BH’s Favorite Recordings of 2023

by Bill Heck

I’ve managed to avoid doing a “favorite recordings” list for the past couple of years, but our persuasive editor, KN, convinced me that I should do so this time around. You know what? It turned out to be fun to look back through 2023 reviews on Classical Candor, not just my own but those of my colleagues, KN and RR, as well. (But JJP, when will we be treated to another review from you? It’s been too long!)

Before proceeding, though, I should clarify how my “favorites” made the list. These are not to be considered somehow “the best” of the year; instead, they are simply a few recordings that I found both interesting and well done, ones that I found myself returning to long after their reviews appeared in Classical Candor. Nor does the ordering of the list reflect some sort of “quality” ranking; it’s simply in chronological order by review date.

Albeniz: Iberia. Nelson Goerner. Alpha Classics 829.  Iberia is one of those works in which one can be lost, moving through a kaleidoscopic world of themes and emotions. Goerner is by turns playful and serious, light and dark, swift and slow, somber and feverish, reflecting the music’s moods in a performance that rewards repeated hearings. Alpha’s outstanding sound compliments and completes the picture. By the way, technically this recording is a 2022 release, but I didn’t get around to publishing a review until January of this year, so it makes the list anyway.

 

 

Arnold: Concerto No. 1 for Clarinet and Strings Op. 20; etc. Chandos CHAN 20152. This disk of multiple works by Malcolm Arnold (I named only the Clarinet Concerto in the headline above) was reviewed by our colleague, Ryan Ross, but I’m including it here because it meets the criteria of interest and excellence. Frankly, I was only vaguely familiar with the music of Malcolm Arnold; this disk was an excellent introduction to a composer that I need to, and am getting to, know better. If you, too, are unfamiliar with Arnold’s work, read Ryan’s review of this disk here and go find a copy.

Beethoven: A Beethoven Odyssey: Volume 7 (Piano Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, and 32). James Brawn, piano. MSR Classics MS 1471. I reviewed both volumes 7 and 8 of Brawn’s A Beethoven Odyssey series this year, but I should call your attention to the entire series; volume 1 – 8 are currently available and the release of the final volume, number 9, is coming up in 2024. Our colleague John Puccio reviewed several of the earlier volumes in the series, and he and I are of one mind in finding Brawn’s playing consistently so “right”, so “of course that’s the way it should be”. That the MSR engineers capture the sound of the Steinway so well is the proverbial icing on the cake.

 

Brahms: Double Concerto, Op 192; Viotti: Violin Concerto No. 22; Dvorak: Silent Woods, Op.68/5. Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Tanja Tetzlaff (cello), Paavo Järvi/Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Ondine ODE 1423-2. An extraordinarily touching memorial to a lost friend, the late pianist Lars Vogt. But don’t let the “in memoriam” aspect lower your expectations: the performance of the Brahms Double Concerto is a fine one, passionate but technically sound, while the Viotti Concerto is, if not music of the first rank, well worth hearing. And if the short Dvorak piece from Silent Woods doesn’t provoke a lump in your throat, you may need an emotion transplant.

 

Hyperion catalog on streaming services. No, this is not an individual recording. But for those of us who rely heavily on streaming, the availability of the Hyperion catalog on major streaming services is a cause for celebration. Note that Hyperion started releasing their existing catalog for streaming in batches starting in September; if your favorite title is not yet available, it will be soon. 2023 was a good year!

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There we are. I didn’t set out to confine myself to composers whose names started with one of the first two letters of the alphabet, so I’ll try for more variety in 2024. Meanwhile, I hope that your listening is full of highlights every day.

Albeniz: Iberia

By Bill Heck

Albeniz: Iberia. Nelson Goerner. Alpha Classics 829 

Although Isaac Albeniz was from Spain and is thought of as a “Spanish” composer, during much of his composing career he lived in Paris and was strongly influenced by impressionism. It’s hardly surprising, then, that his masterwork, Iberia, although often using Spanish-sounding themes, sounds more like something by Debussy than anything by de Falla, Granados, or other typically Spanish composers. 

Any review of Iberia must start with Alicia de Larrocha, widely acknowledged as the queen of this music, and of Spanish piano music in general. (This view is not mere Spanish provincialism, as there is no doubt about her command of the repertoire.) So far as I can tell, she recorded Iberia three times, but each of these versions has appeared in multiple re-releases, so keeping track of what's what can be quite the challenge. In any case, her readings are thoughtful, extremely well played, and evocative; we might think of them as forming a baseline for comparison for all others.

Generally, de Larrocha’s interpretation stayed reasonably constant, although I find that her 1961 take was, by a slight margin, the most spirited of the three, more dynamic and a shade quicker than her last recording. Subsequent versions seem to emphasize the dreamy aspect: tempos are slow-ish and free, and dynamics are wide. At the same time, the playing seems precise if anything, almost tight at times.

But all of these earlier recordings suffer from less than wonderful sound. The first version just sounds dated, with a boxy, mid-range heavy tone lacking in high-end. The last version is sonically acceptable, but nothing to write home about, at least in comparison to newer recordings, with the piano presented a bit distantly in a reverberant space that truly sounds like an empty hall, the upper registers a bit clangy in louder passages, and the bottom registers lacking weight.

Well, there are plenty of other choices. In just one well-regarded example, Jean-Francois Heisser gets through the work more quickly than de Larrocha, but still with much of that dreamlike quality, in a recording that seems to have been the same as the one attributed to Joyce Hatto[1]. But here again, the recorded sound feels dated, more close up and less reverberant than the de Larrocha, but sharing the same restrictions in range and the same tendency toward unpleasant clanginess in the louder passages.

We finally reach the album under review. Aside from the recorded sound, which I'll get to shortly, the first thing I noticed about Goerner's performance was a feeling of freedom, of playfulness, an almost casual (in a good sense) approach to playing. I certainly don't mean superficial, but rather a sense of love for the music, of interacting with joyously with the composition as with an old friend. You can hear this, for instance not only in the very first section of Book 1: Evocation, but in many other sections, such as in the third of Book 2, Triana.

An interesting aspect of this sense of freedom is that some dissonances at first sound like mistakes, but no, the dissonances are what Albeniz wrote. Take for example the third section of Book 3, Lavaples. De Larrocha plays it straight, and sounds as though she's trying to hold things together in spite of a certain insanity in the music. Goerner doesn't shy away, but seems to embrace the craziness, if not emphasizing it. Both approaches are valid, and it's wonderful to hear the contrasting interpretations.

