Bigshot

Get some blu-rays or DVDs and dedicate an evening to it. You'll discover a whole new medium for drama and music and the arts all wrapped up in one package. You are lucky because it seems you appreciate modernism. Check out Mehta's Ring of the Nibelung at Valencia. It is a devastatingly good performance, but the staging is too modern for a lot of the stuffed shirt Wagnerphiles who want helmets with horns, not mad scientist's labs and industrial cranes. You will definitely like.

Wand is a fantastic conductor. That box has many treasures beyond just the Bruckner.

There are something like four different Wand complete cycles. All good. I particularly like the DVD set. They have it at Berkshire for dirt cheap (all except 4 which you have to get from Amazon)

Would some kind soul please tag the handful of disks that are tagged in Japanese? I'm too lazy!

Got my Bernstein today too! WOW! The thing is huge. I can't believe it was so cheap.

I recommend the Gould DVD set. It's as good as the Bernstein Young People and Harvard lectures. Indispensable. I don't find core repertoire dull at all, Moms. I find it to be a never ending font of inspiration. It's a huge part of my life. But maybe that's because I'm dull myself. (But you sure wouldn't think that if you were with me on a Saturday night!)

Now you aren't arguing against Perahia, you are arguing against recording core repertoire at all. For me, I can hear differences in individual performers' performance approaches, even if I have heard the piece played in the same general style before. Horowitz, Gould, Rubinstein, and yes even Perahia can all play the same piece and I will get something a bit different out of each one. When I listen to classical music, I am listening for the differences that make a performance unique, not looking for some absolute correct approach that makes any further recordings superfluous. There are aspects of Perahia's playing of Mozart that I find quite unique. It has a languid, fluid beauty that I admire. Maybe you want it to be masculine and angular and powerful. Well, I might too. But that doesn't mean I don't like Perahia's approach too. I don't see core repertoire as a static thing at all. In the hands of a gifted interpreter, the performer himself can be almost as important to the work as the composer. I'm not looking for accurate and proper performances. I want unique ones that are consistent to their own aesthetic, not my expectations.

Fair question. Lack of interest in life? In others? In musical possibility? In the things that any educated person knows about music? There are musicians who play nothing but Baroque music. Are they lesser performers too? It seems to me that the vast range of repertoire in classical music makes the territory big enough that a great artist could narrow it down to just romantic piano music, or modern music, or opera, or early music or even just Bach... and still have enough of a territory to explore to not repeat themselves in a single human lifetime. I don't see lack of living composers in a performer's book as being a negative at all. There are people that specialize in just living composers I'm sure, and I wouldn't criticize them for not playing Mozart. You suddenly stopped being convincing altogether. In an instant, I switched from thinking about Perahia and his tastes, to thinking about you and yours. It's much better to make convincing arguments with examples like you did in your previous post.

Why does a performer have to do works by living performers? That seems like a very odd criteria for judging the quality of a performer. It's great if they do, but it doesn't make them a better performer... just one who plays contemporary music.

Do you feel the same about the Divertimenti?

It's hard to generalize, because there are so many recordings, but earlier Rubinstein is freer and more mercurial with wider dynamics, while later Rubinstein is more focused on perfection and balance. I like both myself.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Perahia's Mozart. It's technically proficient, it has a distinct point of view, and it is consistent within that. If you want Mozart that is more masculine and angular, that is fine. But there's nothing wrong with Mozart that focuses on beauty and liquid fluidity. I personally think he is my favorite for this, but I recognize that Mozart piano concertos are a packed field with lots of great choices. I wouldn't pick him as a first choice for anything other than Mozart. But he puts up a good show, even of works that are way out of his milieu. There are a LOT of great recordings in that set. But you might want to check the titles to see if you have any duplication. A lot of those are already in many people's collections.

I ordered the Gould Bach from Italy. It still shows as preparing to ship. Don't want to jinx it by counting my chickens.

I ordered the Glenn Gould Bach, but I have a feeling I'm going to get a cancellation on it.

Super deal of the Day today on the Complete Columbo at Amazon. 34 disks for $50. 100 hours of Columbo!

Sometimes the sound is beefed up... high and low frequency filtering, reverberation... Hmmm.

I saw Fripp perform live a few times. The last time he berated the audience for ten minutes for not being quiet enough while he sat in a chair and noodled. It was "fripp's league of gentlemen" or something like that. He was no gentleman. Thhhhppppp Fripppppppp!

I can't imagine listening to that much aimless noodling.

