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A gimmick, maybe, but 2L Productions has released a recording of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor with composer Percy Grainger's 1921 recreation of his Duo-Art piano roll as centerpiece while a modern orchestra, the Kristiansand Symphony orchestra led by conductor Rolf Gupta in full surround accompanies Grainger's solo piano and as if that's not enough, Grieg himself [in 1906] plays solo piano on his own composition WEDDING DAY AT TROLDHAUGEN. Other selections include Violin Sonata #3, Album leafs Op. 28 Nos. 1 & 2 and Erotikon to Spring, again with Percy Grainger at the piano. For those with a 7.1 set-up, The piano is front and center, some of the first violins and all of the seconds are off to the left and right sides with the violas and timpani in the rear. Maybe this will make up for the Zenph re-performance lack of an SACD release for the Rachmaninoff. Amazon [US] has a release date of 10/27/09 ...... under blu-ray releases.
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Big Brother is INDEED watching. But seriously, Zeus, no SACD is capable of 7.1 playback and the BR is part of the package and the price is the same as the single disc. What hath god wrought?
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Post by zeus October 7, 2009 (3 of 9)
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rammiepie said:
But seriously, Zeus, no SACD is capable of 7.1 playback and the BR is part of the package and the price is the same as the single disc. What hath god wrought?
Huh? I attached the thread you started to the title in question (as I have done on many occasions in the past and will continue to do so). The intention is to gather all the relevant information in the same place so others can find it. It would be appreciated if in future you could use the "start discussion" link to do so yourself.
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Post by hiredfox October 8, 2009 (4 of 9)
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My first ever purchase of a 2L recording arrived yesterday, based entirely on recommendations from this forum. The Grieg tempted me but I need to hear what 2L can do for me first. I liked Ondine's DXD format enough to buy a few discs of Mustonen so we'll see what 2L made of it.
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Post by pianola October 27, 2009 (5 of 9)
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Just to set the record straight, the orchestral strings for this recording were 11/10/6/5/3, 35 in total, and not 22 as implied in the review. Perhaps the CD booklet is confusing - Polly Nomial has been counting the coloured blocks in the recording diagram, which are simply an indication of music desks to help give an impression of the layout. They are not described as representing individual players, though, and they are in any case only a stylised sketch of the actual sessions. The orchestra as a whole was 11/10/6/5/3 - 2/2/2/2 - 4/2/3/0 - T, which makes an orchestra of 53. There is an adjacent photograph in the booklet (and many others available on the 2L website) which shows the actual layout in all its glory!
http://www.2l.no/pages/album/060.html
Performances of the Grieg Concerto a hundred years ago often used smaller orchestras than you might think. The grand opening concert of the Oslo Philharmonic in 1919, which the Norwegian King and Queen attended, featured the Concerto, and the total number of musicians was 59, but they included an extra piccolo, trumpet, tuba and percussionist for other works in the programme, so the strings were only two away from those used in Kristiansand for this recording. Grainger's rolls were made in 1921, two years away from the Oslo concert, and such an orchestral size would have been quite familiar to Grainger.
In his review of the other recent recording of the Grieg Concerto on SACD, I note that Polly Nomial considers that Noriko Ogawa performs it "without a trace of mannerisms in her playing." If you want to hear mannerisms, listen to Grieg himself playing his own composition, "The Butterfly", which is available as a free mp3 on the Pianola Institute website. You won't find any pianist to play it like that nowadays, because they mostly (and erroneously) follow the exact note lengths in the score. But the score is only a hint of what the music should sound like, and Grieg really does turn it into a butterfly, with all the spontaneous bursts of energy that these little creatures display. It's hardly surprising that Grainger was Grieg's favourite pianist!
http://www.pianola.org/reproducing/reproducing.cfm
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pianola said:
Just to set the record straight, the orchestral strings for this recording were 11/10/6/5/3, 35 in total, and not 22 as implied in the review. Perhaps the CD booklet is confusing - Polly Nomial has been counting the coloured blocks in the recording diagram, which are simply an indication of music desks to help give an impression of the layout. They are not described as representing individual players, though, and they are in any case only a stylised sketch of the actual sessions. The orchestra as a whole was 11/10/6/5/3 - 2/2/2/2 - 4/2/3/0 - T, which makes an orchestra of 53. There is an adjacent photograph in the booklet (and many others available on the 2L website) which shows the actual layout in all its glory!
http://www.2l.no/pages/album/060.html
Performances of the Grieg Concerto a hundred years ago often used smaller orchestras than you might think. The grand opening concert of the Oslo Philharmonic in 1919, which the Norwegian King and Queen attended, featured the Concerto, and the total number of musicians was 59, but they included an extra piccolo, trumpet, tuba and percussionist for other works in the programme, so the strings were only two away from those used in Kristiansand for this recording. Grainger's rolls were made in 1921, two years away from the Oslo concert, and such an orchestral size would have been quite familiar to Grainger.
Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
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pianola said:
Just to set the record straight, the orchestral strings for this recording were 11/10/6/5/3, 35 in total, and not 22 as implied in the review. Perhaps the CD booklet is confusing - Polly Nomial has been counting the coloured blocks in the recording diagram, which are simply an indication of music desks to help give an impression of the layout. They are not described as representing individual players, though, and they are in any case only a stylised sketch of the actual sessions. The orchestra as a whole was 11/10/6/5/3 - 2/2/2/2 - 4/2/3/0 - T, which makes an orchestra of 53. There is an adjacent photograph in the booklet (and many others available on the 2L website) which shows the actual layout in all its glory!
http://www.2l.no/pages/album/060.html
Performances of the Grieg Concerto a hundred years ago often used smaller orchestras than you might think. The grand opening concert of the Oslo Philharmonic in 1919, which the Norwegian King and Queen attended, featured the Concerto, and the total number of musicians was 59, but they included an extra piccolo, trumpet, tuba and percussionist for other works in the programme, so the strings were only two away from those used in Kristiansand for this recording. Grainger's rolls were made in 1921, two years away from the Oslo concert, and such an orchestral size would have been quite familiar to Grainger.
Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
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Post by Arthur December 12, 2009 (8 of 9)
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I just received this disc as one of the monthly prizes from Audiophile Audition! Thanks to both AA and of course to 2L for providing the prizes!
I won't be writing a full review because a) I don't yet have a blu-ray player, and worse, b) I have recently been returned to the world of stereo only!
That said, I do want to comment on the disc. My past experience of player pianos is that they sound wooden and metrical. I searched out reviews of this disc and most said nothing about the player piano. I don't know whether this is because the reviewers assume the listener is familiar with player pianos or because they don't listen with for the same things that I do. But in any case, I am thrilled to report that I would have never guessed I was listening to a piano roll! The disc includes a pretty thorough discussion of the efforts made to produce a realistic sound, and in my opinion they succeeded admirably.
Will it be my first choice in the Grieg Concerto? No. (I'll never part with my live Michelangeli recording that is one of the most miraculous piano discs ever). But I am happy to have it on my shelf and I shall be pulling it down with pleasure.
By the way, to me the strings don't have a lot of body, but they don't sound scrappy either. It's just a small sound.
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I, too, received the disc. Thanks to Audiophile Audition and 2L.
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