Whats on your turntable tonight?

Music by Andrzej Panufnik tonight:

Concertino for timpani, perc & strings
Concerto Festivo
Katyn Epitaph
Landscape
Sinfonia Rustica

(Panufnik or Horenstein conducting the LSO, Unicorn label, recording engineer: Bob Auger. Exceptional music in superb recordings.)

"The ideal is a composition in which poetic content is combined with perfection of construction... Music gets its eternal beauty from an ideal balance of emotion and intellect." — Andrzej Panufnik

"Marcel Dupre Organ Recital" Mercury SR 90169 (Speakers Corner reissue), simply a superb recording and reissue. One of the best organ additions to my collection in many years.

"Everybody Digs Bill Evans" Bill Evans Trio, Riverside 1129 (45 r.p.m. reissue from Analogue Productions)

Bach Organ Concertos, Richter on the Silberman-Arlesheim organ, Archiv 2533 170
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Bach, 33 Chorale Preludes from the Yale Manuscript, Joseph Payne playing the very Baroque-style Bozeman-Gibson Organ at St Paul's Church, Brookline, MA, Harmonia Mundi HMC 5158 (Another superb recording by producer Robina Young, who produced so many of the great US Harmonia Mundi recordings.)

Bach, Selection of Organ works, Marie Claire Alain, Erato ERA 50527

Roy Orbison, Lonely & Blue (mono), Monument M 4002 (Classic Records reissue)
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Tonight we've been playing:

Shostakovich, String Quartets Nos. 4 and 12, Fitzwilliam Quartet, L'Oiseau Lyre DSLO 23 (wonderful!)

Dvorak Cello Concerto with Janos Starker (cello) and Dorati/LSO (Mercury, Speakers Corner reissue) Ann says she wants to hear some of the other performances in the collection (such as Piatagorsky, Rostropovich, Rose) so we'll be repeating sometime over the next few days. The Munch/BSO, Piatigorsky, in the 45 rpm reissue from Classic Records is excellent and a treat to anticipate playing.

Rachmaninov, Isle of the Dead, Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw, Decca 6.42947 (a digital recording, but well engineered by Dunkerley with excellent soundstaging)

Vieuxtemps, Violin Concertos 4 and 5, Barenboim/OrchParis, Perlman -vn, Angel S 37484
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Ralph, I'm very fond of the Solti Ring Cycle recordings. I have them all on London pressings, and just a couple repeated on Decca. Marvelous performances and recordings, it's simply amazing what John Culshaw accomplished with the aid of that remarkable Decca recording team.

I will join you regarding the Arvo Part; I was listening to his "Passio" the other evening. Your comment will have me pulling out the "Tabula Rasa" before I go to bed tonight, but I suspect "Fratres" may be my favorite work on that LP.

You are SO RIGHT about Atrium Musicae de Madrid. In my opinion, Paniagua (the director of this group) can do no wrong and has created amazing recordings over the years. Musique Arabo-Andalouse is certainly one of his best. And in simply outstanding sonics from Harmonia Mundi. Do you have the others?

BTW, Ann's judgment tonight is that the amps are sounding superb, a huge step up in performance in this MkIII iteration! THANK YOU!!
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Linkoping: Love the music you've been playing!

Tonight we've been playing jazz:

Armstrong & Ellington: Recording Together for the First Time, Roulette SR52074 (Classic Records reissue)

Armstrong & Ellington: The Great Reunion, Roulette SR 52103 (Classic Records reissue)

Cannonball Adderley, with Bill Evans: Know What I Mean?, Riverside 9433 (45 rpm Analogue Productions reissue)

Coltrane: Ballads, Impulse AS 32 (Speakers Corner reissue)
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Stevecham, I agree with you about the Armstrong and Ellington LPs. The performances are wonderful: these musicians were clearly having fun in these recording sessions. And the sound quality is very good. Highly recommended.
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Honeyboy Edwards, Shake 'Em On Down, Analogue Productions Original, APO 2010 (about as real as it gets!)

