I wouldn't be surprised if my SHM disc uses the Originals remastering. After listening to the entire disc again last night I think I do prefer it to the original CD. It is quite amazing to me how much different and more detailed it sounds.
I wish I could hear the original LP and compare it to my two different CD copies to see which sounds more similar. I agree with you that it is quite a vigorous performance and also my favorite Brahms 4. I have tried a few other recordings and always end up coming back to the Kleiber as being the best for me!
I wouldn't be surprised if it used a new transfer, either. There is one recording I was able to trace from its very early incarnation, through its remaster, and finally, in its SHM-SACD incarnation. Like Kleiber's Brahms, it is an early digital recording by Deutsche Grammophon: Karajan's Peer Gynt Suite recordings from the '80s. This recording, which appeared on CD in the early days, was remastered/newly mixed for the "Karajan Gold" series in the '90s. This series predated “The Originals” series, but from the liner notes it seems most of the same transfer technology was used in both. The "Karajan Gold" improved upon the old transfer, adding depth and warmth, as it did for most of the titles in that series, all early digital recordings re-done in this fashion. Then the SHM-SACD came along and I was expecting to get pretty much the same sound as on the "Gold" transfer. Wrong. The old remaster suddenly sounded dead and uninvolving compared to the riches of the SHM transfer, which now has the fullness of tone of earlier analogue recordings. So this led me to believe the bad reputation that Deutsche Grammophon's early digital sound gets (many of it already exaggerated) is possibly due to inadequate mixes and transfers from the original digital multitracks. The Karajan discs demonstrates what can be achieved. So, to get back to your Kleiber Brahms disc: it's quite possible that is a new transfer, in which case it makes me very curious to hear it. You can consider yourself lucky. P.S. For those interested, there is another series by DG from the '90s that did remasters of earlier digital recordings: it is called "Masters".
The thing I am not a fan of is the crooked artwork found on some of these classical remasters. Edit: in general I avoid SHM-CDs if they aren't specifically from the flat transfer series, since they are usually over tweaked. I haven't heard any classical SHM-CDs, though I have heard many exceptional sounding classical SHM-SACDs. Kleiber's Brahms S4 was done on SHM-SACD and on SACD by Esoteric. I have a DSD ISO rip of the latter.
All of the DG/Philips/Decca Originals CD masterings that I have compared to the original CD mastering proved to have inferior sound. On the other hand, I happen to like the front and rear artwork design.
I agree George. I have only purchased a few classical remasters and did not care for them. Whenever I buy an album now I try to go for the original CD release for DG, Decca, Phillips, and EMI recordings.
Gregor Piatigorsky Mendelssohn; Chopin; Strauss Testament, 2008 I saw this recommended somewhere, but I could not get into it myself. I wish I could have heard Piatigorsky in his prime. These recordings are from RCA Victor in 1965, 1966. Leonard Pennario, piano, is on the Mendelssohn and Strauss sonatas. Rudolf Firkusny is on the Chopin sonata.
I have a recording of the original version with the arpeggios made by Lazar Berman in the 80s. He has played it this way live in Athens below Acropolis with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Chailly. P. Tchaikovsky* - Lazar Berman, West Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra* , Conductor Yuri Temirkanov - Concerto No. 1 For Piano And Orchestra He recorded it with Karajan too but it was the well known version. Herbert von Karajan • Lazar Berman, Berliner Philharmoniker - Tschaikowsky* - Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 B-Moll
I have done a more extensive comparison tonight of the original CD release vs. the SHM-CD of Kleiber's Brahms 4. I stated that I originally thought I preferred the SHM due to the extra detail. However as is usually the case I am now back to where I prefer the original, earliest CD mastering. The SHM while more detailed I find too bright and thin, and I cannot turn the volume up much without the brightness becoming uncomfortable. The original disc has a warmer, more well-balanced tonality and sounds better when the volume is increased, and will remain my go-to copy of this recording. I don't think I will be experimenting with any more classical remastered or SHM CDs.
Geza Anda Chopin: Preludes; Etudes Orfeo, 2010 2 CDs live from the Salzburg Festival 1965 wonderful playing There are some flutter issues from the Salzburg tapes.
I just listened to the Esoteric SACD at a fairly healthy volume, I wouldn't say it's a bad recording either, more that the mix is a bit weird. For instance placing the tympani drums front/mid left channel when they are almost always in the back rows of an orchestra. Also it sounds like an early stereo mix the way everything is mixed so forward with very little depth in the center. Still on the Esoteric SACD I was not left wanting for a better mastering; it was incredibly dynamic, with full natural tone from the entire orchestra and quite detailed without the slightest hint of harshness, and I was probably playing this in the upper 70 dB on average meaning it was hitting 85-90+ on peaks. I do have the Originals CD but it has been so long since I've heard it that it would be pointless to comment about it. This is the first time I've heard this performance near full range due to the Harbeths. I couldn't listen at these levels on the Quads, or small Audioengine/headphones when I was in small apartments. Truly a nice experience to hear this at live listening volumes. I will see if I can persuade my friend to play this the next time I am at his place, he has some enormous speakers that get the closest I have heard to what I hear live. In general I have yet to be let down on mastering with the classical Esoteric SACDs (I know they're not true DSD, but I'm not dogmatic about DSD vs PCM). @yasujiro do you care to comment on them?