Goerner also employs a huge dynamic range, not only pounding it out when the music calls for that, but playing in an almost whispering way when that's appropriate. The technical ability to play this music, difficult as it is, is obvious. Technical chops are not rare these days, but still it's reassuring to hear everything coming out right.

Which is a nice segue to talking about the sound of the recording. In less well-done recordings, those extremely soft passages might be lost amid noise or muddled in reverberation. Not so here. The piano is recorded more closely than in some older recordings, including de Larrocha’s, not dry but without obvious reverberation, an approach that suits Albeniz’ densely packed scoring quite well. With some earlier recordings, sadly including de Larrocha’s, one must listen through the vagaries of the recorded sound; with the fine job done by the engineers at Alpha, one engages easily with the sound that seemingly is brought into one's own room. By the way, the extensive liner notes, which include an informative discussion of the composition, indicate that this is a live recording from July of 2021. How Alpha managed a live recording during the pandemic – with an utterly silent audience – is a mystery. But with these results, who cares?

So is this CD the one, the only, the best, the replacement for de Larrocha’s (or anyone else's)? There’s never really a “one and only” version of anything, and if you're new to the music I certainly urge you to hear at least one of de Larrocha's recordings. But Goerner’s is a version that definitely stands on its own merits, a very worthwhile take on the infinite possibilities in Albeniz' masterpiece.

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[1] An interesting if squalid story of apparent fraud in the classical music world.

Daniel Barenboim: Encores (CD review)

Music of Albeniz, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Schubert, and Schumann. Daniel Barenboim, piano. DG 486 0932.

By John J. Puccio

By now, Daniel Barenboim’s name is undoubtedly familiar to almost every classical music fan far and wide. He came to my attention in the late 1960’s when I was becoming ever more serious about listening to and collecting classical music. He was among a handful of pianists whom I admired, among them Maurizo Pollini, Van Cliburn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Martha Argerich, which was pretty heady company.

Barenboim (b. 1942) is, of course, both a pianist and a conductor; a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Spain, and Palestine; the current Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin; and the former conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and La Scala. With his numerous recordings as both a pianist and conductor, it’s no wonder his name is so well known.

For the present solo piano album, he offers us a bit of respite from the hectic world in which we all live, some “encores” as he calls them. They are charming, well-known piano miniatures from some of the most well-known composers of the classical world, pieces he has often used as encores in his stage recitals. Here’s a rundown of the program:

Schubert: Impromptu in G flat
Schubert: Moment musical in F minor
Schumann: Traumerei
Schumann: Fantasiestucke, Op. 12
Schumann: Aufschwung. Warum? Traumes Wirren
Liszt: Consolation No. 3 in D flat
Chopin: Nocturne in F sharp major
Chopin: 3 Etudes, Op. 25, Nos. 1, 2 and 7
Chopin: 3 Etudes, Op. 10, Nos. 4, 6 and 8
Debussy: Clair de lune
Albeniz: Tango from Espana

As Barenboim remarks, these miniatures may be brief, but they are long on significance. They are packed with emotion, feeling, and atmosphere. The first two of the selections are from Franz Schubert, who practically invented the use of “songs without words.” It’s good to see that Barenboim hasn’t lost his touch when it comes to projecting a comfortably relaxed interpretation. This is especially true, too, of Robert Schumann’s lovely Traumerei (“Dreaming,” the seventh of Schumann’s thirteen Scenes from Childhood). Barenboim maintains the music’s serenity without giving in to sentimentality.

And so it goes with all of the selections. Each displays Barenboim’s subtlety and grace, his assured manner, and sensitive technique. Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 evokes a stillness and comfort; Chopin’s Nocturne No. 3 a dreamy ease; the Etudes a sweet, gentle purity contrasted with a lively spirit. Debussy’s Clair de lune comes in the penultimate spot, fitting for a major little masterpiece.  Needless to say,  Barenboim plays it with all due respect, a glowing, towering little gem. Then the pianist ends the show with one of my favorite tangos, No. 2 from Espana. It provides a fitting conclusion to an album of refinement, eloquence, and intellect.

Producer Friedemann Engelbrecht and engineer Julian Schwenkner recorded the music at Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin in April 2020 and Teldex Studio Berlin in 2017. DG always do a good job recording piano music, and this is no exception. The piano tone is warmer and mellower than usual, but it’s still realistic, reminiscent of a piano playing in a large room, with plenty of rich resonance. Transparency is fine, and the instrument appears to be rather closely miked, so that adds to the detailing.

JJP

Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez (SACD review)

Also, music by Coll, de Falla, Albeniz, Harden. Jacob Kellermann, guitar; Christian Karlsen, London Philharmonic Orchestra; Norrbotten NEO. BIS BIS-2485.

By John J. Puccio

According to Wikipedia, “The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has been applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times and as such causes confusion. The English word guitar, the German Gitarre, and the French guitare were all adopted from the Spanish guitarra, which comes from the Andalusian Arabic (qitharah) and the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the Ancient Greek. Kithara appears in the Bible four times (1 Cor. 14:7, Rev. 5:8, 14:2 and 15:2), and is usually translated into English as harp.”

So the origins of the modern guitar date back thousands of years. The surprise is that Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) didn’t write what has become quite possibly the most-popular guitar concerto of all time, the Concierto de Aranjuez, until 1939. What’s more, it wasn’t even recorded until well into the 1940’s and didn’t achieve worldwide popularity until classical guitarist Narciso Yepes made the first of his several recordings of it a few years later.

Today, practically every notable classical guitarist in the world has either recorded the work or aspires to record it. The release we’re considering at the moment is the 2019 recording by Swedish guitarist Jacob Kellermann (b. 1984), with Maestro Christian Karlsen leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

As you no doubt know, Rodrigo got his inspiration for the Concierto from the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century. The music attempts to convey the feeling of another time and place by summoning the sounds of nature.

Rodrigo described the first movement Allegro con spirito as "animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes interrupting its relentless pace." Kellerman and Karlsen provide the movement with plenty of the composer’s idea of “spirit,” while not going so far as to make the music sound reckless or hurried. What’s more, Kellerman conveys the temper of flamenco dance in the music, always a good move, although Kellerman refers to it in the booklet note as “a march.” Whatever, he handles it well.