Saint-Saens, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Sym), Munch/BSO, RCA LSC 2341 (45 rpm Classic Records reissue)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Fantasia on Greensleeves; Elgar, Intro & Allegro for Strings, Enigma Variations, Barbirolli/Sinfornia of London, EMI ASD 521 (Alto reissue)

Purcell, Music for Theater, Vol. 5, with Hogwood/AAM, Kirkby -sop, Nelson -sop, L'Oiseau Lyre
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R_f_sayles, any comments to offer on the Count Basie or Monk?? The Bill Evans I admire greatly, but haven't heard these two...

Yesterday's listening was dominated by a dominating performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eschenbach conducting. I really like what Eschenbach is doing with this great orchestra. He has his detracters, but for me, his plasticity of tempo and ability to shape phrases is a marvelous gift to his audience. Several concerts back, we listened to a guest conductor who was well liked by a local music critic for all the reasons we just didn't enjoy his performances: that metronomic approach is not for us.

Later in the evening it was:
Lightnin' Hopkins, Goin' Away, Bluesville 1073 (Analogue Productions reissue, 45 rpm)

Lazy Lester, Analogue Productions, APO 003 direct-to-disc

Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart, with Previn/RPO, Angel R144625 (early digital and the sound quality is poor, but Battle's singing is divine)

Regards,

R_f, Thanks for the commentary on the Basie and Monk; I gues I now have two more additions to my wish list! I agree with you about the Fantasy jazz series from Analogue Productions: every one I've heard has been phenominal.

This afternoon with some friends over:

Count Basie "88 Street" (Analogue Productions 45rpm reissue)

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Speakers Corner reissue)

Ella Live in Berlin (fun with "Mack the Knife")

Ella and Louis (Verve, Speakers Corner reissue)

Linda Ronstadt "Lush Life"

Stravinsky "Firebird Suite" Leinsdorf/LAPO, Sheffield Labs (then contrasted with the last 5 minutes of the Dorati's full ballet performance on Classic Record's 45rpm Mercury reissue for a stark example of contrasting miking techniques)

Cohn on the Saxophone (Sundazed reissue - they do it again: great sound!)

Sarah McLachlin - Fumbling Towards Ecstacy & Freedom Sessions (Classic Records reissue)

Kodaly's Hary Janos Suite, Kertesz/LSO (Speakers Corner reissue of a great Wilkinson/Kinsway Hall Decca recording)

Respighi's Pines of Rome, Reiner/CSO (Chesky reissue of the RCA)
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Sessions' The Black Maskers, Hanson/EastmanRochesterO, Mercury SR 90103 (Speakers Corner reissue - Outstanding!)

In Dulci Jubilo, Christmas Music of the 15-18th Centuries, Jurgens/MonteverdiChHamburg, Telefunken SAWT 9419

Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson, Verve VS 6062 (Speakers Corner reissue)

Joan Baez, "Farewell, Angelina" Vanguard VSD 79200 (Cisco reissue - excellent!)
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So far:

Roy Orbison: "Greatest Hits" S&P reissue mastered by Steve Hoffman at ATI (great sound!)

Miles Davis: Steamin', Analogue Productions 45rpm reissue

Mulligan Meets Monk, Analogue Productions 45rpm reissue

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, Henderson/LSO, Decca, SXL 2218, SpeakersCorner reissue

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Reiner/CSO, RCA LSC 2201, ClassicRecords 45rpm reissue (outstanding performance and sound)

Prokofiev: Scythian Suite, Dorati/LSO, Mercury SR 90006, ClassicRecords reissue
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"Mulligan Meets Monk" Analogue Productions 45rpm reissue
"Polish-Hungarian Lute Music" Ragossnig -lute, Archiv 2533 294

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals
...Henderson/LSO, Beatrice Lillie -narrator, Decca SXL 2218 SpeakersCorner reissue (delightful, character-filled performances of these works in excellent sound)

Handel: Trio Sonatas for Violin and Continuo, L'Ecole D'Orphee, CRD 1075/6 (another outstanding recording engineered by Bob Auger! The CRD label is an often overlooked label full of stylish performances and outstanding sonics.)


