Classical music on the 'table tonight:
Haydn String Quartets, op33, with the Tatrai Quartet (Hungaraton SLPX 11887/9) - sinewy, sustantive, performances - great stuff. Of many different groups, the Tatrai always strike hit the right mark in this music for me.
Gershwin, Porgy & Bess (highlights) (RCA LSC 2679) with the incomparable Leontyne Price and the outstanding performances of William Warfield as Porgy and McHenry Boatwright as Sportin' Life. Wonderful cast in an excellent performance. I'm always disappointed that it's over so quickly.
Coming up, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with Reiner and the CSO (RCA LSC 2395)
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Mea culpa: McHenry Boatwright as Crown and John Bubbles as Sportin' Life. Somehow didn't think what I'd written above looked right. |
The pop and rock music is coming out of boxes and onto shelves over the past few days, so tonights listening has been sampling from the past:
Elvis Presley - Elvis' Golden Records (mono RCA reissue - poor sonics, but what a performer!)
Willie Nelson - Stardust (Columbia JC 35305) (I really enjoy Willie's voice, but the arrangements on this LP are the definition of "boring")
Queen - A Night at the Opera (just the standard US Elektra pressing, still not bad and a lot of fun to hear)
Keb' Mo' - S/T, Epic 478173 (Absolute Analogue reissue, some great sonics, at last!)
Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (Columbia PC 9913) We lost her too soon.
Janis Joplin - Pearl (Columbia PC 30322)
Weepin' Willie Robinson - At Last On Time (Analogue Productions APO 2009) (rest in peace Mr. Robinson - Glad Chad was able to capture what he did, wish there was more)
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert's Die Winterreise, with Jörg Demus on piano, Deutsche Grammophon 2707 028
Recorded in a studio and close miked. Fischer-Dieskau's baritone is crystal clear as is the piano that accompanies him. It's as if both were about 6 ft away in your living room, doing the parlor thing like you see in the movies.
Magical.
David |
Very cool, David. It has amazed me over the years how well Deutsche Grammophon recorded vocal recital and small chamber music when compared to the hash they often made of orchestral recordings after the mid-'60s. Great to learn of another good example. Thanks!
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Last night was more jazz and pop. I think tonight will have to be a return to classical music. At any rate, the particularly interesting records from last night were all well recorded vocal:
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Impulse GR-157 on a Speakers Corner reissue.
Mary Stallings, "Fine and Mellow" on Clarity CNB 1001, mastering by Tim de Paravicini, a really great job of capturing her, particularly on side 1.
Eva Cassidy, "Songbird" on a S&P Records reissue (SNP 501). My wife always enjoys hearing the Cassidy's rendition of "Fields of Gold," the first cut on side 1. Tonight she wanted to listen all the way through the side. Another outstanding Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray mastering job.
Anyone know of any Jane Monheit on vinyl?
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Indeed, Rushton, that's a lesson I've learned the hard way. Based on a few great recordings I stumbled across, I made the erroneous assumption that all DG vinyl must be pretty good. I bought a lot of them back when my rig wasn't nearly as revealing and I'm only now realizing I wasted my money on many of them. I should do some study to see which DG engineers did the good stuff and which the bad. There's generally a pattern, as we've all learned.
I also have to put in another plug for the Enoch Light recordings on the Command label. Sirspeedy turned me on to these; I actually had a few in my collection but it had been years since I'd listened to them. It's lounge music/space age bachelor pad/exotica stuff, so it's not to everyone's taste, but the sonics are absolutely stunning. The width and depth of the soundstage is hard to believe. The two series I have are Provocative Percussion and Persuasive Percussion; there may be more. Even if you don't like the music, they make great demo discs!
David |
Hi David,
I know the Command label through some of their classical recordings. As I recall, the classical records sound as though the master tape must be pretty well engineered, but they were pressed on poor vinyl and I've never found any that sound very good from my used purchases due to their poor condition surfaces (even after a good cleaning). I now don't try to buy them.
I agree with you about a pattern with the DGG recording engineers. I need to go back and listen with this in mind, too. I have found a few later DGG orchestral recordings that I thought sounded really good, so I'll have to do some comparative listening and find the key. FWIW, the recording I thought was well engineered was recorded by Hans-Peter Scheigmann, Stravinsky's Violin Concerto with Perlman and Ozawa (2531 110). I've also liked some of the work by Werner Wolf and Klaus Scheibe. All three tend to deliver a more natural listening perspective in their recordings.
