Compact Disc REVIEWS (AA, 3-1989)

By John Sunier

Title: Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor Artist: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti conducting Label: London (414 674-2) (2 CDs)

SPARS Code: ADD Sound Quality: 90% Performance: 95%

ONE OF THE MOST unexpected developments in classical music in the middle of this century was surely the increase in popularity of Mahler's music with the concert-going and record-buying public.

Mahler has risen from almost total obscurity to a place on the record shelves and on concert programs that has been assumed at the expense of such regulars as Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Who would have thought it? Is it the exaggerated, wildly contrasting moods of this frankly autobiographical music that appeals to audiences? Is it the overtly religious nature and universal communication of these symphonies that make them so accessible--even though most are well over an hour long? Perhaps in this audiophile age, we are attracted to the sonic extremes of the oversized symphony orchestra that are plumbed in the composer's struggle to communicate his pain and ecstasy (which alternate in a balanced fashion through nearly all the nine complete and one incomplete symphonies).

When asked why he used such a large orchestra, the composer spoke of the need for emotional variety and a broader spectrum of instruments from which to choose. The first mono Mahler recordings didn't come close to doing justice to this complex music. Now with CDs and some of the latest generation of players, we finally approach the sonic clarity that this music requires.

Mahler's Sixth was the last of the symphonies to be performed in the US (in 1947) and for some reason it has received the least attention on recordings, perhaps because of its more tragic overall tone and fewer optimistic, ecstatic passages. The Sixth is the most classical in design and mood of all the symphonies. It provides an answer to those critics who find Mahler an un disciplined composer. The unity is due to an almost primitive leitmotif in the trumpets and oboes, which represent Fate, in four of the five movements.

A number of great maestros have undertaken to record all of Mahler's symphonies. As with the more popular complete Beethoven symphony projects, no one conductor has really succeeded in the impossible task of turning out the definitive performance on recordings of nine such works. However, for my money Solti comes closer than anyone else in the Mahler sweepstakes, and he is aided by London's excellent sonics in both the early tapings (like this one) and the later efforts.

This recording was made in Chicago's fine acoustic venue, the Medinah Temple, in 1970. London's ADRM technique for restoring older analog recordings to CD must have more to it than promotional hype, because I actually prefer this CD set to the all-digital 1982 Solti/ London set of the Mahler Ninth. The sonics are rich, full and wide-ranging, with no apparent hiss whatsoever-as is usually heard on most older reissues.

Perhaps this is because the masters were taped with Dolby A noise reduction, but still the results are exemplary.

The second CD in the set is filled out with the Mahler song cycle, Leider eines fahrenden Gesellen, for which the com poser wrote the lyrics himself. They are in the style of Schubert's Die schone Mullerin, with the protagonist hashing over the pains of unrequited love. Mezzo Yvonne Minton is the soloist in these four orchestral songs.

If you have just discovered Mahler you might find the Second Symphony a better place to begin. If you are a Mahler fan, lack the Sixth in your library and are not a staunch fan of Leonard Bern stein's ‘Mahler-on-uppers ’ approach, this is the set to own.

Title: Music of Alan Hovhaness: Saint Vartan Symphony; Artik Concerto for Horn and Strings Artists: National Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Hovhaness conducting;

Meir Rimon, horn/Members of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/David Amos Label: Crystal Records (CD 802) SPARS Code: ADD Total Time: 61:54

Sound Quality: 95% Performance: 98%

THE EXTREMELY LIKEABLE music of the prolific Alan Hovhaness has received many recordings, but this one-one of his true masterpieces-should bring many new fans into his unique musical world.

Hearing a rundown of the influences working on the contemporary composer may not excite the typical classical listener: early Christian medieval, Armenian folk, Greek and Oriental music. But their assimilation and striking use of pure inspiration results in a unique contribution to American music. The melodies, which are original and not collected folklore, are beautiful, and although the music is often complex and ornate, it is at base very simple in feeling and highly spiritual.

