Pristine Audio Digital Music Collection

We were recently partook in a Q&A about our Digital Music Collections for a magazine article, and these two about how to best use the device seemed pertinent to reproduce here:

I've been asked this before! Let me explain...

What we supply is effectively a great big record collection - each item labelled and mapped out - but not the "record player" itself. What you'll need to choose for yourself is a music player app which can scan through all those recordings and create its own catalogue entry for each one, something computers can do very efficiently. Just about every music player app I know of does this thoroughly, quickly and well!

When you first plug in your USB Music Collection drive, you should ask your player app to scan it for content - you just need to point it to where your USB drive is (on Windows this would be the drive letter, on Android simply the attached USB device, for example) and then set it going. Each sound file on the drive includes a series of embedded "tags" - short bits of information which include track number, track title, album title, track and album artist(s), year of recording, composer etc. It also includes the original album artwork for display when you listen to the track. Your software scans all of these tags and creates its own database file of contents, allowing you to easily browse or search through the titles in myriad ways. (As each player has its own systems for storing this master file, it's not something we can include - there's no standard way to cater for every single player, and I don't know of any which allow you to simply load up a pre-existing database.)

The player will normally play an album through from start to finish, in track order, with no stopping or gaps between tracks. It should also offer you various other playback options: stop at the end of the album; repeat the album; go onto the next album; play at random or within certain parameters etc. - all of which you get to choose from yourself. 

All of this cataloguing and playback is a function of your music player app, and it's important to choose one that suits you, both visually and in its functionality. You'll find many different music players in the Microsoft Store (for PC), the Apple Store (for Mac and iOS) and the Google Play Store (for Android) - I suggest you try out a few until you find the one that works best for you. Once you've got your player set up with our USB drive you'll not be thinking in terms of folders and files, just albums, performers and composers! It really is the only way to find your way around such a massive collection.

2. Do you have, or could you produce and supply, a separate single file that lists just the titles of all your releases? (It's cumbersome to go back and try to find, e.g., Dvorak's Piano Concerto with the collapsed file listings that appear when the flash drive contents are first opened.)

Again this comes down to the music player app - we provide the music and all the information that's embedded in each of the music tracks, but you need to find a player that's right for you. At no point do you need to be struggling through files and folders - your player will do all of this heavy lifting for you, allowing you to get straight to the music you want to hear. You should be able to type in (or scroll down a list to) Dvorak and instantly find a list of everything Dvorak-related in the whole collection - all 45 albums in this composer's case, including Firkusny's 1954 recording of the Piano Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell (PASC 045).

We do include - and make available on our website for download (see below) - a fully-indexed catalogue of our releases in PDF format. We used to print this out and include it with our Digital Music Collections, but it now runs to well over 500 pages and we offer it as a digital file - which you can of course always print if you wish, though it's a lot of paper and ink!

Many readers of these pages will know that I frequently review releases of historical recordings by Pristine Audio, and on a few occasions have written liner notes for its releases. A bit over six months ago, at the end of June 2024, Andrew Rose, Pristine’s proprietor and factotum—he is Pristine Audio, with assistance from his wife Rose and monthly guest contributions from remastering wizard Mark Obert-Thorn—sent me an unsolicited email with an astounding offer: Would I like to review Pristine’s entire digital music collection provided on a USB (universal serial bus) flash drive? Would I?? Beam me up, Scotty!! And so, a couple of weeks later, a padded envelope from southern France arrived via international post with the flash drive enclosed.

Now, I am not a computer techie, and still prefer to have my music on CDs rather than via download or streaming, so using this was a step forward for me. Actually, the basics proved to be a pretty small step forward; anyone who has ever used any sort of thumb drive or flash drive to read or transfer any sort of computer file (I’ll rashly assume that includes most people who have a computer nowadays) will have no problem using this. The flash drive provided by Pristine has two plug-in options at opposite ends, for the traditional USB-A and the newer USB-C ports; both are high-speed USB 3.2 ports for rapid transfers of files. (This drive cannot be used with Lightning or micro-USB sockets.) You can choose either 320kbps MP3 or higher-fidelity 16/24 bit FLAC (free lossless audio codec) formats (one terabyte of data each—that’s one trillion bytes) or both (two terabytes). All of Pristine’s official MP3 releases are derived from the higher-fidelity FLAC versions. The files are not DRM (digital rights management) restricted, so they may be copied to your computer, another storage device, or to “the cloud” for your convenience, or burnt to a CD. (Note that the 16-bit FLAC format is CD quality; the 24-bit format exceeds that and is not suitable for burning to CDs.)

