king ubu

I usually pick out stuff I want to listen first ... then put those back into the box at the back end and take out another bunch of things ... that might change, as I'm often proceeding similarly to Larry. So stuff I once picked out might go back in unplayed, whilst other stuff gets played first ... but usually my way of dealing with these boxes is just this: what I've played (and don't feel like playing again immediately) goes back in at the back, so I have some kind of control what I've played and what not. There are many boxes of which I've played a third or half or two thirds, and they have been around for one or two years. Doesn't bother me at all as I want to explore new stuff when the time is right (many of those boxes contain repertoire - i.e. symphonies from Schubert onwards - I've not really started to explore at all yet, so I tend to skip those for the time being, waiting until the day will come when I'm going to start exploring Schubert's symphonies (I've just given a first spin to the "great" and found it most interesting, very repetitive, different certainly from any other symphonic music I've listened to so far, but again it sounded pretty familiar, probably so because I've played lots of Schubert piano sonatas and chamber music and lieder).

Wow, that long. Great photo above. Guess it might finally be time to listen to that solo concert on Intakt. Never dared to so far, the memories are that deep.

Cheers on all that, Volkher - very much in the same boat as you, also regarding the All-Baroque box. Moms may have a point if you go through it work by work, but to me, it amounts to a sh*tload of enjoyable and yes, to my ears and still pretty limited knowledge, very good performances. In many cases I do have other recordings and I'd not say those in the box are less good than the others I've heard, they have their merits, while others have other merits, obviously (regarding, to pick out one example, "Messiah", Christie clearly does it for me, but I'd never call the Pinnock or McCreesh bad, just as I'd never come up with the concept that they're "surpassed" - the Harnoncourt from 2004 still needs to be listened). Just in case, amazon.it has a prohibitive price on the Abbado DG symphonies box right now - I just gave in, at € 50.90 (minus VAT, ends up at less than 42 for me and will easily pass custom, too): http://www.amazon.it/Claudio-Abbado-Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/dp/B00BN1QV0S/

I have La Venexiana's "Orfeo" - it's good. Also Rinaldini's - even better. But still, I prefer Gardiner, can't help it. Not a fan of Savall's so far, but I've heard little. No idea what my stance on Gardiner will be in ten years, but right now, I'm in. Love his Bach cantatas and more. And his Mozart operas, too. And then the piano concertos with Bilson (you still owe me a reply btw, regarding why you think Perahia sucks bigtime in those - I enjoy his recordings quite some though they're not top favourites). As for H ... in colloquial german I'm tempted to say he's got a "Knall" - read a lenghty interview where he complains about being the first and last and only one caring for historical performance practice, that there are no younger ones taking over, so he still has to handle the whole workload ... and other crap. Not sure how to what extent the guy asking the questions is to blame, but really, H is a dick, and that's putting it mildly. Of course again that doesn't disqualify his musical merits, but his Monteverdi (haven't heard "Orfeo") is pretty odd (also way over the top regarding orchestra size, it seems?). I've got some Haydn masses I've enjoyed though, and a few other things, mostly choral/sacred (but I don't need boys singing Bach cantatas, so I've heard none of those so far). (uhm, "Rinaldini" being Rinaldo Alessandrini of course - I never get his name right, but I love pretty much everything I've heard, including his take on Monteverdi's "Vespro")

Guess I'm interested in how interpretation evolved, too, so not only looking for "the best" (wouldn't even really know how to do that, where I want HIP, where not, what kind of approach with what work etc. - I'm learning as I continue my explorations, developing and discovering my preferences). Love, for instance, the Gardiner in the All-Baroque box. There may be more "accurate" or "correct" or "adequate" recordings of Monteverdi's Orfeo, but none grabs me as much as Gardiner's, who has the best singer in the title role - at least so I hear it. But mind me, I'm no expert and my classical journey started inky two years back. (edit for typos made on dumbphone ... note so self: stop posting on smartphone, it sucks)

Surely disagree on the Baroque box!

Oh, belated best wishes, Tom!

