New Releases

[North Star]

A recent Zelenka boxset exclusive to JPC :

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/jan-dismas-zelenka-jan-dismas-zelenka-supraphon-recordings/hnum/8802669

That is a temptation.

[Brian]

That Zelenka box looks humongous for being 10 CDs. I guess the "exclusive" is a paper slipcover over the 10 jewel cases, and a discounted price?

[North Star]

That Zelenka box looks humongous for being 10 CDs. I guess the "exclusive" is a paper slipcover over the 10 jewel cases, and a discounted price?

True - space-saving it is not.

[Todd]

[JBS]

That Berlioz must be the next installment of HM's series of "stuff recorded using cool instruments from the Museums of Paris".

That 1001 Nights in the Harem is all Say the composer, and not Say the pianist?

[Todd]

That 1001 Nights in the Harem is all Say the composer, and not Say the pianist?

Yep.  Based on the few other compositions I've heard, it could be a treat.

[Brian]

1001 Nights is a kick-ass concerto - there is already a CD with Kopatchinskaja. I might have to buy this for my Turkish mother, as one of her favorite old folk songs gets a very big, memorable quote in the middle of the piece.

[JBS]

1001 Nights is a kick-ass concerto - there is already a CD with Kopatchinskaja. I might have to buy this for my Turkish mother, as one of her favorite old folk songs gets a very big, memorable quote in the middle of the piece.

Indeed?  Goes looking.....

[Alek Hidell]

Let's hope this isn't quite the final final cover. "Marzurkas"? 

[Todd]

Let's hope this isn't quite the final final cover. "Marzurkas"? 

Spell chekc is hard to use.

[Mandryka]

I like Le Concert Brisé a lot, and this new recording is for me a pleasure to listen to. The booklet contains an excellent essay on improvised figuration and on articulation in C16 music. The music is outstanding, top composers.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Here's a question.

Recently Universal has been doing these CD+Blue Ray sets, like this one:

[asin]B07G2PK4RH[/asin]

The Blue Ray disc contains a new 24-bit, 96 kHz master. Are the CDs the same old masters they've been selling for years, or are the CDs based on the new master that was made for the Blue Ray disc? Information of the DG web site only brags about the Blue Ray master, no mention of the CDs.

Can anyone say for this (or one of the similar releases) whether the CDs are derived from the new master, or just the old discs repackaged?

Also, is it possible to rip a Blue Ray disc to a lossless audio file (FLAC)?

[André]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between a blu-ray cd and the conventional cd ? Any need for additional equipment ?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Blue Ray pure audio is a high resolution video format where they have left out the video and only put audio. CD only supports 44.1 kHz 16 bit stereo but blue ray supports high resolution and surround sound. It also has at least 20 times the data capacity, so you can fit many CDs worth of audio one one disc. You need a blue ray player, which reads with a blue laser instead of IR.

[Daverz]

Here's a question.

Recently Universal has been doing these CD+Blue Ray sets, like this one:

[asin]B07G2PK4RH[/asin]

The Blue Ray disc contains a new 24-bit, 96 kHz master. Are the CDs the same old masters they've been selling for years, or are the CDs based on the new master that was made for the Blue Ray disc? Information of the DG web site only brags about the Blue Ray master, no mention of the CDs.

Can anyone say for this (or one of the similar releases) whether the CDs are derived from the new master, or just the old discs repackaged?

Also, is it possible to rip a Blue Ray disc to a lossless audio file (FLAC)?

I found this: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/Ripping-Blu-ray-The-Easy-Way/

I would assume the CDs in the set above are down-sampled from the same master as the blu-ray files.

There are already 24/96 FLACs of this cycle from 2015, but I don't know whether the blu-ray release makes available these previous remasters or whether the blu-ray is an entirely new remastering.

2015 hi-res files:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8079268--mahler-10-symphonies

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I found this: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/Ripping-Blu-ray-The-Easy-Way/

I would assume the CDs in the set above are down-sampled from the same master as the blu-ray files.

There are already 24/96 FLACs of this cycle from 2015, but I don't know whether the blu-ray release makes available these previous remasters or whether the blu-ray is an entirely new remastering.

2015 hi-res files:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8079268--mahler-10-symphonies

Yes, I would have thought, but when I read the web site copy carefully, the description is worded in a way that makes no implication that the CD masters are new. I also noticed that they list the contents of the 10 CDs, and the contents of the 11th Blue Ray disc, and the timing of the individual movements is different in the CD version and Blue Ray version (typically a discrepancy of a few seconds). That suggests to me that it is not the same master. (Either there was a slight discrepancy in tape speed or they trimmed the margins a little differently each time.)

I saw the presto download. I have no use for 24 bit 96 kHz audio, but I am left with the same question. Is the 44.1 kHz 16 bit FLAC derived from the new 96 kHz 24 bit master or is it from the original CDs that were mastered in the bad old days (1988 or so). I don't want to pay through the nose for Hi Res if the Red Book master is derived from it, and I don't want to download no 1988 CD images.

And by the way, that 2015 release that the Hi-Res is based on was an LP only release, no CD version. The Vinyl release doesn't even appear on DG's own web site. For all I know even the 44.1/16 FLAC files that Presto is selling with that release are from the 1988 master.

The bottom line. I ain't buying nothin'. Why can't these idiots just say what they are selling?

[Daverz]

I'll leave this here for informational purposes only:

http://mqs.link/gustav-mahler-10-symphonien-symphonieorchester-des-bayerischen-rundfunks-rafael-kubelik-2015-acousticsounds-flac-24bit96khz/

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Too much of a viro-phobe to go there. Maybe I will download just the 9th symphony in Hi-Res and see if it sounds any different than the original Red Book version I have.

I also sent an email to Presto to see if they can clarify their sources.

[71 dB]

Be sceptical about "new hi-res remasters" of half a century old recordings. There's not much one can do to the sound quality in remastering. In pop music maybe, but classical music is puristic. What can you really do? Not much. Record labels want us to buy the old recordings over and over again and fancy technical terms work on people who don't have proper knowledge for technical scepticism.

Blue Ray pure audio is...

Blu-ray, not Blue Ray, Blu Ray, Blue-ray etc.  0:)

[Madiel]

Why can't these idiots just say what they are selling?

Because they're not in fact fools and are hoping to fool you.

Or to put it in a less nefarious way, they are focused on selling and on PR. Facts are not, on the whole, exciting selling points.