mikeweil

Done.

Thanks!

As my financial situation returned to normal today, I will order a copy of the Fischer ... Are there sound samples somewhere of the Bill Dixon? I'd like to get an idea of this before I hit the button ...

Just checked Yates' Handel CDs - they were recorded in Fonde Abbey, Somerset, on a copy of the Ruckers harpsichord kept in the Musée Unterlinden at Colmar. Although I prefer harpsichord in more intimate chamber settings, I must admit that instrument sounds great in that room - it is not too spacious. If your hifi at home can handle recordings with room ambience properly, buy with confidence. Harpsichord almost always sounds crappy as MP3 - the transfer kills the initmate details of reverb and resonance ...

The "Mark Community Read" button? Oh well .... thanks, Chuck.

There are several Milhaud recordings of his own works on CD, the EMI above is indeed great - I love the Suite Provencal on it. It was recorded during his time in California, with excellent studio pros and in good sound.

Similar thoughts here - there were enough dream bands to keep me from thinking about this, besides Duke, I love Clarke/Boland and Jones/Lewis, Gerald Wilson, Don Ellis ... and some of the Clare Fischer big band recordings. Enough stuff for dreaming, at least for me.

I am missing the two buttons "Today's active topics" and "Mark board as read" at the bottom of the front page ... otherwise, I'm fine.

Found the JSP box on my doorstep an hour ago. The sound of John R.T. Davies' remasterings is all one could wish for - perfect for me, for sure. That's all I need, as I dropped my completist attitude for most musicians. This is the Pops I need. Great recommendation. It's miraculous what sound he coaxed out of these old masters.

Their liner notes on the relation between Rameau's keyboard music and operas, are a great read and give insight on the matter.

One remark: practically all recordings of Rameau's keyboard music that call themselves "complete" are in fact not, they all omit his transcriptions of pieces from "Les Indes Galantes", arguing that it wasn't real keyboard music. While you cannot simply put it on the stand and play but have to finalize the arrangements youself, this argument is nonsense as there are multiple connections between Rameau's keyboard music and his operas: he re-arranged in both ways. Christophe Rousset expalined the problems in detail in the lines notes to his recent recording: Last year Skip Sempé and Pierre Hantai were commissioned to play Rameau's pieces on two harpsichords, for the major part they made their own transcriptions, with brilliant results:

Haven't heard Yates' Rameau, but yes, Blandine Rannou's is a great one (it's on ZigZag, btw).

The "classic" is William Christie - he loves that music, has taste and grandeur, and sensitivity, as well as good sounding harpsichords - a reference recording. There are many good ones - those that struck me the most in recent years are these: Tilman Skowroneck, on a fantastic sounding and beautifully recorded instrument built by his father - a desert island disc. Skip Sempé - lots of temperament, but he knows what he's doing - Rameau was a virtuoso obsessed with technical difficulties on the harpsichord. The CD includes a bonus DVD with some Rameau and composers he influenced. I only started writing about these on Prospero...

Sophie Yates - I have them, and think they are very nice. I would prefer them to Borgstede - she has a very lively fashion, succeeds in bringing some imrovisatory spirit into the music. She's one of the players I never get tired of while listening - a bit of sameness creeps in when she plays earlier music, her Handel may be her best recording, at least of what I have heard. I just didn't mention them as they are oop, IIRC. Another I can recommend is Olivier Baumont - beware of that Erato Handel box as it has only part of his version, the rest is by Ton Koopman, who tends towards a strange mixture of subjectiveness and generalization in his playing. Listen to samples when you can find them - Händel needs lively and rather constant tempos, IMHO

Do you prefer single CDs with a selection or "complete" editions? Well, strictly speaking, there is no complete recording, as there are numerous adaptations of opera and instrumental ensemble pieces that most performers set aside. Research on Handel's works is not as advanced as that on Bach, with the Handel Compendium ("Handbuch") completed only this year, there is a new agreement on what is authentic; we know much better now what kinds of organs and harpsichords Handel played. Siegbert Rampe was responsible for the latter, and made a CD on a typical large Hamburg harpsichord - a very powerful instrument making clear why Handel had the reputation of being such a forceful player. To me this is the most instresting new recording in the last ten years: If you want a wider selection, Michael Borgstede's 4 CD box on Brilliant Classics is a bargain - although he admits he finds some of the longer variation cycles a bit boring and cuts them short. The biggest problem with Handel's suites compared to those by Bach is that Handel notated only a sketch of his works, keeping the secrets of his personla style of embellishment to himself, where Bach notated every detail. For this reason, the embellished copy of the print that fellow composer Gottlieb Muffat made is invaluable, as it demonstrates how a contemporary of Handel would have used ornamentation etc. It was reprinted a few years ago and there is a very nice recording by Eva Maria Pollerus. The latter and Rampe are those I would recommend before all others, they are inspired and represent the current state of musicological reaserch at the same time. Borgstede is a very nice overview at an unbeatable price.

Stravinskij recorded a truckload of his own works, Bartok, Hindemith ... Hindemith's are great, I have a few. There was a Bartok box on Hungaraton which I cannot find right now. Here are two by Hindemith I can recommend: Both Ravel and Debussy recorded for piano rolls - highly recommended! Some have criticized Ravel for not being technically adept enough to play his own music properly, but I have never heard a more hearfelt rendiiton of his Pavane pour une infante defunte ...

How's the sound quality of those MP3's after you burned them? Those downloads I have heard so far never were up to CD standards ...

Those 1950's Vanguard sessions sounded terrific, as they were recorded by knowledgeable engineers in the great acoustics of that Apostolic studio the label owned at the time. To me, they rank along with the best mainstream recordings of the time. They really would deserve the Mosaic treatment. But ....

Thanks all - I always liked Davies' remasterings a lot, so I will try to find a copy of the 4 CD JSP box. The Hot Five and Seven session are what interests me the most, so that should serve my purposes. p.s. I ordered one ...

Good to hear from you, Volkher ... if you want to get rid of the responsibility for the Mosaic discos, send them to me - I will open my website early next year for discographies, among other things, and could put them up there ...

So, if sound sucks on the new box set, which is the one to get?

That's the problem, at least for us folks in Europe ...

This morning when I drove 'round the corner for my weekly dance improvisation class at the Frankfurt Music High School, I spotted Hille Perl and Lee Santana, the best viol and lute duet on the early music scene in Germany. Now this might not seem unusual for a music school, but they live 400 miles away and have no teaching appointment here, so ... nice surprise. I wonder what they were up to.

Dexter Gordon played Ben Webster's tenor - don't know what happened after Dexter's passing.