Bargains

[silvestrione]

This might be a silly question, but why are some of the Presto tracks marked as "Album only" & in a somewhat random way?
Who would want to buy just part of a symphony?
Presumably the £10.50 FLAC has all the tracks for all the symphonies (& necessarily in the right order).

For example:

I suspect an algorithm. It spots the two tracks are too long to qualify for separate purchase, but can't 'see' that it makes a nonsense. But perhaps someone might buy just the Scherzo, 'try before you buy all', sort of thing?

[AuntDaisy]

I suspect an algorithm. It spots the two tracks are too long to qualify for separate purchase, but can't 'see' that it makes a nonsense. But perhaps someone might buy just the Scherzo, 'try before you buy all', sort of thing?

Thanks silvestrione, that makes some sense. I'd missed the ~20min cut-off.

[Dave2002]

Also well worth snapping up is the latest freebie download from Classical Direct. Rimsky Scheherazade with Mario Rossi and Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Very early "stereo" from 1956. It's a Vanguard Stereophonic Demonstration Disc, which sounds very good and was a top seller in its day. It also has the brilliant Miriam Solovieff on violin solo.

The Rimsky Is quite good - as suggested. Miriam appears to have had a somewhat eventful, and perhaps rather tragic life - http://www.musicweb-international.co...eff_MC2007.htm

[HighlandDougie]

Snapped up the Bruckner. It could be a mistake, so not destined to stay at that price for long.

Also well worth snapping up is the latest freebie download from Classical Direct. Rimsky Scheherazade with Mario Rossi and Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Very early "stereo" from 1956. It's a Vanguard Stereophonic Demonstration Disc, which sounds very good and was a top seller in its day. It also has the brilliant Miriam Solovieff on violin solo.

For a recording of its age, it sounds very good indeed as a FLAC download. Miriam Solovieff is terrific as the soloist - and Mario Rossi keeps the music moving fairly briskly, which I rather like. The rather Viennese-sounding winds are another plus point for me.

[cloughie]

Remy Ballot Bruckner 0-9 £10 or so for FLAC (16 bit) at Presto. Can't link as am travelling

Thanks for the tip of Mathias. I have loads of Bruckner recordings but at the price … I’ve now got another set!

[Dave2002]

For a recording of its age, it sounds very good indeed as a FLAC download. Miriam Solovieff is terrific as the soloist - and Mario Rossi keeps the music moving fairly briskly, which I rather like. The rather Viennese-sounding winds are another plus point for me.

This is indeed very good. There are some minor intonation issues in the woodwind, and the violinist is quite close miked and very much to the left of the sound stage. Tension and release are well controlled in this performance. A modern recording could sound better, but musically this is very satisfying.

Looks as though the free offer has now ended though - I thought that was usually on Friday, but maybe it varies each week.

Looking through the listings the offer may still be there - but not necessarily for much longer.

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/rimsky-korsakov-scheherazade-symphonic-suite-for-orchestra-op-35-mario-rossi-orchestra-of-vienna-state-opera-orchestra-digital-download

[Dave2002]

There are some other items in the Download area of Classic Select World which might be worth having.

Here is one - a set of Myaskovsky symphonies for £6:

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/copy-of-myaskovsky-the-complete-symphonies-russian-federation-symphony-orchestra-evgeny-svetlanov-14-cds

Other people may find things they like in that section - so scan through to see what's available. Some of these have been freebies in the past, but some haven't, and are worth checking out.

[Dave2002]

I still don't know how reasonable or otherwise it would be to order physical items [CDs, DVDs etc.] from Classic Select World, because of the carriage, and possible import duty.

However the CSW web site can be useful for spotting potential bargains - as the chances are that other suppliers in the UK may have the same or similar items on offer at the same time.

A few days ago there was a set of Yehudi Menuhin CDs, for not much more than £50 on Amazon, but that has now gone up to over £80. I was tempted, but not quite enough.

In the meantime, this Mozart CD by Lubimov - sonatas played on a fortepiano seems to be worth a punt for £14.69. I don't know whether Brautigam is better, but the Brautigam CDs cost about twice as much.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Comp.../dp/B07CPK4SXN

• Label : Erato
• ASIN : B07CPK4SXN

There are a few other items listed in the CSW sale which do come up reasonably cheaply on Amazon, such as the Simon Rattle 2nd Viennese School box set, and the American Classics - Warner box set - Imaginary Landscapes.

If anyone finds out about whether it's actually worth getting physical items posted from CSW it would be good to know. It would also be good to know about any other suggested bargains spotted by the method outlined from Amazon or any other UK supplier.

[Dave2002]

I should have gone for the Myaskovsky symphony download earlier - now it seems it's sold out - which is curious. Presumably downloads have a number of copies which any distributor is allowed to sell on.

I should have the CD box set somewhere, but I thought it would be convenient to have a copy I could put on a memory stick or hard drive and stream around the place.

