1812 Overture et al

[Thatch_Ear]

TA
Thanks for the info on the RCA Red Seal recording. I will order that next trip to Tower. I hope it is still available.
Yes Holst really nailed it on the Planets. You here bits of all through John Williams scores especially Star Wars. It is also important to know that Holst was commissioned to and wrote Mars before the outbreak of WWI and tanks and other cool killing machines hadn't been invented yet, but the political situation pointed at war. Not sure about this but I don't believe the Planets was actually performed till after the war was over.
As far as Tchaikovsky goes my favorite in the Marche Slav, but for the 1812 the very best I have ever heard is on RCA Red Seal 1991 the Tchaikovsky Gala in Leningrad in celebration of his 150th birthday. They had a Russian artillery battalion and all the church bells in the city in this. Talk about the cannons going off, they used a whole bunch of real ones. Be careful with this one girls and boys, it can blow those woofs out!
And of course Franz von Suppe' best known for Morning Noon and Night in Vienna, but my all time favorite is the Poet and the Peasant. For those of you not familier with Suppe' you can get a very nice CD of his best on Naxos for $6. Check it out.
Most everone knows the William Tell Overture but most haven't heard the whole thing, it is lots of fun placing the son, the evil sherriff, the hero etc. Like it but love the Theiving Maggpie most. I was exposed to Rossini as a lot of my generation was with Kubricks A Clock Work Orange. Got me into Bethovan too. And Wagner's Flight of Die Walkure in Apocalyse Now. I bought the Ring Highlights on Seraphim just to get it with vocals, goosebumps!
An aside, a label that I have been enjoying a lot is Hungaroton White Label. If you are a fan of the double bass the HDC 31915 Bottesini Opera Paraphrases is good stuff. Gergely Jardarnyi is a real master. The "From The New World" Dvorak's 9th has my favorite recording of Smetena's Moldau on it. The Moldau is a traditional falling off to sleep tune for us. You can just feel yourself floating down the river on this one.
Thatch

[THOR]

*THOR pokes his head in*

GEEKS!

Must flee!

[Toasted Almond]

Your welcome. Anybody that wants that kind of stuff deserves all the help they can get procuring it.

I'll bet that is a good version. The Russian's give good artillery. I have a Deutsche-Grammophone or something of the 1812, and they got some cannons up at West Point, but it wasn't anybody's birthday or anything so I think they were pretty half-hearted about the entire affair.

I got a ton of yard sale purchase classical cd's that I haven't had time to screw with yet. I'll keep that Mahler in mind.

Picked up a two cassette set today of Smetana's "My Country" performed by the Slovokian Philharmonic. I am not familiar with any of this guys work, but I think he has a cool name, so I'm going to listen to the entire thing at my desk tomorrow.

Toasted Almond

[THOR]

I dl'ed a couple of other versions of the 1812 and none of them have the "oomph" of the Telarc one.

[Toasted Almond]

Golden eared critics say the Telarc engineers overemphasize the "oomph" on everything they release, but it doesn't offend me in the least. IN FACT, I'm prepared to say I like it. Like it a lot more than I like golden eared critics that's for sure.

Toasted Almond

[Thatch_Ear]

Talked with a guy yesterday that uses the Telarc as a test disc. He says most speaks distort out at high volumes with it.
TA,
How did you like the Ma Vlast by Smetena. Symphonic poems, I use them to relax, especially the one about the river Moldau. The guy was Czech by the way.
Thatch

[bigmacc]

Thatch my man l admire your knowledge and taste BUT l am a little concern.Classical music and poetry has its' place as long as there is balance.

Balance equals one poem and classical piece of music to every one " Big Bubba " Molson Canadian plus one Government Mule CD at high volume consumed.

PS using wine and cooking knowledge from your other posts ie Cooking 101 to impress my wife.

[Toasted Almond]

Mr. Smetana "Czech's" good with me. Very nice.

There is a place for the classics, jazz, rock, soul, fusion, and the music of Frank Zappa.

I can't break the code on C & W, SMOOTH jazz (not to be mistaken for jazz), and RAP or hip-hop or whatever it's called. THEREFORE, they must not be music.

Before someone gets all fired up, it's an opinion. Expressed by ONE person.


