David Ayers

Correct, though if CDs sell at all in Japan I think this series could run to a second hundred.... when ordering just now i realize i've been confusing 'out there' and 'outward bound' (obviously assuming the latter ).... Presumably you want both...

Flurin has a great point about the integration of the sax in the sound of the band. It may be it is not helped by the mix of some of those live recordings - it tends to sit on top like a too-thin lead thread - a 'dirtier' mix might help. Though the mixes are dirty enough I suppose....

Still at a low price on amazon.co.uk, not quite as low as it was.

@erwbol - thanks for your post(s) - you are trying to tell us where there are masterings we haven't heard on US/EU versions, and saving us money on purchasing SHMs of masterings we already have. That is useful so thanks for taking the trouble.

It is a key distinction, and I'd add a third - as you say, is a new version of any kind true to the reality of the sounds, true to the tape, or (my addition) true to the feel of the original LP issue. All different things.

I've never seen that rear cover. Though I own the LP I bought it without the sleeve. I assumed that someone had for some reason stolen the cover from the store or that it was lost. I now realise that it had been destroyed as an act of mercy - either that or the store owner realised he would never sell the LP with the sleeve on....

I take it MDT, Crochet and Presto are classical music download sites. Do they all provide sleeve notes? Could you post links, please, as I've never heard of these firms? MG Man can navigate Africa with a broken compass and a map drawn on a rotting plane leaf in invisible ink, but he can't navigate google... Try the above company names plus 'classical'. These are CD stores. In fact you don't even need the word classical. But it's Crotchet not crochet. More musical that way.

Props to Minotaur and Written on the Skin, each of which I *think* has featured in more than one season (not sure...). Gawain certainly has featured in several seasons and the NMC recording will no doubt be a retread of the old Collins Classic version. BBCSO is performing a concert version of Gawain this season.

On Spotify then presumably? Thanks, I'll check it out. Did you check it out? I love this music although I don't think I would buy a hard copy....

Very cool - although in fact I was talking about more distant events than next week - but his is cool too...!!

Never too soon to discuss next season! The Barbican has just announced next season's fare (http://www.barbican.org.uk/classical1415/media/Barbican%20Classical%20Music%20Summary%20Sheet.pdf?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CCCLA200114A&utm_content=&spMailingID=44866873&spUserID=NDc3MDQwNjc3MQS2&spJobID=229086036&spReportId=MjI5MDg2MDM2S0). Dwarfing everything else is the visit of BPO with Ratte offering a Sibelius symphony cycle plus Mahler 2. Sold out already . Of the rest, LSO/Gergiev are concentrating on Russian staples, mainly Rachmaninov, with several appearances for Dennis Matsuev. Gergiev also brings the Mariinsky in Boris Godunov and a lesser-known Shchedrin opera, Levka. The rest of the LSO programme is fairly miscellaneous though with the usual scattering of stars. The BBCSO offers a Nielsen cycle under Oramo who is recording the symphonies for BIS in Stockholm (traitor!) and a celebration of Boulez at 90 which promises many of my own favorites (though PB is not conducting). AAM's big offering is L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Several appearances of Joyce DiDonato and as usual Leonidas Kavakos. Rattle and Haitink are the most prominent of the LSO guest conductors (we *think* Rattle may be next in line after Gergiev). Much more of course (have a look!). Always happy to hear what is coming up around where other folks are.

Not in relation to CF, particularly, but a lot of tapes get released that are not much more than documents, and some people get recorded who honestly shouldn't - stuff that is fine if you happen to be at their gig but doesn't really stand up to even a single clinical listen. There are some so-so discs and even clunkers out there by some big names, let alone the rest. I think that's fine but it also calls for caution, and probably a really great label would be one where you *know* the quality control is high. There are other ways for labels to do great work, but the model of releasing just what the artists give you is going to have uneven results, to say the least.

Am I alone in my preference for early Beatles? All that time arguing in the studio...not good for a band...

Bit OT, but I see there are several Kirk Atlantics due on the Warner Japan wpcr series in February and March.

That is only really two CDs worth, so I wonder if that amounts to a set, or whether there is other material that might make up further discs.

Bohm's Ring still going for 17.12 UKP http://www.amazon.co.uk/Der-Ring-Des-Nibelungen-Wagner/dp/B00AX20AHI/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_36_WR7H?ie=UTF8&refRID=0D668D3SQJ5VY7G4R7DY

Spending a little time with Christie's version of Hippolyte et Aricie - the one Rameau opera with which I can say I am familiar. Sguud.

A familiar presence in London. I never realised he was 80!

Well we are often told that musicians didn't feel well-treated by labels, but it is really clear these performances are properly licensed and this has never been challenged. I just feel there is sometimes too much of a rush to denounce label practices. I know you didn't mean anything. Affinity was a label that served us well, even if apparently they may have occasionally seemed a little sharp to some musicians. Good haul, good price!

All good - but why boots, according to you?

Since I attend a cathedral I get to hear a lot of music performed, and I wonder if anyone else experiences music in this way. The usual communion service at my cathedral includes organ voluntaries at the beginning and end, parts of a sung mass (normally the Gloria, the Sanctus/Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei), and also a motet and a sung psalm, the motet being by a name composer, the psalm being sung as so-called Anglican chant. So today, for example, the voluntaries were by Vierne and Frescobaldi, the mass was Lassus' Missa super bel'amfitrit altera, and the motet was Esquivel. So for Anglicans interested in music in its living tradition this is good. Does anyone else get their music this way, of whatever kind? I posted in 'classical', of necessity, but this is rather why 'classical' generally has to appear in inverted commas. PS please can we avoid anything that belongs in a now defunct forum...

No argument on some of those catchy tunes from Les Indes galantes

I'm pretty sure that if this cost five times as much we'd all be rationalising why we *don't need it ...

I thought it was in mono.

A really good question, from my point of view. I understand the baroque well enough as to what it is, but as for favorite pieces outside some of the well-known and most recorded classics (some of which have been mentioned), I don't know what it means to really get into baroque. No need to discuss Bach, obviously, but even though I love to listen to Handel and Vivaldi singing, it is not that I really live with any of those works, outside Messiah and some classic Handel arias. I do think performance matters, though, for many of these works, outside Bach, as a disc of arias is a wholly different proposition from the operas which constitute the 'work', as so many works exist in only one recorded version, and as there are so many different ways of realizing the scores.