View Full Version : At long last! New #1!
maestro267
14-03-11, 18:26
A toast, please, to I Fagiolini, who have knocked A*d*é R*eu off the top of the Specialist Classical Chart after what seemed like an eternity (well over a year, I'm certain). :ale: :biggrin:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/chart
MrGongGong
14-03-11, 18:29
He woz robbed
should have been Xenakis :laugh:
french frank
14-03-11, 19:06
He was briefly toppled for a couple of weeks (can't remember what by***) but returned.
But considering the volume of his sales The Beanlets have done stunningly well to have outsold him (but I bet he'll be back :sadface:).
*** VOICES - CHANT FROM AVIGNON - BENEDICTINE NUNS OF NOTRE-DAME
He woz robbed
should have been Xenakis :laugh:
Busy day on April 2nd. Straight from celebrations of John White's 75th birthday to Xenakis at the QEH. I take you will also be at the latter, MrGG?
MrGongGong
14-03-11, 19:29
Busy day on April 2nd. Straight from celebrations of John White's 75th birthday to Xenakis at the QEH. I take you will also be at the latter, MrGG?
I was planning to go to all the symposium but John White's 75th sounds good , plenty of Drinking and Hooting no doubt !
:biggrin:
My brother's friend has a fixation about André Rieu and follows him all round Europe. A complete anorak. He cannot talk about anyone else. Who takes any notice of these charts
Hmm. Items from the charts do not normally find their way into my disc players, but I find I have numbers 1, 3 and 18 in the current Specialist Classical Chart. I am looking forward to listening the the i Fagiolini discs tonight. I was very impressed with the Shostakovich disc, but the Rattle was a big mistake. I really wish I hadn't bothered with it. I keep hoping that he will come up to my hopes rather than my expectations, but he very rarely does.
Hmm. Items from the charts do not normally find their way into my disc players, but I find I have numbers 1, 3 and 18 in the current Specialist Classical Chart. I am looking forward to listening the the i Fagiolini discs tonight. I was very impressed with the Shostakovich disc, but the Rattle was a big mistake. I really wish I hadn't bothered with it. I keep hoping that he will come up to my hopes rather than my expectations, but he very rarely does.
Agree on all counts. The i Fagiolini disc arrived from Amazon today, along with Pappano's Rachmaninov/Lyadov CD. I too am very impressed with the Shostakovich.
Rattle, though. For many years he was one of my favourite conductors. I used to go to Symphony Hall regularly to see him in his CBSO days and bought practically every recording he made at the time. His CBSO Mahler 2 wasn't perfect (as people keep pointing out, there's yet to be a perfect Mahler 2 on disc) but, until Ivan Fischer's version was released, it was the one I kept returning to, not least for the wonderful soloists. In comparison Rattle's BPO recording is a real disappointment. Perhaps it's time he returned to Birmingham?! Never mind, it's still a million times better than anything Andre Rieu's ever likely to churn out!
I have just listened to the Number 1 (well the DVD anyway). I searched in vain in the booklet and the back insert for information regarding the format of the "5.1 Surround" offering. My player identified it as (lossy) Dolby Digital (not even the somewhat less lossy DTS is included). When I ejected the disc I found that the Dolby Digital logo was printed on the label side of the disc, but that and the info on the circumference of the disc was the only indication. Why could they not at least have included a DTS option, or better still, a DVD Audio layer? Only 2 cheers for the surround aspect of the issue, I'm sorry to say. Perhaps they are planning on a later Blu-ray release?
I understand that the Dolby Corporation can get quite shirty if use of their system is not adequately drawn attention to. I hope Universal have not upset them too much.
Much enjoyed the music-making, anyway.
I must admit to being intrigued (and delighted) by the success of the new #1. Bearing in mind the staggering amount of discs Rieu undoubtedly sells, how did a disc of choral music by a largely unknown composer come to knock him off his perch? Was it lavish marketing from Decca? Was it endlessly played and plugged by Classic FM? Your thoughts, please!
kernelbogey
15-03-11, 09:46
Rattle, though. For many years he was one of my favourite conductors.
Wondering what people thought of Rattle's Bruckner 9 last night on R3. I heard lots of detail, some of it new to me, but I missed that overarching view so essential in B and ended up disappointed.
