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Pristine News: Friday 26th March, 2010  Frederick Thurston
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A Beginner's Guide to Downloading - Five ways to find recordings at Pristine Classical - Full printable Pristine Audio catalogue New release today: PIERRE MONTEUX The Early Recordings Pristine Audio PASC 219 Total
duration: 62:27 Download ID: 1215875-6
Pierre Monteux "bracing" in Stravinsky, Ravel, Chabrier and Coppola
MONTEUX: The Early Recordings, 1929-30 When it comes to conductors for Stravinsky's Rite of Spring it's hard to top Pierre Monteux - it was of course he who had conducted its notorious première in Paris in 1913, when famously a riot broke out following the performance. In this superb set of transfers from Mark Obert-Thorn, Monteux's first recording of the Rite can be heard alongside other rare recordings of the era of music by Ravel, Chabrier and Coppola. Unlike other Monteux recordings of the era, this is material which has rarely if ever been reissued. Mark describes the performances as "bracing" - and in the Rite of Spring that's perhaps just what you want!
Technical
notes: Pierre
Monteux’ early recordings fall into three general categories: the
Berlioz discs, including a complete Symphonie Fantastique; the three
concerto recordings with Menuhin; and the rest, which are presented
here. While the Menuhin recordings have rarely been out of print in one
form or another since they first appeared and the Berlioz records have
seen at least two CD reissues during the 1990s, the remainder have
proven rather hard to come by. I am aware of only one previous CD
reissue of the Stravinsky, Coppola and Chabrier items, and none at all
of the two Ravel works. Part
of the reason for this may have been due to the rarity of the original
discs. Unlike the Menuhin recordings, which saw release throughout the
world, or the Berlioz records which came out in America, the other
recordings were only issued in France. Adding to their rarity are the
difficulties involved in their transfer. None of them were released on
particularly quiet shellac, and much of the original engineering was
not state-of-the-art for the time. The volume levels of several of the
recordings were adjusted downward as the recordings went along,
requiring compensating increases on the part of the restoration
engineer; and the recorded sound is sometimes rather raw and harsh. Most
problematic of all is Monteux’ first recording, the Stravinsky. Four of
the eight sides were only issued as sonically-compromised “dubbings”.
These were re-recordings made from the original metal discs or shellac
pressings in order to decrease volume levels so that the discs would
pass the “wear test”, particularly needed for the many loud passages in
this work. Being copies of copies, dubbings had inherently inferior
sound. They also had similar volume decrease problems, which I have
attempted to mitigate by matching the dynamic extremes against Monteux’
1956 Decca recording with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. Notwithstanding
their many faults, these are bracing performances. It is a particular
shame that La Valse and Sacre did not see the international release
that the contemporaneous recordings by Koussevitzky and Stokowski had
in the Victor/HMV family of labels, because in both scores Monteux
proves more vital than the other conductors’ comparatively restrained
accounts. La Valse in particular has a wealth of characterful detail in
the wind playing, coupled with an inexorable momentum that carries
through to a shattering conclusion.
Mark
Obert-Thorn
New this week: BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet Pristine Audio NGS WWSS Recorded
acoustically in early 1926 Total
duration: 34:59 A
download only release in association with For
more download and CD options, see our website
BRAHMS: First
recording of his Clarinet Quintet The National Gramophonic Society, which ran as a part of The
Gramophone magazine
between 1924 and 1931, issued a great many world première recordings,
many of them in the chamber music medium which, at the time, was
greatly under-appreciated. This recording, made in early 1926 using the acoustic
horn process, is a real find. A magnetic performance here manages to
transcend its technically-constricted origins and convey a wonderful
musicality. The Spencer Dyke Quartet, whilst not one of the all-time
greats, are most effective here, and Frederick Thurston was certainly
of the best clarinettists of his generation. Despite the acoustic
recording sound, we think this recording is among the very best of the
NGS series.
