Full of the joys of spring!

Zesty, Bouncy, Bumble-busy classi-bop... Perfect for a sunny day in the garden.

(Or wherever you can get to)

...Well, the first side is at least, and the second side continues this to the conclusion of Lieutenant Kije suite on that side. It gets a little more dramatic, and at the same time, with contrasting quiet spells which sounds very much like a film score thereafter, in the Love Of Three Oranges Suite, but altogether a well selected group of pieces that sit nicely together on this disc, and make for a very 'up' and lively listen.

You probably know this one:

(hum along if you do :)

[YouTube Video]

As for this issue / pressing, I've got say now, that while the big labels (Decca / HMV / Columbia etc.) certainly justify the noise about their sound quality and such, I can't see that these CBS records sound any less brilliant than those... certainly if there is a difference, it must be by a bare squeak, as these (along with my other recent favourite label: Philips) sound every bit as good. I think you've just got to put it down to snobbery in the end, as there is no reason why any of these shouldn't be included on that there Tas list for pure awesomeness.

...Full sweeping sound, lots of Oomph, detail, sound stage, separation, and all the other guff that audiophiles talk about is to be found here as readily as on any of those other labels.

So save yourself a few quid, and do not hesitate to buy Classical on CBS if you find one.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Spirited playing of several pieces composed for the quartet by Caroline Shaw. The harmonies are conventional and accessible, very much in a style of a century earlier. This 2nd movement of Plan And Elevation even quotes from the Ravel Quartet in F

[YouTube Video]

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Value for money... Bang for Buck... More sauce in Your Spoon!

(I've no idea what that last one means either, I just said it because it sounds nice :)

...But this is a disc that has a lot to be said about it, makes it well worth owning.

Firstly, It's another landmark in the Decca catalogue, as it's Cat number shows, the first of the 6000 series, and although the labels here are of the small boxed logo variety (as is mine), there is / was a wide band grooved label copy from very early on - that one will set you back over £100 a time (maybe more), but the boxed logos are plentiful and cheap (usually under £10)...

...but it's not like you could possibly be losing anything in terms of sound quality by going for the cheap option as this really does sound great, and well worth it's inclusion on the notorious TAS list... big, broad, and natural sounding, and with more than one truly great tune to showcase those qualities.

For the second thing to say is that this is concealing three little treats for the casual classical music fan in search of "that elusive tune" you know, but can't put a name to...

...As has been said here, the first track of Spartacus, on side one, was used for the theme tune to The Onedin Line TV programme... But also on side two - for theme seekers who have overlooked that side having found what they are Onedin of (:)) on side one - is to be found two noteworthy tunes in Gayaneh:

The First - Sabre Dance will instantly make you smile with recognition, and make you imagine you are in a comedy movie chase - which is always fun, and something I like to do regularly.

... And then, there's the sublime, and haunting Gayaneh's Adagio, which has been used in the Alien movie franchise, as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey (quite some movie credentials there I'd say!)

And of course...

...It's a Decca.

All round, a Classical vinyl essential that can be had at entry level price.

8 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

New-Age and Ambient reinterpretatiion of Hildegard's work. Sitar, bells and deep synthesised bass. Very pretty solo singing by Emily van Evera with vocalese background by Sister Germaine Fritz, but not what Early Music listeners would expect.

Vision (full length)
[YouTube Video]

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

You will like this if you listen to a lot of new music, orchestra with near-silence, synths, guitar, bells and drones. At times it reminds me of Stravinsky with a little less of the fire.
Very New-World Mystical.

Christopher Bono explains how this album came about
[YouTube Video]

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

David Wulstan has taken scholarly care in tracing and reconstructing the scores and the texts of several pieces heard here. He has also taken an "authentic" approach to the voicings used, using some very fine boy trebles for the very high parts, and countertenors for the "mean" parts as was common practice in the 16th Century, and giving a recognisably "English" choral sound.

Several of these compositions for use in the Church live on to this day as hymn tunes. His Hymne or Song No. 1 was first used for the hymn Now Shall the Praises of the Lord be Sung and nowadays is better known as the tune for Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round and more recently for Where is Death's Sting, We Were Not Born to Die. It is also used for the Communion hymn O Thou, Who at Thy Eucharist Did Pray. Song 20 is used for My Lord, my Life, my Love, Song 5 for Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound, for Strong Son of God, Immortal Love, and Song 22 for Love of the Father, Love of God the Song

Song 9 is used for the hymn Victim Divine, Thy Grace we claim. Sung here as Come, Kiss Me With Those Lips Of Thine it is more generally known as Song 34, Angels' Song for the hymn Forth in Thy name, O Lord I go. Song 13 is used for Jesu, Grant me This, I Pray, No.67 for Give Me the Wings of Faith, Song 24 for O Word Immortal of Eternal God. Song 4 has been used for the 20th Century hymn Come, Risen Lord, and Deign to be our Guest.

