History of the Cello: Gregor Piatigorsky 

In this week's newsletter:

• New this week - Concluding our Krauss @ Bayreuth series - his swiftly executed Parsifal debut
  
• New this week - Final volume of Karajan's only New York Philharmonic concerts: Ein Heldenleben
  
• Guest Editorial - Peter Harrison's Faith in High Fidelity - Part 3: Finale
  
• Gramophone blog - James Jolly on Karajan in New York
  
• PADA - Part Two of The History of the Cello: "First Chair, Berlin Philharmonic"
  
• Reviews at MusicWeb International:
  Lotte Lehman's Der Rosenkavalier
  - "No one who loves this music can afford to be without this recording ..."
  Toscanini conducts Prokofiev, Debussy, Saint-Saens, R. Strauss
  - "The transfer is stunning; it’s hard to believe that this is a 60 year old recording ..."
  Ormandy conducts Sibelius, Alfvén
  - "I'm hard pressed to recall an En Saga as powerful as Ormandy's ..."
  

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Guest Editorial - Peter Harrison: "Of Hi-Fi And Faith"

Prelude: In the preceding parts of this editorial I described how my faith, developed in the 1960s, that technology would lead to better products – and by that I meant the measurably better products – that would succeed; while inferior products would fail. This faith was shattered during the ‘80s.  What could replace it?



Part Three: Beyond The Faith

For a while, the two were silent.  Then Strange picked up his paper and made to leave.
‘You made a will yet, Morse?’
‘Not much to leave, really.’
‘All those records of yours, surely?’
‘Bit out of date, I’m afraid. We’re all buying CDs now.’
‘Perhaps they’ll be out of date soon.’
Morse nodded.  Strange was not in the habit of saying anything quite so perceptive.

Colin Dexter: “The Way Through The Woods” (1992)


If Inspector Morse were around today, almost 20 years after Colin Dexter wrote this, I wonder what he’d be buying now?  I speculate that, perhaps amazingly, he’d probably still be buying CDs.

Morse would be depressed that there were fewer and fewer classical ‘record shops’ still open for him to browse in and argue with the surly assistant, but he could get what he wanted on the major labels from Amazon, and for more esoteric recordings he could order them directly from specialist online companies like Pristine Classical (though he would curse for each one having devised its unique way to select and to pay for his purchases).

As for downloads, he’d tried them but found the process so difficult and complex to get the downloaded product into a format where it would play on his beloved hi-fi system, that he’d given up on them. His computer (hated) sat in his little ‘study’ but the hi-fi was where it always had been: in the living room; and if he fancied listening to K.467 there was no way he was going to run between the rooms, or sit next to the tinny and tatty built-in speakers of the hated machine. Besides which, where were all those lovely sleeve notes and booklets that he treasured from the days of ‘records’?  Full librettos, in several languages if you were lucky, that’s what you got with ‘real’ CDs  Essays on the music, the performers, and more.  But with downloads you were lucky if you even got a facsimile of the front and back of a CD booklet and then you were expected to print, trim, fold, and include it in an empty ‘jewel case’ along with a CD that you had also made yourself.  Well, the hell with that! 


I don’t think my imaginary Morse is too fanciful.  The profile of the average purchaser of recorded classical music is, I’m told, middle-aged, not too technically savvy, conservative (small ‘c’). And I find myself in sympathy with many of ‘Morse’s’ views.
In 2010 the recorded classical music marketplace is in crisis. The average pressing run for a new recording is tiny, the revenues likewise, the costs undiminished.  The ‘majors’ have just about given up on new recordings while milking their back-catalogues for every drop they can squeeze from it. A plethora of small independent labels, many associated with individual artistes or ensembles, has emerged in consequence.

For hi-fi manufacturers, whether tiny or huge, there has been an equivalent crisis.  So during the ‘90s they attacked the problem in two ways, both of which made it worse.

The first way was to generate customer dissatisfaction: CDs, it was said, are actually audibly inferior, but by going to higher sample rates, higher bit depths, you can once again approach nirvana.  So 44.1/16 is vieux jeu, welcome 96/24 or even 192/24 recordings with, of course, at least five and possibly seven . .or nine . . surround sound channels!

The second way it was thought would boost sales was to add – ta-da – pictures to the sound, and tie the hi-fi system into the multi-channel wide-screen ‘home entertainment’ system.

