Jackson Browne..Running on Empty
Stockfisch..Vinyl Collection..Bassface Trio.
Sheherazade..Chesky..Chicago/Reiner.
Stockfisch..Vinyl Collection..Bassface Trio.
Sheherazade..Chesky..Chicago/Reiner.
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Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, Vol. 1 - Columbia CL 851 (wonderful music making from 1925 and 1927!) Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 1 - Kletzki/PhilharmoniaO, Pollini -pf, EMI ASD 370 (Testament reissue - superb) Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown; Lightfoot! Shelby Lynne, Just a Little Lovin' - Lost Highway 80009789 . |
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Actually, last night: Mahler's 4th Symphony...especially, the 3rd & 4th movements. Columbia Masterworks series. Bernstein conducting the NY Philharmonic. Reri Grist is the soprano soloist. Don't think it is that great a recording from a sonic or engineering point of view, but I greatly enjoy the "Poco Adagio" 3rd and Reri's singing in the 4th. |
Hit the area yard sales yesterday. Spent part of today cleaning and listening. Mussorgsky - Ravel "Pictures at an Exhibition" Wallenstein/Virtuoso Symphony of London (Audio Fidelity FCS 50,004) Corigliano "Concerto For Piano and Orchestra" Hilde Somer (Piano)/San Antonio Symphony/Alessandro (Mercury SR 90517) This one is a Marc Aubort engineering effort. Enormous dynamic range, looked like it was in pretty good shape. Ran it through the Loricraft and played it. Tons of noise throughout. Sounds almost like breakup or distortion, possibly due to some gunk deep down in the grooves. I am going to work on this one as the recording itself is superb, and the performance interesting. |
More chamber music tonight starting with Franz Berwald's "String Quarter in g" played by the Chilingirian Quartet on CRD 1061. The CRD label (England) is well worth searching out for those who enjoy chamber music. Most of the recordings are by the excellent engineer Bob Auger who consistently captures exceptionally natural sounding, simply miked and transparent recordings. . |
Music of William Alwyn, twentieth century English composer: Rhapsody for Pf Qt Str Qt 3 Str Trio (1962) > the Quartet of London, on Chandos ABRD 1153 - yes it's a digital recording, but it sounds great "Naiades," Fantasy-Sonata for Flute and Harp Divertimento for solo Flute (1939) Mirages, Song Cycle for Baritone & Piano > on Lyrita SRCS 61 - wonderful recording! In the process of breaking in a Walker Audio Velocitor and new power cord supplying the turntable and phono stage. All I can say thus far is: "Wow!" This device is not leaving our system. |
It's nice to see that after 4 years and over 1200 posts, this thread still has life! Thank you to everyone who has contributed your listening choices. I know that my eyes have been opened to investigating music I might not otherwise have tried; thanks to what I have learned here. Keep those posts coming!! |
We just replaced the input tubes in our amps, so we've been listening this afternoon to a lot of old favorites (forgive me for so many repeats): Malcolm Arnold "Eight English Dances" with Arnold/LPO on Lyrita SRCS 108 Ravel "Rapsodie Espagnole" and Rachmaninoff "Isle of the Dead" with Reiner/CSO on RCA LSC 2183 (Classic) Beethoven "Kreutzer Sonata" with Heifitz on LSC 2577 (Cisco) Shostakovich "Age of Gold Ballet suite" with Martinon/LSO on RCA LSC 2322-45 (Classic) Holst "Savitri" with I.Holst/J.Baker/ECO on Argo ZNF 6 Holst "Double Concerto for 2 Violins and Orchestra" with I.Holst/ECO on Lyrita SRCS 44 Holst "Planets" with Previn/LSO on EMI ASD 3002 Sibelius "Finlandia" Mackerras/LondonPromsO on RCA LSC 2336-45 (Classic) . Conclusion about the new input tubes? Big improvement: greater clarity; lower distortion; far less congestion during orchestral peak volumes when everyone is going for all they're worth. Next, go back and put Extreme SST on the tube pins and allow that to break in, then on to replacing tubes in the phono stage. Regards to all, |
Looking at Storm Thorgerson's book "Mind Over Matter 4 : the Images of Pink Floyd" (Omnibus Press, ISBN 978-1-84609-763-8) and listening to David Gilmour "On an Island" (EMI 0946 3 55695 1 3) Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" (30th Anniversary reissue) Pink Floyd "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (Columbia PC2 44484) |