Hymns and Songs 1, 20, 31, 5 & 22
[YouTube Video]

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John Blow preceded and succeeded Henry Purcell at St Paul's Cathedral and the two were mutually influential, as we can hear in his beautiful setting of Salvator Mundi
[YouTube Video]

The glorious, tranquil Crux Fidelis is attributed to John IV, King of Portugal but no original manuscript exists, and it appears to have been written, or re-written, and first published in France in 1869.
[YouTube Video]

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

O Lord, the Maker of Al Thing was a prayer written by King Henry VIII and set to music by John Joubert in 1953. As a prayer of intercession it is placid and laudatory but Joubert's setting with its archaic text and sombre organ chords turns it into something deeply troubled and full of foreboding. Superficially tiresome, with repeated hearings it becomes a compelling anthem for use in Church.

O Lorde, the maker of al thing, we pray Thee nowe in this Evening us to defende through Thy mercy, from al deceite of our en'my. Let neither us deluded be, good Lorde, with dreams or phantasy, oure hearts wakyng in Thee Thou kepe, that we in sinne fal not on slepe. O Father, throughe Thy blessed Sonne, grant us this oure petition, to whom with the Holy Ghost alwaies in heav'n and yearth be laude and praise.

(2023) YouTube video now unavailable

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Elton is close to the centre of Bury and the original All Saints Church was deconsecrated about 1997 and is now fashionable apartments, but in 1976 it had supported a very good choir. There were no women choristers at the time of this recording, though there had been for a few years previously. I was loaned this record by a friend who had sung there earlier, and on playing it my expectations were greatly exceeded.

The choir is here supported by a fine organ (by Jardine), with that sought-after attribute of never going sharp following unaccompanied verses! William Thomas brings a good sense of dynamics to the works, while the intonantion is never in doubt.

The record starts with the hymn Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken, to the tune "Austria" by Haydn.
Psalm 75 is sung to the familiar Chant by George Elvey.
The hymn Bright The Vision That Delighted is not sung to the stated tune but to "Redhead" by Richard Redhead, with two verses unaccompanied and two with the descant arrangement by Percy Whitlock.
Good King Wenceslas uses the familiar arrangement by Reginald Jaques

The recording quality is a little variable, sometimes having the organ in the background, at other times nicely balanced; some quiet tracks reveal a persistent rattling noise, but overall the sound is good. If there had been a follow-up record they would be worthy of commercial release on a CD, which I would gladly buy.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This album released in 1961 and this is her second of two recordings of one of my favourite piano concertos of all time and I believe Moura Lympany is one of my favourite pianists of all time.Also,there`s a reissue on the EMI/CFP label and the record catalogue number is CFP 167.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A welcome selection of Christmas carols, ranging from the most familiar to the contemporary, all sung in the best Cathedral tradition. The compositions are predominantly from the 20th Century but their origins range across the centuries. Joubert's glorious carol gives the album its title and is a delight to hear. The first track is taken at a more stately pace than usual, and Joseph And The Angel also is notably lento. The most recent composition, The Lamb, had already established itself in the Christmas repertoire and the young choristers here handle the very modern harmonies with ease.

Accompanied by detailed notes on the compositions, and the notes on the history of the Carol are worth a read.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This album is originally released in 1957 and only in mono,and it`s my favourite recording of all time,when I heard this album in my schooldays,and now I`ll treasure this album forever,because it`s my favourite album of all time.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

An Absolute Sound!

....Even if you don't like classical music, you must give one of these Columbia SAX discs a go... If you see one, buy it, and try it!

This is simply breathtaking.

Among the many pleasures, and true joys that record collecting gives me, along with finding a sleeve for an EP I have, or a record for a sleeve, or finding an item that I'd set myself a task in finding - a Target CD, SACD, First Press etc. Is the absolute thrill of fining a Columbia record, and then turning it over and seeing those three magic letters: SAX...

... Whether it has the first press blue and silver labels, or a later red label, they are the best you can buy in my opinion. More even than Decca, who, while give you absolute vinyl neutrality (they just get out of the way, and let the incredibly well recorded music do the talking), or HMV, there truly is something about these Columbias that rocks my world! :)

They make even an average, inexpensive stereo system like mine sound like it's worth 10-20 thousand pounds more than it actually is!

