[icebear]

Currently spinning in my player :
 
A 2012 SACD remaster, I don't have any other version to compare but this one is great.
 

 

[CanadianMaestro]

^ The Grieg is one of my favs, melodic and sublime. Would love to hear Richter do it. I have Perahia/Davis. Really good.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

Very interesting. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many pianists who work with, or have worked a lot with Hyperion in the past, seem to be using Fazioli pianos. Makes me wonder if that's just what they have in the recording studio. Hewitt, Tchetuev, Hough, etc.  That of course is more of a compliment than a criticism, but nonetheless a reasonable observation. 

I personally think the actual recording quality of a lot of Hyperion piano works that I have even in Hi-Rez, is inferior to the redbook recordings I have from DG and ECM... But the selection of the music itself and the playing tends to be very good there. To me a lot of their cd's sound soft and fuzzy with only okay dynamic, not sharp and focused like ECM, or highly dynamic like DG. All my own subjective observations, though. I would never pass up a Hyperion album just because I think the label is sub-par by today's standards of recording and engineering.

Hyperion has the most balanced complete cycle of Schubert's songs, with Graham Johnson on piano. Although the piano does not dominate in these pieces, they are still very well recorded imo. Great nocturnal listening. So many of them. Highly rec the separate discs by Arleen Auger, Faessbender, felicity Lott, Sarah Johnson. Mary McLaughlin. Very well suited for female vocalists.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

Just learned that Nikolaus Harnoncourt has died.

 

[Hutnicks]

Just learned that Nikolaus Harnoncourt has died.

Drat. I was really hoping he would have tackled Wagner in some form as he always expressed an interest in that.
 
Farewell Nikolaus, thanks for the music and the alacrity you brought to the conducting profession itself.

 

[uchihaitachi]

 

[serman005]

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4/Michelangeli/Philharmonia/Ettore Gracis (1957) EMI 567 2382

 

[icebear]

^ The Grieg is one of my favs, melodic and sublime. Would love to hear Richter do it. I have Perahia/Davis. Really good.

I'll check if I have any other recordings of the Grieg to compare.
Richter is pretty slow (12:41 / 6:09 /  9:57) but this is like savouring delicious food ... you don't just gulp it down

.
 
Actually I have a couple of boxes where the Grieg is included:
Lupu / Previon London S.O. who is actually even slower than Richter (13:51 / 6:43 / 10:36) and
Kovachevich (aka Bishop) / Davis, BBC S.O. (12:28 / 6:45 / 10:13)
Ogdon / Berglund New Philharmonia Orch.  ( 11:37 / 6:51 / 10:13)
These are on the big pile that I have yet to listen to ... and if the Perahia's Grieg is included in the big box of his, then add that to the list

 

[uchihaitachi]

 
I'll check if I have any other recordings of the Grieg to compare.
Richter is pretty slow (12:41 / 6:09 /  9:57) but this is like savouring delicious food ... you don't just gulp it down

.
 
Actually I have a couple of boxes where the Grieg is included:
Lupu / Previon London S.O. who is actually even slower than Richter (13:51 / 6:43 / 10:36) and
Kovachevich (aka Bishop) / Davis, BBC S.O. (12:28 / 6:45 / 10:13)
Ogdon / Berglund New Philharmonia Orch.  ( 11:37 / 6:51 / 10:13)
These are on the big pile that I have yet to listen to ... and if the Perahia's Grieg is included in the big box of his, then add that to the list

You gotta go with andsnes for anything grieg
 
 

  Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4/Michelangeli/Philharmonia/Ettore Gracis (1957) EMI 567 2382

that album with the ravel, I think they are the two best performances of both concertos. Transcendental 

 

[perhapss]

 
 
THE modern alternative to Boult`s classic recordings of these works.

 

[uchihaitachi]

THE modern alternative to Boult`s classic recordings of these works.

Vaughn Williams makes me sleep so pastoral and zzzz

Might have to give them another lesson I remember hating his stuff in orchestra

 

[perhapss]

Vaughn Williams makes me sleep so pastoral and zzzz

Might have to give them another lesson I remember hating his stuff in orchestra

 
 
I like the "lesson" slip 

.
 
Vaughn Williams is indeed a composer I look to when looking to relax.
Music can be good for that sometimes IMO.
 
If you`re looking for something more upbeat and intense the 4th symphony might be your place to re-start.
Very "British" though so if that`s not your thing; CAREFUL.
 
I actually found Vaughn Williams music dull and banal for decades but in the last 3 or four years I`ve come around a bit.

 

[Hutnicks]

   
 
I like the "lesson" slip 

.
 
Vaughn Williams is indeed a composer I look to when looking to relax.
Music can be good for that sometimes IMO.
 
If you`re looking for something more upbeat and intense the 4th symphony might be your place to re-start.
Very "British" though so if that`s not your thing; CAREFUL.
 
I actually found Vaughn Williams music dull and banal for decades but in the last 3 or four years I`ve come around a bit.

I look to Williams as soundracks to Life. He accomplishes with orchestra what Dan Gibson fails to do with "natural sounds"

 

[SunTanScanMan]

I haven't listened to much VW but I do associate his name with positive musical experiences (somewhat strenuously)
 
There was a music library in Dorking, Surrey (countryside beyond the outer suburbs of London)that I think bore his name. The library moved to a new location in Dorking, in the middle of a wine estate (Denbies Wine Estate). it's a lovely location in the English countryside. People come to have tea at the estate after picnic in Box Hill.
 
The library itself is somewhat hidden on the corner of the building. But it's a little piece of paradise for music lovers. There are shelves and shelves of scores. But upstairs there's a corner or CDs and cassettes. Mostly classical but also some jazz and rock/pop and world music. More importantly it had a couch and a CD/cassette player and headphones where you could just sit and listen. You could sample some there and borrow recordings/music theory books/scores. My dad used to just drop me off there and come back at the end of the day.
 
I used to borrow scores that I couldn't read because in my young mind, I believed that if I looked at it enough times they would start to make sense. I still can't really read scores...
 
I never saw anyone else there other than the librarian in the many times I visited.

 

[perhapss]

 
I look to Williams as soundracks to Life. He accomplishes with orchestra what Dan Gibson fails to do with "natural sounds"

 
 
I can see this analogy.
 
I think this is why he is occasionally ripped off by film composers.