SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[Chronic Quadraphonic]

Maestro Blomstedt is 95 years old.

 

[mkt]

Some unique (in multichannel?) and delightful nonsense, Françaix - Octet for Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon & Strings. 4th movement and more streaming in Dolby Atmos (7.1.4 1.024 kbit/s 4K UHD as noted by @humprof)

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/53832

 

[mkt]

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Maestro Blomstedt is 95 years old.

Impressive. I did note in the Berliner Phil concerts that he went from standing (Oct 2021) to sitting (Oct 2022) to conduct.

 

[dprice]

OK, need some advice on this one please?

I was considering this old SQ LP and then found some performances that were on digital (obviously different performances though.)
any suggestions as to how these performances are; and of course overall surroundness?

https://www.discogs.com/release/158...ium-Aureum-Segarra-Vespro-Della-Beata-Vergine
https://www.discogs.com/master/5543...ony-Rolfe-Johnson-Charles-Brett-John-Noble-Pe
ambisonic-

https://www.discogs.com/release/154...nglish-Baroque-Soloists-Vespro-Della-Beata-Ve
SACD-

https://www.discogs.com/release/102...-Sigiswald-Kuijken-Vespro-Della-Beata-Vergine

Take Gardiner for musical values, but also consider Robert King on SACD if surround is important - a very fine performance. Monteverdi - The King's Consort, Robert King - Vespers

 

[mkt]

In today's email, Kirill Petrenko conducts Shostakovich’s Symphonies 8–10, on CD and Blu-ray, and download. Unclear if there is surround content? The download just mentions stereo. I think the streaming versions were in atmos.
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com/shostakovich.html

 

[Chronic Quadraphonic]

 

[humprof]

Ted Gioia on a seeming jump in classical music listenership:
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/six-recent-studies-show-an-unexpected

 

[ubertrout]

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I was at the CSO all the time in grad school. Clearly I made a poor decision when I moved.

 

[Blackwood]

Ted Gioia on a seeming jump in classical music listenership:
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/six-recent-studies-show-an-unexpected

I can only state my own dive into classical in the past couple of years. It was likely due to Covid. I wasn’t overwhelmed by what was happening in the world during Covid, but I did find classical music to be a calming influence none-the-less.

Between the onslaught of Covid news, and related and un-related political chaos, classical music was a refuge that was different than just diving into all my classic rock albums. In general there was so much extra “noise” that needed to be shut out somehow.

I also spend part of my working hours writing and that started about two years ago. I can’t concentrate as well with vocal music when writing. Calmer classical music is perfect. I’ve tried jazz, but that doesn’t seem to do it for me. Even my Windham Hill library, which I love, doesn’t seem to fit the bill when it comes to music and work.

At first, I was buying a lot of classical CDs. But I’ve found streaming is the perfect match with classical... and I do love to stream BBC Radio 3.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Ted Gioia on a seeming jump in classical music listenership:
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/six-recent-studies-show-an-unexpected

Love Ted...
but, this movement of "back to Classical" has yet to reach New Orleans... I go to the LPO concerts quite often at the Orpheum and all I see is a "Geriatric Ocean", basically no young people and not even ADULTS , it's all middle aged (like me) and older folks who attend....
This last Thursday there were a bit more people than normal but my guess is that it was because of a guest Conductress, Rei Hotoda, who did a brilliant job guiding all of us through Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's tour de force "Scheherazade"...it's such a pity that it's prohibitive to record Classical Orchestras in the USA cause that would be in my top 3 interpretations...

 

[humprof]

A review in April's Sound on Sound of a new edition of Multichannel Microphone Array Design. I'll bet it's interesting, although it would probably be even more interesting if it included commentary from (or case studies of recordings by) such modern luminaries in immersive recording as Morten Lindberg and Daniel Shores. Historical accounts of notable quad recordings would be good too. Otherwise, I don't think I'm interested enough in such technical information to spend fifty bucks.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/multichannel-microphone-array-design

 

[kap'n krunch]

A review in April's Sound on Sound of a new edition of Multichannel Microphone Array Design. I'll bet it's interesting, although it would probably be even more interesting if it included commentary from (or case studies of recordings by) such modern luminaries in immersive recording as Morten Lindberg and Daniel Shores. Historical accounts of notable quad recordings would be good too. Otherwise, I don't think I'm interested enough in such technical information to spend fifty bucks.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/multichannel-microphone-array-design

Thanks for the link, looks quite interesting since I have been a few gigs by my virtuoso violist friend Sixto Franco, who plays for the Louisiana Philharmonic….
https://www.sixtofranco.com/BTW, he is playing with an ensemble tonight at NOLA Brewing in Tchopitoulas if anyone is interested.

Have been having fun recording what I call “Guerrilla ATMOS”…it consists of my iPhone on top, bout 4 ft high which is the height array and my Zoom in Quad on the floor for the ground level surround….have yet to hear the results since I have yet to get my height speakers but hey!
Two weeks ago there was a gig in Tulane and it was recorded by an AKG 414 pair and it definitEly blows my array to small pieces…

 

[Chronic Quadraphonic]

I just got out. Wow! Mind blown.

