The Classical Music Guide Forums

The Zenph Studios company does it because there is a market for MIDI format music and they have made an improvement in this technology that they hope to sell. MIDI hasn't transcribed polyphonic music very well in the past so Zemph have tackled the problem head-on by transcribing a well-known Bach re...

I think they are developing or improving a new way to clean up old recordings and transfer them to digital format or at least to make the MIDI format better than it has been. A project like this is a challenging and fun way to refine the technology. When Mr. Honda decided to move from motorcycles to...

Mel Torme is my favorite singer. I have a great many of his recordings which I listen to often and I attended four live performances. In addition to singing he composed and arranged, played the drums and piano, wrote novels, memoirs, and screenplays, and acted (Emmy nomination for the 1956 "Playhous...

Ghost concert to revive music of the past Wed Apr 20, 2:52 PM ET PARIS (AFP) - Music lovers in North Carolina are due for a strange treat next month. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050420/od_afp/afplifestylemusic_050420185259 They will hear two piano virtuosi in concert... but both m...

Another interesting discovery from DNA evidence is that certain groups of Native Americans, including the Navaho and Apache, have genetic links to Polynesian peoples. Their languages are quite different from most other Indian groups too, I believe.

I remember reading about the Falashas who were repatriated in Israel some years ago but I think Corlyss was thinking of the Lemba people of Southern Africa who were in the news more recently: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/ Anyone see the fascinating PBS documentary Journey of Man that used DNA...

The recovery of lost dramas by the great playwrights would indeed by something to get excited about. Some of the plays we do have were parts of trilogies and it would be wonderful to make them whole again. Years ago I saw performances of ancient Greek plays by Tufts U. professor Peter Arnott using m...

Mystery surrounds Stradivari's decision to abandon guitar making despite the popularity of his "Les Paolo" model.

Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome By David Keys and Nicholas Pyke 17 April 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_t...

MaestroDJS wrote:This includes one of only two Stradivari guitars in any museum, and one of only two known surviving Stradivari mandolins.

If only he had made a banjo we could assemble the best sounding Blugrass band ever!

My only recording of Hindemith’s music is a two disc set of the “Kammermusik” by Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. This series of works was written in the 1920’s in the Neo-classical style that Stravinsky was also exploring. Perhaps Neo-baroque is a better description. They con...

David Zinman's Mozart performances were always high points of the season when I was a Baltimore Symphony subscriber. Really special! I hope Arte Nova will record more than just the Violin Concertos with Pamela Frank that were released a few years ago.

I've heard that during the food shortages under the German occupation of The Netherlands a dish called "Roof Rabbit" was served and cats became scarce.

One of the attendees was Katy Francis, who wore cat ears, whiskers, a cat nose and a sign that read, "Too Cute to Kill."

Uncle Francis: "Ever shot a Gnu, Miss Mulliner?"

Miss Mulliner: "I have never even spoken harshly to one!"

- P.G. Wodehouse, The Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court

Wis. Considers Legalizing Cat Hunting Tue Apr 12, 8:06 AM ET By The Associated Press http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=8&u=/ap/20050412/ap_on_re_us/killing_wild_cats MADISON, Wis. - Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers fa...

Apparently, You, I, and Dan Ferguson are the only members of this forum that actually CARE about the quality of the TV picture we get in our homes. Everybody else seems to view their TV sets as an afterthought. I had a Comcast Digital Cable Box/Video Recorder installed recently that allows me to re...

I checked out a couple of the suggestions on Haydnseek's list. It's all very good, but not quite what I'm interested in. Verdi, however was very much what I'm looking for. Choral is referring to choir, right? If so, then after comparing Verdi and Carl Orff to the items on Haydnseek's list, I can sa...

They aren't exactly like Carmina Burana but they have some of the loud and rhythmic qualities you are perhaps seeking:

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel: Bolero
Liszt: Totentanz
Enescu: Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

The music of Haydn (along with Brahms and Richard Strauss) holds a special place in my heart. I’ve never understood why entirely but I come back to Haydn year after year and he touches me in a very personal way. That said, much of Mozart’s music is breathtaking. I don’t respond to the piano music st...

Rudolf Schock is my favorite tenor – a special voice. We have quite a few of his recordings, mostly operetta, and a copy of one of his films: Gräfin Mariza. He made several operetta movies which I wish were available on DVD. I’m listening to him sing Lehar’s “Immer nur lächeln” as I write.

Here is what happened to Lincoln:

http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln13.html

A Song of Reproduction By Michael Flanders and Donald Swann MF: May we ask, could you hear that more or less all right at the top there? All right for quantity? Nothing we can do about the quality. Not until Swann's voice breaks, anyway. People make an awful lot of fuss, anyway about the quality of ...

I heard Guilini conduct Brahms 2nd with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and it was a splendid performance. When I replace my broken turntable, which will be soon, I hope, my first listening may well be his Beethoven Eroica with the LAP - a recording I admire very much and have missed hearing.

BY JAMES TARANTO Tuesday, April 5, 2005 4:35 p.m. EDT http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006518 Blogger Orin Kerr calls our attention to a law review article by Brian Kalt, who points out that U.S. law provides a way to get away with murder (or any other crime): Do it in the Idaho portion of ...

MaestroDJS wrote:Incidentally, some plastic surgeons are called "nasal architects."

I hope they are not influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and construct flat and leaky noses.

My only recording of the Symphonia Domestica is Previn’s with the Vienna Philharmonic from Deutsche Grammophon. It is one of my favorite discs. I love this very good-natured music that is so rich and complex and yet so transparent. What a range of emotions it expresses! It is full of life and love a...

I understand that BBC Producer Mary Mapes, formerly of CBS, defended the request for an interview with the late Bob Marley arguing "any statements by Mr. Marley that we reported would have been true in spirit if not in fact."

If there were substantial misrepresentations by Churchill, tenure revocation is a possibility. Plagiarism would almost guarantee it. Talk about changing the tenuring process is nonsense. Much of it is dictated by accreditation agencies who would not accept any watering down of the procedures. And I...

I just listened to Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 played by Haitink and the London Philharmonic while watching the sun set over the water. Now it's time to kick back and enjoy a beer and some jazz with Rob McConnell & the Boss Brass - my favorite post-swing era big band.