Tír Na HiFi

Seán wrote:

mcq wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=146tTKSXu7s (The piece of music beginning at 5.20 is some of the very finest ever written. You must be made of stone if it doesn't bring tears to your eyes.)

Truly, they don't make them like that anymore.

I have just finished watching that clip, it is magnificent, I enjoyed it immensely, thanks for posting the link.

mcq wrote: Enjoy your time with the Wadia, Dave. I think you'll find it hard to say goodbye. And, you should be mightily impressed with the way it handles Mahler (and Bruckner, as well, for that matter. Nobody wrote for brass quite like Bruckner and the impact of something like Solti's cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the CSO as played through the Wadia is quite something, I can tell you!)

Ciaran wrote:

Solti's Memoirs make entertaining reading.

DaveF wrote:Although I probably prefer period performances from the likes of Hogwood and Gardiner, I do really admire what HvK and the BPO does here.

mcq wrote:If you enjoy this, Fergus, keep an eye out for two of 2010's best releases: Boris Berezovsky's Liszt recital (available on Mirare and containing a fabulous version of the B Minor Sonata - more reserved than many competing versions but bristling with intelligence - as well as a bracing Mephisto Waltz No.1) and Arcadi Volodos's breathtaking Vienna recital (which contains a quite astonishing version of the Dante Sonata from the Années de Pèlerinage as well as some fanastic Ravel, Schumann and Scriabin - this one is available on Sony).

Seán wrote:A timely utterance as the Solti/CSO treatment of Bruckner was mentioned on CMG, not favourably either too I might add. Solti comes in for too much criticism.

DaveF wrote:speaking of brass, it was one of the first things that I noticed that the Wadia did differently than the Opus21. It sounds far more realistic but never harsh or bright. The Wadia has bigger bass too but its never bloated or boomy, rather its very well integrated with the rest of the spectrum. Because of this, the music has more weight and body at lower listening volumes. Still evaluating it, but these were some of the first things I noticed even just an hour after a cold start of the machine.

Seán wrote:

Solti's Memoirs make entertaining reading.

and a lovely Christmas stocking filler too [for me], thanks for that Ciaran.