Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (Digital DL review)

Also, Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto. Jascha Heifetz, violin; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra. HDTT Direct Stream Digital and DXD PCM FLAC downloads.

By John J. Puccio

Let me begin with a few personal opinions and observations so you know where my biases lie.

First, I think Jascha Heifetz is one of the greatest violinists of the stereo age. Maybe the greatest violinist of any age. Yes, there are some fine runners up, like Itzhak Perlman, Nathan Milstein, Arthur Grumiaux, Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng, Isaac Stern, and others. And certainly there are any number of contemporary musicians who may, in time, lay claim to the title. In any case, it’s always a pleasure to review something by Heifetz. (These HDTT remasters were originally recorded in the late Fifties.)

Second, I do have slightly mixed feelings about these particular Heifetz recordings of the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos. I have always thought Heifetz’s Tchaikovsky was unsurpassed for its performance, but I’ve never cared overmuch for the sound. With the Mendelssohn I always found the sound acceptable but thought the performance a bit rushed. Nevertheless, they are both well worth owning.

Third, I have no horse in the vinyl vs. compact disc vs. digital streaming vs. digital download races. I’m sure there are excellent examples of superb sound in each format. For me, the fact that I listened to these Heifetz performances via Direct Stream Digital DSD and DXL PCM FLAC downloads is immaterial to my preference in formats. Whatever sounds best is what I enjoy, so I try to look for whatever I haven’t heard, make comparisons, and not generalize too much about what is always going to be best.

Now, about the performances: The program begins with the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 by Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). He wrote it in 1878 during a time when he was trying to recover from a bout of depression. Some critics of the day found the work wanting, one of them going so far as to say that it sounded "long and pretentious" and that it "brought us face to face with the revolting thought that music can exist which stinks to the ear." Thank heaven for the passage of time and the eventual validation of the work as a classic of the repertoire.

As with most concertos, Tchaikovsky’s piece begins with an Allegro, in this case taken at an appropriately healthy tempo, followed by a slow middle section Andante and then, without a break, a spirited Allegro vivacissimo. I doubt that anyone could argue against the Heifetz performance. He generates more excitement than probably any violinist in history. Still, he’s not all flash, and he handles the Andante with infinite care before concluding with a dazzling finish. Heifetz plays the piece with authority. It’s beautiful.

The other piece on the agenda is the Violin Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) The composer premiered it in 1845, just two years before his early death, and it would be the last big orchestral work of his lifetime. Fortunately, he went out in style, the concerto being among the most popular in the violin repertoire. The work consists of three fairly standard movements, but it was inventive in its day in that the violin appears almost immediately, and the movements are played without pause. In this concerto, Heifetz again puts on a blazing display of virtuosity, and while it can be fun in most respects, it may also be overkill. Some would say Mendelssohn needs a lighter, gentler touch.

Producer John Pfeiffer and engineer Lewis Layton recorded the Tchaikovsky at Orchestra Hall, Chicago in April 1957. Producer Pfeiffer and engineer John Crawford recorded the Mendelssohn at Orchestra Hall, Boston in February 1959. HDTT remastered the recordings in a variety of download formats including DSD128 (Direct Stream Digital), 24/352 8 DXD PCM FLAC digital, DSD64, 24/192 PCM, and 24/96 PCM, plus a variety of DVD Audio and CD configurations on physical disc. I listened to the DSD128 and 24/352 8 DXD PCM FLAC downloads.

During my listening sessions, I couldn’t help compare apples to oranges. I had on my shelf two longtime favorite CDs of these Heifetz recordings from JVC (Japanese Victor Company) using their meticulous XRCD processing. So I brought them down for a direct A-B comparison with the HDTT products. Which is unfair, I know, because JVC used the original RCA master tapes, and HDTT used commercially available tapes. Therefore, the reader should draw no absolute conclusions from my listening.

The differences, though, were quite apparent between the HDTT DSD download and the JVC discs, even after much fiddling with the volume to adjust each source to within a decibel of one another. HDTT tells us ahead of time what to expect, so I’ll quote from their Web site: “Because of the limited editing capability of DSD, to keep it ‘Pure DSD’ with no PCM used, you could hear blemishes from the original tape source that would be normally edited out in a PCM release.” In the case of the Tchaikovsky and the Mendelssohn, both recorded in the late 1950’s, HDTT retained not only”blemishes” but the original tape hiss, which was quite noticeabe in the Tchaikovsky and especially in the DSD format. JVC apparently used some sort of noise-reduction process to edit out the tape hiss, making their CD’s considerably quieter. However, the HDTT transfers appear to have retained much of the dynamic range of the originals. They’re just noisier, which is unfortunate. On the other hand, once adjusting one’s ears to the HDTT hiss, the JVC discs could sound downright dull for a moment, until one got used to the quieter sonics. The Mendelssohn sounded better than the Tchaikovsky all the way around in both HDTT download formats as well as on the JVC discs, with a better balance between the soloist and orchestra and a generally warmer, fuller presentation.

In any case, the HDTT transfers sounded fine, if not as easy on the ears as the JVC discs (which I’m not sure are available anymore). Yet, the fact remains that neither of these recordings--neither the Tchaikovsky nor the Mendelssohn--was ever the ultimate in sound to begin with. The close-up violin in the Tchaikovsky, for instance, can be annoying given the quality of the performance.

Bottom line: In the absence of the JVC XRCD’s, the HDTT transfers may be a person’s best bet for sound. The DSD download is slightly the better sounding if you can put up with the tape hiss. The DXD PCM FLAC, however, may be the optimum compromise: good sound with less hiss. Finally, if you are unable to play back digital downloads at all, HDTT offers various CD transfers that will do nicely, and they have the advantage of HDTT having cleared them of most tape noise.

Both of these Heifetz performances--the Tchaikovsky and the Mendelssohn--remain among the finest ever recorded, and I would advise anyone to seek them out in whatever format is available.

For complete information on HDTT products, visit their Web site at https://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from the DXD FLAC download, click below:

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

Readers with polite, courteous, helpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@gmail.com

Readers with impolite, discourteous, bitchy, whining, complaining, nasty, mean-spirited, unhelpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@recycle.bin.

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa