BaL 2.07.22 - Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

[richardfinegold]

That is a very familiar story to me - I also had a Saturday job in a record shop as a teenager and I very rarely brought much cash home! and then my first job after university was also in a record shop! - bad idea...

I also spent more, using my employee discount, working in record stores, than I earned, and eventually had to get a more mundane job for that reason

[Goon525]

‘My wife (whose boyfriend is Rafa Nadal)‘
I thought that was particularly interesting.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

‘My wife (whose boyfriend is Rafa Nadal)‘
I thought that was particularly interesting.

Yes, I thought the same, though I get the gist - I think.

[visualnickmos]

I think I read somewhere the excellent BBC Sounds is available abroad

It is.

[Bryn]

I think I read somewhere the excellent BBC Sounds is available abroad

It is.

Yes, but at what data rates? Is the 320 kbps aac stream thus available without a VPN?

[HighlandDougie]

Yes, but at what data rates? Is the 320 kbps aac stream thus available without a VPN?

Definitely not in France

[Bryn]

Definitely not in France

As I suspected.

[visualnickmos]

Yes, but at what data rates? Is the 320 kbps aac stream thus available without a VPN?

I've absolutely no idea what all that stuff means, but I have no problem listening. Just go to the relevant site, and you're there!

[Bryn]

I've absolutely no idea what all that stuff means, but I have no problem listening. Just go to the relevant site, and you're there!

Since I am located in the U.K., I am unable to check, by ear, what audio quality is available outside the U.K. However, within the U.K, BBC Sounds offers a maximum audio quality for Radio 3 of 320 thousand bits per second with Advanced Audio CODEC (aac) in its low complexity version. The audio quality offered outside the UK is, as far as I know, significantly lower. Similar to that most often used for YouTube (between 90 and 128 thousand bits per second, i.e. around a third of the data used to reresent the music within the U.K.

[RichardB]

Since I am located in the U.K., I am unable to check, by ear, what audio quality is available outside the U.K.

Surely you are, you would just need to use a VPN to "locate" yourself elsewhere.

[Bryn]

Believe it or not, I do not use a VPN and do not feel like stumping up for one.

[Mario]

Lying here fairly immobile while my wife is watching her sweetheart play at Wimbledon, I have time to reflect…

Antongould, you were the first to recommend “Sounds”. I’ve sent you a PM in thanks. I’ve now listened to BAL’s Missa Solemnis.

Retune, I have indeed used your link (thanks for that), and BAL is not available here. Why do licensing laws apply to BAL, but not to Sounds?

I’m very grateful to Cockney Sparrow for his generosity. I’ve sent him a PM.

As one of those people with no other options who must be content with what is offered (i.e., beggars can’t be choosers), I cannot choose to complain about the quality of the signal. I only wanted to hear who won and why. I couldn’t care less if it was relayed in mono!

I know this thread is about Building a Library, and last Saturday was specifically about LvB’s MS, but can I go slightly off topic?

So, I now learn, Ms Elin’s Manahan Thomas’ choice was the Karajan – fair enough. She and AMcG very kindly played a section of it for us. They also played Toscanini’s version, all 95 secs of a work of over an hour long!

Please don’t be angry with me. As a non-licence fee paying listener enjoying the service that YOU pay for (and which I’m using for free of course), I know I’m sounding ungrateful and boorish and maybe even Victor Meldrew-ish, but what am I supposed to do with this information? Go check HvK’s out? How? Downloading? Streaming? Borrowing? YouTubing? Copying from a friend? Purchasing? A few of these options are illegal, correct? I know the programme cannot play each one chosen in its entirety, but couldn’t longer sections be played, and I don’t mean entire movements?

Am I missing the whole point of BAL?

More pertinently, has anyone ever taken up BAL’s recommendation and purchased a performance based purely on what little they heard on BAL?

[Pulcinella]

Mario

After a period in which this was not the case, Radio 3 is now offering the opportunity to hear the BaL winner in their follow-up programme:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018qtz

Not much help for you now though, I guess, as it 'sounds' (ha ha) like you'd have to listen in real time.

[visualnickmos]

More pertinently, has anyone ever taken up BAL’s recommendation and purchased a performance based purely on what little they heard on BAL?

Yes, I have once or twice - but NOT the winner of the laurels, but one of the others that were illustrated.

[rauschwerk]

More pertinently, has anyone ever taken up BAL’s recommendation and purchased a performance based purely on what little they heard on BAL?

I certainly have, and many such purchases have given me lasting satisfaction.