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fuwen

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Posts posted by fuwen

  1. Posted · Report reply

    hi, has anyone had a chance to listen to both brahms' symphony no. 4 by karajan & the berliner, and kleiber & the vienna phil?

     

    i have the former and am thinking of getting the latter, but have not been able to find it.

     

    U will not go wrong with Kleiber's recordings. Not surprise that Kleiber's Brahms not available in Singapore.

     

  2. Posted · Report reply

    sorry to OT a little, but where is a good place in sg where I can get chinese classical cds, and maybe some japanese classical ones also? thanks

     

    Can try Kah Heng (hope I spelt them correctly) at Bras Basar Complex, 2nd storey, the shop selling Chinese instrument. For Hugo label try New Disc Village at Aldephi.

     

  7. Posted · Edited by fuwen · Report reply

    It is sad that classical music is a shrinking market, at least in Singapore. Tower Records in Singapore was gone. Their US on line shop was good but not really so after being bought over. I guess in Singapore HMV is the biggest for classical music, but their price is high.

     

    If u are looking for a specific recording, unless it is a recent release by a popular artist or label, u are probably having better chance searching online shops.

  10. Posted · Edited by fuwen · Report reply

    Thanks to David Watt managed to change the stock HD 25-1 steel cable to a OEM replacement cable, build quality much better than the stock cable, after about 4 years(!) using the headphone. The headphone connectors are very tight no time to check improvements in sound quality but seems better. I was lazy so got the cable from Sennheiser service centre and got them to change for me.

  11. Posted · Edited by fuwen · Report reply

    He was a slide shooter and this is his first trip with complete digital system. The portable harddisk unfortunately failed and due to shot of memory cards he had to shoot direct into jpeg, where Canon in camera jpeg is not as good as the rest. Also due to some of the setting he selected.

     

    He just went for a 3 weeks free and easy.

  13. Posted · Edited by fuwen · Report reply

    This is the Takako Nishizaki version that I have. I am a supporter for Nishizaki. In this SACD she presented a feminine and matured and sometime a rather free tempo of the Butterfly Lover. I guess she has been playing this for hundreds or thousands of time. Supporting orchestra and conductor were OK.

     

    As for the Yellow River Concerto, also a very good soloist Yin Chengzong who was also one of the composers of the Yellow River.

     

    I felt that the orchestra recordings were not as good as the above Hugo one.

     

    Also this SACD provides a nice CD booklet, the cover picture is very nice, but for some reasons they forgot to include the tracks details. Also the Butterfly Lovers was cut into a single track.

     

    Some of my discussions on Butterfly Lovers

     

    http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...d=77&Itemid=138

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Mackie mentioned about Mahler, wow! Not something easy to understand and his recordings are normally very long (2 CDs) and with vocals.

     

    cmk, u can try the Mahler Symphony no.6, actually the most 'çonvertional' of all Mahlers Symphonies. However it is named 'Tragic' so be emotionally prepared. Commended by critics the most Tragic/sad Symphonies ever written.

     

    The Telarc version 3CD-80586 is interesting, comes in CD and SACD version. With the price of 1 CD/SACD u get 3 CDs/SACDs with the conductor Benjamin Zander described in detailed about the works and the way he interpreted and conducted the work. The orchestra was Philharmonia. The recording and performance actually IMO not very good but from this CD set u can learn a lot about Mahler and his Sym 6. This symphony has conventional 4 movements (very unconvertional for Mahler actually) and there are 2 versions where 1 perform the 2nd movement before the 3rd and the other version the 3rd before the 2nd. Not a problem for mordern CD player as you can program the playing sequence. Also in this CD set 2 versions of the last movement are included. It was said that the original last movement with 3 hammer blows was so tragic that Mahler when first conducted it decided to change to another version without the 3 Hammer blows.

     

    I also got a Karajan/Berlin version DG 457 716-2. Karajan used the original 3 hammer blows version. It is very sad, the 3 blows refering to the death of Mahler's daughter, his removal from a post, and the discovery of his fatal sickness.

     

    A bit strange and errie for this symphony, is that, Mahler actully composed it during his happiest time, way before the happening of the 3 incidences, so is he able to crystal ball his future fate?..........

     

     

    http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...id=21&Itemid=60

     

    Hi! My favourite CD for testing system. String sonatas by Rossini. Performed by the very good Academy of St Martin-in-the-fields and their resident conductor Neville Marriner.

     

    A total of 6 string sonatas for 12 violins, and I believe 2 violas, 1 cello and 1 double bass. Written at the age of 12 and I am so surprise at what this young composer can do at that age! I like to use this for testing system as I can get violin, and especially cello and bass solos to check the system. Double bass had been given lots of solo part in the sonatas. These pieces are by no mean easy to play and need a first class ensemble to play them in the necessary precision.

     

    Total of 2 XRCDs and also includes works from Donizetti, Cherubini and Bellini. Recording of the violins are a tad harsh, not typical of DECCA but probably due to the age of the recording (1964 - 1968). I have seen the normal CD version available.

     

     

    http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...id=31&Itemid=75

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks for the reply. Was worried that custom will slow down my CDs

     

    Have imported quite a lot of CDs and DVDs a while ago but not lately. So far I have no problems at all but my neighbour did encounter some issues with DVDs and he would need to get from censorship board.

     

    For music CDs I do not think there should be any issues. Unless u purchase more than $400 and is shipped by DHL/UPS or registered mail they will be stopped at custom for GST.

  25. Posted · Edited by fuwen · Report reply

    A musical joke by Mozart. This particular recording is by Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Instead of performed by small orchestra, the music was presented in the from of chamber music, where you only have one instrument for each part. There are however 2 horns for A Musical Joke. The good point of such instrumentation is that you can hear a lot of details for strings.

     

    The jokes, however are not all very obvious. Some are easily grasped as are stuffs like out of tune and wrong chords, others are subtle and are in the form of wrong musical forms, meaningless repeats and trival musical ideas.

     

    If u are familar with classical music sonata form, and have some basic knowledge of harmony and chords, I believe u will have a good laugh with this piece.

     

    http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...d=49&Itemid=104

    post-442-1163324941.jpg

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