As I’m not sure I’m using absolutely optimal settings for digitisation, I’m starting with some LPs that we’re not so deeply attached to. First off the mark was some double harpsichord concertos by Couperin and Rameau (apologies to their memories).
This batch contained one of my earliest LP purchases (I think I was still at primary school when I got it); Giulini and the Philharmonia performing La Mer; sadly the Three Nocturnes on the other side sticks – I probably didn’t look after my discs too well in those days.
At the other end of the scale are Franck/Debussy/Ravel violin sonatas recorded by Shlomo Mintz and Yefim Bronfman in 1985, which must be one of the most recent recordings in the whole collection.
We have two recordings of Liszt’s B minor Sonata; the one by Bernard d’Ascoli (which also includes La leggierezza and Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue), was first up to the platter. The waveform of the opening to this sonata is very distinctive! Another piano disc is of Szymanowski and Janáček played by Jan Latham-Koenig, of interest to me because he is a conductor I’ve sung for with Chorus Angelorum.
Earlier repertoire was represented in this batch by a rather short disc of Bach’s Reformation cantatas BWV79 and 80, conducted by Leonhardt and Harnoncourt respectively.