Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

    This disc sounds great anytime, nomatter what type of music I feel
    like listening to.  A great way to break into jazz music.

    
    Brahms Symphony #2
    Guilini/Los Angeles Phil. - DG
    
    A perfect performance.          
    

    	For pop/rock, I have to pick The Beatles RUBBER SOUL.  The sound
    is clean and fresh and brought back floods of memory.
    	Jazz...though new to the field, I like the Windham Hill material
    but thus far Dave Grusin's ONE OF A KIND is my favorite.  Done
    digitally the recording, which was done live is a great example
    of the excitement generated by this type of media.
    	Classical...probably the Karajan's Beethoven Symphonies #5 & #6,
    or perhaps THE FOUR SEASON's by Oswa (sp.) or perhaps...;-)
    
    _stew-
    

    My favorite so far is Barbra Streisand's "The Broadway Album".
    It may be analog source, but the sound is wonderful and the
    performance is electrifying.  This disc shows what careful and
    caring attention to quality can achieve.
    
    					Steve

	I don't really have (a) favorate but a few favorates:

	Marillion --- Misplaced childhood (good sound & music)
	Pink Floyd --- The Final Cut (good music & great sound (import))
	Fresh Aire i-iv (requires a certain mood (great music/imaging))

    Only one?
    
    Brahms Piano Concerto #1 on RCA 5668-2-RC, the 1954 stereo recording.
    
    Others:
    
    Rock - Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
    Semi-jazz - Flim & the BB's, Tricycle.
    Jazz - Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong, The Great Reunion & Together
    	for the First Time, Modile Fidelity MFCD 2-807.
    Soundtrack - North by Northwest, Varese Sarabande VCD 47205 &
    		 The Star Wars Trilogy, Varese Sarabande VCD 47201.

                                                 
    Rock: Works, Volume 1 (ELP)
    Classical: Nutcracker Suite and Swan Lake Suite, Tchaikovsky
    		(Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic)
    
    Jazz: Take Five (Dave Brubeck Quartet)
    New Age: Saving the Wildlife (Mannheim Steamroller)
                                          
    I have nearly 150 CDs, and I haven't bought one yet I didn't like.
    
    DFW

    
    The CD is good quality, not great, but decent.  It's just a an amazing
    album, especially disc 1, starting off with "I am the Sea" (gently)
    and blasting off with "The Real Me."  "I've Had Enough" just completes
    that side perfectly with such grace that disc 1 could be an album
    by itself.  
    
    If "Tommy" is a rock opera, "Quadrophenia" is a symphony.

    Maybe it's just because summer is a-cumin in, but XTC's *Skylarking*...
    
    Great sound, great production, great music! The perfect CD to usher
    in summer...
    

    Can't name just one either.  In my vast cd collection of about 25
    or so, I tend to play these the most:
    
    The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper (no way near tired of it yet)
    The Kinks- Think Visual
    Eric Clapton- (his latest)
    Yes- Classic Yes
    Yes- 90125

    
    Jazz:  Oliver Nelson "Blues and the Abstract Truth"
           (Impulse)
           Ralph Towner/Gary Burton "Slideshow" (ECM)
           Jan Gabarek/Egberto Gismonti   (ECM)
    
    Classical: Smetana "Die Moldau" conducted by Karajan, Berlin
               Philharmonic  (Deutsch Grammaphone)

    Rock:  Peter Gabriel "So"
    
    

           
    Some others (with 2nd votes for a few)
    
    ELP Works Volume I:  Worth the wait, Fanfare/Pirates is excellent.
     master is outstanding.
    
    Marillion: Misplaced Childhood,  Good music with DDD mix.  One of
    the few groups that still does "album rock".  I also have their
    earlier works, "Script for a Jester's Tear" and "Fugazi".  This
    group isn't getting the recognition it deserves.
    
    Peter Gabriel's So:  *wow*
    
    Telarc's "The Planet's", I forget who does it, but also great.
    
    Genesis: Trick of the Tail-  10 years old and the master is better
    than more recent albums, Listen to Los Endos with headphones.
    
    Tangerine Dream:  Dominion.  The Earlier T-dream recordings had
    poor quality masters, this one is outstanding.  it has FOURTY FIVE
    minutes of non-stop music.  If you like T-dream, this is the one
    to get.

    
    I bought Paul Simon's "Graceland" in the first batch of four CDs
    that I got the day I bought my player.  The music was first rate,
    the recording excellent.  
    
