No Dark Side. Interesting none the less. Just not the whole picture, and certainly annoying if you don't have a credit card.

Greener wrote: No Dark Side...

Very good.

.....Just not the whole picture....

The list is intended to be personal. I like lists like this more than the typical "Top 50 Blah, Blah of all time." Yeah the list says more about Teachout than it says about classical music, but at least it's not pure boredom.

Indeed, I have a few of those he listed. Your basic Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

I don't like the Dallas Symphony maybe it's just Terrell Owens, I dunno. But I do think the Pittsburgh Symphony still have a chance at the Superbowl.

Hey that's pretty cool. Yup, I grew up listening to all that stuff. That's when recordings were recordings recorded by real engineers. The guys I learned from.

Interestingly enough in a related issue, my mother, Marilyn Cotlow was recorded in 1948 by CBS Masterworks of Gian Carlo Menoti's "The Telephone". This was a direct to disc recording just prior to magnetic tape. Originally released on 78 rpm disc & packaged with "The Medium". Her version was one of CBS's longest running in print operatic recording in their history. Never going out of print. Rereleased throughout the years in 33 microgroove mono & rechanneled stereo (ugh). It was recently sold to Pearl Records of England and released on CD. Mom is turning 85, in a couple of days, and she really really, really hates the sound on this new CD release. Unfortunately, a bad decision on Pearl's part to make it sound as if it was recorded on modern "digital quality" equipment. It is so thin, strident, crispy, that it barely sounds like her anymore. In fact she is so outraged by what they did to the sound of her, she's considering consulting an attorney? Too bad they didn't want to find out what she thought of it before they released it. After all, she was the star and is the only remaining survivor. And I agree. She never received more than her $200 fee & no royalties, back in 48. She has been imitated but never duplicated. Completely assinine. Now she wants to rerelease it the way she believes she should sound. She wants me to remaster it from her personal copies. It's OK. They can sue me and her if they like. She is the star and she should have some say. And I'm surprised? For the British. That's quite rude. I need to contact them personally. This just happen this past year. After 60 years.

Yeah, I'm rude too. I just hate what they did to her.
Ms. Remy Ann David

That's full on.
If you can shine with direct to disc you got chops, no fools gold will never compete.

RemY;

Go for the jugular. Re-release it YOUR way. Run an ad in the same places THEY do, but tout the fact that it was done with the original artist's approval. Let 'em come after you and your mom.

It's always better to ask for pardon than permission. Go public with it. Put it on youtube if you have to. Get them where you want them, and THEN negotiate for a retraction or re-rerelase of the recording on your mom and YOUR terms. I'll bet they come around REAL quick once they find your mom's still alive.

As for this Terry Teachout guy, I just don't get it. I've seen clips of him talking, (zzzzzzzz) and I've read people quoting him, and fawning all over the place whenever he opens his mouth. What's the big deal with this guy anyway?

I must've missed the memo about his god-headedness.... :?

Remy,
I've been thinking about this whilst I was sobering up, now I'm slightly ripped again and back into a zone where I think I can express what I've been thinking about.

What leg will you have to stand on if you do what JoeH describes? None, your Mother was paid for her performance, about $2500 in today's money... If I pay an architect to design and build something for me then I go and paint it Black that's my choice.

What you should do is something that will deflect any blame away from you, and deflect any cash you stand to earn into something that's philanthropic. Like a charity which gives poor kids musical instruments. Even if they sell them on for drugs.

Seriously though, form a committee that aims to re-establish to good name of your Mother with the clear plan of demonstrating that the new owners of the rights to the music in question are indeed blemishing her reputation. Ask to purchase the rights to the music, offer $2,500 and claim that through the committee you will campaign to educate people on the realities of the current trends of re-mastering and that all proceeds go on to help a new generation of musicians so that music, which is an artform of human expression remains just that, and not a Casio Clock.

Or some such BS.

If the architect came back and repainted my house white... I would be pissy. If he could proove I was being a tasteless fuck and that it was in the best interests of the world to not be then I'm sure it would be in my interests to help him spread his tasteful message...

As for the guy who wrote the piece linked in the top paragraph, I didn't find his words all that indicting, just one nice add for Amazon. Which is lovely and all, but still an add.

Also, from the article;
"when I bought my first iPo(0) in 2005 in order to listen to music while traveling"
This makes me sick. Seriously, I am amble to carry a 25cd wallet and a Pioneer Portable CD player with a pair of Sennheiser's everywhere I go. It's nothing on the wight of my towel, and I carry a light towel... Are people in need of such heavy towels that they need to cut wiehgt from the music system? Is being comfortable whilst drying that important? Yes, I'm slightly uncomfortable when drying with a small and thin towel. But that's only for a few moments after showering, not all day whilst listening... Who can actually _STAND_ the sound of mp3's ripped by iChoons and played through the Ipuke?

"Run rabbit run, dig that hole, catch the sun. When at last the work is done, don't you doubt it's time to dig another one."

Greener, your idea is more sensible than mine; I was just knee-jerk reacting to REmy's mom being pushed around artistically. Perhaps the best recourse would be to contact them first, offer a better solution (Such as what you suggested) and then - only then - if they don't want to rectify the situation, get tough on them with a different (and better release.) Honey certainly gets more flies than vinegar, I'll grant you that.