Hovhaness greatly prizes his Armenian cultural background and has delved deeply into this lore in his scores. The Saint Vartan Symphony is a case in point.

St. Vartan is a sprawling, colorful and emotional work named for an Armenian warrior-saint. The form is an unusual symphony in mosaic-with 24 short movements alternating solemn ceremonial arias (instrumental) with sprightly dances featuring brass, percussion and strings. The ragas and talas of Indian classical music are part of the scheme, as well.

Edward Cole refers to the ‘impulse and thrust which, even on repeated hearings, invests it with the fascinating freshness of improvisation.' He also observes it 'rising with the inevitability of Greek drama toward a searing climactic finale. ’ There are many examples of repetition in St. Vartan, but few of minimalism. There is something going on, always building toward a goal.

Some of my favorite pieces of the mosaic are those near the end featuring solos by alto saxophone and vibraphone over the strings; an original and wonderfully evocative sound. The brass and percussion are clearly delineated with good spatial presence and without overload.

Though not programmatic, St. Vartan evokes its spiritual source in purely musical terms. Cole calls it ‘one huge and vital hymn of praise-now contemplative, again surging, almost violently joyful. [It] spirals upward to heaven, un concerned in its course with worldly things. ’ The composer's performance has to be definitive.

In addition to the 44-minute symphony, this bountiful Crystal CD also includes the 18-minute Artik horn concerto, which again uses a mosaic-like approach in its eight short movements suggesting the form of the mass. Again, all the lovely melodies are original in this concerto named after a seventh-century Armenian church.

The respected ‘purist’ classical re cording engineer, Bob Auger, taped the symphony in 1973 using Dolby A noise reduction. Thus the hiss is not at all noticeable, as with some pre-Dolby analog to-digital transfers.

Give this CD z try even if you think you detest contemporary music. You may discover an instant favorite composer. If so, you won't soon run out of his music--he's currently approaching number 50 in 'his outpouring of symphonies!

BINAURAL CDs

Reviewed by John Sunier

DO YOU HAVE a Walkman- or Discman type portable player? If so, did you realize that nothing you are listening to was in tended for headphone listening? Nearly all recordings are created for spaced loud speaker playback, with exaggerated left right spatiality when heard on head phones. The orchestra or group seems to be divided, with half the musicians in Studio A at your left ear and the other half holed up in Studio B at your right ear! Now at last there is an entire record label issuing music on compact disc that is especially designed for headphone listening, but which still sounds excel lent through speakers. Issued by Harmonic Records of Paris, these CDs are binaural recordings.

Some of you may think the term ‘binaural ’ is merely an earlier designation for what we now call stereo. When some of the first stereo prerecorded tapes were issued, as well as Emory Cook's strange, double-grooved stereo LPs in the early 1950s, binaural was used interchangeably with stereo. This created some confusion, since they are entirely different approaches to the realistic reproduction of sound.

Binaural followed closely the invention of the telephone as a means of delivering sound. In fact, it used double sets of telephone transmitters, lines and receivers in are mote room to carry live 'broadcasts ’ from the stage of the Paris Opera Housein1881.The primitive transmitters were spaced across the stage in several pairs, each pair being the same distance apart as an average pair of human ears. No mixing or processing of the two separate signals occurred, especially at their final destination--the ears. Speakers mix the left and right signals together, thus losing much of the accurate spatial information.

By preserving phase relationships be tween the two sound pickups at the source, binaural recreates the environment of the original recording or broad casting with amazing accuracy. Sounds may be placed in the room or on the stage with almost pinpoint selectivity. If sound sources move around, they will be ob served accurately. This localization, which our two ears make possible (just as our two eyes give us depth and dimension in sight), extends not only to sounds directly in front on a horizontal plane, but also to sounds in back of us and even overhead.

