Record Quality: Another Slant
In response to John M. Dobson ["Letters," January], I am compelled to put in a word on behalf of Deutsche Grammophon. Living in nearby Lexington, Kentucky, Mr. Dobson probably receives records from the same distributor as I do in Cincinnati, and I must say my most recent DG purchases have been worthy of the company's fine reputation. In the last month I bought Karajan's Bruckner Eighth Symphony and Jochum's Die Meistersinger, and the pressings were uniformly marvelous. This is not to suggest that Mr. Dobson is incorrect, but merely to suggest that perhaps DG has re stored quality to its product.
It occurred to me that depreciation in recording quality in general has gone on far longer than a year. I'm referring not to pressings, but to musical sound. After having purchased London's new Solti Die Meistersinger as well as DG's version, I pulled out my Friedrich Schorr excerpts al bum on Seraphim to hear this music truly sung and was thunderstruck to find the sound on this antediluvian marvel superior in essential ways to both contemporary products. The Aahnmonolog in Schorr's recording is beautifully balanced, the voice incredibly true, and the orchestra--if not so resonant and refulgent as in the stereo records--is certainly more revealing of detail.
Instruments and voices have a reality of timbre lost on today's products. It is the difference between a faithful but faded photo graph and a brilliant but distorted cartoon.
It is with reluctance that I observe (and must accept) that as far as records are concerned, advancement has been strictly to the rear.
-Alan Klein; Cincinnati, Ohio
Paradox
There is before me a copy of the recording of Pierre Boulez conducting the Beethoven Symphony No. 5, which features in the interpretation of the third movement a repeat of the opening scherzo and trio. The notes on the back cover explain by quoting Mr. Boulez as stating, "I have a pupil who has... proved conclusively to me that it was just carelessness on Beethoven's part that the repeat marks got left out. I think the balance of the work is improved too, in practice." These same notes begin by declaring that "Boulez has been called 'a marvelous bundle of paradoxes.' " The paradox here consists in the fact that Boulez tries to "improve" the balance of the work by inserting a repeat in the third movement that Beethoven, through carelessness or otherwise, supposedly neglected to specify, and then neglects to observe a repeat in the last movement that Beethoven was careful to specify, thereby destroying the very balance he claims to be trying to improve.
-Samuel Schulze, Pickering, Ont.
Isle of the Dead
With regard to Abram Chipman's review [January], it is interesting to note the extent to which Rachmaninoff was "inspired" by Bocklin's The Isle of the Dead in composing his great symphonic poem. In fact he never saw the oil painting until after he had finished the score. He had seen only t small black-and-white sketch made afterward and did not like the big oil. "If I had seen the original first, I might not have composed my Isle of the Dead. I like the picture best in black and white," he remarked.
Also, in Rachmaninoff's account of the composing of this work, given to a Dutch journalist, there is no mention of Backlin's picture at all: "And they come: all voices at once. Not a bit here, a bit there. All. The whole grows. So Toteninsel. It was all done in April and May. When it came, how it began--how can I say? It came up within me, was entertained, written down."
-Noel Farrand Cation, N.M.
Judy Holliday
Gene Lees's exquisite article about Judy Holliday [January] was much appreciated. He expressed, much better than I could ever have, the sense of loss experienced by all of us who miss her.
-Richard Smith; Philadelphia, Pa.
Computerized Caruso
James Drake's article [October] and David Hamilton's review [November] concerning computerized Caruso were quite informative. In fact, I placed them inside the jacket of the recording along with the accompanying booklet.
My first impression on hearing the disc was that the sense of strain often noted in Caruso records--and in Madame Favia Artsay's book--was gone. Besides, the al most living presence of the voice sounded like some of the best Edisons of the period, which caught some great voices quite well.
In fact, Caruso sounds like a human being rather than a "singing god."
The process of Soundstream, Inc., is bound to revolutionize the reissue business, especially for the Golden Age collector.
-Luis Alvarado; Rio Piedras, P.R.
Sound Debate
I was chagrined to see ["Letters," November] that someone as eminent as John Culshaw would repeat a misapprehension that had, I thought, been buried some time during the New Deal. I refer to his astounding statement that "the words 'natural,' 'realistic,' and 'faithful' are meaningless" to high fidelity reproduction. Or should I just call it sound? It does not take a golden ear to hear what a limiter, or equalization, or multiple microphone techniques can do to a recording.
If Mr. Culshaw's ears are in such a sorry state that he can't hear the poor stereo image and flatness of a multi-miked recording, perhaps he should refer to the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, where more than one study has indicated that recordings made with various two-microphone techniques are almost universally preferred in every respect to those made with multiple pickups.
