Album of the Evening

[Kal Rubinson]

7 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

What were the numbers?  As someone who thinks there is too much dynamic range in many classical recordings (i.e. more than a typical live performance) I welcome a bit of trending in this direction, but of course would not want it to move all the way to "the worst of pop recordings"...

In a discussion about the T6, NeilS posted: 

"I wonder if some of the "strange balances" you mention on this recording (e.g., overemphasis of subsidiary lines and a foreshortened soundstage) are attributable to the relatively narrow dynamic range of the majority of the movements on this recording (According to JRMC analyses: MVT 1:DR 8; MVT 2: DR 13; MVT 3: DR 7; MVT 4: DR 8).

All of the other recordings I have encountered of this symphony present significantly wider dynamic ranges. For example, JRiver analyses the respective DR of the four movements as follows: conducted by Mravinsky (DR 10; DR 12; DR 10; DR 10), Monteux (DR 12; DR 12; DR 14; DR 14), Gergiev (DR 14; DR 14; DR 13; DR 16) or Toscanini (1942) (DR 15; DR 13; DR 14; DR 14)." (Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/devastating-tchaikovsky-sixth#S57Xo2vHyCspwUMj.99)

 

In a quick check, Currentzis' M6 recording is 13, 14, 13, 14 for the four movements.  Compare those numbers those of Bernstein/NYPO (19, 19,18, 20), Eschenbach (17, 16, 16, 22), Jansons/RCO (16, 16, 15, 22) and Gergiev/LSO (16, 15, 16, 19).  So, while it is a step up from the T6 recording but Mahler is more demanding and Currentzis is still consistently behind the others in this random sample.  and it sounds that way.

[AnotherSpin]

6 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

 

I disagree.  Yes, it is remarkably clear but that is  due to excessive highlighting and gain manipulation as in his previous recordings.  

 

 

Thank you. When I am telling "remarkable" I do not mean strict accordance to audiophile standards. His latest recordings are "audio-candies", recorded similarly to pop or jazz music. Which may sound immediately attractive today, in time of declined popular expectations.

[mkrzych]

Hello,

I've just found these two amazing albums last time and highly recommend them for jazzheads. They are modern in the sense of the jazz streamline, but not overplayed. I like both a lot and highly recommend you to listen to them. Samuel Blaser is available in Redbook, but Formanek you can find it in 24/96 legit download from HDTracks and Highresaudio.com. There is one issue with Formanek high resolution offer that don't contain PDF file with liner notes (arghh!!!), but Redbook version on Bandcamp do. This story I will describe in the "Music Analysis - Objective & Subjective" forum here.

 

   

 

[rando]

@Musicophile The near reflection of ideas on albums with more in common than not was completely unintentional.  Not going to say I rarely visit your blog, but it had been awhile.  By the time I realized the eerie similarities it would've meant interrupting the conversation in progress last night.  

 

Fairly sure of a repeat being unlikely here.  Had dim hopes of the Eurobeat Intensifying for a midday touge.  It didn't prove to be very long lived when it did surface.  

 

[pdvm]

On 10/30/2018 at 2:54 AM, Kal Rubinson said:

FWIW, check the dynamic range measurements of Currentzis' T6 and M6 (is there a pattern?) against the competition and it is apparent that they are highly compressed like the worst of pop recordings.

 

THANK YOU. All reviews I've read mention the 'stellar' recording quality / 'demonstration class' etcetera. Does nobody hears the heavy compression?

 

I bought the high-res download of his Tchaikovsky 6 and put it through Audacity. Look at it. This is the 3d movement.  

 

I suspect the Mahler will look the same if you analyze the files. The final bang of the finale is so flatly compressed that you can actually hear a crescendo after the bang (because of the relative dynamics), instead of a decrescendo. It's completely bizarre.

