HiRes Downloads: Scherezade

Dear Mr Underhill,

I am always more concerned with the quality of the performance than particularly concerned with the technical approach to perfection in the recording. Dutoit's Decca recording team were as good as it got [working off the top of my head in Saint Eustace Church], which was chosen with considerable care in conjunction with Dutoit as a suitable studio, which would all be fairly moot if the performance was unsympathetic.

I personally would go for Beecham's by now rather old HMV [EMI] recording from a musical point of view, but it is only a different fantastic take compared to Dutoit. But the recording for both are fine, and so I would stop worrying too much about early Hi-res issues, which necessarily will often fail the artistic test. When Decca, EMI, RCA, Mercury, Sony, Philips, Hungaraton, Suprfon, and DG [etc]start on a programme of issuing significant recordings of great musical readings, then I would start to get interested in a new higher quality standard than LP, or Red Book CD.

I remember the early days of CD when things looked rather shallow in terms of artistic quality, and then EMI opened the floodgate by releasing about every significant musical rendition they had in the vaults including first releases fifty and seventy years old for the first time on CD!

That was the tipping point for me, and LP was doomed in my household, because of the obvious musical advantages of CD in almost every respect.

But we are not there yet with 24 bit and 96 KHz sampling rates. There are some nice things in the Naim catalogue, and some in the Linn, but none that are earth-shatteringly great or terribly significant compared to the greatest recorded music recordings of the last 82 years [ie. since electrical recording started in 1926], and until the vaults are unlocked in Hi-res, I think you trade one set of compromises for another set which are technically merely less of a constraint, but not worth a candle till we get the great performances released.

George

George,

I agree with you about the superb Beecham disc. Have you tried the Mackerras Telarc CD?



Steve

One day soon I hope! G

I had hoped to see you at Julian's place yesterday. I took along some of Bruno Walter's Brahms which I thought you might like (if you haven't already got them).

The Sony issues of these are better than the Columbia discs.

Come to think of it, I had this Mackerras ripped too.

Steve

Dear Steve,

The little [carbon footprint disasterous] world of ice cream might well have required I went in on one or both days! As it was I was completely knackered, so a long drive might have ended badly. I am hoping to fix a proper holiday for the end of the summer, but my head is down and I must keep a grip on sleep! Having a date to look forward to [for a holiday] is a morale booster, but I will be fairly relaxed come the time...

This last week was a catastrophe on that sleep front! Two Polish Parties in a row on Wednesday and Thursday, though the second was spontaneous!

On Bruno Walter, when Sony start issuing his recordings in Hi-res the case becomes compelling for the better format. I would have been in seventh heaven with his Brahms! I had them on LP [US Columbia] and CBS CDs and they are still among the most lovely Brahms recording made though none of them are less than 47 years old! I gave them to a friend who found Brahms boring. I think the gift reversed that view! I always used to give away favourite recordings!

I guess next winter will see some good social/musical evenings, for sure!

ATB from George

George,

Completely agree - I have a couple of Beecham interpretations on vinyl myself.

BUT ...I am interested in the possibilities around HiDef recordings.

The above site use recording made in the 1950s & 60s.

This recording was of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Hermann Scherchen.

I did not bother to give any view on the performance - as the recording sounded so poor.

I did umm and arr over whether to post in the Dist Audio forum but decided here was probably best.

I think it would be good to try and identify the better sites for audio download, and my impression of highdeftapetransfers.net is not good.

As it IS so cheap I will give another couple of pieces a go.

M

This is also important for the HDX. If it is going to shine you have to have a way of getting hi res audio onto it especially since the built in drive is apparently only a straight 44Khz CD reader.

I did hear a replay of a Linn Hi res file on their highly expensive Climax DS which was clearly an advance over a 44Khz version so maybe you will have more luck with the Linn files.

regards
Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Hope so. As you say this has large implications for sourcing downloads - not all files are equal.

As George said it is all in the performance, but that doesn't mean I want to stick to certain 'standards'. A part of this might be to be able to trust in certain sites to produce music files of a high class - if they are all curates eggs then feedback from fora like this will become even more important.

M

I am sure that you are right about getting Hi-res issues where they show a real improvement over CD standard ones, and it must be possible! If Bruno Walter's Brahms were to come this way for example, I would go for them at least subject to the price being sensible!

I am quite sure that very good analogue masters will benefit at least as much as original digital recordings, and even 78s may well be nicely served, but as ever, the quality of the people doing the transfers will be the issue. I have found certain labels excellent with CD transfers, such as Testament, EMI, and Pearl for three examples. They also have a sense of who I like as performing musicians as well!

It will be fascinating to see which companies eventually prove superb in the new Hi-res formats.

George

quote:

Originally posted by Steve S1:
George,

I agree with you about the superb Beecham disc. Have you tried the Mackerras Telarc CD?



Steve

Now, this is one of the very few Mackerras discs I don't have in my collection. Telarc's recordings are generally of the highest quality technically though.

regards, Tam

Right, having paid £18 for the Linn download, converted it to 9624 fro 88.224, so I can burn it to DVD I have now bought the Linn SACD, for 18 Euros!

Now I can compare the disc, bought at half the price, to the burned download.

When I've done that I will:

review the piece, and compare the download to the disc.

M