Finding what's what - tracking down albums using CDDB or otherwise

[Dave2002]

I use iTunes fairly extensively for maintaining a collection of digital tracks, some downloaded, and others ripped from CD, and some sourced from recordings.
I just noticed this one:

Glazunov: Symphony 4

1st Movement: 13:38 (mins) I. Andante - Allegro moderato
2nd Movement: 5:30 II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
3rd Movement: 11:13 III. Andante - Allegro

The details say:

Glazunov: Sinfonien Nr. 4 & 5
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Various Artists

and it appears to date from 2011.

I don't recognise the performance from the sound or other obvious characteristics.
Is there any obvious way to find out who the conductor is, and any more about this?

I assume that as it is in iTunes already it's been through the database search business, but unfortunately the details are too sketchy. While this isn't a very common problem, it must occur often enough to be worthy of solutions.

Can errors or peculiarities in the information already provided give a clue? There aren't too many in this listing, but sometimes there are enough errors to make a match on the online database a real possibility surely.

I doubt that the bit rate information will be too useful - here it's 256 kbps MP3. I could find the file sizes of each movement if that helped. Perhaps if it was a download (it might have been) then that would be a way of homing in on the details?

What would happen if I exported the tracks, stripped off the info, then tried to reinsert the "album" into a player? Would that have another go at finding a match?
Do any of the matching tools use spectral analysis to match recordings? There must surely be ways of finding out what this recording is.

[Flay]

Is this going to be another "Hattogate" episode?

http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html

[Dave2002]

Is this going to be another "Hattogate" episode?

http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html

I doubt it. I just want to find out what/where the recording came from. One trouble with databases like Gracenote is that they're good enough for most purposes, without being extremely good, so when there's an album with insufficient information it's hard to fill in the missing bits.

I actually think there's quite a lot wrong with the current CDDB approach, but trying to do without it usually involves more effort.
For example, I rather object to being asked to select between different choices of information, but without enough information to actually know which one to select. I usually just choose one at random, and then fix it later if I need to.
Also, the mechanisms for making corrections and changes are such that I bet most people don't bother, but just sort out their own local copy, if they know how to do that.

[Curalach]

I've had a look at the various Glazunov recordings on my shelves. The closest I have to your timings is an Ars Musici disc with the Basler Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Walter Weller.
The disc has both 4th and 5th Symphonies and the 4th timings from the insert are: 1 - 13.39, 2 - 5.30, 3 - 11.14.
The 5th timings are: 1 - 10.41, 2 - 4.29, 3 - 9.24, 4 - 6.52.

[Frances_iom]

the free CDDB is somewhat of a mess - one is the mix of languages for track titles, composers + performers, another is the often conflicting order of information embedded as track title with different separators, to get around the inherent problem of forcing multitrack works into the straitjacket of pop songs eg the series by Priory of Cathedral Anthems has the info in many different sequences , sometimes abbreviated, sometimes no composer's name + also gaps in that some CDs are not included in the database - I have my own local copy which I update to reflect my needs but as Dave suggests the hassle of uploading this given the awkward mechanism is not attractive even tho I feel I should having used the freely given information.
I keep an old XP laptop for this purpose as so far I've not found a friendly Linux cd ripping package (I use mp3 for compatitbility with portable players etc) that is as hassle free as the older CDex package.