 

The thing is, in so many top performances of both the Mahler and Tchaikovsky, but mainly Mahler, some passages have emotional impact because just at the point where you think it can't get more intense, it does. You need realistic relative dynamics in a recording for those moments to register. In these recordings, all bets are off as to what the relative dynamics were in the original performance, because on top of the endless highlighting the dynamics in every climax are gone.

 

Because I liked the Tchaikovsky performance so much I actually went through the trouble to restore the dynamics in the climaxes manually. Fairly easy to do as only two hysterical moments in the first movement needed a higher volume plateau, the main tutti's in the latter half of the third movement and the two main drawn-out crescendo's in the finale. But the Mahler is un-salvageable.

[pdvm]

On 10/30/2018 at 8:38 AM, AnotherSpin said:

 

Thank you. When I am telling "remarkable" I do not mean strict accordance to audiophile standards. His latest recordings are "audio-candies", recorded similarly to pop or jazz music. Which may sound immediately attractive today, in time of declined popular expectations.

 

Which is weird, because I found the following on the facebook page of AudioNote, who work with Damien Quintard, the recording engineer for Currentzis:

 

" [...] Then there's the equipment...*groan* Sadly, the word 'pro' kind of makes one think of comparing a family saloon to a luxury / performance car of some sort, but, alas, with recording equipment at least, it's more like comparing a family saloon to a delivery van. And, bear in mind, as audiophiles, most of us don't have the audio equivalent of a Ford Focus in our listening room, more like BMW and up. The truth is, your favourite musicians will most likely have had their art passed through 50 cheap 'jellybean' op amps (NE5532 usually) and been converted from analogue to digital, and back, at least four times, before it reaches your silver-wired SE triodes.

[...]

I personally think it's a miracle there's anything left to listen to after the beating it's been subjected to, and, by improving that signal chain, we can experience better music at home. Luckily, we aren't without allies in the music industry, and Mssr Quintard is one of those... At some time, we're hoping to spread our tentacles into the 'pro' audio business, with the prime aim of trying to improve the quality of recorded music, firstly for our own label, and secondly by way of introducing recording and production electronics. Damien is an award (Emmy) winning producer who records and engineers for our friend Maestro Currentzis.

[...]

We examined limitations in current recording interfaces (Damien uses one of the best - DAD) and mastering equipment, in particular compressor / limiters, as well as sample rate conversion, dithering, the entire process in fact, as well as discussing analogue - and mono analogue - recordings of Edna. What I think we really learned was, and it's going to take time to implement, is that we need to work on every aspect of the chain, and develop a kind of process or system, together with the equipment. Only that way can we achieve our shared aim. I guess the first product is going to be a microphone preamp. You can see the beautiful setting of Damien's studio, on Boulevard des Batignolles in Paris, together with his DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and analogue equipment. He uses an Audio Note Meishu and E speakers for monitoring, as you can see in the photographs. Damien found this combination to be more revealing than anything else he's used. Damien uses several different types of microphones for recording, but his favourite is the RCA ribbon, pictured. I have the somewhat daunting task of creating a quiet preamp to work with it. He also uses AEA, Coles and others. He's particularly fond of his early Chandler Curve bender (EQ) and Zener Limiter". Thanks to Andy for sharing his pictures and comments on the trip, and to Damien QD for generally being an incredible person we are honoured to work with."

 

Maybe it's Sony that puts the final master through the mangler? I just can't believe it's 2018 and classical recordings (still? again?) get maimed in this way....

[Kal Rubinson]

16 minutes ago, pdvm said:

I just can't believe it's 2018 and classical recordings (still? again?) get maimed in this way....

This is not universal (small U).  There are many excellent classical recordings being made today and even the average one is better than these.  The Audio Note connection says a lot to me. ?

 

Has anyone any experience with his non-Sony releases?

[Kal Rubinson]

26 minutes ago, pdvm said:

THANK YOU. All reviews I've read mention the 'stellar' recording quality / 'demonstration class' etcetera. Does nobody hears the heavy compression?