The composer said the second movement "represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments” (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn, etc.). What he didn’t say was how utterly beautiful it can be, something audiences have been saying for more than eighty years now. At its heart the music is a soulful, almost mournful dialogue between the guitar and various instrumental soloists, particularly the cor anglais. Taken too slowly, this movement can sound overly sentimental, even drippy. Kellerman takes it perhaps a shade too far in the other direction, however, losing some of the music’s poignancy along the way. It’s here, too, that the grandeur of the London Philharmonic threatens to overwhelm Kellerman’s guitar work.

Then there’s a perky little closing tune, one that Rodrigo said "recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar." It seems to me it should be taut and lively, maybe a bit effervescent, sparkly. Here, we get Kellerman in an appropriately playful mood, and he closes out the show in good form.

Kellerman is a fine guitarist, and his Rodrigo is of a high order. However, I still think Pepe Romero’s 70’s recording for Philips (now on Decca) is the more well-rounded interpretation, and the Yepes accounts carry more authority (especially the 1959 release remastered by HDTT).

Accompanying Rodrigo’s guitar concerto are several shorter works for guitar by Francisco Coll (the contemporary work, Turia), Manuel de Falla (Hamenaje), Isaac Albeniz (Evocacion), and Pete Harden (another contemporary piece called Solace and Shimmer). I can’t say I liked the Coll music as much as I probably should have; it tries too consciously to imitate Rodrigo in a modern style I did not find attractive. The Harden work, however, shows more promise and demonstrates the influence of Rodrigo’s second movement. Still, why do so many modern composers eschew melody and rhythm as if they were some kind of mutant viruses?

Producer Hans Kipfer and engineer Jens Braun recorded the Rodrigo piece at Henry Wood Hall, London, England in October 2019 and the others at Studio Acusticu, Pitea and Sveriges Radio Studio 3, Stockholm, Sweden in 2017 and 2018. They made the recording in hybrid 2-channel stereo and multichannel SACD, the regular 2-channel stereo playable on any ordinary CD player and the SACD 2-channel and multichannel formats playable on an SACD player. As always, I listened to the 2-channel SACD layer.

I’ve always liked the sound of BIS recordings, and this one is fairly good, too. There is a modest reverberation in the hall that imparts a feeling of realism, and there is enough dynamic range to convey the excitement of the music. Most important, the guitar seems aptly lifelike, even with the modest reverb I mentioned before. If I have any concerns about the recording, it’s that the instruments loom a bit large, there is a little too much evidence of multi-miking, and there isn’t a lot of distance, air, or depth amidst the orchestral accompaniment.

JJP

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

Antal Dorati Conducts Albeniz, Kodaly & Prokofiev (CD review)

Antal Dorati, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra. HDTT remastered.

If you're an audiophile, I don't need to tell you that a lot of folks have prized the mid 1950's to early 1960's recordings from RCA "Living Stereo" and Mercury "Living Presence" as collector's items. So it's always a pleasure to hear another of the latter recordings from this era remastered by HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers), this time with Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony from 1956-57 and the London Symphony from 1957.

First up are five of the twelve piano "impressions" from Iberia by Spanish composer and pianist Isaac Albeniz (1860–1909), orchestrated by E. Fernandez Arbos. Color and atmosphere fill the music, and those are things Hungarian-born conductor Dorati (1906-1988) did exceptionally well. This is important because Arbos's orchestration is lush and varied, and Dorati does it justice throughout all the sections.

Next is the Hary Janos Suite by Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly (1882–1967). Kodaly extracted the orchestral suite from his comic opera of the same name, which he prefaced saying, "Hary is a peasant, a veteran soldier who day after day sits at the tavern spinning yarns about his heroic exploits. The stories released by his imagination are an inextricable mixture of realism and naivety, of comic humour and pathos." The music begins with an orchestral "sneeze," and from there it gets even more picturesque as it goes along. Dorati gives the piece a fine combination of vigor and excitement, and the Minneapolis players provide him all the zip and polish the work needs.

Antal Dorati

The final item on the program is the six-movement concert suite from the comic opera The Love of Three Oranges by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953). If anything, this work is more outwardly exciting than the others, and again Dorati is up the challenge. What's more, the LSO play with all the zeal the music needs, so we get another triumph from the conductor and orchestra.

If I had to find any fault in the album (which I don't have to but will anyway, because, you know, it's what critics do), it's that the there are only three track points, one for each major item. I would have liked track points for each selection within each suite. Oh, well, a minor quibble.

Producer Wilma Cozart (Fine), editor Harold Lawrence, and engineer C. R. Fine recorded the Kodaly at the Northrop Memorial Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota in November 1956; the Albeniz in April 1957; and the Prokofiev at Watford Town Hall, London, England in July 1957. HDTT transferred the recordings from Mercury two-track tapes.

The recordings from Minneapolis are as vivid as they can be. Highs seem a trifle hard and sharp at times, but, otherwise, the sound is as spectacular as a listener could want. I remember owning these recordings on vinyl many years ago, but I don't remember them sounding as good as they do here. The frequency and dynamic ranges are very wide, with strong impact all through the spectrum and as quick a transient response as you'll find. The midrange sounds beautifully balanced and transparent. The stereo spread is wide without being too close up. The London recording is similarly clear and dynamic, but it adds a touch more roundness and resonance from Watford Town Hall, making it even more lifelike. Really fine listening.

For further information on HDTT products, prices, discs, and downloads in a variety of formats, you can visit their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click on the forward arrow:

Piano Espanol (CD review)

Jorge Federico Osorio, piano. Cedille Records CDR 90000 075.

As many of you are aware, for over twenty-five years the once-small, Chicago-based company Cedille Records has been quietly producing some of the best-sounding discs around, mostly of solo and small-ensemble artists. Add this 2004 release to their large and ever-growing collection of recordings you may want to pursue. It's a collection of Spanish piano music played by Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, and like most of Cedille's productions, ace engineer Bill Maylone recorded it.

Jorge Federico Osorio

Osorio is a most-refined pianist whose best work comes in the more expressively lyrical passages of these numbers. The highlight of the set is Spanish pianist and composer Isaac Albeniz's Suite Espanola, which has some absolutely gorgeous stretches of music in it, beginning with the "Granada" segment that starts things off.

Of course, there is always the definitive interpretation of Albeniz's score by Alicia de Larrocha (Decca) to consider, but not even she is any more passionately graceful than Osorio in this piece. Natually, this is not to suggest that Osorio isn't up to the big, explosive passages, too. He displays fine, gymnastic drive in the famous "Asturias" movement, for instance. It's just that his forte appears to be the articulation of the composition's inner beauty.