    Runner-up, nostalgia division: The first King Crimson, "In the Court
    of the Crimson King".  I always loved this album and wore out three
    vinyl copies.  It's hissy but for the archiving aspect and the fact
    that no surface noise interferes with the dynamics, this is close
    to my heart.  I'm sure others feel this way about many old albums
    reissued on CD.  It was one of the first PolyGram CDs to be issued,
    and I swore I would get it once I had purchased a player.  Now to
    get all the *other* Crimsons!

Rock:		DIRE STRAITS - Brothers in Arms (55 minutes!)
Classical:	1812 Overture by TELARC		(Just for the cannons)

    Paul McCartney - Tug Of War
    The Beatles - Rubber Soul  (vote #2)
    
    -steve

			   Peter Gabriel - "Security"

			       R.E.M. - "Murmur"

    Billy Joel - Greatest Hits, Volumes I & II (double CD set)
    
    	was the 2ed CD I bought, and only cost $25 then.
    
    	Every song is a true hit, and the sound is ultra clean,
    	when I bought this CD I was finally able to turn the
    	AMP ALLLLL the way to the right and still hear clean
    	vocals.

    Even though we've bought many CD's since, it's still my favorite.
    
    Any of Shadowfax's CD's could be considered runners up.

    Title: "Serendipity"
    Type:  Acoustic Jazz
    Musician: Michael Garson, etc.
    Record Co: Reference Recordings
    
    Performance: 10
    Sound: 10
    
    
    

    Rock:	DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, Pink Floyd
    		WORKS, VOLUME 1, ELP (close second)
    
    Jazz:	TIME OUT, Dave Brubeck
    
    Classical:	BRANDENBERG CONCERTI, Bach, Academy of Ancient Music
    
    --- jerry

    Far and away my favorite so far is Madama Butterfly.  Recorded
    in '74 with Mirella Freni, Pavarotti, and Von Karajan.  The recording
    is ADD and there are many moments when the sound will make you quake.
    Very clean; little or no hiss.  The performance is wonderful.  It's
    really great to get an entire act on one CD.

    Rock:  Rubber Soul.  This wasn't a real favorite of mine when
    it was first released in the '60s but now it ranks way up there.
    
    Broadway:  I can't get enough of Les Miserables.
    
    Jazz (well, kinda):  The David Grisman Quintet.  Two new cuts;
    nice clean sound.
    
    Classical:  Mozart Piano Concertos 20 & 21.  Rudolf Serkin.  WOW!
    Brahms' German Requiem, Robert Shaw and Atlanta Symphony.  Again,
    WOW!  Mozart Clarinet Concerto.  Benny Goodman.  Historic performance.
    
    =ken

    I think my favorites are the same ones I use to test new equipment!
    
    Brandenburg Concertos 1-6
    Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert 
    My favorite people for music of this type
    
    Night Lines
    Dave Grusin
    I have about five or six of his - love them all

    In the Digital Mood
    The Glenn Miller Orchestra
    
    Vivaldi - The Four Seasons
    Seiji Ozawa
    
    Vivaldi - The Four Seasons
    Canadian Brass
    I have both and love them at different times!   

    Mozart -- Flute concert 
    Jean Peirre Rampal
    Love to sit by the fire and read to this one!

    Jazz:
         �The Tatum Group Masterpiece�
         Incredible music, featuring Art Tatum and Ben Webster. The
    	meeting of those two monsters of Jazz is unique.
    	I'll not talk about the recording ('58). But the sound is here.
    
    	 �The K�ln Concert - Keith Jarret�
    	 The genius strikes again. You really feel in the concert room.
    
    Classical:
    	 �Nocturns (Chopin) - Daniel Barenboim�
    	 This Deutch Gramophon CD is DDD. Sound is perfect, and Barenboim
    	plays these few Opus with so much feeling, it is really great.
    	This is far away the best interpretation of the Nocturns, if
    	you except the great Sanson Fran�ois who used to play 'em perfectly.
	And you feel just as if Daniel was playing beside you.
    
    Pop:
    	 �Face Value - Phil Collins�
    	 Not really for the digital recording, but for the performance,
    	this album has something inside, a kind of complaint, starting
    	from "In The Air Tonight", finishing in "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
        

    Pierre.    
         

