The time is right to acquire the vast bulk of Igor Markevitch’s commercial legacy. Warner has released its 18 CD Erato ‘Icon’ box that contains his complete HMV LPs (label confusion is rife these days, isn’t it?). On its heels comes Australian Eloquence with two hefty boxes of its own, the Philips Legacy (26 CDs), to be reviewed soon, and the box under discussion, a 21 CD collection devoted to Markevitch’s DG recordings. BEFORE WE GET FURTHER INTO THIS, I'D LIKE YOU GUYS TO KNOW THAT ME WRITING IN ALL CAPS DOESN'T MEAN I'M PISSED OFF. I'M NOT YELLING AT YOU, OK? AND AS FAR AS MUSIC COMPARISONS GO: IF YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST (OR ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS) CHANGED THEIR ALBUM AFTER 3 MONTHS, WOULDN'T YOU BE GOING CRAZY OVER IT? AGAIN, SAME THING. Recording Locations: Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, France, 8, 10, 11 November 1957 (Gounod, Bizet); Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 2 March (Debussy: Danses), 2–3 May 1959 (Debussy: La Mer) In a way, what “BOYFRIEND” is to IGOR is similar to what “Saint Pablo” is to The Life Of Pablo, in that they’re both songs that fit into the narratives of their respective albums yet were added months after the albums’ initial releases (“Saint Pablo” was added to TLOP 4 months after its first edit dropped). However, there’s a major difference between the two. “Saint Pablo” brings the stunning TLOP narrative full circle, as well as creating a loop out of Kanye’s career up until that point. (“We Don’t Care,” the first song from Ye’s 2004 debut LP The College Dropout, features the line “we weren’t supposed to make it past 25, joke’s on you, we still alive” while “Saint Pablo,” The Life Of Pablo’s closer, has the line “I wasn’t supposed to make it past 25.”) That loop is what makes The Life Of Pablo such a great album (I hold it in equally high regard as I do IGOR; both are in my top 4 albums of all time) with such an emotionally moving narrative. The addition of “BOYFRIEND” to IGOR doesn’t create an earth-shattering change in the album (albeit still a significant one) and doesn’t drastically improve or ruin it either. In some ways, it’s just there.

Tyler, The Creator – Igor (2019, 192 kbps, File) - Discogs Tyler, The Creator – Igor (2019, 192 kbps, File) - Discogs

Recording Location: Polydor-Studio, Paris, France, 25 November 1958 (Coriolan), 26 November 1958 (Egmont, Leonore, Zur Namensfeier), 28 November 1958 (Die Weihe des Hauses), 29 November 1958 (Fidelio) Discs 7 and 8 are given over to Brahms. The First Symphony was recorded in mono at the same sessions that gave us the Eroica. Its inexorable opening tread is sufficiently varied metrically to generate an accumulation of tension, the symphony being seen as an absorbing arc. Both Rodziński and Bruno Walter had made earlier studio recordings of the work in New York by this time and Markevitch’s authority is such that his reading is hardly less compelling. The Fourth Symphony is a Lamoureux recording in stereo though with a greater spread of sonics comes a slight blunting of impact. On this same disc is Harold in Italy with Heinz Kirchner and the Berlin Philharmonic with a cut in the finale

What you should also know is that production standards with Eloquence are very high, that the booklet notes by Peter Quantrill are up to his own high standards and that photographic reproduction is excellent. Markevitch has always been a favourite of collectors, and his legacy, for the most part, fortunately falls into handy multi-volume boxes such as this one.

Tyler, The Creator – Igor (2019, Gatefold , Vinyl) - Discogs Tyler, The Creator – Igor (2019, Gatefold , Vinyl) - Discogs