By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice! Not sure ... I agree about the presentation of those boxes, mostly the three Coltrane ones, which are indeed wonderfully done (but the way the discs are stored is still beyond moronic). How many of those were in the planning stages when Concord took over and/or prepared by Fantasy folks that were laid off soon after? Anyway, certainly OJCCDs were "basic" if you want - but I love them still, don't feel any need to get Japanese replacements, they sound alright in 99% of the cases, which cannot be said of the product that Verve put out in the late 80s/early 90s (they only started doing nice presentations in the second half of the nineties, too, just in case ...), neither can it be said of the early Sony CDs or of any BN CDs (we're past all those fights, but there are bad-sounding McMasters, bad RVGs ... to an extent I never felt there were bad Fantasy discs ever - and early BN CDs, 1987-89 or so, when they put out virtually their entire catalogue - were just as basic presentation wise as OJCCDs were). As for Concord, I'm not a nay-sayer in general, they put out some good stuff (those late Getz albums for instance!) that goes a bit further than their reputation (as I perceive it) admits. But their taking over of Fantasy really hasn't resulted in all that much. Previous discussions have indicated that those boxes were all developed by Fantasy, and that Concord just pushed out what had already been done, then laid off the people involved. Overall, I have no complaints about Fantasy. Unbelievable how many obscure but worthy titles they re-released from the Prestige/Riverside/Contemporary catalogs. That's what I had in mind indeed! And I still disagree - Fantasy CDs may have never featured the snazziest layouts, but they never had any of the quality control issues EMI suffered from or the kaputt remastering of early CBS/Columbia/Sony albums or the silliness in packaging coming from PolyGram/Verve/Universal ... and to your regular listener like me, they always sounded very much alright. I never felt an urge to replace early OJCCDs, really. I couldn't care less about them being reissued in Japan these days. Also, regarding EMI and actually putting out stuff of small labels and minor artists - if they weren't on Blue Note, I'm not so sure either. Colpix? Roost? Roulette? Pacific Jazz? In way too many cases it either took Mosaic or Toshiba/EMI Japan to bring things to light. And when EMI did a run of Nina Simone's excellent Colpix albums, you had to search for the rare one without that silly copycrap thing added. So no, you won't convince me this time, I'm afraid - Fantasy was alright and then some!

sorry, I mixed things up ... it's this disc of course: "Midnight Session" (disc 4 #3) is by Conny Schumann, "Sweetie's Bounce" (disc 4 #5) by Doldinger - just checked the booklet and that's what it says. That's a very good four disc set btw, the official albums on discs 1-3 and disc 4 filled with live rarities and some sideman cuts (such as "Midnight Session" which indeed comes from the album "Rolf Kühn feat. Klaus Doldinger") No idea, btw, who Conny Schumann is - not Coco, I assume.

Some good offers here - 150 box sets at reduced prices (with some it's just a few cent, with others, there are substantial price reductions): http://www.amazon.it/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A412600031%2Cn%3A%21518398031%2Cn%3A%21518400031%2Cn%3A4891956031

Hey, I'm building a collection myself, so yeah, obviously there's MUCH interest in these boxes here! Glad posting links helps you (and yes, I'm not the only one doing this of course!) Re: Beethoven, I went for the EMI box, which looked more tempting to me than the DG one (and the Sony, too). But the EMI is OOP and is a rather lousy package (booklet has no recording dates, you only get the (P) and © years, often in bulk), it comes in papersleeves, too, and there are no notes whatsoever ... I assume packaging of the DG is similar to the All-Baroque box (i.e. cardboard sleeves but generic front covers w/info on the back)?

Klaus Doldinger, I should think! The tune's on this disc: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=2821001 Don't have it at hand, but I chose it for a BFT I once did and when compiling the info, the name I typed in brackets behind that tune was Doldinger's.

Great cover above - is that the original? Never heard of this, but as Mr. Sangrey once said (sorry if memory plays tricks): I'd let Annie Ross drive my truck any day! Will be looking for this!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

