Finding a classical CD based on its contents only?

January 30, 2008 5:06 AM

Can I re-find a Brahms CD I once loved, if I know which pieces are on it (not a common combo of pieces) but don't remember much else about it?

THINGS I'M POSITIVE ABOUT:
- CD contents are Brahms opus 116, 117, 118 and 119 complete, and nothing else;
- pianist is male;
- CD was released in 1993 or earlier;
- it's definitely a stereo, 'modern'-sounding recording.


THINGS I'M PRETTY SURE ABOUT:
- label is at least semi-obscure (I think I remember not recognizing the label, and at that time I definitely knew the big labels like DG, London and Sony);
- pianist is at least semi-obscure, not a big name;
- cover graphic (at least for the version I had) is a line drawing or a simple grayscale image, not a photo and not in color.


I think I would recognize the cover and/or the pianist's name if I saw them(and certain tracks if I heard them).


I would love to hear any guesses, and/or any advice re. how I can view a list of CDs that have exactly that rep., and/or creative ideas for googling (since there's no exact-phrase that's really useful... I've tried including "116 through 119" and "116-119" along with brahms, cd, disc, etc.).

(p.s. It's not the Wilhelm Kempff 1992 recording on DG.)

posted by allterrainbrain to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Response by poster: (And I have found some recent recordings with all those pieces, but what I'm looking for can't have been released post-1993 since I know I had the CD by that point.)
posted by allterrainbrain at 5:13 AM on January 30, 2008

If you're prepared to do some manual searching, here are some links

HenrysRecords
MusicBrainz!

Use the formal names for those works from Wikipedia or AllMusicGuide.
posted by Gyan at 5:31 AM on January 30, 2008

Google idea would be:

Brahms 116 119 album -DG -sony -london

I'd suggest running something similar on images.google.com and browsing images for album covers. It would probably go quicker.
posted by bfranklin at 5:32 AM on January 30, 2008

Shot in the dark: is it possibly Stefan Vladar? This is my favorite performance of these works, and meets your criteria.
posted by softlord at 5:44 AM on January 30, 2008

I bet if you email the folks at Arkiv Music they could help you find it.
posted by Silvertree at 5:45 AM on January 30, 2008

There's a Nicholas Angelich recording on Virgin.
posted by bassjump at 6:11 AM on January 30, 2008

Someone's CD collection has at number 146 a CD with these pieces performed by Richard North. A quick search with his name returns only one semi-useful page at tauschticket.de. I don't see any original release date mentioned there (a Babelfish translation suggests that it's a used disc; the date note on the right says "Adjusted: 16.11.2007").
posted by yz at 8:00 AM on January 30, 2008

I did find some evidence that the North disc mentioned above is an older one: a mailing list item mentions it:

Thanks, Tony, for citing this fascinating and useful item. I know I picked up some of these cheap CDs when I acquired my first CD player, as I suppose many of us did. One of my own favourite attributions was on a "Symphonia Digital Classics" CD (c. Tring, licensed from "Long Island Music Co. Ltd.). This was a recording of the Brahms short piano pieces, Opus 116-119. These were, according to the label, played by "The European Philharmonic Orchestra" with Richard North, piano. (The orchestra sure plays softly!)

posted by yz at 2:02 PM on January 31, 2008