[Dusty Chalk]

André Watts version of Saint-Saëns 2nd Piano Concerto

Hey, DarkAngel, what does your beloved Penguin say about this? I'm betting Rubinstein, which is also quite good, but Watts owns this piece!

 

[DarkAngel]

No mention of Watts/Telarc in Penguin, not really many Piano 2 reviewed.....yes they do mention Rubinstein/RCA

Most people get one of the many Saint Saens complete 5 piano concerto 2 CD sets which are sold at budget price level. I have the Collard/EMI set which I bought long ago but really never listen to, not a big fan of these works myself.

Top set currently seems to be newer Hough/Hyperion at full price if anyone is interested.

 

[dparrish]

redshifter,

I'm not going to get into specifics of recordings, as there are just too many to consider.

But, I have found the following labels to offer excellent sounding recordings:

Telarc (of course

)
Chandos
Hyperion
Reference

I would add that the more recent-day recordings from the old standard labels (DG, Phillips, EMI/Decca, Sony/Columbia), have improved quite a bit over those from the 80s. Probably anything from the 90s on will be an improvement, with the improvement increasing with the years.

I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but if you would like to get some better sound out of your existing CD collection, as well as get the most from the current selection of recordings, you might want to consider upgrading your source. I've been enjoying my old recordings much more since upgrading my player to a Sony XA777ES, which evidently upsamples CDs. Of course, it plays SACDS beautifully

Why not consider something like the Phillips 963? Just a thought.

 

[redshifter]

da,
i already have the hogwood royal fireworks/water music cd. it is and has been one of my favorites for many years. i especially like the 1st movement of the royal fireworks: that long crescendo and aggressive percussion in that performance is great.

i'm also a fan of chandos/sno recordings. i have most of the prokofiev symphonies from that set. i highly recommend the 6th even though it is an older digital recording.

i have a lot of music to upgrade and catch up on. and i will take dparrish's advice and upgrade my source. that answered part of my question, does upsampling improve old, harsh "ddd" recordings--apparently it does.

thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

 

[kenneth]

I would recommend that you register on the Naxos web site, www.naxos.com and sample the recorderings which interest you. There is no cheaper way to build a collection then checking with Naxos first. It is very rare to hear anything poor from this label.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel Most people get one of the many Saint Saens complete 5 piano concerto 2 CD sets which are sold at budget price level...Top set currently seems to be newer Hough/Hyperion at full price if anyone is interested.

Yup, I have that one, and it is quite good. And yes, those Duo discs from Phillips can be quite good, and IIRC, the Saint-Saens collection of piano concertos was rated pretty highly.