BasicRep Blog

Linn Records sampler

2011-12-25T22:20:00.001-05:00

Linn Records sampler is free at Amazon.

Bargain Bach for under a Buck

2011-12-24T00:40:00.000-05:00

Looking for a collection of Bach? Here is a set of the Brandenburgs along with the Harpichord Concertos 1-6 plus the Harpsichord Concertos for Two and more keyboards. The performances seem to be from the old Vox catalog possibly, or may be newer, but either way decent recordings. And right now you get over 4 hours of Bach for 69 cents. That is quite a bargain, and not a bad way to expand your Bach collection too.

Ray Conniff - Christmas Caroling

2011-12-17T10:06:00.000-05:00

The Ray Conniff Singers do not make an appearance in the Goodyear LP series until volume 6, but their sound is about as pop as you can get. They released 3 Christmas albums, but a great compilation was released in 1985 that gathered all of their best tracks together. "Christmas Caroling" is a fun trip thru some really happy holiday music that is guaranteed to put either a smile or groan on your face.

Christmas with the Lennon Sisters

2011-12-17T09:51:00.000-05:00

From 1961 but evoking the 50's sound, the Lennon Sisters have a charming holiday collection, with enough of the smooth Lawrence Welk sound to give the music an easy listening feel. Definitely on of the better girl group LPs from that era, and a great mix of pop and traditional songs.

Norman Luboff - Songs of Christmas

2011-12-17T09:33:00.000-05:00

Released in 1956, this LP is a great choral album with all of the standard holiday favorite tunes. Of course the album is not in stereo, but the sound is fine and the performances show why this was a Christmas favorite for years.

Goodyear Volume 2

2011-12-03T10:43:00.000-05:00

Hallmark Records has released Volume 2 of Goodyear's 'Great Songs of Christmas' on an MP3 album!

Amazon.com Widgets

Andre Kostelanetz Christmas

2011-12-03T10:31:00.001-05:00

Andre Kostelanetz's 'Christmas in Wonderland' from 1963 is like Christmas Muzak on overdrive. Happy, corny and just fun, the music is as sweet as the album cover.
Unfortunately his 1960 album 'Wishing You A Merry Christmas' never has made it to CD. It is more traditional sounding, but still a great LP, so I decided to share it, you can download it HERE.

99 Must-Have Christmas Classics

2011-12-02T10:18:00.000-05:00

Another bargain collection set from Amazon, for only $2 each. You get over 6 1/2 hours of Classical Christmas tracks from each collection, from 'The Nutcracker' to 'Messiah' among others. One caveat, the Children's Choir tracks really do not go with the collection, and I wasn't crazy about most of them, but for the price, I just deleted the tracks I did not like. Both sets are a deal, with the Meditation set having more piano tracks, and there is probably some duplication, which at this price is a non-issue. Enjoy!

100 Classic Christmas Songs

2011-12-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

Now here is a bargain, a collection of 100 Christmas Songs for $5. Besides Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and other great singers, there are dozens of other classic performances from the 1950's and 1960's. While the version of Bing's 'White Christmas' is not the classic one everyone knows, it is still fine, and the other tracks are all great. An essential MP3 download from Amazon.

Goodyear Christmas LPs

2011-11-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

I have always been a fan of the Goodyear ’Great Songs of Christmas’ LPs issued in the 1960’s and 70’s, ‘available exclusively’ at Goodyear Tire Stores. The first series was compiled by CBS in the 60’s and featured the best tracks from the CBS/Columbia catalogs, with artists like Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Doris Day and Percy Faith, to name a few. I am such a fan that I have an entire website dedicated to the music from these and other records from that era. Head on over to goodstonechristmas.com to get your Christmas Music into overdrive!

Percy Faith - Music of Christmas

2011-11-30T13:10:00.001-05:00

A classic that was heard in stores over the holidays from the 1950’s on, Faith’s arrangements of holiday songs is the very definition of Christmas Music. Originally recorded in 1954, it was later re-recorded in stereo in 1959 and this is the version that most people now know, although there is not too much difference in the versions. A few years later Faith releases ‘Hallelujah’ which was later renamed ‘Music of Christmas Volume 2’. It is right up there with the first volume. In 1966 ‘Christmas Is...’ was released, and other than the title song, there is more of a pop sound to the recording, very good but not in the same league as the original.

Music Of Christmas 2 / Hallelujah:
 

Christmas Is....
   