This
Recording - Technical assessment Original
surface quality: Some
swish, building towards side ends, generally not bad. Other
notes: By
comparison to other recordings of this era in the NGS series, this
acoustic set was reasonably straightforward to restore. Some low-level
swish remains at times, considerably reduced from the original discs
but still audible in the background. However the worst of it, found at
the ends of several sides, has been largely addressed. The
recording has a wonderful feel to it, and I've been able to dig deep
into the limited bass response of the acoustic original to find some
remarkably low cello tones for a recording made without microphones, at
times a full octave below what we might normally expect. At
the conclusion of my restoration I decided to experiment with a new
form of reverberation (convolution reverberatino, which accurately
recreates the acoustic response of a real concert hall space, discussed
in greater depth here).
One of the at-times painful shortcomings of the acoustic recording
process, beyond its very limited frequency range, is its exceptionally
poor dynamic range, rendering it almost impossible to pick up and
preserve any meaningful room acoustics. The resultant recordings are,
therefore, exceptionally dry. My
experimental application of a very light acoustic from one of the
smaller halls of the Teatro Santa Cecelia in Rome to this recording
came as a revelation to me, and hugely improved the enjoyment of the
recording - indeed I'd go as far as to say it transformed it from a
historical curiosity to a recording I'd like to listen to over and over
again for sheer enjoyment. As
a performance, this world première recording is certainly accomplished.
The string players may not have the intonation and technical abilities
of those who would shortly rise to fame, nor even one or two of their
direct contemporaries, but as an excellent example of how the very best
chamber music of its time was heard this a superb recording. It manages
to transcend its technical limitations to become a beautifully musical
and absorbing performance throughout, and a shining example of what the
National Gramophonic Society was capable of producing. Andrew
Rose, March 2010
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  RECORDING OF THE MONTH Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828) String Quartet No. 15 in G, D887 (1826) [40:29] String Quartet No. 8 in B-flat, D112 (Op.168) [25:24] The Busch String Quartet (Adolf Busch (violin); Gösta Andreasson (violin); Karl Doktor (viola); Hermann Busch (cello)) rec. five HMV 78s, 22, 30 November 1938 (Quartet No.15); three HMV 78s, 25 November 1938 (Quartet No.8). PRISTINE AUDIO XR PACM066 [65:53] We are becoming used to modern transfers which bring out the hidden life of old recordings, both LPs and 78s, but this one made by Andrew Rose in October, 2009 is without doubt the best re-mastering that I have heard of any pre-war recording. I should not have been surprised - my colleagues have been singing the praises of these re-masterings for some time now. You wouldn’t mistake it for something recorded recently, but you might well be forgiven for thinking it a transfer of a mid-1950s master tape. I am not normally a great fan of historical recordings - they have to be special, like the Beecham La Bohème - but this is certainly a recording that I shall be keeping in my collection. The Busch Quartet’s Schubert has always been well regarded, but this was the first time that I have been able to judge that reputation for myself and I am as impressed by the performances as by the brushing up of the recording. I had half-expected to hear some pre-war quirks of playing; in the event, I was not aware of anything of the sort. String Quartet No.15, D887, is comparatively well known today - less so in 1938, I imagine - and there are several good modern recordings. The Busch Quartet version was already available on a mid-price EMI CD, coupled with the Death and the Maiden Quartet, No.14, from 1936 - not listed by some dealers, so it may be destined for deletion - and in the same coupling from Urania. I haven’t heard either of those transfers, but it is difficult to believe that they might excel or even equal the Pristine Audio. Evan Dickerson wrote about the EMI in detail and I urge you to read that review, since it contains a detailed analysis of D887 that sits so well with my own that it would be senseless to repeat it. I’m not quite sure how the engineers in 1938 fitted D887 on five 78s. Presumably the first movement at 13:26 and the second at 11:33 each ran to three sides, though I can’t see how the remaining movements, at 5:58 and 9:32 could then have been fitted on the remaining four sides. There must have been some temptation to adapt tempi to suit a more convenient set of side-breaks, but artistic considerations clearly triumphed over the technical. I was never conscious of tempi increasing as the engineers desperately signalled