In this week's newsletter:

• Louis Kentner - a 1939 Hammerklavier which sets new audio standards
  
• Busch Quartet - two excellent Schubert string quartets to savour
  
• PADA Exclusives - Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto
  
• Gramophone Review:  Rob Cowan in raptures over Ormandy and Doráti
• Box Sets - Save €€€ on our collected Jazz and Blues "box" set downloads
  

Editorial - The Joy of XR...

Last week I wrote about the transfer of a set of 78rpm sides of Louis Kentner playing Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. Little did I think at the time what a revolutionary experience the restoration would turn out to be. As I describe in my notes below, I'd pretty well finished the restoration as per usual when I decided to see what would happen if I re-re-equalised it, using another recording of the same piece, different to that used in the original XR remastering as a reference.

Perhaps the pianos matched. Perhaps the microphone placement was more suitable. To be honest, right now I really don't know. But what I do know is that the tonal quality of Kentner's piano was completely transformed, and with it my entire appreciation of his performance.

It's been suggested to me in the past that there's surely little or no point in remastering and reissuing recordings that have already been "done" by others on other labels, and that I should concentrate on finding "new" historic material to work on. This would appear to suggest two assumptions, both of which I'd contest: firstly, that there's little more to be had out of these old recordings sonically (XR, for me, disproves that); secondly, that if you can hear all the notes then you don't need another "improved" remastering in order to appreciate the performance.

The latter argument would appear possible to hold some water if you've never heard the difference between the Kentner before and after that application of additional equalisation, which of course most people haven't. The original remastering was pleasant, introverted, perhaps at times a little insipid. But once you hear the recording sounding "right" the performance appears to change entirely.

How do I know, though, that this is how it really should sound? After all, I wasn't there for the recording (my father hadn't been born then!). The only answer to that is to say "listen for yourself and tell me whether you're convinced". I am - and I think it's the best-sounding 1930s piano I've ever heard.

Andrew Rose, Pristine Audio

Also of interest today:

• Archive Classics - excellent weekly online radio programme dedicated to historic recordings. This week, they say:
  
  "Archive Classics tx 30/10/2009

  Our Tchaikovsky series continues this week with a fine 1946 recording of the `Manfred’ Symphony, Op.58, Tchaikovsky’s darkly dramatic response to Byron’s verse- poem. Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra, with which he was associated during the last two decades of his long career, and with which he made most of his recordings.
  
  Only a short extract  is available on the free podcast: subscribers can access the complete work.
  
  And another atmospheric Russian work opens this week’s podcast, the Prelude to Mussorgsky’s opera `Khovanschina’, depicting dawn breaking over the Moskva River. Stephen Johnson has chosen another famous American orchestra, the Boston Symphony under its principal conductor Serge Koussevitzky, in a live 1946 recording from Boston’s Symphony Hall.
  
  In between those two masterpieces of the Russian repertoire, there’s an impressively muscular account of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV564, from the British pianist of Greek and Austrian parentage, Gina Bachauer (1913-76). This recording dates from 1949, just two years after she had made her London debut at the Royal Albert Hall.
  
  And another great female pianist, Marguerite Long (1874-1966),  a friend of Faure, Debussy and Ravel, and an authoritative interpreter of early 20th-century French piano music, gives a sensitive account of Faure’s Ballade for piano and orchestra, Op.19. In this 1930 recording she’s accompanied by the Orchestra of the Societe des Concerts under Philippe Gaubert."

Louis Kentner, piano
Recorded in 1939 (bonus tracks rec. 1941)

All transfers from original UK Columbia 78rpm discs from the Pristine Audio collection.
All transfers and XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, October 2009
Cover artwork based on a photograph of Louis Kentner

Total duration: 50:51
©2009 Pristine Audio

For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

An astonishing transfer of a sublime performance

Setting new standards for 1930s piano remastering

• BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 29 ‘Hammerklavier' in B flat, Op. 106
  
  Recorded in 1939
  
  Issued as five UK Columbia 78: DX.912-916
  
  Matrix numbers CAX.8492 - 8501
  
  Takes 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1
  
  
  
• LISZT: Liebesträume No. 3
• LISZT: Gnomenreigen (from 2 Konzertetüden)
  
  Recorded on 3rd September, 1941, at Abbey Road Studio 3, London
  
  Issued as UK Columbia 78: DX.1038
  
  Matrix numbers CAX.8928-1 - CAX.8927-1
  
  
  

When you listen to this recording, try to remember its origins. It's difficult, often almost impossible, to reconcile the sound coming from your loudspeakers with all your preconceived notions of what a 1930's 78rpm recording should sound like.

This absolutely stunning remastering does more than sound like nothing you've heard before from this era - it also forces the listener to completely revise their impresisons of Kentner's superb performance of the Hammerklavier.

With a dynamic and frequency range which pulls this perhaps three decades or more forwards in sound quality, the full impact of this performance can be felt in a way which was previously shrouded not just in the mists of time, but in the murk of an old recording.

Without a doubt one of Pristine's finest remastering achievements!

Download listening sample: (Hammerklavier, 4th mvt, 224kbps ambient stereo)

Notes on the Transfer:

The sound quality of the remastered Beethoven Hammerklavier recording here came as something of a surprise to me. My initial response to the discs, upon replay, was that they were not only in excellent physical condition, but also that the recording appeared to be quite good for its era, if a little on the thin side. There was also a problem throughout most of the sides with swish, something which appears to afflict 78rpm discs at the recording stage, rather than being a product of a particular pressing; otherwise they were fine.

I set about the XR remastering using a later Wilhelm Kempff recording as a sonic reference and, upon completion of restoration, had a nice-sounding 'finished' product, though one which sounded a little muted and was perhaps still somewhat unconvincing in the bass. At this point in the restoration process I had just received copies of the Ashkenazy Beethoven Sonata recordings and, noting that for his recording of this piece, Ashkenazy's piano was perfectly in tune (and therefore ready for me to use), decided our of curiosity to quickly re-equalise the Kentner to the tonal "map" of Ashkenazy's piano.

The result was nothing short of astonishing. Suddenly the recording came to life in a way it simply hadn't previously - the piano tone was entirely convincing and immediately showed Kentner's interpretation in an entirely new light. Although there inevitably remain some artefacts of shellac surface noise and other hints as to the vintage of the recording, it's easy to forget whilst listening to this performance that it pre-dates the Second World War. Quite simply, this is the best sound quality I've heard from any piano recording of its era. For me this remastering truly represents a personal milestone.

 

Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, 24-bit FLAC, Ambient Stereo FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

New release today:

SCHUBERT String Quartets 8 and 15
Pristine Audio PACM 066

The Busch String Quartet:
Adolf Busch, violin
Gösta Andreasson, violin
Karl Doktor, viola
Hermann Busch, cello 
Recorded November, 1938

All transfers and XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, October 2009 Cover artwork based on a photograph of The Busch Quartet

Total duration: 65:53 
©2009 Pristine Audio

For more download and CD options, see our website

The FLAC downloads:

The Busch Quartet performing at their very best

Two superb Schubert Quartets from 1938

 

• Schubert - String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D887
  
  Recorded 22nd and 30th November, 1938
  
  Issued as five HMV 78s: DB 3744 - 3748
  
  Matrix numbers 2EA.7128-7137
  
  Takes 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
  
  
  
• Schubert - String Quartet No. 8 in B flat major, D112
  
  Recorded 25th November, 1938
  
  Issued as three HMV 78s: DB 3737 - 3739
  
  Matrix numbers 2EA.7103-7116 and 7210-7211
  
  Takes 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1
  

The Busch Quartet were one of the truly great chamber ensembles of the twentieth century, with a string of ground-breaking recordings made in the thirties and forties.

The two Schubert quartets here demonstrate their excellence. The longer, 15th Quartet, would appear to have been recorded in one take, with the second half of the quartet re-recorded a few days later, again in a single take. Of the shorter recording, only a single side required a second take.

In superb sound quality for 1938 recordings made a few days apart, these recordings both demonstrate the very heights of a performance style rooted in the late romantic tradition. The instinctive musicianship of a brilliant quartet that had been playing together nearly for two decades is truly a delight to hear.

Download listening sample:   (Quartet No. 15, 1st mvt, 224kbps mono)

Notes on the transfer:

This transfer presents a good opportunity to demonstrate the five stages of remastering that have gone into making it, from the initial transfer to the finished master (all example files 30s @ 320kbps MP3):

Stage 1: The raw transfer, in stereo, from the cleaned HMV 78, beginning of side 1. Note that this is replayed using the standard HMV replay curve of the time.

Stage 2: Following declicking and decrackling, the signal is put into mono, which further cancels unwanted noise and boosts the signal content

Stage 3: The entire recording is re-equalised, using a modern recording of the same piece as a guide, in order to help correct the tonal balance. The effect here is to fill out the lower end body of the sound whilst reining in harshness at the top end.

Stage 4: The re-equalised recording is now subjected to targeted digital noise reduction, working both on the hiss and more general broadband noise.

Stage 5: Following an intensive period of 'hands on' manual restoration, examining and rectifying individual clicks, swishes, bumps, and other unwanted noises, the final stage is the application of a subtle Ambient Stereo effect, to extract the natural ambience captured in the recording and spread it discretely across the stereo sound stage. This movement can be heard in full using the playback bar at the top of the page.

 

The recordings here were both made within a few days of each other in November, 1938, and represent excellent examples of the finest playing and recording techniques of the day. Note that these British HMV pressings were characteristically crackly, something which varied between manufacturers and countries. The philosophy here was to include hard material in the shellac to help grind the needle to better fit the shape of the groove. Fortunately the sound of this is now reasonable straightforward to remove!

What is less simple, and occurs more in the second of the two pieces here, is the removal of surface swish. Where this occurs at frequencies above those being played it is not difficult to treat, but where it clashes with instrumental frequencies it's much harder to deal with, and may not always be entirely removable. As such it can be heard in the background at times on this recording, usually very faintly (if at all), but occasionally, as in the 3rd movement of String Quartet No. 8 in B flat, it briefly becomes more apparent.

Overall, however, these excellent recordings have transfers well, and come up very nicely indeed in the remastering process!

 

Available as 320kbps MP3, 16-bit FLAC, 24-bit FLAC, Ambient Stereo FLAC, CD
or listen on demand with Pristine Audio Direct Access (PADA)

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