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11 minutes ago, rando said:

@AnotherSpin  You are much closer to France than I.  Yet the inherent silken crudeness and highly developed style on display is considerably more apparent to me as a skillful modernized portrayal of the musical narrative.  Perhaps renting the rights to a period painting with multiple nudes instead would've relieved the tension you feel built up in their choice of cover art?  :P

 

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In fact, I am not depend on any visual encouragements for increasing my interest to music. 

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Prompted by Musicophile's recent blog entry,

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Haydn: Symphonies No 12, 60, 70,  & Il Maestro di Cappella. Played with verve by Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini.

 

Very good sound from a 24/96 HDTracks download. And another silly cover art ;-)

For my system details, please see my profile. Thank you.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 2. Impressive reading by Ivor Bolton with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. This is the 1872 version, with the Scherzo preceding the Andante.

 

I'm ambivalent about the sound of this live recording: Rendering of orchestral details is superb, timbres are convincing, but there is little evidence of hall ambience. And I miss the heft of other Bruckner's recordings, for example, Böhm's with the Wiener Philarmoniker.

 

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For my system details, please see my profile. Thank you.

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On 9/4/2017 at 0:00 PM, AnotherSpin said:

 

I would love to hear the arguments of marketing agent who convinced recording label to put a picture of naked lady with pretentious hairdo and vulgar make-up on a cover of Vivaldi album.

I think that argument would be something along these lines: "How many people picked up the CD with our photo on it? How many picked up the one with Vivaldi's picture on it? Which one sold more copies? You say it was ours that got picked up and sold more copies of your ancient music that basically nobody alive cares about?" That is what they would argue. And I abhor that argument and hate the circumstances that make it a sound argument (especially considering Vivaldi was something of a feminist with his all-female orchestras). But from the perspective of someone charged with selling as many copies as possible of a Vivaldi recording, it's a winner. 

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3 hours ago, jiminlogansquare said:

I think that argument would be something along these lines: "How many people picked up the CD with our photo on it? How many picked up the one with Vivaldi's picture on it? Which one sold more copies? You say it was ours that got picked up and sold more copies of your ancient music that basically nobody alive cares about?" That is what they would argue. And I abhor that argument and hate the circumstances that make it a sound argument (especially considering Vivaldi was something of a feminist with his all-female orchestras). But from the perspective of someone charged with selling as many copies as possible of a Vivaldi recording, it's a winner. 

 

According to such logic porn image will sell Vivaldi even better.

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8 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

According to such logic porn image will sell Vivaldi even better.

And why does it matter? This is the free market in action. If you find the cover unappealing or offensive enough, that it makes you not buy the record, that is your god-given right. If others are precisely led to pick up (and perhaps buy) the album BECAUSE of the cover, that is their god-given right too. We can all vote with our wallets and with our feet. All this moralizing and hand-wringing about gratuitous nudity on album covers, magazine covers, burger commercials (Carl's Junior car wash anyone?) and whatever else sells better with a 'soupçon of sex' seems to be mostly an American obsession (as a European observer having lived for 17 years in the US). The rest of the Western world got the stick out of their behinds on this subject a long time ago.

 

I wonder if we would have the same conversation if, instead of a semi-nude torso (with none of the 'dirty bits' visible btw), we were looking at scenes of violence and guns...

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47 minutes ago, pvanosta said:

And why does it matter? This is the free market in action. If you find the cover unappealing or offensive enough, that it makes you not buy the record, that is your god-given right. If others are precisely led to pick up (and perhaps buy) the album BECAUSE of the cover, that is their god-given right too. We can all vote with our wallets and with our feet. All this moralizing and hand-wringing about gratuitous nudity on album covers, magazine covers, burger commercials (Carl's Junior car wash anyone?) and whatever else sells better with a 'soupçon of sex' seems to be mostly an American obsession (as a European observer having lived for 17 years in the US). The rest of the Western world got the stick out of their behinds on this subject a long time ago.

 

I wonder if we would have the same conversation if, instead of a semi-nude torso (with none of the 'dirty bits' visible btw), we were looking at scenes of violence and guns...

