Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

As things are quiet, I was musing on what my Desert Island Disks would
be, and also, what are my best recordings that I use for equipment
evaluation.

For those not familiar with Desert Island Disks, this is a very
long-running series on BBC radio, which supposes you're shipwrecked on a
desert island with no hope of rescue, and you have to choose those 8
recordings (and only 8)to take with you.

Here are mine in no particular order, what are yours:-

1. Julie London - At home / Around Midnight. Cheating slightly, as this
is a single CD with two albums on it.

2. Cream - Reunion at the Royal Albert Hall, May 2005. As good as ever.
Jack Bruce's voice is as powerful as ever was, Clapton has slowed down
only very slightly. Ginger Baker also on-form.

3. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue. What can I say....

4. Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Hogwood/Pay. A better recording but not
quite so musically satisfying is the Musical Fidelity give-away CD of
Robert Bailey conducting Antony Michaelson soloist.

5. Beethoven, Symphony No 9. London Classical Players/Norrington. This
recording encapsulates for me everything Beethoven did before. As I
can't take more than the 8 records, this one will have to do.

6*. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending. Musically I prefer the old
Boult/Bean recording, but it is hissy and has horrible modulation noise
on it. For a good modern version, the BBCSO Davis/Little recording is
excellent, and Tasmin Little does a pretty good job of the solo.

7. Elgar, Cello Concerto Barbirolli/Du Pre. I have other versions of the
Cello concerto, but none comes close.

8. Eric Clapton - Just One Night. Recorded live in Japan. Clapton at his
best, and an excellent recording.

* If I could take only one record, this would be it.


Best Recordings, again in no particular order.

1. Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman. Solo voice with sparse
accompaniment. Probably the best recording I have. Difficult to
categorise this, vaguely pop, vaguely jazz, just nice songs.

2. Jazz at the Pawnshop. Vol 1 (and 2 and 3) Live Jazz recorded in a
club in Stockholm, simply miked and mixed to stereo on site. Recorded on
a Nagra stereo recorder. Volume 1 is probably the best vinyl I've ever
heard. Vols 2 and 3 were released later, possibly not the best
musically, (certainly by Vol 3) but all three wonderfully recorded.

3. Valerie Joyce - New York Blue. A naturally recorded Chesky CD, with a
most sultry-voiced Japanese-American Jazz singer. The voice and the
picture of the singer just don't match, but listen to what she does with
Jimmy Hendrix's Little Wing.

4. Jim Tomlinson - The Lyric. British jazz saxophonist Tomlinson with a
selection of his own tunes and standards sung by Stacey Kent.

5. Willie DeVille - Assassin of Love from the album "Miracle" Marc
Knopfler's guitar and deVille's voice. Good test of stereo, bass and
mid-range coloration.

6. Goldfrapp - Black Cherry but any of their albums will do.
Synthesiser pop, but with some really hefty bass. Tracks to set up
subwoofers to. Also very clean vocals.

7. Tierney Sutton - Dancing in the Dark. Jazz standards cleanly
recorded. Very natural sounding.

8. Hildegard of Bingen - A Feather on the Breath of God. Sublime music
(almost made my DID list above)recorded superbly. Some acapella, some
with medieval accompaniment, all wonderful.

All the above are on CD in my case, as I want the cleanest source for
system evaluation. For vinyl, I use a variety of test records from the
'70s, Willie DeVille's "Miracle" and several Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson
and Julie London LPs.

Lets see your lists.

S.

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

On 2007-02-21, Serge Auckland wrote:
As things are quiet, I was musing on what my Desert Island Disks would
be, and also, what are my best recordings that I use for equipment
evaluation.

For those not familiar with Desert Island Disks, this is a very
long-running series on BBC radio, which supposes you're shipwrecked on a
desert island with no hope of rescue, and you have to choose those 8
recordings (and only 8)to take with you.

Here are mine in no particular order, what are yours:-
...
7. Elgar, Cello Concerto Barbirolli/Du Pre. I have other versions of the
Cello concerto, but none comes close.

Whilst I think about my list, let me just say that the companion piece on
this CD, Janet Baker's performance of Elgar's Sea Pictures, lies unjustly
in the shadow of the du Pre performance. For me Baker's performance is
musically even better than Du Pre's.

