What are you listening 2 now?

[Papy Oli]

The only other completely complete set I know of is this. I've never heard a note from it, and have no idea if it's available to stream.

The above (all 6CDs) is available on Idagio.
Quickly ruled out for me sadly as I found the violin style too "screetchy" and rapidly grating.   

[Harry]

Robert Simpson.
String quartets, No.I, 1951.
String Quartet No.4. 1973.
Delme String Quartet.

Superbly done by the Delmé Quartet, and self recommending, all of the volumes. Don't ask me for a recommendation of where to start! But do start, somewhere, it's worth the effort. I bought the Simpson recordings when they were released and remember how enthusiastic I was and still am. His Symphonies are still a highlight to look forwards too. Anyways, cultivated and elaborate interpretations, in which nothing is lacking, but has so much to give.

[Kalevala]

@vandermolen

You have a PM my friend!

Responding now!
 

Oh, nice!  I didn't know that.  I'll have to play some of his music today.

K

[Todd]

[DavidW]

And also because I am not using CDs or LPs, and that's okay.

I always find it funny when people feel like they need to apologize for their choice of format or needlessly elaborate upon it in the listening thread (e.g., "listened on Spotify...")

Trust me, nobody cares!!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Jorge Bolet.

[Kalevala]

I always find it funny when people feel like they need to apologize for their choice of format or needlessly elaborate upon it in the listening thread (e.g., "listened on Spotify...")

Trust me, nobody cares!!

I like knowing not so much as on what format necessarily, but it's sometimes helpful to get an idea of what one can listen to and from where re streaming as I've been tempted to try it.

K

[DavidW]

I like knowing not so much as on what format necessarily, but it's sometimes helpful to get an idea of what one can listen to and from where re streaming as I've been tempted to try it.

K

I can answer that for you... it is nearly everything. That is why I thought it was funny when MI would unnecessarily say "from an OOP CD" because 99.9% of the time, I could just stream it. Even though there are titles that you can't purchase as a download or stream, in general, digital distribution is far superior. For classical music, the CD model never really worked well. It resulted in limited runs excepting the significant titles from the major labels. It is frustrating for both the record label and people wanting to make purchases.

[Harry]

SWEELINCK, Jan Pieterszoon (1562-1621.
Toccatas and Fantasias from Geneva.
Masaaki Suzuki playing the 2002 Marc Garnier organ of Shinko-Kyokai, Kobe.
Recorded in December 2005 at Shinko-Kyokai, Kobe, Japan, recorded by the maker of this beautiful organ.
Mean-tone temperament with two sub-semitones (e b/d#, ab/g#) No mention of the Pitch!


This is really good, and I go even further, it is fantastic! You are transported back to Sweelinck's time, this "authentic", the organ sounds. I hold Marc Garnier as a organ builder in high regard, and as from now, also as a excellent engineer, if it comes to recording organs, it is positively SOTA at it's highest peak. Suzuki's somewhat austere playing very much in the calvinistic style, is doing wonders for Sweelinck's music. This is a WOW moment for me. I even find it better as Leon Berben's take, and that says something!

[VonStupp]

Wilhelm Stenhammar
Sången
Romeo and Juliet
Reverenza
Two Sentimental Romances

Sara Trobäck, violin
Gothenburg SO & Choir - Neeme Järvi

Maybe not a masterpiece, but I very much enjoyed the 30-minute cantata Sången. I was also rather impressed with the sound here too.
VS

[Madiel]

I can answer that for you... it is nearly everything. That is why I thought it was funny when MI would unnecessarily say "from an OOP CD" because 99.9% of the time, I could just stream it. Even though there are titles that you can't purchase as a download or stream, in general, digital distribution is far superior. For classical music, the CD model never really worked well. It resulted in limited runs excepting the significant titles from the major labels. It is frustrating for both the record label and people wanting to make purchases.

There are absolutely record labels that you can get on some streaming services and not others.

I mean, maybe ALL of them are on Spotify but I'd rather chew leather. But the 2 services I use, I can think of quite a few examples where something is available on only 1 of those 2.

As for making purchases of all those CDs... among the things that the internet has brought us is eBay. I'm sometimes surprised that people here don't seem to use it that much.

Edit: I do confess I found the "OOP" status of a CD to generally be neither here nor there.

