on the equally massive and very French sounding organ at Hedvig Eleonora Church in Stockholm, performed by the wonderful organist Torvald Toren (on a very impressive Proprius LP - 7855). Volume up! Bass anyone? Finish with the Litanies of Jehan Alain, performed by the incomparable Marie-Claire Alain, Erato EPR 15555. Last night: the symphonies of Franz Schubert. . |
Some of the great Decca recordings! Fellow AudiogoN'r Texasdave got me started on this through an email conversation we've been having about the great recording engineers who worked for Decca and who were responsible for some of the best recordings ever made: Roy Wallace, Kenneth Wilkinson, John Dunkerley... Turns out that Dave and I share in a common a passionate respect for these recording engineers and the great recordings they made from the 1950s on. So, back to the archives to pull out some great music! Britten: War Requiem, Britten/LSO, Melos Qt, London OSA 1255 (K. Wilkinson -eng) A truly superb recording. When Peter Pears opens with his first tenor solo, the verisimilitude of Pears being right on stage in front of you is just phenomenal. Stravinsky: Petrouchka, Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2011 (Athena reissue ALSS 10004) (Roy Wallace -eng) - Dave and I may disagree on this one, but on vinyl this is one of my all time favorite Roy Wallace recordings. Falla: Three Cornered Hat (complete), Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2296 (Speakers Corner reissue) (Roy Wallace -eng) A magical recording from 1960. Ravel: Alborada del gracioso, Ansermet/OSR, Decca (Roy Wallace -eng) As Dave commented in his email to me: "It is truly spectacular. Neophytes are always amazed, after I play it, to hear it was recorded in 1960. I’ve challenged audiophile friends to come up with another version of this piece that can rival this Wallace recording... [none of the other modern contenders] can rival the old Wallace recording for vividness, immediacy, impact. I think it is a paragon of analog, tube-era recording." I couldn't agree more. . |
Tonight, more Roy Wallace engineered Decca marvels from the 1950s until about 1964: Borodin: Sym 2 & 3, Ansermet/OSR, London CS 6126 (Speakers Corner reissue). OK, this one has a touch of upper mid-range brightness, probably some resonance frequency in the microphones - but this is an INCREDIBLE recording from 1954! Full, rich, detailed sound with marvelous soundstaging. Excellent performances, too. Albeniz: Iberia, Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2243 (Speakers Corner reissue) - recorded in 1960, this 40+ year old recording puts so many of the last 20 years to shame. Coupled with the Turina: Danzas fantasticas, this is a very special record. The dynamics on this LP are phenomenal. Slipknot -- note that the wonderful Rossini Overtures recording you and I like so much is a Roy Wallace creation. . |
Joe, that's what the mute button on your TV is for! Watch the game, listen to great music. You don't really need some announcer explaining that play-by-play breath-taking action on the screen do you? :-) As I listen to a great performance of Dvorak's Serenade for Strings, having just indulged in Satie's Trois Gnossiennes performed marvelously by Ciccolini. (Doggone AudiogoN threads keep sending me back to the music library looking for stuff I haven't listened to in years.) . |
Tonight: Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat, MSFL 1-244 - had to pull this out and play it to check my recollection of its sound quality given a very curious post tonight in the Vinyl Asylum. My copy sounds just like I remembered it: really really good! And I don't often say that about MoFi releases: I've listened to too many that are horribly EQ'd and congested, but not this one - it's one of the GOOD ones. Bizet: Sym 1 in C, Marriner/ASMF, London (King Superanalogue reissue)- wonderful performance, well recorded, just a delight to listen to. Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa; Fratres; Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten, Sondeckis/LithChmO, Kremer -vn, Schnittke -pf, ECM 1275 - classic Part. If you don't know his music, he's worth adventuring through. As I Went to Walsingham: collection of Renaissance music, performed by Paul O'Dette (lute) and The Musicians of Swanne Alley, Harmonia Mundi HMC 5192. Wonderful music of the renaissance, exceptionally performed, and beautifully recorded by Peter McGrath. I've never heard a bad recording with his name in the engineering credits! |
Laptop in the listening chair is the only way to go! Congratulations, Spencer. My only problem is that my "click, click, click" on the keyboard drives my otherwise very tolerant spouse out of the listening room: Definitely NOT a good thing relative to maintaining continuing support for my music acquisition proclivities! . |
