Quote:


How about Star Wars (the very first one)?



On CD from the Mehta LA Phil Box.

Quote:


C'mon, who hasn't seen The Natural? Full disclosure, baseball was my game and baseball movies are kinda my thing. And, if for me, as baseball movies, I like Bull Durham and Field of Dreams a little better I completely agree with you that a big part of the success of The Natural is the music, and I think your comments are spot on. I just feel like the music in Star Wars is equally important to the epic sweep and drama of that movie, regardless of how "good" the music is as stand alone music. A throw back if you will to the "golden age" of Hollywood when the studio orchestras were every bit as important as the actors, and every bit as good as the other great orchestras of the world. But YMMV as always.

Baseball was the love of my life as a kid.  Early precursor to jazz.  Did anyone mention the movie For the Love of the Game?  Another movie Field of Dreams, better known to me by the book Shoeless Joe by Kinsella.  Good stuff.

The Tokyo String Quartet complete Beethoven on Harmonia Mundi is a relatively new acquisition for me, but it is quickly working its way onto the very short list of my favorites. I find the playing just a little more relaxed then their earlier set on RCA now Sony, and their sound is even more beautiful.



16/44 FLAC download.

I've been enjoying the Quartetto Serioso.

I saw that, but I guess I got distracted before I could comment. I wouldn't normally think of string quartets as a "demonstration disc" but I bet that sounds amazing on SACD (and your 300B amp).

I started the morning off with this, "Duke at the Roadhouse--Roger Kellaway and Eddie Daniels Live in Santa Fe, NM"

https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/9e/a8/0047a89e.jpg

Yesterday when I was playing this my wife Lucinda said "I like that classical music you were playing." And I though yeah, it was jazz. . . no it was classical." It's both and it's fantastic! Eddie on reeds, Roger on piano and James Holland on cello. Amazing musicianship and interpretation and recording.

Quote:



I'm going to need some details JB...Is that original or a reissue? are you listening to it, and if so how does it sound?

I know the very first stereo "album" RCA released was Reiner's Zarathustra on 7 1/2 IPS tape. I didn't think that was it (it is 4 track among other things) but I started googling and found this:

https://boija.com/tape/rca_2-track.htm

One of the many interesting things is the price of the original tapes, $15-19 in mid-50's dollars!?!?!?

I can only imagine the letters to the editor saying "stereo can't be real" and that "it is just the latest audiophile snake oil"

In fact Reiner recorded Zarathustra twice, once in 1954 and again in the early 60s, very close to the end of his life.

Quote:


Ah, that explains a lot. Most people like the earlier one, but honestly I don't hear a lot of difference.

Quote:


LoL, enjoy your ride. We are currently under High Wind Warning, Coastal Flood Advisory, Flash Flood Watch and High Surf Advisory here in "sunny" CA. I'm going to be doing a lot more listening than riding for a while...

Quote:


Encapsulating! On the Otari connected from the head via pure silver into the ZP3. These tapes are virgin from the factory. Just takes over command of my senses. Very much the only one in the room with a massive assembly playing to please me.

I played Ravel "Daphne and Chloe" as a follow up, another virgin RCA RS. Sound is outstanding. Got me wondering so I followed that with Pink Floyd "Animals" one of my best sounding LPs. Very close in commanding captivity but tape has it in spades when it comes to flow.

Put this one on first this morning. Recorded locally in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall of Pittsburgh using 35mm magnetic film. Not sure the significance of using 35mm film other then gimmicky. It does seem to add a bit of sharpness to the instruments.

I still have 6 more RCA Red Seal to crack open. For now, back to the CD loop for convenience being we are looking at least 2 weeks of mild climate here. Time to get the camper in place and enjoy the great outdoors!