By what strange alchemy they achieved this I do not know, but close your eyes, and it's not just like having the orchestra in the room with you, but the whole room itself seems to disappear... there isn't even an orchestra, there is only music, everywhere. They seem to kick your windows and walls away, and depth, space, detail, separation of each instrument is absolute... like Godzilla stepping lightly in ballet shoes, the sound towers over you like some ultra powerful monster that can, if it needs to, go almost ninja like as it creeps up and whispers softly in your ear, and nothing in the sound impedes anything else in the slightest.

And in in particular, find one of a full symphony - especially a brilliant one like this, and it will blow you away.

Timpani rolls across the sky toward you like thunder - shaking your windows (if you still had windows!), while strings menace the middle distance, rising up, and threatening to come crashing down on you like a massive wave, and silky solos and brass like trumpets of Jericho (I'm pushing the pretentious as hard as I can here folks - I hope you appreciate this effort! :) conspire to devastate the listener.

Once you've heard one of these, every other record you listen to form that moment on will sound like two tin cans on a bit of string.

(I might be wrong, but didn't popsters Strawberry Switchblade pinch the motif from the third movement of this for their song: Since Yesterday?)

So if you see a stray Columbia SAX of any label in a record bin going cheap... just buy it!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is one of my favourite Bach recordings of all time,when I first knew the composer from the Baroque Era when I was about nine years old,when someone gave me the album and I still have it and I will treasure the album forever.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Tracks 1 to 3 : Violin Concerto No.1 in A Minor,BWV1041 [Bach] Tracks 4 to 6:Violin Concerto No.2 in E Major,BWV 1042 [Bach] Tracks 7 to 9:Double Violin Concerto in D Minor,BWV 1043 [Bach] Tracks 10 to 12:Concerto Grosso in A Minor,Op.3 No.8 [Vivaldi].This is one of my favourite classical CD album of all time and voted the best classical recording sponsored by Penguin Books.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Poems by several authors have been set to music by Michael Head and here they are performed by different soloists accompanied by Christopher Glynn. The resulting songs range from jolly to tragic

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Cheerful and narrative scores which would serve a film or documentary by describing the scenes as they unfurl.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

When searching this on the net once I got it home, I saw continual references to the Dynagroove aspect of it, and some none too flattering appraisals of this system introduced by RCA.

My joy at finding a fairly early Itzakh Perlman stereo record was threatened with being deflated by the prospect at having bought a turkey.

But having bitten the bullet, and given it a spin, I have to say, I can't see (or rather, hear) what the fuss is all about...

...The sound is great to my ears, albeit on admittedly limited equipment.

(Maybe higher end kit reveals shortcomings that I can't detect)

But the pacey, intricate concertos here are open full, detailed, and in some parts, a fair bit of weight to them... quite natural sounding too.

Maybe there was some kind of issue with this system not being sympathetic to the equipment of the time of release?

But I don't think - based on this album at least - there's anything to be concerned about that would warrant it being dismissed out of hand.

(I do have a couple of other Dynagroove records (Including a full symphony), that I will try, and see if they have any issues).

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

As good a mono recording as you will find.

This is a monster!

In the hand, it feels like a 12" shellac 78... very heavy, and perhaps pushing towards the 200g end of the weight spectrum, and the labels obviously speak of shellac era issues, but it is a very stiff piece of 33 1/3 vinyl.

And that quality translates to a fine listening experience, as, from what I gather, Pye bought Nixa in 1953, so this must date from the early fifties (being Pre-Pye), and this would easily stand up to any mono recording on any label from a much later date...even up to the late sixties!

Crisp, clear, and with a very, very heavy "acoustic weight" which only serves to highlight the recording technique, which sounds like both Bogin's Piano, and Starker's heavy Cello were very closely miked... like when you are playing an instrument yourself, or are very close to one when it's being played, you get all the extra feeling and immediacy.

...This does have one downside though, but only on a very few occasions, where the piano hits a loud or high note, it does begin to distort slightly... but this is just a handful of notes across both sides of vinyl.

The vinyl is absolutely silent in the quiet interim, and other than the proximity of the microphone, handles all frequencies with absolute ease.

This selection of Brahms Cello Sonatas are much better than the Beethoven ones (for me), as the Cello has the lead, and the recording engineer highlights the better cello compositions by rather brilliantly (and imperceptibly) just bringing the piano in a little more, then out again, as required behind it.

Being only two performers, the mono is more than adequate, and if you don't have thousands to spend on a Columbia Starker, then this is most certainly where I'd point you.

This is what I want from Cello recordings in spades.

Brilliant... and Nixa is label of the week! :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Properly speaking, this ought to be listed as Abba Bogin / Janos Starker...