Toasted Almond

[Thatch_Ear]

There are a couple of opera tunes I like with the people singing, but mostly just the tunes. Heck anybody that goes to the movies listens to lots of classical, classic rock and in some cases opera and like it when it happenning even if they would not buy it for home listening.
The movie Platoon is a great example of a mix of rock but with a really great piece of classical thrown when Wilm Defoe gets shot to pieces. Adagio for strings by Barber.
I have it on a CD but only because it was on one that had a particular rendition of some Vivaldi that I wanted.
I am not up on C&W that much but do like some of the old Texas stride music like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, I also like Patsy Cline a lot.
Then there is a nitch catagory that was called Progressive Country 25 years ago that Molly Hatchet, the Allman Bros and Learnard Skinnard fall into along with the Texas Outlaw music of David Allen Coe, Willy Nelson and of course Waylon Jennings. I also put into this catagory some of Bonnie Raits stuff as well as most of Stevie Ray Vaugn's tunes.
I am now crawling into my flame resistant suit.
Thatchonfire.

[THOR]

Originally posted by Thatch_Ear
Talked with a guy yesterday that uses the Telarc as a test disc. He says most speaks distort out at high volumes with it.
TA,
How did you like the Ma Vlast by Smetena. Symphonic poems, I use them to relax, especially the one about the river Moldau. The guy was Czech by the way.
Thatch

Well my CV's have no problems with it, or any music for that matter no matter how loud it is played, of course they are rated for a recommended 500 watts continous and 1500 maximum

I did notice that the Altec Model 15 still containing the original woofer didn't care for it too much tho, and gave a little "pop" at the height of it, could be cuz it was only running off the 55wpc Technics SA500, doesn't matter tho cuz both original woofers will be going to those guys who rebuild Altec stuff, white plains? great plains? whatever their name is, to be refoamed, rebuilt and have the magnets recharged or whatever it is they do there.

[steamshooter]

Toasted Almond, I can get into everything you mentioned down below (up above?) EXCEPT the rap and hip hop. I don't get that stuff. Smooth jazz has it's place at my house, depending on what I'm doing.
Thatch Ear, I fell into "Outlaw" music about the mid seventies. I haven't quit yet. It gets regular rotation at my house.
If I want opera I play PDQ Bach
From 1812 to the rhinestone cowboy, whatta thread!
Brad
Any "Goose Heads" out here?

[Thatch_Ear]

I really hate to tell you this Thor but if you were getting weird noises out of yor Altecs it might be not because of the speakers but because of the amp. Those things are probably not able to handle 50 watts continous. Undoubtably the speakers were not sounding as good as possible but most all of the Alnico drivers and the older ferrites for that matter were so efficient that many were rated at 20 watts max for continous use. 55 watts if it was cranked could well have been pushing them past their limits during the really hard core passages.
Those compression drivers are always up around 106 db for an SPL. The big cone drivers at 95 to 98. put them together and you should be able to get close to 100 decibles of sound at one meter with one watt of power. If they are 100 db at 1 watt, 55 watts ought to be getting around 116-117 decibels. By the time you got up to be 50 watts probably both your amp and the speakers were clipping, and SS does not clip any way but hard. A hard clip from the amp going through speaks pushed to their limit would not be pleasant.
I will take this up in speakers, since I have blown out 2 woofers listening to a Russian that didn't have cannons.
Thatch

[Thatch_Ear]

Steamshooter,
I know a guy in Oregon that does taxidermy. He likes to shoot a goose, clean it and stuff it and eat the rest.
I have listened to "Bird" but Parker never had a preference as far as I know as to type of fowl.
Iffens you like the Outlaw stuff you must be OK, even if PDQ Bach is the Allen Sherman of classical. Enlighten me.

[steamshooter]

Thatch, Bird is short for Yardbird or chicken. They ran over one on the way to a gig and Charlie insisted on cooking and eating it.
As far as the Goose goes, you may be closer than you might want to admit.
Goose Creek Symphony is a hillbilly band from Goose Creek Kentucky. They really don't have a catagory therefore they didn't get any airplay. BTW they got back together a few years back and started recording again. I guess they are a mixture of bluegrass, rock and roll with a sax, trumpet and trombone section thrown in. They started out as a bunch of good ol' mountain boys that believed in moonshine and homegrown. ( it showed up in their music quite often) Simple lyrics but complicated melodies. I got turned on to Goose Creek about the same time as outlaw music and John Hartford.
http://www.goosecreeksymphony.com/
They used to have some mp3's here I don't know if they still do.
They are not for everyone
Brad

[Thatch_Ear]

So Clapton, Beck and Page all played for a group named after free range chickens?
Love the story on Parker! Those Goosers are pretty darned good when they let loose.