Album of the Evening

[Musicophile]

Beethoven Symphony no.3 - Leibowitz (redbook Chesky)

 

 

One of the most underrated Beethoven cycles there is, in spite of being initially released as "Readers Digest". In the 60s where Otto Klemperer (a recording I also love) takes 16:36 for the first movement, Leibowitz get's the Allegro con brio done in 12:53.

 

And amazing RCA sound quality.

[Musicophile]

@Boris

 

Be warned though, it is not an interpretation I'd recommend without a big warning sticker that it is really rather different (and in some ways WAY too slow).

 

My favorite one is with Karajan as well, but a very different 45 years younger one with Lipatti. The Leif Ove Andsnes with Janssons is another nice alternative.

[Musicophile]

Julia Hülsmann Trio - Imprint (redbook).

 

 

Bought this CD after having seen her live at the Moods in Zurich.

 

The Guardian had a very nice description of her style: "hints at what a Bill Evans trio might have sounded like in the era of Brad Mehldau and the Bad Plus".

 

Really amazing recording quality even by the high ECM standards. Anybody who claims redbook sounds poor should get this CD.

[Musicophile]

My Brad Melhldau collection is fairly large (no where near my Evans collection). After hearing Joshua Redman live at Town Hall in NYC decades ago with Brad Mehldau, Chris McBride and Brian Blade almost the entire set was The Mood Swing album, I started collecting Mehldau. Eliane Elias makes a nice impression. Will seek out the Julia Hülsmann Trio and discover what I have been missing.

 

Jimmy Cobb et al: Jazz In Blue 192/24 DL HDtracks. max conversion FLAC to AIFF.

Enjoying the music,

Richard

 

Agree, am a BIG Bill Evans fan as well. With Mehldau, I'm more mixed. There are absolute masterworks like Art of the Trio vol. 3, and some like Highway Rider that simply bore me to death in many songs.

 

Back to Hülsmann: She's been mainly known as a studio musician so far, playing with people like Rebekka Bakken. Imprint is only her second trio album at the age of 40, after The Age of Summer. Imprint is really very special to me, there are some songs like Grand Canyon or Zahlen Bitte (amazing drum solo by Heinrich Köbberling at the beginning) that I've used extensively as test tracks, and I still don't tire of it..

[Musicophile]

Richard,

 

your last album above triggered me to put on this one, one of my all time favorites:

 

 

An amazing all-star session, starting with Bobby McFerrin. Could probably also be added to the "best sounding live sessions" thread.

[Musicophile]

Enjoying the music and the exchange of music both loved and shared and informed about (thank you Musicophile.

Richard

 

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Fully agree.

 

On the other hand, how about starting a heated discussion on cable or file formats instead?

[Musicophile]

Fully agree.

 

On the other hand, how about starting a heated discussion on cable or file formats instead?

Ah, oh. OT here I come. Chris, no excuse for what follows: Musicophile, I know when you are jiving us. Much prefer to pour you a glass of wine or my finest Vodka/Tequila or anything I have at your disposal and fill your requests for music such that I may have in my collection as I prefer (like Peter Sellers in Being There) to listen (like to watch). Living (as it includes listening, watching, perceiving) is a state of mind. Your place or mine?

Best,

Richard

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Thanks for the invite, but there's several thousands miles plus a rather big lake in between us, a little showstopper for a quick drink, as much as I'd love that.

 

Back to topic (and I'm sure Chris can handle my little snippy remark up there, anyhow, I've been actively contributing to some of those discussions as well):

 

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 - Järvi - Gothenburg.

 

 

I'm still rather a newbie on Sibelius, but slowly discovering.

[Musicophile]

Album of the morning:

 

Just the right thing for a lazy and snowy (in October, can't believe it) Sunday morning with a nice mug of hot coffee:

 

 

Jazz at the Pawnshop (24/88)

 

And to get back off-topic :-)

 

No mentor on my side. Classical was just played all day long at my parents from our local radio station, so I've been passively absorbing it all from a young age. Jazz was my own discovery, I still remember my first two albums, I discovered more or less by chance listening through some albums in the Jazz section in our local music superstore (yes, there still were days with big shops entirely devoted to music).

 

 

 

I suddenly discovered that Jazz finally isnt just the anoying atonal free stuff I imagined it to be.

 

And Hifi was a common discovery with some high school friends. Endless sessions of comparing gear, cables, you name it.

[Musicophile]

Women and piano sonatas for me:

 

Started with Hélène Grimaud playing Chopin's and Rachmaninov's 2nd sonata followed by Mitsuko Uchida playing Schubert's D958 and 959. I like Uchida even better than Brendel on Schubert. (Both redbook)

[Musicophile]

I keep listening to more CDs from this huge set and am very, very pleased with it.

 

Agree, it's very nice. My other complete set is from the Kodaly on Naxos, but this one is better. Very nice SQ as well. As a HIP alternative, there's also the Quatuor Mosaiques, who has recorded a big part of the complete works in several independent boxes, e.g. Amazon.com: Haydn: String Quartets Opus 76: Music

[Musicophile]

So, do you also dislike when classical becames free and atonal?

 

Shame on me, but I admit it, I really like the good old well-tempered scale. Berg is about as "atonal" as I like, and when in a concert recently Pollini played a piece from Boulez, I just wanted to run away.