Together these strategies would render all CD players obsolete and require the consumer to buy new players, loads more amplifiers, speakers, cables. . . and we’re back in business.

Unfortunately it didn’t work.  Customers rebelled with apathy.  The higher resolution recordings were not audibly better. There were format wars that put prospective buyers right off.  (Remember DVD-A?)  And the idea that if you’re going to listen to serious music you’ll find it beneficial to watch the performers at the same time, while true for some forms – opera, most notably – isn’t generally so.  In many cases it can be quite off-putting. (And what about the 100 years of recordings that don’t have any video with them?)

And heck, what about downloads?  Surround sound on your iPod, anyone?

At around the turn of the millennium, I too stopped buying hi-fi.  I’d reached a point where any further upgrade would need silly money and could only be based on belief in the subjectivist reviews and denials of the laws of physics that were increasingly characterizing the ‘audiophile’ community.  (What I had then, and still have, is a Meridian Digital Theatre system which does me very nicely for both serious music listening and for watching movies, thank you.)

As far as hi-fi was concerned, I had reached what I suppose you could call a comfortable middle age.

About then, however, I was starting to work on audio transcription and restoration, which some years later led to a much valued friendship with Andrew Rose.

So what has led this antique object to emerge from his cave, breathing fire?  Two items, both recently published in a respected journal which should have known better.

The first: a two-page advert on behalf of the ‘Top 20 UK Specialist Home Entertainment Dealers’.  It is very unclear who is sponsoring this ad, since it uses first person singular and plural though the author is unidentified. It claims that ‘listed below is our selection of the best hi-fi dealers in the UK’.  ‘Our’?  Who are ‘we’?  When the blurb states ‘I believe that…’ who is ‘I’?

That is not the reason for my wrath, however.  This is::

“After all, an MP3 or AAC file, the iTunes default format, downloaded at 128kbps (the most popular download speed), is about one eleventh the size of a full-resolution CD track, 1411kbps, so the quality is invariably far inferior.  Information is irretrievably lost and the full dynamic range is lacking. . .  Playing low resolution tracks through an iPod docking station that feeds into a decent hi-fi system is a disaster area.  It’s rubbish quality made louder. . . most classical recordings downloaded as an MP3 or AAC file are a complete waste of time because there is so much information missing that they are reduced to just the essence of a tune.”

Oh dear. Where does one begin?  Hurling the magazine across the room would seem to be a good starting point.  As I’ve been typing this editorial, I’ve had the Brahms Alto Rhapsody playing from an iTunes downloaded MP4 file (at the default 256kbps, not 128kbps as the ad suggests) through my rather nice studio monitoring system, and as usual I had to stop typing as I found the tears coming to my eyes from this profoundly moving music.  How dare the anonymous authors describe this as ‘a disaster area’, ‘rubbish quality made louder’, ‘reduced to just the essence of a tune’.  How dare they?  Listen, Charlie: if there were anything that would guarantee that I would never want to set foot inside one of your ‘best hi-fi dealers’ premises it is this kind of arrogant, snobbish, ill-informed, inaccurate rubbish that is in your advertisement. Be ashamed of yourself, be very ashamed.  It’s no wonder that you prefer anonymity.

Calming down with the help of a Bach Fugue (of which I could only hear, of course ‘the essence of a tune’ – now, don’t start that again) we turn to last month’s issue of the same respected journal where an offer is made ‘worth £65’ if you will subscribe.  And what is this offer?  A mains cable.  A mains cable?  Worth 65 quid??  Yes, indeedy: just plug it in, folks, and you will find: “There’s a greater purity to audio and the cable focuses more on the nuances of music.”  That is one very clever mains cable!  Of course, those who read Part 2 of this editorial will have recognized this blurb for what it is: pure subjective balderdash thickly coated in best-quality snake-oil, incapable of measurement, proof, or disproof.

The nonsense persists.  What amazes me is that despite numerous debunking articles, and appeals to rationality and common sense going back over twenty years, it still persists.  How to avoid it?

For the purchaser of new equipment, I recommend you browse the back issues of ‘The Audio Critic’ (Google to locate them on the web) [link added here - AR]. Without their specific permission but I hope with sympathetic toleration I now list the a few of the top ‘caveat emptors’ for hi fi equipment, paraphrased from Issue 26 of Fall 2000, where you will find each one analysed and dismissed. 