Ho Ho Holidays

2011-11-25T09:22:00.000-05:00

Strauss: Also sprach Bargain

2011-09-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

I have had this recording since it came out in 1983. At the time, it was one of my first CD purchases, and how things have changed. The performance clocks in around 34 minutes, and for a full price CD it was a bit of an extravagance on the record company’s part at full price. Nonetheless, Ozawa and the Boston Symphony give a great preformance of this Strauss warhorse, and with stellar sound, surely one of the first digital ASZ recordings. While the CD is NOT a deal, you can get the MP3 verison for a mear $0.99 at Amazon. Of course it is in one track, but a great deal at any price.

Vinyl Classics: Rimsky-Korsakov

2011-09-07T23:38:00.000-04:00

Rimsky Korsakov: Scheherezade - Ormandy - Philadelphia Orchestra

Every once in a while I go to the local thrift stores, and come across some great vinyl finds. I have always collected vinyl, even when I changed to all CDs for my classical music. Lately I have gotten back into listening to my records, and there are still some great LPs that are either not on CD or are in a budget release that has next to nothing as far as info.

I knew that Ormandy and the Phil Orch had recorded Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade for CBS, but not for RCA. Then they made the move over to the RCA label for a while, Ormandy & Co. re-recorded a lot of their more popular works. RCA was also experimenting with Quad recordings among other things, and I guess that the technology had improved enough to warrant a new recording of the works that the orchestra had recorded in the 50’s and 60’s again.

Turns out that a lot of those new recordings were superior to the CBS versions, although many of them have seemed to vanish from the catalog, hence why I had missed this particular one, and it is well worth having. Great sound, and maybe it is the Quad sound processing that was done for the LP, but you really hear a lot of the orchestra instruments better than any other version I have heard.

It is not in print anywhere, but the CBS version is and is available on the release below:

Furtwangler RIAS Set

2011-09-02T22:13:00.000-04:00

RIAS: “Radio in the American sector” in Berlin [after the war]

Starting in 1947, RIAS broadcast Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic performing a variety of works until 1954. There were tapes made of these broadcasts, and Audite has made an arrangement to issue all of the available recordings, taken from the original tapes. This was released in 2009, and is by far the best sounding set of performances from Furtwangler from that era. Of course sound quality is relative, and these are mono recordings, and if you are only happy with the latest digital surround disks, you should move on. However, all of the recordings go from decent to good, and the performances are downright stellar. Furtwangler’s takes on these works are from another era, and a few are not wonderful, but overall this is something that you will not hear from any recording these days. There is Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schumann, some Bach and Handel, plus a few works that you may never even heard of from composers that are no longer in the ‘Top 20’ anymore.

From the audite.de site:

The majority of the concerts given by Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic between 1947 and 1954 were recorded by the RIAS Berlin; all of these recordings are documented in this boxed set. The original tapes from the RIAS archives have been made available for the first time for this edition so these CDs also offer unsurpassed technical quality. Furthermore, some of the recordings are presented for the very first time, such as the Fortner Violin Concerto with Gerhard Taschner.

These RIAS recordings are documents of historical value: they contain a major part of Furtwängler’s late oeuvre as a conductor, which was characterised by a high level of focus in different respects. Focus on repertoire which has at its core the symphonic works of Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner and is supplemented by works by Bach and Handel and also by topical composers of the time, including Hindemith, Blacher and Fortner: artists who were counted amongst the members of “moderate modernism” and who were not perceived to have been tainted by the cultural politics of the National Socialists.

Focus was also a guiding principle in Furtwängler’s concert programmes which always feature a particular idea. His interpretations also demonstrate extremely high levels of focus: concentration and focus for him meant a contem- porary decoding, a re-creation, which would express the fundamental content of a work. A number of works – the Third, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven as well as Johannes Brahms’ Third Symphony – are included in two interpretations. They reveal how Furtwängler was able to accentuate dif- ferent aspects of a work whilst maintaining the same, clear basic conception – and how the actual interpretation depended on the context of the particular programme.

I have been enjoying this set for a while, and have heard some familiar works in a whole new way because of this release. The set is a steal at around $50 for 12 CDs of music, and iTunes has the download for half that amount. If you go that way, there is a booklet included in the download apparently, but you can also get a lot of info from the Audite website at www.audite.de.