The unlovely sources of tonight's sounds. Haydn 26, 42 & 43 by The Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood, Mozart Piano Concertos 15 & 16 played & conducted by Murray Perahia with the English Chamber Orchestra and Mozart violin works played & conducted by Pinchas Zuckerman with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. I recorded these with Dolby noise reduction but am playing them with it turned off. This sounds better to me, which may demonstrate my loss of higher-frequency hearing since they were recorded around 20 years ago.
Piatigorsky's memoirs, titled simply Cellist, can be read for free online here: Cellist, Gregor Piatigorsky's Autobiography They make for interesting and sometimes very entertaining reading.
...Or it could simply be a matter that the tapes have lost high frequency content over time. I believe that's characteristic of tape as a medium. It could also be a matter that your current deck is not aligned as was the one on which you made them; if one or the other is or was out of calibration, it could easily cause tapes to play with a loss of high frequencies with Dolby engaged. Not knowing the brands involved, did you record them on a Nakamichi and now are playing them on some other brand of deck? Or vice versa? Tapes made on Nakamichi decks supposedly do not "travel" well. I gave up on Dolby C on my Nak deck because the tapes simply were unlistenable on anything else. I think the same holds true the other way, or at least is supposed to. Apologies for going off topic. To bring things back, for the first time in years I heard one of the late R. Serkin/Claudio Abbado Mozart concerto recordings (specifically, no. 9) on the radio this morning. When it was announced, I was hoping perhaps I'd find it more to my taste than the last time I heard one of them. Alas, no soap; the first mvt. was just a plain ol' slog, no other word for it. I still remain of the opinion that Serkin, superlative artist that he was, went on recording far later than he should have, and if you want to hear him to advantage in Mozart cti., seek out the earlier mono ones on Columbia.
Well I’m not found of the DG sound TBW and not a fan of mastering style of Esoteric either.. which, I feel, is a bit ostentatious. So, I am satisfied with my WG CD of this great performance.
I’m not found of the sound of many SHM-SACD classical title either, off DG or Decca master tapes. I feel something wrong with the sound of them in most cases. I think the best CDs made from Decca tapes are the ones made by King Records in the 1980s with prefix K35y, K30Y or 223E. They sound very analog and beautiful. I would say that many of them surpass the WG CD equivalents.
I agree. Perhaps he should have stopped when his Columbia contract expired. His Deutsche Grammophon recordings are disappointing, to put it euphemistically.
Happy Mozart's birthday, everybody! In honor of the occasion, on headphones, drowning out the Starbucks musical "entertainment" while I wait for an oil change in my car: Richard Strauss leading the indefatigable Berlin State Opera Or. in a bracing performance of the overture to Die Zauberflote, recorded in 1928.
I recently picked this up from the cheapie bins on a lark: Boy am I glad I did! A great recital, and Horszowski has the most beautiful tone. Every voice sings, and his style is very gentle but absorbing. The more I listen to it the more I love it. This was recorded in 1990, but Horszowski was born in 1892. By 1901 he was playing Beethoven's piano concerto in C publicly. So his playing has that 'old world' sound to it. He breaks his hands in the nocturne op. 9, no. 2, for example . The booklet also mentions his teacher, Leschetizky, was a pupil of Czerny, making Horszowski only three 'generations' removed from LvB himself.
Now playing: Piano sonatas by Copland, Ives, Carter, and Barber. Played by Peter Lawson. I am not familiar with any of these works but I'm enjoying them a lot. Another find from the other day along with these: Messiaen Piano Music. Vol. 3: Preludes, Etudes, Canteyodjaya. Hakon Austbo. Naxos. Schoenberg, Berg, Webern Piano Music. Peter Hill, Naxos.
Krystian Zimerman Schubert: Sonatas, D 959 & D 960 DG, 2017 I enjoyed this disc. Zimerman uses a keyboard he designed himself. "It is designed to create qualities Schubert would have known in his instruments. Compared to a modern grand piano, the hammer strikes a different point of the string, enhancing its ability to sustain a singing sound -- though it does also set up different overtones and the piano might sound strangely tuned. Also, the action is lighter. On a modern grand the many repeated notes in Schubert could turn into Prokofiev." This was recorded in the Kashiwazaki City Performing Arts Centre, Japan. Zimerman praises the acoustics of the Yasuhisa Toyota designed spaces. " In Toyota's halls, every note is clear, yet each is in a cushion of warm surroundings."
