What are you currently listening to (Classical)?

[meistersinger57]

Further thoughts...


Brand/Label/Format: *Analogue Productions 200g 45rpm LP* (5LP)

Genre: Classical Item Number: APLP6065-45 Unit Price: $149.99
200g 45rpm 5LP Box Set!
Mastered by Bernie Grundman From Original Analog Tape!
Plated & Pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Dead-quiet 45 RPM 5LP set reduces distortion, improves cartridge tracking!

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tape

Packaged in a custom-designed slipcase with integrated 22-page lavishly illustrated book

Please note: Side 10 of this release is a repeat of side 1

In the hearts of thousands, No. 1 on the Top RCA list. While the bulk of Ernest Ansermet's recordings were made with L'Orchestre de la Susise Romande, there were a few with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the very occasional foray into recordings with London orchestras, one of these being with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1959.

Analogue Productions is proud and excited to be bringing back such a classic. Not just for the music, which is superb, but also for the detailed packaging, which in this case takes the form of a 22-page lavishly illustrated book that's integrated into the tip-on gatefold jacket for two of the LPs in this new 5LP 45 RPM box set edition.

A word about 45 RPM: The dead-quiet LPs, with the music spread over nine sides of vinyl (the 10th side repeats side 1), reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately. But it's more than just the vinyl that makes this release so special.

If you're new to ballet, this pictorial history will introduce you to some of its most famous productions — old favorites such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, for example — but also less familiar tales such as Carnaval, Les Sylphides and Coppélia. You'll also make the acquaintance of famous ballerinas of the Royal company, such as Margot Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina and Beryl Grey, as well as choreographers such as Jules Perrot and male dancers Alexis Rassine and Michael Somes.

Musically you can't get better than the 200-gram dead-silent platters pressed by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the world's finest-sounding LPs. Of course the best vinyl reflects the best mastering, and that's accomplished here by Bernie Grundman working from the original analog tape. Stoughton Printing expertly handled the intricate gatefold tip-on package

 

[LL21]

Great stuff...have the CD from Analogue Productions which is truly great (I am all redbook.) Thanks for recommending this one. Absolutely agree...and can only imagine how good the actual edition you are recommending must be.

 

[marty]

This one took me by surprise. Read a review somewhere and bought it. You get 2 discs; an SACD as well as a Blue Ray for those that can do 5 channel surround. Don't have 5 channels? No matter, the SACD is a stunner and the works are scrumptous. There are 3 pieces for string orchestra. The first is by Benjamin Britten (Variation on a Theme by Frank Bridge), the second by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis) and the third is by Stravinsky (Apollon Musgete).

Most people know the Fantasia, which has also been called the most beautiful 14 minute of music ever written. But it was the Britten and the Stravinsky that knocked me out. Just beautiful stuff. The 10 movements of the Britten are each supposed to highlight an aspect of Frank Bridge's personality. Bridge was Britten's mentor and teacher, and apparently was a tough task master but Britten loved him in spite of it so it's a wonderful tribute piece. But the highlight for me was the Stravinsky, who wrote the piece for a ballet based on Greek mythology themes (having something to do with Apollo obviously). It's a masterful and totally captivating composition.

The other reason to buy this SACD is the quality of the recording. The string orchestra is recorded in a church and uses an 11 microphone array to capture the sound of the musicians sitting around the array in a circle. What kind of imaging can you expect when playing this back in a 2 channel system? Well, I'll be damned but its uncanny as you actually get a sense that you are right behind the circle of instruments and can get a pretty good idea of the placement of the musicians whose positions are diagrammed for each piece in the booklet that is included with the discs. Masterful recording from the Norwegian label 2L and absolutely beautiful music.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

It was a Grammy nominee last year and I was disappointed that it did not win. https://www.stereophile.com/content/music-round-84-multichannel-mqa-recordings-round

 

[microstrip]

This one took me by surprise. Read a review somewhere and bought it. You get 2 discs; an SACD as well as a Blue Ray for those that can do 5 channel surround. Don't have 5 channels? No matter, the SACD is a stunner and the works are scrumptous. There are 3 pieces for string orchestra. The first is by Benjamin Britten (Variation on a Theme by Frank Bridge), the second by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis) and the third is by Stravinsky (Apollon Musgete). (...)

We can get a 1'37" sample from the 2L site ... http://www.2l.no/hires/

 

[marty]

Didn't know that Kal. Thanks. It is certainly Grammy worthy. Too bad it didn't win.