I cannot recommend this set highly enough, both for the novice and more experienced music listener.

Track info and sound samples at audite.de.

Hallmark Reissues: Peter and the Wolf

2011-08-30T23:42:00.001-04:00

Some more LPs reissues from Hallmark. Each features a recording of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’, but the companion pieces vary. Some cool recordings here, there may be an old favorite here for someone. Again, each album is under $2.

Fairy sure this is the original album cover.

........and finally.......
This is not a Hallmark release, but an old Everest recording that was reissued a while ago. A favorite of mine, so had to share, even though it is a regular price album.

MP3 Download Specials

2011-08-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I run across some really great deals on classical music when I am browsing the online stores that are just too good to pass up.

Handel’s Water Music and selections from the opera ‘Alcina’ are one a 2 track set for $1.98. Of course the music is not broken up into tracks, but the sound and performance are good, and this is a steal.

Feliz Slatkin and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra run through some great Strauss Waltzes for under $3.

Symphony No. 1: Berwald

2011-08-24T09:01:00.000-04:00

Symphony No. 1:
A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection.

Swedish composer Franz Berwald [1796-1868] composed 4 symphonies, and Symphony No. 1 “Sinfonie serieuse” is a pleasant romantic era work, and a good introduction to this composer. The Naxos release is coupled with Symphony No. 2, and you can read my posting of the companion CD with Symphony 3 and 4 here. There are also some CD Set releases of all 4 symphonies that you may want to check out, the BIS release by Ehrling is older but excellent, and the EMI 3CD set by Bjorlin adds some other orchestral works. Both are currently available as downloads only.

Hallmark Classical LP Reissues

2011-08-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

Hallmark has been reissuing some very old classic recordings for download recently. I have not been able to find a comprehensive list anywhere, and also the descriptions are sometimes lacking about the performers, recording sources, year of recording, etc. I have taken some educated guesses on some of the selections, but could be wrong. However, these are some great performances, some having never seen the light of day on CD, and if you like historical recordings, they are well worth trying out.

I am fairy sure they are based on old LPs from the 1950s, since the running time averages 30-40 minutes and are 2 tracks [like side 1 and 2 of an LP], and I have been able to track down identical vinyl albums that match in several cases. Many are mono recordings, others are early stereo. Plus they are priced very well. Each of the albums below cost less than $2. Note, the works are put onto one or two tracks, so no separation of the sections, but for the money, no big deal.

Conducted by Pierre Monteux.

20 Buck List: Piano Works

2011-08-22T20:17:00.000-04:00

What can you get for around 20 Bucks? Well, you can build a great classical collection for that much a month if you know where to look. Every month or so I will have a list of downloadable recordings to help you explore the world of classical music, featuring some essential collections and a few bargains. While I am partial to CDs, since you get better sound and liner notes, you can get a better deal most of the time with downloadable MP3s. There will always be some sort of theme with each group, be it a composer, style of work, or even a conductor.

Another set of X5 bargain compilations: The Piano Sonatas and Piano Concertos of Mozart. While you may have heard or own a selection of these works, you probably do not have a complete set. Yes, there are some benchmark recordings of both of these works, but 18 Sonatas and 27 Concertos, they tend to be an expensive proposition. Well, Carmen Piazzini is a musician from Buenos Aires, and has recorded both of these sets of works. The Piano Sonatas contain great playing, and the sound is good, just enough distance on the piano but not too much. The Concertos is mostly complete [missing 8 K.246 and 17 K.453] but to be honest my favorite Perahia set is not quite complete either, so I am guessing there are some with dubious authenticity among the sets. No matter, overall a great set, and each set is priced at around $7, you cannot go wrong.

Another X5 set, this one of Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz music. While he wrote pieces for piano, some have been transcribed for guitar, orchestra, etc. Best known for his piano suites, many of these are performed by Miguel Baselga, and are licensed from BIS records. Excellent performances, and very enjoyable. There are some arrangements spread among the 44 tracks, so this will get you a majority of the Albeniz that you need for your collection. Around $7 for the MP3 set.

Symphony No. 1: Borodin

2011-08-20T13:35:00.001-04:00

Symphony No. 1:
A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection.