A good part of today was spent doing some turntable finetuning in anticipation of making a few additional changes in the system in the next few weeks (rolling some tubes, adding a Velocitor, power cord, and HDLs). So, today's listening was to multiple repeats of Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole" with Reiner/CSO on RCA LSC 2183 ("The Reiner Sound" Classic Records 33 rpm version). (Yes, the 45 rpm version is better, but we used the 33 which sounded pretty phenomenal after a careful cleaning with Prelude.) Final result after 3 hours? No changes, just satisfaction that we already had everything aligned as optimally as we could achieve. Is this anal retentive or what? ;-) We also spent some time confirming for Ann my earlier conclusion that the Walker Prelude 3-step cleaning process makes a very material improvement over our long term standard cleaning fluid and that the Talisman makes a consistent improvement and is well worth using before each play. Tannahill Weavers "Tannahill Weavers" - Green Linnett SIF 3101 Dvorak "Cello Concerto" - Dorati/Starker/LSO, Mercury SR 90303 (Speakers Corner reissue) Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tale of the Tsar Saltan Suite" and other pieces - Ansermet/OSR, Decca SXL 2221 (Speakers Corner reissue) "The Reiner Sound" Reiner/CSO, RCA LSC 2183 (Classic Records reissue) . |
Rush- I had that same Vaughan Williams in my hands earlier this evening, but slid it back in the rack in favor of "Golden Dance Hits of 1600" (Archiv 2533 184) Others this evening: Haydn "Symphony No. 99 in E Flat" Woldike/Vienna State Opera Orchestra (Vanguard SRV-129) Beethoven "Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61" Bernstein/New York Philharmonic/Isaac Stern (Columbia MG 31418) Rick Wakeman "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" (A&M SP 4361) Benjamin Britten "Peter Grimes Highlights" Britten/Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Decca/London OS 26004) Ry Cooder/V.M. Bhatt "A Meeting by the River" (Water Lily Acoustics/APO APW 29) 45 rpm reissue. |
Tonight it was The Beatles, "Abbey Road" to warm up the system. Followed by Carly Simon, "No Secrets", then Melissa Manchester "Greatest Hits", followed by Suzanne Vega, "Solitude Standing" and Joni Mitchell, "Hejira". Ended with Steely Dan, "Aja". Excellent wine, excellent cheese, excellent fruit, excellent music. Jan |
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool (new 180g reissue on Yep Roc) I had forgotten how much I love this album - it's just one incredibly catchy song after another. The new remaster is wonderfully punchy and does great service to Lowe's production, too bad my copy is one of the dirtiest and noisiest new records I've ever bought. Hopefully I can find a friend with a cleaning machine who's willing to give it a spin, because my efforts at cleaning it manually aren't doing jack. |
The menu tonight: Brahms "Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90" Walter/NY Philharmonic (Columbia Masterworks "six eye" ML 5126) Beethoven "Symphony No.1 in C, Op. 21" Ansermet/L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande (Decca/London CS 6388) Miles Davis "Sketches of Spain" (Columbia PC 8271) Reissue Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington "Recording Together For The First Time" (Roulette SR52074) Classic Records 200g reissue Bill Evans Trio "Sunday At The Village Vanguard" (Riverside 9376) OJC 180g reissue All accompanied by a very nice 2005 Bordeaux |
Montepilot, I have not had the opportunity. My copy is the original Decca/London, from which the Speaker's Corner reissue was made. I can only imagine immersing myself in that piece on quiet, heavy vinyl. The Argenta is my personal favorite reading of "Symphonie Fantastique". I have many of the Speaker's Corner reissues and have never been disappointed in their quality. Tonight we are listening to: Yehudi Menuhin/Ravi Shankar "West Meets East" (Angel 36418) Albeniz "Iberia" Turina "Danzes Fantasticas" Ansermet/L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande (Decca/London CS 6194) Manuel de Falla/Alicia de Larrocha "Dances from "La Vida Brave", "Three Cornered Hat", "El Amor Brujo", "Four Spanish Pieces", "Fantasia Betica"" (Vox Turnabout TV 34742) |
Finishing off with Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade" Dorati/Minneapolis; "Russian Easter Overture" Dorati/LSO (Mercury SR90332) "Great Music by Russian Composers" release. I really like the performance of both of these pieces on this LP. The Scheherazade is a little tipped up, and doesn't quite get the visceral impact that the Reiner/Chicago does on RCA. The sound of the Russian Easter Overture is a little more balanced. Two different orchestra and halls. |
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Berlioz "Symphonie Fantastique Op, 14" Argenta/Paris Conservatoire (London CS 6025) A "blueback" pressing. Some surface noise to listen through, but a wonderful reading of this piece. With a pretty cheesy cover to boot. Beethoven "Symphony No. 8 in F Op.93" Ansermet/L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande (London CS 6388) |