As to Mr. Culshaw's belief in the ascendancy of the artist during the mix, I have of ten heard singers overwhelming symphony orchestras, or woodwinds slowly climbing in level, and must sorrowfully conclude that Mr. Culshaw's statement is patent non sense. These things don't occur at the concerts I attend.
Please, Mr. Culshaw, and all you other engineers--listen to what a pair of cardioids and a two-track can do, and then be glad that expensive consoles can be retired to pop. We will all benefit.
- Joshua Hill; New York, N.Y.
Blitzstein Recording
It seems that it took quite a while for Columbia to get its recording of Blitzstein's The Airborne Symphony [January] off the ground. Although reviewer Irving Lowens refers to it as "newly recorded," I have be fore me a copy of the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Opera News, dated January 21, 1967, in which it is stated: "Andrea Velis has recorded Marc Blitzstein's symphony The Airborne with the N.Y. Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Bernstein for Columbia, a result of the success of their performance of the work last October."
- W. J. Healey; Los Angeles, Calif.
Though the music portion of the album was indeed recorded in 1967, Orson Welles's narration was just recently recorded and the complete album released. It seems that it took nine years to find a time in Mr. Ihelles's busy schedule when he could do the narration.
Iris
Why don't your reviewers start urging a recording of Pietro Mascagni's Iris? The music has to be heard to be believed-gusty, vividly colored and exciting, with magnificent choruses and thoroughly effective arias. Admittedly, the plot's a little static, but this wouldn't matter on records and the music would amply compensate for it.
As the lead, let's have Magda Olivero, who has sung the role in Italy. If she isn't available, Josella Ligi would do it with precisely the verismo qualities needed. Considering how rapaciously hungry both the public and the recording companies are for exciting rediscoveries, a well-presented version of Iris couldn't help but sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
- Jordan G. Lee; San Francisco, Calif.
Early Music Quartet
In her November review, Susan T. Sommer states that she is a fan of Thomas Binkley's Early Music Quartet. If so, she should have checked her record collection before writing the review of the EMQ's latest release, which was not "assembled in house from bits and pieces of old European releases." Rather, the material under discussion was taken completely from two single discs that have been available in the U.S. for at least five years. The recordings were originally issued by Telefunken as SAWT 9432-B and SAWT 9466-B, and are currently in the domestic catalogs as 6.41053 and 6.41068, respectively.
-Robert W. Schirmer; Stow, Ohio
Ms. Sommer replies: Available or not (and these particular discs have not come to my attention), the point that Telefunken's latest collection is a hodgepodge still holds.
Hinkley himself has complained that companies release selections without acknowledging it and that the final arrangement is not necessarily the program envisioned by the original artists.
More on Dohnanyi
Bravo to Alex Hassan for his appeal for more Dohnanyi recordings ["Letters," December]. With the advent of Vox Boxes and the marathon race to get so many composers' complete oeuvre on disc, Dohnanyi has been overlooked in preference to some composers of lesser stature.
For some months I have been aware of the approaching Dohnanyi centennial and, like Mr. Hassan, was appalled that there was only one recording of his works listed in this year's forecast. I immediately wrote Columbia and asked if it might not include in its many Odyssey reissues one disc of the several historical performances in its vaults. I doubt that my single letter is enough to persuade Columbia, but more letters from interested readers might do the trick.
George I. Mintz; Gainesville, Ga.
... and Havergal Brian
H. Jack Adams is doing Havergal Brian a disservice by recommending the Gothic Symphony on Arieg ["Letters," December].
This is a pirate issue of Sir Adrian Boult's 1969 performance; the recording sounds as if it were made on a $19.95 cassette recorder in the top balcony of the Albert Hall. Some of the sense of the music comes through, but not very much; the huge orchestra and chorus in the Te Deum finale are lost in the mush.
There are three recommendable English releases: amateur but surprisingly good performances of the excellent Tenth Symphony and less interesting Twenty-first (Unicorn RHS 313); of the short Twenty second, an early Psalm setting, and the late English Suite, No. 5 (CBS Classics 61612);
and, best yet, superb readings of the Sixth (Sinfonia Trogica) and Sixteenth Sym phonies. two of Brian's finest works, on Lyrita SRCS 67, by the London Philharmonic under Myer Fredman. I hope that MHS will release the Lyrita; it is the best introduction available to Brian's exasperating but powerful symphonies.
-Michael Steinberg; Ontario, Canada
Benson's engineer
Somewhere between the typewriter and the printed page, both the name and the special significance of engineer Al Schmitt were omitted from my story about George Benson (BACKBEAT, February). I'd like to make amends by quoting producer Tommy Li-Puma on Schmitt's role in the creation of Benson's enormously successful albums for Warner Bros.: "Without Al, it just would never have happened."
-Don Heckman; Encino, Calif.
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(High Fidelity, Apr. 1977)
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