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John Miller |
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Retired geologist (BSc, PhD) and former Senior Lecturer and Director of Open Studies, Edinburgh University. Published a number of geological research papers, but Classical music has been a life-long love. I played piano and church organ as a youth, bought my first "hifi" at the age of 15 and have been upgrading ever since. I taught music courses in the Edinburgh Adult Education programme for many years, especially social history of music, illustrated studies of composers including Bach, Beethoven, Elgar, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Mahler. Several courses attempted to introduce people to post-Impressionism musical developments, and I also ran courses on Scottish classical music history. I was particularly interested in the period instrument movement and did extensive research on this. Gave pre-concert talks for the then Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh and Festival Lectures on featured composers at the Edinburgh Festival for over 10 years. Despite the classical bias, I have wide tastes in music. Also, I enjoy painting in watercolour, pastel, acrylic and oils. |
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Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Having had to take early retirement, I sold my 2800+ CD teaching collection in 2005 to take up high-definition multichannel and begin an SACD and DVD-A collection (much smaller!). Have upgraded several components since then, and present system is approaching personal nirvana... or so I think at the moment!
Denon DBP-4010 UD Universal Player (DSD over Denon Link, almost jitter free), Denon 4308b multichannel receiver; Oppo BDP-83 Universal Player.
Magnaplanar MG5/QR front speakers, Magnaplanar CC3 centre, Magnaplanar wall-mounted LM1 surround speakers, Quad Lite subwoofer. I consistently use the Marigold Signature Mat v2 when playing discs, it helps the transport recover more information and makes an astonishing improvement in definition, ambient information, instrument location and sheer musicality. Power cables - Russ Andrews PowerMax Plus, Interconnects - Chord Active Silver HDMI cables, QED optical cable. Power Conditioning - Monster and Russ Andrews 'The Silencer'. QED speaker cables. |
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108 |
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August 31, 2010
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The Fuga label boasts a fine catalogue of organ music, drawing on the rich array of organs in Finland and its native musical musical talent. The present disc takes us to the granite-walled Kallio Church in a district of Helsinki, which is blessed with two organs, a large Åkerman & Lund in the French ... more |
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July 24, 2010
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William Walton was born on 29th March 1902, in Oldham, an industrial mill town in Lancashire, north-west England. As a fellow Lancastrian, I'm delighted to see this disc's cover photograph is of Blackpool Pier - a seaside resort on the Lancashire coast to which the mill-workers and owners alike ... more |
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July 23, 2010
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BeArTon have been charged with recording the new Polish National Edition of Chopin's works. The compilation of a new critical edition has itself been a long-term and complex operation; Chopin entrusted his publications to many publishers in France, Germany and England, and since then many other ... more |
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July 21, 2010
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Reading Berlioz's entertaining and often hilarious 'Memoires', one encounters an ardent man, highly strung and sensitive; prone to sudden passions and overwrought reactions to religion, literature, music, landscapes and women - not necessarily in that order. Berlioz was thoroughly soaked in the ... more |
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July 10, 2010
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This 2-SACD set collects together re-masterings of the highly acclaimed Clare College Choir RBCD albums 'Illumina' (runner-up, Gramophone Awards 2000) and 'Blessed Spirit'. Directed by Timothy Brown and produced by the indefatigable John Rutter, the discs were recorded in the peerless acoustic of ... more |
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July 25, 2010
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| Dear, Dear, "Vaan",
I normally wouldn't reply to such bile, but I want people to know that as soon as this disc was posted I was interested in listening to it and making a review when it was finally released in the UK. I spent the several weeks of waiting in obtaining and listening to all the versions I could get my hands on that were not already ... more |
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July 21, 2010
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| Hi,
Forgive me for not including Paray, I know you are a big fan! I wasn't really intending to do a Universal comparison, just to point readers in general directions. I had a vinyl of the Paray as a youth and remember being impressed with it, but I don't have the SACD incarnation - and I probably should! I thought my memory would need refreshing ... more |
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July 4, 2010
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| I enjoy it too, although there is room for a better one. In the waltz, Järvi unusually uses the version with the cornet part which Berlioz added later - this is brilliantly played and adds sparkle to the lilting waltz, although some folk avoid this as too fussy.
John ... more |
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June 1, 2010
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| Hi,
Having listened with great pleasure to ten versions of the Manfred Symphony in preparing for my review, I have to report that all of them had merits and welcome insights of one kind or another. It is also clear that judging musical performances by track timing or comparing the apparent speed of one movement from an MP3 clip on a website to a ... more |
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May 23, 2010
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| Thanks for drawing this to my attention. You are right, it was recorded by Tritonus. I had checked the recording details on the tracklist page, and finding no other information in the booklet assumed by default it was recorded by PolyHymnia. I missed the additional line of the same material on the back cover. Have removed my comment with ... more |
