Records let down by liner notes

[Barbirollians]

I have seen a few in my time but the pile of pretentious bilge by Alex Blake with no reference to the music sung in Erato’s lovely new Handel disc from Iestyn Davies,Lea Desandre , Jupiter and Thomas Dunford takes the biscuit !!! .

What other examples raised your hackles ???

[Barbirollians]

I digress but stunned on this record by Lea Desandre’s lovely singing . I didn’t think anyone could sing As with Rosy Steps the morn within hailing distance of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - I was wrong .

[Old Grumpy]

ECM issues are generally slim in the liner notes department. There are plenty of grainy black and white photographs, but the written component can sometimes be a bit on the sparse side!

[richardfinegold]

I actually bought a magnifying glass to read CD liner notes. This was the one area where lps had clear superiority, as I whiled away a lot of time reading the back cover notes on many unpurchased discs. I remember in the early seventies there was a deliberate effort attract young listeners by using the conventional pop culture language, telling us that Beethoven was The Man, Mozart was cool, Bach Fugues were like Acid Trips, etc. The obvious pandering was a a turn off and seemed to die off after a few years.
I only read liner notes now if the music is unfamiliar. I know that Manfred Honeck writes his own very extensive notes where he seems to give us his thoughts on every single phrase, and after slugging through one such logorrheic effusion I declared never again

[Serial_Apologist]

I actually bought a magnifying glass to read CD liner notes. This was the one area where lps had clear superiority, as I whiled away a lot of time reading the back cover notes on many unpurchased discs. I remember in the early seventies there was a deliberate effort attract young listeners by using the conventional pop culture language, telling us that Beethoven was The Man, Mozart was cool, Bach Fugues were like Acid Trips, etc. The obvious pandering was a a turn off and seemed to die off after a few years.
I only read liner notes now if the music is unfamiliar. I know that Manfred Honeck writes his own very extensive notes where he seems to give us his thoughts on every single phrase, and after slugging through one such logorrheic effusion I declared never again

Yes Richard - I have vinyls from the late 1960s in which useless liner notes, presumably penned under the influence of Breton while at the same time on narcotics, were deployed to unintelligible ends in the interests of illuminating free jazz releases.

[smittims]

DG did a series of reissue boxes :Boulez conducts Stavinsky, etc. The slim booklet had a three-language eulogy of the conductor but not a word about any of the music in the box.

I was also disappointed with the Egnlish-language essay in the old EMI 4-disc Furtwangler Tristan. The writer didn't even seem to like the performance! They'd have done better to transalt Andre Tubeuf's splendid essay which appears in its original french.

One advantage of LP sleeves of course was the full-size picture on the front, when it was intelligently chosen (not always so).

[Serial_Apologist]

DG did a series of reissue boxes :Boulez conducts Stavinsky, etc. The slim booklet had a three-language eulogy of the conductor but not a word about any of the music in the box.

I was also disappointed with the Egnlish-language essay in the old EMI 4-disc Furtwangler Tristan. The writer didn't even seem to like the performance! They'd have done better to transalt Andre Tubeuf's splendid essay which appears in its original french.

One advantage of LP sleeves of course was the full-size picture on the front, when it was intelligently chosen (not always so).

Speaking as a once-occasional reviewer, it must be hard having to review an album one detests - especially if it is being done for a genre, such a jazz, which hardly gets its fair share of cultural recognition in the first place. I've always declared I would turn down such an opportunity; but the trouble with that is that one does not necessarily know in advance that one is not going to like the recording in question. Similar issue with reviewing anything, really - including reviewing as a favour rather than being paid.

[Old Grumpy]

Speaking as a once-occasional reviewer, it must be hard having to review an album one detests - especially if it is being done for a genre, such a jazz, which hardly gets its fair share of cultural recognition in the first place. I've always declared I would turn down such an opportunity; but the trouble with that is that one does not necessarily know in advance that one is not going to like the recording in question. Similar issue with reviewing anything, really - including reviewing as a favour rather than being paid.

And, furthermore in these days of social media, can open one up to adverse comments if someone disagrees with a review.

[jayne lee wilson]

On the recent ORF Vienna/Alsop issue of the Schumann Symphonies 1&2 arr. Mahler, despite "re-reorchestrated Mahler" appearing on the cover, the notes mention just ONE detail - the most obvious: transposition of the opening fanfare of No.1. Then just sketchy clichés about each work....

In fact Mahler's modifications are fascinating and go further, most significantly in dynamics....so the cover line is inaccurate as well.

A great benefit of streaming albums is of course the ability to enlarge those tiny notes....even if I have the disc I often read them online.

[jayne lee wilson]

Speaking as a once-occasional reviewer, it must be hard having to review an album one detests - especially if it is being done for a genre, such a jazz, which hardly gets its fair share of cultural recognition in the first place. I've always declared I would turn down such an opportunity; but the trouble with that is that one does not necessarily know in advance that one is not going to like the recording in question. Similar issue with reviewing anything, really - including reviewing as a favour rather than being paid.

MusicWeb International (check out their recently redesigned website) send out Monthly lists for reviewers to choose from.... the better approach, surely...

[Pianoman]

That's how I preferred it, having reviewed for MusicWeb for many years in the past. The problem came when the founder, Len Mullenger, started asking reviewers to take as many as possible, including 'cottage' and off the beaten track stuff, rather than all the new blockbusters that were in obvious demand. I ended up with quite a few duds that took a lot of effort to say virtually anything about...
Back on topic, I also refer immediately to online resources (Hyperion and Chandos lead the way here) but opera booklets can be hard to come by.

[ostuni]

I digress but stunned on this record by Lea Desandre’s lovely singing . I didn’t think anyone could sing As with Rosy Steps the morn within hailing distance of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - I was wrong .

Yes, there's some very lovely singing here by Desandre (her previous disc, Amazone, is well worth hearing, too). And Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's singing on that old Glyndebourne recording was indeed gorgeous: I was fortunate to hear her live many times before her untimely death. But do try and listen to Joyce DiDonato's version, on the recent Pomo d'Oro/Emelyanchev recording: quite remarkable singing.

[teamsaint]

On my travels through the avant-garde Project, I found quite a lot of brilliant liner notes that were let down by the records……

[gurnemanz]

On my travels through the avant-garde Project, I found quite a lot of brilliant liner notes that were let down by the records……

Reminds me of the Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch - Nice Video, Shame About The Song

[ChandlersFord]

Reminds me of the Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch - Nice Video, Shame About The Song

Was only thinking about that one the other week. I'm pretty sure it was inspired by Drowning In Berlin by the Mobiles.

'Let's spend our honeymoon in East Berlin
And though, like lemmings, we will never swim
The devil's lunar craft makes waves in time
My Asian buddy says, 'Spare me a dime.'

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8FhYOcf2_5Q&feature=shares