The other music on the disc is almost equally distinguished, Manuel de Falla's Piezas Espanolas, Enrique Granados's Danzas Espanolas, and four piano sonatas by Padre Antonio Soler. But for me it was the Albeniz that stood out; that and Cedille's sound for the piano. It's sweet, lush, and well defined, with a rich, golden glow around each note. It's really quite lovely and well complements Osorio's musical style.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click on the forward arrow:

Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy (UltraHD review)

Various composers and artists. FIM UHD 088 (4-disc box set).

British Decca is one of the oldest, most-prestigious, and most-innovative record companies in the world, producing classical, popular, jazz, even country-Western recordings since the 1920's. To help celebrate Decca's accomplishments, the audiophile company FIM (First Impression Music) have put together this four-disc box set of Decca stereo recordings, remastered in FIM's 32-bit Ultra High Definition PureFlection processing. The recordings represent some of Decca's best work of the past fifty-odd years, and the remasterings reflect some of the best sound possible with today's compact-disc technology. Along with a sturdy clothbound box, a hardbound book of Decca history, and another hardbound book of production notes and disc sleeves, the set makes an attractive package for the music lover and audiophile alike. An expensive but attractive package.

FIM owner, president, and producer Winston Ma tells us in an introduction to the set that the Decca name goes back to 1914 when Barnett Samuel and Sons introduced a portable gramophone they called the Decca Dulcephone. Shortly afterwards, they renamed the company The Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd., and in 1929 sold it to Edward Lewis. It wasn't long afterward that Decca Records Ltd. became the second-largest record company in the world, calling itself at the time "The Supreme Record Company" (and, thus, the present set's "Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" title). Wilfred S. Samuel created the actual name "Decca" by combining the word "Mecca" with the initial "D" of their logo "Dulcet" (or their trademark "Dulcephone"). Samuel figured "Decca" would be a good brand name for the company because almost anybody could pronounce it in almost any language. Clearly, the idea worked and the name stuck. For a few decades in the mid twentieth century, a conflict with American Decca caused a minor problem, resulting in the parent British company calling their American product "London Records," but things have settled back to "Decca" worldwide for these past many years.

As I say, FIM selected the tracks from among some of Decca's best stereo releases. What's more, if you have already collected any of FIM's previous remasterings, you will recognize the selections from their previous work. This time, however, the FIM folks have reassembled them and rereleased them to their latest audio standards. Here's the track listing;

Volume One (UHD 089)
1. Glinka: Overture - Russlan and Ludmilla (Solti, LSO)
2. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movement 1 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
3. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movements 2 and 3 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
4. Granados: Intermezzo from Goyescas (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 1, Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Bernstein Elmer: The Magnificent Seven (Stanley Black)
7. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Voices of Spring (Boskovsky, VPO)
8. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Perpetuum Mobile (Boskovsky, VPO)
9. Loewe: "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Edmundo Ros)
10. Di Capua: "O Sole Mio" (Pavarotti)

Volume Two (UHD 090)
1. Verdi: Aida - Gloria all Egitto (Carlo Franci)
2. Albeniz: Castilla (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
3. Albeniz: Austurias (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Rimsky-Korsakoff: Capriccio Espagnol (Argenta, LSO)
5. Chabrier: Espana (Argenta, LSO)
6. Mussorgsky: Night on the Bare Mountain (Solti, LSO)
7. Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina - Prelude (Solti, LSO)
8. Bernstein, Leonard: On the Waterfront, Symphonic Suite (Stanley Black)
9. Rodgers: "I Whistle a Happy Tune" (Edmundo Ros)

Volume Three (UHD 091)
1. Strauss, Richard: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Prelude (Mehta, LAPO)
2. Falla: The Three Cornered Hat - Act 1 (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
3. Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Verdi: Nabucco - Act 1, Gli arredi festivi (Carlo Franci)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Tempo di Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Andante non Troppo (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
7. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Allegro Moderato (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
8. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 3 - Danse Espagnole (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
9. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Introduction (Lanchbery, ROHO)
10. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Pas-de-Deux (Lanchbery, ROHO)
11. Strauss, Johann, Jr. and Josef: Pizzicato Polka (Boskovsky, VPO)
12. Steiner: Gone with the Wind - Tara's Theme (Stanley Black)

Volume Four (UHD 092)
1. Bruch: Scottish Fantasia, Op. 46 - Movement 1 Oistrakh, Horenstein, LSO)
2. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Movement 1 (Oistrakhs, Kondrashin, MPO)
3. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 I. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
4. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 II. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
5. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 III. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
6. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 I. - Marcia (Marriner, ASMF)
7. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 II. - Minuet (Marriner, ASMF)
8. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 III. - Rondo (Marriner, ASMF)
9. Strauss, Johann Sr: Tivoli-Rutsch Waltz (Boskovsky, VPO)
10. Strauss, Johann Jr: Blue Danube (Boskovsky, VPO)
11. Rapee: Charmaine (Mantovani)

I suppose there is some rhyme or reason behind the grouping of the selections, but what that reasoning is, I could not discern. The pieces do not appear arranged by composer or conductor or even by composition or recording date. My guess is that the set's producers merely grouped the various items according to personal fancy. In any case, the music is so good and so well recorded and remastered, one need only sit back and enjoy it. Of course, it means not being able to hear too much of one thing, so except for the Mozart it's mainly bits and pieces and short works. But it makes picking out and playing back favorite items for relatively brief listening sessions quite easy. Or you might find a favorite disc among the four and replay it time and again. Who knows.

Sir Georg Solti

In my case, having reviewed this music before from FIM, it made picking favorites easy because of familiarity but hard because I really liked them all. Nevertheless, let me comment on just a few of the set's most outstanding tracks.

Sir Georg Solti's conducting could sometimes sound hard-driven, even frenetic, but when he was on, as he was here in selections from Glinka (Russlan and Ludmilla) and Mussorgsky (Night on the Bare Mountain) with the London Symphony Orchestra, he was electrifying.

For a while (too long a while), Decca experimented with a recording technique they called "Phase 4." It employed the use of about two hundred microphones per instrument and resulted in a sound that was strongly dynamic, ultra clear, flat, forward, compartmentalized, and anything but natural. However, no one could argue that it wasn't spectacular, and that's what we get in Stanley Black's rendition of Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven, recorded with the London Festival Orchestra. The recording has a clarity and impact I guarantee will impress almost any listener.

