Charity Shop Trawl

[Historian]

Yes, you are both quite right; I knew one or two of them, but I have had so much pleasure from this box already. Haven't even sampled the later quartets yet.

[pastoralguy]

The final movement of the last Quartet is a DEVIL to play! Get the tempo just a shade too fast and the first violin is in real trouble. I've heard a couple of top class ensembles struggle with this music.

[Conchis]

I found a Japanese HDCD edition of Kempff's complete Beethoven piano sonatas in Oxfam Belper today: £8.99 for 8CDs. Steep for a charity shop, but it was in good nick, so I jumped. The booklet is all in Japanese but hopefully the sound will be revelatory.

It did cross my mind that the same item, purchased in Edinburgh, would cost approximately half what I paid for it, at least. :)

[pastoralguy]

I found a Japanese HDCD edition of Kempff's complete Beethoven piano sonatas in Oxfam Belper today: £8.99 for 8CDs. Steep for a charity shop, but it was in good nick, so I jumped. The booklet is all in Japanese but hopefully the sound will be revelatory.

It did cross my mind that the same item, purchased in Edinburgh, would cost approximately half what I paid for it, at least. :)

Well done! Actually, it would depend which charity shop in Edinburgh. The Oxfam shop in Stockbridge would look them up on Amazon then deduct a couple of pounds. They currently have some rare Biddulph CDs in stock ranging from £9.99 to £39.99! Obviously, they've looked them up on the internet then decided to charge top $.

[Conchis]

Well done! Actually, it would depend which charity shop in Edinburgh. The Oxfam shop in Stockbridge would look them up on Amazon then deduct a couple of pounds. They currently have some rare Biddulph CDs in stock ranging from £9.99 to £39.99! Obviously, they've looked them up on the internet then decided to charge top $.

Yep: Oxfam means ££££ - particularly in Oxfam bookshops!

[pastoralguy]

Yep: Oxfam means ££££ - particularly in Oxfam bookshops!

[pastoralguy]

.

[Cockney Sparrow]

It crossed my mind I might return Oxfam fund raising circulars with a message that I provide significant support paying similarly significant sums for books and CDs in Oxfam bookshops (surrounded by racks of ephemeral "product" whereas there is no where to sit). At least nowadays, after repeated "feedback" to the manager, they no longer use labels that separate into 6 pieces.

[Conchis]

Today, in an obscure and unlovely suburb of Alfreton, called Leabrooks, I picked up Bartok: Complete Piano Concertos, played by Jeno Jando. The damage? 50 whole pence.

[Stanfordian]

Today, in an obscure and unlovely suburb of Alfreton, called Leabrooks, I picked up Bartok: Complete Piano Concertos, played by Jeno Jando. The damage? 50 whole pence.

Your post reminded me of a friend of mine who will not listen to anything by the prolific Jeno Jando who he considers to be a hack pianist. He relishes listening to recordings from pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Grigory Sokolov, Maurizio Pollini who he says have lived with particular works for decades not just a few weeks. It's an interesting viewpoint and a reasonably understandable one.

[Pianoman]

Mm, I think your friend has a slightly blinkered view...it's also a rather sweeping statement to say Jando has only lived with music 'for a few weeks' and that he's a 'hack pianist' . Ok not everything he does is of equal standard (which us also true of all the pianists you list) but still his best he's an outstanding pianist who I turn to more often than many others.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Today, in an obscure and unlovely suburb of Alfreton, called Leabrooks, I picked up Bartok: Complete Piano Concertos, played by Jeno Jando. The damage? 50 whole pence.

You wus robbed!

Last Saturday, in the Lighthouse Charity Shop in Glossop - Mahler #6; VPO/Boulez, DGG - 25p!!!!

(I've owned this recording on cassette for yonks - now I can listen without tape hiss or spinning to the end of the side before having to turn it over )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Mm, I think your friend has a slightly blinkered view...it's also a rather sweeping statement to say Jando has only lived with music 'for a few weeks' and that he's a 'hack pianist' . Ok not everything he does is of equal standard (which us also true of all the pianists you list) but still his best he's an outstanding pianist who I turn to more often than many others.

Whilst I wouldn't describe Jando as my favourite pianist (although his set of the Liszt Années de pelerinage is a firm favourite), the recordings of his that I've heard demonstrate fine Musicianship, and I don't think that any mere "hack" could produce such consistently good performances so frequently. It isn't such a wide repertoire, though, from wht I know of his discography - the Viennese classics (Haydn to Schubert), Liszt and Bartok seem to be his core repertoire with a couple of Brahms and Schumann discs (NAXOS having "given" Brahms to their other "house pianist" of that time, Idil Biret). And Jando's first recordings for NAXOS appeared when he was in his thirties - performing works that had been in his repertoire for nearly twenty years: so quite "a few weeks"

[cloughie]

Your post reminded me of a friend of mine who will not listen to anything by the prolific Jeno Jando who he considers to be a hack pianist. He relishes listening to recordings from pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Grigory Sokolov, Maurizio Pollini who he says have lived with particular works for decades not just a few weeks. It's an interesting viewpoint and a reasonably understandable one.

...and is he a pianist who understands deeply each work or does he just relish the big names and writes off the rest?

[Conchis]

I really couldn't judge where he stands on the Pianists' Podium. I've generally liked Jando's work over the years.