The Glory of Decca Phase4---Hmmm!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's a new 40 CD box being issued (as well as a 6 LP set) of Decca Phase 4 reissues.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/phase-4-stereo-decca-40cds.html

It was a label intended to impress on Dansette quality equipment, rather than being of the high fidelity so characteristic of Decca in the 1960s. I recall being impressed by the Ben Hur LP, but not Ravel's La Valse, where the flutter tonguing flautist appeared to be sitting on a boomerang. The worst offender by far, of those I heard, was the recording of HMS Pinafore. Despite the outcry, the seagulls didn't seem too out of place, but the two simulation acoustics for the voices and the orchestra was just horrible, and I don't think this one is included.

Phase 4 would be good for today's low dynamic range FM quality. :sad face:

Yet Leopold Stokowski liked the technology and made some rather fine recordings on Phase 4.

[visualnickmos]

Yet Leopold Stokowski liked the technology and made some rather fine recordings on Phase 4.

It takes all sorts, I suppose...

[cloughie]

There's a new 40 CD box being issued (as well as a 6 LP set) of Decca Phase 4 reissues.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/phase-4-stereo-decca-40cds.html

It was a label intended to impress on Dansette quality equipment, rather than being of the high fidelity so characteristic of Decca in the 1960s. I recall being impressed by the Ben Hur LP, but not Ravel's La Valse, where the flutter tonguing flautist appeared to be sitting on a boomerang. The worst offender by far, of those I heard, was the recording of HMS Pinafore. Despite the outcry, the seagulls didn't seem too out of place, but the two simulation acoustics for the voices and the orchestra was just horrible, and I don't think this one is included.

Phase 4 would be good for today's low dynamic range FM quality. :sad face:

Yet Leopold Stokowski liked the technology and made some rather fine recordings on Phase 4.

There was good stuff, fun stuff and there was dross.

[Tony Halstead]

It takes all sorts, I suppose...

Among those Stokowski/ LSO/ Decca 'Phase 4' recordings were
Debussy 'La Mer'
Ravel 'Daphnis & Chloe' Suite 2
Messaien 'L'Ascension' ( orchestral version)
Ives 'Orchestral Set ( no 2?)'
plus his 60th anniversary LSO concert ( 1912/1972)
which included Wagner Prelude 'Die Meistersinger', Glazunov Violin concerto,
Debussy 'L'apres-midi d'un faune' ,
Brahms Symphony #1 and ( encore)
Tchaikovsky 'Marche Slave'

I do remember those very well as I was playing on them!
He loved 'Phase 4' because the multi-mic / multi-track recording technique gave him the opportunity to indulge what Gunther Schuller has described as his 'dialling madness'
where ( I suppose) 'dialling' means using a multi-track control panel's 'faders' to either boost or reduce ( decibel-wise) sections of the orchestra or even individual players.

One of the great things that Stokowski achieved around that time with his LSO concerts was to force the RFH's 'stage jobsworths' to CLOSE THE ORGAN DOORS.
At a stroke, this achieved a clearer and more resonant acoustical projection of the orchestral sound owing to the hard reflecting surfaces of the organ doors rather than the usual deadening effect of the sound-absorbing 1000s of organ pipes behind the orchestra.
In retrospect it now seems absurd that this wasn't done automatically, and that it took a conductor of Stokowski's authority and sheer 'clout' to get the RFH's stage staff to do it ( albeit complaining and whingeing!)

[richardfinegold]

There's a new 40 CD box being issued (as well as a 6 LP set) of Decca Phase 4 reissues.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/phase-4-stereo-decca-40cds.html

It was a label intended to impress on Dansette quality equipment, rather than being of the high fidelity so characteristic of Decca in the 1960s. I recall being impressed by the Ben Hur LP, but not Ravel's La Valse, where the flutter tonguing flautist appeared to be sitting on a boomerang. The worst offender by far, of those I heard, was the recording of HMS Pinafore. Despite the outcry, the seagulls didn't seem too out of place, but the two simulation acoustics for the voices and the orchestra was just horrible, and I don't think this one is included.

Phase 4 would be good for today's low dynamic range FM quality. :sad face:

Yet Leopold Stokowski liked the technology and made some rather fine recordings on Phase 4.

Fascinating. I always thought Phase 4 was aimed at the High End Audio Audience, not for Dansettes. One of the first records I ever bought was Carlos Paita Conducting Wagner. I still remember the impact that the Dutchman Overure made. I have never had another recording of that piece sound so thrilling. However, I was 13 years old and listening on an American equivalent of a Dansette.

[MLF]

There's a new 40 CD box being issued (as well as a 6 LP set) of Decca Phase 4 reissues.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/phase-4-stereo-decca-40cds.html

...where the flutter tonguing flautist appeared to be sitting on a boomerang.

I am tempted to buy by that description alone.

[gradus]

The Leinsdorf (little discussed here) Phase 4 of Wagner Tannhauser ov, and Venusberg music coupled with the Rosenkavalier suite remains a favourite, how interesting to hear from Tony about the recordings. Perhaps Tony also played on the Monteux (non Phase 4 ) Deccas?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Phase 4 recordings do sound better in lo-fi setups, such as "normal' computers where dynamic range can be an issue.

A bit of Stokowski conducting R-K:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvJu5Mb83U

[gradus]

We are less impressed by Phase4stereo claims these days but Decca certainly took it very seriously and the LPs had an insert describing the recording process using the unique 20 channel mixer that enabled not ony width but depth of field to be conveyed with heightened realism in the recordings. Although launched with stereo spectaculars Trooping the Colour, Stanley Black directing a 110 strong, hand-picked orchestra in a Film Spectacular etc, classical recordings - the Concert Series began to appear in 1964.
I'm not sure that Decca managed to live up to their boast for any one recording that the 500,000 Phase4 pressing would be identical to the first but on the whole their manufacturing produced quite good quality discs then, a long time before anyone had heard of six sigma and other manufacturing credos.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Now that I think about it, the Phase 4 LPs I bought were all good pressings.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

EMI responded with their Studio Two label.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've just ordered the box. Frau Alpensinfonie has a slight hearing problem and doesn't like too wide a dynamic range. One of the criticisms of the concept was the dynamic compression, but every cloud has a silver lining.

Also, there is the small matter of quite looking forward to some of the performances I already have on LP.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The 40 CD box arrived today. I'm just "dipping in" - so far so good.

But there's something I've never experience before in the packaging/presentation. Each of the cardboard sleeves appears to be a reduced-size copy of the original LP sleeves. This has been done many times before with the picture face of the CD sleeve, but I haven't seen this with the sleeve notes on the back. The only thing they have omitted is the microscope needed to read the notes.

[vinteuil]

But there's something I've never experience before in the packaging/presentation. Each of the cardboard sleeves appears to be a reduced-size copy of the original LP sleeves. This has been done many times before with the picture face of the CD sleeve, but I haven't seen this with the sleeve notes on the back.

... the 21 CD box of the Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts on RCA does this too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0092AKDQK

[umslopogaas]

Eine Alp, my 63 CD box of RCA recordings conducted by Fritz Reiner has the same design: the CD cardboard sleeves are reduced versions of the original American RCA LSC series LPs. And yes, the notes on the back are a strain on my eyesight too!