... As the pieces here are more piano led than cello. Janos Starker only really applies backing and colour to Bogin's Piano work, as Beethoven composed it.

So if you are looking for some hot Cello action (more than piano) you are better advised to look elsewhere, albeit that Bogin's piano is brilliant - intricate, and elaborate.

The recording itself is very subdued, and quiet - with, as I've found with these Saga issues, a sound like you are hearing them play from the other end of a very long room... You find yourself leaning in to try and hear what your ears are telling you is missing, or that you struggle to hear.

So for Starker works, consider Saga as merely entry level stuff, until you can find a better recording on a better label, or perhaps for completists.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A truly wonderful offering of this timeless holiday classic. The gatefold holds a great brief synopsis of the ballet.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A delightful selection of the lamentational and the cheerful, either sung by Theatre Of Voices or played by The King's Noyse. Some will be familiar, as with the short anthem If Ye Love Me, and in particular with "Why Fum'th In Sight" which has become widely known for the tune used by Vaughan Williams as his Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis.

What exactly is a Solfing Song? Played here as an instrumental, "solfing" probably referred to the then fashionable art of Solfège or instruction in singing. The set closes appropriately with the plainsong hymn for Compline, Te Lucis Ante Terminum

[YouTube Video]
[YouTube Video]

By contrast, the Eighth Tune is relatively cheerful and relatively unknown.
[YouTube Video]

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Syncopated and jazzy, cantor and choir singing call and response accompanied by Hammond organ, this is very much a Mass of its time

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is a release with several different tricks up it's triple flipbacked sleeve...

Firstly, you could ask the question: When is a Ballet not a Ballet?

...To which, you could answer: When it can be listened to as a stand alone orchestral work in it's own right... which is to say, that you can listen to this as you would a symphonic work, without losing anything from the experience by not having the context provided by the addition of the theatrical staging of a dramatic narrative and dancers to carry the whole thing forward.

(There are a few Ballets that have, I've found, prolonged segments of nothing apparently happening at all, but where a live performance with dancers and story would fill in the blanks, but a purely audio experience makes for a stultifyingly boring experience, while you are waiting for something to happen)

This doesn't suffer in this way at all, and also, while it is clearly Spanish in flavour, doesn't lean so heavily on that one leg, and can be appreciated as generally classical in tone (largely "nationless")...

But it's greatest trick lies in the recording...

What they have done is melded, by some genius alchemy, the expansive sense of the live recording, with the immediacy, and clarity of a studio recording, without making any of it sound "tacked-on", or either of these aspects suffer through contrast and comparison with the other. I don't know how this was achieved, but as a purely sonic experience, it's jaw-dropping, especially when Teresa Berganza's ethereal vocal begins, drifting in chillingly from somewhere in the middle distance, and slowly growing to encompass the entire space.

And I think it's probably these last qualities that once earned this album's inclusion on the (In)famous TAS list (always a fine excuse to bump the value up! :)... but here the sound of this entirely justifies it's acknowledgement in this way.

Pure audiophile stuff.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

In a blind hearing I would have guessed "Egyptian light orchestral". Throughout,
this has an undefined oriental feel, all the tracks being based strongly on a
5-tone scale but not the familiar Western pentatonic scale.

Hovhaness is of Armenian descent and has travelled in India and the Far East,
studying the classical music of the countries he visited: the tracks here were from that later period. Of the track Fra Angelico he writes in the notes:

The music begins in a free non-rhythm canon for 3 solo violins playing sliding melodies suggesting celestial music. A religious adoration to the universe is sung by cellos. Music of controlled chaos, each player performing an independent melodic line at his own speed, grows into a wild climax of strings, woodwinds, trombone glissandi, horns and trumpets. Colliding, clangorous bell-sounds combine with a canon in brass. The adoration returns, majestically intoned, the last chord held above free-rushing basses. The music rises into mysterious non-rhythm canons of sliding celestial sounds.

[YouTube Video]

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This lives up to billing...

...razor sharp, precise pressing you usually find with Philips records, and a meaty piece of vinyl.

X-factor, or X-tractor fans among you will be wondering, no doubt, which part of this work is the theme to that ominous judge-me jury, self esteem annihilation based (for the contestants, at least... more of a an ego stroking exercise for the judges, I think) freak show on telly, and for that, I might gently point you in the direction of: "O Fortuna" (both the opening and closing pieces here)...

...As for the rest of the work, there is actually something quite festive about the whole thing, I could actually imagine getting nicely minced with pies, mulled wine and a novelty jumper at Christmas with this jauntily playing in the background.

