How To Search The Gramophone Archive

[richardfinegold]

Does anyone know a good way to do this?. The Fanfare Magazine Archive is relatively easy to search. Gramophone however is frustrating. One has to know the specific issue. That’s ok if the recording was reviewed 3 months ago but not 3 decades previously.
For example I just typed Tennstedt into their search function and 3 random entries appeared. I have more luck Googling for old reviews. It is fun to be able to pull up an entire issue from yesteryear but ultimately I would like to find specific reviews

[Pulcinella]

jlw used to assure us that it was straightforward, but I think almost everyone else disagreed!

[pastoralguy]

jlw used to assure us that it was straightforward, but I think almost everyone else disagreed!

No! It’s unbelievably clunky and awkward and would be even more awkward if we weren’t searching names that are often unusual!

[richardfinegold]

Well thanks for the replies although they are disappointing. I guess Google will remain the main search tool here

[Roslynmuse]

In the old days of the quarterly Gramophone Classical Catalogue the review dates were listed next to the disc number. Strange how 'progress' is often anything but...

The other irritation for me in Gramophone itself is the loss of the New Releases listing. It became essential when the sheer number of releases meant that only favoured labels ever received reviews.

[ostuni]

My usual workaround is to go to the Presto Classical site, and look for the Reviews tab on the listing of the release in question. More often than not, this gives a brief quote from the Gramophone review, and its date: I can then plug the date into the Gramophone archive, and go straight to the relevant issue.

[mikealdren]

In the old days of the quarterly Gramophone Classical Catalogue the review dates were listed next to the disc number. Strange how 'progress' is often anything but...

The other irritation for me in Gramophone itself is the loss of the New Releases listing. It became essential when the sheer number of releases meant that only favoured labels ever received reviews.

Yes, they clearly have an index of reviews with dates. Why can't they make that available.

[richardfinegold]

My usual workaround is to go to the Presto Classical site, and look for the Reviews tab on the listing of the release in question. More often than not, this gives a brief quote from the Gramophone review, and its date: I can then plug the date into the Gramophone archive, and go straight to the relevant issue.

Tried that a few times and there wasn’t a Gramophone review attached. You are actually more likely to succeed with Google

[pastoralguy]

Item.

I recently took delivery of the Labéque sisters classic 1981 recording for two pianos of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the Piano Concerto in it’s original Philips Blue Face release and, naturally, wanted to look up the original review. It was comparatively straightforward since entering an unusual name such as ‘Labèque’ gives only a limited number of hits. However, trying to find a review of a work by Beethoven or Mozart can be frustrating!

[richardfinegold]

Item.

I recently took delivery of the Labéque sisters classic 1981 recording for two pianos of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the Piano Concerto in it’s original Philips Blue Face release and, naturally, wanted to look up the original review. It was comparatively straightforward since entering an unusual name such as ‘Labèque’ gives only a limited number of hits. However, trying to find a review of a work by Beethoven or Mozart can be frustrating!

Indeed. It’s frustrating just trying to find a specific recording of a warhorse on the Presto site, especially with all the various reissue options. And the Presto site is relatively well done compared to others