CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: knerian on January 30, 2015, 09:16:59 AM
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Anyone know which labels have good recordings? Doesn't have to be dedication to fidelity like Water Lily Acoustics, but just in general any reccos for labels known for paying attention to good sound.
How is Teldec? I am going to get the Harnoncourt Bruckner 8th and would like to hear thunderous brass.
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The Bruckner symphony cycle by Eugin Jochum on DG is phenomenal. Jochum shared some similarities in his life with Bruckner (both organists from similar Austrian Catholic upbringings, for example) and he really seems to get what Bruckner was trying to say. There's a real life to the music. I'd say the recordings are very good as well. I seem to remember a friend saying that there was a solo cd of the 8th with Jochum which wasn't quite as good as the one in the cycle, but that was just his opinion.
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Many of the old RCA Living Stereo releases (Reiner/CSO) still hold up. Some of Decca's records, especially anything recorded at The Maltings, Snape (Britten, cond.); many Solti recordings too. In early digital, DG has the edge: e.g., Mutter's Bach and Perlman's Sibelius.
But, honestly, sound quality is nowhere near so important as interpretive ability: Furtwängler's Bruckner will beat anyone's.
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Mercury
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Yep, Jochum has quite a few, his cycle(s) are legendary. IN fact I've been listening to his 5th recently, the one on DG. Great sound and it's like 50 years ago.
And Solti's 8th with Chicago was my standby for many years, just to hear the famous Chicago trombones blast it out in the opening of the 4th mvt. I still have that CD (somewhere) but never transferred it to my computer, thanks for reminding me!!
I've been listening to the Chailly cycle lately, I know recording quality is not the most important, but damn the brass sound amazing coming out of planars. Who cares about interpretation when you've got brass causing your ears to bleed.
And I hear ya Claritas, Furtwangler is great, there are quite a few of his 8th's out there, I have a few on CD I haven't listened to in a long time. But it was such a revelation to hear him the first time, to hear him be so organic with the tempo and basically just build up to the climax at a frenzy tempo-wise, Bruckner is usually played like Bach in that respect. I have that recent RCA living stereo set, Ive only listened to a few CDs though.
Anyways thanks for the suggestions, but I'm also looking for specifically good sound, recent labels. Maybe it doesn't matter. I was shocked to listen to to some 60's stuff (any label, EMI, Decca, etc) and find the sound pretty damn amazing.
In case you haven't figured it out, my handle is short for Brucknerian.
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Speaking of which, I do like Solti's Mahler/CSO/Decca cycle for it's sound, it's so clean and clear, but not necessarily his interpretation. But in general I'm not super discerning and don't get grossed out by certain interpretations the way some can, after all they really are about 90% the same. :)p17
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Aside from the obvious Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Telarc, RCA Living Stereo, I like a lot of BIS releases. Also recently discovered Pentatone, Teldec, DUX for a lot of Polish stuff, Caro Mitis. For real audiophiley stuff try 2L (Linberg Lyd), Linn, Reference Recordings.
Cool trick if you have Spotify: search for label:"Label name" to find all the releases from a given label that are available. You can also include it along with artist or composition names to narrow things down.
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For big names I somehow prefer EMI.
Testament also has some recordings I like very much.
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Aside from the obvious Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Telarc, RCA Living Stereo, I like a lot of BIS releases. Also recently discovered Pentatone, Teldec, DUX for a lot of Polish stuff, Caro Mitis. For real audiophiley stuff try 2L (Linberg Lyd), Linn, Reference Recordings.
Cool trick if you have Spotify: search for label:"Label name" to find all the releases from a given label that are available. You can also include it along with artist or composition names to narrow things down.
RCA is long gone from the classical business. The RCA Living Stereo reissues are mostly decent performances, and they sound great for having been mostly recorded in the late 1950s. But whoever owns the RCA Red Seal catalog needs to start reissuing some of the amazing stuff they have in their vault--everything from the Rubinstein/Boston Symphony recording of the "Emperor" Concerto to the first Western recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 13, with Tom Krause and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy.