Russian composer Alexander Borodin [1833-1887]. While his Symphony No. 2 gets all the attention, and sometimes No. 3, the Borodin 1st gets short shrift on a lot of releases. Fortunately RCA put together a Borodin Orchestral set on LP years ago, and the 3 Symphony recordings from that set by Loris Tjeknavorian and the National Phil Orch have been compiled into one CD. Great playing, and while the 1st may not be the most well known of the set, it is still a good work, plus you get the other symphonies, all at a bargain price.

Symphony No. 1: Beethoven

2011-08-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

Symphony No. 1: A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection.

Oh, Beethoven, where to start. You can read my posts on various Beethoven Sets here. So, if you happen to not have Beethoven 1 in your collection, and do not want to spring for a set, there are literally dozens of options out there. I think the best bet would be the classic Szell/Cleveland release. Along with a great 6th, there is some great conducting, good energy and good sound.

On the other hand.....I can’t resist........okay, if you think you may want the Toscanini set, but are hesitant due to the age of the recordings, the old RCA release of the 1st and 3rd is still available used, very cheap. Well worth going for it in my opinion, I can bet you will want the whole set after listening to it.... I do not have this particular release, and BMG remastered a lot of these old recordings twice, so your mileage may vary on this release.

The Toscanini Set:

Symphony No. 1: Bax

2011-08-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

Symphony No. 1: A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection.

English composer Arnold Bax [1883-1953] composed 7 symphonies from 1922 to 1939. Symphony No. 1 starts out as a moody affair, but nonetheless a very good work that picks up, especially with repeated listens. If you are a fan of Bartok, you may find it an interesting and rewarding listen.

The Chandos cycle/single CD’s by Brydon Thomson are out of print, although the Symph No. 1 album is available as a download from the Chandos ClassicalShop website. This is the version I have, but Chandos has another cycle by Vernon Handley that is quite good too. The CD’s are regular price, but the 7 Symphony MP3 set is a steal, currently at about $18 at Amazon, so that may be the way to go.

Naxos has a decent Bax cycle too, with Symphony 1 with other orchestral works, and you can preview that album at Spotify.

Bax was quite a prolific composer, and Chandos also has a multi volume selection of his orchestral works that is worth checking out.

Complete Set:

The Handley Set:

Naxos Set:

BasicRep.com turns 10!

2011-08-18T23:18:00.000-04:00

To all the BasicRep visitors:

In August of 2001, I had an idea: list the CD’s of my favorite Classical Albums to guide new and older listeners of the classics through the plethora of releases available. Over the years, the site has undergone many changes. The concept was to be able to link to albums that were in print, so you could go to your local store with the label and catalog number listed, or click to an online store to listen to sound samples.

I originally linked to CDNow.com, who had the best selection at the time. Of course, they eventually closed, breaking all of my links, so I had to start over. I went to CDUniverse for a while, but still had some issues. After a few frustrating months, I eventually settled on Amazon.com, with their vast selection of releases, the availability of getting out of print cds used, and the best prices. Of course iTunes and MP3 downloads became more common and sound quality improved, so I began adding links to those as well. Let me tell you, there was a lot of linking and typing going on :)

There were many false starts, and a lot of work trying to keep the site up to date, filling out the composer info and album releases. As the record industry changed, with Decca, Philips, Archiv, and London getting combined into Universal Music, CBS being sold to Sony, RCA going to BMG, then the Sony/BMG combination, the amount of releases going in and out of print became overwhelming. Too much actually to keep up with on a regular basis. It finally occurred to me that a blog may be the way to go, and with some tagging and organization, I was actually able to update the site more often.

Also, along the way, I realized there was no real info on one of my favorite album lines, CBS Great Performances, and after a lot of searching, I finally compiled a list of all 100 volumes from this great series. This has been the most popular area of the site by far, getting 100’s of visitors each month.

It has been 10 years, and I still enjoy sharing my music with others. I have gotten many questions over the years, concerning record info, suggestions on works, et al, and have liked it when I can help a fellow classical music lover discover more music. A big Thank You to all the visitors to the site, and here is to another 10 years!

Jim

BasicRep.com circa 2001:

Spotify

2011-08-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

Spotify is a music streaming service recently launched in the US. It has a free [Ad Supported] and premium option [$5-10/month], with a large selection of music from all of the major labels. Definitely worth checking out. They are limiting signups for the free service, but just submit your email address and Spotify will send you an invite in short order. I have been adding links to posts for the albums or works I am recommending from now on, so you can listen to more than a small excerpt and actually hear the entire work.

http://www.spotify.com