There was an extended discussion on the T6 at the Stereophile site.  https://www.stereophile.com/content/devastating-tchaikovsky-sixth

[pdvm]

1 minute ago, Kal Rubinson said:

This is not universal (small U).  There are many excellent classical recordings being made today and even the average one is better than these.  The Audio Note connection says a lot to me. ?

 

I know. I hear new, great sounding recordings all the time. Most of them are recordings of mediocre performances unfortunately. So when somebody comes along and does things genuinely different or with the utmost attention to detail (like Currentzis), it's sad to have to write him off because of an unlistenable recording. I mean, I much rather listen to Barbirolli's Mahler 6 where you can hear the microphone distortion at the loudest climaxes, then hear this mess, where every time it gets exciting the engineer yanks the volume down while you can hear there's no distortion and you know there's ample dynamic range to capture the full impact of the passage.

[Kal Rubinson]

21 minutes ago, pdvm said:

 

I know. I hear new, great sounding recordings all the time. Most of them are recordings of mediocre performances unfortunately. So when somebody comes along and does things genuinely different or with the utmost attention to detail (like Currentzis), it's sad to have to write him off because of an unlistenable recording. I mean, I much rather listen to Barbirolli's Mahler 6 where you can hear the microphone distortion at the loudest climaxes, then hear this mess, where every time it gets exciting the engineer yanks the volume down while you can hear there's no distortion and you know there's ample dynamic range to capture the full impact of the passage.

Agreed.  Among the dozen or two M^s in my collection, my go-to is still Bernstein/VPO even though the sound is hard and hollow and I have many with vastly better sound.

[firedog]

8 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Agreed.  Among the dozen or two M^s in my collection, my go-to is still Bernstein/VPO even though the sound is hard and hollow and I have many with vastly better sound.

Love that one. I like the performance and the recording is very powerful and dramatic (as it should be). It's one of my test records when evaluating systems. If you play that recording and the system can't "knock you out of your seat during the climaxes, then you should go onto something else. 

[AnotherSpin]

8 hours ago, pdvm said:

 

I know. I hear new, great sounding recordings all the time. Most of them are recordings of mediocre performances unfortunately. So when somebody comes along and does things genuinely different or with the utmost attention to detail (like Currentzis), it's sad to have to write him off because of an unlistenable recording. I mean, I much rather listen to Barbirolli's Mahler 6 where you can hear the microphone distortion at the loudest climaxes, then hear this mess, where every time it gets exciting the engineer yanks the volume down while you can hear there's no distortion and you know there's ample dynamic range to capture the full impact of the passage.

 

Two Barbirolli recordings of Mahler stands out for me, it is 5th, and 6th. I was listening both many times, even though emotional impact here (more in 6th) is almost unbearable in some days. At the same time I do not feel reading should be hysterical just because the symphony nicknamed Tragische. As an example, recent recording from Osmo Vänskä is quite "calm" and balanced and its out-of-the-body ethereal beauty works for me extremely well, even if it is quite opposite to what Barbirolli or Tennstedt did with the same score.

[Norton]

Chandos recent releases have been on something of a roll as far as my tastes go -  these 2 in 24/96 going  to the top of my list for recordings of the respective  works and with the first of course a particularly timely release:

 

 

 

 

[rando]

7 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

As an example, recent recording from Osmo Vänskä is quite "calm" and balanced and its out-of-the-body ethereal beauty works for me extremely well, even if it is quite opposite to what Barbirolli or Tennstedt did with the same score.

 

Quite recently I've been struggling to unlock a concise line of thought carried through a local release.  The existence of old world influence in MN is often at odds with a dearth of fresh ideas overflowing in NY or LA reaching this far inland.  The sea that is ever present in Nordic music, and much from the Romantic countries, is no less conspicuously absent.  Yet I'm not aware of anywhere else in North America the larger musical institutions challenge convention and safety as modernly.  As if a peaceful dissentient element washes in through some natural means other than study.  Nowhere on the order of energy vortices.  Still, unique to say the least. 