So look out, people, for people, especially sales people, who will tell you:

1.    high-priced speaker cables and interconnects sound better than the standard, run-of-the-ones
2.    vacuum tubes (‘valves’ in UK parlance) are inherently superior to transistors in audio applications
3.    digital sound is vastly inferior to analogue
4.    double-blind listening tests at matched levels (ABX testing) is useless and misleading
5.    audio electronics, and even cables, will “sound better” after a burn-in period of days or weeks or months (yes, months)

The original article lists several others, but I’ll leave you to find them for yourself. (This piece is already too long.)


Can I suggest anything that might restore your faith? Maybe. 

So you have a little money to spend in improving your listening experience?  Then, I suggest, your top priority should be: the room.  Room acoustics during recording are, of course, of primary concern to the recording engineer.  Room acoustics during playback are often totally ignored.  But they are equally important and usually quite easy to improve.

Next, and almost more important, look to your speakers.  For classical music you want, above all, accuracy. A speaker with a name like BLAMM is unlikely to provide it; neither is one modelled on the cabinet design of an 18th-century violin-maker.  I’d suggest you look at what the classical recording studios use: for Andrew and myself that points us straight at the monitors used by the BBC.  Or, if I could afford them and if they’d fit in my studio, a pair of B&W 801s, as used by EMI, Decca, and others.

And remember, although you can spend forever and infinite amounts of cash on your equipment, it’s all pointless unless you remember always that it’s the music that’s most important.  Give a little thanks to all those involved over the years in making wonderful recordings for you to enjoy.  And thanks for bearing with me during this three-part ramble through my prejudices.  I’m now going to listen to Bruno Walter conducting Mahler 4.  Pure magic.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?


Peter Harrison, disk2disc, UK

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Further notes - A short break for Pristine

In the hope that Icelandic volcanic ash doesn't scupper my flight plans, I will be spending next week in Ireland. As a result there will be no new release next Friday and no newsletter. In the further hope that I manage to get home again after my trip (for the same reason!) normal service will be resumed the following week. We aim to have all CD orders placed up to and including yesterday, 6th May, processed and sent prior to closing - thereafter orders will be dealt with swiftly upon our reopening on 17th May.

There will be no technical support between 9th and 16th May. Again, queries will be dealt with upon our reopening, though I'd urge you to hold off if you can as there will inevitably be several thousand e-mails for me to sift through and things can get missed under such circumstances.
 

Andrew Rose, Pristine Audio

Amfortas: George London
Titurel: Josef Greindl
Gurnemanz: Ludwig Weber
Parsifal: Ramón Vinay
Klingsor: Hermann Uhde
Kundry: Martha Mödl
Altsolo: Maria von Ilosvay
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus
conducted by Clemens Krauss

XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, April-May 2010 
Cover artwork detail from painting Parsifal and the Knights of the Holy Grail by Pinckney Marcius-Simons

Total duration: 3hr 54:50 ©2010 Pristine Audio. For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

New release today:

KARAJAN in New York, Volume Three
Pristine Audio PASC 225

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Recorded live in 1958, New York

Concert broadcasts from Carnegie Hall, 15th November, 1958
Originally broadcast by CBS Radio, announcer Jim Fassett
Recording designated "Special Interest" due to limited frequency range indicative of AM broadcast
XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, May 2010
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Herbert von Karajan

Total duration: 47:16
©2010 Pristine Audio.

For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

Herbert von Karajan conducts the New York Philharmonic!

Concluding volume of three chronicling his only appearances with the orchestra

 

• R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 [notes / score]
  Concert broadcast from Carnegie Hall, 15th November, 1958
  
  
  Played by New York Philharmonic Orchestra
  John Corigliano, violin 
  conductor Herbert von Karajan
  

Recorded live at Carnegie Hall, New York City

 

"Herbert von Karajan is one of the busiest conductors in Europe. ...If Mr. von Karajan is suffering from the pressure of all his responsibilities, there was no sign of it in his performance in Carnegie Hall yesterday afternoon. His conducting had the sure-handed control and efficiency he has displayed here at the head of visiting European ensembles. Here was a man who knew what he was about, had won the confidence of the Philharmonic in a few rehearsals and presumeably got just what he wanted in the way of interpretations.

...There was no quarrel with his conception of Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben", which he conducted with complete authority. The performance was spacious in design, glowing in its colors and generously romantic in style.

