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As mentioned on the regular music forum, I haven't been downloading as regularly in the last couple of months, so I decided to try a new site that I'd never used before: ProStudio Masters, which seems to have a number of Canadian (and other) recordings in hi-rez that other sites don't have (link below). The download time took was less than an hour, and it was great to get musically re-acquainted with babe cellist Denise Djokic, who released a couple of CD's, in 2005 and 2008 (album covers below). I was hoping she would do a lot more recording before she got too old (Bach Suites maybe?), so I was very pleased indeed to see this new hi-rez album appear in late 2013, with two of the most demanding cello sonatas in the literature (perhaps more demanding for the pianist than for the cellist, but more about that later!).
I compared Denise's new Rachmaninoff performance with three other recent recordings of this sonata that I had on CD, and she and Jalbert certainly hold their own in the company, even though I'm not sure I would prefer their performance overall. My first impression was that Jalbert was just a bit ordinary in his ability to define textures with the incisiveness that this music requires: there are often so many notes in the piano part (almost as if it were a concerto solo!) that it's easy for the textures to become murky and for the listener to lose sight of the main lines. Jalbert doesn't entirely avoid this danger, compared to the other three pianists I listened to earlier tonight: Hough (with Isserlis), Lugansky (with Kniazev), and Thibaudet (with Mørk). Although Denise and Jalbert are excellent at making their expressive tempo transitions sound expressive and natural, they suffer a bit compared to the other duos in clarifying textures and making the main lines stand out. The other duos do have weaknesses of their own however: I thought Kniazev's tone quality was perhaps not as consistently beautiful as the others (perhaps an intentional interpretive choice however, at least in places), and while Hough plays with a miraculous level of detail while still holding his dynamics in check (so as not to cover the cello), I sometimes felt he was TOO deferential and needed to just let it rip - at least in a couple of places. In some ways, I preferred the Thibaudet/Mørk performance - which was a surprise to me, because I'm not always a fan of Thibaudet. But he seems to have the greatest expressive range of the pianists in this work and Mørk is an equally strong interpretive presence.
The Chopin is also well done, but it competes with the classic Starker/Sebok recording, which is just that much more focused and purposeful in its expression - one little appreciated aspect of the Starker recording was what an extraordinary pianist Sebok was. But even if the Djokic/Jalbert performance is a bit more diffuse, it's VERY good and sounds wonderful in its 24/96 incarnation. I looked at spectrographs of the first and fourth movements of the Rachmaninoff, and they look great: very clean all the way up, with musical signals visible to about 35kHz. Nice!
Denise's other recordings (the only one I have is "Folklore" which I highly recommend):
Follow Ups:
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For some reason, Amazon has the Sudbin/Chaushian recording going for $80+ (link below). Strange - I don't think it's out of print.
Looks like it is OOP. Presto Classical is showing limited stock, but it is still cheap there. I snapped it up as I'm something of a fan of Sudbin.
The Chaushian/Sudbin recording isn't out of print; it's $14.50 at Presto Classical for the multichannel SACD, or $12 for CD-quality download ($17.50 for 2-channel 24/96 download).
Edits: 08/05/17
...including very fast download speeds--much less than an hour. I've downloaded quite a few albums from them, though sometimes their prices are higher than at other sites.
Thanks, Chris, for the info on this album!
Russell
I can see from the pictures that I've either been redirected to a site Chris is on or some other girlie site.
Also a handsome young guy, not that there's anything wrong with that.
That said, I would be most supportive of shifting reviving this site with a small shift towards streaming and downloading of classical music.
I can think of no better use of an internet music board than conversing about music in real-time which streaming services enable, and to a bit lesser degree, direct download does as well.
Noting that 3 of the 4 CD covers pictured can be streamed on MOG.
Better still, the ATMA Classique Rochmaninov/Chopin is available for streaming in 16/44.1 on QOBUZ(at least for the time being).
... it would be nice to raise from the underground and have direct access to this board from General or Music. So far I can't find any links.
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The other forums could retain their focus on disc-based music. The only trouble is that there are not many (or any!) general site links to Classical Court, so announcements still need to be posted on the SACD and Music Lanes forums when there's a new post here - otherwise, folks don't have a way to get here (unless they're part of the classical Illuminati, with all the secret knowledge that membership entails!).
OTOH, this kind of emphasis just on streaming and downloads might cut down on the number of posts here.
Discs banned from all music forums? How are downloads/streaming different from discs - other than usually cheaper and often inferior? Is there some intrinsic difference in the music?
Just by the number of folks who are posting about the closing of MOG come April 15.
If QOBUZ ever gets its act together and becomes available in the US, those numbers may increase, as 16/44.1 Lossless FLAC is pretty darned good!
Let's home so!
As regards the Rochmaninov.
Irrespective of the spelling he always seems to sound like...
ROCHMANINOV!
OK, I'll go along with you guys. How about one or both of you post a summary of the currently available classical streaming services and your evaluation of sound quality, customer service, user friendliness, availability in the US and cost? This is the inevitable future, I suppose, so I can get ready for it even as I buy my last dirt-cheap CDs.
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I have been streaming MOG for over a year BUT, come April 15 it's gone and I would have to subscribe to Beats Music streaming service which I suspect is NOT attuned to the musical preferences of an old white guy who like Classical music.
So I will likely have to try out Spotify.
That is IF Qobuz stays in Europe. There has been talk of it coming to the US in 2014, but I find little to support that rumor posted recently. Sonos support for QOBUZ is available ONLY for Sonus units registered in Europe with European firmware. You can sign up using a European Proxy, and that works fine for downloads, but the service only streams 16/44.1 from an app, not the web, and the app reports your actual location even it you log onto the web through a proxy. Not saying you couldn't hide your location, but it would be both expensive and difficult to hide you ISP when streaming music.
If and when I'm forced to leave MOG and sign up for Spotify, I'll post my opinions, such as they are.
What about Tidal. I am a classical guy and I find most classical releases on Tidal.
Alan
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