What are you listening to? (Vol VII)

Vinyl:-

Tracy Grammer - Flower of Avalon

Playing LP no.9 of 11xLP box-set...

Sonata no.21 in C major, op.53 "Waldstein"

Sonata no.25 in G major, op.79

Sonata no.23 in F minor, op.57 "Appassionata"

~<>~

Considering the near-mint visual appearance of the vinyl, the surface noise is just a little too intrusive.

The previous owner certainly got his money’s worth from that rusty nail of a stylus he used on them.

Kempff died in 1991 so this Hommage set is probably dated to soon after.

It’s a shame this box set of DG vinyl at 20 years old has so much inner groove degradation,

...wish I hadn’t bothered clean+re-sleeve them all now : (

But Kempff’s playing is very agreeable to me, nice sense of rhythmic flow I find easy to absorb but the recording a little distant with some shrillness to the higher registers that are loud, and some ghostly reverb on many very low notes.

The libretto notes suggest this to be Polydor 1955 recording…?, but being in Stereo it may be from the mid 60’s i wonder?

Debs

Twinemen - live, Chicago IL 02.02.03

Great album(either format). Used (sitll)love Morphine.

You made my evening. Cheers.

Hi Debs,

Listening to my own copy as well - on CD, and not sounding very good either. The sound engineer probably had a small upright in mind and not the concert grand on the cover photo... BTW you are right - if your discs are stereo, they must be from his 2nd cycle from the 60s.

EJ

Hi Tony,

First listen and very good!  Still a big Morphine fan as well. 

Best regards,

Pat

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can

Heather Nova - red bird

Hi EJ,

i was wondering if WK's 1st cycle in mono were processed later into stereo. I know some keyboard works in the 1950's were done that way, i have a few 1950's harpsichord works that are very good imho.

But although WK's recording on my vinyl sounded more deserved of better sound record engineering, from what i hear on spotify [though my little lo-fi computer speakers] the actual record quality sounds far more acceptable.

i have a CD version of Waldstein and Appassionata sonata's by Kempff and must admit to being disapointed with the record quality on that too, which imo tends to make the performace sound dull.

I may end up buying a complete cd box-set by Brendel : )

Now playing....

Geza Anda - the more i hear him the more i like him,

and here with one of the best ever conductors too!

[ADD] Original-Image Bit-Processing (recordings from 1960 and 1961)

I can't complain about anything i hear on this,

just sit back and enjoy the music! : )

Debs

Anat Cohen

EJ / Debs,

Technically, the 1964/65 stereo recordings are his 2nd "complete" set but I've always thought of this set as really his 3rd set given that from 1926 to 1945 he nearly recorded all the sonatas on shellac. I think the mono set was recorded from 1951-1956.

By the way, I agree with you on the recorded sound.

Pollini: The Late Piano Sonatas No.28-32

Gould's sitll my fave. : No.30-32

Deb & EJS,

I'm gonna keep my eyes out for Kempf's Beethoven. I only have his Bach.

It's harder to find a good piano recording, particularly from vinyl. I'm finding out now that most of my favourite pianists pieces don't come in audiophile grade record. Yet I'd rather listen to them than a dull performance in a good fidelity.

If i like the record, I just keep buying them till I get a good one. ( I've picked up another Richter's Pictures at an Exhibition Columbia 6 eye hoping it's in a better condition than the one I have )

This may be my favourite piano music on vinyl, a easy delight to listen to, sounds very close up and real even though it's digitally remastered [must have done a good job] and the composition is a JSB perfection.

The only thing lacking is a smile from Ivo : (

Debs

Peter Green Anthology, what a great guitar player

Debs,

Look out for "The Genius of Ivo Pogorelich", a 2 CD compilation with works taken from his DG albums. Nothing new musically, but the booklet folds out to a large poster with Ivo in T-shirt looking dreamily into the camera...  

EJ

Outstanding!!

On Spotify:-

ITunes The Shadows - As, Bs & EPs. 

For the umpteenth time over the last few days.