 

[asiufy]

It's on Tidal as well :

https://tidal.com/album/59883218

 

[Ron Resnick]

In heavy rotation: Mozart Symphony No. 41.

(Well, not rotation, rather Spotify repeat.)

 

[astrotoy]

Further thoughts...


Brand/Label/Format: *Analogue Productions 200g 45rpm LP* (5LP)

Genre: Classical Item Number: APLP6065-45 Unit Price: $149.99
200g 45rpm 5LP Box Set!
Mastered by Bernie Grundman From Original Analog Tape!
Plated & Pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Dead-quiet 45 RPM 5LP set reduces distortion, improves cartridge tracking!

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tape

Packaged in a custom-designed slipcase with integrated 22-page lavishly illustrated book

Please note: Side 10 of this release is a repeat of side 1

In the hearts of thousands, No. 1 on the Top RCA list. While the bulk of Ernest Ansermet's recordings were made with L'Orchestre de la Susise Romande, there were a few with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the very occasional foray into recordings with London orchestras, one of these being with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1959.

Analogue Productions is proud and excited to be bringing back such a classic. Not just for the music, which is superb, but also for the detailed packaging, which in this case takes the form of a 22-page lavishly illustrated book that's integrated into the tip-on gatefold jacket for two of the LPs in this new 5LP 45 RPM box set edition.

A word about 45 RPM: The dead-quiet LPs, with the music spread over nine sides of vinyl (the 10th side repeats side 1), reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately. But it's more than just the vinyl that makes this release so special.

If you're new to ballet, this pictorial history will introduce you to some of its most famous productions — old favorites such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, for example — but also less familiar tales such as Carnaval, Les Sylphides and Coppélia. You'll also make the acquaintance of famous ballerinas of the Royal company, such as Margot Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina and Beryl Grey, as well as choreographers such as Jules Perrot and male dancers Alexis Rassine and Michael Somes.

Musically you can't get better than the 200-gram dead-silent platters pressed by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the world's finest-sounding LPs. Of course the best vinyl reflects the best mastering, and that's accomplished here by Bernie Grundman working from the original analog tape. Stoughton Printing expertly handled the intricate gatefold tip-on packageView attachment 47150

Thanks for the information about this release. I looked at the Elusive Disc website and they said it was a preorder. Were you able to get a copy? I have the 2 record AP release as well as the 33 and 45 releases from the Classic Record issues. Classics also issued a copy which duplicated the Soria bound book that the original issue came in, while so far, AP has only duplicated the gatefold album that Classics did. Looks like the 45 will come in a nice box, without the bound book.

Larry

 

[marty]

Ernest Ansermet's Royal Ballet Gala is my favorite as well. What makes this one different from many of the fabulous RCA's done by Richard Mohr and Lewis Layton is that RCA acquired this recording from Decca so it was recorded at Kingsway Hall by Ken Wilkinson's and is one of his finest engineering masterpieces.

Stealing from the Acoustic Sounds website:
Audiophilia Online Magazine wrote: "This is the stuff of which dreams are made. ...
"Tonally, Messrs. Williamson and Wilkinson have used their considerable talents to capture the orchestra superbly. Woodwind and strings glow and resonate, transporting this listener to a time when simpler recording was better. Brass ring out thrillingly and percussion effects are very musical. Be it a bang, swish, rattle, crack or snap, each percussionist is situated perfectly within the beautiful Kingsway soundstage. Even the difficult-to-record sound of the celeste is captured in it's purely mechanical form. It's delicate sound is heard to great effect during the Nutcracker - originating stage left, the sound decays across the stage of Kingsway with sparkling beauty. Wonderful."

Totally agree. Musical beauty in every piece. And indeed, the celeste alone is worth the price of admission if only because it's reference track material. If your system can do this right, you've got darned good treble performance. Grit, glare, brightness, lack of air and bad metal chemistry will show itself easily here.

 

[tima]

Thanks for the information about this release. I looked at the Elusive Disc website and they said it was a preorder. Were you able to get a copy? I have the 2 record AP release as well as the 33 and 45 releases from the Classic Record issues. Classics also issued a copy which duplicated the Soria bound book that the original issue came in, while so far, AP has only duplicated the gatefold album that Classics did. Looks like the 45 will come in a nice box, without the bound book.