less than 29 € at amazon.de http://www.amazon.de/Beethoven-Complete-Masterpieces-Ludwig-Van/dp/B000NDEMAI/ Discs 1-5: Die 9 Sinfonien (Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/David Zinman) Discs 6-7: Ouvertüren (Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/David Zinman) Disc 8: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus op. 43 (Ballettmusik) (Litauische Kammerphilharmonie/Karl Anton Rickenbacher Disc 9 Orchester-,Klavier-, Flöten und Violinwerke Discs 10-12: Die 5 Klavierkonzerte (Yefim Bronfman/Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/David Zinman) Disc 13: Violinkonzert op. 61 + Die 2 Violinromanzen op. 40+50 (Christian Tetzlaff/Tonhalleorchester Zürich/David Zinman) Disc 14: Tripelkonzert op. 56; Septett op. 20 (Yefim Bronfman/Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/David Zinman) Discs 15-18: Die 10 Violinsonaten (Pinchas Zukerman/George Neikrug) Discs 19-20: Die 5 Cellosonaten + Variationen (Anner Bylsma/Jos van Immerseel) Discs 21-25: Die 12 Klaviertrios (Seraphin Trio) Disc 26: Die Streichtrios op. 3 und op. 8 (L’Archibudelli Disc 27: Die Streichtrios op. 9,1-3 (Kandinsky String Trio) Disc 28: Klavierquartett op. 16 (Streicherfassung); Klavierquintett op. 16 (Bläserfassung) (Emanuel Ax/Isaac Stern/ Jaime Lardo/YoYo Ma/Ensemble Wien-Berlin) Disc 29: Kammermusik für Streicher und Holzbläser (L’Archibudelli) Disc 30: Oktett op. 103 / Klarinettensextett op. 71 / Märsche für Bäser, u.a. (Mozzafiato) Discs 31-39: Die 16 Streichquartette (Alexander String Quartet) Discs 40-50: Die 32 Klaviersonaten (Yukio Yokoyama, Charles Rosen, Vladimir Horowitz, Justus Frantz, Gerhard Oppitz, Robert Casadesus) Disc 51: Die Bagatellen für Klavier Solo (Yukio Yokoyama) Disc 52: Die Variationen für Klavier Solo (Yukio Yokoyama) Disc 53: Diabelli-Variationen + 4 Klavierstücke WoO (Olli Mustonen) Disc 54: Lieder von den Britischen Inseln (Elaine Woods/Carolyn Watkinson/Richard Salter/Helmut Deutsch) Disc 55: Christus am Ölberge op. 85 (Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy) Disc 56: Messe op. 86 (Tokyo Oratorio Society/Ensemble of Tokyo/Wolfdieter Maurer) Disc 57: Missa Solemnis op. 123 (Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/David Zinman) Disc 58: Chorwerke (Regine Crespin/ New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Schippers, Ambrosian Opera Chorus/ London Symphony Orchestra/Tilson Thomas Martina Arroyo/ Justine Diaz/ Camerata Singers) Discs 59-60: Fidelio op. 72 (Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Kurt Masur) (I'm not in, but it might be of interest to some)

By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice! Not sure ... I agree about the presentation of those boxes, mostly the three Coltrane ones, which are indeed wonderfully done (but the way the discs are stored is still beyond moronic). How many of those were in the planning stages when Concord took over and/or prepared by Fantasy folks that were laid off soon after? Anyway, certainly OJCCDs were "basic" if you want - but I love them still, don't feel any need to get Japanese replacements, they sound alright in 99% of the cases, which cannot be said of the product that Verve put out in the late 80s/early 90s (they only started doing nice presentations in the second half of the nineties, too, just in case ...), neither can it be said of the early Sony CDs or of any BN CDs (we're past all those fights, but there are bad-sounding McMasters, bad RVGs ... to an extent I never felt there were bad Fantasy discs ever - and early BN CDs, 1987-89 or so, when they put out virtually their entire catalogue - were just as basic presentation wise as OJCCDs were). As for Concord, I'm not a nay-sayer in general, they put out some good stuff (those late Getz albums for instance!) that goes a bit further than their reputation (as I perceive it) admits. But their taking over of Fantasy really hasn't resulted in all that much.

You can find it online, but a link is probably not permitted ...

Eugen Cicero? sample here: http://www.amazon.de/Handmade-Eugen-Cicero/dp/B000RG11QY

Would love to be there --- even though I can't quite imagine anyone subbing for Russell. He's so spot-on on the album, it begs for silly phrases like "accept no substitute" ... anyway, where it around the block from me, I'd definitely attend!

But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ...

sad news - will give the above a spin later

This sounds great, Alex! I'll make sure to order it soon!

couldn't find an app in the google or samsung stores ... the mobilve version of the website has that ROVI thing too, though, and does look rather differently from the standard site