New releases

[HighlandDougie]

Given the cheapness of certain boxes on AmIt, the delivery charges are peanuts

The Abbado Symphony Edition is, I see, now reduced on amazon.it

http://www.amazon.it/Symphony-Edition-Box-Claudio-Abbado/dp/B00BN1QV0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403164872&sr=8-1&keywords=claudio+abbado+the+symphony+edition

Even with postage (€4.48), it's a bit cheaper than from amazon.co.uk (and something of a bargain). Given that these Italian boxes seem to come from the same warehouse as French ones, the price differentials baffle me. I suppose it's what Amazon thinks each national market will bear.

[Radio64]

Speaking of bargain boxsets on amazon.it what's this one all about?

The Westminster Legacy

any good? Looks like it might make a nice present for someone...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

any good? Looks like it might make a nice present for someone...

Well, that's very generous of you R64: I'd be delighted to receive it!

Westminster was a budget label from around the '60s; this looks like a compilation of some of their best releases. IIRC, the sound quality is pretty good, but the pressings of the old LPs was often cause for frustrated criticism (clicks, pops, swishes) - which shouldn't be a problem on the CD reissues. Some very well-known orchestras used to be involved under different names (because they were "exclusively" contracted to other labels) so the LPO would be featured as "The London Festival Orchestra" - and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (playing Holst's Planets under Boult) is the VPO (at around the time they recorded the work for DECCA with Karajan). And Egon Petri playing Beethoven sounds tantalising!

Yes - it'd make a lovely present; but too much duplicated repertoire and too expensive and too many other tantalising sets demanding my attention to make my Debit Card start singing.

[Radio64]

Well, that's very generous of you R64: I'd be delighted to receive it!

Westminster was a ....

Thanks for the info. Still a bit 'dear' perhaps.... and Christmas still too far away sadface

[Rolmill]

The Abbado Symphony Edition is, I see, now reduced on amazon.it

http://www.amazon.it/Symphony-Edition-Box-Claudio-Abbado/dp/B00BN1QV0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403164872&sr=8-1&keywords=claudio+abbado+the+symphony+edition

Even with postage (€4.48), it's a bit cheaper than from amazon.co.uk (and something of a bargain). Given that these Italian boxes seem to come from the same warehouse as French ones, the price differentials baffle me. I suppose it's what Amazon thinks each national market will bear.

Thanks HD, well spotted - duly ordered as an early birthday present to myself. As you say, quite a bargain, even allowing for some duplication.

[HighlandDougie]

Speaking of bargain boxsets on amazon.it what's this one all about?

The Westminster Legacy

any good? Looks like it might make a nice present for someone...

Ever the sucker for these boxes (Decca Sound, Mercury Living Presence, Oiseau-Lyre Baroque Era, Archiv 1947 - 2013 etc), I bought this box when it was released, largely to see whether some of the Westminster - full-price (and Whitehall - budget price à la Ace of Clubs) LPs in my father's collection were still worth listening to in 2014. With a few exceptions (I really don't like Erich Leinsdorf's Mozart very much), the answer is happily yes. You have to be tolerant of some of Hermann Scherchen's wilder excesses but he is at least never boring. You also get Knappertsbusch's Bruckner 8th (1892, rev. Schalk) and the recordings Monteux and the LSO made for Westminster. You also get what I think might be Julian Bream's first recordings (1955) plus Sena Jurinac in Schumann and chamber music played in the echt-Viennese style.

On the question of orchestras, the "London Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra" which I remember from the Leinsdorf Mozart LPs is actually the RPO but the Vienna State Opera Orchestra is indeed the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. The question of which VPO players (who were indeed members of the State Opera Orchestra) played in the VSOO when it made recordings is a bit complicated but the simple answer is by no means all of them. Anyway, the VPO no doubt didn't want their name to be associated with the likes of Westminster rather than Decca so Westminster had to make do with the VSOO, not that there is anything much wrong with their playing (as the numerous Scherchen recordings make clear). I seem to remember that there was a good deal more on this topic in, I think, 'Fanfare' but I may be completely wrong.

It might be worth keeping an eye on the Amazon Italy price in case it goes lower as the box contains performances which merit being preserved in good transfers.

[Radio64]

...

It might be worth keeping an eye on the Amazon Italy price in case it goes lower as the box contains performances which merit being preserved in good transfers.

Thanks .. on my wishlist

[Dave2002]

A new batch of recordings (re-releases) of British music from Presto - http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/fea...lection-Part-1

[MickyD]

Whoopee - coming soon, Les Siècles/Xavier Roth in more Stravinsky. An enticing looking disc of The Rite of Spring and Petrushka.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stravinsky-Sacre-du-Printemps-Petrouchka/dp/B00H2C5PYU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1404239220&sr=1-1&keywords=stravinsky+roth

[Black Swan]

MickyD

I have this as a download and it is a very fine recording in deed.

[MickyD]

Ah, lucky you, Black Swan! I daresay it will feature in CD Review before long. It was also only this evening that I realised I had missed the other Les Siècles release of a few months ago, that of works by Dukas, including 'The Sorceror's Apprentice', which they did so well at the Proms last year.

[PJPJ]

A few new releases from Dutton at last:

John Foulds Vol 4

Delightful music by Jean-Michel Damase played not long ago on Afternoon on 3.

And an SACD of all things!

Just been listening to Decca's re-release of Krauss's Strauss - very good re-mastering from the early days of tape. I think I have lost count how many times I have bought these same recordings.....

[PJPJ]

And another to which I am looking forward:



Hitchcock Mauceri

[Roehre]

A few new releases from Dutton at last:

John Foulds Vol 4

Delightful music by Jean-Michel Damase played not long ago on Afternoon on 3.

And an SACD of all things!....

Many thanks PJPJ

[cloughie]

Just been listening to Decca's re-release of Krauss's Strauss - very good re-mastering from the early days of tape. I think I have lost count how many times I have bought these same recordings.....

...and did it all start with ACL16?