[André]

Radio orchestras in postwar Germany were a varied lot. The war had taken a huge toll on people, buildings were in ruins and good recording technology scarce. Around 1948-1952 most orchestras sounded deficient in both numbers and proficiency. Big leaps were made in the fifties with the organization and funding of regional musical life. Results were improving with each passing year. Recently I listened to the Bruckner 8 under Schuricht in Frankfurt, vintage 1951. The results were frankly weak, with undernourished strings and numerous clams and split notes from the brass. The Munich (BRSO), Berlin (RIAS) and Hamburg (NDR) orchestras were the exception, with solid, fully professional execution. These NDR tapes of the 7th and 8th are a case in point. Where the 1951 Frankfurt timpani and brass sounded weak and incohesive, their Hamburg counterparts from 1955 are in full control of their considerable talent.

The 7th and 8th have been recorded many, many times by Schuricht and his performances varied widely. This 7th is fine, if not among the top tier. The 8th otoh is another matter. It's hugely solid and convincing, with big, sonorous playing (terrific timps) and great execution throughout. The sound is mono of course, a tad distant but very clear and uncluttered (except in the last minute of the symphony, where the brass lines become hard to distinguish). Schuricht's commercial recording of the 8th with the WP is well-known, but it should be noted that that recording was uncharacteristic of the conductor's way with the work. Whereas he zips through it in 71 minutes, his usual timings were closer to 80 minutes (as in the Frankfurt and Hamburg performances). The effect is of course VERY different. I prefer the steady, majestic, granitic way of the Hamburg 8th.

Reger's An Die Hoffnung was part of the concert that featured the 8th symphony. It's a beautiful performance, with the gorgeous voice of the young Christa Ludwig closely recorded. Of course it helps that the work is a masterpiece, but it makes a strange postlude to the 8th symphony. It should have been paired with the 7th instead, as the opening piece of the cd.

Recommended for Bruckner and Schuricht enthusiasts but also for anyone mildly interested in the performance history of german orchestras.

[Lisztianwagner]

Franz Liszt
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne
Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo

Gianandrea Noseda & BBC Philharmonic

[Todd]

For classical music, the CD model never really worked well.

It worked spectacularly well, especially as production costs declined to next to nothing.  Even small production runs meant that music and artists that otherwise might not be heard beyond local, live performances received at least regional audiences, and the CD model broke recording and even distribution away from the majors.  Compare 80s and 90s titles and labels to recorded music availability in the 50s and 60s.  CDs led to far, far more music being available to listeners.  And then at the end of the 90s, with file sharing and ripping a cheap option, musical horizons opened up even more.  With streaming, we're as close to musical nirvana as we can be right now in terms of availability.  I suspect that will begin to contract later this decade or early next, at least with respect to legally distributed music.  Illegal digital music (and other content) distribution is here to stay, though, and will only expand as legal channels contract.

[JBS]

The above (all 6CDs) is available on Idagio.
Quickly ruled out for me sadly as I found the violin style too "screetchy" and rapidly grating.   

Streaming for the W.

[NumberSix]

I always find it funny when people feel like they need to apologize for their choice of format or needlessly elaborate upon it in the  listening thread (e.g., "listened on Spotify...")

Trust me, nobody cares!!

Maybe they don't care on this particular forum, but at other forums people certainly make an issue out of it. "I've never owned an iPod, and I will never listen to music that's not on CD or vinyl." That sort of thing. 

ETA, it's the Hoffman forum - where I've been a member for over a decade - that I picked up the habit of feeling the need to make issue of my streaming habits (and usually lossy, too, the horror!). And I don't even visit the section about audiophile equipment - that kind of attitude bleeds into the whole forum. Hehe.

[Todd]

Maybe they don't care on this particular forum, but at other forums people certainly make an issue out of it. "I've never owned an iPod, and I will never listen to music that's not on CD or vinyl." That sort of thing.

OK, so the LP thing I get.  Some people adore the distortion and limited dynamic range of analog when compared to digital, and falsely believe it is sonically superior.  (Truth to tell, Led Zeppelin, among other rock bands, sound better on vinyl precisely because of distortion and limited dynamic range, but digital is superior in terms of delivering what was mixed.)  But CDs?  They are digital and there is exactly no difference in sound quality between CD and WAV or lossless FLAC files of the same music.  OK, OK, that opens up the dumbest of all audiophile debates wherein some fools claim that HDD/SSD based WAVs sound better than CDs for some entirely magical reason, but it is more productive to argue over which type of cheese the moon is made from.

[Linz]

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Solo Keyboard Music, Vol. 14, Miklós Spányi

[Todd]

Disc one.

[Florestan]

Mostly introspective, reflective and wistful stuff. Perfect for a humid and bleak October afternoon.