 

I just think there is so much great music you can do within the tonal system that I don't feel the need to be "freed" from it.

[Musicophile]

And Beethoven's 4 by Karajan in his 1980s recording with the BPO, ripped to ALAC

On the latter, the interpretation is nice, but to me the sound quality is subpar.The CD I ripped is the original version from the 1980s, not one of the more recent remasters.

 

I very much prefer Karajan's 1960s cycle, and even the sound is better, if you can get hold of the SACD version.

[Musicophile]

Dvorak Symphony No. 9 - Fricsay

 

 

Leslie Howard: Liszt at the Opera III

 

[Musicophile]

Art Blakey At The Café Bohemia I

 

 

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and this one has plenty!

[Musicophile]

Wayne Shorter: Adam's Apple (redbook)

 

.

 

A really great album. Footprints is one of my all time favorites from Shorter.

[Musicophile]

Philip Catherine / Niels-Henning Orsted-Petersen: Spanish Nights

 

 

Ugly cover, beautiful music.

 

Enrico Pieranunzi, Marc Johnson, Joey Baron: Live in Japan.

 

 

Great fun and nice SQ.

[Musicophile]

Hélène Grimaud and Sol Gabetta: Duo 96/24 DL from HDtracks. Excellent musicianship and very good SQ of Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestucke; Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor; Johannes Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano No.1 in E minor and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano.

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I've seen both individually in concerts and was very tempted to get it. It's on my wishlist of next purchases now.

[Musicophile]

Yes. We concur. Your assessment of the DL is apt and well stated. As you describe it is as if I am listening through gauze. I looked for the SACD edition; and, as you wrote, could not find it offered anywhere (in the USA). Disappointed about the SQ, but their talent shines through and the compositions are superb. If only the recording matched the talents of musicians and composers. C'est domage.

Richard

 

Thanks. You guys just saved me €5, I'll then stick to the Qobuz redbook download at 12.49 instead of the 24/96 at 17.49. This price difference (and the fact that Deutsche Grammophon rarely does audiophile gems) had stopped me from buying it until now.

[Musicophile]

Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but I ordered the redbook CD from Amazon for $14+ hoping XLD will convert the redbook to AIFF and provide me with a better seat in the audience.

Best,

Richard

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Will wait for your feedback before ordering at Qobuz.

[Musicophile]

I only have one Shaham recording, the Brahms concerto with Abbado.

 

Back to topic:

 

Genesis - Selling England By The Pound (redbook, remastered).

 

[Musicophile]

And 2 more:

 

Art Lande: Rubisa Patrol (redbook).

 

 

One of the best recordings of ECM in the 70s to me. And better SQ than many modern high-res.

 

Susannah McCorkle: From Bessie to Brazil (24/88):

 

 

I get easily bored by many of the contemporary female jazz singers. This one is different. And really well recorded.

[Musicophile]

With appreciation for the recommendation.

Best,

Richard

Same here, I'll check it out!

[Musicophile]

Last night I listened to Tchaikovsky's symphonies 4 and 5 by Karajan and the BPO after ripping them from this DVD, based on film recorded in 1973. I did not expect much in terms of sound quality from 48kHz/16bit stereo LPCM files ripped from a DVD, and to my great surprise these recordings have excellent sound quality, and the performance is superb. To my taste, this performance of the 4th symphony easily outclasses all the other ones I have listened to including Karajan with the VPO in the 1980s, Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic and Eschenbach and the Paris Orchestra (this one was a concert, not a recording). I also got the impression that it was superior to Karajan's recording with the BPO in the 1960s with EMI, but this last recording I could never listen to properly as my download from HDtracks has clicks in it.

 

Interesting. To be fair, the only Tchaikovsky symphony I regularly listen to is No.5. I'll check it out. My current favorite is Neeme Järvi on BIS.

[Musicophile]

I would much appreciate your impressions of this recording. I have been thinking about buying it, but the reviews are so mixed that I can't make up my mind.

 

I finally got it, but in redbook.

 

As described extensively described by Richard and Roch, the SQ is only so-so, a bit distant and veiled. However, it is good enough for me not to distract me from the performance.

 

However, I very much like the performance. As usually with Gabetta, the performance is very lively and energetic. Add the passion from Grimaud (which sometimes can be a bit too much on some other recordings), and you have a record that really doesn't leave you bored.

 

The only piece on here I can really compare is the Brahms cello sonata which I have several times, and while it is not a reference version, it is a pleasure to listen to.

 

The Schumann I had never heard before, and it is a nice discovery. The Debussy is quite romantic, but then again I don't really have a reference recording at hand for this one. And finally, on the Shostakovich, I'd need to revisit this again before I can make up my mind.

 

In summary, I didn't regret spending the money and will go back to this recording, both from a performance and from a repertoire point of view.

[Musicophile]

Gil Shaham

 

Two of his Redbook recordings that I recommend are:

 

Bartok violin con 2, Boulez conducting, DG. Superb perf & vastly better SQ than the Abbado Brahms.

 

Faure sonatas & trio on Canary Classics label.

 

Thanks. Will check it out. Bartok is still only very occasionally on my musical menu, except for the Concerto for Orchestra, but definitely one of the composers I want to explore more.

 

And the Fauré chamber music is beautiful, but I only have the Brilliant Classics box.