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[johnb]

Listen to the things !?!?!

Que?

Don't understand!

[johnb]

Quote Originally Posted by johnb View Post
. . . Cherkassky: Nimbus boxed set (it was at a bargain price, so I couldn't resist it). . .

Quote Originally Posted by Pianorak View Post
I'll be very interested to see what you make of the Nimbus recordings. A lot has been made of the unhurried and long takes at the Wyastone Leys recording studios, but I find the acoustic ambience rather unsympathetic.
Cherkassky's “Complete HMV stereo recordings” on First Hand Records (FHR04) are a revelation, especially the Chopin Nocturne Op. 7/3.
“Shura Cherkassky” by Elizabeth Carr, who knew him from 1976 until his death, is a well-researched biography .

johnb: stop buying and sit down and listen to what you've bought!

I haven't listened to all the Nimbus discs yet but those I have heard have often been fascinating. One moment I'll be thinking "oh no" then a few seconds later I will totally enthralled and won over.

The acoustics and piano sound are definitely 'curious' ('clattery' or 'thin' would be another way of putting it). If I had to guess I would have said that it sounds as though it was recorded in a hall with the mikes way, way back from the platform - though I realise it was probably recorded in a studio. I do sometimes find the piano sound disconcerting and it does detract from Cherkassky's performances (especially when, I read, he had a reputation for producing a beautiful sound). Perhaps that is partly because it was miked at a distance (which, I think, can change the character of the sound), perhaps it was the recording engineer, perhaps it was a 'duff' piano (though I'd be surprised that Cherkassky or Nimbus would allow a recording to be made with a piano that was less than excellent and which hadn't been voiced, etc according to Cherkassky's preferences). Very, very strange.

[Bryn]

John, they are Nimbus recordings. Of course they were recorded in a hall with the mics way back from the piano. How else have Nimbus ever recorded a piano?

[Pianorak]

. . . (especially when, I read, he had a reputation for producing a beautiful sound).

Sounds as if you've never heard Cherkassky perform live. Pity. Anyway, the Decca and HMV recordings as well as those produced originally by Betty Boyd give a much truer picture of his playing.
I know just what you mean by actually listening to one's acquisitions. How dare anyone assume one had nothing better to do!

[Basil]

I've been enjoying a few of EMI's recent 'complete' box sets, specifically, the David Oistrakh, Jacqueline Du Pré & Stokowski sets.

[Bryn]

Errol, our very fine postman, has just delivered the Blu-ray set of the BBC's "Planet Earth", along with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn/Roman Kofman survey of the Shostakovich symphonies (of which I have heard good things). No time to listen now. Off to Uxbridge for the Clarence Barlow seminar.

[Just opened the Shostakovich box. Hänssler Classic have done us proud re. booklet noted. Rather than compiling an new, edited booklet with précis of the original indivudual CDs' notes, they have included those original booklets, all 11 of them.]

[Ferretfancy]

Sorry to make another pocket emptying recommendation, but the EMI Classics 7 disc box of Pierre Fournier's recordings is stunning, worth buying for the two versions of the Tchaikovsky Rococo variations alone, not to mention the Beethoven Cello Sonatas from 1948, and his lovely performance of the Dvorak concerto with Kubelik from the same year. Excellent transfers, you don't need to make any allowances for the mono items.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

[Just opened the Shostakovich box. Hänssler Classic have done us proud re. booklet noted. Rather than compiling an new, edited booklet with précis of the original indivudual CDs' notes, they have included those original booklets, all 11 of them.]

Bryn, you mean MDG, surely?

I take it they're reissued in Red Book CD rather than SACD? I have the recording of No.7 in very impressive sound, if a rather 'safe' interpretation. I'll be interested to read your opinion of the rest of the set.

[Pianorak]

Sorry to make another pocket emptying recommendation. . .

And so you should be! Just hopped across to amazon and listened to some of the generous Samples of all 7 discs. Very tempting! Obviously had to go on and listen to Gilels, De Larrocha, Richter and Fischer - all at bargain prices.