The contents of the USB drive are sorted as follows. There are three initial folders. “Covers” contains images of all the tray cards for each release. These are printable, if you want to burn your own CDs of particular items for personal convenience. “Extras and Lucky Dips” contains a miscellany of items that, for various reasons, did not make it into official Pristine releases. This contains three sub-folders: NGS (National Gramophone Society) FLACs; PADA (Pristine Audio Direct Access) Exclusive MP3s, with streaming exclusives prepared by various remastering engineers; and “Shorts.” “Pristine Curated Collection – FLACs” contains all of Pristine’s official releases up to the time a purchaser is sent the USB drive. (Yes, you can update the contents; see below.) When you click on this folder to open it, seven sub-folders appear for genres of music: Blues (BL), Chamber Music (CM), Compilations (MX, for Mixture), Jazz (JZ), Keyboard Music (KM), Orchestral Music (SC, for Symphonic and Concerto), and Vocal Music (CO, for Choral and Opera). There are now also 45 PABX box set collections that combine sets of individual releases (e.g., complete Beethoven piano sonatas by Backhaus, Kempff, or Schnabel, or the complete Ring cycles by Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, or Leinsdorf) into single sets at a discounted price. This also brings us to Pristine’s method for designating its releases. Each release number begins with a four-letter alpha prefix, the first two letters of which are PA (for Pristine Audio) and the latter two of which signify the musical genre. The number following the alpha prefix is simply the next sequential release within that series; hence different releases bear catalog numbers PACM 001, PASC 001, and PACO 001.

Within each genre folder are separate folders for the individual releases within that genre, labeled by Pristine’s catalog release number. Inside each individual folder are the sound tracks for that release, of course already sorted in proper order for consecutive playing. Each track includes labelling information such as Name, Title (sometimes these two are the same), Contributing Artists, and Album name. Also included are separate sub-folders with artwork (i.e., tray cards with recording information and brief liner notes, likewise collectively found for all releases in the initial “Covers” folder) and if available from the public domain a musical score (a terrific bonus you don’t get with a CD, but included only in the FLAC collection). The goodly majority of Pristine Audio’s releases, almost 2/3, fall into Orchestral Music (720 releases as of the date of my USB flash drive). Bringing up the rear are Vocal Music (215 releases) Chamber Music (124 releases), Keyboard Music (93 releases), Jazz (13 releases), Blues, (10 releases), and Compilations (1 release). That balance is somewhat misleading, however, because most of the Vocal Music releases are of complete operas, with each one being the length of two to four Orchestral Music releases, so in terms of total amounts of music the two categories are virtually equal. In addition, Pristine’s initial offerings were digital transfers of individual LPs or even pieces of music rather than CD-length releases (again, see below), so as a result they were significantly shorter in length.

So, to summarize, a typical drill-down sequence in the flash drive is: Curated Collection – desired collection – desired album/release – tracks for desired works(s).

At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering: “Okay, so I buy this flash drive. But what do I do about future releases I’d like to add to it?” Fear not; you have two options. For a modest monthly fee you can either pay for ongoing ability to download digitally new releases from Pristine’s website (in MP3 or FLAC format, as you prefer), or for a slightly higher cost you can also have a monthly DVD with the files on it shipped to you. In addition, Pristine’s web site also has at its bottom a number of informative and helpful extras, including a complete catalog of its listings (see “Catalogue and Order Form”), and instructions on how to burn seamless transfers of the digital audio files to CDs (see both “MP3s and Cue Files” and “Downloading for Beginners”).

So much for background; what of the music itself? Simply put, this is extraordinary—the motherlode of historical recording collections. Naturally enough, the most prominent representation goes to the greatest composers—Beethoven (present on 267 releases), Brahms (145), Mozart (120), Wagner (110), Tchaikovsky (94), Schubert (78), Bach (65), Mendelssohn (56), Richard Strauss (52), Schumann (49), Haydn (48), Debussy (46), Dvořák (45), Sibelius (42), Ravel (37), Verdi (37), Johann Strauss II (32), Stravinsky (32), Chopin (30), Liszt (29), Mahler (26), Bruckner (25), Elgar (25), and Weber (25)—and the most renowned performers, mostly conductors—Arturo Tosca­nini (89), Leopold Stokowski (56), Wilhelm Furtwängler (51), Thomas Bee­cham (46), Jascha Horenstein (43), Bruno Walter (36), Eugene Ormandy (32), Adrian Boult (31), Willem Mengelberg (26), Guido Cantelli (25), and Serge Koussevitzky (22). The only non-conductor artist to break through a ceiling of representation on 25 or more releases is Maria Callas (26). Leading ensembles (all orchestras, some with choruses) are the NBC Symphony (121), London Symphony (68), Berlin Philharmonic (62), Philadelphia Orchestra (58), New York Philharmonic [under “Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York”] (57), London Philharmonic (56), Vienna Philharmonic (50), La Scala [divided under several different listings] (46), Philharmonia Orchestra (44), Boston Symphony (42), Royal Philharmonic (40), Concertgebouw (33), and Metro­politan Opera (26). But one need only go to Pristine’s website (www.pris­tineclassical.com) and search the indices at the end of its catalog to discover the wide representation of great singers, instrumentalists, and chamber ensembles also represented in its catalog.

