tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post112608319414836298..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Gentlemen, old Bach is here....Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-12227757168399777242008-01-13T14:08:00.000+00:002008-01-13T14:08:00.000+00:00Thanks for your swift, helpful reply and for conti...Thanks for your swift, helpful reply and for continuing to write such an informative, entertaining and interesting blog. Long may it continue!Mess Noonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11019765870887581577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-38163092221887893832008-01-13T14:06:00.000+00:002008-01-13T14:06:00.000+00:00Mess, an unequivocal yes. Evening in the Palace of...Mess, an unequivocal yes. <BR/><BR/><I>Evening in the Palace of Reason</I> book is written for a general audience. It even includes a glossary and recommended recordings.<BR/><BR/>Highly recommended - enjoy it.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-26212469680460967192008-01-13T12:50:00.000+00:002008-01-13T12:50:00.000+00:00I would just like to ask - would you consider this...I would just like to ask - would you consider this book readable by someone with very little musical training or knowledge of musical theory? Sounds interesting but I am wary for these reasons.Mess Noonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11019765870887581577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1137225612636194642006-01-14T08:00:00.000+00:002006-01-14T08:00:00.000+00:00Anonymous - yes, you are quite correct, my error. ...Anonymous - yes, you are quite correct, my error. <BR/><BR/>I checked the CD sleeve, the third transcription is indeed by Rudolf Lutz, apologies.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1137205901763310132006-01-14T02:31:00.000+00:002006-01-14T02:31:00.000+00:00Merely correcting a factual error here. The third...Merely correcting a factual error here. The third transription on the Chaconne disc you mentioned above is not by Edna Stern herself, but by Rudolf Lutz.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126552006353557242005-09-12T20:06:00.000+01:002005-09-12T20:06:00.000+01:00I can't add any deeply-thought out comments about ...I can't add any deeply-thought out comments about CD packaging, but just wanted to say how much I enjoy your site. I've been following your reports for a few months but was prompted to write by your spot-on review of 'Evening In The Palace of Reason' which has been my favourite summer reading. I wish musicologists could engage half as well as James Gaines! Keep up the good work!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126289674242439992005-09-09T19:14:00.000+01:002005-09-09T19:14:00.000+01:00Robin, hear, hear to your comments about the SDG p...Robin, hear, hear to your comments about the SDG packaging and product - I can only agree with you. And that includes your comment about the white out of black typography -a combination of sitting in front of a computer monitor for too long and middle-age is ruining my eyesight.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126281232997037812005-09-09T16:53:00.000+01:002005-09-09T16:53:00.000+01:00Agree with Garth about the quality of ECM cover de...Agree with Garth about the quality of ECM cover design, and think the company has adapted well to the small scale. They almost redeem the jewel box too: there's a sense of normative, high-quality series design there.<BR/>SDG: the most wonderful project in good packets. Space-economical: to have all that text in two languages in such a slim packet. The cover pics look as if they might touch an audience that isn't into BWV numbers and the Lutheran calendar. They bring out the essential humanity of the music (cliché, but a truth also). Only pity is the white-out-of-black text, which makes for quite tough reading.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126280521129032912005-09-09T16:42:00.000+01:002005-09-09T16:42:00.000+01:00pliable, I'll disagree with you about ECM New's mo...pliable, I'll disagree with you about ECM New's monochrome covers -- which are often beautiful and sometimes highly conceptual. To me are as satisfactory as were the "serial" cover art projects DGG and many other labels issued in the 1960s and 70s (I am posting briefly).<BR/><BR/>For example, I very much like the Georgian photographs that grace the ECM New Giya Kancheli albums (a close friend met this Tblisi photographer in Georgia, and has several of his large photos framed in his dining room); while I recall the Valentin Silvestrov covers feature conceptual treatments of film stills from classic Soviet films. <BR/><BR/>Obviously, I have less experience with marketing to the wider classical market than you do... (though I too feel jewel cases were a disaster despite my LP collection being partially flooded away a few years back.) Sorry for my rush job.Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126277673636135672005-09-09T15:54:00.000+01:002005-09-09T15:54:00.000+01:00Fair points made above. By packaging I meant sleev...Fair points made above. By packaging I meant sleeve design rather than sleevenotes, but didn't really make that clear.<BR/><BR/>ECM sleeve designs with their monochrome feel always look like budget jobs to me. Just as an example look <A HREF="http://www.ecmrecords.com/Images/cover/New_Series/1700/N1793g.jpg" REL="nofollow">at the sleeve design of the superb ECM Thomas Zhetmair Schumann Quartets.</A> Defining great sleeve design is highly subjective, but I think anyone would struggle to say the quality of the art direction matches the quality of the music and performance on that CD.<BR/><BR/>I'm probably a retrogrouche. But for me the move from 12 inck LP sleeves to CD jewel boxes killed the art of sleeve design. Winter and Winter may be weird, but they are trying.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for contributing to an interesting debate. Does anyone have vews on the <A HREF="http://www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk/recordings/new_releases.cfm" REL="nofollow">SDG sleeve designs for their Bach Cantatas, which personally I love?</A>Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126273264760182832005-09-09T14:41:00.000+01:002005-09-09T14:41:00.000+01:00Robin, I would say that one always finds a highly ...Robin, I would say that one <I>always</I> finds a highly intelligent essay included with ECM New Series recordings -- or often two or three separate highly intelligent (often philosophical) essays. It is true that sometimes -- for reasons of space -- only one (or two?) of the three essays is translated into English, but the ECM New strategy of including multiple intellectual/cultural voices is to be cherished and commended, in my view.<BR/><BR/>(There are also those anti-intellectuals who claim that the ECM New Series is simply marketing pretty photographs...)Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126271636732141292005-09-09T14:13:00.000+01:002005-09-09T14:13:00.000+01:00Your remarks on CD packaging feel a bit askew. ECM...Your remarks on CD packaging feel a bit askew. ECM has a cult following, partly just for the imagery and packaging of its CDs (and, earlier, LPs). They give a lot of attention to it. Label boss Manfred Eicher reputedly sits with the designers of the covers, saying "just a bit to the left" or "make it 6 points larger", etc. The photographic documentation of recording sessions in the booklets is often quite comprehensive. It's true that there often isn't much in the way of "sleeve notes", but then sometimes one finds a good essay by Wilfrid Mellers or even Umberto Eco, especially with the ECM New Series discs. By contrast, Winter & Winter, in my experience, supplies neither verbal nor (intelligent) visual commentary. Just these terrible "cardboard creations" (Andrew McGregor's phrase), from which the disc is hard to extract without the sense that you are damaging it. Often I like the music on the disc, but am put off acquiring by the packet it's contained in. The only instance where the music prevailed for me was with Uri Caine's wonderful Mahler investigations.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1126260072370602302005-09-09T11:01:00.000+01:002005-09-09T11:01:00.000+01:00Thank you Pliable, for a very good review indeed, ...Thank you Pliable, for a very good review indeed, much appreciated. If only there were more of you....<BR/><BR/>James Gaines, author of <A HREF="http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0007156588 " REL="nofollow">Evening in the Palace of Reason</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com