 

[humprof]

Catching up on some periodical reading. A nice retrospective of Prokofiev on the 70th anniversary of his death:
https://jacobin.com/2023/03/sergei-...nniversary-death-modernism-music-ussr-stalin/

 

[mkt]

In today's email, Kirill Petrenko conducts Shostakovich’s Symphonies 8–10, on CD and Blu-ray, and download. Unclear if there is surround content? The download just mentions stereo. I think the streaming versions were in atmos.
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com/shostakovich.html

In dolby atmos on Apple Music

 

[fredblue]

Apple Music's Classical service launched today

plenty of Spatial Audio content for us

 

[mkt]

Not quite sure what exclusive means but interesting. I hope it makes it to the desktop.

 

[TheAbsentMind]

Apple Music's Classical service launched today

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plenty of Spatial Audio content for us

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[note: did to a snafu I had to post this incomplete then finish it “live” so there are some lapses and most thoughts as I rushed to complete what may have gone on longer… it’s a cosmic mercy for anyone reading this!]

Thank you for posting about it! I’ve been curious if more classical will now enter the main thread or if maybe a separate (and sleepier) one for classical might pop up. I’m faaaaar from an expert on Classical so I’ve been counting down the days for this app to help me shape expiration without buying some Great Courses lecture series!

Shortly after midnight I began exploring it. I like the new ways of cross-referencing but that’s another topic. These are just a few early and casual observations so heaps of grains of salt required. What’s below might sound like complaints but I’d say they’re minor and are outweighed by all this app does for me, someone whose classical knowledge isn’t enormous — in part because something like this is long overdue.

So first, my favorite things: Obviously, a more drilled down Atmos search (I think) is great. Essential Playlists that breakdown specific eras and “sub genres” of the monolithic “Classical genre.” Besides that, the ability to browse by those, to browse by instrument (e.g., piano, harpsichord, soprano voice, etc.) makes exploration more interesting and less a slog. There are also handy short entries (mini-wikis) for a variety of things that will help the complete novice, the just above novice (me!), and are surely vague enough to cause heated fights on Classical Message boards around the world. Also, when adding classical recordings in this new app or the legacy one will add it to the other.So we are not forced to stay in this sandbox and manage two libraries*.

That’s hopefully enough to buffer against sharing my initial frustrations. They waaaay outweigh what follows…

The new app has no queuing (that I could find via context menus), presumably because this is being treated as album-oriented music.Without queuing, it makes it harder for me to dip my toes by selecting/queuing multiple versions of a given piece. I’d love to be able to queue multiple versions of a favorite like Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir d’un lieu cher”. As it is I think I’d need to tap on each one and treat them sort of like iTunes Store samples or to add them to my library and go to the main music app to queue them up.

Also, populating this library’s works, composers, etc must be manually populated in this app. I do wish it might use some of the Star/heart ratings to get the ball rolling at least on the Works. That alone might speed up the manual process of favoriting composers and other relevant fields that don’t get rated iTunes/Apple Music. This’ll be a lot of homework for people who already know classical well.

Therefore it seems there *is* a sort of partial “manage two libraries” issue. I’m also not sure that ratings or play counts/history carries over (I haven’t had time yet).

There are no public APIs (as yet or on the horizon) that will allow third party player apps (Marvis, Cesium, etc.) that can try to accommodate both services into one interface. Not the end of the world or something I necessarily expected… but I’d hoped for — not least because that might offer ability to customize the interface. The new player is consistent with the main player. I think that’s wise, but it also means some of that rich data like Composer is not easily visible from the playback screen itself. I appreciate the design consistency but it undercuts the app some. Correction: it’s under the info button on the bottom left, pretty much how we might wish we had data like producer, etc in the main app.

[edit to add: on a whim, just checked John Williams’s Star Wars to see how soundtracks might be handled… the albums themselves look okay but if you want to add the ATMOS Live in Vienna, for example? oof, that is a mess. image at bottom of post.]

Anyhow, again this is an early observation of a just-released app. I’m so glad for it — and that it’s included in the same service. Between lossless, ATMOS, and now this, I suspect I’m in this service for life (despite how it complicates my sequestering my 57k mostly lossless and custom tagged library — don’t get me started]. Now, if they’ll only do the same for jazz.

 

[Blackwood]

browse by instrument

I’d love to see that feature make it to the AppleTV app. Correction... I’d love to see this whole thing on the AppleTV. I’m kind of guessing it will at some point and this is just a slow roll-out. Thanks for taking the time to share initial thoughts.

 

[humprof]

I’d love to see that feature make it to the AppleTV app. Correction... I’d love to see this whole thing on the AppleTV. I’m kind of guessing it will at some point and this is just a slow roll-out. Thanks for taking the time to share initial thoughts.

On the rollout page, they say that "Apple Music Classical for Android is coming soon." No mention of Apple Music Classical for Mac or Apple TV, though.