In this week's newsletter:

• Artur Schnabel - Beethoven's 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos revived
  
• Trio Santoliquido (+1) - twin Brahms Piano Quartets in true stereo
  
• PADA Exclusives - Bartók's posthumous Viola Concerto's première recording
  
• Feuermann reviewed: "simply the greatest cellist of the twentieth century" 
• Box Sets - Save €€€ on our collected Jazz and Blues "box" set downloads
  

E-Mails - a server fault at our main ISP resulted this week in the loss of a large number of e-mails. If you're tried to contact us and failed this may well be the reason. If you still need to get in touch, please re-send and I'll deal with your messages as soon as possible  -  Andrew



Editorial - A small matter of swish

It was always going to be difficult to surpass last week's Louis Kentner Hammerklavier release, but if you're at all familiar with the sonics of Schnabel's 1932 Beethoven Concerto recordings, you may just think that another minor miracle has been performed courtesy of XR remastering magic.

The recording of the First (and, a day later, Fifth) Beethoven Piano Concerto has, for the last 77 years, caused anyone listening to it to surely suffer some kind of mild headache, should they find themselves able to get through it. It's always sounded like someone snuck into the recording studios, twiddled all the wrong knobs the wrong way, then stole quietly out. Remarkably, whatever was actually amiss on those sessions was not dealt with at the time, and the discs were released as was - complete with that migraine-inducing 8dB boost in the treble.

Unfortunately the damage is slightly more complicated than that, and an easy fix has never really been possible. It's a problem for complex computer analysis to help unravel, and that's exactly what's happened here, to quite remarkable effect.

Fortunately the Second Piano Concerto, recorded three years later, was a much more satisfying affair, and although I'm very pleased with the results of this remastering as well, it's needed nothing like the transformation required of the First.

But what about the swish? I thought, as I pondered what I'd be spending two days this week working on. At a very rough estimate, these two recordings constitute some 5160 revolutions of their 78rpm records. Almost every one of these revolutions contains a swish - apart from the side where each turn swished twice. It's a swish that gets worse - more audible - when the recordings are re-equalised for clarity and accuracy à la XR. And nobody's yet invented an automatic de-swisher that I know of.

Nope, this is one of those painstaking jobs where each individual swish needs individual attention. Its frequencies need careful selection, so as not to risk damaging any music content, and the right tool for that particular swish needs to be selected and calibrated for effective 'zapping' - or at least, reduction.

Swish is one of the curses of disc recordings, particularly in the 78rpm era. It doesn't seem to be too fussy about pressings, which suggests it's engrained in the original masters and gets passed on to all the copies. It can carry on quietly out of range of the music, or it can delve down deep into the same frequency range inhabited by instruments and voices. It can vary from mild to severe to overwhelming - and as I've mentioned, it can double itself up to go twice a turn (or more).

A blanket reduction in swish through equalisation causes a major drop in treble. Conversely, the kind of digital noise reduction we use for historic recordings tends to leave it alone, bringing it into even sharper relief against a quiter background than might originally have been the case.

So if anyone out there has invented an effective automatic de-swisher, and wants it thoroughly testing, please drop me a line - I've just been listening to my work in progress for a coming release, you see, and there's this problem...

Andrew Rose, Pristine Audio

Also of interest today:

• Archive Classics - excellent weekly online radio programme dedicated to historic recordings. This week, they say:
  
  "Archive Classics tx 06/11/2009

  This week Stephen Johnson’s Featured Recording is a 1951 account of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto – perhaps less well-known than the famous First, but a major work in Tchaikovsky’s orchestral canon. The pianist is the great Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993), a fine exponent of Bach and Beethoven, and the dedicatee of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. She spent most of her life behind the Iron Curtain, emerging to great acclaim in the West after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The orchestra is the USSR State Symphony, directed by Nikolai Anosov.
  
  Only a short extract  is available on the free podcast: subscribers can access the complete work.
  
