Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

Seán wrote:

I can certainly vouch for Vol. 2 there Seán....I will get the lot too!!!

I am very impressed by the Kodály Quartet's approach to Schubert's music. I expect that you are right about their treatment of Haydn's lovely quartets too.

I bought this box set from a German seller on Amazon.com, it cost me €10 and with post & packaging it was less than €15 all in. It's also available on jpc for €10, what initially attracted me was the price and when I investigated it further I discovered:

1) the cds of music with Nathan Milstein, Pierre Fournier, Juilliard SQ, Smetana Quartet and the Weiner Oktett, all of whom are new to me and
2) the Mozart, Dvorak & Ravel recordings by the - excuse me while I genuflect - Quartetto Italianio.

The box set contains the following:

CD 1 - Nathan Milstein (violin) and Arthur Balsam (piano), 1957.
Mozart - excerpts: an Adagio and Rondo
Bach - Partitia 2 excerpt, Sonata 3 excerpt
Beethoven - Violin Sonata 5 "Spring"
Paganini - Two cappricios for solo violin
Stravinsky - Chanson Russe
Ries - Perpetuum Mobile
von Paradis - Sicilienne

CD 2 - Pierre Fournier (cello) Jean Fonda (piano), 1964
Beethoven
- Cello Sonatas 2 and 3
- 12 Variations on "See the Conquering Hero Comes" (Haydn) and "Ein Madchen oder Weibchen" (Mozart)

CD 3 - Arthur Grumiaux (violin) and Klara Haskil (piano), 1960
Beethoven - Violin Sonatas 4 and 10
Mozart - Violin Sonata KV 378

CD 4 - Quartetto Italiano, 1968
Mozart - String Quartet 15
Dvorak - String Quartet 12
Ravel - String Quartet

CD 5 - Julliard String Quartet, 1970
Beethoven - String Quartet 16, op 135
Berg - Lyric Suite

CD 6 - Wiener Oktett, 1953 / Franco Gulli (violin) and Enrica Cavallo (piano), 1956
Schubert - Octet D 803
Schubert - Grand Duo for violin and piano D 574

CD 7 - Smetana Quartet, 1979 and 1982
Haydn - String Quartet 39 Hob III: 39
Schubert - String Quartet 10, String Quartet 14 "Death and the Maiden"

CD 8 - Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute) and Trio Pasquier, 1982
Mozart
Flute Quartet KV 285b
Flute Quartet KV 298
Prelude and Fuge for string trio KV 404a
Flute Quartet KV 285a
Flute Quartet KV 285
Quartet in F major KV 370 - Rondo
Quartet in G major - Adagio

CD 9 - Henryk Szeryng (violin) and Eugenio Bagnoli (piano), 1975
Beethoven - Violin Sonata op 12 no 1
Brahms - Violin Sonata 1
Bach - Partitia 2

CD 10 - a nice Italian string sextet, but I won't type in each performer's name, 1992
Brahms - Sextet for Strings, Nos 1 and 2

Seán wrote:

That is a nice looking set you got there Seán. I have no doubt that you will enjoy it all!

fergus wrote:

all in all, it's a good set Fergus, although I must admit that some of those Decca twofers do frustrate me, with their assorted mix of conductors and orchestras performing, sometimes over a 20 or 30 year time span, with varying degrees of performance and sound quality... I can't help feeling they are OK enough for a value for money Intro to a composer's work, but lack enough stylistic consistency to be of great value.

I think the set you have purchased is one of the more successful, for the performances of Ansermet in particular, but if you are looking for a persuasuive alternative reading of the symphonies at a budget price then try Loris Tjeknavorian's on RCA:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Borodin-Symphon ... 671&sr=1-2

he lives and breathes the music of the 'mighty handful'; his Rimsky disks on ASV are similarly worth hearing... a bit like Kubelik playing Smetana... if you know what I mean.

Jared wrote:

fergus wrote:

all in all, it's a good set Fergus, although I must admit that some of those Decca twofers do frustrate me, with their assorted mix of conductors and orchestras performing, sometimes over a 20 or 30 year time span, with varying degrees of performance and sound quality... I can't help feeling they are OK enough for a value for money Intro to a composer's work, but lack enough stylistic consistency to be of great value.

I think the set you have purchased is one of the more successful, for the performances of Ansermet in particular, but if you are looking for a persuasuive alternative reading of the symphonies at a budget price then try Loris Tjeknavorian's on RCA:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Borodin-Symphon ... 671&sr=1-2

he lives and breathes the music of the 'mighty handful'; his Rimsky disks on ASV are similarly worth hearing... a bit like Kubelik playing Smetana... if you know what I mean.

Thank you for that Jared. This one was cheap as chips, had Ansermet, as you say, and I actually had no other recording of "In the Steppes of Central Asia".

another ebay bargain...

On vinyl...