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I'm going to greatly expand my classical collection soon. What are some good labels to look for? By good I mean you know the recordings are going to be top notch. The format will be compact disc ...
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all of their discs I have are recorded very well. Ondine is another label I generally like.
But posters commenting that all labels have duds is true. Several people have mentioned Hanssler. The last CD I got of theirs (of Franck) was grating and overbright.
And maybe the best recorded issue that I have ever heard is from the oft-maligned DG (the Abbado Pelleas & Melisande).
I also think Hyperion is overrated, by the way. Some really good recorded sound, some mediocre.
So I don't think your survey will result in useful information.
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"He was one of those men who live in poverty so that their lines of questioning may continue." - John Steinbeck
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"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
For reissues, Music & Arts, Musical Concepts, and Testament are particularly good.
Maxwell House - good to the last drop
Tareyton - I'd rather fight than switch
Benson & Hedges - Just a silly millimeter longer/101
Alka Selzter - I can't believe I ate the whole thing
LIBERTY ONCE LOST,
IS LOST FOREVER
-JOHN ADAMS
Which cigarette brand commercials showed a woman on a river bank, and the motto was, "Come up, come all the way up to -"
t
Gotcha!. Salem, one of the earlier "menthol" cigarettes.
"You can take Salem out of the country...... But...... You can't take the country out of Salem."
Pall-Mall cigarette commercials pronounced the name "Pell Mell"...........
"Benson & Hedges - Just a silly millimeter longer/101"And I thought I was the only one who remembers this goofy stuff..........
Virginia Slims- "You've Come a Long Way Baby!!"
"Chock Full O' Nuts is the Heavenly Coffee!!"
"The Burgers are Bigger at Burger King!"
"McDonald's Is Your Kind of Place!!"
Marlboro Cigs- The theme from "Magnificent Seven"
The instrumental theme for Chevy cars and Gillette razor products........
"From One Beer Lover To Another, Stroh's!!"
"When You Say Bud-Weiser, You Said It All!"
The Evening News theme (forget which network)- Second Movement of Beethoven's Ninth.........
Edits: 07/03/12
The "Silly Millimeter Longer - 101" jingle was taken from the Ritchie Valens hit song "La Bamba".............
Just more useless information............
Good point. And, for television and "hi-fi" there was:
Zenith - the quality goes in before the name goes on
Indeed, the zenith of audiophile quality.
"Quasar...... By Motorola"..... Brand of TV.......... "Works in a drawer!"
"Ford..... Has a Better Idea!!"........
"One of eight great small car buys, from Plymouth".........
"Your next car is Chrysler!..... Your next car is Chrysler......."
"Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?"
"Hershey's Instant makes milk taste like a Hershey Bar!"
"Sky Bar..... Four Bars in One!!"
"Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!"
"You Get the Recessed Filter in Parliament Cigarettes!"
"Burgess..... The Darn Good Battery!"
"Wonder Bread...... Builds Strong Bodies Twelve Ways"..... (Talk about advertising fraud.)
"Rolaids absorbs 17 times its weight in excess stomach acid."
American Tourister Luggage commercial with gorilla unable to bust apart its products........
Master lock commercial with bullet fired through lock, but does not open.
Bic pen commercial with pen fired through wood board, but still writes.
"Bic Pen..... Writes First Time, Every Time."
Schmidt's Beer commercial with taste expert unable to distinguish it from Coor's (during the era it was only available West of the Rockies).
"Bring on the Iron...... Iron City Beer."
Very good. I'd forgotten many of those, but you've brought back all those recollections. Funny, I found those commercials mostly annoying when I saw them as a kid.
As a funny aside, I believe that the quite funny Saturday Night Live beer commercial parody used the Schmidt's name for it's Schmidt's Gay Beer.
People ask me how or why I remember such frivolity......... I didn't *try* to remember any of it........ It just happened on its own.
"Duke...... It even sounds like a man's beer......"
