What download have you bought?

[Beef Oven!]

Beef - Ever tried that old reliable, the Reminder Pad? I always have things scribbled on them, main proviso is they have to be somewhere you'll see them each day - near your work desk and/or somewhere in the kitchen/snug etc....a potential benefit is to improve your own inner mnemonic ability, just by the act of writing down....this does seem to work.
...mind you, like most self-employed, I'm far from any concept of retirement at whatever age, and I often have to "plan" Mum's day as well, so....

I looked in early here to cheer up on a dull day, as I have one of my most horrible headaches... so sympathies all-round! Time for that next gallon of coffee....

Oh yes, I’m a list maker, for everything from going on holiday to last week’s Varèse immersion day (tickets, sandwiches, biscuits, peanuts, charge iWatch, wallet, iPhone, T-shirt in case I get too hot, etc etc). This is something different.

I’m also having a bad day, lots of pain, lots of coffee, lying flat in bed listening to loads of Wellesz, Krenek, Toch and Zemlinsky!!!

Astell & Kern AK70 DAP & AKG 702 Headphones.

e.g.

16 bit Qobuz download

[Beef Oven!]

I’m organised and I use lists. This is something strangely random. Let’s talk about music!

[vinteuil]

... I had to send some papers off a little while ago and was putting it off. I finally said to myself, no more procrastination, get on with it. When I pulled the file, I saw that I’d done it all, signed and posted several weeks ago...

... several times in recent years I have had the experience of taking a book off the shelves, saying to self 'I must get round to reading this...', getting stuck in, enjoying it, thinking 'this is really good...' - and then, unnervingly, a couple of hundred pages in, finding a neat pencil annotation which I must have made many years earlier - in a book which I thought I had never read...

[Beef Oven!]

... several times in recent years I have had the experience of taking a book off the shelves, saying to self 'I must get round to reading this...', getting stuck in, enjoying it, thinking 'this is really good...' - and then, unnervingly, a couple of hundred pages in, finding a neat pencil annotation which I must have made many years earlier - in a book which I thought I had never read...

But that’s quite a passage of time, and understandable.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sunwook Kim is one of the very best of young pianists, as far as I'm concerned; learning about this release from Record Review, it was an automatic purchase. I managed to secure a DVD of the same forces in Brahms PC1 in the Leeds Piano Competition finals in 2006, and it's one of my reference versions of the piece: simply stunning. Also have an off-air recording of Kim in Rachmaninov's PC3 (Bournemouth SO/Karabits) which is one of the best performances I've ever heard of that piece (and I love Martin Handley's comment after tumultuous applause: "Well, I'm speechless really...").

Great playing on this new release - only reservation on first hearing: the recorded sound, a bit recessed and woolly (AMcG mentioned on RR that the studio recording quality wasn't on a par with Bridgewater Hall recordings). A pity - but the quality of the performance makes one overlook it.

And the FLAC download was £9.75. (The discs are on the Hallé website at £19.99).

[Beef Oven!]

Sunwook Kim is one of the very best of young pianists, as far as I'm concerned; learning about this release from Record Review, it was an automatic purchase. I managed to secure a DVD of the same forces in Brahms PC1 in the Leeds Piano Competition finals in 2006, and it's one of my reference versions of the piece: simply stunning. Also have an off-air recording of Kim in Rachmaninov's PC3 (Bournemouth SO/Karabits) which is one of the best performances I've ever heard of that piece (and I love Martin Handley's comment after tumultuous applause: "Well, I'm speechless really...").

Great playing on this new release - only reservation on first hearing: the recorded sound, a bit recessed and woolly (AMcG mentioned on RR that the studio recording quality wasn't on a par with Bridgewater Hall recordings). A pity - but the quality of the performance makes one overlook it.

And the FLAC download was £9.75. (The discs are on the Hallé website at £19.99).

Sounds great - and a good price. I only wish I could get a bit more excited about these piano concertos. I like them much more than I used to, but they still don’t get me going.

[jayne lee wilson]

I've recently been listening to this.... live from Carnegie Hall February 1948.... (Pristine flac download 16/44.1/playback WAVs, Audirvana+Integer2)



Despite some sonic problems - acetate surface noise a little higher than average for the time, a tendency to some indistinctness at lower levels, occasional peak distortion - you can easily appreciate that miraculous Toscaninian ability to switch from power and energy to lightness and grace, and Horowitz's astonishing, almost bar-to-bar chameleonic rubato which is an essential part of his individualistic expression of the work's passing moods. Toscanini's effortless orchestral response not only keeps up but seems to inspire the soloist in itself.

Listening to various recordings from the 1930s to the 1950s - Knappertsbusch, Furtwänger, Toscanini - has revealed to me why I've so often felt detached from more recent recordings of Brahms, Beethoven, Bruckner and others: that very individuality that needs rubato to bring the music to life as a personal emotional involvement, in the moment, instead of a sense of detached observation or reverence, even if energetically and dynamically responsive. I'd love to hear younger conductors and soloists doing something similar more often, but perhaps it really is lost for ever...

...OK, just heard the Sunwook Kim/Elder performance of the Brahms B flat's first movement via Qobuz HiFi lossless.... no balance problems here, well enough played and recorded, each to her own as ever; but how slow, stately, unvarying and complacent it sounds after Horowitz/Toscanini, even if the comparison to that mercurial one-off may seem a little unfair. I was soon losing interest, that old familiar feeling of knowing how the rest is going to go, far too soon....
Timings tell you lot here: 18'56 for Kim, 16'26 for Horowitz. Going back to the opening in the latter you're instantly gripped by the urgency, the drama and pathos of the first solo - then Toscanini thrillingly charges in with his lithe leonine orchestra at their finest!
I was genuinely shocked at just how superior it sounds....
(Overall timings 50'54 to 44'23!).

