Ha

Followed by a 1963 RCA Victor FTC-2144 Red Seal tape. Outstanding!

My copy of the Barylli Quartet's Beethoven String Quartet cycle arrived today.

A budget production in that it comes in a clamshell sort of box with plastic sleeves and a booklet, but the UHQCD format is handsome and the sound is quite good as far as mastering goes. The sonic character is typical of well-recorded early fifties mono, and though I wish there were a bit more "oomph" to the cello, there's little else to complain about.

So far I'd say that the interpretation is not too adventurous but plenty expressive. Will be interesting to hear the entire cycle.

I notice that Japan has also reissued a five cd set of the Mozart quartets by these gents on this label, as well as a single cd of the quintets. . . in UHQCD. I ordered those.

I am not crazy about the Mozarts, or Mozart at all--I think I like his Wind concertos best. But I keep trying as my Dad liked him so.

Personally I find good fifties mono to sound great and especially for quartets and don't necessarily prefer stereo at all. These Winchester recordings had a good reputation at the time and the UHQCD versions of the Beethoven sound really good so I think I will enjoy the Mozart sound (I think these are one mic carefully balanced recordings).

My Barylli/Beethoven just landed in LA so I should get it early next week. In the mean time I've been enjoying The Hungarian Quartets 50's Beethoven cycle.



On CD.

I think the Budapest and Amadeus Quartets were a bigger thing back in the day, at least they had the better record deals. But I prefer the Hungarians to the them.

Disc 3

The Complete Beethoven String Quartets, Barylli Quartet

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What do you think of Die Grosse Fuge? It is a tough nut to crack, but a very rewarding one. YMMV.

I once felt intimidated by the Grosse Fugue, but now I am ready, because I am armed by the "secret weapon" for understanding classical music - Richard Atkinson's youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQcHPhYEoJY

(thanks James, for sharing the "secret handshake" to find resources like this!)

I am hoping to start the "serious" listening to the early Beethoven quartets tomorrow - we'll see how that goes.

I've been riding out the latest atmospheric river listening to Janacek's Slavonic Mass.



16/44 FLAC download.

Janacek was the next big thing after Dvorak, although he was late bloomer. If he died at the same age as Beethoven it is unlikely he would be remember for much more than ethnomusicology, if at all. But better late than never as they say, and the Missa Glagolitic was written when he was in his 70s. And it was written, not so much for the Glory of God, as for the Glory of the Slavic People, and the Czechoslovak Republic, which was celebrating it's 10th anniversary.

I'm glad you are digging it. I bet on my system the original vinyl will have the cello just right. . . vinyl on my system has a bit more lower frequency weight.

My two other Barylli Quartet UHQCD releases should arrive today--but it will be a while before I have time to go through them, as today is our anniversary, and tomorrow through Friday are some family event involvements to go in and out of. (Plus I have to package up and send my Taboo Mk IV in there somewhere). I have a huge backlog of listening to get through, which is a huge batch of wonderful experience ahead of me.

Yes. . . before my wife retired I was able to listen twice as much as I do now, and had time to organize my listening AND my collection. I miss that, though I do love having my wife here all the time. A new balance.

This morning I'm squeezing in some listening. After relistening to the second half of the Benny Goodman Chronogical Classics cd I spun yesterday (that Quartet and Quintet material for Columbia was just fantastic with Red Norvo, Teddy Wilson, Morey Feld and in the Quintet the amazing Slam Stewart--and the Columbia engineering was just innovative and wonderful) I am now spinning Barylli Quartet "Mozart String Quartets" Japan UHQCD. An additional viola does a lot for this music. Sound is as good as the Beethoven recordings.

And what about Mozart's Great G Minor and Jupiter Symphonies? I'm on record as saying I think the concertos are better orchestral writing, and I'd go as far as to say if it weren't for the 1st movement of the G Minor and the last movement of the Jupiter Mozart's symphonies would be thought of like his piano sonatas: nice enough, but not his best work. YMMV. But, the 40 and 41st symphonies are great works and have been recorded by almost everyone. For me I tend to like the performances from the 50s thru the 80s better than the 90s and beyond, when the so called Historically Informed Performance people took over, but YMMV.



On CD.

Bruno Walter was conducting professionally when Brahms was still alive, that is my idea of "historically informed." And he is regarded as one of the great Mozart conductors of all time. But, if forced to choose my favorite is:



Ferenc Fricsay, from his big DG box, on CD.

From the Very Different From Mozart File (VDFMF).



