New Releases

[staxomega]

New Dinu Lipatti reissue: (would have loved for the EMI recordings in superior transfers)



ClassicsToday has a review, but behind a paywall.

[Que]

New Dinu Lipatti reissue: (would have loved for the EMI recordings in superior transfers)



ClassicsToday has a review, but behind a paywall.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jun/Lipatti_Columbia_6032.htm

[71 dB]

Depending on the sampling rate of the master recording, SACDs can potentially offer a higher sampling rate for playback than CDs. 24/96 is common now, as opposed to the old 16/44.1 sampling rate, but it has to be downsampled for CD release. Some companies use 24/192, and a few record natively in DSD, usually at 64x the resolution of PCM--none of those sampling rates require downsampling for SACD releases. I believe 64x is the limit for an SACD, but hi-res files have resolution up to 512x that of a CD! (Assuming it was recorded at that resolution and not simply upsampled.)

You can't compare bitstream sampling rates to PCM sampling rates like that because they work differently. When your bit depth is only 1 instead of 16, you need huge sampling rate. Also, Native DSD is a myth. You can't modify 1 bit stream (but there is a way to work with 8 bit DSD) so it has to be converted to PCM, then mixed/mastered  and then converted back to DSD. This would be ok, but you can't dither DSD properly meaning you have massive distortion in the DSD, luckily far in the ultrasonic region so that it's not audible, but the point is DSD does not offer any sonic benefits compared to PCM, nor does 44.1/16 even need any improvements in consumer audio to begin with. Especially higher bit depths is a thing of music production where it is very beneficial, but consumers don't need more than 44.1/16. In fact about 13 bits would be enough. That's about 20 dB more dynamic range than vinyl offers at best.

44.1 kHz sampling rate offers just enough bandwidth to human ears. Children can hear up to 20 kHz. Middle age adults maybe to 16-17 kHz and older people even less. The 20 kHz bandwidth 44.1 kHz sampling rate is enough. Theoretically a sampling rate of about 60 kHz would be optimum making anti-alias and reconstruction filters easier to implement, but anything above that is overkill. 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz sampling rates are the highest making any sense and 192 kHz not to mention 384 kHz is complete madness in audio. Maybe those are useful in recording and analysing the sounds of bats, but that's it. Bigger numbers sell when people don't know anything and don't understand digital audio.

Because of bit depth being only 1 in DSD, DSD64 is 64/16 = 4 times the "resolution" of CD while DSD512 = 32 times the "resolution" of CD. However, this differency in "resolution" doesn't offer any benefits in consumer music nor is there a reason to even have an improvement over 44.1/16 in consumer audio. For this reason a lot of people working in the business use 44.1 kHz sampling rate when producing music, and 48 kHz samping rate when producing video sound and higher sampling rates only when clients ask for it to be able to sell high-res versions to audiophoois.

[Kontrapunctus]

You can't compare bitstream sampling rates to PCM sampling rates like that because they work differently. When your bit depth is only 1 instead of 16, you need huge sampling rate. Also, Native DSD is a myth. You can't modify 1 bit stream (but there is a way to work with 8 bit DSD) so it has to be converted to PCM, then mixed/mastered  and then converted back to DSD. This would be ok, but you can't dither DSD properly meaning you have massive distortion in the DSD, luckily far in the ultrasonic region so that it's not audible, but the point is DSD does not offer any sonic benefits compared to PCM, nor does 44.1/16 even need any improvements in consumer audio to begin with. Especially higher bit depths is a thing of music production where it is very beneficial, but consumers don't need more than 44.1/16. In fact about 13 bits would be enough. That's about 20 dB more dynamic range than vinyl offers at best.

44.1 kHz sampling rate offers just enough bandwidth to human ears. Children can hear up to 20 kHz. Middle age adults maybe to 16-17 kHz and older people even less. The 20 kHz bandwidth 44.1 kHz sampling rate is enough. Theoretically a sampling rate of about 60 kHz would be optimum making anti-alias and reconstruction filters easier to implement, but anything above that is overkill. 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz sampling rates are the highest making any sense and 192 kHz not to mention 384 kHz is complete madness in audio. Maybe those are useful in recording and analysing the sounds of bats, but that's it. Bigger numbers sell when people don't know anything and don't understand digital audio.

Because of bit depth being only 1 in DSD, DSD64 is 64/16 = 4 times the "resolution" of CD while DSD512 = 32 times the "resolution" of CD. However, this differency in "resolution" doesn't offer any benefits in consumer music nor is there a reason to even have an improvement over 44.1/16 in consumer audio. For this reason a lot of people working in the business use 44.1 kHz sampling rate when producing music, and 48 kHz samping rate when producing video sound and higher sampling rates only when clients ask for it to be able to sell high-res versions to audiophoois.

You have your opinions and I have mine. DSD and higher sampling rates with PCM sound better to me, and that's all that matters.

[Todd]

Two recordings are included, one live and one studio.



I don't think I'll be able to not buy.

[Brian]

They're really inviting the joke that all the colorful Telemann fits handily on one disc.

[BeoQuartet]

Recently composed and released, Breathe. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pqi_YR03qA

[T. D.]

Maybe not "new" but recent. "Modern and electro-acoustic works for harpsichord". A bit surprising for Hyperion?

[Mirror Image]

Recently composed and released, Breathe. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pqi_YR03qA

[Mirror Image]

Maybe not "new" but recent. "Modern and electro-acoustic works for harpsichord". A bit surprising for Hyperion?

Yes, quite surprising, indeed, especially given the label's catalog. They seem to be branching out into late 20th Century and 21st Century composers as one of their last releases was orchestral works from James MacMillan.