Larry

https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/...Royal_Ballet_Gala_Performances-Vinyl_Box_Sets

Also a pre-order at Acoustic Sounds - "Arrival Date To Be Announced "
Looks like there is a book: "Packaged in a custom-designed slipcase with integrated 22-page lavishly illustrated book " but don't know if it bound. "Integrated" suggests maybe not. No indication of fixed number or limited copies.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I wish I could get into this piece, Marty. I’ve tried to listen to it several times, and I just find it too slow and boring.

Nonetheless, because I know it is a very famous and highly regarded performance and it is very well recorded, I have it.

 

[astrotoy]

Royal Ballet was one of many great albums that Decca produced and engineered (and in the UK pressed) for RCA. Here are just five that were all engineered by "Wilkie", recorded in Kingsway Hall, and performed by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra, all within one year from 1958 and 1959.

RCA LSC-2450 (recorded April 1958) Schumann Carnival/Meyerbeer Patineurs Hugh Rignold
RCA LSC-2313 (recorded June 1958) Venice George Solti
RCA LSC-2327 (recorded Sept 1958) Bizet/Chabrier Morel
RCA LDS-6065 (recorded January 1959) Royal Ballet Ernest Ansermet
RCA LSC-2449 (recorded Feb,April 1959) Gounod Faust/Bizet Carmen Gibson

All of these were reissued by Classic Records in the '90s, and Analogue Productions (Chad) has so far reissued the last four.

There are many other great Decca engineered RCA recordings.

Decca engineer Mike Mailes told me this story when I interviewed him for my Decca book. He was with WIlkie for a recording session with the National Symphony in Washington DC in the early '70s, his first visit to the US. One of the members of the orchestra was boasting to him that the US made some great sounding recordings also. He said there were these great classical albums that RCA had - Venice, Faust, Witches Brew. Mike told him that he agreed. Then he asked him whether he knew all those albums were produced and engineered by Decca?

Larry

 

[tima]

I wish I could get into this piece, Marty. I’ve tried to listen to it several times, and I just find it too slow and boring.

Nonetheless, because I know it is a very famous and highly regarded performance and it is very well recorded, I have it.

Tchaikovski was a melodic genius. What we're talking about here is ballet music. Try his Symphony No. 4; it's not slow or boring.

Maybe you'd like Stravinsky, Mahler or Sibelius... or Wagner!

 

[astrotoy]

Tchaikovski was a melodic genius. What we're talking about here is ballet music. Try his Symphony No. 4; it's not slow or boring.

Maybe you'd like Stravinsky, Mahler or Sibelius... or Wagner!

Ron, you definitely need to get to know Mozart's most daring symphony, #40 in g minor. It is only one of two of Mozart's symphonies in a minor key. It was written just a couple of weeks before the Jupiter symphony and a month after the 39th symphony. Some people suggest playing all three consecutively, but at least play the 40th and 41st back to back.

Another Mozart treat are the piano concertos. I would suggest 20 in d minor and then 21 in C to begin. Not quite the contrast of the two symphonies, but a real joy to hear.

Larry

 

[bonzo75]

Ron, you definitely need to get to know Mozart's most daring symphony, #40 in g minor. It is only one of two of Mozart's symphonies in a minor key. It was written just a couple of weeks before the Jupiter symphony and a month after the 39th symphony. Some people suggest playing all three consecutively, but at least play the 40th and 41st back to back.

Another Mozart treat are the piano concertos. I would suggest 20 in d minor and then 21 in C to begin. Not quite the contrast of the two symphonies, but a real joy to hear.

Larry

Coincidence you mention this, as heard Mitsuko Uchida perform last night - concerto 20 (Also 19 but 20 was the highlight)

 

[bonzo75]

The Yvonne Lefebure with Furtwangler performance for that concerto 20 is awesome even on YouTube, though the ERC for that is 1000 plus

 

[tima]

Ron, you definitely need to get to know Mozart's most daring symphony, #40 in g minor. It is only one of two of Mozart's symphonies in a minor key. It was written just a couple of weeks before the Jupiter symphony and a month after the 39th symphony. Some people suggest playing all three consecutively, but at least play the 40th and 41st back to back.

Another Mozart treat are the piano concertos. I would suggest 20 in d minor and then 21 in C to begin. Not quite the contrast of the two symphonies, but a real joy to hear.

Larry

Exactly. Piano Concertos 20 and 21. 21 is divine.

 

[dcc]

Exactly. Piano Concertos 20 and 21. 21 is divine.

An put the 9th as well.

 

[bonzo75]

If you ever decide to go from the concertos to the sonatas