Linkoping, the Classic 45rpm reissue of the Reiner/Pictures is indeed on of the best performances of this work in my collection and sonically is "top drawer". As usual, the 45 handily outperforms the 33 sonically. The 45rpm reissue of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony (Sym No. 3, with Munch/BSO) is similarly superb.
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R.Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Reiner/CSO (Classic Records 45rpm reissue - unfortunately not an improvement over the 33rpm reissue in terms of string tone: it shreds my ears and no amount of VTA adjusting can cure it. But other aspects of the sonic picture have great impact and power. However, the strings are hard and steely, reflecting the worst of the early Classic Records remastering efforts.)

Handel, Sonatas for Oboe, cello and continuo, L'Ecole D'Orphee, CRD 1077/8 (another outstanding performance by L'Ecole D'Orphee, and another marvelous engineering job from Bob Auger)

Herold-Lanchberry, La Fille Mal Gardee (excerpts), Lanchberry/ORylOpera, Decca, SXL 2313 (45rpm Speakers Corner reissue - an absolutely superb performance, recording and reissue. The 45rpm version vastly outclasses the earlier 33rpm reissue from Speakers Corner.)

Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, MCA 2-10003 (an early US pressing, with unfortunately hard, edgy, bright sonics. Is the Speakers Corner reissue materially better?)

Cat Stevens, Teaser and the Firecat (Mobile Fidelity reissue - quite good sonically, with natural timbre and detail. Tom Port claims this is the "worst sounding version of all time." I'm listening to #0898 and if Tom's listening to the same series pressings, he and I clearly don't agree on the sound of this reissue.)
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Ray, sides 2-4 are definitely good. I'm still trying to figure out Side 1 ('Round Midnight). I think what I'm hearing is a constant accompaniment of brushes from the drummer -- sounds really strange in the left channel across Monk's piano and made me think the pressing was defective at first. I'm becoming convinced that it's just the sound that's on the tape and that this more highly resolving mastering is no longer masking it, but I don't have any other copy to compare it to. I need to listen to this side again. Other than this, all the virtues of Analogue Productions' 45rpm mastering are in place.
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R_f_sayles, thank you for confirming what I thought I was hearing. It does sound almost like veil of white noise, which on first listening confused me as to what was going on. That very quiet brush work and the baritone sax make for a very unusual combination of sounds to my ear, not being accustomed to this combination.

Also, I totally agree with your assessment of the Analogue Productions 45rpm Fantasy jazz series. All of these reissues that I've heard (about 15 or so now) have been superb. (I wish I'd managed to pick up a copy of "Waltz for Debbie" before it went out of print, but I expect the 33 will be lovely.)

As to Tom Port, he's a seller of new and used vinyl/CDs on the web. He has strongly held opinions, some of which I agree with and many I don't (e.g., his opinion of the Speakers Corner Mercury reissue series). While I've not liked many (perhaps most) of the MoFi reissues I've heard, "Teaser" is one I have liked. The criticism Port makes about this reissue is the naturalness of the sound. That is a problem with many MoFi reissues in my experience: very unnatural messing about with EQ. That's not the case on this one.

Bill (Wc65mustang), the brown label A&M may be more dynamic; I'd have to re-listen for that. And, there may well be brown label copies that sound better than my copy, I'm not trying to make a comparison. My priorities cause me to focus more on instrument timbre and inner detail, which is what I've liked about this version, and that is unusual for me given my reaction to most other MoFi's I've heard. When Port says "it's just a mess and should sound like a mess", that's simply not what I hear and is my only point.
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Tonight...

Doors, LA Woman, Elektra (German reissue)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - more from the 45 rpm box set from Analogue Productions.

Ben Webster, Soulville, Verve 8274 (SpeakersCorner reissue)

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Britten/RoyalOpHouse, Decca, SXL 2189 (Speakers Corner)

Mozart: Serenata Notturna, Maag/LSO, Decca, SXL 2196 (SpeakersCorner)
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Hah! Yes, LA Woman. I need my rock moments from time to time. I just find my selections hopelessly stuck in the 60s-70s. ;-)

Thanks for the Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson suggestion. I've added it to my wish list as I expand my exploration of jazz.

