The Rollers Singles Collection

I've been using that new Chromebook this week across the week working on my Tumblr of which is just over six years old which was marked.

Something else that is an anniversary is it's nearly a year to the day Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers died and as you know it was one of few occasions I made a post about music here because, frankly it mattered as part of my boyhood past.

This is something I had for Christmas in 1975 as did many boys and girls particularly in with a copy of that years Blue Peter book and the fact I still have my copy with my childhood penned contributions says a lot about what being a BCR fan meant to me and how connected to that past I am.

Last Friday, Cherry Red Records almost by co-incidence issued a three cd set by the Bay City Rollers that sets itself outside of a good number of compilations and the cd issues of the first four British albums in 2004.

Entitled The Singles Collection, it collects in chronological order every British bay city rollers single (aka '45) issued from 1971's Keep On Dancing right though 1981's Life On The Radio and Set The Fashion from the Ricochet album recorded as 'The Rollers'  and featured in the Burning Rubber movie of the same year.

One of the things I like about it is it has the b sides of all the singles following the a (or main) side so for instance after listening to "Bye Bye Baby" you hear  "It's For You" which was the UK b side before moving to "Give a Little Love" so it's like playing all the original vinyl 45's the we did as kids.

Some of the earliest singles like Manana were hard to find even in the mid 1970's as they had been deleted but they are all here.

That's one from my original childhood 45 collection which I still have and I will say as a Rollermanic the American edition has added strings on it as did many of the tracks on the US "Bay City Rollers" album.

The set does put in American singles that were not issued in the UK  such as the re-recorded Saturday Night, a US #1 from 1976 and Yesterday's Heroes featuring the screams of Toronto's youthful BCR fans gathered at a CHUM 1050 promoted concert placed in order of release too.
The set includes a booklet with a write up about each single related to events in the life of the band and photos of the records and many world-wide picture sleeves.

The sound quality is very good not sounding compressed or muddy.

Thus it is a complete set that appeals to all of us fans whither like me you still have your childhood singles and albums or just looking for a set of the records you loved to remember Alan and the band by. It's available either direct from Cherry Red's website or Amazon.

This is for all of us who remember the era.

Schubert dip

One thing I do a lot of especially if I haven't been good is play a lot of music as it is routed in childhood and has a very soothing regressive quality with me   and I have been playing these two sets a lot over this period I haven't been too good in myself.

Originally I had  a set of cds on Naxos bought bought several years back this classic set of performances.

Karl Bohm bring so much more out from the score it's unbelievable.

The Melos's performances are much better than the original cds I had and this set is more complete for good measure.
When I look at recordings what I look at is something that will hold up for several years rather than some new revolutionary account whose approach loses favour and the Melos I find is timeless.
I hadn't mentioned them here before and I thought this is a good opportunity to bring my entries up to date.

Liszt and Chopin

From boyhood I always had a love of piano music, listening to live performances often taped and acquiring the odd record.

I've always loved the Polish composer Chopin from a very early age having records of his music but during a period where classical music migrated to the cd, I lost many of mine only getting around to replacing a recording of his Piano Concertos.

Late last year DG issued a special box set marking the 70th birthday of the Italian pianist Maurzio Pollini featuring all his solo recordings of Chopin's piano works (477 990-8) housing 9 cds as originally issued of the Etudes, Preludes, Polonaises, Scherzos, Nocturnes as well as the Second and Third piano sonatas complete with reproduction card covers and a inset.

Many of these performances are among the very best of chopin's works but because a manufacturing error that a number of the discs unplayable, I returned it but bought used the individual original discs adding the super audio cd version of Polonaises from 1976.

This recording may not quite match the sonics of the very best of today's but the playing by Pollini ably backed by the Philharmonia Orchestra of London in this 1960 recording remains the standard to judge accounts of the First Piano Concerto by.

For a long time my favourite on record, this was remastered and reissued in 2016 by Warner Japan who currently own the rights to EMI's Classical catalogue on the Super Audio cd format with  a cd layer so it plays on all machines although sacd machines will get the most from it.

They even restored the original period artwork which I adored.

At the same time I spotted a 5 cd set of Liszt's solo piano works going cheap by the Hungarian Georges Cziffra on EMI (648351 2) recorded from the late 1950's thru 1985.

His talent lay in finding what inspired Liszt and playing it back - some said he was the reincarnation of him - and although he adds a few touches of his own compared to some more modern  recordings, he keeps you riveted to the Hungarian Rhapsodies and other featured works  from start to finish.

I did have a few of this performances originally on lp so it was nice to be acquainted with them again.
At the same time I ordered Liszt: Piano concertos 1 &2 plus two other works to round off the collection that I managed to fit into the box set in effect turning it into Czaffra plays Lizst set.
EMI Encore 7243 574736 2 0
Orchestra de Paris conducted by  Georgy Cziffra Jr with Georges Czaffra on piano
Electrifying performances from 1971/2.