the end of a side. Some repeats are omitted, but that is not unusual in live performance or on modern recordings where time restraints are not relevant. In fact, I rather feel that this quartet benefits from the omission of some repeats; it is rather a long work. Naxos manage only the Five German Dances, D90, as the coupling for their performance by the Kodály Quartet (8.557125), though I continue to recommend that performance as the best combination of quality and price, along with the Philips Duo set of all the late quartets with the Quartetto Italiano: 446 163-2 - one to snap up if you want a good stereo set of Quartets 12-15: Philips Duos seems to be on a deletions roll. I regard the Kodály Quartet performance rather more highly than did Michael Cookson - see review - I’m more inclined to agree with Terry Barfoot, who thought it a triumphant performance - see review. That Naxos recording, downloaded from classisconline, has recently been my version of choice - see my April, 2009, Download Roundup. Now I shall be hard put to choose between it and the Busch Quartet. I haven’t yet tried the Belcea Quartet’s recent recording of Quartets 14 and 15, with the String Quintet, an EMI 2-CD bargain which Michael Cookson made Recording of the Month - see review. >From past experience of the Belcea’s Schubert, I shouldn’t be surprised to find myself placing that version, too, at or near the top of the pile. String Quartet No.8 is far less well known. The Busch version is already available on a 4-CD EMI set coupling it with Mendelssohn and Beethoven which was awarded a Rosette in the Penguin Guide. The performance certainly earns my equivalent of that rosette and I cannot imagine the Pristine Audio transfer being bettered or even rivalled. I can’t remember having heard this quartet more than once or twice and I had not tended to think of it as one of Schubert’s best works in this form, but the Busch Quartet left me wondering why. The central movements offer a typically Schubertian contrast between the profundity of the Andante sostenuto and the sheer delight of the Menuetto, a contrast which is very effectively brought out in this performance. Again, I don’t hear any evidence of tempi being forced to accommodate the work on six 78 sides, though the engineers probably held their breath over the 9:12 time for the second movement, which is pushing the limit for two 78 sides somewhat. By their own reckoning, Pristine Audio had good material to work with here in some of HMV’s finest 78 rpm recordings. Their website describes the techniques employed and the various stages of the process, two of which are illustrated with recorded examples. The crackle caused by HMV’s employment of hard shellac was comparatively easy to deal with, though I remember that it was the bane of those of us who, in the dying days of 78s, tried to preserve our records by using Imhof fibre needles, which had to be regularly re-sharpened. The harder the shellac, the more frequent the sharpening, especially if the grooves had to cleared of detritus in the case of a record that had been played with steel needles. Surface swish, the 78 equivalent of tape hiss, is harder to remove when it falls within the frequencies which the engineers wish to preserve. It is briefly apparent in the third movement of Quartet No.8, if heard on phones, but it is never really troublesome. The final stage of the re-mastering involves the application of an ambient stereo effect - not the kind of frequency filtering that Decca and others employed in the 1970s, though I never found that quite as troublesome as many did - but something far more subtle. EMI’s German partner Electrola used to employ a subtle technique called Breitklang, to add greater breadth and depth to mono recordings without artificial spatial pinpointing of voices or instruments. I seem to recall some Rudolf Kempe opera recordings benefited from the technique and I imagine that something similar has been employed here. The final result still sounds a little dry, but that’s all there is to complain about. Pristine Audio offer no analysis of the music, though they give details about the recording, including the matrix numbers and which takes were chosen. The notes on Adolf Busch, from Wikipedia, on the rear insert are printed in a very small font (Goudy?) which is hard to read - a sans-serif font might have been more legible at this size. Perhaps it all ties in with Pristine’s campaign to persuade everybody to take the green route and download their recordings. In addition to the CD, this recording is available in mp3 form for €7 and in lossless flac for €9. Whichever form you choose, I urge you to listen and to go for it. Look at the Pristine Audio website, too; there are several other recordings there that I find very tempting and I think you will, also. Brian Wilson http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Mar10/schubert_Busch_pacm066.htm
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