Right now I'm listening to a recording made by one of my heroes, Kenneth Wilkinson, on Lyrita: Alan Rawsthorne's Symphony No. 1 on Lyrita SRCS 90. Really nice that he could be making recordings such as this at the same time as he was making some excessively over-miked muck for Decca in LA and Chicago. This recording harks back to his premier earlier days with Decca.
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Iron & Wire -The Shepherd's Dog on Sub Pop
Art Pepper -Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section on Fantasy 45RPM reissue... what can I say but, the best!
Of Montreal -Satanic Panic in the Attic on Polyvinyl Records
Happy Listening! |
Grant Green - Iron City: Grant Green had the lightest touch, he just seemed to glide across the fretboard. But he could swing hard too! He was a particularly effective rhythm player. His comping behind Big John Patton on Samba de Orfeu was propulsive, snappy and perfectly complementary. |
Siliab, thanks for your additional comments about Grant Green. Others have offered some additonal comments in their posts here as well and I want to thank all of you because I find your comments interesting and educational.
Good listening to you, |
You're welcome Rushton. Good listening to you too! |
Herbie Hancock- Takin' off on Cisco/Blue Note
Very nice!
Happy Listening! |
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A Sunday Morning –
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Louis Armstrong - “Under the Stars” 33 rpm Verve
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Louis Armstrong - “ Under the Stars” Classic Records 45 rpm re-issue
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Phoebe Snow - “Phoebe Snow” Shelter Records - SR2109 - great recording ..I have a sealed copy of the DCC version think I've got to open it, clean it and compare the two.
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Malcom Arnold - “English, Scottish, and Cornish Dances - Lyrita SRCS. 109 - a recent repeat, but too good not to...
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Rachmaninov - Symphonic Dances / Vocalise - Dallas Symphony Orchestra / Donald Johanos Conducting - Athena Analogue Recording 1988 ALSW -10001 - Another repeat, but again, well worth it.
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Art Garfunkel - “Breakaway” Columbia 1975
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Henryk Szeryng “ Brahms Violin Concerto” - London Symphony Orchestra / Antal Dorati Conducting - Mercury Living Presence Stereo from 35 MM Magnetic film Recording.
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Just ran through Jim Hall's "Concierto" LP. It sounded so good this morning I just picked up the stylus and listened to the side all over again :-)
Enjoy,
Bob |
Listening yesterday with friends over. After some of the usual LPs to orient folks to the sound of my system, we moved on to...
Malcom Arnold - “English, Scottish, and Cornish Dances - Lyrita SRCS. 109 - Cello and I must be on the same wavelength. We played the second English Dances and I don't think I've heard it sound better than yesterday.
Keith Jarrett - "The Celestial Hawk" - for orchestra, percussion and piano. We all sat through the entire first side without a word - intriguing music making. (ECM 1175)
Ry Cooder - "Jazz" (Reprise) - fun stuff with influences from all over the place.
Wagner - Various Orchestral Only pieces, Leinsdorf on Sheffield Labs LAB 7, direct to disc.
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The greatest enjoyment is always sharing music and conversation with friends. |
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Ruston,
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I know you have listed some of your recommendations more than once on Audiogon, but I would be interested in your current top 5 or 10 knock your socks off, hate to live with out LP's (any genre).
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Thanks / Rgds,
Larry
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Hi Larry (Cello),
That sort of list is likely to change next week, but based on what I've been listening to lately here are some LPs I could offer at the moment given their outstanding sonics and performance/music content (all based on my listening priorities of course)...
Shostakovich - "Symphony No. 1" coupled with "The Age of Gold Ballet Suite," Martinon/LSO, RCA LSC 2322-45 (Classic Records 45rpm reissue, not the 33rpm)
Shostakovich - "String Quartet No. 8," Borodin Quartet, Decca SXL 6036 (Speakers Corner reissue)
Stravinsky - "Firebird Ballet" (complete), Dorati/LSO, Mercury SR 90226-45 (Classic Records 45rpm reissue) (I've mentioned this LP many times.)
Stravinsky - "Petrouchka," Danon/RPO, Chesky CR42 (180gram) (Alternatively the Ansermet performance on Decca SXL 2011 (Athena ALSS 10004 reissue) is also excellent. I haven't yet listened to the Speakers Corner reissue of this to compare to the Athena.)
Beethoven - "Septet in E, op20," Members of the Vienna Octet, Decca on King SuperAnalogue 9111 reissue.
Louis Armstrong - "St. James Infirmary" from the Classic Records 45rpm reissue of just two cuts from "Satchmo Plays King Oliver" on Audio Fidelity ST-91058 -45. (Seems like this LP always comes out for new visitors here.)