Quote:


Oh my. A lot of people think 35mm film is the ultimate hi rez recording media. Compared to 1/2" tape it is wider (35mm ~ 1.4"), thicker, has more oxide and sprockets to reduce wow and flutter. It is superior to tape in every way except the most important (to the record companies): it is considerably more expensive, so not sustainable as a commercial product. Obviously a lot more goes into making great recordings than just the choice of tape, but a significant number of the best sounding recordings from the "golden age of stereo" were recorded on film. A couple have been mentioned earlier in the thread, here is another one:



On CD.

Of course Reiner's Bartok recordings from the same time are justifiably famous, but Dorati was also Hungarian and knew Bartok. His recordings trade a little of Reiner's mechanical perfection for a bit more gypsy fire. And the sound is amazing.

Quote:


This is the reason that the very best recordings are classical and jazz recordings. The whole process is more about love and respect for the music, than about making as much money as possible.

Thanks for the enlightenment James. The 35mm magnetic format was not discussed much in my circle. I do remember reading a blip about in, maybe, Popular Science back when in print and my hair was intact in the right places.

Anyway, I have another one of the 35mm masters to play yet and will see how it compares to the Red Seal RCAs. My initial thought was it seemed a bit edgey in comparison with RS.  May even perfer the latter. Might just be the material that was preferred. Will see.

Geno you really don't want to know how I grabbed these tapes. Well, let me just say "the hard way."

OK, OK, I bought this lot of a thousand albums from a guy that has an old mansion full of junk for sale. After loading the lot in my car, I went back in to look at what else might be of value in the 20 or so rooms full of stuff. Found the tapes in a third floor bedroom and another lot of albums in the dining room. Talked some with the guy but could not strike an amicable deal for the other lot of albums but told him I be back for the tapes being the car was packed with the prior sale!

A couple of days later I met up with him again. This time he agreed on my first offer for the tapes and second lot of albums together. He also informed me of another new lot of albums in the kitchen he just got in! I looked and saw a few duplicates to me and a red light flashed in my head. Stop! Stop! So I declined to even consider an offer.

Along with other acquisitions, I already had over 1700 items of media to sort thru. Some of it dirty as dirt and smell of mildew. This all happened last spring/summer. Since, I sold off 600 of the albums in 2 lots. Cleaned about 300 selected lps. Pitched about 100 or so tortured lps and now have time to root over the tapes. So, a long process that I am not sure will be repeated!

Quote:


I totally believe you . I don't know that Brahms 2nd, but I have two other Steinberg/Pittsburg re-issues that I believe were initially on Command, and sharp or edgy would be a great way to describe them as well. Not my favorites. Just because something was recorded on film doesn't make it a great recording.

My understanding of the history is like this. Everest had the original 35mm film recorder made, and used it for some very good recordings in the late 50s. But they went out of business and Bob Fine of Mercury bought the recorder. Mercury made a dozen or so recordings on film in the early 60s and lot of them are legendary. But then Mercury broke up a few years later and Fine took the 35mm deck to Command (he may have started Command), but no one talks about those recordings. FWIW RCA did early work on 35mm film recording as well, but decided to stick with 1/2" tape.

I remember when I was a kid the Pittsburg Symphony and Andre Previn would have concerts on PBS, and my parents would let me stay up past my bed time to watch. The current Pittsburg Symphony and Manfred Honeck has been making fantastic recordings, for example.



DSD rip from SACD.

This is my recording of the '62 Reiner Zarathustra, from the 80s.



On CD.

I hadn't listened to it in years, and now I remember why. The sound isn't very good. I bought it for Leontyne Price (the third of the Four Last Songs, Beim Schlafengehen has always been my idea of a "female vocal") and I think it is time to start shopping for a better remastering.

Right on James....'62. His experimenting paid off he died a happy man despite his early gloomy outlook.
My copy is bad. The static is in the tape. Played a couple others and absolutely no static! My machine is OK but certainly internally grounded very well now.