Best regards,

Thelonius Monk, Monk's Music, Riverside 12-242 (45 rpm Analogue Productions reissue)

Handel, Coronation Anthems, Willcocks/ECO/ChoirKingsCollege, Argo ZRG 5369

Handel, Concerti Grossi, op3,1-6, Pinnock/EnglishConcert, Archiv 413 727

Handel, Chandos Anthems, Willcocks/ChoirKingsCollege/ASMF, Argo ZRG 5490
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Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites No. 1 and No. 2, Skrowaczewski/MinnSO, Mercury SR 90315 (another superb reissue in Speakers Corner's continuing Mercury series, masterful performances of these powerful suites)
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Tonight began with some recordings by the outstanding recording engineer Bob Auger:

Brahms, Sextet, Alberni Qt, CRD 1034
CPE Bach, Concertos, Pinnock/EngConcert, CRD 1011
Bach, Flute Sonatas, Preston -fl, Savall -vadg, Pinnock -hpd, CRD 1014/5

And is finishing with Janos Starker performing
Brahms' Sonatas 1 & 2 for Cello and Piano, Mercury SR 90392
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Last night:

"A Baroque Trumpet Recital" (music by Cazzati, Fontana, Marini, Telemann), Gerard Schwarz, trumpet, Albert Fuller, Harpsichord, and Leonard Sharrow, bassoon, Nonesuch H71274 (lovely recording produced by Teresa Sterne, who always delivered excellent recordings)

William Alwyn, Fantasy-Waltzes for Piano (1956), and Twelve Preludes for Piano (1959), John Ogdon -pf, Chandos ABRD 1125 (John Ogdon is one of my favorite pianists: love tohear him play! This is a digital recording but with excellent sound; I'd never noticed before but some of the best Chandos recordings in my collection have been mastered by Willem Makkee who is doing such fantastic work with the Speakers Corner Mercury reissue series.)

"Proensa" (songs of the troubadours), Paul Hilliard, tenor, with Andrew Lawrence-King, harp/psaltry, ECM 1368 (another Willem Makkee mastering with great sonics)
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Boa2, hang in there with us! As I'm sure you've noted, many of the recordings discussed are available in a digital media format. So I hope you'll enjoy the focus on the music in this thread.

And, while I'm a committed vinylholic, I'd never want to encourage someone who doesn't already have a vinyl collection to dive into these waters without a lot of reflection on the cost, hassle and expense of playing vinyl in any high quality way. I read others encouraging that move, but I think moving to vinyl (from no vinyl) is a significant move that should not be undertaken lightly.
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I'm waiting for Slipknot1 to get his new JWM 9 Signature installed so he can tell us about it and all the records he's been listening to as he dials it in... Congrats, Joe!
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Tonight thus far...

Sir Arnold Bax: Symphonic Poems: "Tintagel", "The Garden of Fand", "Northern Ballad No. 1", Boult/LPO, Lyrita SRCS62 (Tintagel is one of my favorite works by Bax, just a delightful work, and this performance by Boult is top drawer. Of course, having Kenneth Wilkinson as the recording engineer certainly helps the sonics!)

Sir Arnold Bax: Symphony No. 2, Fredman/LPO, Lyrita SRCS54 (a wonderful piece of music! Excellent engineering again by Wilkie.)