 

 

Made promise to attach more than a photo on the heels of being shown the practice can highly benefit others searches.  Rosamunde and first movement of Symphony No. 9 were listened to in native 44/16.  Subsequent three movements were upsampled to 88/24, 176.4/24, and DSD 128 respectively.  This albums vintage and modern DG sound elements provided a stark example of effects upsampling can have.

 

Franz Schubert

Symphony No.9 in C, D.944 - ''The Great''

Wilhelm Furtwängler - Berliner Philharmoniker

 

 

[austinpop]

22 minutes ago, rando said:

Quite recently I've been struggling to unlock a concise line of thought carried through a local release.  The existence of old world influence in MN is often at odds with a dearth of fresh ideas overflowing in NY or LA reaching this far inland.  The sea that is ever present in Nordic music, and much from the Romantic countries, is no less conspicuously absent.  Yet I'm not aware of anywhere else in North America the larger musical institutions challenge convention and safety as modernly.  As if a peaceful dissentient element washes in through some natural means other than study.  Nowhere on the order of energy vortices.  Still, unique to say the least. 

 

I reread this several times, and I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to say. I assume it's about Osmo and the Minnesota Orchestra? And I think it's a compliment?

 

I'm a big fan of these guys. Hoping to make it out to Minneapolis at some point to catch a performance.

[rando]

No more complimentary than describing something, that more than likely is beautiful, without demonstratively confining it through direction or hints leading to that term.  Nature is not often something that can be grasped so much as awed at.  AnotherSpin was the first person I've yet encountered who expressed his thoughts on this album outside of that which can be physically conceived.  Statements like this are often derided for being softheaded.  Which I certainly wasn't calling him.  

[austinpop]

 

While the San Francisco/MTT is still my "favorite" Mahler 7, this reading is fantastic too, and excellent SQ on the DSD rip from SACD. I haven't (yet) explored the others in Nott's Mahler cycle, but will do so tout-de-suite.

[Hugo9000]

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella at Zardi's

 

Wonderful live concert recording from February 2, 1956, that sat in the vault for too many years!  Mono, but don't let that dissuade you if you're a fan of great jazz singing--and this is Ella at her considerable best!

 

[Musicophile]

Released today on Qobuz:

 

 

streaming from Qobuz in 16/44. 

[Norton]

 

For late romantic symphony fans, packed  with big tunes.

 

A Tidal discovery for me https://tidal.com/album/19815977  in UK at least.

[One and a half]

About twelve months ago working in a remote rural environment, the only FM radio station to pick up was a classical or "young people" station. I chose the latter, and I remember the guitar work reminiscent of days gone by where lead was in the lead. Quite refreshing to hear an arrangement that didn't flow in one ear and out the other.

 

The track was 'Mystik' by Tash Sultana. Tash plays all instruments, drum machine, trumpet, lead, rhythm guitar and sings what I would call listenable and not at the top of her lungs, like Christina Aguilera. The Flow State album is out since August 31 and I play it regularly. The layers in the music are quite complex, so there's something new to uncover at each listening session.

 

Jriver reported a DR6's which is a shame but on listening, it's not a issue. Highly recommended. 

 

 

 

You tube 'Free Mind'

 

 

[Cornan]

Have a listen to this album. It have been running hot lately at my place.

 

Fay Wildhagen - Borders

 

 

[Musicophile]

Jean Rondeau plays Scarlatti, and I really like it!

 

 

I've just published my review here: 

 

https://musicophilesblog.com/2018/11/03/well-i-actually-do-like-scarlatti-a-review-of-jean-rondeaus-latest-recording/

 

[rando]

15,000th reply in here.  ^^^

 

 

Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre

Concierto de Arunjuez

Pepe Romero

 

 

[EuroChamp]

Alexander Brailowsky

Brailowsky Encores [24/96]

1959