User Details - Beagle

library | recommendations | wish list

Name:
   S.H. Gerriets
Details:
   Sixty-ish professional. Chamber music aficianado with emphasis on quartets. Circa 650 CDs, 450 SACDs; I amuse myself with a database of 29,000 composers, 56,000 works, 12,000 performances. Married to biologist/cellist. 'Extreme Gardening' with stone, water and native plants is my other passion.
Location:
   Maritimes (Canada)
HiFi:
   MAIN SYSTEM
Shanling CD-T200 *
Rotel 1070 pre-amp,
Rotel 1070 power-amp,
Monstercable Ultra600 interconnects
Paradigm Monitor-11** (biwired)
Paradigm PDR-10

POWERED HAFLER CIRCUIT ***
Nakamichi R3 integrated tuner-amp
Castle Pembroke rears

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF
House in quiet countryside
Propane fire heating (silent)
Leather recliner + footstool
Ardbeg, Glenmorangie or Aberlour single malt
____________________
* http://www.shanling.com/English/SCD-T2000.htm
** http://www.sorishop.com/goods/img/img_B8874.jpg
*** http://headwize.com/images/hafler.gif
Email:
   beagleofwestcock@eastlink.ca
Web:
  
Posts:
   1287
 
 
Reviews
Found: 65 show all
Schubert: Winterreise - Peter Harvey, Gary Cooper      (3 of 5 found this review helpful)
  January 30, 2011

I confess, I judged this book by its cover: I bought it because of the stark photo on the cover (by the baritone, Peter Harvey). The black raven captures the bleak spirit of this Liederzyklus in a powerful icon. I also knew Gary Cooper from etc, and Peter Harvey from and I trust Linn recordings. ... more
Janacek: Complete String Quartets - Mandelring Quartett      (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
  January 4, 2011

"Do they have the courage to be coarse when Janacek asks for it as well? My benchmark is Juilliard on Sony." Yes indeedy! I believe you refer to that quality which the wife and I fondly refer to as 'edge', and horsehair-and-rosin edge is certainly present in satisfactory quantity where passion ... more
Bach: Cello Suites - Gavriel Lipkind      (5 of 10 found this review helpful)
  November 17, 2010

Where to begin with this remarkable box set? Let's start with the weird... LINER NOTES Woo-hoo! (accompanied by rolling of eye-balls). I cannot readily disprove the assertion that J.S. Bach encoded The Kabbalah in these works, as is proposed in the "Text-book" and "Map of the Journey" which come ... more
Kuijken Two Generations      (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
  October 14, 2010

THE QUARTET INTRODUZIONE “I can’t go on; I must go on…” says Sir, the age-exhausted actor in the play and film ‘The Dresser’. He says it again and again until, finally, he steps through the curtain and into the demanding role of King Lear.... That protracted backstage hesitation is the only drama ... more
Britten: String Quartets I - Emperor Quartet      (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
  September 14, 2010

In regard to the incestuous love-making of Siegmund and Sieglinde, comedienne Anna Russell said “You can do anything in opera, as long as you SING it…”. The pieces on this disc suggest that you can do anything in a string quartet, as long as you do it CANTABILE… even 'modern' music. THE ... more
 
 
Latest Posts
Have your opinions changed?
May 12, 2012
On the topic of changing opinions: Adding a new component is always fun, but opinions change on their own. When [t=5314] arrived in mid-April I immediately 'took a scunner to it' (disliked it) and wondered what Polly Nomial was on when he wrote his glowing review. Well, a month passed and two nights ago I played it again -- and now I love it. ... more
Signature Collection - SACDs from EMI
May 10, 2012
The Debussy discs contain the richest mono sound I've ever encountered -- a sound which conveys depth and a modest illusion of breadth. (And costs less than dinner for two.) ... more
Signature Collection - SACDs from EMI
May 2, 2012
Hah! Warts indeed! My colleage, who does Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), was using the grooves of LPs as troughs in which to line up microscopic samples. He ran into a problem with "mushrooms" of phenol exuding in the old LPs -- so he bought some new LPs: No 'shrooms, but one can see scraps of label fiber in the 'new' (recycled old) vinyl. ... more
Signature Collection - SACDs from EMI
April 29, 2012
Ah, thank you for that one, Polly. I knew the expression but had never dug into the etymology: Cockney rhyming slang: cobbler's tools = "awls" which rhymes with "balls". ... more
Discussion: Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur - Wolfgang Sieber
April 25, 2012
The sound sample on JPC for "Le banquet céleste" evoke memories of Marie-Claire Alain (Erato 2292 45470) -- so I ordered [t=5700]. (The sound sample for the same work on [t=6033] sounds muffled by comparison.) I can't say that I need anymore discs, but I want this disc. ... more