Bargains

[Bryn]

... which piano concertos?

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Sorry, I left out the crucial "French". Too many to list. It's a Brilliant Classics 'box'. I don't think there are any 'world-beating' performances or recordings there but quite a few I have yet to hear. https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...iano-concertos

[MickyD]

... I agree. Tho' I am frustrated he seems to have given up on doing a 'complete' Soler - I think he gave up after four vols (eight CDs) ...

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Yes, most odd, being the completist that he is. I think the only other complete set was from Bob Van Asperen on Astrée many moons ago.

[vinteuil]

Yes, most odd, being the completist that he is. I think the only other complete set was from Bob Van Asperen on Astrée many moons ago.

Gilbert Rowland did a complete Soler for naxos. Sadly it is pretty pedestrian - and that's not good for Soler. I had had high hopes that Belder might deliver.

I don't know the van Asperen....

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[vinteuil]

Sorry, I left out the crucial "French". Too many to list. It's a Brilliant Classics 'box'. I don't think there are any 'world-beating' performances or recordings there but quite a few I have yet to hear. https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...iano-concertos

... ah, many thanks. Yes, a few interesting 'rarities' there - but for me I think too many duplicates - and those which are not duplicates are with performers not of the most enticing. But thank you


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[Pulcinella]

... ah, many thanks. Yes, a few interesting 'rarities' there - but for me I think too many duplicates - and those which are not duplicates are with performers not of the most enticing. But thank you


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Certainly some I never knew about, let alone have heard.
Found on Deezer, so saved on my Sonos system to investigate later.

[MickyD]

Gilbert Rowland did a complete Soler for naxos. Sadly it is pretty pedestrian - and that's not good for Soler. I had had high hopes that Belder might deliver.

I don't know the van Asperen....

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Oh yes, agreed, I found Rowland similarly disappointing in Scarlatti.
This was the presentation of the Astrée series:




During my searches for Van Asperen, I stumbled upon what looks like two very fine recently recorded sets of complete Louis Couperin and Froberger, all on important original harpsichords, for the Aeolus label. I am amazed that both escaped my notice - do you know them, Vints?

[vinteuil]

Oh yes, agreed, I found Rowland similarly disappointing in Scarlatti.



During my searches for Van Asperen, I stumbled upon what looks like two very fine recently recorded sets of complete Louis Couperin and Froberger, all on important original harpsichords, for the Aeolus label. I am amazed that both escaped my notice - do you know them, Vints?

... thanks for that : no, I don't know the Van Asperen Soler. I always think of him as careful player, well suited to the North German repertoire - I wonder how he copes with the exuberance and sometimes borderline pantomime-silliness of Soler?

I don't know the Van Asperen Aeolus recordings either. I think I probably have enough Louis Couperin (Verlet, Moroney, Egarr, Rousset, &c) and Froberger (the complete Egarr and others... ) on the shelves for the time being. More generally I think it's time for me to call a halt to CD collection at the moment. There's really far too much here. (Of course there will be exceptions... : )

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[verismissimo]

Gilbert Rowland did a complete Soler for naxos. Sadly it is pretty pedestrian - and that's not good for Soler.

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I had G Rowland come and play D Scarlatti for us at Blackheath (around 1990). He was cripplingly shy …

[cloughie]

... ah, many thanks. Yes, a few interesting 'rarities' there - but for me I think too many duplicates - and those which are not duplicates are with performers not of the most enticing. But thank you


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I think at £8 for the equivalent of 12CDs a few duplicates doesn’t break the bank!

[MickyD]

... thanks for that : no, I don't know the Van Asperen Soler. I always think of him as careful player, well suited to the North German repertoire - I wonder how he copes with the exuberance and sometimes borderline pantomime-silliness of Soler?

I don't know the Van Asperen Aeolus recordings either. I think I probably have enough Louis Couperin (Verlet, Moroney, Egarr, Rousset, &c) and Froberger (the complete Egarr and others... ) on the shelves for the time being. More generally I think it's time for me to call a halt to CD collection at the moment. There's really far too much here. (Of course there will be exceptions... : )


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Ha ha, that's what I always say, yet somehow CDs keep getting ordered! I only have Moroney for the Louis Couperin set (the Egarr now only available at silly prices - I am very tempted by Van Asperen, as he has managed to procure some incredibly rare original harpsichords for his project.

As for his Soler, some kind soul has put up a few extracts on YouTube for us...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qmEn5rGxMo

[Pulcinella]

Maybe the wrong sort, but the Coop's current Freezer offer (two Goodfellas pizzas, frozen chips, garlic baguettes, tub of ice cream (Creme egg, as they had run out of Kit Kat)) for £5 (actually £4.50, as I had a 50p discount using the Member app), and their Valentine meal offer for £15 (starter, main, side, dessert, bottle of wine) strike me as great bargains to accompany the French piano concertos.

[MickyD]

Maybe the wrong sort, but the Coop's current Freezer offer (two Goodfellas pizzas, frozen chips, garlic baguettes, tub of ice cream (Creme egg, as they had run out of Kit Kat)) for £5 (actually £4.50, as I had a 50p discount using the Member app), and their Valentine meal offer for £15 (starter, main, side, dessert, bottle of wine) strike me as great bargains to accompany the French piano concertos.

Maybe better to be listening to Telemann's Tafelmusik with that lot! Bon appétit!

[Pulcinella]

Maybe better to be listening to Telemann's Tafelmusik with that lot! Bon appétit!

My knowledge of Telemann and his music is (shockingly!) poor: apart from a Suite that appears on a BBC MM CD, all I have in my collection is a 4CD Archiv set of Der getreue Music-Meister (that looks odd spelling, but it's what the cover says, Music not Musik!), under the direction of Josef Ulsamer.

I assume that you know the Soler concertos for two organs. I got to know them from an old Abbey LP, which must have been one of the first recorded in Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral:

https://www.discogs.com/Antonio-Soler-Terence-Duffy-And-Noel-Rawsthorne-Six-Concertos-For-Two-Organs/release/14997877

I imagine that they are great fun to play.

[MickyD]

Yes, those concerti are great fun; I have the version with Ton Koopman and his wife Tini Mathot.

I'm not a great fan of Der Getreue Musik-Meister, but the suites and concerti are well worth a listen. This is one of my all-time favourite discs, give it a go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWpwVU7zUTY

[Richard Barrett]

I'm not a great fan of Der Getreue Musik-Meister, but the suites and concerti are well worth a listen. This is one of my all-time favourite discs, give it a go!

Yes, that's all top drawer Telemann to be sure. (One of my first CDs I seem to remember.) I think the most interesting thing about the Ulsamer set of Der Getreue Music-Meister (German spelling, like English of course, hadn't been completely standardised in the early 18th century) is the pieces for odd instruments like chalumeaux, panpipes and descant gamba, although actually, in the decades since it was recorded, the repertoire for chalumeau has been much more deeply explored (including on the Goebel disc in MickyD's link). There isn't a dull moment in the Tafelmusik though, and at least five complete recordings although again Goebel would be my first choice.

I know those Soler pieces in recordings on fortepianos alternating with harpsichords, by Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock, which I must say I prefer to performance on organs, the music seems more idiomatic to stringed keyboard instruments (and really no different in style from Soler's solo harpsichord pieces): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbRwidmtZxE