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Polarius T said:
Same here. [...]
PT
Thanks for the report Polarius T! I'm glad to read you like them quite a bit. If they aren't part of the April announcement, then I'll have to order a few from Japan. Just finished listening to the 1958 Sofia recital. I usually listen to Richter and then Horowitz's Pictures at an Exhibition back to back. They never get old, and I never wonder what they look like on a cartesian plane.
hiredfox, it's good to see you have one on the way! Thanks for the response!
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Post by pgmdir March 2, 2012 (32 of 549)
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I just double checked to see that my memory was working--- Universal bought the recorded music part of EMI. It seems odd that one of the earliest to abandon SACD should fire up SACD releases Even if that sale is not final, I think we can be sure the EMI (Citibank) would not be doing something which Universal frowned on....
It will be interesting.
EMI's websites are a disaster.
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civilwartamarin said:
I'm glad to read you like them quite a bit.
That's putting it mildly.... Of the five Richter discs out thus far, this one is the most thrilling, both sonically and performance-wise (he tended to almost always be at his most stupendous best in concert settings, and was a fierce hater of all studio work -- indeed of anything with microphones involved, which goes some way towards explaining the relatively poor sound quality of most of his live recordings [the mics regularly had to be hidden from his sight]): Richter In Italy.
But don't miss out on the Beethoven/Schumann recording, either, even though there are better alternatives (in poorer sound to be sure) by him elsewhere: Beethoven, Schumann - Sviatoslav Richter.
It's really special to hear Richter in such excellent sonics, in both of these cases.
As said, I have some reservations regarding the concert recordings listed, for a number of reasons. The most interesting them is the Dvorak one, with Kleiber, although the SQ of the tapes wasn't too great to begin with and the session date, in the opinion of Richter himself, was little short of a fiasco, despite the instant rapport and admiration he always felt for the conductor. The most irritating one is the LvB Triple Concerto and the most nondescript is the Grieg/Schumann set (he has done the Schumann concerto so much better elsewhere, so you should really only buy this if you must have the Grieg one).
Happy listening,
PT
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Post by nickc March 2, 2012 (34 of 549)
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Hi PT
I'm thinking of getting these, but listening to the samples on CDJapan there seems like a fair bit of hiss and distortion.
I've got dozens of Richter CDs, can you tell me do these two SACDs sound like that in the flesh?
Cheers
Nick
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Post by jdaniel March 2, 2012 (35 of 549)
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Richter's Pictures is over-rated. Don't fall for the hype.
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Amazon UK now have listings for what are clearly the first batch of these. They are all shown as "limited", contain varying numbers of discs, and are priced by Amazon at around GBP10 a disc. Release date is stated to be 17th April 2012. They are :
Mozart Symphonies / Klemperer
Debussy Complete / Gieseking
Elgar & Delius / du Pre
Neapolitan Songs / di Stefano
Piano Concertos / Richter
Beethoven Triple & Brahms / Karajan
Lieder / Fischer-Dieskau
Mendelssohn 3 & 4 / Klemperer
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies / Cziffra
Bruckner 8 & 9 / Schuricht
This is all the info on Amazon UK so don't ask me for any more!
Some odd choices, but I guess we'd better all get buying so they do some more!
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Post by jacek2 March 3, 2012 (37 of 549)
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manticore4 said:
This is obviously a 2-SACD set.
It must be 3 SACD's - if you search Cziffra on this site the Rhapsodies is a 2-SACD set on its own and there is another Liszt Cziffra SACD also. The price confirms this - there are a number of obviously 2-SACD sets - Richter, du Pre, Mendelssohn/Klemperer - priced at just over £20, and the 4 Gieseking SACD's are just over £40.
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nickc said:
Hi PT
I'm thinking of getting these, but listening to the samples on CDJapan there seems like a fair bit of hiss and distortion.
I've got dozens of Richter CDs, can you tell me do these two SACDs sound like that in the flesh?
Cheers
Nick
Hi Nick,
Tape hiss: yes (these are analog recordings from 50 years ago, after all); distortion: not that I've ever noticed.
They are both pretty good-quality recordings, almost standouts for the vintage ('61, '62). And you won't even notice the hiss from Richter's amazing ability to nuance his playing and from his otherwordly strength and power. It's a joy to be able to appreciate his special tone quality through these recordings, get carried away by his ability to lay out the works so clearly before you and convey their gestalt, and really feel the thunderous force of his fortissimos in your abdomen and your bones.
The live tapings from his Italy tour have quite a lot of extraneous noises, though, both from the stage, the audience, and beyond (like the distant church bells at the beginning of Papillons). But the playing could hardly be bettered; these are near-spiritual experiences.
Overall they are some of the better-recorded peak-period Richter available out there. I rushed for them as soon as I saw them (I, too, am a bit of a Richter collector, as my website URL might indicate).
Cheers,
PT
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