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[Don Petter]

Yesterday’s charity shop haul:

King’s College Choir/Willcocks – Six Byrd Motets each paired with another composer’s setting of the same text (EMI)

Athena Ensemble – Nielsen, Wind chamber works (Quintet etc) (Chandos)

Schubert – Männerchöre (Songs for Male Voice Choir)/Voorberg (Acanta)

Emmerich Kalman – Gräfin Mariza (Operetta)/Marszalek – highlights. Cast including Fritz Wunderlich. (Acanta)

An interesting selection, particularly the last to add to my collection of obscure operettas.

[LeMartinPecheur]

A non-charity-shop haul for once, but this being Cornwall it was from a bookshop...

Two Naxoses:

Weinberg Cello Sonatas ( 2 cello/pf, 2 solo cello)

Respighi La primavera; Quattro liriche su poesie popolare armene; La pentola magica

The Weinberg strikes me as worthwhile but not quite distinctive (= non-Shoster?) enough. That seems to be the conventional view of him. But I may check out his Cello Concerto which I find buried in a large Rostropovich box won in an EMI competition years ago

Now on to the Respighi, a composer I'm getting into a bit more deeply after long settling for his Roman Trilogy, The Birds, Ancient Airs and Dances without digging any deeper. Loved his orchestration of the Bach C minor passacaglia & fugue at the Proms last year though!

[Don Petter]

Today from the junk shop: 'The Axe Manual' (Complete piano works of Harrison Birtwistle, played by Nicholas Hodges) for £1.

Hmm, still in its shrink wrap, which might be significant - have I been overcharged? (I'm not normally the greatest fan of contemporary music.) Time will tell.

[Osborn]

Have you been overcharged, Don Petter?

Not really; it'll make an excellent bird scarer when glinting & spinning on a bit of string - you'll more than get your £1 back on a bumper fruit & veg crop

[Don Petter]

Have you been overcharged, Don Petter?

Not really; it'll make an excellent bird scarer when glinting & spinning on a bit of string - you'll more than get your £1 back on a bumper fruit & veg crop

I gather you're not a Birtwistle fan. I'll give it a go anyway.

[Alison]

Good steer on that Brian release, Nethers.

There is also that recent disc of late fifties performances of the Ninth and Eleventh to put
on the shopping list.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

HMS Pinafore - Decca Phase 4.

I'd heard somewhere that this is the worst G & S recording ever, because of the sound effects, such as seawater and seagulls. These didn't worry me in the least, but the very flat Phase 4 acoustic is more problematic - this from the recording company that has issued so many opera recordings with such a fine sense of depth.

It's a pity that Decca could not have done something really exciting with all that technical wizardary.

[Bryn]

Three CDs arrived today. The John Tilbury/Keith Rowe double album "duos for Doris", and a CD of Khachaturian's 1st (revised version) and 3rd Symphonies (Tjeknavorian). Opposite extremes! Tilbury and Rowe playing more quietly than I have ever heard them (especially Rowe) play before (the album is dedicated to Tilbury's mother , Doris, who died 2 days before the recording), and what must be one of the noisiest, brashest, most kitsch symphonies of all time, Khachaturian's 3rd. I do have a soft spot for his 1st, however, and am please to alt last hear it in the revised version, rather than the original (as conducted by Gauk) that I was used to from my teens.

[Petrushka]

After a very nice win on the horses this afternoon I've treated myself to Kubelik's recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder which I had on LP and which I unaccountably missed when it appeared on CD. This was always my favourite version and it will be good to make its acquaintance once again. Just ordered from Amazon Marketplace.

[gurnemanz]

Winterrreise with hurdy-gurdy accompaniment. Certainly different but very appealing.

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13183

[BeethovensQuill]

Now on to the Respighi, a composer I'm getting into a bit more deeply after long settling for his Roman Trilogy, The Birds, Ancient Airs and Dances without digging any deeper. Loved his orchestration of the Bach C minor passacaglia & fugue at the Proms last year though![/QUOTE

LeMartinPecheur

Respighi is a composer i admire greatly for his orchestration technique can i suggest to you 3 works for further investigations if your interested 1st and in my opinion Respighi's best work the Concerto Gregoriano

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Respighi-Concerto-Gregoriano-Autunnale-Ballata/dp/B000000ATK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1299537607&sr=1-1

Then the Metamorphoseon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Respighi-Bel...=pd_sim_m_h__5

Finally the Adagio Con Variazioni http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swan-Philhar...9&sr=1-1-spell

All 3 works are different in tone to the Roman tone poems but they stay in the memory longer, well worth it if your interested in Respighi.

all the best

[3rd Viennese School]

I found that Harold Moore shop near Oxford Street on Saturday! They have a good contemporary selection.
I also went to the Oxford Street HMV to buy Shostakovich String Quartet no.14 and 15 (I hear 15 is a reet good larf!)
And Bax Symphony no.2
And Lutoslawski Symphony no.3.

They will be revealed on my holiday in West Wales next week!
3VS

[Curalach]

Arrived this morning: Henze Symphonies 1-6 BPO and LSO cond.Henze.
This is a two disc set from Brilliant via HMV.com at £6.99.
I had some of these on LP in the 60s no doubt at full price. How blessed we are to be able to obtain a body of work like this at such trifling cost.

[Panjandrum]

Arrived this morning: Henze Symphonies 1-6 BPO and LSO cond.Henze.
This is a two disc set from Brilliant via HMV.com at £6.99.
I had some of these on LP in the 60s no doubt at full price. How blessed we are to be able to obtain a body of work like this at such trifling cost.

Agreed: but what's the accompanying documentation like? As good as the original sleeve notes?

[Curalach]

Agreed: but what's the accompanying documentation like? As good as the original sleeve notes?

Probably not. It will take a visit to the attic to compare!
The booklet notes are by Malcolm MacDonald and copyrighted 2010. They extend to 3.1/2 pages covering all 6 works with a further 2 pages for track listings.
Seems adequate at the price.