Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... not even when reciting :
https://www.bartleby.com/246/108.html

I can't say that I've ever had the pleasure!

[Richard Tarleton]

Interesting that we anglicise Rome , Vienna etc but now make an attempt to get Chinese cities right .

Likewise some Spanish cities - Cadiz, Seville [sic], Madrid....and Majorca, Robert Graves has much to answer for.

[Serial_Apologist]

.
Rheims/Reims? ( English: /riːmz/; French: /ʁɛ̃s/ )

... or again :

Armentières ( French : /aʁmɑ̃tjɛːʁ/ )

(English : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiynnETOlM )


[ ... message to self : never use the phrase "with the sole exception" ]



.

Ma sails.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That would be going too far I think. I think the policy , as far as possible, is to be accurate . Interesting that we anglicise Rome , Vienna etc but now make an attempt to get Chinese cities right .

And as for renaming Firenze to make it sound like a Magic Roundabout character...

Do you remember when we used to add an S to both Lyon and Marseille to make them look more French?

[Bryn]

And as for renaming Firenze to make it sound like a Magic Roundabout character...

Do you remember when we used to add an S to both Lyon and Marseille to make them look more French?

As in "Leigh-on-Sea" and "Ma sails", you meant?

[Bryn]

Good choice of recording for Spem in alium just now. Recorded in the round, the singers standing in a circle, IIRC.

[oddoneout]

Good choice of recording for Spem in alium just now. Recorded in the round, the singers standing in a circle, IIRC.

How are the singers arranged - choirs or voices and how does one record and listen to that?

[Bryn]

How are the singers arranged - choirs or voices and how does one record and listen to that?

I can't find the image of he actual choir in action, but the arrangement was much as here:



Though usually encountered on CD, the recording was also issued in surround SACD format.

[oddoneout]

I can't find the image of he actual choir in action, but the arrangement was much as here:



Though usually encountered on CD, the recording was also issued in surround SACD format.

That looks like the set-up for Janet Cardiff's art installation version? I was lucky enough to be able to experience that in an empty medieval church some years ago, but that was why I was wondering about the recorded version. How does the sound of the CD shown differ from conventionally arranged recordings?

[underthecountertenor]

That looks like the set-up for Janet Cardiff's art installation version? I was lucky enough to be able to experience that in an empty medieval church some years ago, but that was why I was wondering about the recorded version. How does the sound of the CD shown differ from conventionally arranged recordings?

Yes, that looks like the Cardiff. I was in that - if we'd realised at the time just how durable and globe-trotting it was going to be, perhaps we'd have asked for a bigger fee! Seriously though, it's great to know that it has had such a good life (I heard it most recently at the Tate Modern).

[Bryn]

That looks like the set-up for Janet Cardiff's art installation version? I was lucky enough to be able to experience that in an empty medieval church some years ago, but that was why I was wondering about the recorded version. How does the sound of the CD shown differ from conventionally arranged recordings?

That's the surround SACD version. I have both (the CD turns up in various boxed sets). With the SACD and a suitably set up surround system, one is indeed surrounded by the singers. It's a long time since I listened to the disc on a surround system, I will have to dig it out and give it another spin.

[underthecountertenor]

That's the surround SACD version. I have both (the CD turns up in various boxed sets). With the SACD and a suitably set up surround system, one is indeed surrounded by the singers. It's a long time since I listened to the disc on a surround system, I will have to dig it out and give it another spin.

Oddoneout is referring to your first photo, and I agree that it looks like the Cardiff - the benches in the middle are the giveaway, I think.

[Bryn]

Oddoneout is referring to your first photo, and I agree that it looks like the Cardiff - the benches in the middle are the giveaway, I think.

Yes, I gathered that. As I wrote, I could not find the image I was looking for so posted that to give some idea of the disposition of the singers.

[underthecountertenor]

Yes, I gathered that. As I wrote, I could not find the image I was looking for so posted that to give some idea of the disposition of the singers.

Sorry. Misunderstood.

[Bryn]

There is at least one other surround recording of Spem in alium availalbe, that by I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth. That, however, is on the DVD of a 2 disc set (CD + DVD) and in lossy Dolby DIgital 5.1 surround, audio only, and is of a version accompanied buy instruments (an attempt at a reconstruction of the original).

Having just listened to the I Fagiolini recording, I am now taking in the Hueglas Ensemble SACD. Quite, quite magical. If you have access to an SACD surround system, I would highly recommend getting this disc. https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...659--40-voices