Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

good grief Fergus, now that IS quite a surprise!

Jared wrote:

fergus wrote:

good grief Fergus, now that IS quite a surprise!

That set is high on my list, after JSB of course.

I am an operatic ignoramus. I have a sample of the Solti/VPO Wagner performances on CD and they are mesmerising, they are fan-tas-tic in every way.

Seán wrote:

Jared wrote:

fergus wrote:

good grief Fergus, now that IS quite a surprise!

That set is high on my list, after JSB of course.

I am an operatic ignoramus. I have a sample of the Solti/VPO Wagner performances on CD and they are mesmerising, they are fan-tas-tic in every way.

A surprise, yes and no Jared. Like you and your French Music, Opera is a glaring hole in my musical education and something that I have somewhat avoided until about a year or two ago. This development coincidentally happened around the time that I first started talking to our Mexican friend Pepe who has broken down a lot of the barriers for me in his own inimitable way, like only he can with his personal stories and his vast knowledge and understanding of the genre!

I have been long aware of this set and like Seán I admire Solti quite a lot so I put the set on the List quite some time ago. It came up for a very good price recently on Amazon so I decided to go for it. I have already received some bits of assistance from Pepe on how to tackle this mighty work so I look forward to it enormously.

Sean, if you want any help in the Opera world simply ask Pepe as he is a mine of information. The only problem will be getting him to stop talking about it so that you can actually do some listening!!!

Jared wrote:the only thing that surprises me is that I managed to bet it £11 cheaper in Portugal than anywhere in the UK... a bit of a puzzler, being as it came from the UK in the first place.. :-/

Yes, my memory of record shops in Portugal was that they weren't particularly cheap. What was your source, if you don't mind my asking?

Ciaran wrote:

Jared wrote:the only thing that surprises me is that I managed to bet it £11 cheaper in Portugal than anywhere in the UK... a bit of a puzzler, being as it came from the UK in the first place.. :-/

Yes, my memory of record shops in Portugal was that they weren't particularly cheap. What was your source, if you don't mind my asking?

Ciaran, I'd been looking at this item for over 6-9 months on Amazon; the cheapest it ever reached was £46 (usually around £55) then about 10 days ago, a seller called 'Dutch East' from Portugal put a new & sealed one on for £35, which I snapped up. After having sold the duplicate, single disks on ebay, it cost me around £17, which I'm very happy with!

fergus wrote:A surprise, yes and no Jared. Like you and your French Music, Opera is a glaring hole in my musical education and something that I have somewhat avoided until about a year or two ago.

Fergus, there have at least been chinks of operatic light which have been opening up to you over the past year or so, which has certainly not been the same for me, with French music. If I was to draw a parallel, it would perhaps be lieder... at first, I never understood it, but now have warmed to it quite considerably; in fact I'd go as far as to say that it's the only style of CM which has had the 'road to damascus' effect on me thus far, which is why I hold it as special... because I understand it is possible.

I'm really pleased for you with your Operatic journey, and wish you every happiness.. fwiw, that box set was voted by BBC Music Mag recently as the most important recording of CM ever made (although I'm sure that can be debated, endlessly!)

fergus wrote:

I'm pleased to see you made that purchase Fergus. I first heard the complete Ring via Bohm's Bayreuth set on Philips; needless to say, I loved it and wanted to try a studio recording for comparison. And what better one to get than the legendary Solti set!

With Wagner I find it best to take it in stages, no need to hurry. Once you get into the operas the musical themes emerge with ever greater power as the pieces flow along and the effect can be stunning. I'm sure you'll have a great time with the set....

bombasticDarren wrote:

fergus wrote:

I'm pleased to see you made that purchase Fergus. I first heard the complete Ring via Bohm's Bayreuth set on Philips; needless to say, I loved it and wanted to try a studio recording for comparison. And what better one to get than the legendary Solti set!

With Wagner I find it best to take it in stages, no need to hurry. Once you get into the operas the musical themes emerge with ever greater power as the pieces flow along and the effect can be stunning. I'm sure you'll have a great time with the set....

Cheers Darren....I intend to take this one slowly and not to rush things. I am looking forward to hearing it immensly.

of course, I'm meant to be cutting down, but:











I have been neglecting Mendelssohn's work over the past year or so, whilst these days, I can't seem to go a couple of months without hearing a couple of new 'Papa Haydn' CDs...