Bought the following LPs from the Blythswood shop in Invergordon. Good prices! 

  £1.50
  £1.50
  £0.33
  £1.50

 A 4CD set of "Parsifal"; a stereo recording made at Covent Garden on 8 May 1971.  Due for release on 29 Sept 08 - ROH label.

                                  Jon Vickers        -          Parsifal
                                  Norman Bailey    -          Amfortas
                                  Amy Shuard       -          Kundry
                                  Michael Langdon -          Titurel
                                  Donald McIntyre -          Klingsor

                       Royal Opera House Orchestra -  conducted by Reginald Goodall

I remember being 'fractured' by the experience at the time and Jon Vickers Tristan, in the same decade, made these two high definition performances quite unforgettable.

I've shopped around at four different outlets to compare prices for the set.   HMV online came out best, marginally, at £28 99, incl postage.   MDT advertise at £27 but a handling charge will bring it within the same range as hmv.

Snap, Ron.   I suspect that we're both a couple of compulsive hoarders!       Indeed, it is only half an hour, or so, that I made a similar search.  I did find the programme for a later production, in April 1979, drearily directed by Terry Hands.   His debut and farewell at the ROH?    Sad, because it had a fine cast.

                          Kurt Moll                   -               Gurnemanz
                          Yvonne Minton           -               Kundry (she was always a favourite with me)
                         
                          Norman Bailey            -               Amfortas
                          Peter Hofmann           -               Parsifal
                          Gwynne Howell           -               Titurel
                          Franz Mazura             -               Klingsor

          Teresa Cahill, Isobel Buchanan, Diana Montague, Jean Bailey, Elizabeth Robson & Anne
          Wilkens as the Flower Maidens.
           
                    Royal Opera House Orchestra conducted by George Solti

                   

                         

I suspect Accord has in fact released a number of them before - at least, I have some Accord CD's that seem likely enough to be those. On the other hand I may well make the investment just for that Catalogue d'Oiseaux...

...oops, indeed it seems I just did.

The box did arrive on Saturday morning, and so far I have had time to listen to half of the Catalogue d'Oiseaux. Technically, the later performances are more accomplished, while these are at times quite rushed, with some of the colours and phrasing not being fully articulated. What is most interesting is how the interpretation seems to refer to 'traditional' piano music; I suppose this is because that the music has only just been written, and you have to use what you know in order to begin to get to grips with it. Later interpretations of this music are more confident in the idiom of this music - I wonder if this always applies?

Recording quality is OK and certainly listenable. There is tape hiss, the recording dynamic range is compressed and at times I wondered if the CDs had been mastered from a recording of the original vinyl rather than the master tapes.

Now a Turangalîla which recently came my way thanks to a tip from our own makropulos is of the European premiere (and thus I think the fourth performance). It's in a box of live recordings from the Aix-en-Provence festival.

Looks like this:



Searches at the Brazilians under Turangalîla Desormiere don't turn it up but trust me it's there. It's a fine thing. Although the sound is pretty basic as you may imagine. There's also a radio interview on the end - a sort of interval panel discussion with the likes of Auric and Honegger.

Looks like I am going to be listening to rather a lot of Messiaen in the near future, (no change there, then). Not only did I order the set recommended by Ollie last night, I went for the new DG and EMI collections, too (both from MDT, who seem to be offering the best UK deal). Of course, it means I will have a fair few duplicate recordings to dispose of, but there are always ebay and Amazon Marketplace for that sort of thing.