tonym

If this is your first traversal through these, you're in for a major treat! A series of albums that still fascinates and enthralls me after overdosing on 'hard - bop'. True classics!

The slooooow one!

I enjoyed the Redemption prequel but did think it was highly predictable albeit a good way of getting Jack back in US hands. I watched the first 'hour' last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The fact that we've moved away from L.A (way too sunny there for a Brit to conceive) to a much more sinister location -- Washington D.C added to it. That FBI agent with the freckles is very nice too. Hope she makes it past midday.

I only have one Khachaturian piece on disc: I find it very melodic though not as challenging as his contemporaries.

All the belated best!

Same here! I just got a great bargain on this set a few weeks ago from the former US distributor of Oehms (Naxos of America has now taken on that role ), which was blowing out its entire Oehms stock at deep discounts. Great! I'm really looking forward to getting it. The email came this morning to say it had been dispatched.

yeah, yeah...with his big horn and all that...

I agree--the best version I've heard features the Kind of Blue edition of the Miles Davis group, it's on the CD '58 Sessions. One of my favorite moments in recorded jazz happens right at the beginning of the second chorus when Trane comes in and Jimmy & PC start to walk at that medium tempo. Sublime. Sends shivers up my spine every time. A priceless moment, especially the 'cry' when Coltrane peaks. I get those same shivers on the My Funny Valentine album when Wayne comes in!

A real bargain from France!

Bought purely for Ogden's Shos. 2

Thanks people. All the very best for New Year!

I can only repeat what I said here. An outstanding album and one of my first ECM's. Might have to dig it out tonight before bed.

Might have to have this one day...

There was a time when most here thought you were a 'bird'.

A Gorilla. Or was it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy52yueBX_s.

Tony fizzles out in the most un-Rock n' Roll way possible "You die from complications of a ruptured appendix". While Antony better be more careful. "While you're in bed with another woman, your wife comes home and catches you in the act. In a fit of rage, she stabs you to death violently with a pair of scissors".

So at the inquest is it drowning or bleeding to death? These things matter.

Some people just don't give a damn! There's usually an outburst at the end of movements which you expect but just put up with. I have a recording of Du Pre from a Swedish Venue in December with the great Celibidache and I'm sure the audience is packed with consumptives. I do think that a great majority of people just go to classical music concerts to be seen to be there. At the Halle a few years back I watched a guy nod off only to come round at the end of the piece, jump up and start shouting 'encore, encore'. What a twat. During a blistering performance of Shostakovich's 1st Cello Concerto at the begining of the long cadenza, some bloke starts unwrapping boiled sweets. Luckily I wasn't sat next to him.

I was under the impression that in 1954, Yamaha coined the term 'hi-fi' for it's new turntable. Sounds a bit late to me....

I've listened to the 4th many times, but I have never been able to warm to it. Neither did Stalin. Stalin never actually got chance to hear it. It was withheld by Shostakovich for over 20 years. That is not true. Shostakovich took it on the chin for the 4th Symphony.... Strange, as everything I've read on the subject suggests that whilst Stalin's henchmen (whether they be members of Pravda or of his own apparatchik) may have been present at several rehearsals he himself didn't attend. Given that every wall in 'Terror' ridden Soviet era had at least one good ear, reports of the 4th's content could've been relayed by uneasy orchestra members or even the conductor Stiedry himself. Unfortunately, we'll never know who actually 'made' the decision to axe the premiere after 10 rehearsals or why: was it the Leningrad Phil's director, Renzin, under pressure or was it DSCH himself reckoning the orchestra were struggling or simply that the piece wasn't up to scratch? All open for infiinte discussion and obsessing and all very interesting. I would like to know where your read that Stalin heard the music for himself though.

I've listened to the 4th many times, but I have never been able to warm to it. Neither did Stalin. I'm pretty sure I saw Haitink conduct Shostakovich #4 last season with the CSO (have to check ticket stubs). I tried to catch the version on BBC Radio 3 where the CSO was visiting England for the Proms, but the stream was all messed up. Anyway, CSO has just released a new recording of #4 with a bonus DVD called Beyond the Score which is a multi-media presentation on the symphony and events of the Stalinist era. Sounds like something I will pick up. I think only one Shostakovich symphony is programmed this season. Haitink and the CSO played Mahler 6th this year at the proms. His version on record with the Concertgebouw on Decca grabs you by the balls from the opening bars of the first moevemt and only occasionally releases the pressure on them.

I've listened to the 4th many times, but I have never been able to warm to it. Neither did Stalin. Stalin never actually got chance to hear it. It was withheld by Shostakovich for over 20 years.

Not bad but there are many better recordings of the pieces on here. Shostakovich....hmmmm. Becoming a bit of an obsession that one. With three full symphonic cycles (just missed out on the Haitink/Decca on eBay yesterday), three cycles of his string quartets and countless other recording of his symphonic, chamber and vocal works my wife thinks I'm losing it ("Do you really need another recording of the 11th?) There are many good books too. Personally Iain MacDonald's The New Shostakovich is my 'favourite' account of his musical life but Testimony and Elizabeth Wilson's A Life Remembered are also well worth reading for very different reasons. For someone as open minded and big eared as you 7/4, you'll have no trouble warming to some of the more esoteric works in his canon. The song cycle From Jewish Folk Music is a wonder and that Hamlet score is unbearable in it's intensity. If you're anything like me DSCH will become one big itch to scratch.