(Probably not it's intent)

The recording (and pressing) doesn't try to ramp everything up to 11 and attempt to blow your socks off with loudness and awe alone, but is actually quite quiet compared to some (but not overly so), but this allows all the detail to be present, and you can then turn up the volume to your taste without losing anything through distortion, which a louder recording might do, when it crowds out all else that's going on around the chorus.

So I will be looking out for more of these Philips Hi-Fi Stereos, now that I've finally succeeded in getting this one.

Two thumbs and both eyebrows up :)

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This was an intriguing find...


...And for more than a couple of reasons:

I do come across Decca monos (LXTs) quite often now, but usually leave them in case a stereo (SXL - or other) )turns up, but what got my attention with this one at first glance was the catalogue number - being a 6000 series mono - which I can't recall having seen before, as these monos usually have 2000 or maybe 5000 numbers... The stereo SXLs usually go by 2 and 6 thousands, so I decided to look a little closer, and noticed the date was 1968, which seemed very late for a mono of the classical variety (thought they'd all gone stereo by then)...

...Having also noticed the hole punch in the top right of the sleeve (which goes through the inner sleeve too), I thought of a couple of reasons why this might be: 1) a possible promo, 2) an import/export, or 3), and most likely I feel, a deleted issue, which would square with my thoughts about the mono / stereo / date; A thought which further cemented itself when I saw that the inner sleeve was for a stereo record...

(So they were just sticking the records - stereo or mono - in stereo inners by this time)

This also had some of the shrink wrap still around it when I found it, which also had the punch in the corresponding location, so this must have been punched when still wrapped. So I think this might be one of the last orange label LXTs.

The vinyl is of the lovely thick, stiff variety they made them of a few years earlier, which contemporary stereos abandoned in favour of a more flexible (though still thick) vinyl.

As for the music on it, it's just a violin and a piano recital of these sonatas, with the spotlight on the violin, and the piano simply accompanying, and adding a little colour, but they wind and weave intricately, and at a nice pace.

...The clarity and precision of the recording makes this a bright, full mono which fills the audio "field", and is very detailed. In fact, I have a few solo and duo recital records now, and I have to say I cannot imagine what would be gained through presenting such intimate works in stereo - you might not actually be able to tell if it was stereo or mono if you didn't already know - so I'm developing a rule of thumb regarding the mono / stereo issues... Which is that if it is just a couple of performers - up to say, a quartet even - then you won't really be losing anything important by opting for the mono issues, which is to say, that you may have to pay considerably more for a stereo, but not really be buying anything extra worth writing home about. And it's only really with big works, which involve a whole orchestra, or an operatic performance, that you would really get the benefit of the stereo stage.

But this is a wonderful collection of pieces which is going to get a lot more listens, and is my new favourite album (for this week, at least :).

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Review by MR B PAGE - Deleted by accident - Sorry.

I remember this album,when I was about 10 years old and one of my favourite classical albums of all time,is of course Ravel`s Bolero,in which I adore so much.A year later,my parents bought the album from the HMV shop and I still kept the original album.Also,a fitting tribute to the great French conductor Louis Fremaux,who sadly passed away on the 20/3/2017,but I do miss him so much deeply.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The piano transcriptions are arranged by Zimmermann. He plays them in a sedate manner, making the dances quite stately. Only "We're Going Around" provides a brief lively Ragtime passage

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Another day, another label...

Having always been impressed with CBS vinyl with respect to rock and pop - those with the orange labels of this design - I've been intending to try out a Blue label CBS classical recording, to see how they hold up in comparison to some other "premium" classical labels...

...And so, when I saw this violin recital, I grabbed it, as being a great test case.

And I wasn't disappointed... the vinyl, and CBS pressing methods are all I wanted it to be:

Smooth, creamy vinyl, that is absolutely "Decca" silent in the run-in (and out) and quiet parts, as detailed as an HMV, and can deliver the power (almost) equal to a Columbia.

And this recital of some brilliant violin set-pieces tests all of these factors well, as the opening Saint-Saens piece is a real show off work... designed to be highly intricate, and with all the dynamic fireworks of someone really having to get around their instrument adeptly.

Anything on this record played at the proms, for instance, would be well received, and considered a highlight.

The other works are more sublime, and more meditative, but do have swells of powerful, sweeping emphasis, and dramatic punctuation.

The only problem, in this case, is that the orchestra is perhpaps not given the attention that the lead violin has in general, in terms of being mic-ed up adequately - they get a little distant while the solos are going on, but brought to the fore only when they need to.

But this is all about the violin, and it more than lives up to billing in that regard.

...these CBS blues are cheap as chips usually, and well worth the money if this is anything to go by.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?