J.A.W.

Congratulations, Jim.

Well, what do you expect when the name Wynton Marsalis crops up here... (I can think of a few other names as well)

The Merrill is now gone.

Althought that is historically correct, as you might know, since Haydn was rather late in acquiring a fortepiano. What I found satisfying, too, is a well played clavichord, if you like the sound of that instrument. BTW - I never judge the sound of historic keyboard recordings from sound samples - MP3s are too LO-FI for the complex sound spectrum of these instruments. I agree. However, I have listened to fortepiano recordings on my system a few years ago (Ronald Brautigam in the Mozart sonatas is one of them) and I didn't like what I heard. It might all be historically correct, but that doesn't mean I have to like it

Why all the capitals?

Charles Tolliver's Mosaic Select and Helen Merrill's Mosaic Single Casa Forte are now in Mosaic's Last Chance category.

For those who are looking for his Chet Baker bio: the author's name is Jeroen de Valk - see my post #3.

In this case it isn't

The Dutch author's name is Jeroen de Valk (Valk is Dutch for falcon).

Britain's Jerry Sandusky? The Independent: Jimmy Savile scandal

MG, why not do an internet search? I found this, this and this - and there's more.

As I said on the thread about this series I got Lou Donaldson's Midnight Sun and it sounds fine. No problems with loudness and harshness.

check post #6. Oops, sorry, missed that one. Try this: Or this: I meant the singing

Bill Brimfield obit

Miss AM Can't say I'm impressed...

Sorry to hear this. I guess Fred Anderson Quartet, Vol.1 (Asian Improv), also with Brimfield, is no longer regularly available. It goes for ridiculous prices on Amazon...

Check out the Meister Konzerte box. It's packed with tons of wonderful historical recordings with perfectly judged restoration. I've heard that the Furtwangler box has great sound too. Membran has some excellent titles, particularly the ones from the past year or so. As I said, to each their own. I'd like to leave it at that. Correct and I was the one who said that, mentioning excellent remasterings of EMI recordings by Naxos as an example. Well, I started record collecting in the late 1950s and CD collecting in 1995 and already have a very wide selection to choose from, so you don't have to advise me. I'll avoid those public-domain labels as much as I can. And as I said earlier I disagree with you about sound quality; it varies from disc to disc, not only the masterings but also the recordings themselves - some are great, some are so-so, some are awful. One of the problems with many "modern" classical recordings is the use of multi-miking, which can introduce all sorts of distortion. We'll probably never agree, so let's leave it at that here too.

Up

It's even easier: I decided to give it a rest

I recently got the Bernstein symphonies box. I had a bunch of these recordings on LP back in the day, but they didn't sound anything like the vibrant, dynamic and present recording quality on the remastered CDs. Likewise with the Rubinstein box. The first couple of dozen CDs in the set covering the 78 era sounds better than it ever has before... much better than the 78s themselves... I have many of them. In the past ten years, digital technology has gone a long way to correcting the noise in old recordings. It still takes a remastering engineer with a good ear and knowledge about how to properly apply the tools, but it can truly work wonders. In general, even the recent public domain box sets (like Furtwangler and Russian Piano legends on Membran) sound excellent. What used to be true isn't as true any more. Really good old recordings, like the Mercury Living Presence, Decca Sound and RCA Living Stereo boxes sound phenominal. Better than many recent recordings. I suspect EMI did a great deal of remastering in the early days of digital restoration and now they're stuck with sub par CD masters. They're the exception, not the rule. I had several Membran CDs. As a public-domain label they have no access to original sources like mastertapes and what was used before those and they use whatever they can lay their hands on. To my ears the sound on their CDs was pumped-up, harsh and heavily no-noised, to the detriment of the music. To each their own. Examples of excellent remasters are the RCA "Living Stereo" hybrid SACDs; they're wonderful. Many EMI remasters from the 1990s onwards are marred by noise reduction.

Well, that's very relative. To my ears what I would call "modern" mastering makes recordings painful to listen to, with added digital compression/limiting/reduced dynamics (up to the point that there are no dynamics at all, as happened with many rock remasters; they're just LOUD)/ noise reduction/boosted highs and what have you. On the other hand, carefully remastered recordings can sound great.

What Lon said.

Hm, finding one or two satisfactory (at least to me ) versions turns out to be far more difficult than I thought. I've listened over and over again to audio samples of the Staier (fortepiano), Hamelin and Bavouzet discs and a few others (all on piano) and none of them make me very happy. As I've said several times before I don't like fortepiano and, although Staier's instrument on his set doesn't sound bad, I can't get used to the thin tone and the lack of dynamic range and depth*. On the other hand a Steinway or Bösendorfer often seems to sound too "big" for these sonatas, at least to my ears. As for the various interpretations I've listened to, I've yet to hear a CD or set that I find convincing. I threw Schornsheim's big set out of the equation earlier on; I don't like the harpsichord in these works and the fortepiano, well, I've said enough about that. [sigh] *A case in point is Malcolm Bilson's set with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists in Mozart's piano concertos. Bilson's fortepiano sounds thin against the orchestral background, it seems to drown as it were. Robert Levin's instrument in the later Mozart concertos with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music doesn't sound better, it's even thinner - although the piano/orchestra mixing on some of those CDs seems to be a bit better.

Someone should grab this. Great set at a great price.