[Bryn]

MDG indeed. I was a bit of a rush to get out the house and on my way to Uxbridge, and yes, they appear to be Red Book only.

[I have only sampled the openings of Nos. 4 and 15, and the second 'scherzo' of No. 8, so far. I regret to report that my immediate impression matches your assessment, Roehre.]

[Bryn]

Collected from the sorting office this morning, a box of delights form MDT, principal among which is the Endellion's Beethoven String Quartets and Quintets survey on Warner Classics (an absolute snip at £19.25). They play with nicely controlled vibrato and the texts used are those edited by Jonathan Del Mar. The survey of very nearly complete. Even the original version of Op. 18/1 is there, though not the original versions of other quartets. Currently spinning here is the F major string quartet arrangement of the Op. 14/1 sonata in E major.

[Don Petter]

Time to report on the two CDs I found in Venice:

Metropole ME 0001: Offenbach: Pepito (1853)
Metropole ME 0002: Offenbach: Daphnis et Chloe (1860)

(in German)
Bettina Bruckner et al
Sinfonieorchester des Hessischen Rundfunks, cond. Kurt Schröder

They looked like good additions to my Offenbach collection, certainly at €6 each, and so it proves. They both claim to be first time on CD, and are ‘historical recordings’ from 1949. I think the implication is that they are radio recordings (documentation is scant), but the quality in general is quite up to that of ‘50s LPs. In fact, I thought at first that Daphnis might be in some form of stereo, but analysis proved it to be mono. There is occasional slight distortion in Pepito, which the notes acknowledge.

I’d not heard of either work before, but then according to Wiki he wrote 99 operettas, so that’s perhaps not surprising. Pepito is early, the CD says his first, but Wiki says fifth (third of those ever performed). Daphnis comes about a third of the way through the list, with only Orpheus and Geneviéve de Brabante, of the well known works, preceding it.

Offenbach in German is perhaps an acquired taste, though there are other mainstream recordings as a precedent. The flavour, with the short spoken links between the musical items, and the (intentionally) ‘funny character accents’ is very much that of the classic earlier mono Ackermann Merry Widow with Schwarzkopf. (There is even some similar cod snoring at one point in Pepito.) As they say on a certain other radio channel – ‘If you like that, you will probably like this’. And I certainly do. (The Schwarzkopf recording would be one for my desert island, and I commend it to any who don’t know it.)

The performances sound perfectly idiomatic, and are quite enjoyable. Of the two works, it is strangely the early Pepito which has what we think of as the Offenbach hallmarks of bouncy rhythms, and, in this case almost, memorable tunes. Certainly there are pre-echoes of La Belle Helene here. Perhaps the different story line of Daphnis allows for less fun, and this is a somewhat more muted work.

I see that both CDs are available from MDT, at £8.50 each. so you don’t have to go as far afield as I did. I would suggest Pepito as the one to try first, as the more sprightly work outweighs the slightly inferior sound quality. While you are looking at the MDT Offenbach pages, may I put in a plug for the Regis twofer of Leibowitz’s La Belle Helene, still available at only £10? It’s the best Offenbach recording I know, and was once, I seem to remember, voted as one of the best opera recordings of all time by one of the (earlier and more trustworthy) Gramophone reviewers. If that doesn’t cheer you up at the winter solstice, nothing will!

[StephenO]

Latest purchase - Carols from Worcester Cathedral.

[Nick Armstrong]

Pre-Christmas treat for self, having marvelled at the extract on CD Review:

the Harmonia Mundi disc of Tallis's "Puer Natus Est Nobis" Mass and other pieces by Byrd and Sheppard.

An absolute ..... as good a choral disc as I have ever heard, plus that Mass has been one of my favourite pieces of all since the lovely King's Cambridge/ Ledger performance on EMI. It's filling the house as I write. Is there anything more gorgeous and hypnotic than the Agnus Dei ?? I don't think so.

[hmvman]

I'm just about to settle down to listen to "On Christmas Day: New Carols from King's" (EMI). Bought the disc a few weeks ago when Europadisc had an offer on everything and have been waiting for an opportunity to play it. Tonight's the night!