Duke Ellington - "This One's for Blanton," with Ray Brown, Pablo 2310-721 -45 (from the Analogue Productions Fantasy 45rpm reissue series.) (This is just an example as virtually any from this reissue series would be on my list. They're superb; get them while you can. Same for the new Blue Note series from both Music Matters and Analogue Productions.)
"Musique Arabo-Andalouse," Paniagua/Atrium Musicae de Madrid, Harmonia Mundi HM 389 (Music of Arabic-Spain of the 9th-13th Centuries)
"La Spagna," Paniagua/Atrium Musicae de Madrid, BIS LP 162/163 (Music of 15th, 16th and 17th century Spain.)
Mozart, Horn Concertos, McGegan/PhilBarO, Greer -hn, Harmonia Mundi/USA HMU 7012 (Superb recording by Peter McGrath, with performances by Lowell Greer on natural (valveless) horn that blow me away.)
Vivaldi, Flute Concertos, McGegan/PhilBarO, See -fl, Harmonia Mundi/USA HMC 5193 (Another superb recording by Peter McGrath.)
"Italian Violin Music 1600-1750," Banchini -vn, Darmstadt -vc, Klimo Open Window OW 002 (for baroque violin, exceptionally well played and recorded)
So, here's just a smattering of LPs that immediately come to mind as ones I'd hate to be without. There are many more that could be listed, and next week my list might be different, but these are what I've been pulling back out for listening recently.
On another front are those really outstanding reissue classical LPs that are still available new from one or another of the mail order retailers. Many have already gone out of print and others are near to doing so. I recently pulled together a list to recommend for a friend. If this is of interest, let me know.
Cheers, |
BTW, for many of the LPs I've listed above, the "knock your socks off" part comes from their naturalness of timbre and low level resolution/detail, not the usual sort of in your face blast that we audiophiles are often accused of preferring.
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Rushton,
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Thanks for your usual over the top and greatly appreciated effort. I like the music that you are recommending and looking forward to the performances and the sonics.
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Best Regards,
Larry
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You're welcome, Larry. I'll look forward to reading about the music you're enjoying, too.
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Tonight...
Ben Webster, "Soulville" - Verve 8274 (Speakers Corner reissue) - yeah, it's great.
Skip James, "Today!" - Vanguard VSD 79219 (Pure Pleasure reissue mastered by Hoffman and Gray) - very clean and natural sound; recommended.
John Lee Hooker, "Sings the Blues (That’s my story)" - Riverside OBC-538 (Analogue Productions reissue)
John Lee Hooker, "Burnin' (1961)" - Get Back GET7502 (buy for the music not the sound, which is grainy and aggressive)
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Led Zeppelin, 200g Classic Rock pressing of "Houses of the Holy" :-) |
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
I just got a new and fairly ratty CBS pressing of this classic slab of proto-Punk ca. 1973. David Bowie rescued this imploding/exploding combo from drug-induced oblivion just long enough for them to wax this great, great record. I hear the inspiration for every Punk band from the Sex Pistols to the White Stripes. As Jimmy Miller used to instruct folks when listening to the Stones, this record should be played LOUD!!! |
I can enjoy "played LOUD" but tonight has been a softer evening after last night's close with The Who's "Who's Next" played loud (Classic Records reissue, and it is really good). Tonight's softer listening has seen:
J.S. Bach, "Flute Sonatas" - with Simon Preston, Jordi Savall, and Trevor Pinnock in an excellent Bob Auger engineered recording on CRD 1014/5. (Bob Auger is another of a small cadre of recording engineers who consistently achieve outstanding and supremely natural sonic results from a minimalist and minimally miked recording technique. Of course, it certainly helps when recording world class performers such as Savall, Pinnock and Preston.)
J.S. Bach, "Suites for Solo Cello" - with Janos Starker, cello, on the superb Speakers Corner reissue of Mercury SR3-9016. (An outstanding 3LP set to get while you still can.)
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Allow me to reiterate this thought: if you love classical chamber music, you will never forgive yourself if you fail to get this 3LP set of the Bach "Suites of Solo Cello" while it is still available. J.S. Bach, "Suites for Solo Cello" - with Janos Starker, cello, on the superb Speakers Corner reissue of Mercury SR3-9016. (An outstanding 3LP set to get while you still can.) |
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I second and third Rushton's recommendation that you don't miss out on getting the Bach Cello Suites / Janos Starker on Speaker's Corner.
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It is all he says and more....