Nobody did Johann Strauss Jr.'s music as well as Willi Boskovsky, especially in his recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, as we hear on Voices of Spring and Perpetuum Mobile. The grandness of the orchestra matches the grandness of the music, and the musical lilt is nigh-well perfect.

And so it goes, with each selection a little gem. Ataulfo Argenta's way with Rimsky-Korsakoff's Capriccio Espagnol and Emmanuel Chabrier's Espana is a joy to behold; John Lanchbery does up Herold's La Fille Mal Gardee better than anyone before or since; and Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields are as polished and precise as ever in Mozart's Divertimento and Serenata Notturna, with sound that Decca (on their Argo label) never topped. It's all a pleasure to hear.

Along with the four discs come two hardbound books measuring about 7 1/4" square. The first one contains four paper sleeves for the discs, with each disc slipped into its own static-proof jacket. Then, there are 108 glossy pages of technical information on the composers, the compositions, the original Decca recording processes, and the FIM remasterings. The second book is 264 pages long and chronicles a history of the Decca organization, its major artists, its labels, its products, and just about anything else you'd ever want to know about the company. The books strike me as well written and lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs.

Insofar as concerns the sound of FIM's remasterings, it's obviously excellent. Although, as I've mentioned, FIM had remastered and released these selections before, they went back and replicated them over again using their newest 32-bit UltraHD and PureFlection processing formats. According producer Winston Ma, this technology yields the highest degree of fidelity possible from a standard Red Book CD, so you can play the discs back on a regular CD player rather than use some exotic equipment. (OK, I know what you're thinking: If you can afford a set as costly as this one, you probably already own an exotic audio system. But that's beside the point.)

Anyway, I sat down and compared the sound of these new remasterings with the sound of many of the equivalent FIM discs I had in my library. This was fun for a few minutes until I recognized that I was hearing the same differences with every recording. The sound of the new transfers is smoother than that of the older ones. Sure, there is tremendous fidelity in both old and new, but the newer discs take some of the edge off the often brighter sound of the older ones. Not that there is anything wrong with the older transfers; they are certainly better than the original Decca releases; it's just that the new FIM product is that much easier on the ears, detailed yet ultraclean, clear, dynamic, and effortless.

Naturally, which sound one prefers may depend upon one's playback equipment. If your stereo system favors the high end, you may prefer FIM's new UltraHD masterings without question. If your system is at all soft or subdued, you might actually prefer the very slightly more forward sound of the older FIM issues. Personally, I preferred the newer sound, but without the master tapes with which to make comparisons, I have no way of knowing which transfers are the more accurate. Let's just say that if you have deep enough pockets, this "Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" box won't disappoint.

JJP

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

Sojourn: The Very Best of Xuefei Yang (CD review)

Xuefei Yang, guitar. Elias String quartet; Eiji Oue, Orquestra Simphonica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya. Warner Classics 2564 63662-1.

If you’re already a fan of Chinese classical guitarist Xuefei Yang, you probably won’t need this “Best of” album because no doubt you already have all the albums from which Warner Classics took the selections here. However, you are not familiar with Ms. Yang’s work, Sojourn: The Very Best of Xuefei Yang might be a great place to start.

Born in 1977 in Beijing, Ms. Yang started playing the guitar at the age of seven. By age ten, she was studying under the guidance of Chen Zhi, the Chairman of the China Classical Guitar Society. She made her initial public performance at the First China International Guitar Festival, and from there began winning various international prizes and awards. Subsequently, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Central Conservatory of Music, going on to become the first Chinese guitarist to study in the United Kingdom and the first guitarist to receive an international scholarship from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music for her postgraduate programme at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating in 2002. She has been performing on the concert stage and recording for EMI (now Warner Classics) ever since.

Among the first things one notices about Ms. Yang’s playing is that it appears lighter, airier, more ethereal and delicate than many of her rivals. You won’t quite find the same kind of brawny musicianship you get with Julian Bream, John Williams, Milos Karadaglic, David Russell, Andres Segovia, or any of the Romeros. And one must count that a good thing; Ms. Yang is her own person, with her own style, casting her own magical spells on the listener. Certainly, she’s cast that spell far and wide if her record sales are any indication. So, in Sojourn you get a pretty good idea of what the appeal of her musicianship is all about.

Ms. Yang seems to have a penchant for sweet, romantic tones, amply demonstrated in the opening number, Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. It comes off very beautifully but more delightful than contemplative. Next, we hear Bach's Siciliano, a transcription from the Harpsichord Concerto in E. Again, Yang takes a smooth, graceful approach, certainly lovely but not entirely as biting or incisive as I would have liked. Obviously, personal taste is going to matter even more in appreciating Ms. Yang's guitar interpretations than it does in admiring many other kinds of performances.

And so it goes, each track apparently chosen for its comforting, spiritual qualities in order to sell new listeners on the beauty of Ms. Yang's view of music. Bach's Air on a G String from the Second Orchestral Suite, for instance, sounds as gentle as a feather, as does Bach's Prelude in C.

Perhaps best of all, though, and benefiting the most from Ms. Yang's manner of playing are the items taken from older Chinese works: The Butterfly Lovers, Plum Blossoms in the Snow, and others. They are quite delicious. I also enjoyed her playing of various Spanish pieces, among them Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Albeniz's Tango, and Rodrigo's Adagio from the Concierto de Aranjuez. Maybe it's all in the material, and maybe it's just me and I prefer Spanish music on the guitar. I dunno. Still, there are times when Ms. Yang's approach is just a tad too sentimental for my liking, but that's just me. Others will find it dreamily intoxicating, I'm sure.

The sound, recorded between 2006 and 2012, varies, of course, but not very much given that the tracks derive from a number of different recording sessions and venues over a decade or so of recording. Some of the selections sound a little soft, warm, and dry to me, but most of them sound rich, clear, and pleasantly resonant.

JJP

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

Tango Tango (XRCD24 review)

Performed by Viveza. Master Music MSXCD 99310.

Given the number of movies featuring or about the tango, the documentaries, and the slew of record albums in recent years devoted to the subject, I think it’s safe to say the tango is back. Or maybe it was never gone. Moreover, after listening for the last couple of years to a goodly number of CDs devoted to the material, it is this album, Tango Tango by Viveza, originally released by Omega Records in 1998, that I have enjoyed most of all. So it’s a double pleasure to welcome it back on a 2013 audiophile remastering from Master Music.

First of all, the program contains some of the best all-around tango tunes I’ve heard performed, starting with the most popular tango of them, Jacob Gade’s “Jalousie” and followed by my own personal favorites, the hauntingly beautiful “Tango in D” by Isaac Albeniz and the equally enchanting “Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel (think Scent of a Woman or the ending of True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis dancing to it through the closing credits).

