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New for July
The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts held
over eight weeks from July to September is London's biggest
annual music festival. Visit our Proms page where
we list music being performed this year that is available from us.
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New from iTunes
Many music lovers miss the sound from vinyl pressings.
Many others have yet to discover how pleasant the sound can be.
Most of our albums are mastered from vinyl LP pressings and earlier
recordings (before 1953) from 78 rpm discs. It is our ability to
recreate, in the digital age, the sound from the disc era that many of
our customers find most enjoyable.
Unlike modern digital recordings tracks in our
albums do contain some distortion, and the occasional surface noises,
but for many listeners these "defects" are soon forgotten.
What the Critics Say
the following are reveiws by Brian Wilson at Muis
Web International
"With a very able quartet of soloists – Gré Brouwenstijn, Kerstin
Meyer, Nicolai Gedda and Frederick Guthrie – and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral
Choir this 1958 ADD/stereo recording was well worth reviving,
especially as it’s otherwise imprisoned in a 5-CD EMI/Erato box set.
The performance is good throughout: if I’m being hyper-critical, the
first movement is a little slow and portentous and the scampering
scherzo a shade on the fast side, but Beethoven often is pompous, so
these are hardly major faults. The singing in the finale is very good
and the Beulah transfer a big improvement on the original LP."
"The Concerto is a safe recommendation, which doesn’t mean stodgy, in a
good transfer of the 1962 release. The Cluytens performance of the
Symphony is even better."
"Not surprisingly, in view of the classic status of this recording,
it’s one of Beulah’s best sellers, even though the sound – on six 78
sides – was not good even for its time. Beulah have done the best
possible to make this bearable, especially in reducing 78 hiss and
crackle to almost zero without losing anything else. The solo voices,
always the strong feature of the recording, come over well."
" Collections such as this used to be common on LP, though not usually
from such a variety of sources, and I imagine that many will be tempted
to purchase this from AmazonUK and iTunes. The Boskovsky performances
are particularly treasurable; though they remain available in several
Decca all-Strauss concoctions their inclusion here is very welcome. The
other items, too, are enjoyable and the recordings have all come up
well. You may also be tempted to go for another Beulah release, The Waltz
King, offering the music of Johann Strauss II. Sample/stream
from Qobuz, who also offer the least expensive download at £4.79.
" It’s a tender performance of a work that doesn’t deserve to have
slipped out of fashion and the recording has come up extremely well for
its age, with just a touch of 78 crackle in the quieter moments.
Neither soloist nor conductor lays on the schmaltz too thick, so this
remains as tasteful as it was judged to be in 1940."
Last
Month Waltzes, Ravel and Mozart
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