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Rgds,
Larry
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Tonight was loud for me too:
Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Trilogy
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Recording quality in the 70s was all over the map, sometimes even track to track on the same album, but there was a lot of great music made...
David |
Last night was a Celtic night again with:
Ossian - "St. Kilda Wedding" Iona IR 001
Ossian - "Seal Song" Iona IR 002
- a great traditional music group with Billy Jackson on harp
and some good "new" folk from the '70s with John O'Connor "Songs for our times" on Flying Fish FF 331. The 30 minutes spent with Mary O'Hara just doesn't count.
Tonight is starting with Haydn symphonies played by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on Philips. I really enjoy Marriner's way with Haydn. It's not period instruments, but it has the light touch and sympathetic performance of Marriner and the Academy that I find very enjoyable:
Haydn, Symphonies 52 and 53, Marriner/ASMF, Philips 6500 114
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Arturo Delmoni: Songs My Mother Taught Me
Bill Evans Quintessence Analogue Productions 45 rpm, esp. Sweet Dulcinea
Prokofiev: Love For Three Oranges Suite, Classic Records 45 series.
Has anyone heard the Buck Clayton album "How Hi the Fi" on Pure Pleasure Records? I have heard the performance is outstanding. What about the sonics?
Thanks, |
Sorry, haven't heard the Buck Clayton, but I really like the three selections you've been listening to. I find the Delmoni particularly delightful.
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I started at the very beginning of this thread to review all the entries made over past couple of years and came across some excellent selections. One entry was Rushton's recommendation of IL Cornetto. This generated great interest at the time, only to find out that slipknot had probably purchased the last copy at Elusive disc. Well here is some good news. Just for the heck of it I went to Elusive disc online site and purchased a copy today. They currently have it in stock. Hope you acquire a copy if you came up empty handed many months ago.
Another entry was 2 albums by Doc Watson. Home Again & Southbound. Since my interest is largely jazz, classical and some rock my knowledge of folk music is extremely limited. I would appreciate any input on these two records musically & sonically, as I am sure copies will not last indefinitely.
Most recent listening: Stravinsky's Pulcinella on Argo
Gil Evans: Out of the cool. Speaker's corner impulse reissue. |
Montepilot-
You won't regret either of your two purchases. With respect to "Il Cornetto", the sonics and performance are wonderful. keep in mind that the music is very delicate, but very revealing of inner detail - a great test for your systems abilities to resolve all that is there. A great listen for fans of early music performed on original instruments.
"Home Again" is another performance and sonics blockbuster, showcasing Doc Watson's mix of folk and front porch bluegrass style. His picking on "Matty Groves" is beautiful. His sense of humor is really evident in his take on "Froggy Went A-Courtin'"
It's great to hear "Il Cornetto" is still available. I recommend it to anyone reading this thread who enjoys early music, without reservation. |
Congratulations on finding a copy of Il Cornetto!
The Doc Watson records are great sonically. I use Home Again regularly as a demo record for people new to my system. Musically, Doc Watson is one of the great figures of traditional American acoustic folk guitar and banjo music. He is an excellent guitarist (both flatpicking and fingerpicking style) with excellent interpretations of the traditional music he plays on these two albums. His albums are a good first exposure to this kind of music.
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As usual, Slipknot1 and I are in perfect agreement, down to the cuts on Home Again.
Cheers! |
Thanks very much for the recommendations. Time to pull out the checkbook again! |
A friend of mine gave me a bunch of LPs on the condition that I transfer them to my music server and burn him some CDs. So it may come as a surprise to those of you who know my classical tastes, but the first few evenings of this undertaking have consisted of listening to a box of the entire Beatles catalog (Japanese pressings of the English albums). Got through Beatles for Sale last night, starting with Help tonight. What I find to be a lot of fun is reading the liner notes for the first two albums and wondering if in his wildest dreams the writer would have predicted what the Beatles would have become.
Not all of the albums I'm recording are of this quality, of course. For example, I also recorded the multicolored vinyl of the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra's Thus Spake Kazoosthra, truly a high water mark of the US recording industry. |
Cold weather has driven me down into my listening room this evening. Last three LPs: Coltrane Interstellar Space, Jaco Pastorius eponymous, Casino Royale original Colgems stereo pressing... |
Murcof's Cosmos. Belle and sabastian's The man with arab strap. Underworld's Oblivion with Bells. |
Tonight has been a jazz evening with:
Miles Davis, "Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet" Prestige 7166-45 (Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue) - great recording, fantastic sonics.
John Coltrane, "Ballads" Impulse AS-32 (Speakers Corner reissue) - very nicely re-mastered.
