[Scotlynn]

Some early morning wake up:

[Randy]

Today?? It had to be 85 degrees in Houston today.  I pulled my copy out last week when it was cold and windy and grey.  It's my favorite of all of the Vaughn Williams that I own. By the way, I was just reading today about the Scott Expedition.  At the last camp he still had a box of fossil ferns with him.  A proper explorer/scientist to the bitter end.

Scott was a bungler of the worse sort whose incompetent leadership and planning led to his death and the deaths of his four companions. His "scientific" and geographic "discoveries" proved to be worthless and second hand. The most experienced members of his last expedition, Mears,  Evans, geologist Taylor and Boer War veteran Capt. Oates quickly became aware of his incompetence and held him in complete contempt.

[S Clark]

The only point I was making was that he still had his fossils with him at the end (perhaps foolishly, but he recognized their value).  Actually, at the time, the ferns would have added to the understanding of Antarctica paleobotany and the nature of Pangea (which wasn't proposed until the 1920's).  Good scientist, poor leader.  At least he inspired a nice piece of music.   

[Randy]

The only point I was making was that he still had his fossils with him at the end (perhaps foolishly, but he recognized their value).  Actually, at the time, the ferns would have added to the understanding of Antarctica paleobotany and the nature of Pangea (which wasn't proposed until the 1920's).  Good scientist, poor leader.  At least he inspired a nice piece of music.

Point taken, but he wasn't a scientist. Scott saved his reputation among the Brits with his literary skill. He should have been an author, not a naval officer. His crony Wilson was lead "scientist" but he was a medical doctor.  The most valuable geological work done on the expedition came from Taylor and Wright.  Scott was a failure, while Vaughn-Williams was a true hero and veteran of WW I.  My favorite of his symphonies is the 6th.

[S Clark]

Randy, what can I say... you're absolutely right about Scott's lack of science credentials. Wilson gathered the fern fossils. Although he was a doctor, he was thoroughly qualified, taking degrees in science from both Oxford and Cambridge.  He was more of a natural historian and illustrator.  The ferns were cited later in discussions on continental drift.
Enough on the South Pole.  It's warm today.  I need to get back to the garage and make more sawdust--- making my daughter a pair of X-Statik speakers that will be part of a system I'm building as a wedding present. 

However, I'll take out my set of Vaughn Williams symphonies later today and give the 6th a listen.  I don't think I've ever played it. 

[kernelbob]

I just picked up this new release of the Furtwangler 1942 live performance of the Bruckner Symphony #5.  I've tried several releases of this recording on various labels, but this one on Testament (SBT-1466) is the only one that was sourced from the original master tapes.  The quality of the sound is much improved over the others I've tried.  One of my favorite Bruckner performances.

[Randy]

Randy, what can I say... you're absolutely right about Scott's lack of science credentials. Wilson gathered the fern fossils. Although he was a doctor, he was thoroughly qualified, taking degrees in science from both Oxford and Cambridge.  He was more of a natural historian and illustrator.  The ferns were cited later in discussions on continental drift.
Enough on the South Pole.  It's warm today.  I need to get back to the garage and make more sawdust--- making my daughter a pair of X-Statik speakers that will be part of a system I'm building as a wedding present. 

However, I'll take out my set of Vaughn Williams symphonies later today and give the 6th a listen.  I don't think I've ever played it.

Dr. Wilson was a good guy and the psychological leader of the expedition. All the younger men looked up to him since Scott was an unreasonable martinet. Despite their later writings, few of them had much respect for Scott. They had to support "the show" for jolly old England, so remained mum about their true feelings about Scott. A few of the very youngest and inexperienced (Cherry-Garrard for one, Ponting the photographer for another), were too unaware and naive to know the difference.  Oates's mother destroyed some of the captain's letters they were so inflammatory toward Scott. The ones that she kept are bad enough. See, you hit a sore spot with me.

Sounds like you have a great speaker project going.

Let us know how you like the Vaughn-Williams Sixth.

[jimdgoulding]

Allan Pettersson- Sym no.8  (DG);  Ralph Vaughn Williams- Sinfonia Antartica (Angel).

The Pettersson is somber but involving.  The RVW is distant and more exclusive of me.  Not to difficult to imagine why.

[rockadanny]

Kicked off my morning drive to work with ...



Helps me avoid road rage

[rockadanny]

[rockadanny]

[rockadanny]

[S Clark]

Great sound on an early Belock Everest recording.  Prokofiev's 5th sym w/ Malcolm Sargent and the London Sym. Orch. on a mono recording.  Everest was ahead of the major labels for awhile using 35mm magnetic film for their masters.  1960 release.

[S Clark]

Listening to Sir Adrian Boult conducting the London Philharmonic playing Prokofiev's "Love of Three Oranges"
Nice performance with great dynamics.

[S Clark]

"Nights in the Gardens of Spain" by Falla with Martinon conducting.  An old Epic recording from 1955.  A NM copy with very good detail, lacking a bit of bass.  But a very good reading of a classic. 
Epic LC 3305

[steve in jersey]

In the past Year & a half (or as long as 2 years) I've managed to buy The RCA Living Stereo, the Mecury Living
Presence & the Decca Sound, CD box sets . I made certain that the same remastered versions that were done
for CD layer of the recent SACDs of the RCA & Mecury series were the masters used for these boxed sets . Most of the early Decca releases never saw their day to become SACDs, but I remembered how exception they sounded as their SXL vinyl versions  & took the chance that they would'nt screw up their sound as they always
did when they first released them in digital. I need'nt have worry about the Decca set as this time none of the
processes that Decca (& EMI also) used to ruin the natural ambience on these recordings was used this time
around.