"Duracell..... The Copper Top Battery......"
The Energizer Bunny originally emerged as a response to a Duracell commercial with toy animals playing drums.......
"And like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!"
"Get a Piece of the Rock...... Prudential Insurance"
The "Good Hands" with Allstate has been around forever.
The Coca-Cola song to "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"........
"It's the Real Thing".... Coke jingle.
"It takes two hands to handle the Whopper" (Burger King)
"7-Up, the Un-Cola"
(Bang head with hand) "I could have had a V-8"
"Curad...... The Ouch-less Bandage"
"Dr. Pepper......... 10, 2, and 4!" (I never knew what the number meant.)
"Never borrow money needlessly, but if you need to borrow, trust HFC!"
"Michelin, Because So Much is Riding on Your Tires!"
"Goodrich doesn't have a blimp!"
"Is It Live, or Is It Memorex?"
"She's Got L'Eggs!"
VISA credit cards were at one time "Bank AmeriCard"........
MasterCard credit cards were at one time "Master Charge"........
Almost all classical labels have some good quality recordings. Some actually sound better with their digital reissues than with their original issues (e.g., reissues of 1970's DG sound better, to me, than their thin sounding original vinyl issues). For consistently great sounding recordings, I like the following labels:
Chandos
Hyperion
BIS
Channel Classics
Alia Vox
Harmonia Mundi
Hanssler Classics
Naive
Pentatone
MDG
ECM
Lots of labels have some good classical recordings. I don't think anyone has mentioned Chesky, which has a number of excellent reissues of some classic recordings, mostly done for Reader's Digest in thr '60s, but produced by Charles Gerhardt with Kenneth G. Wilkinson as recording engineer. I have a number and they are all outstanding.
The leading classical label in the world now seems to be a budget label, Naxos. Since the early '90s, the recording quality has been generally very good to excellent, and many of the performances are first class, too. The best performances may be on Naxos, or they may be on other labels
I would suggest investing in a Penguin Guide to classical recordings to get their (they are a small committee) opinions.
I have been eyeing the 50 CD set of old Mercury Classics available at Amazon or ArchivMusik for a little over $100. It looks like a terrific sampler of classical music in great recordings and find performances. The chief reason I haven't gone for it is that I wonder when I will have time to listen to much of it. And what will my wife think? I already have some of the recordings on it, and they are great.
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"A fool and his money are soon parted." --- Thomas Tusser
N/T
"One this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" - Michael McClure
Every label has some terrific recordings, as well as some complete duds, and everything in between, both musically and sonically.
Better to narrow down the music in which you're interested, and then ask for recommendation.
Most of the Sony Essential Classics from around 2002 and later [featuring solid color covers, rather than the earlier floral painting type covers], have incredibly good sound, lacking only top octave air [due digital filtering to remove hiss that alway offends novice/general listeners]. These DC reissues demonstrate how good Columbia recordings were - before Columbia ruined the sound for release on vinyl records back in the early 60s. The vinyl versions of most of these were awful, and led to the hatred for Columbia sound and records among audiophiles. But, these particular CD releases are good to superb.
Edits: 07/03/12
One good thing about the advent of the CD is that it lead to even the "little guy" being able to make high quality recordings. Back in the vinyl LP era, many small, "budget" and reissue labels had to cut corners, leading to awful results. Nowadays, you don't have to think about recording quality first, since it is usually very good regardless of label.That said, IMO BIS (Swedish), Chandos and Hyperion (British) and Harmonia Mundi (French) have consistently put out high quality classical CDs.
Edits: 07/03/12
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RCA, Mercury, Telarc, Decca/London, Hyperion, Chandos
Alan
Greg -
Hyperion and Harmonia Mundi are very good. If you are interested in modern and contemporary classical, check Mode Records.
Regards,
Karl
"'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice./And when justice is gone, there's always force./And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!" Laurie Anderson, "O Superman (For Massenet)"
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