A worthy companion to Naxos??

[Tony John Hearne]

Check out Hyperion records (not sure of the exact web address but if you put "Hyperion" into Google you will find it)
This is a magnificent label and a wonderful 'on line' facility to hear whole excerpts. I think that the advantage it has over Naxos is that really esoteric (well for me anyway) works are offered in true abundance - literally hundreds of pieces. Right now I am listening to Max Reger "Fugue from 'Variations and Fugue on a theme of Telemann" played by Marc-Andre Hamelin, which is as stunnng a piece of virtuosity you will find anywhere. I would be interested to hear what collegue listeners think of this wonderful web site.

[Pastorali]

Originally posted by Tony John Hearne:
Check out Hyperion records (not sure of the exact web address but if you put "Hyperion" into Google you will find it)
This is a magnificent label and a wonderful 'on line' facility to hear whole excerpts. I think that the advantage it has over Naxos is that really esoteric (well for me anyway) works are offered in true abundance - literally hundreds of pieces. Right now I am listening to Max Reger "Fugue from 'Variations and Fugue on a theme of Telemann" played by Marc-Andre Hamelin, which is as stunnng a piece of virtuosity you will find anywhere. I would be interested to hear what collegue listeners think of this wonderful web site.

I think this is the link: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/index.html

Thanks, this is a great Site! I must need more time to really check it out. I bought in summer the complete String Quartets played by the "New Budapest Quartet" and I'm fully satisfied with them.

[Gurn Blanston]

Tony,
I have several Hyperion releases, they are all quite satisfactory. Of course, in the States at least, they won't put much of a dent in Naxos since they are much higher priced. If I can get the same music on Naxos at less than half the price, I will, but I don't mind paying the long dollar for the kind of quality Hyperion puts out, especially if that is the only one available, which is so often the case.


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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Chaszz]

This is a great site. Thank you for drawing attention to it!

[Rod]

I no longer believe Naxos to be a particularly 'good buy' budget label. There are many better alternatives these days at much better value price-wise, at least here in England.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Rod:
I no longer believe Naxos to be a particularly 'good buy' budget label. There are many better alternatives these days at much better value price-wise, at least here in England.

Rod, I would love to be able to say that the same is true here in the States, but it is not. The only "new" label that even approaches Naxos is Brilliant Classics, and they are extremely difficult to get ones hands on. My own vendor, Arkiv Music, who stock everything else, only special orders Brilliant, so it is a hit or miss proposition as to whether one can even get an order filled, and a 2-3 week wait to find out. What label(s) do you have that provide this competition? Perhaps I have overlooked them. Oh, another thing about Naxos, they are often publishing things that reek of obscurity, and most labels wouldn't take such a chance. I think this needs to be factored in to any evaluation of their worth.



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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Rod]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Rod, I would love to be able to say that the same is true here in the States, but it is not. The only "new" label that even approaches Naxos is Brilliant Classics, and they are extremely difficult to get ones hands on. My own vendor, Arkiv Music, who stock everything else, only special orders Brilliant, so it is a hit or miss proposition as to whether one can even get an order filled, and a 2-3 week wait to find out. What label(s) do you have that provide this competition? Perhaps I have overlooked them. Oh, another thing about Naxos, they are often publishing things that reek of obscurity, and most labels wouldn't take such a chance. I think this needs to be factored in to any evaluation of their worth.

There are so many good valure re-releases here that make Naxos look expensive! Norringtons complete Beethoven symphonies re-released on Virgin Veritas you can buy for about £15. His complete fp concertos (plus a disk of variations and bagatelles) with Melvyn Tan for the same or less! There is the Apex label with is priced equal to Naxos but the recordings are light years ahead in superiority from what I have heard as they to use a lot of excellent re-release material of stuff that was once full price.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Rod:
There are so many good valure re-releases here that make Naxos look expensive! Norringtons complete Beethoven symphonies re-released on Virgin Veritas you can buy for about £15. His complete fp concertos (plus a disk of variations and bagatelles) with Melvyn Tan for the same or less! There is the Apex label with is priced equal to Naxos but the recordings are light years ahead in superiority from what I have heard as they to use a lot of excellent re-release material of stuff that was once full price.