The "indie" labels that I seem to buy the most stuff from are Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Chandos, and BIS. A fair number of major orchestras now have their own in-house labels. The San Francisco Symphony was one of the first to make that move, and their high-res PCM Mahler cycle (most of which is also available in DSD from Downloads Now) is to die for. LSO Live (London Symphony) has a great Sibelius symphonies cycle conducted by Gergiev. Wigmore Hall Live releases performances that were held there, and they have some great stuff (most notably a three disc set of Beethoven violin sonatas by Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Thibergien).
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And I hear ya Claritas, Furtwangler is great, there are quite a few of his 8th's out there, I have a few on CD I haven't listened to in a long time. But it was such a revelation to hear him the first time, to hear him be so organic with the tempo and basically just build up to the climax at a frenzy tempo-wise, Bruckner is usually played like Bach in that respect.
Furtwängler is the greatest Mahlerian that never was. Just listen to his accompaniment to Fischer-Dieskau's early "Songs of a Wayfarer" (1952). What a loss that he never conducted the symphonies (apart from the 3d, early in his career)!
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Anyone know which labels have good recordings? Doesn't have to be dedication to fidelity like Water Lily Acoustics, but just in general any reccos for labels known for paying attention to good sound.
How is Teldec? I am going to get the Harnoncourt Bruckner 8th and would like to hear thunderous brass.
Knerian,
i have a large classical LP collection and my favorites are: Decca/London (virtually the same, just different names used for legal purposes), Argo (a subsidiary of Decca), Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Telefunken, Das Alte Werke (period label for DG), Deutsche Gramophon, L'Oiseau Lyre, Mercury Living Stereo, Reflexe (division of EMI), and EMI. If I think of any other, I will let you know.
Chados and Channel Classics are great for digital classical e.g. SACDs, and believe it or not, Linn has a large selection of beautifully mastered and recorded classical albums.
Cheers,
Stephen.
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RCA is long gone from the classical business. The RCA Living Stereo reissues are mostly decent performances, and they sound great for having been mostly recorded in the late 1950s. But whoever owns the RCA Red Seal catalog needs to start reissuing some of the amazing stuff they have in their vault--everything from the Rubinstein/Boston Symphony recording of the "Emperor" Concerto to the first Western recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 13, with Tom Krause and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy.
The "indie" labels that I seem to buy the most stuff from are Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Chandos, and BIS. A fair number of major orchestras now have their own in-house labels. The San Francisco Symphony was one of the first to make that move, and their high-res PCM Mahler cycle (most of which is also available in DSD from Downloads Now) is to die for. LSO Live (London Symphony) has a great Sibelius symphonies cycle conducted by Gergiev. Wigmore Hall Live releases performances that were held there, and they have some great stuff (most notably a three disc set of Beethoven violin sonatas by Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Thibergien).
hey thanks Burn, this was more what I was looking for. Never knew that about the SFS, I'll check it out.
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Puma, I do remember Chandos having some good stuff, thanks for the input. Second person to recommend Linn as well.
Azteca, I'll check out Linn and Reference. When Naxos came out they were super budget, they've really grown though.
Claritas, that is news to me, I'll have to check those out. Are there recordings of him doing the 3rd?
It's great to see so many here that enjoy this stuff as well.
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Claritas, that is news to me, I'll have to check those out. Are there recordings of him doing the 3rd?
It's great to see so many here that enjoy this stuff as well.
Regrettably not. (I would have provided the recording info otherwise.)
Agreed. :)p5
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if you want to get off the beaten path: http://www.testament.co.uk/ (http://www.testament.co.uk/)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_Records_%28UK%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_Records_%28UK%29)
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I do have some piano testament recordings, haven't listened to any of their orchestral stuff though. Good stuff man, thanks.
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i dig the "old timey" sound of recordings from the "golden era of classical". i'm not looking for "audiophile aspirations", but rather to feel like i'm being transported to another time in history.
the Beethoven symphony cycle on BIS with the Minnesota Orchestra and Vanska is pretty special from a performance standpoint.
