New releases

[Bryn]

... there's a concert performance floating around with Harding conducting his Swedish orchestra in the Bruckner 9 completion. Really not worth bothering with if you have Sir Simon on the way!

It is of a slightly earlier version of the Samale et al finale, but I reckon it well worth seeking out. Harding's is an interesting performance, to my ears.

[Alf-Prufrock]

It is possible that some ageing CD plays will have a problem playing an 82' 10" disc but I see no insuperable barrier to most modern players being able to read at least up to 90 minute CDs. I have several overburn CD-Rs of that sort of duration and even a few of as long as 96 minutes (though the '99 minute' blank discs for those now seem rather harder to source). If it can be done with CD-Rs, why not with pressed CDs?

Interesting. But how modern do the players have to be? My best one dates from 2002 (I hope to get it checked over fairly soon because it cost a lot at the time and I don't want to junk it.)

[Bryn]

Interesting. But how modern do the players have to be? My best one dates from 2002 (I hope to get it checked over fairly soon because it cost a lot at the time and I don't want to junk it.)

I have a couple of players from towards the end of the last century, and they each play my 96 minute overburn CD-R of Mahler 3 without problem. As I understand it, the spiral of digital pits is pitched more tightly on the overburn CD-Rs, so there is lower tolerance for the accuracy of the the laser tracking, so I guess wear and tear on an old transport might just present a problem.

[amateur51]

A new release from Viviana Sofronitsky of Schubert pieces played on a fortepiano

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/simpleMultiSea...mitSearch.y=30

Members may recall that her outstanding set of Mozart piano concertos on a fortepiano by McNulty was widely praised on here.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Etcetera/KTC1424

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Etcetera/KTC1424

[PJPJ]

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4783527

bank manager

[Alison]

Cheers PJPJ, I was wondering when the next Ben disc was due.

Quite pleased in a way that we aren't having six releases a year from him ...
making this one very desirable indeed !

[Barbirollians]

I fear he is overhyped . I did not like his Liszt at the Proms all that much .

I reckon he should spend a few more years learning before too many recordings .

[DublinJimbo]

You're really on the ball! This isn't yet featured on Decca's own web site.
Really bad timing, though. I've just downloaded Freddie Kempff's new Gershwin disc with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic (from good old BIS).

[PJPJ]

You're really on the ball! This isn't yet featured on Decca's own web site.
Really bad timing, though. I've just downloaded Freddie Kempff's new Gershwin disc with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic (from good old BIS).

Tut tut, you're not waiting for the SACD, then? I know the feeling about the duplicate repertoire - of course both purchases are mandatory. I have a definition for "mandatory" which the OED hasn't included, yet, although it is in fairly common use by those who buy recordings.

Certainly Ben has not been over-exposed over the past seven or eight years. A very sensible strategy. I heard a recent concert he gave in New York playing Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, Ravel, one of the encores Morton Gould's Boogie-Woogie Etude, all of which highly impressive, and got from Linn his first Decca recording which I think is so outstandingly good it's one of my discs of the year. The effect it had on me was so uplifting I feel it ought to be prescribed on the NHS. And I mean that quite seriously.

[HighlandDougie]

I started off a bit like Barbirollians in thinking that it must just all be so much hype but like PJPJ downloaded Benjamin Grosvenor's recital (from Qobuz as a 24/96 file) and have been smitten ever since. His playing of, say, the Chopin Op Posth Nocturne in C Sharp Minor is like balm to the soul. And the Gaspard is up there in the same league as Ivo Pogorelich, Martha Argerich and Vlado Perlemuter. He's due to appear at Roque d'Anthéron in August (Bach, Chopin, Ravel) so I'm much looking forward to hearing him there.