Philharmonic Ball: Music by Johann and Josef Strauss (XRCD review)

Willi Boskovsky, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.  LIM XR24 019.

In the booklet insert, Winston Ma, the owner and producer of the high-end label FIM/LIM Music, tells us that friends encouraged him to have among his audiophile remasters "at least one of Johann Strauss's waltz albums from the Decca catalog since these are such famous recordings."  Looking high and low for the best possible representative of the series, he settled on Willi Boskovsky's album Philharmonic Ball from 1959 to do up in the XRCD remastering process.  It's certainly hard to argue with his choice.

Boskovsky conducted the Vienna Philharmonic's famous New Year's concerts for twenty-five years, from 1954-1979, and in the late Fifties Decca wanted to produce an album of music that reflected the kind of program such an event would include.  If you are a fan of Mr. Boskovsky, of the Strauss family, or of the Vienna Philharmonic, this album is among the best things you can find.  Nobody did the Strausses better than Boskovsky, and no orchestra knew or played the Strausses better than the VPO.  Among the selections, you'll find the familiar--the "Blue Danube" and "Voices of Spring" waltzes, "Auf der Jagd," "Pizzicato Polka," "Perpetuum Mobile," and the less familiar-- "Ohne Sorgen, "Transsktionen," among others.

Now, here's the thing:  In the past four or five decades, Decca engineers have themselves remastered Boskovsky's early material many times over, and you will find the recordings on this LIM disc in various Decca collections at much lower cost.  You just won't find them any better.  LIM, a division of FIM Music, uses only the best master tapes they can find and remaster them in the celebrated XRCD process, using the JVC replication plant in Japan.  The results are very good and very expensive, but unless you have a quality sound system you may not appreciate the improvements.

Indeed, after comparing several of the cuts on this disc with ones on Decca's own discs, I concluded that most listeners on mid-fi equipment probably wouldn't notice any difference.  But that's not the point, is it?  These discs are for audio connoisseurs who want to extract the last ounce of fidelity from their music and hang the expense.

For the first few moments of my comparisons, I wasn't sure I heard any differences myself.  Then, flipping back and forth between the LIM and the Decca, I began to hear them.  The Decca was slightly foggier, duller, glassier, and less dimensional.  The LIM clarified the midrange, seemed to tighten the bass and extend the treble, and further opened up the soundstage.  Were they night-and-day differences?  Not at all, just very, very subtle.  Worth the money?  Probably, to the well-heeled audiophile.  In addition, both the Decca and the LIM displayed a touch of hard glassiness in the upper midrange, which I assume to be a part of the original master tape.

Finally, Ma explains in the booklet that he chose to leave the master tape hiss in the album, rather than use Dolby SR to remove it.  Although the hiss is audible during quieter passages, it presents no problem to one's enjoying the music.

JJP