For the past two decades, the name of Mark Obert-Thorn has been associated with high standards and tender loving care in audio restoration. Born in Philadelphia in 1956, he studied piano from an early age.

While still an undergraduate at Williams College (Massachusetts), he worked on the reconstruction of George Gershwin’s original, uncut score for Rhapsody in Blue from manuscripts in the college’s Paul Whiteman Collection, and gave what is believed to be the firstperformance of the work since its première as piano soloist with a student ensemble in 1978.

A few years earlier, he had begun making transfers from 78 rpm discs for a college radio program, an activity he continued in a series he created and co-hosted for Philadelphia’s National Public Radio affiliate station, WHYY, from 1982 through 1984.

Audio Restoration Work

Obert-Thorn began working on audio restorations on a professional basis in 1988, initially for the Pearl label. Within three years, two of his productions had been named as Gramophone Award finalists.

He also transferred many discs for the Biddulph, Romophone and Music & Arts labels. In 1998, he was selected by the Philadelphia Orchestra to be the Artistic Consultant for its 12-CD Centennial Collection. In the same year, he suggested to Klaus Heymann that Naxos start a budget-priced line of historical recordings transferred from public domain commercial discs.

He has since produced over 300 CDs for the highly successful and critically-acclaimed Naxos Historical series, as well as over 200 for other labels over the past 20 years.

In 2008, he was awarded a certificate of special merit by the Deutschen Schallplatenkritik for his lifetime achievements in the field of audio restoration. He now extends his distinctive sonic vision to Pristine Audio, where he contributes regular releases to our ever-expanding series of great historical Classical recordings.

Part of Mark Obert-Thorn's collection of 78rpm discs

Some critical praise for Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers:

Mark Obert-Thorn is one of the finest transfer engineers in the world, as lovers of historical recordings know.

Henry Fogel, Fanfare

Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers are expert; one soon finds oneself listening to the performances rather than the antiquated sonics.

Paul Turok, New York Times

Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers instill, as ever, instant sonic confidence.

Rob Cowan, Gramophone

Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers are everything good transfers should be, studiously avoiding drawing attention to themselves while clarifying sound, removing ticks, and providing properly equalized side joins.

Barry Brenesal, Fanfare

Mark Obert-Thorn of course has a redoubtable reputation as a producer and engineer of these transfers. To my untutored ear, he is always particularly successful in finding that “sweet spot” within the sound envelope which preserves the greatest amount of signal and manages to eliminate the greatest amount of noise.

Ying Chang, www.musicalpointers.co.uk

I think we can take it for granted, when we see the name Mark Obert-Thorn, that the transfers will have been handled with taste and a dedication to extract the most data possible from the original grooves.

Rob Barnett, www.musicweb-international.com

 

" ... the doyen of transfer engineers ..."

James Jolly
The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010

 

 

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