The orchestra played as well as it has all season. The tone had a golden sheen. The climaxes were calculated with neat precision. They were big, but there was no sense of strain. When poetry was called for, it was forthcoming. The ensemble sounded like a group of virtuosos who had fused their playing into impressive homogeneity.

To one who regards this tone poem as weak, self-indulgent Strauss, Mr. von Karajan's performance was so persuasive that it held the attention..."

Howard Taubman, New York Times, from review "Concert Podium Visitor", 15th November 1958
Full review available from New York Times archive

R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben

"The performance was spacious in design, glowing in its colors and generously romantic in style. The orchestra played as well as it has all season.... The ensemble sounded like a group of virtuosos who had fused their playing into impressive homogeneity." (NY Times, 1958)

"To hear Karajan working with an American orchestra is a treat (he only ever conducted four in his entire life), and the New York Phil plays beautifully..." (James Jolly on Vol. 1, Gramophone blog, 2010).

Have we left the best until last in this three-volume series? This could well be the case - take a close listen to Herbert von Karajan's epic New York Philharmonic Ein Heldenleben and decide for yourself!

Download long listening sample: (1st movement: Der Held (The Hero))

Notes on the recordings:

"Herbert von Karajan (5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music". Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra for 35 years. He is the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records during his career." - Wikipedia

Despite his lengthy and varied career, Karajan was predominantly a Europe-based conductor and rarely conducted American orchestras - in 169 concerts in the USA he conducted only three orchestras: the Los Angeles Philharmonic once (1959), the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra fifteen times (1967-69), and the New York Philharmonic eight times in November, 1958. His only other engagements with an American orchestra were two concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra in Salzburg and Lucerne during August 1967.

The New York Philharmonic concerts were split into two groups of four: The first concerts, of 13-16 November 1958, consisted of three works: Webern's Five Pieces for String Orchestra, Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony, No. 41, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. A week later, between 20th and 23rd November, Karajan played an all-Beethoven programme, beginning with the First Symphony and ending with the Ninth - in the case of the Ninth "Choral" Symphony these constituted four of ten performances the conductor gave of this work in 1958 alone - three with the Berlin and three with the Vienna Philharmonics complete the total.

Transfer notes

Both groups of four New York Philharmonic concerts received a radio broadcast - in each case it was the third of the four concerts, held on Saturday evenings, which was transmitted on the CBS radio network. At the present time the only surviving recordings of these concerts appear to have been taken from AM broadcasts. Although the quality, both of the recordings and the transmissions themselves is very good, they are inevitably diminished by the limited bandwidth and dynamic range of this broadcast medium.

As a result there is no recorded signal above about 6kHz, and at times some of the very loudest passages sound somewhat compressed in volume. However, with such obvious interest in these rare recordings, made by such top rank musicians, it was clear that they could not be ignored, and we were delighted to be sent excellent source copies by an American collector. Restoration has revolved around minimising hiss, dealing with very occasional light drop-out, the odd click and crackle, and one short instance of line whistle. Thereafter the XR remastering process has been used in order to ty and extract the very best sound quality possible from this compromised source material. Although the results would be considered fine for a recording of earlier years it's clearly not up to the standards one normally expects of 1958 technology, hence the designation "Special Interest" for this release.

 

 

P.S. On Sound Quality: Following the release of the first volume in this series I received the following in an e-mail from a regular contributor: "Why are you releasing these as "SI", though?  The sound is not that bad -- decent AM radio quality". He's right - in many respects the sound quality is excellent, with very low levels of background noise, an excellent signal, and a very clear recording. Certainly the recordings make for an enjoyable listening experience. But I do think that it would be easy to miss the small print pointing out that this is an AM radio broadcast and assume full-frequency 1958-quality sound if we didn't highlight the fact prominently, something which might not suit some purchasers. The idea of SI releases is to encourage listening and reading prior to purchase!

Writing in his blog at Gramophone, editor-in-chief James Jolly noted (with reference to the first volume of these recordings: "The sound is fine, though for a 1958 recording could sound a load better – the recordings were made from an AM radio broadcast. But I found that I soon attuned to the slightly cramped sound (Pristine label it "SI" for Special Interest: maybe they’re being slightly cautious): only the opening of the finale is a bit of a mess aurally."

Andrew Rose

 

 

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

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