Last night, continuing the Kenneth Wilkinson track of outstanding recordings : Sibelius, Sym 2, Barbirolli/RPO, Chesky CR 3 (wonderful performance by Barbirolli, one of the best performances of this work, originally from the Readers Digest series recorded by Wilkinson, engineer, and Gerhardt, producer) Sibelius, Finlandia, Mackerras/LondonPromsO, RCA LSC 2336-45 Classic Records 45 rpm reissue - far superior to the Classic Records 33 rpm effort) Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps, Solti/CSO, Decca SXL 6691 (unfortunately a bit obviously multi-miked, Wilkinson was never a purist, but still a marvelous performance and recording) And for something completely different: Franck, Piece Heroique, Dupre -org, Mercury SRI 75006 (organ with a vengance, by the great Mercury recording team and still sounding wonderful in this Holland pressing) . |
Listening to organ music this early evening: just finished a wonderful Pontefract engineered recording on Harmonia Mundi of Rene Saorgin performing Bach's Toccata & Fugue in d minor on a lovely Silbermann organ, Harmonia Mundi HM 1214. And now listening to Marcel Dupre on a VERY FRENCH organ (Saint-Suplice) playing Bach's Prelude & Fugue in D major, Mercury SR 90227: great recording, but not my favorite way to hear Bach performed. Representative recordings of two great recording engineers: Jean-Francois Pontefract, who made many superb recordings for Harmonia Mundi, and Robert Fine, the genius behind the legendary Mercury recordings. . |
Raytheprinter, glad you like the Doc Watson! For Billie Holliday, I'm not an expert but I've liked both "Songs for Distingue Lovers" (Classic Records reissue) and "Lady Sings the Blues" (Speakers Corner reissue). Distingue Lovers is probably her most well known album: it's certainly the one I've heard the most about over the years. But, Lady Sings the Blues really grabs me. . |
Vivaldi, Viola D'Amore Concertos, Rolla/LisztFerencChO, Barsony -va, Hungaraton SLPX 12162 (Hungaraton made some beautiful recordings during the analog days, this is certainly one of them) Holst, Hymn of Jesus/The Perfect Fool/Egdon Heath, Boult/LPO, London CS 6324 (The Hymn of Jesus is a wonderfully powerful work for 2 choruses and full orchestra; Egdon Heath is arguably one of Holst best works for orchestra, but hushed and delicate.) Bartok, Divertimento for String Orchestra, Barshai/MoscowCO, London reissue by Super Analogue 9108 (another superb Kenneth Wilkinson recording!) Slipknot - and speaking of Kenneth Wilkinson, the Solti Beethoven 9th is a good example of his work, albeit with a few more mikes than his best. But, a GREAT performance, imo, served very well by the recording engineer. For anyone looking for this Solti recording of the 9th, it is now available in the marvelous Speakers Corner series of reissues of the Decca classical catalog. . |
Last night: Arturo Delmoni: "Songs My Mother Taught Me" John Marks Records, originally issued on NorthStar. Romantic works for violin and piano marvelously rendered by a master violinist. If you don't know this record, and you enjoy chamber music, seek it out! Beautifully recorded, beautifully performed (as is all of Delmoni's work). "Popular Masterworks of the Baroque" Tafelmusik Baroque Orch, Reference Recordings RR13 (45 rpm, half-speed mastered by Stan Ricker). IMO, one of the great Reference Recordings LPs by the (then young) Canadian group. "Music of Pachabel, Gluck and Handel" Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music, L'Oiseau Lyre DSLO 594. A beautiful analog recording of music performed in Hogwood's typically light, delicate and lively style. Nicely recorded and quite good sound even through the rigors of DMM mastering. Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" Columbia PC 33453 - hey, we all have to have some fun! . |
Tonight: More Bach: Starker: Suite 3 for Solo Cello, Mercury, Speakers Corner reissue Delmoni: Partita 2 for Solo Violin, WaterLily 07, followed by the flip side with music of Kreisler and Ysaye. Supertramp: Crime of the Century, A&M SP 3647 (I just don't understand people who trash this US pressing. It's very good. But, I haven't heard the Speakers Corner reissue or a good British pressing to compare. Anyone?) Coming up later: Holst: Savitri, Holst,I/ECO, Purcell Singers, J.Baker, Argo ZNF6 (and compare to ZK98) (a real treat if your system can generate a deep, broad and realistic soundstage) . |
So far tonight... Walter Leigh: Concertino for Harpsichord & String Orchestra, Braithwaite/LPO, Pinnock -hpd, Lyrita SRCS 126 Malcolm Lipkin, Clifford's Tower/Pastorale/String Trio, The Nash Ensemble, Hyperion A66164 (modern British composer, still actively composing in his 70's. Wish I had more of his music. Anyone know of any additional recordings to recommend?) Coming up... Bartok: Quintet for String Quartet & Piano, Tatrai Qt, Szabo -pf, Hungaraton SLPX 11518 . |