Mozart: Overture to Lucio Silla; Interludes from "Thamos, Konig in Agypten", Maag/LSO, Decca SXL 2196 (SpeakersCorner reissue)
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Joe, Congratulations on getting so far along on the installation! Remember that with the low current in phono connections, the SST will take about 20 hours to fully break in.
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Slipknot, looks like a nice listening lineup to get that new tonearm introduced to your system!
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Tonight...
"Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson," Verve VS 6062 (Speakers Corner reissue)

"Coleman Hawkins and his Confreres," Verve MG VS-6110 (Speakers Corner reissue)

"Going Back to Acoustic," Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Pure Pleasure PPAN001 (excellent acoustic blues by two masters, reissue)

Up next...
Purcell: "King Arthur" Deller/DellerConsort, Harmonia Mundi HM 252/53

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"The Bach Cello Suites almost sound movie monster size huge." - This is a good thing??? Sorry, Joe, couldn't help myself wondering. I can just see it now... Like something out of Fantasia, a march of 12 foot wide cellos... :-)
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Smw30yahoocom, congratulations on getting your turntable! If this is your first venture into vinyl welcome, hope you will continue to share your music explorations with us.

Tonight thus far...

The Julian Bream Consort: "Elizabethan Music", RCA LSC 3195

Ensemble Musica Antiqua de Vienne: "Concerts et Danses de la Renaissance", Harmonia Mundi HMU 938

Clemencic Consort: "Feast of the Ass" Harmonia Mundi HM 1036
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Smw30yahoocom (Sandra), Congratulations! I'm happy to have you with us in the world of vinyl-lovers. Cleaning your records will absolutely give you better sounding results and will protect them from unnecessary wear.

My recommendation for superb cleaning results is to purchase the Disc Doctor "Miracle Record Cleaner" (scroll down a page) solution and brushes and then follow Disc Doctor's recommended manual cleaning procedure. I prefer the original "Miracle" formula that requires a distilled water rinse to the new no-rinse "Quickwash" formula. You can buy directly from Disc Doctor or from various mail order companies, such as Acoustic Sounds.

Disc Doctor works very well in a purely manual cleaning regimen, and you can add a RCM later for convenience if your chose. The RCM adds convenenience, but it won't improve the cleaning result you can get from the manual Disc Doctor procedure.
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Hmmm, I haven't listened to my copy of America in years. Thanks for the suggestion to pull it out again to listen!

Tonight...

Bill Evans Trio: "Portrait in Jazz" Riverside 1162 (Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue) (simply superb!)

Doors: "Morrison Hotel" Elektra (German reissue) (the sound quality of this recent reissue is very good, matches that of the similarly reissued LA Woman)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Solti/CSO, Decca 6BB 121/2 (one of my favorite performances of this work in great sound: recorded by the master, Kenneth Wilkinson)
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Warming the system up this morning preparing to check out some amp stands, here's what's been playing:

Buxtehude, Organ Works Vol. 1 with Michael Chapius, Telefunken 6.42001

Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz, Riverside 1162, Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue - outstanding!

Coleman Hawkins and his Confreres, Verve MG VS-6110, Speakers Corner reissue - outstanding!

British Band Classics, Vol 2, Fennell/Eastman Wind Ensemble, Mercury SR 90197, Speakers Corner reissue - this is the first time I've heard this and it fully merits all the hype I've read over the years!

Now, if Ann is ready we can get down to some SERIOUS comparative listening...
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Hi Foster! We've been thinking about amp stands for some time, but have never moved forward until now. We're testing out some of Lloyd Walker's amp stands: 3" maple butcher block and Valid points. For a picture, see the 2005 Brutus Awards article at Positive Feedback Online (scroll down about 10 screens, with comments and more pics about 18 screens down).

We haven't compared these to any other alternatives, but the improvement has been so instantly apparent and so material, that I don't expect to pursue other options. Ann and I used the last 6 minutes or so of the 45 rpm Classic reissue of the Mercury/Firebird as our principal listening test. About 10 seconds after I dropped the needle, we looked at each other and said "Oh, yes." The rest of our listening has simply confirmed that first 10 second gestalt take. We're hooked. Lloyd has worked his magic again.
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Foster, I forgot to confirm that this is for the Atma-Sphere MA-2 amps, as you surmised. We also have an older home with thick oak flooring. Our speakers (Eidolons) are also spiked using Walker Audio Valid Points on resonance control discs, to very considerable improvement over the stock spikes. At this point, the 3" butcher block is sitting on some special variation of sorbothane that Lloyd has found to work in some applications better than he ever expected. We plan to next experiment with replacing the sorbothane with Valid Points on resonance control to see what change occurs.
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Tonight:

The Who, Who's Next (Classic Records reissue in great sound.)