Bax-of-Delights
15-03-11, 09:48
I must admit to being intrigued (and delighted) by the success of the new #1. Bearing in mind the staggering amount of discs Rieu undoubtedly sells, how did a disc of choral music by a largely unknown composer come to knock him off his perch? Was it lavish marketing from Decca? Was it endlessly played and plugged by Classic FM? Your thoughts, please!
I wondered that too. I mean its hardly a disc that will be flogged in Asda and Tesco (like the Rieu) at 50% discount is it? Just doesn't seem likely...
french frank
15-03-11, 10:17
I must admit to being intrigued (and delighted) by the success of the new #1. Bearing in mind the staggering amount of discs Rieu undoubtedly sells, how did a disc of choral music by a largely unknown composer come to knock him off his perch? Was it lavish marketing from Decca? Was it endlessly played and plugged by Classic FM? Your thoughts, please!I assume the sales must be measured on a week by week basis, so after almost a year everyone who wants the Rieu disc will have bought it by now and sales must start falling off. If there's no similar disc to take its place a Specialist Specialist disc can stand a chance.
I have seen signs of some keen marketing.
David Underdown
15-03-11, 11:51
The Striggio was well-covered in The Guardian the Friday before alst, with an article by Hollingworth and five-star review. It's received good reviews in other papers too, and there's quite a lot going on through social media channels too. They've put together a lot of background material ont heir website too, http://striggio.ifagiolini.com/
Does anyone know how many discs have to be sold to get in to the "specialist classical chart" ?
LeMartinPecheur
22-03-11, 22:51
I trust it won't be ruled Off Topic if I switch to the music and composers featured on this disc?
Mrs MartinePecheur and I have long loved Tallis's Spem in alium. When the Striggio 40-part motet hit the headlines and the airwaves some years ago my initial reaction was that Tallis had significantly improved on this model. Mrs MP confirmed this view after hearing it on Breakfast today. But hearing movements from the Striggio mass from the new disc has made me think that he cribbed a lot from there too (from the early movements IIRC??), in particular the effect of overlapping waves of sound as the various choirs enter in quick succession. So my belief in the native genius of TT as demonstrated in Spem has taken a bit of a knock.
What do other Tallis-lovers think? Any revisions in chronology allowing the possibility that T improved on S's motet, then S cribbed from T in writing the Mass would be much appreciated, in restoring old Jingoistic prejudices!
Norfolk Born
23-03-11, 00:21
Does anyone know how many discs have to be sold to get in to the "specialist classical chart" ?
I understand that, in the USA, sales of a few hundred will get a CD into the Billboard Classical Top 10. Hilary Hahn had a No. 1 in the States last year with sales of 1000. I'm not sure whether these are one week's, or total, sales, but either way the answer to your question is probably 'not that many'. I remember watching a TV documentary quite a few years ago in which a sales manager at Philips was confidently predicting that a new Alfred Brendel CD of Mozart piano concertos would sell 5000 copies in the UK.
I must admit to being intrigued (and delighted) by the success of the new #1. Bearing in mind the staggering amount of discs Rieu undoubtedly sells, how did a disc of choral music by a largely unknown composer come to knock him off his perch? Was it lavish marketing from Decca? Was it endlessly played and plugged by Classic FM? Your thoughts, please!
Well for one thing, I suspect that volumes in this market are very low,which means that you don't have to move warehouse loads to get to no 1.
The striggio also has the benefit of being a choral work...purely a guess , but I bet a lot of amateur singers(of whom there are a lot) were waiting for this one. Its also an very unusal work , and If i'm not mistaken, the first recording is something of a long awaited item..and R3 has been giving it a good old airing, (and no doubt CFM too).
Anway, the main problem with the SCM chart is that R3 doesn't do nearly enough old style R1 type jingles during the run down !! SMP needs to get more like good ol Fluff Freeman .
Norfolk Born
31-03-11, 09:27
If I hear 'At The Sign Of The Swinging Cymbal' one more time....:yikes::grr::doh::biggrin:
Bax-of-Delights
31-03-11, 11:20
OK - Ofcachap,
Just for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BpQ_1RnolU&feature=related
Norfolk Born
31-03-11, 12:37
Lovely....
A particular memory from the days when David Jacobs presented POTP (on a Saturday night?). The No. 2 record that week was 'Way Down Yonder in New Orleans', and over the airwaves came this amazingly suave voice: 'Let's fire Mr. (Freddie) Cannon...'
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