Records let down by liner notes

[MickyD]

Some of the biggest culprits for this category must be with the labels that issue box sets and then put in a cheeseparing booklet that contains hardly any of the notes from the original discs. I'd happily pay extra for them.

[Bryn]

Some of the biggest culprits for this category must be with the labels that issue box sets and then put in a cheeseparing booklet that contains hardly any of the notes from the original discs. I'd happily pay extra for them.

Fortunately, the Internet often offers at least some information missing from such bargain boxed sets. I'd rather have the original booklet note, however.

[mathias broucek]

For me, anything vocal lacking texts and translations, particularly if it's off the beaten track. I saw a CD of Enescu's Oedipe a while back with no text to translation

[silvestrione]

On the other hand, the CD booklet for Jordi Savall's latest, 'Codex Las Huelgas', is sumptuous, with photographs, music examples, informative notes, texts, the lot. AliaVox label, of course.

[MickyD]

On the other hand, the CD booklet for Jordi Savall's latest, 'Codex Las Huelgas', is sumptuous, with photographs, music examples, informative notes, texts, the lot. AliaVox label, of course.

The booklets that come with Harmonia Mundi discs are usually excellent too, lots of information and beautifully presented.

[gurnemanz]

CDs often have their notes in several languages, thereby taking up extra space, somewhat redundantly. It can be of mild interest to see if these are just translations of the same text (which they usually are) or original text in each language. In the latter case I sometimes have a go at the foreign texts as well. I can manage French and German but Italian and Spanish are more of a challenge.

[silvestrione]

CDs often have their notes in several languages, thereby taking up extra space, somewhat redundantly. It can be of mild interest to see if these are just translations of the same text (which they usually are) or original text in each language. In the latter case I sometimes have a go at the foreign texts as well. I can manage French and German but Italian and Spanish are more of a challenge.

Yes, I often practise my French by using the French version, if there is one!

[Bryn]

Yes, I often practise my French by using the French version, if there is one!

Just be careful to look out for those which have different authors, and thus content, for each language.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, I often practise my French by using the French version, if there is one!

What Italian I know beyond recipes, menus, musical terms and overheard rows from my next-door neighbours (!) comes largely from trying to translated liner notes from Italian bootlegs of the 1980s such as I Grandi di Jazz, plus a little help from my school French and Spanish.

[mopsus]

Just be careful to look out for those which have different authors, and thus content, for each language.

We have two CDs which have four different sets of liner notes in English/French/German/Italian and hence reward the polyglot with extra information. One is a DG of music by Berg, and the other a Philips Duo 'The Best of Boccherini'.

[richardfinegold]

CDs often have their notes in several languages, thereby taking up extra space, somewhat redundantly. It can be of mild interest to see if these are just translations of the same text (which they usually are) or original text in each language. In the latter case I sometimes have a go at the foreign texts as well. I can manage French and German but Italian and Spanish are more of a challenge.

Lps would do the same, or at least on DG

[Petrushka]

Lps would do the same, or at least on DG

DG were alone in doing that, as far as I'm aware.

One of the advantages of buying the Szell, Walter and Bernstein boxes on Sony is that the CD wallets reproduce the back as well as the front so we get the original liner notes as well and very good they are too, often with music examples. The print is very tiny but I can fortunately read it without my glasses on. They are ideal examples of the note writer's art.

I can't resist mentioning one example from Decca that, 50 years on, remains for me the perfect sleeve note. It is Geoffrey Crankshaw's notes to the Solti recording of Elgar's Symphony No 1. Everything you could want in a sleeve note is there. No music examples but a well written description of the music as it unfolds complete with full historical background. It was ideal for someone like me who, at the time (1975), had never heard the work before.

[richardfinegold]

DG were alone in doing that, as far as I'm aware.

One of the advantages of buying the Szell, Walter and Bernstein boxes on Sony is that the CD wallets reproduce the back as well as the front so we get the original liner notes as well and very good they are too, often with music examples. The print is very tiny but I can fortunately read it without my glasses on. They are ideal examples of the note writer's art.

I can't resist mentioning one example from Decca that, 50 years on, remains for me the perfect sleeve note. It is Geoffrey Crankshaw's notes to the Solti recording of Elgar's Symphony No 1. Everything you could want in a sleeve note is there. No music examples but a well written description of the music as it unfolds complete with full historical background. It was ideal for someone like me who, at the time (1975), had never heard the work before.

Some Phillips lps did the same but I don't think they were consistent with that policy. And at some point I remember seeing Japanese added to the language choices.

[smittims]

As a collector of old Lps I'm often struck by the quality of the writing of old slleve notes; but then , look at the names of the writers: often learned men who have since become known in other areas of musical activity: Alec Robertson,Antony Payne, Burnett James, et al.

[BBMmk2]

What gets me, which a friend said to me, and we agree that although the Sony White Box series is a very good one,we were chatting about the lack of a booklet in their products. Would this not incur any increase in production costs? As you wouldn’t have to pay for any fees, surely?