The Doors, Morrison Hotel (German 180 gram reissue, mastered by Willem Makkee)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook, Volume 4 (Speakers Corner reissue)

Bach, Cantatas (BWV 1-4), Harnoncourt/ConMWien, Telefunken SKW 1/1-2
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Has anyone listened to the Queen: "Night at the Opera" reissue from EMI? Half-speed mastered, 180 gram. Does anyone know who mastered this or where it was pressed? The master tape is only mediocre, so I'm not prepared to pay the premium price for the oop DCC reissue of this, but I'd love to have a better sounding copy than my old domestic US pressing.
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Tom,

THANKS!! Your information was huge help. Looks like I'll start watching for a UK edition at a price I'm willing to pay.

Regards,

Foster, if you're ever in the Philadelphia area, I'd enjoy having you over here to share some music and share with you how things are sounding here.

I, too, am not a big tweaker in the sense that I'm not inclined to experiment with a lot of different variations. Redkiwi amazed and impressed me with his dedication for trying so many different variations to determine what he thought worked best. And I love that he shared so much of what he learned in the process since I don't have that degree of patience or willingness to fiddle.

Nonetheless, I sincerely believe that great sounding systems get that way because someone IS paying attention to all the small details in fine tuning the set up. And that does include the right combination of tweaks, vibration/resonance control, etc. So in that sense, I am a tweaker. If I can get a 1% improvement here, and 2% there, pretty soon I've accomplished a pretty significant improvement in the overall sound of the system.

I've become convinced over the years that many people just don't get the full benefit of the sound their systems are capable of delivering, and it's because they don't pay attention to the details of system set up and fine tuning.

Thanks for sharing your endorsement of the DCC reissue of ANATO!

Regards,

Smw30yahoocom (Sandra), glad to see you continuing your posts! Thanks for sharing. It's really good to hear from a fellow traveler along this path.

Over the last couple of days...

Neil Young: Greatest Hits (Classic Records reissue) (OK, I admit I just don't get it. I'll listen to this one more time and see if I connect with this any better.)

Smetana: Ma Vlast (Ancerl/CzechPO, Supraphon SV 801) (From about 1954 and atill one of the great performances of this work)

John Lee Hooker: Burnin' (Get Back 7502) (grainy sound, and overloaded by too much backup, but great performances by Hooker.)

Stravinsky: Firebird Ballet (Dorati/Mercury/Classic Records 45 rpm reissue) (Our standard recording to pull out for critical comparative listening with new equipment, amp stands in this case...)

Vierne: Sym 6 (for organ) (Sanger, Meridian E77067)

Grieg: Sonata No 3 for Violin & Piano
Brahms: Sonata No 3 for Violin & Piano
Olav Thommessen: "Please Accept My Ears" (1981, for vn & pf)
...(Milanova -vc & Smebye -pf, Simax PS 1015) (One of those digital recordings on LP that prove digital can sound very good indeed, one of the best sounding recordings in my collection. The Thommassen piece is a beautiful work that deserves more attention.)

Leadbelly: "Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs" (Smithsonian Folkways SF40010)

Woody Guthrie: "Folkways: The Original Vision" (Smithsonian Folkways SF40001) (The musicianship on both these Smithsonian Folkways recordings is outstanding, and the sound seems about as good as the mastertapes are likely to allow.)

Haydn, Cello Concertos (Christophe Coin, Hogwood/AcademyAM, L'Oiseau Lyre DSDL 711)
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Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Ballet (complete), Ansermet/OSR, SXL 2092-2 (Speakers Corner reissue - marvelous performance and a very nice sounding reissue)

Geminiani: Cello Sonatas, Pleeth -vc, Hogwood -hpd, L'Oiseau Lyre DSLO 513.

