What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XI)

Originally Posted by kuma:

Doug,

Who was the remastering engineer?

 

Originally Posted by Florestan:

Kuma,

I'm not 100% sure on this.  All I could find is that the present sound engineer was Thorsten Wyk.  They claim to be faithful to the original and add nothing and change nothing.  

Doug,

Thanks for the info. A quick search yields that he's the mastering engineer at Optimal Media in Germany where probably the vinyl was pressed. Perhaps they added a facility of cutting lacquer from the analogue tape. I've read that they've purchased a SOTA pressing equipment so I'd imagine the quality of production is high.

I love Gulda's Mozart and even some Beethoven work. I have never heard his Bach but I am very familiar with his style so I can imagine he put his fingerprints on WTC, too. Speaking of *ugliest* noise, it can't possibly worse than Landowska with her awful noise generating machine. :/

What do you think of Keith Jarrett's WTC?

Furtwängler/BPO: Bruckner Symphony 9   1944 Recording

In spite the war time poor recoding from the 40s the excitement and tension were felt particularly from the 2nd movement on. 

Clarity suffers but this very early use of magnetic tape captured the powerful live performance. I have read that even tho Furtwangler performed Bruckner 9th many times, this is the only performance on a recorded media. 

 Lightening quick Scherzo. The music never gets too sticky or heavy and they sound fresh as Furtwangler keeps the quick pacing and extremely expressive dynamic shadings. The whole band is dancing on their toes in 2nd half of Scherzo. One of the most beautiful and poignant Adagio. Majestic and magnifiscent and transcedant as Celibidache reading. So much humanity woven into the performance makes this ironic under the historical circumstance.

Incredible raw power is even felt in the soft passages which penetrates human emotion. This is a sort of performance that gets under my skin.

The man must have been possessed as I don't hear this much intensity from his post war performances with Vienna Phil.

Van Beinum/Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam: Bruckner Symphony 9  1956 Recording

Nicely done but not as organic as Furtwangler/BPO ending up as an academic listening experience.

The Who: Who Are You?   1978 Release

I love its expansive operatic feel mingled with lyrical melody line and harmony. Out of all British rock band, The Who by far is my favourite.

I am still on the Who kick.

Streaming | WAV

(1981)

Then it must be time to get Quadrophenia or Who's Next on the turntable - both quintessential rock albums!

Totally unable to sleep last night, so got up and discovered this gem on Tidal:

Tidal is proving to be a rather useful tool for discovering new music.

Pretenders. The Singles. On original CD from 1987. The Pretenders, along with other new wave/punk artists like Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, The Clash, and The Cars came as a breath of fresh air to me in the late 1970's and helped put to bed the redundant, incessant disco era. The Pretenders got a lot of air play on my Cleveland radio stations, Chrissie Hynde being a native northeast-Ohioan. Their production, mixing and SQ were excellent and the music still sounds as fresh to me today as it did three to four decades ago.

Streaming | WAV

(1980)

This is not a TD album that I listen to very much but giving it a whirl this morning.

Purely... Buddy Holly. On Delta Music CD from 2008. I've said it here before that I'm a sucker for Buddy Holly compilations. I primarily enjoy his all analog productions on vinyl, though there are some decent digital compilations. This is purely not one.

Michael White: The X Factor  1978 Release

Funky violin jazz from the 70s. Produced and arranged by George Duke. 

Killer rhythm section and lovely flute solo by Hubert Laws.

Sounds extra groovy on a Sondek/ARO.

Streaming | 24/44.1 WAV | Bandcamp Download

(2015)

The whole album is heavy with layered sequencing and (very) subsonic bass parts and while there are sometimes familiar sounds present there are also many less obvious choices in instrumentation. - Bandcamp

Great record!

It is a landmark album, Gian. There's a programme tonight in BBC6 radio about their album Backwards. It is  really worth a listen. I'm sure you can get it online over where you are. 

Tony

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nw9pl

Justin Hayward - Spirits Live on vinyl. First playing. Mainly acoustic from Justin, and that voice still soars on some tracks. Enjoyed it, and it will get played, just not sure how often!

4-LP (plus a DVD) set acquired last week from the River for under £20. An absolute steal, decent show, but SQ seems a bit mushy though.

This collection of all-new recordings revisits Tigerlily 20 years later. Stunning voice and great arrangement. Downloaded from nonesuch for only $12, bargain!

I think that Gideon Kremer will go down in history as one of the greatest....musicians, not only violinist but MUSICIAN.

Thanks Tony!