My initial impression of all 3 sets was very favorable ,all three sets were ripped to hard drive using dBPa to accomplish this. These discs are exceptional sounding when played as music files from a hard drive through
my digital file player a bit more relaxed & open sounding than they sound as CDs played through an optical
player as do the the rips of similar label discs like Lyrita. Some of the Lyrita rips are just mind blowing in their
Lush sounding clear orchestral texture with distinct percussion sound. I was reminded of my Lyrita music when
I saw the Decca album cover with Boult & the London Phil. on the cover. Boult & the LPO did a number of recording on Lyrita ( I think Ken Wilkinson may have work on some of these releases also)

I reallly hope more of these Analog releases find their way to being remastered as DSD as the RCA & Mercury catalogs have. There are any number of great Decca, EMI & Lyrita Analog recording that are every bit as good as the American labels I mentioned. They should be released as digital files this time as playing discs is'nt the way things are progressing & there any number of ways to play digital files these days .

To be truthful I can't think of much really well recorded Modern Orchestal recordings being done these days other than Channel Classics that I find worth looking for. The orchestral recording perspective is just from too
far back in the hall to capture the stage placement relationships between the various sections of the orchestra when they recorded the playing from a closer location to the stage. For non-live recordings I really can't see how there is any excuse to capture a closer recording perspective

[steve in jersey]

Ok, I'm listening to the RCA recording of the Chopin Piano Concerto #1 w/ Artur Rubinstein , I love this recording but there has always been something that bothered me slightly that I could never put my finger. on

After the orchestra plays the short intro ,it seems to me that the opening chord that Rubinstein plays is a bit flat, but if you keep listening long enough you notice the pitch of the piano notes & the orchestral have intermittent momentary pitch variances.

I think the Open Reel machine was having some problems maintaining 30ips , fortunately Rubinstein's playing so beautiful you just stop listening for the pitch discrepencies (well as much as can anyway; I became ruined forever after spending countless hours in a piano rebuilder's  workshop . I too often find myself listening for the little flaws that the instruments can display when played. Cracked hammer shafts, clicking phalanges,mushy Hammer felts & the worst of all "beats" . This is when you can hear the sound of the out of unison piano strings as the player moves up the register & plays notes that use multiple strings. The beats speed up or slowdown as you turn the pin hammer & then disappear when the strings are back in unison. When you hear Honky Tonk piano you're hearing a piano that has'nt had the out of unison strings tuned.

That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about pianos. Now that you know some of these things
you can torture yourself a bit also, !!!

[jimdgoulding]

Steve in jersey, does not advancing the volume control change the perspective for you?   As if you've moved from, say, row R to row F in a hall?  It should IME with speakers positioned with regard for early room reflection. 

[steve in jersey]

Steve in jersey, does not advancing the volume control change the perspective for you?   As if you've moved from, say, row R to row F in a hall?  It should IME with speakers positioned with regard for early room reflection.

Jim,  pleasure to meet you (I can't recall if we've ever spoken before,regardless of that, greetings!)

The listening perspective I'm talking about has more to do with how soon reflected sound from the entire orchestra is affecting your ability to hear the where the players (or sections) within the orchestra are seated
on stage in relationship to other players on stage . This section sounds like they're seated on the front right side of the stage ,but when another instrument start playing it sounds like they sitting closer toward the
center of the stage & further back on the stage. This is what we know as "Soundstaging".

Sound reflections really mess with how "holographic" a soundstage can sound. It may come down to what
was the sound the producers were looking for. It appears that the modern producers have a preference
for capturing a "Large airy deep hall sound" over a more intimate sound that allows you hear further
into the "interplay" that occurs in the playing of the composition of the music.

There are so many variables at work here as the recording techniques used where totally different as is all
the associated equipment that was used. I do believe that how things are chosen to be recorded plays the biggest role in how they end up sounding.

Turning up the volume only makes it easier for me to hear what the record producer intended that I be
hearing it really will have a minimal effect on the sound as it was recorded. The crazy thing is neither recording
approach is more correct than the other as our "aural" memory of how we hear things is erased with every time we hear any new sound we hear

You can think "this is what I thought I heard", but in truth knowing can never be a certainty (which is what people say about me all the time & they would be right. I have a credo I live by "I've forgotten more than I'll
ever know") Have a great afternoon (was going to say morning but with how slow I type that's out of the
picture. Please excuse any missed words or misspellings as that came off the table also)

[jimdgoulding]

"The orchestral recording perspective is just from too far back in the hall to capture the stage placement relationships between the various sections of the orchestra when they recorded the playing from a closer location to the stage. For non-live recordings I really can't see how there is any excuse to capture a closer recording perspective."

Hi, Steve.  The paragraph above is what I was responding to in particular.  Judicious use our volume controls to give us in-the-hall realism is something underappreciated every now and then.  That doesn't appear to be the case with you.  Nor does having your speakers too close to adjacent walls.  In my situation, raising the volume control brings players in an orchestra nearer to me and makes the orchestra broader but at some cost to the acoustic of the venue.  I listened to something last night where with moderate volume there was the sense of air and space even in front of the instruments.  The perception of the hall in addition to the stage was made more vivid.  The size of instruments was reduced, however.  Small price to pay if you ask me.  If on the other hand I'm listening to chamber music, I may advance the volume and the presence of players is more as tho I am sitting in a courtyard or parlor with them.  The "experience" is nearer and more there-there.

I have a pal with a system to die for- believe me when I say I want his vintage Citation amp and K&K phono pre- but he listens to everything at the same volume level.  His trip is detail and he puts it in your face with loudness to everything.  I don't think that serves a recording nor the music well a lot of the time.  The volume control is our usher.