The other dozen or so tangos cover the ground with representative works from the turn-of-the-century to compositions of more modern origin, with those aimed at purely commercial success to those by classical artists; with dances from Europe, Argentina, and America; and, of course, with pieces by the Grand Master of the tango, Astor Piazzolla, whose tunes include "Allegro Tangabile," "5 Ano Nacional," "Fin de curso," "El Goy," "4. El Boletin," and "Aplazado." These tangos are not only rhythmic and danceable, they're appropriately romantic, swaggering, haunting, sensuous, yet nostalgic. In addition to the numbers I've mentioned, we find Bernardo Stalman's "Viejas Ideas," Franz Grothe's "Shreib mir einen Brief," Bill Runge's "Astor," E. Fernandez-Arboz's "Tango," Russell Guyver's "Un Crimen Pasional," Danny Gould's "Dango's Tango," Eduardo Oscar Rovira's "A Evaristo Carriego," and Igor Stravinsky's "Tango."

As important as the material is, the small group of Canadian musicians known as Viveza (Spanish for “lively” or “vivacious”) play the tunes with an understated style that does them all proud. The ensemble comprises Gwen Thompson, violin, viola, and guiro; Robert Holliston, guitar and piano; Mark Koenig, violin, viola, and melodeon; Wilmer Fawcett, double bass and guitar; with special guest artiest Salvador Ferreras, percussion.

How good are these musicians? Ms. Thompson began her professional career in 1971 with a dual appointment as Professor of Violin at the University of Western Ontario and Concertmaster of Orchestra London. She was head of the String Department of the Vancouver Academy of Music for twenty-five years, as well as holding a teaching position at the University of British Columbia. Wilmer Fawcett recently retired as Principal Bassist with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and Associate Principal with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Robert Holliston is the host of the Victoria Conservatory of Music's “Brown Bag Lunch” series. Also an active performer, he is currently Head of Collaborative Piano Studies at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, where he also teaches piano and music history. Salvador Ferreras frequents national radio as host and commentator. Mark Koenig passed away in 2006.

Yes, they are more than your average band. Their performances are certainly vivacious, but in a tasteful and restrained way.

Also of importance, the digital sound is smooth and natural, with the instruments well defined. In other words, the disc is wholly engaging on all levels. Rick Kilburn recorded it for XNTRiK Productions at the Western Front, Vancouver, BC in April 1998, and Master Music Ltd. remastered it in 2013. They transferred the sound from the master tapes to disc using 24-bit XRCD technology, the SHM-CD utilizing a polycarbonate resin substrate, and HR cutting. It all adds up to a superb rendering of the original sound.

Having the original Omega CD on hand for comparison helped me to determine the worth of the new Master Music edition. We take for granted these days that audiophile remasters in general show improvements, to one degree or another, in clarity, definition, smoothness, dynamics, even frequency range. What the Master Music iteration of Tango Tango also does is improve the music's dimensionality, its air and space and sense of depth. The instruments seem more fully separate from one another. Certainly, the added midrange transparency helps a lot in this regard, as does the extended treble and added bass tautness. To be sure, these differences are not night-and-day, and except on direct comparison one might not even notice them. Still, they all contribute to the recording's sense of realism and, thus, to the listener's enjoyment.

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

JJP

Ravel: Bolero (UltraHD CD review)

Also, Borodin: Music from Kismet; Bizet: Suites from Carmen; Albeniz: Fete-dieu a Seville. Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. FIM LIM UHD 063 LE.

Released in 2008, Telarc’s Bolero was one of the last recordings Erich Kunzel made before his death in 2009. I read someplace that Kunzel had by that time become the number-one most-recorded conductor in the world. Today, he’s undoubtedly got as many Telarc recordings to his credit as most conductors have compiled in a lifetime. Now the folks at the audiophile company FIM have remastered the Bolero album using their UltraHD 32-bit mastering process, making the sound better than ever. If you’re a fan of Maestro Kunzel, you might find the disc of interest, despite its heady price tag.

Kunzel dedicated the Bolero album to the music of Spain, though mostly written by Frenchmen. The program starts with Maurice Ravel’s celebrated piece, yet it is, for me, the least-effective reading on the disc. Ravel once said that his Bolero should take about seventeen minutes to get through; Kunzel does it up in just over thirteen minutes. I have to admit that in Kunzel’s last few Telarc recordings with the Cincinnati Pops, he seemed less than animated, but I wasn’t expecting him to fly through the Bolero quite so quickly. It may sound a bit more exhilarating than most other interpretations, but it robs the music of its sensual qualities. Plus, there was one moment in it that made me laugh out loud, something I doubt Ravel intended.

Next, Kunzel does a medley of excerpts from the music of Alexander Borodin, music that Telarc proudly announce as “popularized in the musical Kismet.” I’m not sure if Telarc or Kunzel realize that most listeners today probably no more recognize this fifty-odd-year-old musical than they recognize the name Borodin itself. In any case, we get passages from the Symphony No. 2, “In the Steppes of Central Asia,” the String Quartet No. 2, the Symphony No. 1, and the Overture and “Polovtsean Dances” from Prince Igor. Kunzel handles them in a somewhat perfunctory style.

The best section of the album, however, contains music from Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suites Nos. 1 and 2, which come off quite well--dramatic and voluptuous, exciting and sensitive in all the right places. You might want to consider the disc for these two suites alone. Then things finish up with Isaac Albeniz’s “Fete-dieu a Seville” from Iberia, which seems a bit anticlimactic after all the Carmen music, but it’s OK.

Producer Robert Woods and engineer Robert Friedrich recorded the album for Telarc in 2007 at Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Friedrich and FIM producer Winston Ma remastered the disc in 2013, using FIM's Ultra High Definition 32-bit mastering and PureFlection replicating processes. The "PureFlection" business is an indication of FIM's intent to reproduce on disc as nearly as possible what is on a master tape, a "pure reflection" of the original.

Understand, I still think the sound of the standard-issue Telarc is pretty good, but one of the things I noted in my review of it a few years back was a bit of dulling at the high end, making the sound appear smoother and warmer than what we might hear live. No such dulling here, though, where the highs glisten. The FIM product also seems to increase the sense of orchestral depth in the recording, while tightening up most of the transients. The response is marginally tauter, cleaner, and, therefore, clearer throughout the frequency range, with slightly improved dynamics and the usual robust bass.  In other words, FIM have made already good sonics even better, and the results are among the best I've heard, a genuine audiophile disc.