    Jazz - 
	Miles Davis/Gil Evans - Sketches of Spain
	Chick Corea Electric Band
	Herbie Hancock Quartet
	Wynton Marsalis - Hot House Flowers
	
    Classical - 
	Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"
		Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic
	W. A. Mozart - Piano Concertos No. 20/27 - 
		Clifford Curzon/Benjamin Britten and the ECO
	W. A. Mozart - Overtures - Neville Marinner and 
			the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
	Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel),
		     Night on Bare Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakow) -
		     Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra
	Wagner - Orchestral Excerpts from Die Ring Nibelungen -
		Georges Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra

    Pop -
	Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
	Frankie goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
	Peter Gabriel - Security
	Vangelis - China

    Sudhir
         

    I've decided that the *real* test of my liking for a particular
    piece of music is if I buy the CD when I've already bought the LP
    some years ago. Here are two:
    
    		Sergeant Pepper
    		Christpher Cross/ Another Page.
    
    Richard Briggs               
    
    UK SWAS

Two votes:

  1. Vivaldi, Mandolin concerti, RV 93, 425,532, 558
     Ugo Orlandi, Dorina Frati, mandolins, I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone
     (MHS 11057L)
     
     This disk has wonderful clarity and dynamic range. The concerti are
     interpreted in a very delicate, almost ethereal way which really 
     shows up on the CD format. There's a lot to hear, much of it subtle.

  2. Handel, Organ Concertos, Op. 4 Simon Preston, organist, The English
     Concert, Trevor Pinnock. Archiv 413-465-2 (2 disk set)
     
     Similar reasons to item 1, though the concerti are not so delicate 
     as in the Vivaldi.

    Bruce Springsteen: Live/1975-85  (3 CD's)

Several favorites that would be well-worn if that was possible:

Canadian Brass - Christmas album, the one with the pipe organ
King's College Choir - Christmas album, basically the "ceremony of lessons
   and carols" without the lessons
Can't-remember-what-orchestra - Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis, etc.
CHORAL MASTERPIECES - Robert Shaw

Here's mine:

Rock -- Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms"

Jazz -- tie between The Glenn Miller Orchestra "In The Digital Mood" and
        Chet Atkins "Street Dreams"

Classical -- Don Dorsey "Bachbusters" (sorry... that's about as close as I get 
             to true classical music)

    The Pleasure of Our Company -- Christopher Parkening (guitar) and
    				   Kathleen Battle (Soprano) -- Angel/EMI
    
    Bach Oboe Concertos

    Robert Shaw's Choral Masterpieces (Telarc)

    Rock:
    
    Peter Gabriel "So"
    Joe Jackson "Big World" and "Body and Soul"
    
    Jazz:
    
    Keith Jarrett "Standards..."
    Pat Metheny Group "As Falls Wichita, So Wichita Falls"
    
    New Age:
    
    George Winston "December"

    Rock - Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
    
    Jazz - Kenny G, Duotones (or maybe Bob James & David Sanborn, Double
           Vision)
    
    Classical - Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition, Barry Douglas

    Billy Joel- Greatest Hits
    Stevie Wonder- Original Musiqarium
    
    Chick Corea Elektric Band
    
    Nylons- One Size Fits All

        The sound is very good (though there is some hiss here
        and there).  The performance, and the songs themselves,
        are excellent.  I haven't been this thrilled about an album
        in a long time.  Every time I see it in a store, I want
        to buy it again.
        

        Jazz: Benny Goodman Sextet
        Rock: Rubber Soul
        New Age Synthesizer: Suzanne Cianni -- The velocity of love
        Orchestral: Korngold -- Sinfonietta
        
        In all cases it is more the music itself than the recording
        quality. About a third of my CDs are mono. Several are mastered
        on disk rather than tape. My 1936-1942 Ellington, Goodman and
        Miller are some of my favorites.
        
        JimB. 

    Some of my favorites:
    
    		Classical	Mozart. Eine Kline Nachmusic
    					Symphonies #40,41(jupiter)
    					
    				Mahler	Symphony #1
    
    
    		Jazz		Dave Brubeck	Time Out
    
    				Pat Metheney	As Falls..
    
    		Big Band	Glenn Miler	"Digital Mood"
    				Benny Goodman	Sextet
    
    		New Age		David Lanz	Nightfall
    				soft piano music(fantastic)
    
    				Shadowfax	Dreams of Children
    
    				Michael Jones	Pianoscapes
    
    		Rock		Genesis		Title
    	
    				Donald Fagen	Nightfly
    
    				Dire Straits	Brothers in Arms
    

    
    
    	A spelling correction to .37
    
    		Classical	Mozart. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
    
    This should covert the previous example.
    

    
    re: .27
    
    I'm sorry, but six people are not a big band.
    
