Josef Krips Brahms

[Basil]

Would this help at all Basil?

http://www.eavb.co.uk/lp/extrakrips.html

1 & 4 to download?

Bws,
Karafan

Many thanks, but that's an earlier recording, the one I'm after is stereo from 1959.

[umslopogaas]

M30 pianorak

SET 550-4 £25
SXL 6822 £30
CBS with Richter Live at Carnegie Hall. BRG 72034? Maybe twenty quid.

There are several of these CBS LPs of Richter at Carnegie. They were only ever issued in mono and are quite collectible (well, by CBS standards, collectors get very sniffy about CBS and most are worth very little. Pity, they sound fine to me). I've got this one, and two others: one with Beethoven and Rachmaninov and the other is all Prokofiev. These are the english CBS: the american code for BRG 72034 was ML 5711. I'm afraid I know little about the values of the american discs, but I once heard a dealer say that the problem with the english issues was the english factory, so the american ones are probably more desirable. But because there were UK equivalents, the american ones very rarely turn up over here.

Of course, these are the prices dealers would charge you to buy from them; what they will give you when they buy from you is as small a fraction of that amount as you are willing to accept. That is not to criticise dealers, they are in this to make a living. And of course, my price guide is now four years out of date. Still, it is a guide.

[Pianorak]

. . . That is not to criticise dealers, they are in this to make a living. . .

Indeed and long may they flourish. - Not having looked at these LPs for yonks (my record player is no longer functioning), it's been a real pleasure to rediscover so many old friends. This probably means getting another record player or investigating if the LPs have been transferred to CD. Anyway, thanks again for unearthing all that information.

[Thomas Roth]

The Brahms with Krips is released by Australian Decca Eloquence in February and can be bought from Buywell. You find it here:

http://www.buywell.com/cgi-bin/buywellic2/efly.html?mv_arg=15555

[Dave2002]

Thanks for your efforts, Gordon.

I can transfer the LP I have to a digital file, the problem is it's not in the best of conditions, confirmed by the Amazon Japan site which has clips from the recording.

I'll just keep searching, it's all part of the fun, right?

Basil
Sometimes recordings can be tweaked, though it helps a lot to have a good source. Any chance of finding a better LP copy and then doing the digitising? On the whole I believe that the recording companies should be able to do a better job of it all, as they may have access to master tapes etc., but if you can get a good LP copy and you have good playback equipment you may be able to do quite well.

Is your copy distorted or just dirty? Cleaning might help if the clicks aren't too bad, but distortion is just about impossible to fix.

We have a few Krips recordings on LP, but I don't think we've got that one, unfortunately.

[umslopogaas]

Re. LP cleaning, Fine Records in George Street, Hove, used to offer a cleaning service on a Keith Monks machine for a pound a record. I dont know if they still do, but if you are interested, their number is 01273 723345. I used to get them to clean mine, but in the end I acquired so many LPs it started to get significantly expensive, so I took the plunge and ordered a machine of my own. At sixteen hundred quid it was a serious investment, but I wouldnt be without it, it really does an excellent job. Mine was delivered in person by Mr Monks himself: sadly I believe he has died, but I think the company is still in business.

Re. distortion, if the record is damaged, usually by a mis-tracking stylus, then that's that, but even so I have found that every time I have improved my cartridge/stylus set up, tracking has improved and distortion reduced. I currently use a Goldring, which I think cost about eighty quid when I bought it, though I recently had to pay a hundred and sixty quid for a replacement stylus.

I make use of the excellent Expert Stylus and Cartridge Company, who will retip existing stylus assemblies (mono or stereo) for £61. I will post details if anyone is interested. They are the only company I know of who offer this service, and I think their retips give better tracking than the originals. We used to be told that a diamond would last a thousand hours, but I only let mine go for about four hundred, after that I think I can detect a deterioration in sound quality. I assume that there are grades of hardness within diamonds, and since you can only shape diamonds with other diamonds, perhaps Expert's raw material is slightly softer than that used by the manufacturers, but I dont really know. I'd love to know how they do it, how do you put an ellipsoidal point on the tip of a tiny fragment of diamond? They must have some nifty micro-precision engineering.