  French music to start: Debussy’s atmospheric orchestration of Erik Satie’s `Gymnopedies’, in a recording dating from 1937 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. And that’s followed by Debussy’s own elegant Sonata for violin and piano, a work dating from the end of his life as part of a projected set of six sonatas, of which he only completed three. The Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti is accompanied by pianist Andor Foldes in this 1941 recording.
  
  Finally, Wagner’s most famous orchestral work, the charming Siegfried Idyll, written as a surprise for his wife Cosima’s birthday on Christmas Day 1870, and performed by a small ensemble outside her bedroom door at their villa, Triebschen. Their son Siegfried had been born the year before, and the themes of the Idyll are taken from the third opera, `Siegfried’, in Wagner’s great `Ring’ cycle, on which he was working at the time. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Bruno Walter in this 1957 recording.
  
  Bonus track for subscribers only:

  • Tchaikovsky’s Humoresque in G, arranged and played by Fritz Kreisler (violin) with Carl Lamson (piano), in a recording from 1926."

  
  

Artur Schnabel, piano
London Symphony Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded 1932 & 1935

All original 78rpm discs from the Pristine Audio collection
Transfers and XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, November 2009
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Artur Schnabel

Total duration: 66:12 
©2009 Pristine Audio

For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

Schnabel's authoritative Beethoven Concerto readings

Finally getting the sonic resurrection needed for over 75 years

• Beethoven - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in C, Op. 15 
  
  Artur Schnabel, piano
  
  London Symphony Orchestra
  
  conducted by Dr. Malcolm Sargent
  
  Recorded at Abbey Road, London, 23rd March, 1932
  
  Issued as five HMV 78s DB.1690-94
  
  Matrix numbers 2B3235-43
  
  Takes 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1 
  
  
  
• Beethoven - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in B flat, Op. 19 
  
  Artur Schnabel, piano
  
  London Philharmonic Orchestra
  
  conducted by Dr. Malcolm Sargent
  
  Recorded at Abbey Road, London, 5th April, 1935
  
  Issued as four HMV 78s DB.2573-76
  
  Matrix numbers 2EA1457-64
  
  Takes 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1 
  

Artur Schnabel's Beethoven is legendary - he was the first to record a full cycle of the Sonatas, and by 1935 had also completed the five Piano Concertos.

Things got off to an excellent start in March 1932, with superb performances of the First and Fifth concertos - but sonically they were near-disasters, with a pretty atrocious tonal balance even for the day.

Finally, thanks to Pristine's XR remastering process, this problem has finally been overcome, and we're able to present Schnabel's recording of the First Piano Concerto in truly fine sound, easily surpassing all previous issues.

Coupled here with his superb 1935 recording of the Second Piano Concerto, this is a must-have for all who appreciate fine Beethoven performances and recordings.

Download listening sample: (1st Concerto, 1st mvt. from piano entry, 224kbps ambient stereo)

Notes on the recordings:

The recording sessions at Abbey Road's Studio One which took place on 23rd and 24th March, 1932, were memorable ones. Both days featured Artur Schnabel recording a Beethoven Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the then-unknighted Dr. Malcolm Sargent.

These must have been quite significant recordings for the HMV catalogue, with the UK's premier orchestra under the baton of one of the countries top young conductors (Sargent was 37 at the time), with one of the all-time great interpreters of Beethoven's piano works seated at the keyboard. No doubt everyone concerned gave their all - though as was usual at the time, retakes were the exception rather than the rule, and the odd minor mistake may have occasionally been allowed to pass.

But someone at Abbey Road was clearly having a very bad couple of days indeed. Maybe the microphone was a dud, maybe the disc cutter's amplifier had developed a fault, who can say? But there can surely be little forgiveness for the absolutely atrocious tonal quality of the two recordings, the 1st and 5th Piano Concertos, that were cut to disc on those two days in March 1932. One can only assume that HMV producer Lawrance Collingwood had a bad cold or blocked ears for these sessions - or perhaps was too busy schmoozing with his stars to pay proper attention to the efforts of his studio engineer.

I tackled the Emperor Concerto some time ago, as one of the first candidates for XR remastering, and a prime one at that. Since then, remastering techniques and software have continued to be refined and advanced, and we are able to present in the First Piano Concerto what is one of the most dramatic and remarkable sonic transformations yet achieved for recordings such as this.