You can try the allegro non troppo in mp3 here... (Andrew Rose tells me that lossless streaming will be available at Pristine later this year...)

https://www.pristineclassical.com/collections/artist-arturo-toscanini/products/pasc092

.(nb.....the download sounds considerably sweeter)

[Beef Oven!]

Erkki-Sven Tüür - Seventh Symphony & Piano Concerto ECM New Series.

Unusually, I bought this because I wanted both works, equally.

Unfortunately, although it’s Hi-Res, it’s 24-bit – 44.10 kHz, not 96.00kHz. I guess that means that the difference between the 16 bit CD quality will be negligible and my old ears won’t know the difference! I hadn’t realised until I’d downloaded it, otherwise I’d have got the 16 bit at £8.95 instead of stumping up £12.80 for the Hi-Res. I’ll be more alert next time!

Anyway, the music is fabulous. Very modern, suitably avant garde and my kinda piano concerto. I would strongly recommend this recording.

The finale quotes words from Deepak Chopra, Jimi Hendrix, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Saint Augustine, Siddhartha Gautama!!!!


Btw, Qobuz is having a special on ECM this month, worth a look.

[teamsaint]

Erkki-Sven Tüür - Seventh Symphony & Piano Concerto ECM New Series.

Unusually, I bought this because I wanted both works, equally.

Unfortunately, although it’s Hi-Res, it’s 24-bit – 44.10 kHz, not 96.00kHz. I guess that means that the difference between the 16 bit CD quality will be negligible and my old ears won’t know the difference! I hadn’t realised until I’d downloaded it, otherwise I’d have got the 16 bit at £8.95 instead of stumping up £12.80 for the Hi-Res. I’ll be more alert next time!

Anyway, the music is fabulous. Very modern, suitably avant garde and my kinda piano concerto. I would strongly recommend this recording.

The finale quotes words from Deepak Chopra, Jimi Hendrix, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Saint Augustine, Siddhartha Gautama!!!!


Btw, Qobuz is having a special on ECM this month, worth a look.

Very tempted, even though I don't know either work.

I like his music , having been introduced to it at a lunchtime concert at the RAM last year.

Think i 'll try to have a listen to these on a stream first.
Time to start a E-S Tuur threat, Beefy !!

[Beef Oven!]

Very tempted, even though I don't know either work.

I like his music , having been introduced to it at a lunchtime concert at the RAM last year.

Think i 'll try to have a listen to these on a stream first.
Time to start a E-S Tuur threat, Beefy !!

Go for it, it’s magnificent - I’ve played the symphony through, and the eclectic quotes aren’t just in the finale. Hard to make the words out, I’ll check the booklet later.

The piano concerto is incredible - I’ll give it listen later tonight. Must go for a sauna, jacuzzi and float-about in the pool - helps my back!

[teamsaint]

Go for it, it’s magnificent - I’ve played the symphony through, and the eclectic quotes aren’t just in the finale. Hard to make the words out, I’ll check the booklet later.

The piano concerto is incredible - I’ll give it listen later tonight. Must go for a sauna, jacuzzi and float-about in the pool - helps my back!

Cheers, Thats my evening listening sorted.
Hope the back is easing a bit.

[Beef Oven!]

Roberto Gerhard - String Quartets 1&2 and Chaconne for solo violin.
Arditti Quartet, Aeon label. 24 bit Hi-Res Download from Qobuz. £11.99

[HighlandDougie]

[B]

Unfortunately, although it’s Hi-Res, it’s 24-bit – 44.10 kHz, not 96.00kHz. I guess that means that the difference between the 16 bit CD quality will be negligible and my old ears won’t know the difference! I hadn’t realised until I’d downloaded it, otherwise I’d have got the 16 bit at £8.95 instead of stumping up £12.80 for the Hi-Res. I’ll be more alert next time!

If it's any consolation, the real step-up is from 16 bit to 24 bit rather than from 44.1 or 48 khz to 96 khz. I can definitely tell the difference between the bit depths but am not sure that I could say with any certainty that 96 khz offers any great improvement over 44.1 khz.

I was intrigued by your description of the Tüür until I got to the reference about quoting Deepak Chopra ......

[Beef Oven!]

If it's any consolation, the real step-up is from 16 bit to 24 bit rather than from 44.1 or 48 khz to 96 khz. I can definitely tell the difference between the bit depths but am not sure that I could say with any certainty that 96 khz offers any great improvement over 44.1 khz.

I was intrigued by your description of the Tüür until I got to the reference about quoting Deepak Chopra ......

That sort of comment used to start WW3 on here

P.S. It really is one of the best sounding recordings I own (do we own downloads?).

[Beef Oven!]

Erkki-Sven Tüür - Symphony #3/Cello Concerto/Lighthouse
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, Dennis Russell Davies. ECM

16 Bit CD quality download £8.95 Qobuz. (Qobuz have got ECM releases on a special for another 3 1/2 weeks. Well worth checking out.

I’m really getting into this guy’s music. Last year, teamsaint sent me some links to his music, but I didn’t like what I heard and gave it short shrift. A few days ago I came across the piano concerto and seventh symphony and was knocked sideways, but still didn’t realise it was the same guy! When I listened to more of his stuff on YouTube, the penny dropped (there were still some works I don’t like!).

So sorry teamsaint for not taking your excellent steer last year, you were clearly ahead the curve