SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[humprof]

Not quite my bag, in the end. (I don't hate it, but I'm not sure I'll give it a second or third listen.) Glad to see a contemporary composer getting an Atmos mix, though.

Posted some other newly added classical albums in the Atmos Streaming Listening thread earlier today.

 

[mkt]

And it looks like Decca is releasing the entire remastered Ring cycle--not just the highlights album--to the streaming services after all, starting with Rheingold. My understanding is that the Atmos mixes were done from stereo, with studio reverbs & such. I suspect your receiver's Dolby Surround Upmixer DSP, if it has one, will yield a more dramatic "immersive" effect. But maybe that's not what you prefer.

SACD but not multichannel?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9376836--wagner-das-rheingold

 

[humprof]

SACD but not multichannel?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9376836--wagner-das-rheingold

Looks like it. Maybe they'll eventually offer the entire cycle on one Blu-Ray (as they did with the previous remastering)--with or without the Atmos mixes--once they've made their money on the individual operas and/or yet another big box set.

 

[mkt]

Anybody have this recording? I just ripped the SACD, and only the first track seems to be multichannel. Maybe because the 2nd was recorded in 1987?
https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=12888

 

[humprof]

DG has launched its own streaming service:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...has-launched-its-own-streaming-service.33212/

 

[humprof]

eClassical's annual advent calendar begins today; 4 titles, some multichannel, at 50% off daily through Dec. 24:
https://www.eclassical.com/pages/christmas22.html

 

[humprof]

Yes: as @ubertrout suggests, the world of independent specialty classical record labels in the UK must be rather small, so perhaps Dutton could work out a deal with Heritage (who currently control the Unicorn catalog), with the help of Treasure Island Music, who manage the rights. It seems as though the masters are well and truly AWOL in Japan, but judging by the sample, I think that with some additional noise reduction, Richard's excellent software demod could be good enough for a commercial release.

Here's another postscript to the discussion about the Horenstein Mahler 3d on Unicorn that began in Post #1305, above: incredibly, HDTT has discovered a second quad recording of this performance by Jerry Bruck that was made in parallel to the one by Unicorn. They are editing and assembling it with plans for release in the near future. Presumably the ownership of this recording is cloudy--Bruck was reportedly "invited...by the general manager of Unicorn Records"--but personally I hope Unicorn-Kachana and its licensees won't be able to stop it. (Calling @kfbkfb and Richard Brice?)
https://www.highdeftapetransfers.ca/blogs/news/horenstein-and-mahler-s-third-symphony-revisited

 

[ubertrout]

Here's another postscript to the discussion about the Horenstein Mahler 3d on Unicorn that began in Post #1305, above: incredibly, HDTT has discovered a second quad recording of this performance by Jerry Bruck that was made in parallel to the one by Unicorn. They are editing and assembling it with plans for release in the near future. Presumably the ownership of this recording is cloudy--Bruck was reportedly "invited...by the general manager of Unicorn Records"--but personally I hope Unicorn-Kachana and its licensees won't be able to stop it.
https://www.highdeftapetransfers.ca/blogs/news/horenstein-and-mahler-s-third-symphony-revisited

Unicorn has no rights (unless there's a contract) to a recording they didn't make.

 

[humprof]

Tom Huizenga's recommendations. I'd certainly endorse at least half of them, and I'm eager to check out the others. Too bad Reich's Runner and the Shaw/Attaca album don't have better Atmos mixes, but the music is good, anyway.
https://www.npr.org/sections/decept...34907683/the-10-best-classical-albums-of-2022

 

[4-earredwonder]

Just received this magnifico 2 Multi~CH SACD set from Presto Music. Very Highly Recommended

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9365969--schubert-transfiguration

"For a persuasive period-instrument recording of these two great works that nevertheless takes nothing for granted, this may well now be the ideal choice. — Gramophone Magazine, November 2022

 

[4-earredwonder]

Have to say, LOVE Presto Music for classical music purchases. Just checked ImportCD and their prices are sometimes $10 higher per disc than PRESTO and they add US sales tax plus s/h!

S/H charges for US customers from the UK are a bit high but MORE than make up for it in reduced pricing. Additionally, I received my order within a week.

 

[Blackwood]

Have to say, LOVE Presto Music for classical music purchases. Just checked ImportCD and their prices are sometimes $10 higher per disc than PRESTO and they add US sales tax plus s/h!

S/H charges for US customers from the UK are a bit high but MORE than make up for it in reduced pricing. Additionally, I received my order within a week.

I’ve bought a couple of things from Presto and I was happy with them, too. Definitely a place to check out for classical music.