Later binaural improvements used a ‘dummy head’ in which two small con denser mikes are placed. This gives a more exact preservation of the phase relationships caused by the physiognomy of the human face. It is this type of mike pickup that is used exclusively on its compact discs by Harmonic Records, whose first six releases are distributed in the US by Delos International.

Harmonic dubs its label ‘a French style in digital’ and releases sole lyon CD. The producers report that they employ the Charlin artificial head together with B&K omnidirectional mikes because they find this system very close to human hearing.

They describe our directional sound cues at high frequencies coming via loudness differences and the cues at mid-frequencies coming via phase differences. They claim this system respects the phase and loudness differences to which our ears are sensitive and the resulting recordings place each instrument accurately in its sonic surrounding, and in its correct size.

This size quality is aptly demonstrated in the four piano CDs from Harmonic.

Most piano CDs sound quite bizarre when listened to on headphones because they were taped with close, widely separated mikes. The pianos seem to be about 20 feet wide! I always recall the endless keyboard in the movie ‘The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.’ Harmonic piano CDs do not exhibit this quirk, and yet they sound excellent via loudspeakers. Most binaural recordings sound quite poor, or at best much like mono when heard through loudspeakers.

It would be interesting to learn more about the design of the Charlin dummy head, which seems to be responsible for the compatibility that should make binaural more widely accepted.

Paul Badura-Skoda Plays Claude Debussy (CD 8505) features the famous and much-recorded pianist in a 48-minute recital of Debussy favorites, including 'Sunken Cathedral, ’ ‘Estampes,’ ‘The Girl with the Golden Hair,’ ‘L ’Ile Joyeuse,’ ‘Footsteps on the Snow,' and the 'Suite Bergamasque.’ Though best known for his Brahms and Chopin interpretations, Badura-Skoda displays a delightful approach to Debussy. He plays a giant Bosendorfer Imperial ‘Konzert flugel ’--surely the audiophile's piano, with its extra bass notes not found on gi pianos, and its rich and mellow high end.

Through speakers, this recording may sound too mellow in comparison to the brilliant sonics of most major-label piano CDs. I believe it's actually more realistic, however, and via stereo headphones can not be faulted.

Another Debussy collection, Preludes Books 1 & 2, is played by Alain Planes- bold little tone paintings that gave birth to modern piano music. Their many sonic subtleties, including more complex use of both the loud and soft pedals than any previous body of piano music, are nicely captured by the binaural recording. The performance is lovely and, properly heard with good headphones, this binaural recording will take you more deeply into the music, I believe, than would listening to an ordinary stereo recording through loudspeakers. (CD 8506-7).

Two pipe organ albums on Harmonic feature organist Jean-Charles Ablitzer at the organ of Sainte-Croix d'Aubusson.

The first is J.S. Bach and His Century-Chorales for Organ (CD 8401). The 49-minute recital, which really puts you in the cathedral hearing this authentic Baroque organ (complete with some times wheezing air supply), features works by Pachelbel (not the Canon), Kellner, Kaufmann and Walther, in addition to nine chorale preludes by Bach. I've never before been excited by this form of music, but I found the binaural realism pulled me into the delicate variations on the chorale themes and more fully held my attention. Unfortunately, this CD's notes are in French, but a Paris address is given for obtaining a free English translation.

Harmonic's second organ collection is J.S. Bach: Orgelbuchlein or Little Organ Book (CD 8508-9). These paraphrases and variations on Lutheran hymns of Bach's time contain some of the master's most beloved music. Other organists of the time did this sort of thing routinely, but Bach's musical genius as well as his pen chant for organization resulted in his writing them down for posterity.

Tomake listening to these 45 chorales more interesting, producer Francois Dominique Jouis has thoughtfully prefaced each with the original melody from which Bach composed the complete works. These melodies are sung simply and directly by tenor Ian Honeyman, ac companied by M. Ablitzer on a small positive organ rather than on the big Baroque organ where he plays the chorale preludes. The cathedral acoustics are even more noticeably a part of the sound here than in the other album, with the tenor and small organ rather close to the listener and the large organ further back and more spread out. The words of each hymn are given, although only in German. Again, an English translation would have to be acquired.

