What are you listening to right now?

[tmazz]

Bizet: Carmen - Naermet/Suisse Romande



Original London Blue Back LP

[jsaliga]

This Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 was recorded in 1954 with Fritz Reiner and the CSO.  I don't think there's a finer performance of this peice in existence, though I really like the Fleisher/Szell recording as well.

--Jerome 

[jsaliga]

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

Another Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 performance, this time with Charles Munch, the BSO, and Gary Graffman as the soloist.  It's a fine performance but the quality of the recording doesn't do it justice.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2.  Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra.  Vladimir Horowitz on piano.  This is a brilliant performance on CD that was transcribed from mint 78s, and the sound is quite good.  It came from the 70 CD Vladimir Horowitz Complete Original Jacket Collection boxed set.

--Jerome

[tmazz]

Another Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 performance, this time with Charles Munch, the BSO, and Gary Graffman as the soloist.  It's a fine performance but the quality of the recording doesn't do it justice.

--Jerome

This is really cool. I Googled the stock number for this album hopingn t find when it ws recorded and wha came up was a .pdf copy of the 12/15/58 issue of Billbord (Ad for this record on pg 55.) It isw really interesting looking back on what was on the minds of the music industry back when these records were current releases. A really fun read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7AoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=LM_2274&source=bl&ots=M1lkJAlExH&sig=VNRmMgd-STDCIvd4lb-XHhsw45c&hl=en&ei=taOkTd7mBITagQe5qaynCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=true

[jsaliga]

Mahler Symphony No. 6.  This is an amazing Mahler cycle, probably the best of the four in my collection.

--Jerome

[Rob S.]

I'm enjoying Mahler's Song of the Earth Performed by our WV symphony.  it's a rehearsal, currently on "farewell".  That darn Axpona show this weekend has me missing the real deal with vocals. Love it anyway!

Rob S.

[tmazz]

Virgil Fox...Organist at Symphony Hall, Boston



After listening to you guys talk about Command  releases over the past week or so I figured I should check through the archives and see if I had picked anything up on this label over the years. I came across this Virgil Fox LP and gave it a whirl. Well, it is by Virgil Fox so the quality of the music and the performance is pretty much a given, but I was very taken back by the high level of SQ on this disc. I'm not sure how much of it is attributable to the new Blackbird cartridge (which continues to amaze me with how much good sound it is able to mine from LPs that I previously thought were just fair) and how much was just the fact that I was asleep at the switch and never really gave them a good listen, but based on this LP, I am now going to have to ad Command to the list of things I search out at the Crack House. (Like the list wasn't long enough already  )

Thanks for opening my eyes on this one. 

[AcidJazz]

The past 2-3 weeks I have been busy experimenting with a variety of tweaks, isolation, IC's...the changer has seen much use every day. Couple weeks ago I loaded it up with 5 vocalists from various musical genres, jazz, indie/pop, folk/country/ classical...
Fast forward to now and this is the one that remains in rotation...
Fay Victor, lazy old sun

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fayvictor3
I caught her live last year, and her performance cemented my appreciation of her work. Fay is certainly a continuation of the line of the great jazz vocalists that has gone before...Billie, Carmen, Abbey...

...What is especially trenchant here is that each song occupies its own musical universe. Even though there are only five performers, the instrumentation and texture of each tune is different. In many ways, Victor and her fellow musicians are performing jazz chamber music. This is not just a quintet running through the same standards in one basic format. While this CD may be too cerebral for some and not to everyone's taste, Fay Victor is a gifted musician, possessed of flawless intonation, musical imagination, and inventive phrasing—and for those reasons, this album deserves a first, a second, and a third listening...http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17208

It is not often for me to listen to one cd every day for two weeks...but this one just captivates a musical spirit I find satisfying every time I hear it...Just love the sound of that trombone.
I got two of her recordings and will be looking to purchase the other 6 or 7 that are available, most were done in Europe over the years she lived in Amsterdam.

Some of the other vocalists that came and went...Sheryl Crow, Detours...
Rachael Yamagata, happenstance (like this too)...
Garrison Starr, the sound of you & me...
Carre Rodriguez, she ain't me...
Holly Cole, shade(this grew on me)...
VAS, in the garden of souls...
Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde. Karen Cargill, mezzo soprano.
etc. etc.  

[tmazz]

--Jerome

I love this piece, been playing the RCA version I have while auditioning cables;

Debussy: La Mer: Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole: Boston Symphony Orchestra: Charles Munch

Add another one to the mix. This one by Ansermet and the Suisse Romande



As a big Ansermet fan I found this LP to be somewhat of a letdown. Not particularly bad, but certainly not up to the standards I am used to hearing out of Ansermet and the London FFRR recordings.

Oh well, you can't win them all. 

[AcidJazz]

Hey Jerome, good to see you posting here...missed the good stuff from AC...


Just came across full video tracks of Fay Victor on ABJ...enjoy.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=2240

[tmazz]

James Taylor: Sweet Baby James



I ordered this on a 180g LP reissue from Amazon about a month ago and it never showed up. Contacted Amazon about it and their answer was to just refund my money (which, to their credit,  they did do promptly).

But I didn't want my money back, I wanted the LP. Oh well, I will just have to place a new order for it.

In the meantime I will have to settle for listening to my stock WB pressing. Bummer