The reason I had to fork out for a new stylus instead of getting the old one retipped is that eventually, they fall apart. One evening there was suddenly a nasty noise and the whole stylus/arm just fell out onto the vinyl. I took it to the local hifi shop to see if it could be fixed, but no, I had to buy a new one.

[Dave2002]

I guess that Thomas Roth's answer should solve the problem in this case.

The advice re LP cleaning and cartridges may be useful for other recordings.

[Basil]

The Brahms with Krips is released by Australian Decca Eloquence in February and can be bought from Buywell. You find it here:
http://www.buywell.com/cgi-bin/buywe...l?mv_arg=15555

Thank you.

Dave2002,

The record is worn out, no high frequencies left!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Krips recorded a few Mozart symphonies for Philips with the Concertgebouw.

He recorded numbers 21 to 41, and they were included in the LP Philips Mozart Edition. Later they appeared on CD. His opening movement of no. 40 must be the slowest on record, yet it has great strength and is wholly convincing.

I also have the two Schubert symphonies Nos.8 & 9 on Decca's 'Classic Sound' CD.[/QUOTE]

[Basil]

It arrived from down under and it's like meeting an old friend after many years apart!

A little digging back through the thread solved a minor problem.

To correct my original post, the LP I have is the stereo 1972 Eclipse release ECS 643, the CD is the mono version on CD for the first time.

Thanks Gordon.

Here's the Philip Stuart Decca discography [see CHARM web site] entry for this item:

Pr: John Culshaw Eng: Gordon Parry (m), James Brown (s)
[a] 7,8 & [b-e] 12 Oct 1956 Sofiensaal, Vienna
[b-e] Hilde Gueden (soprano);
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Josef Krips
[a] BRAHMS Symphony No.1 in C minor Op.68
[b] J. STRAUSS II An der schönen blauen Donau - Waltz Op.314
[c] J. STRAUSS II Rosen aus dem Süden - Waltz Op.388
[d] J. STRAUSS II Frühlingsstimmen - Waltz Op.410
[e] Josef STRAUSS Dorfschwalben aus Österreich - Waltz Op.164
[bc] Unpublished: re-recorded without the vocal part in Sep 57,
[a] (Jun57) LXT5292 = (nr ’59) SXL2137, (May72) ECS643;
(Sep57) LL1608 = (Nov59) CS6110,
[de] (Oct61) CEP708, (Oct73) ECS2122; not released in US,
[a] (Jap ’98) POCL4318 = 458 048.2,
[de] (Jap ’98) POCL4319 = 458 049.2, (Jly98) Preiser 90314..


as you can see, as of a few months ago the Japanese issue which has been referred to already on the thread and expensive [so whats new about Japanese imports?], is the only CD issue at present.

[Thomas Roth]

The Eclipse LP is probably "Electronically rechannelled for stereo".

[Basil]

It's not, it's clearly marked as 'stereo' on the cover and LP and has none of the sound issues associated with the horror that was "Electronically rechannelled for stereo"!

[Ferretfancy]

Australian Eloquence are listing both Krips recordings of Schubert's Ninth, the mono Concertgebouw and the later stereo LSO. The old Record Guide in reviewing the Concertgebouw version, describes it as a very worthy performance magnificently recorded, but adds -"Krips commits the fashionable error of broadening the tempo in the coda of the first movement-this is a vulgarism etc.etc. "
My question is, does the LSO performance commit the same vulgarism, and how much does it matter?
My favourite performance remains Munch with the Boston SO, but I'm tempted to get the Krips. He conducted the first concert I attended at the Royal Festival Hall, Mr Pickwick conducting the Emperor back in 1952 !