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amazing audio upgrade for ~$46!

Interzone,

It's hard to tell them apart in a quick A/B, but Oistrakh is a little more funky than the Aphex bloke.

It'll become apparent on the second or third listen.

Joe
 
Joe Petrik said:
Basil,

I slightly prefer the Beethoven violin concerto on disc 4 to one of disc 3, but it's odd that the EMI included two recordings of the same concerto in the box set.

Joe
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Well it is the 'complete' EMI recordings?

There are two Brahms violin concerti as well as a couple of Beethoven Triples, including the one with Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Herbert von Karajan & the Berlin Philharmonic.

I don't have to box handy, is that the one with Cluytens and the Orchestre National de la Radioffusion Francaise, or the other one with Sixten Ehrling and the Stockholm Festival Orchestra?

I'm enjoying the set immensely, so much better than wasting money on 'foo foo' cables, yes?
 
Basil,

I don't have to box handy, is that the one with Cluytens and the Orchestre National de la Radioffusion Francaise, or the other one with Sixten Ehrling and the Stockholm Festival Orchestra?
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Sorry, I don't have the Oistrakh box set here with me right now either. I do like both versions of the Beethoven concerto. I just have a slight preference for Oistrakh's interpretation on disc 4.



I'm enjoying the set immensely, so much better than wasting money on 'foo foo' cables, yes?
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If people would rather spend money on cables, that's fine by me, but good luck finding an audiophile cable for $46 Cdn / £25, the cost of the Oistrakh box set. Seems the cheapest interconnects cost at least twice that — a 100 clams / 50 squid being the price of entry to the fancy cable club. (Chainmail and elephantine conductors cost significantly more.)

So, cheap audiophile interconnect or 28 Rostropovich discs (what a hundred bucks will buy)? Hmmm, tough choice, especially given how I utterly failed Rob's blind cable test.

Joe
 
Joe Petrik said:
Basil,


Sorry, I don't have the Oistrakh box set here with me right now either. I do like both versions of the Beethoven concerto. I just have a slight preference for Oistrakh's interpretation on disc 4.

Joe
Click to expand...

Both are fine, but I'd love to know whos cadenzas he used in the Sixten Ehrling version, I'll do some digging when I'm more awake tomorrow. He uses the Kreisler ones in the Cluytens, which I think is on disc 4.

Very diplomatic, by the way :)
 
Joe Petrik said:
If people would rather spend money on cables, that's fine by me, but good luck finding an audiophile cable for $46 Cdn / £25, the cost of the Oistrakh box set. Seems the cheapest interconnects cost at least twice that — a 100 clams / 50 squid being the price of entry to the fancy cable club. (Chainmail and elephantine conductors cost significantly more.)

So, cheap audiophile interconnect or 28 Rostropovich discs (what a hundred bucks will buy)? Hmmm, tough choice, especially given how I utterly failed Rob's blind cable test.
Click to expand...
The point is that when you have over 1000 CDs, boxes like Rostropovich, Oistrakh and so on will soon get forgotten and after a month you will hardly hear one-two CDs per year because you have so many other great stuff.
The "sound quality" of a good cable you'll appreciate every time you listen to music, hopefully for years, this of course if you can hear a difference. If not then better throw away your money in Cds which you hear the first days and then get forgotten in some shelf.

I came to a point that when the system sounds better (independently if through foo or not) you automatically hear all the thousand of old CDs again and appreciate them much more than before. This I noticed with all my guests which came back with CDs they didn't like to hear.

Meanwhile I received the "Living Stereo" box as well as Oistrakh. The Cziffra one I heard up to the half: that one is simply fabulous not only for Liszt.
 
spartaco,

The "sound quality" of a good cable you'll appreciate every time you listen to music, hopefully for years, this of course if you can hear a difference.
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Sure, with a better system you'll hear more of what's on your discs, black or silvery. But the path to better hi-fi hasn't been better wire in my experience.



*******


Basil,

Got a recommendation for Beethoven's Moonlight sonata?

Joe
 
Joe Petrik said:
Basil,

Got a recommendation for Beethoven's Moonlight sonata?

Joe
Click to expand...

I have, Mitsuko Uchida, but I don't think she's recorded it yet so not a great help!


Wilhelm Kempff?

Vladimir Ashkenazy?

Alfred Brendel?

I have another recommendation: Julius Katchen - complete Beethoven Piano concerti.

http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Concertos-Fantasy-Diabelli-Variations/dp/B000OPPSWG/ref=sr_1_11?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1288537959&sr=1-11

If you can order from Amazon.com, I can't find it at Amazon.ca?
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Joe Petrik said:
Cheers, chaps.

I have an Alfred Brendel version of the moonlight sonata, but it's apparently a bit meh.

http://www.amazon.ca/Favorite-Pno-S...417L/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1288538702&sr=8-5

Joe
Click to expand...

The only way is to listen to the clips, where available, and go with the one, or ones, you like best.

Nothing to do with music or hi-fi...

Have you ever tried one of these? It was mentioned on QI.

Yukon - A Story Tough to Swallow
It’s -30C in the “Great White North”, but travel writers rarely judge a day by the weather. Robin hangs out with huskies and learns about dogsledding from a Yukon legend, and Julia heads out to a frozen lake to hook a story about ice-fishing. After braving the cold, both taste the gnarly truth about the legendary Sour Toe Cocktail – a drink served with a severed human toe!
Click to expand...
 
Basil,

Nope, I've not tried the severed toe drink.

I'm a vegetarian, not a humanitarian.

Joe
 
Joe,

My own favourite is the Schnabel.
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Cheers.

i have three recordings of the Moonlight sonata; Kempff, Schnabel and Barenboim. If you look them up on Amazon, each has comments ranging from 'teh best evah!' to 'this sucks eggs' (I'm paraphrasing here).
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That's why I'm asking here. One Joe H, Basil or spartaco recommendation is worth a lot more to me than some weirdo on Amazon.

Joe
 
Richard Goode is good. Bit better than Uchida I think. Though I saw her with Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, which was well worth $46.
 
Schnabel is considered one of the great for Beethoven and Schubert.
I like very much his interpretations, the quality of the recordings (mono) much less.
I believe over here people are also a bit concerned about a decent recording quality.

And again, I recommend for lovers of piano music the Cziffra box. Maybe you haven't heard about him or know him for his great interpretations for Liszt but in fact also his interpretations for other composers are sublime and worth the time to be heard. Also in this boxes there are some CDs in mono and others which do not sound so great even if remastered but his interpretations are for a piano music lover "a must".
 
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