Rod,
Crikey, you folks have it made! That Norrington set costs twice that over here, and as far as I can discern, the others are not even available!
Yesterday I purchased, but have not yet received, the Concerto cycle along with the WoO 6 Rondo and the Choral Fantasia, Robert Levin - Fortepiano and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique / Gardiner. I am fairly sure that you have heard this set, any opinion? I hope to be delighted, I have the Schumann Concerto set by Gardiner et al, and it is excellent. And I have heard a little Levin, I think he is a primary exponent of fortepianos, I only hope the set lives up to my expectations.


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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Rod]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Rod,
Crikey, you folks have it made! That Norrington set costs twice that over here, and as far as I can discern, the others are not even available!
Yesterday I purchased, but have not yet received, the Concerto cycle along with the WoO 6 Rondo and the Choral Fantasia, Robert Levin - Fortepiano and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique / Gardiner. I am fairly sure that you have heard this set, any opinion? I hope to be delighted, I have the Schumann Concerto set by Gardiner et al, and it is excellent. And I have heard a little Levin, I think he is a primary exponent of fortepianos, I only hope the set lives up to my expectations.

I have heard only concertos 1 and 2 from this set but the tempi were not up to my expectations so I have purchased none of the disks. But there is no set of the concertos on period instruments that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Gardiner is not the Beethoven supremo he once promised to be. I have a recording by Levin of B's Horn sonata and Op16 which is very good but severely marred by his taste for adding copious amounts of additional ornamentation not present in the score.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Rod:
I have heard only concertos 1 and 2 from this set but the tempi were not up to my expectations so I have purchased none of the disks. But there is no set of the concertos on period instruments that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Gardiner is not the Beethoven supremo he once promised to be. I have a recording by Levin of B's Horn sonata and Op16 which is very good but severely marred by his taste for adding copious amounts of additional ornamentation not present in the score.

Rod,
Thanks for the input. I have heard nothing by Levin that I can recall, but as I said before, my one experience with Gardiner has been very positive. I hope to reeive the set by tomorrow, so I will soon know if it was money well spent. I also read a couple of reviews on Amazon that were very positive, the only thing one said was that in the 5th it was difficult to hear the fortepiano well, it simply could not compete soundwise with the orchestra. It occurs that B's habitual pounding of the piano keys (witness his constantly broken strings) may have been as much to overcome this limitation of the instrument as it was a reaction to the onset of his deafness (since the habit reportedly preceeded the deafness). In any case, I shall post some feedback soon, I hope it will be positive. You have encouraged me to break new ground for myself here, it would be great to have my first experience be a positive one!



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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Rod]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Rod,
.... the only thing one said was that in the 5th it was difficult to hear the fortepiano well, it simply could not compete soundwise with the orchestra. It occurs that B's habitual pounding of the piano keys (witness his constantly broken strings) may have been as much to overcome this limitation of the instrument as it was a reaction to the onset of his deafness (since the habit reportedly preceeded the deafness). In any case, I shall post some feedback soon, I hope it will be positive. You have encouraged me to break new ground for myself here, it would be great to have my first experience be a positive one!

It could be nothing more than the fault of the sound mixing engineer, considering I presume that with the other concertos the piano sound was acceptably ballanced. If not then the orchestra was probabably too large in this particular concerto, but I would like to know what instrument Levin is playing for No5. I would not necessarily see the relative weakness in volume of the fortepiano as a factor forcing Beethoven to 'pound the keys' against his better judgement, on the contrary it is this very nature of the instrument that promotes such behaviour and can bee seen as a positive factor with Beethoven's music as he was taking advantage of it. On the modern piano it can sound over the top on some occasions as the piano is too loud and lacks transparency at this volume.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin


[This message has been edited by Rod (edited December 31, 2003).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Rod,
Well, as the CD's did not arrive today, and there will be no post until Monday, I shall have to wait to see. I will let you know the details of the fortepiano, and also whether or not I agree with that reviewer's opinion. I usually don't, but hey, that's just me. Thanks for your interest,
Happy New Year,


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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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