It is somewhat ironic that the hopeless tonal quality of the original recordings, caused to a great extend by a huge boost in the region between 2kHz and 5kHz to give a harsh, nasty and unpleasant sound both to the original discs and every transfer I've heard prior to this, actually does me a favour, as this is where the ear is most sensitive to noise. The re-equalisation to correct this particular anomaly immediately gives me an extra 8dB of signal-to-noise ratio right where it's needed, and also helps the piano in particular to cut through exceptionally well for a recording of this vintage.

The Second Piano Concerto, recorded some three years later with the London Philharmonic (Sargent had fallen out with the LSO over his support for Beecham’s formation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra during the summer of 1932 - as a result, the other three Beethoven concertos were recorded with the LPO rather than the LSO in 1933 and 1935) is a much better effort from the studio, but lacks this bizarre treble boost, and as a result it often somewhat noisier in replay after remastering than its earlier sibling. However, this is offset to a degree by the better overall tonal quality of the source material, which has also responded very well indeed to XR remastering and exhibits slightly greater depth and less of a propensity to occasional peak distortion than the 1932 recording.

 

Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, 24-bit FLAC, Ambient Stereo FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

New release today:

BRAHMS Piano Quartets 1 & 2
Pristine Audio PACM 066

Trio Santoliquido:
Ornella Puliti Santoliquido, piano
Arrigo Pelliccia, violin
Massimo Amfitheatroff, cello
with Bruno Giuranna, viola
(N.B. This ensemble appeared on some issues as the "Quartteto di Roma")
Recorded 1958

All original stereo LP discs from the Pristine Audio collection
Transfers and XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, October - November 2009

Total duration: 79:53 
©2009 Pristine Audio

For more download and CD options, see our website

The stereo FLAC downloads:

Excellent Brahms from Trio Santoliquido plus one

Two superb early stereo recordings from DGG

 

• Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25
  Recorded 1958, issued as DGG stereo LP SLPM 138014
  
  
• Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
  Recorded 1958, issued as DGG stereo LP SLPM138015
  

Trio Santoliquido are something of a favourite here at Pristine - we've already released a number of their Trio recordings featuring music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and (as a PADA Exclusive) Schubert.

Here they add the services of violist Bruno Giuranna to tackle Brahms' monumental first two piano quartets, and for the first time for a Pristine release we're able to issue these 1958 Deutsche Grammophon recording in full, glorious stereo.

We're also lucky to be able to squeeze both into a single release, thanks to their decision to cut a lengthy repeat from one of the movements of the second quartet.

This really is excellent music-making - beautifully played, superbly recorded, and in these newly XR-remastered version, sonically captivating. Very highly recommended indeed!

Download listening sample:   (Piano Quartet No. 2, 1st mvt, 224kbps mono)

Notes on the transfer:

The first two of Brahms' Piano Quartets rarely feature together on a single disc due to their length. However, the omission of a repeat in the first movement of the Second Quartet reduces the duration considerably. Even so, having re-pitched these recordings to concert A440 I found them to be nearly 90 second too long to fit onto a single disc. However, a clear and exact 50Hz tone which ran through the second LP led me to believe that the original pitching, when replayed at an accurate 33 1/3rpm, most probably did represent the pitch the ensemble had tuned to, which was somewhat sharp of standard concert pitch. With the quartets' original pitches were restored, which had the effect of speeding the recordings up, I was relieved to discover I could squeeze both onto an eighty-minute CD with seconds to spare.

Both recordings responded well to XR remastering techniques, which served both to lift the very top end and also to round out what was a somewhat thin lower midrange in the originals. The near-mint first LP disc exhibited a curious if very mild peak distortion through the first minute of both sides, which quickly subsided. The second disc, a slightly later pressing, was immaculate in every respect. Both recordings are amonst the very earliest examples of stereo recordings from Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft.

 

Available as 320kbps stereo MP3, 16-bit stereo FLAC, 24-bit stereo FLAC, stereo CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

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