As for the sound quality, I join many other critics in finding Rose’s XR remastering process to be a major game-changer in rejuvenating historic live performances and studio recordings. (Note that, with a few exceptions, Rose has not gone back to releases prior to his employment of XR software and remastered those.) And, as he indicates below in answering a question from me, both the sophistication of the software, and his skill and imagination in utilizing it, have increased over time. While I did not have time to listen to every single one of almost 1,200 releases, comprising almost 18,000 separate digital audio files, from stem to stern, I did listen to at least one track from every release (except for the jazz and blues items—not my cup of musical Earl Grey—and the extras, which I sampled selectively). I could hear definite improvements in the remasterings over time; for example, to my ears XR was initially applied more successfully to orchestral recordings than to operas, though Rose has now found a particularly fine sweet spot for remastering the EMI recordings of Callas. In the last few years his results have been uniformly excellent. (Mark Obert-Thorn uses different remastering software to produce his own, likewise excellent results for his monthly releases in the Pristine Audio roster. He works primarily with 78s, whereas Rose concentrates mostly on live performances and early LP recordings.)

Every listener who comes to this collection will encounter his or her own delightful set of surprises. To list just a few of my own, perhaps at the top of the list is a rediscovery of Arturo Toscanini. While I have never doubted the Italian maestro’s greatness, until now my liking for him was generally limited to his opera performances, while his conducting of the standard German orchestral repertoire in particular left me unmoved, seeming brusque and rigid. Listening to Rose’s remasterings of his NBC and BBC broadcasts, I finally realized the true extent to which my indifference and even dislike were due to the notoriously arid Studio 8-H acoustics. Suddenly, with the application of XR software, the orchestra gained warmth and color, and previously muted inner voices appeared and blossomed. Toscanini’s tempos and phrasing gained in flexibility and expressiveness as well. While I have not warmed to all of his interpretations (his Beethoven Ninths all remain outside the pale for me), I am grateful to add his Beethoven and Brahms in particular to my listening repertoire. Among unexpected discoveries, among lesser-known names, are the concerto recordings of the tragically short-lived English pianist Noel Mewton-Wood.

But many special items here are ones that I would now call “old friends,” because I acquired them when Rose first issued them. These range from Paul Paray’s astounding performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Capriccio espagnol, to Casals’s live performance of the Dvořák B-Minor Cello Concerto with Alexander Schneider as the excellent conductor, and the six Russian piano concertos played by Sviatoslav Richter. And virtually anything with Walter, Furtwängler, Mengelberg, Koussevitzky, Fritz Busch, and Albert Coates is of inherent interest to me; ditto for Adolf Busch and Artur Schnabel among instrumentalists. Among chamber music and keyboard recordings, the complete Wohltemperierte Klavier with pianist Samuil Feinberg remains absolutely riveting. In the vocal/choral/opera category, the 1958 Leeds Festival performance of Beetho­ven’s Missa solemnis under Jascha Horenstein is a searing, titanic rendition, while Rose’s remastering of the fabled 1951 Bayreuth Parsifal under Knappertsbusch may be for me his most enduring achievement. Among releases remastered by Obert-Thorn, I will cite Bruno Walter’s rare acoustics and collected 1930s Mozart recordings, and the complete Beethoven quartet cycle by the Léner Quartet, as items of special merit. Finally, don’t overlook the “Extras and Lucky Dips”—for example, it features superb remasterings of Bruno Walter’s studio recordings of Schumann’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4.

Admittedly, the price for this USB flash drive is not cheap; it ranges from 1,100 to 1,500 Euros, depending on whether you choose MP3, FLAC, or both. (On the day I type this, one dollar equals 0.95 Euros. Alas, Pristine does not have a monthly payments over time option.) In addition, if you want to play this through your regular stereo system instead of your computer speakers, you will need either to be able to connect your computer to your stereo receivers with HDMI cables, or else invest in a wireless transmitter to perform the same task. Likewise, as explained below, to play tracks without interruption on your computer you will need to download and install in your computer whichever one of several available free music player apps strikes your fancy. On the other hand, this is a ridiculously cheap bargain for what you get—roughly $1.00 to $1.40 per release, depending on the format you choose. Where else can you buy an entire Ring cycle for less than six dollars? (The price from Pristine for the same item on physical CDs is $150 to $200.) Even if only half of the releases are of interest, you’re still paying only $2.00 to $2.80 apiece for each release that you want. I’m not making light of the cost—much too easy for a reviewer to do when he gets such an item for free. But if it is within your means, and a sufficient number of the performances are of interest, then by all means get this.