The complete string quartet box has also sold out. Ah well - there'll be another time .....

UPDATE/CORRECTION ... I had problems with that CSW web site. In the end I discovered that there still is the Myaskovsky complete symphony download set, and it is possible to order it. I am now playing Symphony 1. There is no FLAC option - but at this price it really doesn't matter too much. VAT at 20% gets added on, so £7.20 and maybe an additional - hopefully small charge - for credit card handling.

I might go back and try for the string quartets too. The search feature on that CSW site is helpful - but only up to a point. You have to be sure that you are not looking at a CD box or offer when the search lands. Scrolling through pages is not a very good way to find items though.

[Dave2002]

This week's freebie from Classic Select World is yet another version of Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto - with Vladimir Viardo and Eduardo Mata conducting the Dallas SO - a recording dating from 1988.

I hadn't heard of Vladimir Viardo - who is still alive, or realised that Eduardo Mata died in a plane he was flying in 1995. Great shame. There are also some recordings of Rachmaninov's Preludes in the compilation, so definitely worth checking out. I went for the FLAC version which I'm currently listening to.

[Dave2002]

Just a quick comment on msg 8815, where I referred to downloading the FLAC version. I was listening to the piano concerto directly from the finder, but that causes issues if one tries to do any other work on the computer, as it either kills or restarts the playback.

So I looked for Flac players - and Bard told me that there were several, including a "paid for" version of Foobar. However I checked, and that is another case where so-called AI got it wrong. Foobar still exists, and I was able to download a version which seems to work in macos, and which hopefully won't have the limitations mentioned. Foobar also exists in versions for other platforms, such as Windows.

Re Bard - I find it very useful, but it gets a lot of things wrong. Even so it's often quicker to use it that doing many other extensive searches. Anyone who doesn't realise that it's often not telling things correctly will have problems. Which also reminds me that I want to watch the three programmes from the Royal Institution Lectures on AI which were recently broadcast. Apparently the presenter is more optimistic about AI than I am, but I want to make my own mind up.

[AuntDaisy]

Just a quick comment on msg 8815, where I referred to downloading the FLAC version. I was listening to the piano concerto directly from the finder, but that causes issues if one tries to do any other work on the computer, as it either kills or restarts the playback.

So I looked for Flac players - and Bard told me that there were several, including a "paid for" version of Foobar. However I checked, and that is another case where so-called AI got it wrong. Foobar still exists, and I was able to download a version which seems to work in macos, and which hopefully won't have the limitations mentioned. Foobar also exists in versions for other platforms, such as Windows.

Re Bard - I find it very useful, but it gets a lot of things wrong. Even so it's often quicker to use it that doing many other extensive searches. Anyone who doesn't realise that it's often not telling things correctly will have problems. Which also reminds me that I want to watch the three programmes from the Royal Institution Lectures on AI which were recently broadcast. Apparently the presenter is more optimistic about AI than I am, but I want to make my own mind up.

Do the FLACs play with VLC, which is free?

https://www.videolan.org/

[mikealdren]

I use Musichi a my main computer audio jukebox but it doesn't play gaplessly so I use I use Foobar as an external player, it works perfectly well with FLAC.

[Sir Velo]

Audirvana (qv) is my go to music player. I use it in preference to Foobar (which (while perfectly acceptable as a music player) has the appearance of one of those university graduate projects which never had enough funding. I would also recommend installing an ASIO driver (ie in preference to WASAPI) as it bypasses the normal audio path from an application through layers of your OS software and connects directly to the external hardware.

[gurnemanz]

This week's freebie from Classic Select World is yet another version of Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto - with Vladimir Viardo and Eduardo Mata conducting the Dallas SO - a recording dating from 1988.

I hadn't heard of Vladimir Viardo - who is still alive, or realised that Eduardo Mata died in a plane he was flying in 1995. Great shame. There are also some recordings of Rachmaninov's Preludes in the compilation, so definitely worth checking out. I went for the FLAC version which I'm currently listening to.

Coincidentally, I had already acquired that recording via a previous Classic Select weekly freebie a couple years ago (now costs £1 for 10 hours' worth). I had also never heard of him but discovered that he won the Van Cliburn Competition in 1973. Big Piano Concertos Box sounds naff and it's mp3 only, but it is an interestingly eclectic collection, well worth investigating. Also includes:

Brendel/Mozart
Ogden/Monteux Tchaikovsky
Beethoven Concertos 3, 5 Michael Roll (first winner of Leeds Competition)
Aussie Bruce Hungerford in Beethoven 4th, live Staatskapelle Berlin 1964
Peter Serkin in both Brahms, Mozart K595
Emil Gilels & Kirill Kondrashin, Saint-Saëns 1954
Rosina Lhévinne (Van Cliburn's teacher). Recorded this Chopin 1 to celebrate her 80th birthday
Denis Matthews, Friedrich Gulda in Mozart Concertos, rec Vienna