    								-mr. bill

re: 786.38

Bien fait!  Very subtle, very amusing.  ;-)!!!

dcl

    Re .38,.40
    
    'covert' ? Please explain to non-native speakers what's so subtle
    and amusing about this...
    

    Mike and the Mechanics

    
    	The performance on the Talking Heads "Little Creatures"
    album is Fantastic.  The sound is Very Good, but I usually 
    am so wrapped up in the music I do not notice the sound quality.
    
    	Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions is another favorate.
    Sound quality is average.  Performace is Great.  Ninteen songs on
    the one CD makes me think I would have paid twice for it what I
    did.  $13.99
    
    Peter
    
    

    Out of my growing collection, these are the ones I listen to the
    most:
    
    	Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms"
    	Chicago Transit Authority 
    	Eagles "Desperado"

    
    Classical: Vivaldi: Four Seasons (Christopher Hogwood)
                        Glassworks (Philip Glass)
    
    Non-Classical:	the way it is (Bruce Hornsby and the Range)
    			Blue Turtles (Sting)
    			
    CD Single:		land of confusion (Genesis)
    			Big Time (Peter Gabriel)
    
    `{o}^{o}'

    
    Peter Gabriel IV ("Security") -- "So" is all very well and good,
    but this is Gabriel's masterwork and the sound quality (DDD) is
    superb.  Listen to "Rhythm of the Heat" or "Lay Your Hands on Me"
    with a really good pair of closed-ear headphones and gain a new
    lease on life.  I know I did.  (And people call "Dark Side of the
    Moon" the ultimate Headphone Album.)
    
    Also check out his _other_ masterwork, "The Lamb Lies Down on
    Broadway," with Genesis in 1974.  A double CD, finally with the
    sound quality that it deserves as one of the best concept albums
    ever recorded.
    
    Matt
    

    
    Misc       "Mannheim Steamroller Christmas" American Gramaphone
                label. By far the best Chrismas album I have ever
                heard. The recording quality is excelent just like
                their "Fresh Aire" series. Definately class from start
                to finish.                           
                                                     
    New Age     "The Wind and the Wheat" by Phil Keaggy
                 This man is an extraordinary gutarist, both electric
                 and acoustic of which there is plenty of both on
                 this disc. Beautiful music and played with feeling.
                                                                    
    Classical    Beethoven's 6th symphony.  In my opinion the greatest
                 symphony ever writen. Perfection! I once hiked up the
                 Silver Cascade in the White Mountains NH and sat by
                 the mountain spring listening to the 2nd movement on
                 my walkman, oh what a feeling. Words cannot describe.
                 By the way the 2nd movement is titled "Scene By The
                 Brook"                              
                                                     
    Rock         "The Innocent age" Dan fogelberg    
                                                     
                                                     
    Nebraska Marty                                   
                                                     

    re: .47
    
    Which recording of the 6th do you have/like?  There are many
    recordings of it and I'm always on the look out for a "better"
    one.  The one that I have on Delos is Very good.

    There's one on Telarc that fairly recent, but I haven't been
    impressed by the performance quality of others by the same
    orchestra and conductor.
    

>    Which recording of the 6th do you have/like?

I've tried about 3 different versions. Karajan/Berlin (our side of the wall),
Suitner/Berlin (their side of the wall), but I've settled at least for the
time being on Bernstein/Vienna on DG. The tempos are more to my linking,
the "thunderstorm" very believable and the music very "pastoral". You don't
have to read the liner notes to understand the title. It'll take a lot to
out do this recording.

Has the Dohnanyi/Cleveland series of Beethoven symphonies on TELARC 
finally reached the 6th? The 9th and 8th were great, so the rest may be
worth waiting for.

Enjoy, 
Sudhir

    re:.21
    
    I wish to make a change (or an addendum, depending on your
    point of view). Since I finally acquired copies of the two
    SWITCHED ON BRANDENBERGS by Wendy Carlos, I want to put those
    on my favorites list. For early 70's recordings, the quality
    is amazingly high, and Carlos is not only very faithful to the
    score, but also to the feel of the music. Fantastisch!
    
    --- jerry

    
    
    		MCA Classic Collection Vols 1-10 (5 disc set)
    			all engineered by Steve Hoffman
    			from the Original Master Tapes
    			covers early rock from '53-'67
    
    				The Cruiser