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Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 84
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Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 84 |
How are you guys able to choose just one? I can't do it. There are FAR too many. This is why I basically stopped buying music and now subscribe to services like Spotify. I effectively have everything Rubinstein every recorded, and that new Horowitz box set is on the service, too. I can pull up a piece and have hundreds of examples of it, from every recording artist imaginable. My own teacher's specialty CDs (accompaniment) are even up there. Yes, you have all of them, in superb 192 kbps!!
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 220
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 220 |
Hi Melwig,
Yeah, it's impossible to narrow it down to one, or even just a few. If you like recital recordings, however, Sviatoslav Richter's Sofia Recital from 1958 is available on iTunes and a recording I consider pretty essential for collectors of piano music, although the sound quality is rather poor and there is a significant amount of audience noise. The performance, one of the most super-charged ever captured on tape, renders all these caveats moot.
Cheers!
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 13,837
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 13,837 |
My CD collection once consisted of five discs:
Horowitz at the Met Ashkenazy - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 and Paganini Rhapsody with London/Previn Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations Lilya Zilberstein - Rachmaninoff Preludes Op. 32 and Shostakovich 1st Sonata Pollini - Chopin Etudes
Now that my iTunes library has over 15,000 tracks. I still go back to those five albums for inspiration.
"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt) www.pianoped.comwww.youtube.com/user/UIPianoPed
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 124
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 124 |
Three favorites:
Pollini's recording of Stravinsky's Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka and the Prokofiev Seventh Sonata; Firkusny's recording of Pictures at an Exhibition; and Pogorelich's recording of Gaspard de la Nuit.
All on DG.
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,420
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,420 |
Anyone else experience shock and awe at Pogorelich playing the Brahms Op. 79 Rhapsodies!? (1992) Absolutely riveting and I could not believe what I was hearing. I've known about the album for quite some time but I had basically written it off as ridiculous for all this time. For some reason I decided to listen to the Op. 79 and was dumbfounded. Please give it a serious listen and decide for yourself. Both pieces, I think, are so imaginative and unorthodox that they lend to a great deal of interpretive freedom as is displayed here. Especially the first, I'm not sure how so many pianists end up sounding the same in a composition like this. The album is also benefited by superb sound quality. Here it is on Youtube (no I don't own the album). http://youtu.be/ZJrkefO17Qo
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 7,032
7000 Post Club Member
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The CD most dear to me is Andre Laplante playing Ravel (the one with Miroirs).
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 990
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 990 |
This is why I basically stopped buying music and now subscribe to services like Spotify.
+1 for Spotify. Yes, you have all of them, in superb 192 kbps!!
Spotify streams up to ~320 kbps for their subscribers. The difference between 320 kbps and lossless is typically entirely negligible, but not always.
"A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us 'like the fabled specter-ships,' which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind." R. W. Emerson
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,453
8000 Post Club Member
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8000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2008
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A little off-topic...spotify's free service is fine for popular music. However, I really despise having advertisements play between movements. I've never actually tried the Spotify premium trial...is the sound difference noticeable between ~320 kbps and 192 kbps?
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 990
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2013
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is the sound difference noticeable between ~320 kbps and 192 kbps? It depends on what speakers/headphones you're using, as well as the mastering of the track itself, but generally you will notice the difference between 320 kbps and 192 kbps. With headphones of any caliber, you will definitely notice the difference.
"A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us 'like the fabled specter-ships,' which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind." R. W. Emerson
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,377
2000 Post Club Member
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2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,377 |
I never listened to Spotify without a subscription. So I'm not sure whether it sounds ok or not. I've never had to tolerate an advertisement. That would be annoying. I stopped listening to Pandora for several reasons, but ads were one of them.
Anyway, as to the overall quality of the music, I do know that if I'm not in front of a live performance, I can tolerate a certain amount of hit in overall fidelity. Heck, I can listen to those old recordings in which the fidelity is not so great, with audible hiss and tinny sound, and still be blissfully transported. A magical performance always shines through.
That being said, I do like listening to things the best I can, so I have a really terrific set of over-the-ear headphones that I bought last year (in part based on some user recommendations here) that make the most of whatever it is I'm listening to.
On the other hand, me, my iphone, and some cheap earbuds are still enough to keep me happy if it's some music I want and I've got the opportunity.
Overall, I'm getting a pretty good experience, and also get the convenience of having an enormous catalog at my fingertips at all times.
Last edited by TwoSnowflakes; 02/18/14 12:15 AM.
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 58
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Dunno why this one pops into my mind; maybe it was the most formative for me. On first listen I thought "What the heck was that? it doesn't even sound like music." I went on to become utterly fascinated with Brahms and probably have listened to this album nearly a bazillion times.
Kawai RX-5 BLAK, Kawai Novus NV10s Working on: Bach Partita #2, Schubert Klavierstucke 2, Scriabin 8/12 Next up: Chopin Impromptu #3, Schubert Op 90 #3, Mendelssohn "Lost Illusions."
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 4,264
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4000 Post Club Member
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My favourite is Andre Previn playing Grieg with Morecambe and Wise ... they even try to contact Edvard skiing in Norway ... but then, I'm a loon ... regards, btb ... lighten up chaps!
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Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 782
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 782 |
My first Horowitz album. ![[Linked Image]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ezYjuGmOL._SL500_SX300_.jpg) And my favorite Horowitz album. ![[Linked Image]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ce9OsDp9L.jpg)
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,933
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2000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 2,933 |
Gary
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