The last two CDs take us into the jazz realm, featuring pianist Michel Sardaby, who has performed and recorded with such top jazzmen as Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Billy Cobham and Richard Davis.

His rich and swinging acoustic palette is displayed on Voyage (CD 8402) with bassist Ron Carter, and on Caribbean Duet (CD 8504) with pianist Monty Alexander. Three of the eight tracks on the Voyage CD are originals by Sardaby, but Strayhorn and Ellington hits 'Lush Life' and 'Ina Sentimental Mood ’ are probably the standouts. Tunes by Charlie Parker and Fats Waller are also represented. Up to nine minutes per track on the 53-minute set gives plenty of time for development of the themes (not that different from Bach's handling of the Lutheran hymns).

It should be mentioned that the particular stereo headphones you use to hear these CDs will have a major effect on the accuracy of the spatiality. For example, on my top-quality Audio-Technica electrostatic headphones the frequency range and clarity couldn't be better, but Sardaby's piano appeared to be over my head, or rather, I seemed to be lying under his piano. This is fun for a limited special effect, but obviously becomes uncomfortable for a whole album. Switching to my Sony MDR-M77 dynamic headphones put the piano clearly dead ahead and Ron Carter's bass just off to the right, or treble end of the keyboard. In fact, it is as if you are seated at the keyboard.

Being a pushover for anything at all on two pianos, I found Caribbean Duet the most enjoyable of these CDs from Harmonic. It may be that the live recording in the Paris Modern Art Museum adds to the excitement. These two pianists from the West Indies-Sardaby hails from Martinique and Alexander is Jamaican- played together for more than six hours, gradually building up the sumptuous architecture of jazz improvisation with perfect communication between them, exhibiting the African quality which has spread throughout the American continent and the world via jazz. Most of the nine tracks have a Caribbean flavor, with titles such as ‘Yellow Bird ’ and ' 'Jamaica Farewell’ combined with some great originals.

The two pianos are clearly delineated in binaural, though the liner notes don't point out which side is Sardaby and which Alexander. By the way, keeping the left and right channels to the left and right ears all the way through the recording and playback chain is vital to proper binaural perspective. The explanation is a bit complicated, but take my word for it, or just try reversing the headphones on your head and see if that doesn't play havoc with the spatial positioning.

Of other entries in the true binaural recording field, one of the oldest is the two binaural direct discs on the Sonic Arts label- David Montgomery Piano Pieces, and Woofers, Tweeters & All That Jazz.

The Stax headphone people in Germany have issued three binaural CDs. Unfortunately, the notes for two of them are only in German, and only the first one is available directly from Stax. Two of their organ CDs are recorded with a new binaural system that is said to enhance loudspeaker playback. Then and Now is the title of a Wurlitzer pipe organ album by Donna Parker and Bill Vlasak on the Donna Parker Productions label, and the other is Messiaen's work for pipe organ, Livre du St. Sacrement, on the Unicorn Kanchana label.

Last but not least, I have produced an all-binaural cassette sampler titled Bin aural Audition. It features a half-hour on one side devoted to a variety of unusual musical groups, such as a cello quartet, sax quartet, Andean music group and gospel trio; also included is a second half hour of sound environments taking the listener aboard a white-water rafting trip, a San Francisco cable car and a narrow gauge steam engine as well as other unusual sound effects.

If you would like information on any of the above binaural recordings, or to order Binaural Audition ($12.50 postpaid, Dolby B high-bias cassette), you may write to meat Box 1621, Ross, CA 94957, or call (415) 457-2741.

John Sunier features special all-binaural broadcasts for headphone-only listening about twice yearly on his weekly AUDIOPHILE AUDITION program for audio buffs, which is now heard on over 175 stations each week. Consult your local public radio or commercial concert music station listing information.

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