Clannad: Crann Ull, Intercord 160.153 (not sure where this falls within the Clannad discography, but I sure have listening to it for the first time)

Handel: Water Music, Szell/LSO, Decca (Speakers Corner reissue) (I've heard of this performance for years, but had never heard it. I can hear virtues in it, but I guess I'm just to imbued with the "historically informed" performance practice to move this very high up on my list of preferred performances of this work. My favorite performance continues to be the Trevor Pinnock/English Concert on DGG (and yes, its a digital recording))

Albeniz: Suite Espanola, De Burgos/NewPhilO, Decca SXL 6355 (been listening to both the Speakers Corner and the King Super Analogue reissues to select which one that stays in the collection. The Super Analogue, USA pressing, has a number of virtues, but it sounds like it was mastered from a tape one generation down from the tape used by Speakers Corner, adjusting volume for the relative difference in gain cut into both.)

Poulenc: Gloria, Pretre/FNRO, Carteri -sop, EMI ASD 2835 (a marvelous work performed with great panache and Gallic flavor by Pretre. I always find myself enjoying this performance more than the more refined Fremaux, also on EMI, even though the Fremaux is in arguably better sound. Also compared the EMI pressing to an early brown label Angel and the Angel held up surprisingly well in the comparison.)
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Hi, Foster. Yes, the King Super Analogue label is a Japanese label of King Records. They have made some superb LP reissues of London/Decca catalog over the years and I have many of them. Copies of many these LPs are still available new through Acoustic Sounds and others.

At one time the Super Analogues were both mastered and pressed in Japan, and those Japanese pressings now command pretty high prices on the used market. They then switched to US pressing (not sure by whom) and many of mine are these US pressings, which are quite good. Although some claim the US pressings have never have been up to the standard of the original Japanese pressings, my suspicion is that we're just dealing with later stampers but I have no way of knowing that. The major "big deal" about the Super Analogues was always the very simple and direct all-tube mastering chain, done in Japan. Cisco Records is the importer/distributor.

That London pressing you mention of the Albeniz: Suite Espanola is most likely the same performance/recording I was listening to. It's a nice record.

Kind regards,

Linkoping, the Bach Parita No.2 in D Minor is sufficient to savor and enjoy for one evening. Thanks for sharing!

Tonight...

Neil Young: "Greatest Hits", Reprise 48935 (Classic Records reissue)

Lee Morgan: "Candy", Blue Note Bn-1590 (Classic Records reissue)

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, Solti/VPO, Curzon -pf, Decca SXL 2114 (Speakers Corner reissue)

Mississippi John Hurt: "The Best of Mississippi John Hurt" Vanguard VSD 19/20 (recorded live performance at Oberlin College, 1965)
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Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Reiner/CSO/Heifetz, LSC 2129 (Classic Records reissue)

Joan Baez: In Concert, Vanguard VRS 9112 (Cisco Records reissue and original pressing)

Massenet: Scenes Alsaciennes/Scenes Dramatiques, Bonynge/NPO, London CS 7048
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So far this evening...

Count Basie: Atomic Basie, Roulette 52003 (Classic Records reissue)

Johann Stamitz: Double Concerto for Bassoon and Clarinet, Lehel/BudPO, Vajda -bn, Kovacs -cl, Hungaraton SLPX 12530

JS Bach: Flute Sonatas BWV1030-1033, Waterlily 14 (a beautiful ORTF recording by Kavi Alexander)

Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat - Songs of Leonard Cohen, Cypress 661-111
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Sandra, that seems like an excellent way to watch a game! I wish I could have done the same through the US Nationals women's competition.

Tonight...

Pink Floyd: Ummagumma, EMI Harvest SHDW 1/2

Roy Orbison: All-Time Greatest Hits, S&P Records (2)-507

Schwantner: Aftertones of Infinity
Lutoslawski: Livre pour orchestre
... Effron/EastmanPhil, Mercury SRI 75141

Stravinsky: Violin Concerto
Berg: Violin Concerto
... Ozawa/BSO, Perlman -vn, DGG 2531 110
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