This disk is fantastic! Worth every cent they're charging for it. The blu-ray packs in as much as 10 or more DVDs, so think of this as a box set, even though it is just a single disk. Tons of great stuff! I'm going to be devouring this for a long time. The total running time of the disk is 945 minutes. (Content listing below.) The programs have surprisingly good picture quality (mostly B&W) and clear, clean sound (mono PCM). I was expecting much worse, but the notes reveal that these come directly from British, French and Canadian TV archives. They probably look and sound better than when they were originally broadcast. The disk is broken into chapters by pianist. Once you select a pianist you can select the work by jumping through the chapter stops. Not the easiest way to navigate, but at least there aren't a million menu screens of text to plow through. My only quibble is that the individual recitals don't have title slates or subtitles identifying the work being played. Thankfully, the booklet has complete track listings along with the dates and venues of the broadcasts, and a bio of the artists in English, French and German. Here is a listing of the contents... Glenn Gould (157 minutes): The Alchemist (documentary) 1974 / Partita No6 BWV830 1974 / The Piano Revealed on Film (1950s) Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (68 minutes): 1965 Recital with Scarlatti, Chopin & Debussy / Debussy Preludes Book 1 1978 Georges Cziffra (77 minutes): 1963 Recital with Liszt & Chopin / Franck Symphonic Variations Cziffra Jr cond. ORTF 1965 / Bonus: Benno Moiseiwitsch Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture William Kempf (101 minutes): Schumann Arabesque op18, Papillons op2 1961 / Schumann Davidsbundlertanze Op 6 Books 1 & 2 1963 / Beethoven Piano Sonata 17 Tempest 1968 / Beethoven Piano Sonata 14 Moonlight & Piano Sonata 27 1970 Aldo Ciccolini (112 minutes): DeFalla Midnight in Gardens of Spain Benzi cond. ORTF 1960 / Recital with Pick-Mangiagalli, Albeniz, Mendelssohn & Schubert 1961 / Beethoven Piano Concerto 4 Sebastian cond. ORTF 1962 / Recital with Liszt, Granados & Chabrier 1967 Samson Francois (126 minutes): Chopin Piano Concerto 1 Skrowaczewski cond. ORTF 1962 Chopin Waltz 11 / Ravel Piano Concerto in G Pritchard cond. ORTF 1964 / Ravel Forlane 1959 / Debussy Recital 1962 / Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand Fremaux cond. Orch of Opera of Monte Carlo 1964 / Grieg Piano Concerto Fremaux cond. ORTF 1967 Claudio Arrau (113 minutes): Schumann Piano Concerto op54 Hurst cond. LPO 1963 / Schumann Carnival op9 1961 / Beethoven Piano Sonata 32 1970 / Bonus: Soloman plays Beethoven Piano Sonata 23 Apassionata 1956 (his only performance on film) Emil Gillels / Andre Cluytens (87 minutes): Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (arr Ravel) Cluytens cond. ORTF 1960 / Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Cluytens cond. ORTF 1959 / Prokofiev Piano Sonata 3 1959 Byron Janis (51 minutes): Prokofiev Piano Concerto 3 Paray cond. ORTF 1963 / Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini Froment cond. ORTF 1968 Alfred Brendel (51 minutes color): Beethoven Piano Sonata 29 Hammerklavier 1970 / Beethoven Two Bagatelles op126 1970

They are all available at Amazon US too

OH GOOD GRIEF! There are three more in this series... Piano with Kempf, Brendel, Arrau, Michelangeli, Cziffra, Gould, Janis, Gillels, etc Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HS7C0D8/ Track Listings: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71wUzun45qL._SL1500_.jpg Strings with Szeryng, Milstein, Rostropovich, Tortelier, Grimeaux, Stern, etc Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00GB0OVBM/ Track Listings: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81RT2b1v5IL._SL1500_.jpg Ensembles with Amadeus Qt, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Casadesus, Francescatti, etc Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00J9X94Q0/ Track Listings: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/818365bCr0L._SL1500_.jpg These are a treasure trove! 60 hours of great classical music on video for under $200. ALL OF THESE ARE REGION FREE!

UPDATE: THIS DISK IS REGION FREE! I ordered this blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk. It's unique, because it isn't in hidef. Instead, they used all the disk space to pack 14 hours of standard definition video on the disk. This one is orchestral music conducted by Stokowski, Munch, Jochum, Markevitch, Karajan, Klemperer, Giulini... A virtual who's who of conductors. I have a few of the Classic Archive DVDs and they are great. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LHLLEB0/ Check out the contents... WOW! http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81gPyQ2Ov4L._SL1500_.jpg

I don't know if it's complete, but I got the French LPs that look like a newspaper on this stuff. They did Fats Waller that way too.

$20 shipped from third party seller.

I think the problem was that the old Mozart boxes had a defective disk on the 21st piano concerto. Not everyone discovered it in time to return the set. I went through three copies and then gave up.