Post by tream September 8, 2004 (1 of 16)
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Glad to see Beardawgs posting reviews again. I just ordered the McCreesh Messiah, recently reviewed by Beardawgs. I've noted this recording has had variable reviews, so we'll see. My all time favorite Messiah is probably Gardiner's and I have a fantasy about some SACD-centric label signing him (Universal ended their contract with him) and letting him have a go at some of the Handel oratorios and operas, including a remake of Messiah. (I also own Davis I, Christie and McGegan as well.)
We live in an age of great Handel recordings, singers and conductors and frankly it would be a lot better for SACD to see more Handel on record than yet another performance of the Planets, or the Rach 2, or the Shostakovich 7, etc. or even another Mahler 3.
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Post by LC September 9, 2004 (2 of 16)
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tream said:
Glad to see Beardawgs posting reviews again. I just ordered the McCreesh Messiah, recently reviewed by Beardawgs. I've noted this recording has had variable reviews, so we'll see. My all time favorite Messiah is probably Gardiner's and I have a fantasy about some SACD-centric label signing him (Universal ended their contract with him) and letting him have a go at some of the Handel oratorios and operas, including a remake of Messiah. (I also own Davis I, Christie and McGegan as well.)
We live in an age of great Handel recordings, singers and conductors and frankly it would be a lot better for SACD to see more Handel on record than yet another performance of the Planets, or the Rach 2, or the Shostakovich 7, etc. or even another Mahler 3.
Looks like a few promising Handel recitals out there. The new Lieberson and Fleming SA-CDs are apparently quite good. The Kermes/Beaumont is pretty good, with so-so sound. I've ordered Pamela Thorby's new recorder sonatas. As far as complete, large-scale works, it'll be interesting to see what comes along next. The big Handel star on Archiv for the last while has been Minkowski, and as far as I can tell, he absolutely insists on recording everything live. These are excellent recordings, mind you. They might be concert versions? I don't know if the recording set-up for live recordings would make multichannel releases more difficult, but his recent Gluck, now on SA-CD, is multichannel. I only have Minkowski's Ariodante and Roman Motets, but those are both great. I wonder if there's any chance of his Guilio Cesare coming out on SA-CD. I'd definitely be interested in something from Gardiner or McGegan, too.
It would obviously be good for both the format and for Handel if some more big titles appeared.
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Post by tream September 9, 2004 (3 of 16)
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LC said:
The big Handel star on Archiv for the last while has been Minkowski, and as far as I can tell, he absolutely insists on recording everything live. These are excellent recordings, mind you. They might be concert versions? I don't know if the recording set-up for live recordings would make multichannel releases more difficult, but his recent Gluck, now on SA-CD, is multichannel.
The SFS Mahler recordings are all done live, so I don't think this is a difficulty.
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Post by seth September 9, 2004 (4 of 16)
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tream said:
My all time favorite Messiah is probably Gardiner's and I have a fantasy about some SACD-centric label signing him (Universal ended their contract with him) and letting him have a go at some of the Handel oratorios and operas, including a remake of Messiah. (I also own Davis I, Christie and McGegan as well.)
Don't hold your breath on any label signing Gardiner. I don't think there is any record company that would be willing to fund is adventurous recording projects.
Right now it looks like he's focusing on his own record label which has already released a CD and plans to release 2 double disc sets of recordings from the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in January. See: http://www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk
Probably the next new recording we'll see from Gardiner is Brahms: Orchestral Music. He's been trying to get the financing together for a years to take the ORR on tour doing to Symphonies and Concertos, as well as making recordings of all the works.
(Well, the next recording will see from him will actually be Weber's "Oberon" from Philips this winter/spring. It's been in the can since March 2002, but there have been "technical" issues that have pushed back the release date several times.)
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Post by tream September 9, 2004 (5 of 16)
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seth said:
Don't hold your breath on any label signing Gardiner. I don't think there is any record company that would be willing to fund is adventurous recording projects.
Right now it looks like he's focusing on his own record label which has already released a CD and plans to release 2 double disc sets of recordings from the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in January. See: http://www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk
Probably the next new recording we'll see from Gardiner is Brahms: Orchestral Music. He's been trying to get the financing together for a years to take the ORR on tour doing to Symphonies and Concertos, as well as making recordings of all the works.
(Well, the next recording will see from him will actually be Weber's "Oberon" from Philips this winter/spring. It's been in the can since March 2002, but there have been "technical" issues that have pushed back the release date several times.)
Wow, I didn't know about this. Thanks for the info-now if they would issue SACD's instead of CD's we'd have another label in the camp.
I've sent them an email urging this.
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Post by seth September 9, 2004 (6 of 16)
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tream said:
Wow, I didn't know about this. Thanks for the info-now if they would issue SACD's instead of CD's we'd have another label in the camp.
I've sent them an email urging this.
With the Cantatas, they're just looking to break even. Gardiner paid out of his own pocket to make these recordings. SACD would increase production costs too much.
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Post by tream September 10, 2004 (7 of 16)
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seth said:
With the Cantatas, they're just looking to break even. Gardiner paid out of his own pocket to make these recordings. SACD would increase production costs too much.
I did receive this positive sounding response (immediately too, always a good sign):
Dear Mr. Ream,
Thank you for your email and your interest on our forthcoming recordings. Indeed our engineers are very involved with SACD. It was not always possible to record the Bach concerts in SACD –mainly due to the nature of the project – but whenever there were available channels, this has been done, and it is very much on our minds for future recordings to be able to record with the most advanced technology.
With best wishes
Isabella de Sabata
Not certain exactly what it means in terms of hard release dates, but something to keep an eye on.
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Post by zeus September 10, 2004 (8 of 16)
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tream said:
I did receive this positive sounding response ...
I have the set Gardiner did with DG and would buy any such SA-CDs in a flash.
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Post by seth September 10, 2004 (9 of 16)
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tream,
It sounds like the person who responded to your question doesn't understand the difference between multi-channel and SACD.
Anyway, it's unclear what their next recording will be. This fall and winter they're just performing music by Bach and Purcell which they've already recorded before. I've emailed asking them what their plans are for 2005.
zeus,
If you want to see SACD/Gardiner releases, best thing to do is support his label even if the releases so far are only redbooks.
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As you may not know, Polyhymnia recorded all the Pilgrimage Bach cantata recordings (except 1) and they are done in 2000 in PCM. We also recorded the Philips issues of Gardiners releases and the Schumann symphonies on DG. Many of these recordings are done multi-track pcm, and many are also miked for Surround 5.0. Re-mixes would be involved, so for reissues extra costs are involved for the labels. I recorded the Handel Dixit dominus and made a few trial mixes in Surround and that sounds stunning. Also the Christmas album, I tried some in Surround and we played those at some AES surround events and impressed everybody. The recent Haydn masses I have also done like that and for instance the Verdi Requiem recorded in 1992 is Surround mix ready. As well as the more recent Falstaff recording. We have been informing and urging the labels to let us re-mix these (and other) recordings that are sounding fantastic in Surround, but sofar the market issues seem to delay people there taking this further. I suppose any and a lot of requests for such recording being reissued in Surround could help the labels to take action. We are already very happy to be involved in the re-mastering of the old analogue quad tapes from Philips from the 70's and being able to re-mix those other cherised recordings would be fantastique.
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