 

For me this is not a question of moral. Moral is relevant in best case. This is a question of good taste and certain level of culture. Both demands some effort, time and enthusiasm, therefore are difficult to achieve for those who base their rationale on 'god-given right to choose whatever you may want' thesis.

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2 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

For me this is not a question of moral. Moral is relevant in best case. This is a question of good taste and certain level of culture. Both demands some effort, time and enthusiasm, therefore are difficult to achieve for those who base their rationale on 'god-given right to choose whatever you may want' thesis.

I agree with you that it may not be to everyone's TASTE. However, good taste vs. bad taste is something so personal (and constantly changing), that none of us can or should assume the mantle of Arbiter of Good Taste. As the Romans put it 2000 years ago, 'there should be no arguments over taste or colors'. 150 years ago, a woman showing a naked ankle was considered a brazen hussy. By the 1960's we had mini skirts barely covering the pubic area. Who knows what will be considered in/out of bounds tomorrow. 

On a personal level, my sensibilities probably align with yours, but I don't care enough about the image to let it register on my list of annoyances in today's society. Manners, culture, education, knowledge, historical context, civility are all severely on the decline. That annoys me more than a semi-tawdry image on a Vivaldi cd (even if one might take the position that one is a symptom of the other). Evenso, if it sells more Vidaldi, I'm more in favor of spreading THAT part of culture (people listening to Vivaldi) than worrying about the decorum or lack thereof displayed in the album cover.

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It makes no sense to argue about tastes, agree. I also agree on severe decline of culture, etc. – this cover is a clear example.  However it is more difficult to agree that marketing value has a preference over culture. The choice has been the same since ancient time - either crowd is elevated with high culture or crowd pulls culture down to its level.

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Was pleased to discover that Phantasm has released a new album of music from on of my favorite periods, the Elizabethan era marking the transition from late Renaissance to the early Baroque. Doubly pleasing is the presentation of a composer, Christopher Tye, whose work I have but a few tracks and about whom I know very little...

Tye: Complete Consort Music

 

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Primary System: HTPC (Win 10, 64) > Synology DS212j > JRiver MC 22 > Uptone Audio Regen Amber > Schiit Bifrost Uber 4490 > Marantz SR7010 with Marantz UD5005 > Aperion Intimus 6Bs (LR) + Intimus 5C + 4 Intimus 4BPs (Surround) + 2 Bravus 12s - Display: Samsung 55" KS9000 - Headphones: AKG Q701.

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1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

Me either. Probably Urbaniak's solo on Miles Davis 'Don't Lose Your Mind' from 'Tutu' is for me one of the most memorable violin moments in jazz.

 

Michal Urbaniak was really good. Jazz fusion has some other violinist to remember. I guess John McLaughlin has some understanding of it. Jerry Goodman and Jean-Luc Ponty in Mahavishu Orchestra's, L.Shankar in Shakti. 

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6 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

Jean-Luc Ponty in Mahavishu Orchestra

Of course.

 

6 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

L.Shankar in Shakti. 

And in his own projects too. Probably one of my favorite violin playing in jazz(?).

 

5 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

Of course, Ponty has a quite freaky history with Frank Zappa before he joined Mahavishnu

I recall from his autobiography that the only complaint Zappa had about Ponty was the fact that he always ended his solos in the same 'spectacular' way to cause an even bigger audience applause (BTW quite similiar to the way Urbaniak finished his solo on 'Tutu').

5 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

Mark Feldman, he played on several albums of late John Abercrombie, and also with Paul Bley, Joy Lovano and others.

And on countless Tzadik label albums eg Bar Kokhba.

 

You've actually reminded me that I like quite many violinists. But it's usually not straight ahead jazz.

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Cannot even explain what required revisiting of this album by picking up the revisiting of this album.  It felt like  going to see them at a very intimate, softly lit auditorium with very well padded seats and no bar service billed as "Pearl Jam Ten Twenty  The Dust Settled On Grunge In Shades Of Beige"   Gentle applause and no swaying that will disturb your seatmates.  

 

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