John Coltrane, "Live at the Vanguard" Impulse AS-10 (Universal Japan reissue) - perhaps it's the quality of the underlying recording, or the live venue, but not as nicely rendered as the Speakers Corner reissue of "Ballads." Still, a great recording musically in 'Trane's more avant garde vein.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, "The Big Beat" Blue Note 84029-45 (Music Matters 45rpm reissue) - just one word: GET THESE WHILE YOU CAN. This is going to be a great reissue series judging by what I'm hearing in the first two releases of the series. These will not last.
Playing now: Creedence Clearwater Revival from the 45 rpm box set. What? You didn't get this box? You're missing some sonics about as close to hearing the master tape as I can imagine. This is rock music about as well recorded as rock has ever been recorded, and available on vinyl with sonics I couldn't have imagined when I listened to this music so many years ago. Still available.
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Spyro Gyra, "Rites of Summer". Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever". Rickie Lee Jones, BSK 3296. Chuck Mangione, "Children of Sanchez". Donald Fagan, "Morph the Cat". |
Relaxin' with early Dylan: the Sundazed mono reissues of
"Bob Dylan"
"The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"
"The Times They are a-Changin'"
"Highway 61 Revisited"
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Rushton,
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Do you use a Mono cartridge for your Mono's ?
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Rgds,
Larry
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Hi, Larry (Cello). No, I only use the highest quality stereo catridge I can afford. I can hear a difference for the better using a comparably high quality mono cartridge, but I'd rather spend those resources elsewhere on the system at this point. Also, the Walker TT is, at least for now, a one tonearm table.
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buddy holly, 49yrs since "the day the music died" feb 3 1949 |
Quartango by Musica Viva 1985. It's a fun album. Very lively and well recorded. MV1014 |
Falla, "Three Cornered Hat" - Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2296 (Speakers Corner reissue)
Greg Brown, "The Poet Game" - Red House RHR 68
Billy Joel, "An Innocent Man" - Columbia QC 38837
Copland, "Appalachian Spring" - Susskind/LSO, Everest LPZ 2034 (DCC reissue, Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray remastering) (truly excellent sonics in this DCC remastering; betters the orginal in many respects)
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Ravel, Rapsodie Espagnole-Paray/Detroit Symphony (Speakers Corner 45 rpm) After several months I finally opened to listen tonight. WOW WEE! The Habanera & Feria movements will knock your socks off! The reason it took so long to open this record is that I've owned the CD version when it first came out years ago and it always bored me. I could never listen through the entire piece. Now I know it was the CD recording, not the music. Highly recommended in Vinyl format especially the 45 rpm version.
Grieg: "Peer Gynt" Oivin Fjeldstad/London Sym. Decca (Speakers Corner Reissue)
Sonny Rollins: "Our Man In Jazz"-Classic Records Reissue. Listened to side one, Oleo,25 minutes long. Vivid live Jazz recording. Great improvisation.
It is so gratifying when good music & sound come together to put a warm satisfying smile on your face.
I recommend opening new records that you intend to keep for personal listening soon after purchase for inspection. I recently ordered the Great Jazz Reunion with Armstrong & Ellington. I rarely open records to play when I first receive them because of time constraints. Fortunately in this case I did. The record looked like it had been stepped on with golf shoes. I cannot imagine how this record could have ever been put into a sleeve and shipped. I did return it to Acoustic Sounds for a replacement. However what would have happened if I kept it unopened as long as the Mercury record listed above? What if it had gone out of print in the meantime? Buyer beware! |
Good recommendation and reminder, Montepilot: I recommend opening new records that you intend to keep for personal listening soon after purchase for inspection. I'm unfortunately in that uncomfortable position of having many new records that I've opened for a visual inspection but have not been able to listen to due to our move. I'm keeping fingers crossed as I start going through them: cleaning and then listening. I just looked online for the 45 rpm Ravel, "Rapsodie Espagnole" you mentioned above. I have the 33 rpm, but not the 45 rpm, and the only place I can find the 45 rpm is now asking $75 for it. Guess I should have gotten it a few years ago... If this is anything like the other 45 rpm Mercuries that Classic Records reissued (e.g., Prokofiev "Scythian Suite" and Stravinsky "Firebird"), I'm sure it's everything you describe. In each case, these 45s have been far superior to the rather disappointing 33 rpm versions. Cheers, |
Note that I'm referring above to the Classic Records 33 rpm Mercury reissues, only. The Speakers Corner 33 rpm Mercury reissues and been outstanding, and I highly recommend those.
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