The Glory of Decca Phase4---Hmmm!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't think you need to worry too much about the performances themselves. These are mostly good. It's whether or not the artificially tweaked sound balances get under your skin that could be an issue for some.

[cloughie]

I have dithered about buying this set - the views did not seem very positive here. However the very full review in the current IRR (by one of our contributors, I think) has filled me with enthusism and I am about to order it. At about £2 a CD I can put up with a few duds.

As an after-thought, isn't it noticeable that the sort of enthusiastic and thorough reviews we get in IRR are far more likely to send the reader to the record shop (or website) than the Ivan March style blandness of most reviews in other publications?

There is a lot more to like than dislike - the price seems to have risen since first released - I purchased from amazon.it which at the time was the best deal.

[VodkaDilc]

There is a lot more to like than dislike - the price seems to have risen since first released - I purchased from amazon.it which at the time was the best deal.

I know that many people do not share my view, but I prefer to pay slightly more and avoid Amazon (which I have never used). Presto or my local music shop always offer good deals.

[cloughie]

I know that many people do not share my view, but I prefer to pay slightly more and avoid Amazon (which I have never used). Presto or my local music shop always offer good deals.

Looks like I go for the Pasta and you for the Presto!

[Ferretfancy]

I don't think you need to worry too much about the performances themselves. These are mostly good. It's whether or not the artificially tweaked sound balances get under your skin that could be an issue for some.

That was really the problem for me. There are some good performances in this box, the Ricci violin concerto recordings for example, or Stokowski's orchestral Wagner, but the constantly up front sound soon becomes very tiring to listen to. Most of the music is of course very well known, and many of us probably have performances at least as good in our collections already. This contrasts with the two Decca boxes, which contain some of the finest discs in the catalogue.

[VodkaDilc]

I don't think you need to worry too much about the performances themselves. These are mostly good. It's whether or not the artificially tweaked sound balances get under your skin that could be an issue for some.

I liked Nigel Simeone's comment on this issue in IRR:

The Phase 4 recordings process..........produced results that were often thrilling. What they are not ..........is 'realistic', but I'm not sure this matters. While the results from the relatively austere approach of a company like Mercury (using just three microphones) are still hugely impressive and can lay claim to some sort of quest for recorded naturalism, even these don't sound 'realistic' in the way an orchestra playing in a live hall is.

No recording sounds exactly like a live performance; the Phase 4 experiment was just one way of presenting the sound.

[Tony Halstead]

[QUOTE=VodkaDilc;450498]I liked Nigel Simeone's comment on this issue in IRR:

The Phase 4 recordings process..........produced results that were often thrilling. What they are not ..........is 'realistic', but I'm not sure this matters. While the results from the relatively austere approach of a company like Mercury (using just three microphones) are still hugely impressive and can lay claim to some sort of quest for recorded naturalism, even these don't sound 'realistic' in the way an orchestra playing in a live hall is.

No recording sounds exactly like a live performance

IMV the Nimbus 'Ambisonic' recordings are about as close as you can get...BUT you have to have TWO AMPLIFIERS, FOUR LOUDSPEAKERS and an 'AMBISONIC' DECODER!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Stokowski Phase 4 recording of Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony is one of the gems of the box. On the microscopic sleeve note is an explanatory box:

For all that Hector Berlioz was a composer far ahead of his time, he couldn't foresee the advent of microgroove recordings, and thus was most inconsiderate to 20th century stereophiles. the five movements of his Symphonie Fantastique are so timed that to put any three of them in sequence on a single side would inevitably result in overcrowding and, consequently, a loss of fidelity. This would be bad enough on a regular recording, but it is unthinkable for Phase 4 stereo - for so many years the standard of immaculate reproduction. Accordingly, the middle movement has been split over two sides, giving the shepherds a chance to catch their breaths, and the listener an opportunity to hear the Symphonie in its full sonic glory.

Fair enough, but only a few short months later, Stokowski's Beethoven 9 was released on a single Phase 4 LP - something that was by no means the standard for conventional recordings at that time.

[Roehre]

The Stokowski Phase 4 recording of Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony is one of the gems of the box. On the microscopic sleeve note is an explanatory box:


Fair enough, but only a few short months later, Stokowski's Beethoven 9 was released on a single Phase 4 LP - something that was by no means the standard for conventional recordings at that time.

....and with an artistically not badly done fading out and fading in of the 3rd mvt IIRC.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

....and with an artistically not badly done fading out and fading in of the 3rd mvt IIRC.

Will have to take your word for that. Obviously no sign of it on the CD

[Dave2002]

IMV the Nimbus 'Ambisonic' recordings are about as close as you can get...BUT you have to have TWO AMPLIFIERS, FOUR LOUDSPEAKERS and an 'AMBISONIC' DECODER!

Years ago that might have seemed a lot of kit - and perhaps expensive too. Nowadays it might be possible to get the amplifier and decoder into one small box. Good speakers still present problems, though.

[MickyD]

Much as they have often been criticised, I rather like the Nimbus sound that was given to their Hanover Band recordings...but then I have horror of dry sound, so the 'halo' given by Nimbus suits my ears very well.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I did find some of those swimmy Nimbus recordings a bit hard to take, but better that way tham some of the Phase 4 artificiality.

That said, the Phase 4 box was worth buying for the. Stokowski Tchaik 5 & Sheherazade recordings alone.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As a postscript to the the above, there is a truly dreadful Stokowski disc in the set - excerpts from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Not only it is tastelessly recorded, but Stoko's cuts make the result even less than bleeding chunks - more like offal. A horrendous bunch of leftovers.

[VodkaDilc]

As a postscript to the the above, there is a truly dreadful Stokowski disc in the set - excerpts from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Not only it is tastelessly recorded, but Stoko's cuts make the result even less than bleeding chunks - more like offal. A horrendous bunch of leftovers.

I have not heard the disc yet, so cannot judge, but would these be the performances which Nigel Simeone in IRR describes as "delectable accounts of the Suites from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty"?