Any system on which I could enjoy that disk is probably "good enough."

--
John Phillips

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

On 2007-02-21, Serge Auckland wrote:
As things are quiet, I was musing on what my Desert Island Disks would
be, and also, what are my best recordings that I use for equipment
evaluation.
....
Here are mine in no particular order, what are yours:-
...

Desert Island disks (in alphabetical order):

1. Bach, Goldberg Variations - Pierre Hantai 2003 (Mirare) but I might
still hanker after Gould's 1981 performance (or Hewitt's, or Perahia's,
or Hantai's 1992 which is superbly recorded and could go into the next
list, or ...).

2. Bach, Mass in B-minor - John Eliot Gardiner (cond.) 1985, D-G Archiv.

3. Bach, Toccatas - Angela Hewitt, Hyperion 2002. A gem.

4. Beethoven, Symphonies 5 and 7 - Carlos Kleiber 1974-1976, D-G.
The energy and the drive ...

5. Britten, Midsummer Night's Dream - Britten (cond.) 1966, Alfred
Deller et al. Great performance from Deller as countertenor Oberon.
Wonderful Decca soundstaging (artificially wide actually but so good
nevertheless).

6. Chopin, Nocturnes - Maria João Pires, DG 1996.

7. Mozart, Magic Flute - Georg Solti (cond.), Decca 1990. Great
performance (inc. Sumi Jo as the Queen of the Night) and great dynamic
range at times (e.g. on Papageno's first entrance which is actually
sufficiently quiet that I strain to hear it at a volume where the rest
is comfortably quiet).

8. Richard Strauss, der Rosenkavalier - Herbert von Karajan (cond.),
Schwarzkopf et. al. ~1958. If ever there is a perfect opera recording
this is it. Right down to the sublime conclusion.

Oops, that's 8 already. Do I really have to stop? I haven't even got
to Messiaen's piano works (Aimard's Vingt Regards) and the Ligeti Etudes
(also Aimard) ...

Exemplary recordigs for equipment selection:

1. Led Zeppelin, How the West was Won.

2. Ligeti's collected works on Warner Classics' Ligeti Project
series (particularly Atmospheres, but many other compositions too, all
superbly recorded).

3. Messiaen's complete organ works - Jennifer Bate on Regis.

4. Thelonious Monk, Live at the IT club (early 1960s) - absolutely
natural.

5. Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung - Karl Boehm (cond.) et.al, Bayreuth
live 1967 (with stage noises, prompter, and some audience). Despised as
too light and too fast by some but such sustained energy and musicality.
And such a "genuinely live" recording.

This CD set is what sold me on my current 'speakers. (Specifically
Siegfried Act 1.) The recording sounds just so genuinely live to me
(it's also another desert island disk too, sneaked in).

6. Wagner, Tannhauser - Barenboim (cond,) on Teldec. Truly superb
recording.

7. Weber, der Freischutz - Carlos Kleiber (cond.) 1973. The most
wonderful soundstaging.

--
John Phillips

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

John Phillips wrote:
On 2007-02-21, Serge Auckland wrote:
As things are quiet, I was musing on what my Desert Island Disks would
be, and also, what are my best recordings that I use for equipment
evaluation.
...
Here are mine in no particular order, what are yours:-
...

Desert Island disks (in alphabetical order):

1. Bach, Goldberg Variations - Pierre Hantai 2003 (Mirare) but I might
still hanker after Gould's 1981 performance (or Hewitt's, or Perahia's,
or Hantai's 1992 which is superbly recorded and could go into the next
list, or ...).

2. Bach, Mass in B-minor - John Eliot Gardiner (cond.) 1985, D-G Archiv.

3. Bach, Toccatas - Angela Hewitt, Hyperion 2002. A gem.

4. Beethoven, Symphonies 5 and 7 - Carlos Kleiber 1974-1976, D-G.
The energy and the drive ...

5. Britten, Midsummer Night's Dream - Britten (cond.) 1966, Alfred
Deller et al. Great performance from Deller as countertenor Oberon.
Wonderful Decca soundstaging (artificially wide actually but so good
nevertheless).