However, whether you think FIM's sound is worth the higher price (over twice the cost of the Telarc) is, of course, another story. Only buyers themselves can decide what's worth it for them. For audiophiles with excellent playback equipment, deep pockets, and a love for the music making of Maestro Erich Kunzel, it's probably well worth the extra money. For most other people, maybe not.

Commensurate with the dear cost of an audiophile product, the packaging bespeaks of the higher price. The disc comes packaged in a glossy, hardbound Digipak-type case, with a sixteen-page booklet bound to the inside, and an inner sleeve and additional static-proof envelope for the disc. It's a classy affair.

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

JJP

Espana! (CD review)

Music of Albeniz, Falla, Mompou, Ravel, and Rodrigo. Various artists and orchestras. Harmonia Mundi 2908530.34 (5-disc set).

The one thing you won’t find in this five-disc set of Spanish and Spanish-inspired music is Chabrier’s Espana. What you will find are recordings selected from the past twenty-odd years of Harmonia Mundi’s back catalogue, and a whole lot of really well-performed and well-recorded music. The price is right, too, with HM marking down the set at much less than the individual discs would cost. Of course, if it’s only one or two items that interest you, you can still find the HM albums available separately.

Disc one contains a suite of twelve selections from the opera Pepita Jimenez (1896) by Spanish composer and pianist Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909). Here, we find performances by Susan Chilcott, soprano, and Francesc Garrogosa, tenor, with the Choeur d’enfants de la maitrise de Badalona directed by Montserrat Pi and the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure conducted by Josep Pons. I’m not sure why Harmonia Mundi chose to start the set with this particular music except that they arranged the composers alphabetically; the opera never became a hit for Albeniz, and there are only a few moments in it that seem very interesting. In fact, if the tracks HM include here are any indication, it’s no surprise why audiences never warmed to it. The orchestral introduction is the best part of the show.

Certainly, one cannot fault Ms. Chilcott or tenor Garrogosa, however, who give it their best; nor HM’s engineering team who recorded it in 1994. The sound is warm and expansive, with good detailing and dynamics. Voices are nicely round and natural, too, never bright or forward, and they are well integrated into the sound field.

With disc two we’re on more stable ground. It contains two pieces by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): El amor brujo (“Love the Magician,” the 1915 stage version, sung and spoken) and El retablo de Maese Pedro (1919, adapted from an episode in Cervantes’s Don Quixote). In the first piece, we find cantaora (flamenco singer) Ginesa Ortega, joined by soprano Joan Martin, baritone Inaki Fresan, and tenor Joan Cabero, supported again by Maestro Josep Pons and the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure.

The singing and performances in both Falla works sound committed and passionate, with a most-sympathetic orchestral support from Pons and his players. HM recorded the music in 1990, and while it is not as vivid as some other recordings I’ve heard, it is quite realistic. The playback level is slightly higher than on the first disc, the upper midrange is a tad brighter, and voices are a bit more recessed. Otherwise, we again get a warm, natural-sounding acoustic.

The Harmonia Mundi producers devote disc three to violin and piano works by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). The soloists are Regis Pasquier, violin, and Brigitte Engerer, piano. The two primary works on the disc are the Sonate posthume pour violon et piano (1897) and the Sonate pour violon et piano (1927). Also on the program we find Kaddish, Tzigane, Habanera, and Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure.

Needless to say, the Ravel music is not really Spanish but Spanish-inflected. Close enough, I guess. The soloists play all of it beautifully, but their way with the sonatas is especially haunting, occasionally jazzy in a bluesy sort of way, and a touch melancholy. The sound, recorded in 1990, balances the two instruments quite well and adds a lifelike resonance to the proceedings.

On disc four we find two pieces for solo piano by Spanish composer and pianist Frederic Mompou (1893-1987). The most important of the two pieces is Musica callada (“Silent Music” or “Voices of Silence”), a series of twenty-eight movements Mompou wrote between 1959-1967 and played by pianist Javier Perianes. Debussy and Satie probably influenced the composer most, yet Mompou’s work is highly original on its own. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative music, with certain mystic overtones about it.

The Mompou music is, as I say, very quiet, sometimes almost silent, and always fascinating. Perianes plays the pieces with great sensitivity, making them appear ethereal, gossamer, otherworldly. While the piano sound, which Harmonia Mundi recorded in 2006, can be a mite soft and distant, it always seems appropriate to the gentle nature of the material.

Finally, on disc five we get what for me is the best music in the set, four guitar works by Spanish composer and pianist Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999), performed by guitarist Marco Socias, Maestro Josep Pons, and the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.

Among my favorites is the popular Concierto de Aranjuez, and even though there are tons of good recordings of it, this one should rank high on anyone’s list. Socias’s playing sounds relaxed, unhurried, unforced, and purely entertaining. He communicates a vibrant tone and a gentle heart in all the music. Other works include the Fantasia para un gentilhombre, Musica para un jardin, and Tre viejos aires de danza.

Harmonia Mundi recorded the Rodrigo disc in 2001, with somewhat mixed results. The Concierto displays good orchestral depth, realistic imaging, a balanced frequency response, an extended high and low end, and a pleasant ambient glow. The guitar appears well integrated within the orchestral context. The other tracks, though, seem louder and brighter, not always to their benefit.

HM package the set in a sturdy slipcase, with each disc afforded its own cardboard sleeve. An accompanying booklet in both French and English complements the box.

To hear a brief excerpt from this set, click here:

JJP

Albeniz: Spanish Music for Classical Guitar (CD review)

David Russell, guitar. Telarc TEL-32712-02.

I've listened to several albums of music by Scottish guitarist David Russell, and he has always impressed me. He won a Grammy Award in 2005 for the CD "Aire Latino," and has deservedly become a world-renowned player. It's good to hear him here, playing a selection of fifteen short tunes by Spanish pianist and composer Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909).

Albeniz wrote most of the pieces represented on the disc for various piano suites, with Russell choosing, I assume, his favorites among them. The collection includes fifteen tracks as follows: "Torre Bermeja" from Doce Piezas Caracteristicas; "Granada" from Suite Espanola No. 1; "Zambra Granadina"; "Cadiz" from Suite Espanola No. 1; "Preludio" from Espana; "Rumores de la Caleta" from Recuerdos de Viaje; "Cordoba" from Cantos de Espana; "Cataluna" from Suite Espanola No. 1; "Capricho Catalan" from Espana; "Cuba" from Suite Espanola No. 1; "Tango" from Espana; "Pavana" from Doce Piezas Caracteristicas; "Zorzico" from Espana; and "Minueto a Sylvia" and "Zambra-Capricho" from Doce Piezas Caracteristicas.

