New releases

[BBMmk2]

Boult conducting Tchaikovsky? Hmmm...

Iam intrigued bythat York Bowen Symphony cd by BBCSO/Sir Andrew Davies.

[PJPJ]

Boult's recordings of Russian works are very rewarding, I find. Tchaikovsky 3, Rachmaninov 2 and 3, the former in its cut version (which doesn't offend me), and now Tch 5 and 6 which I have yet to hear. I am sure there are better BaL choices, but I enjoy Boult in almost all he did.

Bowen - I think it a terrific release, minor masterpieces played beautifully by Davis and the orchestra. The samples on Chandos's website are a little too short to get a worthwhile impression.

[Suffolkcoastal]

PJPJ

I dowloaded from Itunes a performance of Weinberg's 6th Symphony earlier this year in an American performance conducted by Leo Botstein. A somewhat uneven work but at the same time still worth getting to know.

I'm looking to purchase the new Arnold and Rorem discs from Naxos, and order the new William Schuman disc from Albany (I have off air recordings of the premiere of On Freedom's Ground from 1985 and of an early performance of A Free Song from the 1940's) but it will be fascinating to hear these new recordings. Will also have to purchase the last volume in the Sibelius edition and the Weinberg 17th Symphony.

[Mahlerei]

Fans of Chailly's Mahler will be pleased to hear that Accentus are releasing DVD/Blu-rays of M2 and M8 filmed at last year's Mahlerfest in Leipzig.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

There's a Chailly/ Gewandhaus Beethoven cycle out on Decca next month.

[PJPJ]

Many will welcome a new recording due from Chandos of music by Bernard Herrmann, including Moby Dick

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/deta...e/hnum/4102946

Extraordinary - two releases of Herrmann's Moby Dick in one month:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_October11_Classical/SJB1056.htm

and JB's Boston SO concert (1959 in stereo), too

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_October11_Classical/SJB105758.htm

[Ferretfancy]

Boult conducting Tchaikovsky? Hmmm...

Iam intrigued bythat York Bowen Symphony cd by BBCSO/Sir Andrew Davies.

Boult's recording of the Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 is one of the finest available, and beautifully engineered.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Boult's recordings of Russian works are very rewarding, I find.

Unfortunately, I can never hear Tchaikovsky's Hamlet without remembering the rather obvious orchestral fluff in the Boult recording on Decca Ace of Clubs.

[HighlandDougie]

I was going to post this in 'The Death of the CD' until I saw that it seemed to have turned into a discussion about the man who used to write rather good restaurant reviews for the Daily Torygraph. Anyway, I'm absolutely bowled over/knocked out etc etc by the new Isabelle Faust Beethoven/Berg release. I've downloaded it at 'normal' quality (from Amazon) and thought that it sounded pretty good but then, having nothing better to do - and having a small credit with mes amis at qobuz.com - I've also now downloaded it at 24 bits/44.1kHz (so-called 'Studio Masters' aka the most expensive option) and it sounds absolutely wonderful.

I suppose I knew that that ought to be the case but I didn't quite believe that it could be so good. And that's playing it from my Macbook (with a solid state drive and the usual bog-standard Apple sound cards etc etc) via a cheap optical cable rather than one of the fancy boxes owned by experts like Bryn. I might just now buy the CD to see if my ears are deceiving me.

To revert back to 'The Death of the CD', it doesn't seem to me that, if this is the standard which recording engineers are achieving, there is any lessening of recording quality these days. As a bonus, to me, the performances fully justify the praise which has been heaped on them, especially the Berg where Isabelle Faust (and Abbado) have achieved a depth in the music which I've only ever rarely heard before in this piece (from Josef Suk and Leonidas Kavakos but there will be others, I'm sure).

If you like these works, I think that this really is a "must-buy".

[Curalach]

If you like these works, I think that this really is a "must-buy".

Thanks for that HD. I was unsure whether I needed an 8th recording of the Berg, one of my favourite pieces, but you have convinced me. Now ordered!

[Stunsworth]

And that's playing it from my Macbook (with a solid state drive and the usual bog-standard Apple sound cards etc etc) via a cheap optical cable rather than one of the fancy boxes owned by experts like Bryn

If you are connecting digitally from the MacBook to a DAC using an optical cable the internal soundcard is being bypassed. Just make sure that you have selected the high bitrate option in the Audio/Midi mixer - it's in the utilities folder in 'Applications'. You need to do that before starting iTunes as iTunes uses the setting that's in place when it opens.

[HighlandDougie]

Steve

Thanks for that advice. I didn't know that about the sound card being bypassed which might explain the quality as presumably it's being processed by my NaimUniti (which thankfully is happy with ALAC files). Have checked the settings as you suggest and they seem to be at the 24 bits/44.1kHz setting, corresponding to the download. I fear even more ruinous expense as I investigate further downloads of this quality.

HD

[Bryn]

I was going to post this in 'The Death of the CD' until I saw that it seemed to have turned into a discussion about the man who used to write rather good restaurant reviews for the Daily Torygraph. Anyway, I'm absolutely bowled over/knocked out etc etc by the new Isabelle Faust Beethoven/Berg release. I've downloaded it at 'normal' quality (from Amazon) and thought that it sounded pretty good but then, having nothing better to do - and having a small credit with mes amis at qobuz.com - I've also now downloaded it at 24 bits/44.1kHz (so-called 'Studio Masters' aka the most expensive option) and it sounds absolutely wonderful.

Presuming the CD version to be bit mapped from 24 bit to 16 bit quantization, I've gone for the CD, via hmv.com (£8.99 including 'free' p&p).

[Dave2002]

Presuming the CD version to be bit mapped from 24 bit to 16 bit quantization, I've gone for the CD, via hmv.com (£8.99 including 'free' p&p).

Slightly puzzled about this one. Where would qobuz.com get a 24/44.1 version? I looked to see if there's a SACD or other hi-res format and can't spot one. OK - they might have an arrangement with the studio or distributor, but on the other hand they might simply do some other process to get some fake bits with 24 bit resolution. For example, they could upsample to 176.4kHz, then interpolate or do other processing, and then downsample back to 44.1kHz. The result could then be 24 bits "resolution", but have no more information than the original. Is this the sort of thing which persuaded you to go for the regular CD, Bryn? On the other hand HD does report that the so-called Studio Master sounds better - or at least that's what I think he's trying to convey.

[HighlandDougie]

It most definitely does sound better. Qobuz claim - and I have no reason to doubt them as they seem like a very respectable operation - that the recordings are as supplied to them by the recording companies:

"Ces albums reproduisent à l’identique le son fourni par le studio d’enregistrement en sortie de console", and, "les albums vendus par Qobuz en qualité "Qobuz Studio Masters" nous sont fournis par les labels directement. Ils ne sont pas ré-encodés depuis des SACD et nous garantissons leur provenance directe".

That suggests that Harmonia Mundi (in the case of the Berg/Beethoven) starts with 24 bits then, as Bryn has said, reduces that to 16 bits for the CD. There are only some labels which they offer in this format - and they are what we think of as "independents" (although Harmonia Mundi, for one, issues more new material than the so-called majors). Linn, as pioneers of this type of high quality download, offer various high bitrates reflecting the original recordings.

As noted in various other posts, the downsides are file sizes and download times, especially if, like me in France, you have a limited download capacity (much the worst of the villages in the Vésubie Valley). For the quality, the price, at least from Qobuz, seems like a good deal. €14.99, although €5 more than the €9.99 Amazon France charges for an MP3, isn't extortionate.