_Composers – Hindemith

Orff / Carmina Burana on Telarc – A Very Old Review

More of the music of Carl Orff

This IMMACULATE Telarc Double LP with Virtually No Sign Of Play is one of the greatest audiophile records of all time and Telarc’s greatest recording! No recording gets more realism with this work … depth, dynamics, colors & performance!

Why don’t more of their recordings sound like this? Telarc is not a label I would normally associate with good sound but you have to give them credit here: they knocked this one out the park. They have made good records in the past — this one is proof enough, and some of the Fennel titles are quite good — but most of their catalog leaves much to be desired and is hard to recommend. (more…)

Ruggiero Ricci / Solo Recital – Reviewed in 2011

More Performances by Ruggiero Ricci

Reviews and Commentaries for the Performances of Ruggiero Ricci

EXCELLENT SOUND and quiet vinyl on both sides of this London LP featuring the great Ruggiero Ricci performing solo violin pieces!

Side two in particular has a sweet, clear top end that really shows you the detail in the violin.

Side one is transparent and tonally correct but a bit dark, without all the clarity and sweetness of side two.

Violin sonatas by Stravinsky, Bartok, Prokofiev and Hindemith.

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Hindemith / Symphony in B Flat / Fennell

Hot Stamper Mercury Pressings Available Now

More Recordings Conducted by Frederick Fennel

This Mercury RFR pressing contains Hindemith’s Symphony In B Flat, Schoenberg’s Theme And Variations Opus 43a and Stravinsky’s Symphonies Of Wind Instruments.

All three pieces sound quite good here, and we’ve rated both sides between A+ and A++ overall. The sound is very dynamic and spacious throughout in the best Mercury tradition.

Mercury was also known for its top quality performances of landmark 20th century works such as these, and here, as expected, Fennell and his venerable Eastman Wind Ensemble do not disappoint.   (more…)

Bruch / Scottish Fantasia / Oistrakh

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

CS 6337. This Minty looking London Whiteback LP has THE MOST AMAZING SCOTTISH FANTASIA I have ever heard! Folks, it doesn’t get any better than this. I would say this is one of the five best sounding violin recordings I have ever heard. Interestingly, the violin sound that we typically put up with is found on side two of this very album. It’s easy to forget that there are actually records that sound like side one, and that side two really isn’t the way an orchestra is supposed to sound.

The Hindemith side is weak on this pressing. The Bruch found here is musically every bit as good as the famous Heifetz recording (LSC 2603) and so is the sound. (The sound is actually better I would guess, but without a Hot Copy of 2603 — very hard to find, by the way — I can’t really make that claim honestly.)

Violin concerto fans will love this one, especially those who appreciate the real thing and not the typically shrill and aggressive sound of most of the modern 200 gram reissues by you know who.

Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, this record also features Hindemith’s Violin Concerto (1939).

This is an Older Classical/Orchestral Review

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