Richard Strauss was an 19th century (musical) revolutionary who lived to be a 20th century reactionary. After crushing it with his early tone poems and operas (Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Salome, Rosenkavalier and many more) he pretty much coasted for the last few decades of his life writing a bunch of stuff that could be described (charitably) as "pleasant but light weight."  Then in his 80s, right before he died he rallied for one final masterpiece, Vier letzte Lieder. Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra. They are one of the great soprano showpieces in the repertoire, and pretty much everyone has recorded them. Jessye Norman and Gundula Janowitz are popular choices, as is the classic recording with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and George Szell. In addition to Leontyne Price I mentioned above, one of my favorites is Arleen Auger on Telarc. I find Auger's singing very touching, but clear eyed and not overly sentimental. And Telarc records the Vienna Philharmonic magnificently.



On CD.

I'm less enthusiastic about Previn's Heldenleben, YMMV.

Végh Quartet "The Art Of Vegh Quartet" 14 cd box set, disc 7--the last of the Beethoven string quartets, recorded 1952.

Among my favorite interpretations of the Beethoven string quartets--the later stereo are perhaps even a bit better. The SEWE300B is showing me dynamic details that I have not experienced in this (and other recordings) before. The delicate motion of sound from soft to loud and all the minor steps in between are clearly delineated as never before.

Quote:


Quote of my own....hmmmm.

Well, that guy just put up an add for a lot of 8 track tapes and there is another guy selling a lot and player. Down another rabbit hole?!?!

I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Bernstein lately.



Japanese Sony CD.

The Prokofiev 5th one my favorite 20th century symphonies (Prokofiev 6 is the other contender) and this is my favorite performance. Lenny does a great job mixing and matching all the different elements: the melodic, the rhythmic and the dissonant and the sound on this Japanese CD is way better than I would have guessed for a 1960s Columbia recording. FWIW his later digital recording isn't nearly as good, either musically or technically. YMMV.

On point observation about the impact a piece has in its time opposed to what it has after a large amount of time has passed. I find this in comments made by persons younger and/or newer to jazz. It's fascinating to hear others' impressions now of material I have listened to for fifty or forty or thirty years or so, and their references are from listening to more current jazz pieces, truly more modern and often built on a foundation of the earlier pieces.

I always wanted to check out this cycle of the Beethoven string quartets and my Dad never had it. . .Japan just reissued this attractively priced box set of the complete Barylli Quartet recordings in the excellent UHQCD format, so I ordered it and should have it next week.

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCW-9022

Good move. I think they'll sound "all they could be."

Simmering down with Mantovani, a couple of sides were played before the misses TV started to encroach the music.



Could not find too much on "Sentimental Strings" but Mantovani was considered by some "Britain's most successful album act before the Beatles ...

Quote:


Beethoven's 3rd is as subtle as a hammer. The first movement starts with the famously unresolved "heroic cadence" and takes 15 minutes to heroically resolve it. Then the second movement is a 15 minute funeral march.  Where The Eroica shouts the 4th whispers. And for me, the 4th is the symphony where Beethoven finally figured out how to write a great post-classical symphony. It is based on two very short, simple ideas that are presented in the (unique, dreamy) opening: staccato and legato.  I've posted before that this is probably my favorite Beethoven symphony, and over that last decade or so the one I've listened to most often, although truth be told these days I typically only listen to a movement or two of a Beethoven symphony as the mood strikes me.



On CD.

Paul Kletzki and the Czech Philharmonic is one of the more under-the-radar Beethoven cycles but it is excellent. Featuring beautiful Czech string playing and spicy Eastern European winds.

Mendelssohn gets a bad rap IMO. Everyone concedes that along with Mozart and Schubert he was one of the most miraculous child prodigies in musical history. But somehow after that he doesn't get credit for being one of the great fully formed geniuses of the Early Romantic Age. Perhaps his music, and by his music I mean e.g. The Italian Symphony and Songs Without Words, are just too popular, and too easy to listen to, to be taken seriously. I'll have more to say about that at another time, but certainly his chamber music should be taken as seriously as anyone's, and his piano trios are near or at the top of the stack.



DSD rip from SACD.

The trios (and the string quartets) are so good it is amazing the recording companies haven't made a much bigger deal out of them.