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T.D.

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Posts posted by T.D.

  1. Damn, this is ugly. Especially with all the concussion/head injury complications these days.

    I've already seen calls to ban DC Gregg Williams from the league (he has a history of this shit).

    NFL will throw the book at them: mega-fine, loss of draft picks, probably suspensions...I'd be surprised by bans, but won't cry if they happen.

  2. Probably a great buy! I have Furt's Beethoven 1-9 on EMI, the sound leaves quite a bit to be desired in places. Can't go for the new release due to duplication.

    One warning about the Berlin Classics Beethoven box:

    I bought a 6-CD box of Mozart string quartets (Suske-Quartett) on Berlin Classics. Excellent playing but no documentation whatsoever - no booklet or track listing, just a box and 6 CDs in paper sleeves (track listings on paper sleeves). If you prefer documentation on the Beethoven set, be careful.

  3. I see sound samples for the Furtwaengler on the audite.de site:

    http://www.audite.de/en/product/13CD/21403-edition_wilhelm_furtwaengler_the_complete_rias_recordings/tracks.html

    For the Beethoven/Konwitschny, I had some success looking through individual CDs at Amazon - a number of .mp3 samples were available:

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=beethoven+konwitschny

  4. The 'list price' of a Naxos CD in the UK seems now to be £7 (over $10 incl. sales tax). Some on UK amazon are listed at over £8. Only a few years ago they were £5. I'm wondering how is pricing elsewhere and whether they can't quite trade on the CD collecting bug as much as they used to. They record a lot of minor repertoire and maybe collectors are getting bored with piling up all that stuff. Any observations?

    I actually read that as a sign that Naxos is doing well. Prices seem to have drifted up over the years. I figure that the relative shortage of new classical releases from other labels gives Naxos some pricing power. The active labels I see most, e.g. Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion, have even higher prices for (truly) new releases.

    [Disclosure: I'm not particularly a fan of Naxos, and buy their recordings only as a last resort, but give Mr. Heymann credit for developing a successful business model.]

    On the other hand, I don't see how the Naxos catalog of "core repertoire" recordings could not be suffering as a result of the surfeit of cheap re-releases from EMI/DG/Decca/Philips/etc.

  5. Thanks! That looks like a better idea.

    I went ahead and bought this:

    41fxBXCOcRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

    10 discs for under $30 - not exactly sure of the contents ( :blush: ) but seems hard to go wrong.

    I once thought Liszt was bombastic and vacuous, but have come to enjoy his music, though it's definitely "high calorie", so to speak...

    Cziffra is going to put a high flame under that high calorie music. Extremely dynamic and exciting performances.

    Thanks. This is a nice set! The 5 Chopin discs were a real surprise: I regarded them as "throw-ins", but I've been listening to them more than the Liszt (which is excellent as stated). Chopin's a composer who I never "got" before, but this box has changed things.

  6. A "postwar" composer I've always liked is Bernd Alois Zimmermann. For one CD, I'd recommend Requiem für eine jungen Dichter, a massive and overpowering (though kinda depressing) vocal/tape collage piece covering 20th century history (well, through about 1970). I have a Sony recording with Gielen conducting, but I think there's at least one other. Because the tape is prominent, I wouldn't expect much difference between recordings (I saw a live performance once, and it sounded almost identical to the CD).

    A Luigi Nono piece I really like (despite his Commie agitprop sensibilities :smirk: ) is Como una ola de fuerza y luz, which is a totally fiery and intense piano/vocal/orchestral/tape work. I have an old Berlin Classics CD, but I'm sure the DG (and possibly others) are OK.

    Warning: both of the above employ 12-tone "idiom" in places (and the composers' overall works are generally serial), if that's a no-no for you.

    Big fan of Morton Feldman, though he's likely too far out for many (sparsity, silences, low volume). The works that usually get recommended to "novices" are Rothko Chapel and Coptic Light for orchestra. I personally prefer solo piano pieces like Triadic Memories, Palais de Mari or For Bunita Marcus.

  7. Anecdote: When I lived near NYC, I went to quite a few (free) concerts at Manhattan School of Music, just north of Columbia University. I noticed that a very high percentage of the student body was Asian, but was not surprised.

    I see where the article is coming from...Will it be enough to "save" classical music? I doubt it, in the sense that I believe big-city orchestras will continue to shave costs and occasionally close down.

  8. Thanks! That looks like a better idea.

    I went ahead and bought this:

    41fxBXCOcRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

    10 discs for under $30 - not exactly sure of the contents ( :blush: ) but seems hard to go wrong.

    I once thought Liszt was bombastic and vacuous, but have come to enjoy his music, though it's definitely "high calorie", so to speak...

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