The Best of Play Bach (UltraHD CD review)

Jacques Loussier Trio. FIM LIM 067 LE.

There is a reason why a good number of audiophile discs are either classical or jazz and why many audiophiles prefer listening to these two genres. In a nutshell, it's because the classical and jazz genres are among the only ones that use few or no microphones when playing live. What difference should that make? It means that when people hear a classical or jazz recording in their home, they have a chance to compare the sound (at least in their mind) to their remembrance of the sound of a live event. With most pop, rock, and contemporary music, home listeners have no chance of comparing a disc's sound to anything live because in reality the "sound" of pop, rock, and contemporary music depends upon the microphones and loudspeakers used at the live event. For instance, even a singer in a small nightclub using the club's PA system gives us the sound of the PA system as much as it does the singer. And it's the sound of a recording that interests audiophiles as much as or more than the music itself. That's why we call them "audio"philes.

All of which brings us to the Jacques Loussier Trio, three jazzmen who have been bringing us their jazz renditions of popular classical tunes for a really long time. Combining classical and jazz, they are an audiophile's delight. The Loussier ensemble has done Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Handel, Mozart, Ravel, Satie, Vivaldi, Schumann, you name it, and Loussier's own involvement in jazz interpretations of classical music dates back to the 1950's. So he knows what he's doing.

Pianist Jacques Loussier has worked with several different trio partners over the years. The album lists the lineup here as Loussier on piano, Vincent Charbonnier on bass, and Andre Arpino on drums.  Loussier made his first Play Bach album in 1959, and this current one, The Best of Play Bach, he made for Telarc several years ago. Now, the folks at FIM have remastered it to audiophile standards using their UltraHD and PureFlection technology.

In The Best of Play Bach we get what Loussier feels are the best numbers from his Bach series, this time recorded by Telarc in SACD multichannel surround sound but here remastered in two-channel stereo. The eleven tracks total about an hour's music and include some of Bach's most-popular tunes.

The program begins with the familiar Toccata & Fugue in D minor. If Stokowski could arrange this organ piece for full orchestra, I guess Loussier felt he could do the same for a three-piece jazz trio. In any case, it works pretty well (and you can hear a snippet of it below). It's easily recognizable as Bach yet turns nicely jazzy a few minutes in. Then it alternates between a free-form jazz and Bach motifs for most the remainder of the piece. It's quite fetching, really, whether you're a jazz fan or a classical music aficionado.

Next up is the Air on a G String, which in an earlier recording many years ago by the Loussier Trio became an international best seller, and one can see why with this newer version. It's not only jazzy, it's easygoing, seemingly improvisational, and thoroughly engaging.

And so it goes through a lovely Prelude No. 1 in C major that rocks toward the end; a resounding Gavotte in D major that will give your woofers a workout; and a sweetly affecting Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring that for me was a highlight of the set.

Three movements from Bach's Italian Concerto (Presto, Allegro, and Andante) constitute the longest sustained work on the disc.  The music is lively, imaginative, and pensive by turns.  The album then closes with a pair of virtuosic pieces: the Fugue No. 5 in D major and the Pastorale in C minor, the latter another highlight, particularly for its remarkable bass solo.

FIM (First Impression Music) and their subsidiary LIM (Lasting Impression Music) brought the music to the present audiophile UltraHD album in 2013, using the latest advances in 32-bit technology for the transfer. In addition producer Winston Ma used some new, innovative engineering he calls Pure Reflection or, putting the two words together, PureFlection. It's an improved disc reproduction process that makes replication even more precise, and which Ma goes on to explain in several pages of detail in the disc's accompanying notes. Let it suffice that the technology seems to work, and we get what Ma claims is a pure reflection of the original. I don't doubt him.

Anyway, the Jacques Loussier Trio recorded these Bach pieces for Telarc in 2003-04 in discrete multichannel SACD, although, as I said earlier, LIM have remastered it in straight two-channel stereo. Interestingly, LIM employed the same mastering engineer, Michael Bishop, who mastered the original SACD for Telarc.

Everyone at LIM did a good job with the remastering and transfer. The disc's sonics are terrifically clean and highly dynamic. The highs sound beautifully extended, and the bass can be awesomely deep. The cymbals sparkle, shimmer, and sizzle as the case may be, and the drum attack is impressive. There is also a good stereo spread, with plenty of air and space around the three instruments. Clear strings, strong impact, a well-defined piano, a full ambient bloom, and accurate imaging complete the sonic picture, and a fine picture it is.

As always, FIM/LIM have packaged the disc well in a handsome, glossy, hardbound book arrangement resembling a Digipak with the booklet notes fastened to the inside and the disc itself inserted into a static-proof liner, further enclosed by a thin-cardboard album sleeve. Just don't forget that these audiophile products aren’t cheap. Remember my warning in advance against sticker shock.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP