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Sound Concepts' Time-Delay I am disappointed by your description of the Sound Concepts SD-50 in "Devices to Put You in the Concert Hall" [October]. Specifically, your statement that the "signal is subject to some accumulation of noise and distortion, putting practical limits on the length of delay" is almost a direct quote from competitive literature and, in lieu of measured data, indicates inferior performance when in fact the SD-50 has substantially lower noise and distortion than that manufacturer's product. This is true even at the maximum delay time of 100 milliseconds, which is actually longer than the other unit, not "more limited." The maximum stereo mode delay was chosen to be 50 milliseconds since that is close to the threshold of the Haas effect, which psychoacoustically masks the "slap" effect of any echo whether natural or created. It’s this same consideration that limits the major dimensions of a concert hall. Since most program material contains sufficient ambience, the SD-50 is first and foremost a tuneable delay system capable of being operated without any added reverberation. The creation of cavernous sound with long delays and heavy amounts of reverberation is fascinating, but few will prefer to listen to it and its substantially un even frequency response for long. I would never argue with anyone's sonic preferences and wholeheartedly suggest that a potential buyer listen to all available units, preferably with his own familiar recordings. Joel M. Cohen; Sound Concepts, Brookline, Mass. Rhapsody in Blue Although I enjoyed David Hamilton's re view of our Rhapsody in Blue recording [December], I am somewhat distressed that the curiosity he evinces in the second and third paragraphs of page 102 could not have been satisfied by the simple expedient of a phone call before he went into print. Mr. Hamilton refers to rehearsal number 14 of the Rhapsody where he notices that the printed piano part includes notes that he does not hear in the pure recorded versions of Gershwin's piano rolls. He is quite right. The upward-bound arpeggiated figure that occupies the first three quarters of each bar cannot be extracted from Gershwin's rolls. The chord that forms the punctuation of the fourth quarter can be isolated, and indeed it’s this single chord that is included in our recording. Mr. Hamilton notes that I don't explain how I "managed to get" these missing notes "into the recording." I applaud his vivid imagination, because these notes are not included. "Nor does he explain how the playing speed was determined." Every piano roll has printed on its opening tongue a number corresponding to the speed at which it should be reproduced. Apparently there was as much variation in the choosing of running-speeds in the production of these piano rolls as there is in these days of high fidelity recording: Some records play at 33 1/3 rpm, some at 45 rpm, some at 78 rpm; some tapes play at 7 1/2 ips, some at 15 ips, etc. It’s merely necessary to adjust the reproducing instrument to correspond with the speed of original processing. This we carefully did. It’s interesting to note that the two rolls that make up the complete Rhapsody are to be reproduced at different speeds-much as if Side 1 of a record was intended to be played at 33 while Side 2 must be played at 45. I don’t believe that this question of speed is a hit-or-miss proposition. Al though some of Gershwin's tempos seem unusually fast, others seem absolutely car red, and I believe that we have in no way misrepresented his intentions. Andrew Kazdin; Executive Producer CBS Masterworks; New York, N.Y. Mr. Hamilton comments: It would indeed be a shame if these relatively minor points were to overshadow what I described as a "remarkably successful" achievement on the part of Mr. Kazdin and his colleagues. With regard to the matter of playing speed, the review specifically said, "I'm not complaining, just curious-the tempo of the performance, admirably synchronized, is perfectly plausible." But there is some suspicion among piano buffs that the indicated playing speeds of piano rolls did not always correspond to the actual recording ...
[...] speed (just as discs were sometimes re corded below 78 rpm so that when played back on a standard machine they would sound more brilliant). Evidently the producer of the Klavier dubbing of the Rhapsody rolls thought this, for his version is perceptibly slower than Mr. Kazdin's and the Mark 56 dubbing. Having reviewed these other two dubbings (and not knowing which of them corresponded to the indicated playing speed), I am pleased to have the information in his letter; I still think it would have been desirable to include it in the liner notes. The other point is more complex. Rather than hearing, in the Columbia recording, notes that aren't there (that is, the arpeggiated figures), I was referring to the fourth beat chords that are there. For whatever reason, the first of these chords is not audible in the Klavier dubbing of the roll (the one I used for comparative listening, since the other one, correct speed or not, gives me the jitters)-but on checking I find that it's clearly present in the Mark 56 dubbing! (Whereas the opposite situation obtains with the second chord!) All of which leaves my faith in piano rolls even shakier than before. Given the fact that Mr. Kazdin has produced a mammoth--and honest--fake, I would not have minded had he doctored the roll a bit to produce the correct pitches for every one of these chords, instead of making do with the available notes from the "orchestral" part. It's hardly necessary to be excessively scrupulous about what is, after all, a technical-musical jeu d'esprit- in which connection I might add that I can hardly subscribe to the "ethical" objections I've heard raised against this recording. Fit ting the orchestral part to a piano roll may not be standard operating procedure, but I imagine that Mr. Thomas, in his regular work with orchestras, has more than once come up against a visiting celebrity pianist scarcely more flexible than a piano roll. Such concerto performances take place every week somewhere in the world, the only difference from the Columbia project being that the soloists appear to be still alive. Johnny Mercer Remembered Of the many concerts I have attended, none was more memorable than an afternoon at Town Hall when Johnny Mercer, accompanied by Jimmy Rowles, sang his own songs for more than two hours. Of the many magazine articles I have read, none was more memorable than Gene Lees's tribute [October] to this giant of popular song. Les Line, New York, N.Y. I just read "Greatness Was Too Easy" and had to tell you what a beautiful and moving tribute it was to a man I thoroughly ad mired and enjoyed over the years. Maybe Johnny wouldn't agree, but I thought he was a great singer. Dick Cushen, Lebanon, Tenn. I was saddened by the recent death of Johnny Mercer and peeved that most publications gave his passing such scant attention. That made the column about him by Gene Lees all the more gratifying. David C. MacKenzie, Tulsa, Okla. Toscanini and Philadelphia In 1967 B. H. Haggin wrote in HIGH FIDELITY that there were "historic great performances of great works with which Toscanini was identified that RCA could and should issue"-such as the 1940 broadcasts of Verdi's Requiem and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, which are "far greater (than the approved Requiem of 1951 and Missa of 1953) in the way Toscanini's 1941 Schubert Ninth with the [Philadelphia] Orchestra is greater than his 1953 performance with the NBC Symphony." And yet the public could get to hear these unique documents only through the record pirates. So now that one source of these performances is no longer in existence, I wonder how we will ever get to hear any of the great unissued broadcasts and concert recordings with not only the NBC Symphony, but also the Philharmonic and even the Vienna Philharmonic (from the 1937 Salzburg Festival performances of The Magic Flute, Falstaff, and Meister singer)-especially since RCA doesn't have permission to issue them. Not too long ago I was informed by John Pfeiffer of RCA that the company "does not have permission to issue recordings which neither Maestro Toscanini nor his heirs approved." Besides the 1940 Requiem and Missa, there are other great things such as the 1938 Brahms Third and Strauss Don Quixote (with Emanuel Feuermann); the 1939 Berlioz Harold (which Harris Goldsmith praised in these pages recently) and Mozart Prague; the 1940 Tchaikovsky Nut cracker Suite and Stravinsky Petrushka excerpts; the 1941 Strauss Heldenleben, Haydn No. 99, and Mozart Sinfonia Concertante K. 364; the 1942 Brahms Fourth; the 1943 Haydn Nos. 94 and 104 and Mozart Concerto K. 595 (with Horszowski); the 1944 Mozart No. 29 and Haydn No. 92-all extraordinary and historic musical performances. RCA has never issued them, even in the face of repeated pleas from music lovers; but now it seems that RCA could not release them even if it wanted to, because the Maestro's heirs are reported to have re acted with this attitude: "Why issue the Verdi Requiem of 1940, when there is al ready a Verdi Requiem?" If that is so--I would hope that it isn't--then why did they give RCA permission to issue the Philadelphia performances? Now that we finally have the Philadelphia recordings, RCA should turn to the matter of getting the permission of Toscanini's heirs to issue the great NBC Sym phony broadcasts. Donald B. Drewecki, Troy, N.Y. "Postscript" Postscripts To clarify a point raised in Conrad L. Osborne's "Postscript" on the 1941 Met Tristan recording [November] for the benefit of those benighted HIGH FIDELITY readers who don’t see Musical Newsletter, let me note that the passages inserted (from the 1940 broadcast) into this recording are as follows: Act II, Scene 2-after Tristan's entrance, from "Bist du mein?" to "O [Wonne der Seele]"; and in Brangane's Watch, from "[die den Schltifern Schlimmes] ahnt" through the bar before Isolde's "Lausch', Geliebter!" I am informed by Mr. Dario Soria. managing director of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, that these insertions, involving only a couple of minutes, had to be made in or der to replace dropped-out material in the 1941 broadcast, and that the booklets ac companying a second printing of the recording now in process will carry a note to that effect. For the incredible truth about Bodanzky's cuts in Tristan and other matters, however, your readers will have to consult my article in Musical Newsletter. David Hamilton, New York. N.Y. Conrad Osborne's review of the broadcast recording of Tristan und Isolde [October] deplores the Metropolitan Opera's "old" tradition of heavily cut Wagner productions. Far from being an "old" habit, most of those same cuts were being made in 1971 and 1973 while Leinsdorf was still the conductor. To distort Tristan by suppressing fifty or more pages seems unforgivable. Can anyone say when (if ever) New York audiences last heard a complete performance of this masterpiece? Nor is Tristan the only victim of the Met's scissors. Siegfried had five minutes eliminated from Act III in both 1972 and 1975. Perhaps there is a little hope. Critics such as Osborne seem to be having an effect: After being drubbed in the Times and by critics in several tour cities for last season's hatchet job on Die Meistersinger, the Met has announced that this season's performances will be the first uncut ones in the company's history. They should be billed as the Metropolitan premiere of the opera Wagner composed. James Bodge, Somerville, Mass. Yes, this season's early performances of Meistersinger were uncut-until opera house realities caught up, in the form of a time squeeze between the immovable 7:00 p.m. curtain (already moved up once, from the 7:15 starting time printed on the tickets) and the overtime witching hour of mid night. Small cuts were then re-introduced, but even so the resulting edition was one of the most nearly complete to be seen to day. Indeed, while Mr. Osborne's comments implied no description of post-1941 practice, the situation is surely improving. A five-minute cut in Siegfried, however annoying (and for so little time saved, why bother?), is minor compared to the treatment usually accorded the opera. And wit ness this season's Meistersinger, Lohengrin, and Walkurie. (At time of writing, Erich Leinsdorf reportedly planned to conduct the latter's late-January revival uncut.) Bernard Herrmann I would hate Royal S. Brown to go un thanked for his splendid interview with the late genius Bernard Herrmann [September]. In probing Herrmann on his working relationship with Alfred Hitchcock and in stimulating him to expand on his over-all theory of film music, Brown covered ground that most other interviewers skirted over. Craig Reardon, Redondo Beach, Fla. More on Avery Fisher Hall One sentence in Hans Fantel's "Back to Square One for Avery Fisher Hall" [October] requires amplification. Bass instruments gain augmentation through a wood floor that acts like the sounding box of stringed instruments, so acoustician Cyril Harris "will install a wooden floor to act as a transmission surface for low frequencies." Due to the lack of a proscenium arch and its attendant fire curtain in Phil harmonic Hall, the old floor was so fire proofed that it amounted to little less than marble. It was petrified wood; it should have been replaced before millions were spent and re-spent, and an auditorium gutted. William Allin Storrer Columbia, S.C. Replacement Styli I noticed in "News and Views" [October] that 1.0.1. is discontinuing production of special styli for playing old records. A source that I have used and can recommend is Expert Pickups Ltd. I purchased one of each of its elliptical diamonds, which I use in my Shure M-44 cartridge with a Lenco L-75 turntable. The results are excellent. Phillip Rochlin; Accokeek, Md. Expert Pickups is a worthy firm with a long standing reputation among collectors of antique records. But since it’s overseas and specializes in replacing the tips on existing stylus assemblies (rather than supplying complete assemblies). American collectors may find it somewhat less handy to deal with than 1.0.1. was. The prices we have seen run under $10 for conical tips and un der $15 for truncated elliptical or those for Edison Amberol cylinders; some complete assemblies do appear to be available at un der $25 with the truncated tip for Shure M 44 series pickups. These prices don’t include packing, postage, or bank clearance charges. Interested collectors can write to Expert Pickups Ltd. at P.O. Box No. 3, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 2QD, England. Correction The article "Ivan Berger Chooses a $1,000 System" [December] mentions the Hegeman H-1AV loudspeaker at $318 per pair. The Hegeman H-1AV is currently priced at $390 per pair. We would appreciate your calling this error to your readers' attention. Nanette Posner; Hegeman Laboratories, Inc. East Orange, N.J. --------- Agree with Us and Win a Free Subscription This month we present the first in a series of paintings representing the four eras in the 100-year history of recordings. The dominant image of the first painting is, of course, Thomas Edison, who invented the phono graph. The subsequent paintings deal with the acoustic era, the pre-LP electrical era, and the current era from the introduction of the LP to the present. Each painting will be organized around the central image of a person or persons whose achievement symbolized the era. The first ten readers who can correctly guess our choice of the dominating personalities of each of the forthcoming paintings will receive a free one-year subscription to HIGH FIDELITY/MUSICAL AMERICA, or a one year extension of a subscription. Since the next painting will appear in our April issue; submissions will have to be postmarked no later than March 1. In cases where more than a single personality is in the dominating position, correct identification of one will count as a winner. ------------------ ------------- (High Fidelity, Feb 1977) Also see: Varese in New York, Louise Varese; The Music of Edgard Varese, Robert P. Morgan
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