6. Chopin, Nocturnes - Maria João Pires, DG 1996.

7. Mozart, Magic Flute - Georg Solti (cond.), Decca 1990. Great
performance (inc. Sumi Jo as the Queen of the Night) and great dynamic
range at times (e.g. on Papageno's first entrance which is actually
sufficiently quiet that I strain to hear it at a volume where the rest
is comfortably quiet).

8. Richard Strauss, der Rosenkavalier - Herbert von Karajan (cond.),
Schwarzkopf et. al. ~1958. If ever there is a perfect opera recording
this is it. Right down to the sublime conclusion.

Oops, that's 8 already. Do I really have to stop? I haven't even got
to Messiaen's piano works (Aimard's Vingt Regards) and the Ligeti Etudes
(also Aimard) ...

Exemplary recordigs for equipment selection:

1. Led Zeppelin, How the West was Won.

2. Ligeti's collected works on Warner Classics' Ligeti Project
series (particularly Atmospheres, but many other compositions too, all
superbly recorded).

3. Messiaen's complete organ works - Jennifer Bate on Regis.

4. Thelonious Monk, Live at the IT club (early 1960s) - absolutely
natural.

5. Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung - Karl Boehm (cond.) et.al, Bayreuth
live 1967 (with stage noises, prompter, and some audience). Despised as
too light and too fast by some but such sustained energy and musicality.
And such a "genuinely live" recording.

This CD set is what sold me on my current 'speakers. (Specifically
Siegfried Act 1.) The recording sounds just so genuinely live to me
(it's also another desert island disk too, sneaked in).

6. Wagner, Tannhauser - Barenboim (cond,) on Teldec. Truly superb
recording.

7. Weber, der Freischutz - Carlos Kleiber (cond.) 1973. The most
wonderful soundstaging.

Interesting choices, thanks.

S.

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title...UA1H2TT368N8WV

some of the tracks carry a warning that they contain high energy subsonic
( 15Hz ) signals, certainly is impressive on my system ( even though Arnie
seems to think it's built by an idiot )..............

Pete

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

Pete Cross wrote:
http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title...UA1H2TT368N8WV

some of the tracks carry a warning that they contain high energy subsonic
( 15Hz ) signals, certainly is impressive on my system ( even though Arnie
seems to think it's built by an idiot )..............

Pete


What *is* your system and who built it? Without this information, how
can we judge the validity of Arnie's thoughts? :-)

S.

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
Pete Cross wrote:

http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title...UA1H2TT368N8WV

some of the tracks carry a warning that they contain high energy
subsonic
( 15Hz ) signals, certainly is impressive on my system ( even though
Arnie
seems to think it's built by an idiot )..............

Pete


What *is* your system and who built it? Without this information, how
can we judge the validity of Arnie's thoughts? :-)

S.

Look at my earlier post, " a couple of things "

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

Pete Cross wrote:
"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
Pete Cross wrote:
http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title...UA1H2TT368N8WV
some of the tracks carry a warning that they contain high energy
subsonic
( 15Hz ) signals, certainly is impressive on my system ( even though
Arnie
seems to think it's built by an idiot )..............

Pete


What *is* your system and who built it? Without this information, how
can we judge the validity of Arnie's thoughts? :-)

S.

Look at my earlier post, " a couple of things "



I didn't understand exactly what the 'speakers were. The earlier post
says ILP TL4, but I can't find any references for these. I know of ILP
as amplifier module manufacturers, but not for 'speakers. I also haven't
seen anything from Arnie casting doubt on the metal faculties of the
builder. Possibly my News server misses the odd post.

S.

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

I would just take a bunch of Joyce Hatto CDs.
That should be eclectic enough for anyone. :-)

--
Eiron.

Your Desert Island Disks and Best Recordings
 

Eiron wrote:
I would just take a bunch of Joyce Hatto CDs.
That should be eclectic enough for anyone. :-)


She was the subject of a piece in "Front Row" on Radio 4 a few days ago.
Apparently, many of her recordings aren't.

There's a piece in The Gramophone about it too.

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/newsMain...ewssectionID=1

I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, but this one is interesting.
In particular, who stood to gain from the deception given that Hatto was
hardly a household name. It might have been more believable if Hatto had
performed and the performance credited to a better known pianist, not
the other way round. Strange.

S.