Two different performances of Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastic. One with Massimo Freccia, conducting The Royal Philharmonic on Chesky. The other with Thomas Beecham conducting the French National Radio Orchestra on HMV Concert Classics. I love both performances with the Chesky having the edge in sonics. Gil Evans, Out of The Cool. Classic Records Impulse Reissue. Especially La Nevada. Highly recommended. Happy to hear of Rushton's comments on the Enigma Variations. I recently purchased this record but have not yet heard it. I first heard this record on the original shaded dog label in a collectors shop more than 10 years ago. He was asking $150.00 for the record which was way out of my range at the time. I was pleasantly surprised to see it reissued by Classic Records. I hope the "bright & hard" sound Rushton experienced does not overshadow my memories of the excellent original. |
Elgar, "Enigma Variations" - Monteux/LSO (RCA LSC 2418, Classic Records reissue) - another excellent Kenneth Wilkinson engineered recording for RCA under contract with Decca. One of the great performances of this work. The Classic Records reissue is a bit bright and "hard" sounding, but with excellent resolution and full range sound. Schubert, "Symphonies 1 and 2" - Bohm/BerlinPO (DGG 2530 216) - very nice performances Schubert, "Arpeggione Sonata for Cello and Piano" - Rostropovich -vc, Britten -pf (Decca reissue on King SuperAnalogue 9123) - superb performance . |
Today, so far: Faure "Requiem Op. 48" Chorus and Orchestra of the Church of St - Eustache, Paris/Emile Martin (Nonesuch H-7158) Emerson Lake & Palmer "Emerson Lake & Palmer" (Cotillion SD 9040) Bill Evans Trio "Waltz For Debbie" (Riverside 9399) Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" (Columbia Half - Speed Mastered Promo copy) |
COB - Moyshe McStiff & the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart This is a wonderful folk album, COB (Clive's Original Band) was lead by Clive Palmer, a founding member of the Incredible String Band who left to travel the world and came back brimming with new ideas. It's one of the most intensely personal statements I've ever heard, with all three members pulling their weight instrumentally and vocally. Sunbeam Records recently released an expanded 180g 2xLP, well worth checking out for fans of folk and psychedelic music. others waiting to be spun: Anne Briggs - Sing a Song for You LP Washington Phillips - What Are They Doing in Heaven Today? LP and i listened to Amy Winehouse - Back to Black this morning. |
I love this recording and performance, too. Britten was one of the rare few composers whose efforts as a conductor of his own music created definitive performances of his works. benjamin britten - "young person's guide to the orchestra & serenade for tenor, horn and strings," on the decca/london label |
benjamin britten - "young person's guide to the orchestra & serenade for tenor, horn and strings," on the decca/london label cs 6398, u.k. press. conducted by benjamin britten (c1964), i absolutely love this record. found in the $1 bin at the habitat thrift store, bought on a whim, and NM/NM to boot. color me enlightened. |
Sigur Ros "( )" (Fat Cat Records fatlp22) Cowboy Junkies "The Trinity Session" (RCA/BMG Canada 8568-1-R) Patricia Barber "Modern Cool" (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 3-45005) 45 rpm Beethoven "Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"" Ormady/Philadelphia Orchestra (Columbia D7S 745) From the box set "Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies" |
Thanks for that Rush! I am anxiously awaiting the arrivals of my tapes and modded machine from The Tape Project. Given what you have just described above, it should be worth the wait. This may be the only thing out there that will give my vinyl reproduction a run for it's money. In addition to the "Arnold Overture" the coming release of "Waltz For Debbie" and "Saxophone Colossus" should be a real treat. My playback will be via a Technics 1500 with the heads reworked and the output section rewired to be fed to a Bottlehead Seduction that has been built to be a tape head preamp. |
This afternoon was a meeting of the local audio group, and our host is a subscriber to The Tape Project series of reel to reel tapes. He had the first three releases: one-to-one direct copies from the master tape, 15 ips, mastered on top quality tape decks and electronics. WOW!! First up was the Malcolm Arnold "Arnold Overture" from Reference Recordings. Simply vast soundstaging, incredible dynamic range and immaculate resolution. This is what I hear from the best 45 rpm vinyl reissues, only more so. Then the Jacqui Naylor and finally the Dave Alvin recording. But it was the Arnold that stole my heart and stole the day. Our host's playback deck was a 40 year old Ampex with tube electronics, dead stock with no updates or modifications. And it sounded beautiful. I can only begin to think how much better it will sound as he gets around to updating the electronics section or replacing the heads. . |