19 March 2014

Aeolian String Quartet / Leonard Cassini play... Elgar. Piano Quintet ... Bax. Legend - Delta/Revolution 1963

Sir Edward ElgarPiano Quintet in A minor, op.84
I: Moderato - Allegro  ~  II: Adagio  ~  III: Moderato - Allegro       
Sir Arnold Bax:  Legend  (for Viola and Piano)            
2 files zip FLAC   Mega Download
The Aeolian String Quartet  with  Leonard Cassini,  piano  
(Sydney Humphreys  &  Raymond Keenlyside, violins - Watson Forbes, viola - Derek Simpson, 'cello)
Revolution  RCB 8   STEREO  1970 CBS UK pressing/matrices: REVB 8x -3E / REVB 8y -2E.  Originally: mono Delta  DEL 12024      NOT ON CD 
Slight de-click (1.4) + slight added treble. The performance of the Quintet is mostly quite gentle/subdued...the Bax(music) is pretty ghastly!!  

The sound is very 'dead' and rather 'smoothed'.... not to the standard of these original 1960's stereo LP's >>>      Sleeve-note / Hi-Fi News + EMG reviews >>>

Aeolian Quartet play Vaughan Williams / Elgar Quartets (Summit 1965) >>>         Aeolian Qt / Loveday / Cassini - Elgar String Qt & Violin Sonata (Concert Artist 1966) >>>    




7 comments:

  1. An excellent record, with some truly lovely playing! Thanks for all the effort, which was indeed worthwhile (as with the other Delta).
    Maestro

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No real effort involved when using 'de-click' - just a few dozen little bits to tidy-up...saved a million manual edits!

      I'm not sure how well this compares to the Ogdon/Allegri on HMV as only obtained that a few years back and yet to listen all-through...but 'that's it' for this vintage of Saga/Delta.

      Delete
  2. Your transfer is truly marvellous (the de-clicked sound notwithstanding, but it held out pretty well, imo!), there's a lot of detail and texture, even in this compromised CD-quality. The performance of the PQ, on the other hand, though interesting, i find rather affected. And the Bax i'm not sure whether you mean the performance or the composition is ghastly! Listened to it many times not knowing at all what to think about it, ha-ha!

    Many thanks!

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    Replies
    1. I think the Bax is worth about one-listen (Watson Forbes was in the 1933 Elgar/ Stratton Quartet as well as the Aeolian, here) - but the playing/composition wasn't to my liking...over 10 minutes of 'going nowhere in the gloom'..

      The Piano Quintet is 'lovely' - but the performance verges on being 'Fey'...though will be welcomed ('theoretically'!) due to the scarcity of the recordings..and the de-click didn't do too much damage (I wouldn't have been prepared to manually edit this in any event)...but it wouldn't justify a 24/96 'premium' upload..

      Delete
    2. (i had to look up the word 'fey', and from the possible meanings, assume you mean 'quaintly unconventional'.) Yes, in good contrast to Stratton4tet+Cohen version.

      Missed the detail re: mr. Forbes, interesting!

      Delete
  3. Anonymous12 May, 2014

    Thank you so much for sharing such a great material! Greetings from Argentina!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tend to think of it as 'giving them away' !!!!

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