On CD.

Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand is, I would imagine, like the Super Bowl for recording engineers. And the engineering on this CD is probably the best of the many versions I have.

This is certainly one of the great accomplishments in the history of the gramophone:



On CD.

Scott Ross' pioneering recording of all 555 (!?!?!) keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti is a lot of harpsichord music, and ideally I'd probably prefer it on a modern piano. But it is magnificent music, and compared to his contemporary J.S. Bach (they were born within a year of each other) its trades some mathematical perfection for more Italianate lyricism. I've had it for several months and still haven't listened to every CD, but I like it a lot.

Interesting choice Geno. I was just reflecting on one of my all time favorite LPs.



Barbirolli conducting Grieg on Mercury.

Back in the day my buddy and I would take off work when the big LA used record stores would have sales and put out "the good stuff." This was before the Living Presence and Living Stereo reissues, to say nothing of advances in digital playback, so a bunch of us were always on the lookout for these classic LPs. And I scored this (it was $20, including tax, in mid-80s dollars, FWIW). It has been one of my goto demonstration discs ever since. The recording is amazing and the pressing is actually pretty good. And, possibly even more interesting, the rights were owned by a British company, so not transferred to Polygram when Mercury was bought out, and it has never been reissued on CD. In fact a little googling this morning indicates the company that owned the rights went bankrupt, assets were doled out to creditors and the prevailing wisdom is the recording will never see the light of day again.

So I got that going for me.
 

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Interesting. I'm unfamiliar with Uruguayan(?) pressings, and curious what you think. Olympian Series sounds like mono to me. Of course, every record collector's dream is to have their record be crazy valuable so I was a just little disappointed to see the only stereo LP going for 10 bucks.

In the mean time I've been enjoying more Grieg.



On CD, from the BIS complete Grieg piano music box.

So, French music. Let's start at (or near) the beginning. The Couperins were kinda like the French Bachs, a whole family of famous and important baroque musicians. And Francois Couperin, aka Couperin le Grand, was like the French Johann Sebastian.



16/44 FLAC download.

Now French Baroque isn't everyone's cup of Bordeaux. It is much more, stylized, shall we say than the German or Italian versions. It can give off an unmistakable sense of powered wigs and courtly dances, YMMV. It isn't my favorite thing on the menu, but I'll order it once in a while and the Erato Couperin Edition is a great collection from which to choose the flavor of the day.

Mrs. CA is out of the house today so I get to crank the stereo. And you can't beat Bruckner if you want to exercise the speaker cones.



DSD rip from SACDs.

I opted for the massive 8th symphony in a massive performance by Sergiu Celibidache. It is everything you want in a Bruckner symphony: dramatic, magnificent and mystical.

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James….I did not know that.  Interesting.  I’m going to try the album you posted.     Finishing up work soon and I have some classical music I was streaming earlier at work that I’m going to enjoy on my system when I get home.  More to come.  

Dom

This suggested to me to pull out something I have been thinking about as I remember how delighted my father was to listen to these recordings when I got him this set--he had never heard them before.

Disc 2 at the moment.

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Indeed. I think you'll find the differences between the Op. 18 and Op. 59 quartets to be stark. As you might find the differences between the first two symphonies, and numbers three thru six. The earlier works are in a more "classical" style, where there is a clear harmonic and melodic structure, the different themes are (relatively) obvious and the dynamics are (relatively) restrained. The later are from Beethoven's middle, "heroic," period where there is a much greater emphasis on drama over form, relations between keys are more, unconventional in a word, and theme and variations becomes an important element.

Received my box of the Vegh Quartet playing Beethoven and Bartok.



On CD.

So far I've listened to Bartok's dreamy 2nd quartet and Beethoven's audacious (at the time) 1st Razumovsky. The Bartok is nice enough but the Beethoven is WOW. They really make the slow movement sing. I'm looking forward to more listening. Also looking forward to finding an (affordable) release of their stereo Beethoven Quartets.

Bach didn't write operas or oratorios, he wrote Passions. But, theology aside, they are every bit an opera (or oratorio), YMMV. And perhaps more admired than actually listened to.



On CD, from the Jochum/Choral box.

The Saint Matthew Passion is a lot to digest, and I tend to spread it out over a few days. In fact, I prefer the John's passion which I find to be a little more tightly constructed.



On CD.

There are many performances of the Bach Passions out there these days, but gravitate towards the older versions rather than the more "historically informed" approach that is popular these days.