 

[ubertrout]

Had a chance to listen to a wonderful chamber concert this past weekend - Schubert's String Quintet (an absolute masterpiece of course) and his Sonatina No. 3 for Violin and Piano. I hadn't heard it before - suggest checking it out in Julia Fischer's 2SACD set of all the Schubert works for violin and piano.

 

[humprof]

As much as I respect Morten Lindberg--and that's hugely--as a balance and mixing engineer, I'm not always excited about the music he chooses to record. I don't really connect with Neo-Romantics like Ståle Kleiberg, for instance, and many of the "thematic" albums that 2L puts out, especially the folk-themed ones, strike me as slightly twee (as our British cousins would say).

But I'm really liking one of the newest releases, Lasse Thoresen's Lyden av Arktis (The Sound of the Arctic). Occasionally a little too "programmatic" for my tastes (I shouldn't have read the program notes!), and one of the movements tries to evoke Sami music in ways that come off as awkward in this day and age. But the suite as a whole is stylistically wide-ranging and viscerally powerful. And recorded in the round, it's a standout example of Atmos orchestral recording. Highly recommended.
https://shop.2l.no/en-us/products/lyden-av-arktis
Low-bitrate streaming version on Apple Music:

 

[humprof]

Here's another, more full-throated, recommendation: Windbells, the latest in a series of releases from Sono Luminus focusing on contemporary Icelandic composers. (I think Daniel Shores and Morten Lindberg are friendly rivals when it comes to documenting the "Nordic sound." I tend to prefer the composers snagged by SL, though; generally speaking they're a little more adventurous.)

Anyway: this one is devoted to chamber music for winds, strings, and electronics (and, on one piece, voice) by Hugi Guðmundsson. Evocative, sometimes challenging, music; beautiful 360-degree recording. Atmos/Auro-3D/5.1 Blu-Ray.
https://www.sonoluminus.com/store/windbells

 

[4-earredwonder]

A gorgeous new account of Bruckner's Symphony #4 from Sir Simon Rattle conducting the LSO [LSO LIVE/2 Multi~CH SACDs]

November 2022​

I must say straightaway that the first disc’s worth of music contains the finest account of the Fourth Symphony I have ever heard, thanks to the extreme simplicity of the approach...while the second disc is fascinating and played with just as much conviction as the first, it does not provide a musical so much as a musicological experience.

5 out of 5 stars

November 2022​

Forget editions and enjoy instead what must be the finest account of a Bruckner symphony in the LSO’s 110-year-long recorded history.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Here's another, more full-throated, recommendation: Windbells, the latest in a series of releases from Sono Luminus focusing on contemporary Icelandic composers. (I think Daniel Shores and Morten Lindberg are friendly rivals when it comes to documenting the "Nordic sound." I tend to prefer the composers snagged by SL, though; generally speaking they're a little more adventurous.)

Anyway: this one is devoted to chamber music for winds, strings, and electronics (and, on one piece, voice) by Hugi Guðmundsson. Evocative, sometimes challenging, music; beautiful 360-degree recording. Atmos/Auro-3D/5.1 Blu-Ray.
https://www.sonoluminus.com/store/windbells

Gorgeous indeed.....purchased during Sono Luminus' recent SUPER SALE. Am loving it!

 

[mkt]

Neat that everything on this list except the Lully appears to be available in surround (SACD, download, or streaming).
https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...ices-bbc-music-magazine-december-2022-choices

 

[humprof]

Neat that everything on this list except the Lully appears to be available in surround (SACD, download, or streaming).
https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...ices-bbc-music-magazine-december-2022-choices

I'm a broken record on John Luther Adams, but since it shows up on this list, I'll skip back again to one of his latest, Sila. The version of this work that they wound up recording isn't quite the same as the one that premiered outdoors at Lincoln Center back in 2014 (see below), but it's fully immersive, and it suggests, at least, what that experience must have sounded like. If ever there were a "classical" piece suited for a high-res, walkaround VR release, this would be it. @sjcorne: Hoping IAA can convince Cantaloupe to make high-res MKVs of Nathaniel Reichman's JLA Atmos mixes available for purchase one day.
https://www.npr.org/sections/decept...ath-of-inspiration-john-luther-adams-new-silahttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/...hn-luther-adams-debuts-at-lincoln-center.html

 

[humprof]

In honor of Beethoven's Birthday: jazz pianist Ethan Iverson on Martha Argerich playing the Waldstein. Iverson is a great writer, a sensitive critic, and a broad-minded listener. I like to read him whether he's writing about Argerich or Cecil Taylor or Mick Herron. (He's also a spy novel fan.)
https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-198-argerich-for-beethoven