New picture added

A new picture was added to "My Celibidache collection many years on". It shows the new Altus CDs on his tours in Japan in 1986 and 1990.

Blomstedt's new Bruckner 5th

I just couldn't wait to open the CD and slotted it into my car audio system when I journeyed back home. The initial impression was very very impressive. The orchestral sonority was excellent and the recording captured the warm and suitably reverberant acoustics of the hall. The introduction was on the slow side. Nuances were everywhere for you to hear and savour. I need some more time to take in the performance, which was not in the distant past: it was recorded in May 2010.

More later.

In anticipation

An eagerly awaited CD, Blomstedt's new Bruckner Fifth, arrived today at long last. Coming with it is Tennstedt's Bruckner Eighth with LPO in the format of HQCD from EMI Japan, very reasonably priced at 1200 yen.

I'm still waiting for Gunter Wand's Bruckner Eighth with NDR during his Japan tour, on Altus. And a couple more on the BR label. Bruckner cycles are not things that come along every day, or every year for that matter. Now one is coming and it is a commercial release of Maazel's cycle with BRSO. Although he is not one of those conductors that I particularly savour, a new Bruckner cycle is still something to look forward to.