These works are often hauntingly beautiful, and while Albeniz may have written them mainly for piano, they work wonderfully well on guitar. Indeed, they sound as though the composer should have written them for guitar. Russell plays them delicately, unhurriedly, caressing each note with loving care. There is a degree of melancholy in the tunes and in the playing that is hard to resist, yet it never crosses the line into mere sentimentality. Russell's playing displays a fine combination of virtuosity and sensitivity.

The highlights of the disc for me were the lovely, graceful "Granada"; the rhythmic "Cadiz"; the ultrasmooth and sophisticated dance number "Cataluna"; the slow Habanera titled "Cuba"; and the stately "Minueto." However, my absolute favorite of the bunch is Albeniz's "Tango." I could put the track in repeat mode and listen to the piece over and over again for hours. Russell's gentle handling of it is enough to bring tears to one's eyes.

Recorded at the Peggy and Yale Center for the Performing Arts, Owings Mills, Maryland, in April of 2009, the acoustic is rich and lightly resonant, giving the single instrument a pleasantly spacious sound. It is one of those recordings that makes you suspend your disbelief and imagine, if you shut your eyes, that the performer is there, on stage, a few feet away.

JJP

Albeniz: Suite Espanola (XRCD review)

Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, New Philharmonia Orchestra. First Impression Music FIM XR24 068.

I have not hidden my admiration over the years for JVC's XRCD remasterings of classic RCA and Decca material. Their meticulous care and attention to detail cost a mint and probably don't represent the best value for the dollar, but for the audiophile looking to find the best possible sonic quality in compact discs, the XRCDs can hardly be beat. Unless you look to First Impression Music, which for many of its releases also utilizes the XRCD process.

To quote Winston Ma, head of First Impression Music: "FIM produces its own XRCD albums, manufactured by JVC, Japan. FIM distributes its own software catalog, including its own XRCD albums to more than thirty countries in the world and will continue to do so for years to come. There are three major companies producing XRCDs, namely JVC, TBM, and FIM. With the closure of JVC Disc America, JVC only distributes its own products in Japan and SE Asia. The other two labels continue doing their distribution as before."

Among FIM's very first XRCD releases was the XRCD/24 disc of the Suite Espanola by Spanish pianist and composer Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909). Recorded by Decca in 1967, it is one of the first things I considered an audiophile recording back in the old days when I was just getting started in the stereo field. Up until that time, I had loved and collected classical music, but I had not yet acquired a playback system worthy of exploiting the full potential of an audiophile disc. The Suite Espanola changed all that (along with my first good system of separate audio components in the late Sixties).

Albeniz first wrote the pieces we now call the Suite between 1906 and 1908 as parts of two piano cycles. Conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos chose seven of the eight pieces of one cycle to do up in the orchestral transcriptions we have here, choosing to leave out a selection, "Cuba," that did not derive from his own country and substituting another Albeniz piano piece. The resultant orchestral set is light, frothy, folk-inflected, and totally delightful, suggesting the atmosphere of various places in Spain: Castilla, Asturias, Aragon, Cadiz, Sevilla, Granada, Cataluna, and Cordoba. More important to the audiophile, perhaps, the music contains an abundance of sonic effects to dazzle the ear, and it remains one of Decca's very best, most-realistic recordings.

Anyway, I first owned the performance on vinyl, then on regular CD, then on Decca's Classic CD label, and now on FIM's XRCD/24. But what is XRCD/24? Let me quote from the disc booklet: "What makes the XRCD-24 bit Super Analog so impressive: XRCD is a standard 'Red Book' CD and can be enjoyed on any CD player. For the first time ever a 24-bit digital signal is used as an essential part of the CD manufacturing process. A high-precision DVD K2 laser and K2 Rubidium Clock are used together to greatly improve CD glass mastering. Quality control from mastering through manufcturing ensures the original audio brilliance is maintained in the final XRCD." Yes, the CD is still a 16-bit transfer on disc, but it's done from a 24-bit signal, obtained from original master tapes, and put through an exacting process that would do any recording proud.

What's more, FIM does up the disc in the most elaborate packaging I think I've ever seen for a single disc, more impressive even than JVC's product. The outside of the case is clothbound, with a cutout center that reveals the first page of the enclosed booklet and the original album art. The pages of the interior booklet are thin, flexible plastic, not paper, and the disc itself is encased in a pocket reminiscent of an old-time 78-rpm record album, further enclosed in a static-proof sleeve. Sure, the FIM XRCDs cost a mint, but at least they look like they're worth it.

Nevertheless, looking expensive and sounding good are two different things, and one can only ascertain the actual worth of any disc by listening to it. All the bells and whistles in the world are not worth the price if the record doesn't sound appreciably better than the lower-cost product. And at over twice the price of Decca's own release, this one needed to come off sounding mighty good. Fortunately, it does, but the degree of difference may not be apparent to everyone, so the buyer must make up his own mind if the variances are worth the money.

In a side-by-side comparison of the FIM against the Decca, the FIM is a shade cleaner overall, with crisper, more-extended highs, a clearer midrange, greater fullness, and a tad stronger dynamics. More important, the FIM sound is better imaged across the speakers. The Decca often seems confined to the left, right, or center stage, whereas the FIM presents a wider, more-realistic orchestral spread. Put another way, the Decca, while still sounding good, appears a mite dull, lopsided, and constricted by comparison to the FIM.

Again, is the FIM worth the price, further considering that it contains only Albeniz's Suite Espanola, where the Decca also contains Manuel de Falla's El amor brujo and Enrique Granados's Intermezzo, a timing difference of thirty-seven vs. sixty-eight minutes? In those terms, you could say the FIM is four times more expensive than the Decca (double the price and half the content). The answer can only come from your own ears and pocketbook. If you don't consider your playback system of audiophile or near-audiophile quality and you don't have the money to spend extravagantly, don't even consider the FIM product. Heck, a person with an inexpensive or overbright system might actually prefer the softer, less-focused sound of the Decca disc.

On the other hand, if you want the very best, you pay for it. The differences in imaging alone would be reason enough for me to want the FIM.

Adapted from a review the author originally published in the $ensible Sound magazine.

JJP