Recording Locations: Salle Pleyel, Paris, France, 12 November 1957 (Russian Easter Festival Overture), 8–10 (Le Coq d’or), 11 (May Night) June 1958; Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 15 December 1959 (Borodin, Glinka), 23 May 1960 (Lyadov) Unrelated to IGOR, but I'm very glad to hear that you'll be reviewing the new Tool album. Of course, it's also not available on vinyl yet (and hasn't received a vinyl release announcement at all as of this moment). I've only listened to it twice through so far and already feel it's one of my top 10 albums of all time (their earlier album Lateralus is #1 for me). All I ask is that you listen to the album completely through multiple times (ideally at least five to ten times if you can) before writing your review. Looking forward to it! Recording Locations: Salle Pleyel, Paris, France, 12, 13 June 1958 (Tannhäuser: Overture), 13 June 1958 June 1958 (Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I), 19 November 1958 (Lohengrin: Prelude to Act II); Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, Germany, 7–8 December 1954 (Siegfried Idyll), 14–15 December 1954 (Tannhäuser: Venusberg Music), 19–20 December 1954 (Die Walküre)All-French repertoire can be found on disc 12. Gounod’s Second Symphony, propulsive and buoyantly played, has its complement of expressive nobility and whilst Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants is full of verve, Martinon is possibly even finer with his Paris Conservatoire recording. La Mer is vivid and colourful and Suzanne Cotelle is the harp soloist in the Danse sacrée et Danse profane. All these are with the Lamoureux but only the two Debussy pieces – La Mer thankfully included – are in stereo. Given the country of his birth – though he left at the age of two and always considered himself to be a French artist – Russian music was always a core component of his repertoire. Rimsky’s music features quite heavily in CD 13 with pride of place going to the Le Coq d’or suite arranged by Glazunov and Maximilian Steinberg and to the Russian Easter Festival overture. Sterner fare, and one of the symphonic high points of his recording career, comes in the following disc with the Pathétique symphony, here with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1953. His Tchaikovsky symphonic cycle, in stereo with the LSO, is contained in the Eloquence Philips box and the sixth there is probably better known for that reason. The album received a GRAMMY Award for “Best Rap Album” at the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards. This choice stirred up some controversy, as some believed that the album should not be considered a rap album and the nomination was racially motivated. Tyler himself stated his frustrations during a Radio Room Interview after the GRAMMYs: Recording Location: Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 11–17 January 1961 (Berlioz), 17–18 (Cherubini, Auber) January 1961

Fantasia - Sony: 19658811642 - 2 CDs or download | Presto Music

IGOR (pronounced EEE-GORE), released on May 17, 2019, is Tyler, the Creator’s sixth studio album. The announcement of the album came after some speculations the week before, followed by the release of four snippets on Tyler, The Creator’s social media platforms. SOME PEOPLE IN HERE ARE QUESTIONING WHY I HAD TO WRITE A THIRD PIECE ABOUT "IGOR," THINKING THAT I'M JUST PUSHING IT ON READERS AS HARD AS I CAN AND THAT I JUST CAN'T SEEM TO SHUT UP ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS ALBUM IS.. IGOR debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, marking Tyler’s first album to hit the top spot. It moved 165,000 units during its first week. This record represents Tyler’s first #1 record in his discography, out of the five records he has released. CD 9 expands the Berliozan focus via the Symphonie fantastique – and overtures by Cherubini (a really purposeful Anacréon) and Auber – where the atmosphere is just right and if the incendiary spirit of Munch is missing, the conception is no less concrete. CDs 10 and 11 are occupied by The Damnation of Faust, in 1959 stereo sound with Richard Verreau, Consuelo Rubio, Michel Roux and Pierre Mollet. This has been reviewed by John Quinn and whilst it’s ridiculous to distil a long review to one word I want to endorse the sense of ‘urgency’ that he located in this reading. The set opens with his classic recording of Cherubini’s Requiem in D minor, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic and men’s chorus in the Rudolfinum in Prague in a fine sounding 1962 stereo recording. The distinctive allure of the famous Czech winds, in particular, is memorable throughout. There are no soloists in this work, of course, but this adds a concentrated focus on the orchestral-choral balance of the piece. Coupled with it on the opening disc is Mozart’s Mass in C major (the Coronation), with the Lamoureux orchestra in stereo in 1959, which can be fruitfully contrasted with the earlier mono recording made in Berlin in 1954, which is housed in CD 20. His preference as soprano soloist here was Maria Stader, who is the only singer common to both recordings, and who is equally excellent on both discs.There’s more Mozart in CD 3, an eloquent performance of the Bassoon Concerto by Maurice Allard, one of France’s leading wind soloists at the time. Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante follows with its quartet of first-class soloists that include the astringent but exciting violinist Georges Alès. This was a work much loved by Fritz Busch whose violin soloist Leo Hansen is a warmer player. Cimarosa’s Concerto for two flutes is a Berlin recording and the final piece in this disc is Schubert’s Third Symphony (Berlin Philharmonic, 1954) which I find, on occasion, unsuitably belligerent. Recording Location: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, Germany, December 1954 (Schubert), December 1955 (Berwald)