Encouraged by this thread, I looked out my old Unicorn-Kanchana recording of Mahler 3 by Horenstein and the LSO only to find it unplayable. It has degenerated beyond repair - an example of the CD rot one hears about. Does anyone know If I have any redress? I suppose I could buy the Presto download and create my own CDs (I have done this before so I know how to do it) but I am reluctant to pay twice for my goods.
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After much searching for a replacement for my LPs of the Horenstein I eventually came across this strange set in an HMV shop a decade or so ago:
The Horenstein is by some margin the best thing in it, but there are no real duds there either. Oh, o.k., the 8th is a pretty dire performance, to my ears.
The set has since been repackaged but is currently commanding more than twice what I paid for it back in 2000.Comment
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Hmmm... 'the curse of Mahler 3'...Originally posted by Alf-Prufrock View Post
I played on that recording ( which by the way took place in London's 'best'- but not in London - concert hall: Fairfield Hall, Croydon) and will never forget that on the 2nd or maybe 3rd recording day Jascha Horenstein mounted the podium, clearly upset, trembling and white as a sheet, and told us all that in the previous 24 hours George Szell
and Sir John Barbirolli had died.
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Quite a curse waldhornOriginally posted by waldhorn View PostHmmm... 'the curse of Mahler 3'...
I played on that recording ( which by the way took place in London's 'best'- but not in London - concert hall: Fairfield Hall, Croydon) and will never forget that on the 2nd or maybe 3rd recording day Jascha Horenstein mounted the podium, clearly upset, trembling and white as a sheet, and told us all that in the previous 24 hours George Szelland Sir John Barbirolli had died.
And Dmitri Mitropoulos died while rehearsing this symphony in 1960
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Will the CD not read at all? You could try a few programs, such as EAC, to see if they can read and recover the disc. Those programs can read the disc very slowly, and repeatedly check tracks until they get most of them right. If you are successful in that, then you can burn a new one. I've heard that this sometimes works, though it might not work if the damage is severe, which it might be. Also, in what way is it unplayable? I'm guessing it's the "bronzing" which I've heard about. I don't think there's an easy remedy for that problem.Originally posted by Alf-Prufrock View Post
For scratches sometimes Brasso or similar abrasives work wonders, and there are cleaning kits which may work. I have one, picked up in a charity shop for a couple of quid, but I've no idea if it works. I have succeeded with scratches the hard way - by rubbing with Brasso for 10 mins, then making the CD rip to hard drive, after which I don't really care too much about the CD any more. You could try this on a "bronzed" CD, but I doubt that it would work as the damage is of a different nature.
Some CD companies will send replacements for such "bronzed" discs, but I'm not sure that would apply in this case. Worth a try though.Comment
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I had mentioned in another thread that I purchased the EMI "Mahler Box", 14 cds, just to obtain the Horenstein 4th. It cost me $$33.00 USOriginally posted by Alf-Prufrock View Post
including postage and handling. I have made multiple copies of the disc to protect against further issues.Comment
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You've minded me to listen to my Nott Mahler 3. The sonic heft is awesome. Take the first movement, for the first time, I feel Mahler's "what the stony mountains tell me". There is a monumentality, a sonic weight - that brass! those drums! - which really invokes gasps and 'fear and trembling.
Highly recommended!Comment
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By my reckoning Nott only has the 8th to record (unless he also wishes to have a go at the 10th). I have up until now been willing to wait for the complete box set. The one thing that may put me off is if it comes in a silly size box like Nott's Schubert Other than 2,3 and 9 which I have heard and loved I'd be grateful for recommendations of which other Nott recordings to buy. I seem to remember misgivings about his 5th.Originally posted by Thropplenoggin View PostComment
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You could be right. I also have Nott's Mahler 7 and 9, the latter in my shoebox for CDs to be re-sold. I like the super-audio experience but in the last movement, there's a few bits of extraneous noise at key moments (what sounds like a sneeze and someone dropping their sheet music). This wouldn't bother me in a historic recording, but in something so hi-fidelity, it's a distraction.Originally posted by martin_opera View Post
What is Nott's Mahler 2 like?Comment
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Very good indeed. I still draw on the Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Phil for thrills and (perhaps) excessive underlining of those mini-climaxes dotted throughout work. But Nott is more thoughtful and thrills you with small details which the better sound help pick up especially in the lower strings. i'd say it was a more relaxed Mahler 2 than Jurowski, Rattle, Mehta. But no less fine for that. Wouldn't want to be without any of them. I have it on a download so would welcome a CD issue. It's slowly dawning on me that I need an SACD player rather than a hard disc storage player.Originally posted by Thropplenoggin View PostComment
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You could buy the Brilliant box and console yourself with the knowledge that the Horenstein M3 sounds a lot better in that remastering than on the old Unicorn Kanchana CD set...Originally posted by Alf-Prufrock View PostComment
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Thanks to several fellow-members for their advice about the bronzed discs of Mahler 3/Horenstein that I own. I have tried Exact Audio Copy and a great deal of varied cleaning - there are no scratches on the discs. No go, I am afraid. It is well and truly gone. I rather think I shall have to buy that compendium box that Bryn and akiralx speak of and extract the third symphony. I shall have no need for any of the other performances in the set, I fear.
By the way, Exact Audio Copy is a great program, once the fiddly set-up process is over. I rather think that it produces better sound than the original (hard to believe, I know) when you rip a disc with it and burn the result onto one of your own CDs. At least it has seemed that way when I have tried it out. I would be interested to hear from others who have experimented with this technique.Comment
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Funny....a few years back, I bought a 2nd hand disc of Delius Piano Concerto/Paris, also on Unicorn and it was similarly knackered. Tried all the usual remedies, but no go: is this a generic fault with Unicorn CDs. I think this is the only such that I have.Originally posted by Alf-Prufrock View PostComment
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Not so strange since Unicorn Kanchana used PDO quite a bit, and it was their plant which cut corners and used a cheaper lacquer layer which the contaminants which caused the 'bronzing' were able to penetrate.Comment
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