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[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Rachmaninov: Vespers, Op.37/Svechnikov (Melodia/Chant du Monde CLB 0278 522)

Wonderful, wonderful recording, Don. And an absolute bargain to boot!

[Don Petter]

Wonderful, wonderful recording, Don. And an absolute bargain to boot!

Thanks for that insight, GI. I won't have time to listen to them for a bit, but I'll report back!

Some of those Melodia/Chant du Mondes contain some great gems. I have some Oistrakh from that source, I remember. Two of the Brahms sonatas with Richter and Bauer come to mind. (I must dig them out and have a listen again.)

[Bryn]

Just ordered, having come across it by the intervention of serendipity. Why Supraphon have held back on releasing it in Europe I cannot fathom.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Random selection for a fiver from a s/h emporium in Falmouth: Gubaidulina's Jetzt immer Schnee and Perception (Philips - De Leeuw 1995). Amazon Marketplace wants £35+ for it!

The CD booklet could be a lot more helpful on why these works got written the way they did, and what precisely the text of Perception means (my German's tolerable but sometimes needs a little help or reassurance). But hey, not bad for the money!

Anyone else know these works, or have a deep passion for Ms G (or her music )?

[ostuni]

Just ordered, having come across it by the intervention of serendipity. Why Supraphon have held back on releasing it in Europe I cannot fathom.

Gosh, that took me back! I had that, in its LP version (same cover) when it was first issued - I see the Gramophone review is from Feb 69, and I'm sure I snapped it up immediately I read that.

[Bryn]

Likewise, except I don't recall reading the Gramophone review, but my LP, which I spun again today, has seen better days.

[umslopogaas]

Good grief, what a jolt to the memory! That Messiaen LP by Loriod used to be one of my favourite recordings - I think for the cover as much as the music - but I had entirely forgotten it existed. But, just went to check, its still on the shelf. I seem to recall it was a bit crackly, as Supraphon LPs often were, but must give it a listen again. Many thanks for the reminder.

[Bryn]

...That Messiaen LP by Loriod used to be one of my favourite recordings - I think for the cover as much as the music ...

Indeed. Let's have it displayed directly herefor those who have not bothered with the link to the site I ordered from:



Yvonne Loriod did record all three works on the disc both before and after the Supraphon versions, but that of Réveil des oiseaux with the ONF conducted by Kent Nagano appears to no longer remain in the catalogue, and the early one with Rosbaud, for all its musicality, does suffer from rather dated recording technology. I also feel Neumann empathises more closely with Messiaen's muse than Boulez does in the recordings of Oiseaux exotiques he has made, despite his having prompted the composition in the first place. Also, I think Yvonne Loriod was at the height of her powers around the mid-'60s, when the Supraphon sessions took place.

[makropulos]

Bryn, YL's Réveil with Nagano was reissued in the 2008 version of the Warner Messiaen box.

Incidentally, re Oiseaux exotiques, d'you know the Koch recording (311232) with Loriod and Rickenbacher? (It's useful for other things on it).

[Bryn]

Re. the Koch recording of Oiseaux exotiques, makropulos, I do indeed know and much admire it, and most if not all of Rickenbacher's other Messiaen recordings on Koch. Which disc of the 2008 version of the Warner set is the Nagano recording of Reveil des oiseaux on? I stuck with the 1988 version, tape print-through and all. I knew his Turangalîla was in the 2008 version, but must have overlooked Reveil des oiseaux.

Ah, I see now, they rearranged the layout of the Catalogue d'oiseaux and La Fauvette des jardins to fit it on the third disc of that subset.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Um, not exactly a CD purchase, but anyway...

...always at the cutting edge of the new and untried, I've just invested in the HMV Klemperer Beethoven symphony set - 9 LPs for £2.99. There's got to be something in the box worth the outlay, hasn't there?

Just started with symphony no. 4. Lovely rich Philharmonia winds early in the 1st movt, tempo judicious but not IMO unduly slow, and excellent surfaces.

A little more exotic: one of the Ronald Smith HMV Alkan anthologies, HQS 1247 with the Sonatine Op 61, the Marches funebre and triomphale Op 26 etc. Rather expensive this one, a whole pound for one disc

[Bryn]

Just ordered form hmv.com (£8.99 including p&p):

[Roehre]

Just ordered form hmv.com (£8.99 including p&p):

Thanks for mentioning this one, Bryn

[Don Petter]

Rachmaninov: Vespers, Op.37/Svechnikov (Melodia/Chant du Monde CLB 0278 522)

Wonderful, wonderful recording, Don. And an absolute bargain to boot!

IGI,

At last, I've had a chance to listen with the attention it deserves. How right you are. An experience like velvet (but not in any saccharine way). One of those recordings (in another sphere one thinks of Germaine Thyssens-Valentine's Faure piano works) where everything just seems 'right'.

I count myself very lucky to have found it, as it's probably not a work which I would have sought out.

[StephenO]

Balakirev (CotW) - Symphonies, Piano Concerto No 1, King Lear Overture, In Bohemia, Tamara (Shelley/BBC PO/Sinaisky).