"Rhapsodies", Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra. It was released back when there were millions of Thorens TD 124s out there to play it. And that's exactly what I thought when I put it on my Thorens TD 124. Somehow the Columbia Six Eyes look better on a Thorens. My other sophisticated direct drives and belt drive looked on with envy. As a kid, I remember my parents playing this record while I looked at the gorgeous woman on the front cover. For the sake of nostalgia, I played my parents' ancient copy followed by the minty copy I found on Ebay. My parents' copy cleaned up pretty well, but the vinyl seems to have been ground out by some long forgotten phono cartridge tracking at 4 grams or so. Overall the sound is pretty bad, but the music is just fantastic. Then I played my mint Ebay copy. Much better sound. Great memories. |
Yesterday I was listening to an interesting collection of Concertos for Saxophone. As many will know, the saxophone was invented in the 19th Century (1840-41), but was only gradually accepted into the classical music literature. Here are three marvelous compositions exploiting the interesting timbre of the sax by Dubois, Villa-Lobos, Ibert and Glasunov. Eugen Rousseau, saxophone; Paul Kuntz conducting. DGG 2530 209. Recording engineer Hans-Peter Schweigmann creating a nice natural perspective on the orchestra. Schweigmann's recordings are regularly very fine and worth seeking out for those who value good orchestral sound. Cover: http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/DG0AAOSwKfVXFuuh/s-l400.jpg |