[T. D.]

Yes, quite surprising, indeed, especially given the label's catalog. They seem to be branching out into late 20th Century and 21st Century composers as one of their last releases was orchestral works from James MacMillan.

Even stranger, I found about this via BRO (link in their weekly e-mail list). Berkshire has it catalogued as a "new release", which seems accurate.
I knew BRO had a good relationship with Hyperion (hint, it's a great source for Renaissance polyphony recordings), but never dreamed it went as far as new issues.
[Disclosure: I'm unlikely to purchase this. I have a taste for the modern / offbeat but listen to relatively few harpsichord recordings.]

[vandermolen]

VW and Elgar:

[Mirror Image]

Even stranger, I found about this via BRO (link in their weekly e-mail list). Berkshire has it catalogued as a "new release", which seems accurate.
I knew BRO had a good relationship with Hyperion (hint, it's a great source for Renaissance polyphony recordings), but never dreamed it went as far as new issues.
[Disclosure: I'm unlikely to purchase this. I have a taste for the modern / offbeat but listen to relatively few harpsichord recordings.]

I've never used Berkshire before, I might need to check them out at some point.

[Brian]

Hot hot AUGUST intel



The Oswald + Saint-Saens also includes an orchestral "Suita antiga" by Alberto Nepomuceno.



Smetana Quartet's complete Beethoven cycle recorded for Nippon Columbia and here "the very first release beyond Japan." I imagine this will be mandatory shopping for many Beethovenphiles here!



"An Australian who studied early music, harpsichord and fortepiano in New York, Anthony Romaniuk also has a passion for improvisation, independent rock and electronic music. This musical polyglot collaborates regularly with the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the vocal ensemble Vox Luminis, the tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and the cellist Pieter Wispelwey. For his first solo album, he has spent ten years exploring almost ten centuries of music, which he has decided to play on four different keyboards: harpsichord, fortepiano, piano and Fender Rhodes. Fascinated by low sustained notes (known as 'pedal points', the descendants of drones) – hence the title Bells – Anthony Romaniuk exceeds the boundaries of classical orthodoxy, ranging from Mozart to Crumb."





"After his move to Moscow in 1943, Weinberg had to face widespread anti-Semitism, both among the population and on the part of politicians. Perhaps for this very reason, he composed the opera Congratulations! especially for the discerning entertainment and edification of the Jewish community in Moscow in the mid-1970s. It is a work full of Jewish topoi that at the same time disguises itself as being Socialist (here, the 'rich people' are clearly identified as the enemies and suppressors, and they must be disempowered) – probably because there would otherwise not have been any chance of performing it in Russia. The original text for the opera, to which Weinberg himself made only few amendments, derives from the 'Jewish Mark Twain', from Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916). Today, we are familiar with Aleichem mainly from his short story Tevye the Dairyman, which later provided the material for the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The Kammerakademie Potsdam under Vlademir Stoupel performed the Version for Chamber ensemble by Henry Koch live from the Konzerthaus Berlin."



"Opera Omaha presents Missy Mazzoli's opera Proving Up (2018) in its premiere recording with the International Contemporary Ensemble and conductor Christopher Rountree and soloists. Crowned as "Brooklyn's post-millennial Mozart" by Time Out New York, Mazzoli is one of today's most exciting young composers. Her music is state of the art, frequently employing electronics, but simultaneously full of nostalgia and melancholy. Mazzoli has received considerable acclaim for her operatic compositions, including Breaking the Waves (2016) and Song from the Uproar (2012). For Proving Up, she works together with librettist Royce Vavrek. Proving Up is based on a short story by Karen Russell, and offers a surreal and disquieting commentary on the American dream through the story of a Nebraskan family homesteading in the late 19th century. Commissioned by the Washington National Opera, the Columbia University Miller Theatre, and Opera Omaha, the piece has been receiving rave reviews, and will be presented in several of the biggest US opera houses in the coming years. The Washington Post called it "harrowing...powerful...a true opera of our time"."

[T. D.]

I've never used Berkshire before, I might need to check them out at some point.

Berkshire [large cutout / overstock dealer] is not what it used to be*, but is worth perusing occasionally. I have a decent wish list saved, including some DVDs. Often a good source for 20th century American composers, e.g. CRI in days of yore and Troy/Albany.

*At one time they dominated the US market for Brilliant Classics releases, but those days appear gone. And BRO's business has surely been hurt by the "major label" conglomerates releasing mega-boxes at a dollar or 2 per CD.

[Mirror Image]

Berkshire [large cutout / overstock dealer] is not what it used to be*, but is worth perusing occasionally. I have a decent wish list saved, including some DVDs. Often a good source for 20th century American composers, e.g. CRI in days of yore and Troy/Albany.

*At one time they dominated the US market for Brilliant Classics releases, but those days appear gone. And BRO's business has surely been hurt by the "major label" conglomerates releasing mega-boxes at a dollar or 2 per CD.

To the bolded text, you said a mouthful there. Nobody knows whether the music industry, in particular the classical music industry, will be able to sustain itself during our current crisis.

[Brian]

The bolded text just means BRO was a really great place to grab Brilliant Classics releases, that's all.

[JBS]

This from Brian's list shouldn't go unremarked. Their previous CDs have been excellent.

[Mirror Image]

The bolded text just means BRO was a really great place to grab Brilliant Classics releases, that's all.

I know and I purposely took that phrase out-of-context and spun it in a different direction.

[T. D.]

I know and I purposely took that phrase out-of-context and spun it in a different direction.

OK by me. I happen to be bearish on the prospects for classical recordings, perhaps recordings in general, but that's a topic for some other thread...