Month: March 2025

One of the CDs I droolingly covet is the 2-CD set of Bach’s Sonatas & Partitas by HIP violinist Patrick Bismuth, on the rare and long-defunct Stil label from France, 01109 SAN 91 barcode 3328370000473. Bismuth is an interpreter of great imagination and originality, and his repertoire is not confined to early music either: his Enescu Third Violin Sonata “in the romanian folk style”, on ZigZag Territories Zebra Collection ZZT 2010801 (link will open new tab to my review), is one of the most daring and imaginative versions of this fiendishly difficult work, full of exaggerations and mannerisms but displaying a unique personality.

But, since I’m very stingy (I make great efforts to pay less for my CDs so that I can buy more) and consider that there’s an upper limit over which it is unconscionable to buy a CD, regardless of its rarity and value, I recognize that ever acquiring the Stil set is a sweet dream, and it won’t happen.

Over the years I’ve seen the set turn up on eBay and noted the selling price – the equilibrium where demand meets offer, and the true measure of an object’s value.

In August 2022: 610 dollars

 

October 15, 2023: 425 dollars

On December 3, 2023: 560 dollars

…and every time, the same seller, Dukeyip of New York City, who specializes in the sales of rarities. Where does he find all those copies?

And then, look at the original 3-LP set:

February 17, 2023: 1,000 euros = at the time’s exchange rate, 1,067 dollars

Admittedly this was the price demanded by seller and doesn’t prove that it was ever sold, but I think I remember that it was.

And just today, March 16 2025, it sold for 835 dollars:

But the most jaw-dropping is the exceedingly rare “direct-to-disc” edition on a label Mirecourt, a 6-LP set and limited edition of 500:

I wonder if, at that price, the buyer then dares put a needle on the discs to listen. And do they keep it in a vault?

By the way: I just checked, and it’s on YouTube. You get the music, but of course, for a collector, it’s not the same thing. We want the object, “pe’l piacer di porle in lista”.

I’ll now return to my dream of one day acquiring the CD set.

Following yesterday’s repost of my review of Bernstein’s “Music Of Our Time” CD, I created a Ligeti introductory page and a Morton Feldman introductory page, linked to the Composers’ Index. I try to make these composers’ introductory pages not just a hub of links to my reviews, but also exposés of my impression and understanding of the composer. Oftentimes (and ditching for a second my natural modesty) I surprise myself, not only because I find things to say, but also because I have so much to say.

Forgot to mention the other day on this blog thread that, following my repost of Dimitri Mitropoulos’ recording of Transfigured Night and the Tallis-Fantasia, I also created the Introductory pages to Schoenberg and Vaughan Williams.

…with due credit to the harpsichordist!

Bernstein Century – Music of Our Time: György Ligeti Atmospheres (1961),  Morton Feldman Out of “Last Pieces” (1961), Four Improvisations by the orchestra, Edison Denisov Crescendo e Diminuendo for harpsichord and twelve strings (Joel Spiegelman) (1965), Gunther Schuller Triplum (1967), Olivier Messiaen Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine (1944) (Paul Jacobs piano, John Canarina ondes martenot), New York Philharmonic. Sony SMK 61845 (1999)

Created an Elliott Carter Introductory Page, with links to my reviews, both those reposted here and those on Amazon.com still pending repost (takes time!)

Today, three reposts of reviews from October 2013 of CDs of music by Elliott Carter:

Francis Thorne: Symphony No. 5 (1984), Nicolas Roussakis: Fire and Earth and Water and Air (1983), Elliott Carter: Symphony No. 1 (1942). American Composers Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davis (in Thorne), Paul Dunkel. CRI CD 552 (1988). The best version of Carter’s 1942 and still “Coplandesque” Symphony, and two fine complements, if stylistically at odds with Carter’s early composition.

Elliot Carter: Holiday Overture, Pocahontas-suite (American Composers Orchestra, Paul Dunkel), Syringa (Jan de Gaetani soprano, Thomas Paul baritone, Speculum Musicae & The Group for Contemporary Music, Harvey Sollberger). CRI “American Masters” CD 610 (1991), with the complement of the original CRI Carter LP conducted by Paul Dunkel, and a (kind of) Cantata from Carter’s very-avant-garde years (1978) – tougher fare.

Elliott Carter: Holiday-Overture, Symphony No. 1, Piano Concerto. Mark Wait, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Schermerhorn. Naxos “American Classics” 8.559151 (2004). In the early pieces, Dunkel’s competing recording is preferable, he instill’s more dynamism and eschews the laid-back pastoralism of Schermerhorn. In the absence of the score, I withhold any interpretive judgement on the Piano Concerto, one of Carter’s most uncompromising compositions, and a tough nut to crack.

 

I’m doing some (long overdue) cleanup of all those boxes of CDs gathering dust, and I’ve reposted here three old reviews from Amazon.com:

“Transfigured Notes”: Schoenberg Transfigured Night, Babbitt Transfigured Notes, Stravinsky Concerto in D. String Orchestra, cond. Gunther Schuller. GM Recordings GM2060CD (1998), possibly my favorite work by Milton Babbitt and a maelstrom of lava, plus an excellent Transfigured Night and a questionable Concerto in D

Schoenberg: Transfigured Night, Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Strings of the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulos. Sony Japan SRCR 8463 (1991), SRCR 1702 (1996) of unparalleled, fiery intensity

James H. North: New York Philharmonic The Authorized Recordings 1917-2005 – A Discography. Scarecrow Press (2006), now somewhat outdated of course as to the representation on CD of the New York Phil’s heritage, especially thanks to the huge program of reissues led by Sony/RCA these last few years, but still indispensable to the serious collector. And don’t miss either North’s companion Discography of the Boston Symphony.

These reposts require a lot of work, they are not just copy-and-paste affairs, all the links to Amazon entries need to be converted into label and barcode numbers, recent discographic additions need to be checked, suitable back and front cover photo be found, cross-links be added. It took a day and a half for those three reposts.

But… happy to have done the job, and I intend to pursue.