soulpope

St Germain "St Germain" (Warner Music) 2015

Milo "So The Flies Don't Come" (Ruby Yacht/The Order Label) 2015

Deerhunter "Fading Frontier" (4AD) 2015

Excellent Clarke/Boland small group recording .....

Gem Club "Breakers" (Hardly Art) 2011

Visionist "Safe" (Pan) 2015

Marijuana Deathsquads "Oh My Sexy Lord" (Totally Gross National Product) 2013

Steve Hauschildt "Tragedy & Geometry" (Kranky) 2011

Protomartyr "The Agent Intellect" (Hardly Art) 2015

John Grant " Grey Tickles, Black Pressure" (Bella Union) 2015

Oh? Name another ensemble who has over 500 titles to their name. Jim, thanks for the thorough explanation. It makes a lot of sense. Perfection being a pursuit, not a destination. It sounds like (based on your report) the current ensemble is adhering to paint-by-numbers sterility, and I could see how annoying that would be to a trained ear. And considering the overwhelming majority of their audience will come to the performance with highly tuned listening skills, it's kind of confusing why they would choose to go that route. I believe we learned inter alias via Larry Kart`s post that this ensembles "heyday" was in the seventies/early eighties, when this style of performances had their dedicated followership .... so the number of (their) recordings doen`t make here sense as argument at all. But in case you are number/quantity oriented to determine "impact", pls try Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra .... Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra ...... London Philharmonic Orchestra and others ......

Christian Scott "Stretch Music" (Ropeadope) 2015

Looks intriguing ....

Chris Rea "Tennis" (Magnet Records) 1980

Thanks for that perspective. I'm not big on Mozart in general, just because, but I did appreciate their, as you call it, "precise view". @soulpope (and others) - who's a good/preferred "go-to" for the Schubert? I heard a really wonderful composition going on, just could not engage with the performance. Would love to meet again under better circumstances, so to speak. for Schubert Octet in F major D 803 my preferred performance is by the "Wiener Oktett" (aka Vienna Octet) led by principal Willi Boskovsky this is a moving Schubert performance .....

@JSangry The Academy St. Martin-In-The-Fields does not "dominate the market" (I believe we are speaking global here ....), it`s just one of the more reputational ensembles/orchestra available. They offer their point of view .... and there are of course different ones ..... but their`s for sure is not stand alone."state of art". But as you`ve mentioned rightly before it simply matters whether the performance moves you .... or not. Without being overly expert on this ensemble, their had a precise view on Mozart,. but for Strauss "Till Eulenspiegel" (to best effect played by a "full-scale orechestra) or Schubert String Octet IMO they can`t stand for a final choice .....

Scorpions "Deadly Sting" (EMI Electrola) 1995