I don't buy the Archtitect analogy, though, this is someone's artistic talent we're talking about, and their very artistry/legacy vs. just a gig for hire. (Frank Lloyd Wright had very specific terms regarding what someone could and could not do with his creations; even the home designs he did. It was well known he would (and did) frequently drop in on people and make sure the colors, furniture and other things were all in place exactly as they were designed to be. That was understood when they signed the contract with him. (Don't mess with FLW!)

Of course, Remy's mom had it quite differently in those days, but there's still something to be said for contract re-negotiations and artistic rights, even 60-70 years later. (THey took on Disney with this and won, (on DVD royalty rights) long after the original films, don't forget).

As for Eye-pods, I think the easiest way around the problem is buying REAL CDs in the first place and ripping your own (at the highest quality rate) or using FLAC, etc., and getting the best sound possible. I rarely download MP3's, and when I do, I swear I can hear the difference; always for the worse.

But I'm quite happy with the sound of mine, FOR WHAT IT DOES, and where it does it. In the car, on a bike, on a plane, bus, etc., I'm not kidding myself: all the outside and extraneous noises make all the high fidelity of a CD vs. MP3's rather moot. Sitting in my studio, or my easy chair; YES, you betcha; I'll want a CD or DVD-A any day of the week. There's simply no comparision, ditto for hearing HI-RES music through real speakers vs. mini-headphones & MP3's. It's all part of the mess.

But as for carrying around 25+ CDs, and even the smallest of traditional "Portable" CD players (along with over the ears headphones); sorry, that got wayyyyy too old and cumbersome for me a long time ago. By the time I pack that stuff up and haul it around, I'm already halfway to my destination. (Most of the time in the car these days, I have to keep traffic news on the radio, and make cell phone calls to clients & family....sigh...)

BobRogers wrote: Terry Teachout posted a [[url=http://[/URL]="https://www.comment…"]list of his 25 favorite classical recordings[/]="https://www.comment…"]list of his 25 favorite classical recordings[/] on the Commentary website. It's a personal list, not meant to be comprehensive. But I thought I'd post it here because of the age of the recordings selected. Newest one is recorded in 1973. Two are from the 20's and four from the 30's. Pretty good comment on the modern obsessions with signal to noise ratios and high sample rates. I guess if you record a Casals or Horowitz the specs don't matter so much.

Not a great list, seriously out of touch.

Joe,
It's interesting that you get into DVDA whilst in your studio, but aren't keen on it in your car. I mean, four dudes and a girl in a car can be a bit full on but most cars have five seats...

Anyone else find the life of a Music Journalist to be one full of hit and miss? On one side people constantly send you the newest releases, being inundated with free music is awesome, especially if you live near a Dixons. But I always wonder, is the reason Music Journalists are payed about 40% of a real wage because if they were in a position to speak their minds instead of towing the corporate line would they review like they do?
Was Teachout's list restricted to the products that could be purchased through Amazon?

On a side note, I've had the chance to rip from original CD's and listen to the products on many different Ipukes, I used to sell them. They all sound horrendous. The headphone pre is gutless and dry and the interface, Ichoons is a piece of MALware.
The Ipuke is a status symbol, not a tool. It's a designer handbag with a designer dog in it.
I drive to the airport with the line out of my portable CD player split into the two amps I have in my car, when I park I unplug the player and plug my headphones into the same unit. The CD wallet, player and headphones fit into the little slot in the chair in front of my knees on board the plane... I am _never_ more cramped than when sitting in Economy in an aircraft... I'm over 120kg too... What I'm saying is there is no need to go smaller than what I have described. I see no time saving apart from not having to select your top 25 for the ride... Meh, I do this almost every where I go, argue with someone that has a white lead dangling from an ear... At the end of the day if you can live with it and I can't hear it who cares right?

Back to architects inspecting to see if you have the furniture in the right place. If this was going on in my house, I'd be wanting to be payed to be apart of the piece... If the artist is so fixated on his artistic prowess, they can pay for the materials to build it, they can pay to maintain it, they can live in it...

Anyone know where I can buy a record lathe?

Remy,

I know that old recording and the performances are excellent! I occasionally have some of my more advanced singers tackle "The Black Swan" from the Medium.
Happy little song that one... where the woman is comitting suicide by jumping in the river in her wedding dress while pregnant. (Not for the faint of heart.) Still cutting edge after all these years as I would guess is your mother if she's as irate as she should be.

Re: the recording I'm sure they're gearing up for a Menotti centennial in 2011 so they'll be busy. Remaster it and call it a "rare vault" find and make your mother happy for a change, after all you went into the rock-n-roll and television business!

I'm sure given the way the industry works that nobody is making real money on any of this stuff, and no one even thought to see if your mother was still alive. Separate yourself from the emotional aspect and make a killer recording (its perfectly legal to archive in new formats) Whether you release it or not becomes a moral issue. But I would bet if you contacted the copyright holder that (given the circumstances) they might play ball.

Phil

Re: the list- nothing way out there, but I do love the Eastman School's Lincolnshire Posy.