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The Bruckner symphony cycle by Eugin Jochum on DG is phenomenal. Jochum shared some similarities in his life with Bruckner (both organists from similar Austrian Catholic upbringings, for example) and he really seems to get what Bruckner was trying to say. There's a real life to the music. I'd say the recordings are very good as well. I seem to remember a friend saying that there was a solo cd of the 8th with Jochum which wasn't quite as good as the one in the cycle, but that was just his opinion.
This is the one I have from a long time ago, haven't listened to it in ages:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fmVPyQdML.jpg
You go an amazon and there are 4-5 cycles by Jochum, but after closer inspection they are just repackagings/reissues of just the EMI cycle and the DG cycle.
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That's the one I have!
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I can't believe how many big box reissues are available at cheap prices now:
Richter 49 CD Set of decca, philips and DG recordings, comes out to around $2/disc.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Philips-Recordings-Limited-Edition/dp/B00N9MWVVW/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_5_dp (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Philips-Recordings-Limited-Edition/dp/B00N9MWVVW/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_5_dp)
Bernstein Sony disc set, 80 discs, comes out to around $1.50/disc:
http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bernstein-Album-Collection-Set/dp/B00LL4U1TE/ref=cm_wl_huc_item (http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bernstein-Album-Collection-Set/dp/B00LL4U1TE/ref=cm_wl_huc_item)
There are tons of others themed by performer as well, as far as I can tell this is the best time for great bargain sets I've ever seen on the classical labels.
I don't particularly want the Bernstein, but am tempted just for the "value". The Richter's a no brainer for me, I remember when the philips pianists of the 20th century came out, that was a huge huge set, I made copies from the school library!
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I've seen the price of the Perahia set (73 discs), now temporarily out of stock, go as low as $65.
http://www.amazon.com/Murray-Perahia--First-40-Years/dp/B008NBEY3C/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1424272445&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Murray-Perahia--First-40-Years/dp/B008NBEY3C/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1424272445&sr=1-1)
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That's really cheap...
But I never find myself obsessed enough to buy this many discs for one artist and listen through them. walk the plank2
Perhaps I should listen some more.
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Just make sure you have a day off and take your favourite headphones or speakers.
I should re-listen to my Harmonia Mundi "Early Music" set. Much recommended!
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not yet mentioned in this thread (I think):
best sounding label (by a mile or two): Reference Recordings
best boutique period labels: Alia Vox and Glossa
best boutique contemporary label: CPO
sexiest label: Naive Classique
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Many of the suggestions make part of my collection and are spot on.
Reference recordings used what many would consider the best adc/dac (Pacific microsonics) and the dynamic range is phenomenal.
2L uses the Merging Pyramix recording system (meaning the system created by the inventors of DXD) and little to none compression.
Ecm has produced many jewels too.
From the eastern Europe block Muza (polskie nagrania) made several great pressings, Supraphon has many hidden treasures, Melodiya too.
Audiophile classics are records from Valois, Astree and Alia Vox
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Yarlung Records makes some outstanding classical recordings
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This isn't exactly a Label, but in terms of excellent recording quality, I have found that just about everything by The English Concert with Trevor Pinnock sounds amazing. I have their complete Mozart symphonies, Vivaldi, Haydn, and Handel box sets. All are my favorite for those pieces.
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Yarlung Records makes some outstanding classical recordings
Thank you for mentioning them. I checked and sure enough they have what appears to be their entire catalog on Spotify (search label:"Yarlung"). Some really outstanding stuff.
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really a classic: :wheel:
Edison Cylinder Recordings: http://bit.ly/1riO3zz Historical background & archive of recordings
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NativeDSD.com's "house label" Just Listen can be a fun way to discover new and interesting recordings:
https://justlisten.nativedsd.com/
Everything I've heard from Yarlung Records has been good:
https://yarlungrecords.nativedsd.com/new_browse
Dave Wilson's recording work is legendary:
https://wilsonaudio.nativedsd.com/
And this first entry from Crier is moving to say the least:
https://crierrecords.nativedsd.com/
(And no, i'm not affiliated with nativedsd.com -- I'm just a fan of their site. One of my favorite things about it is that if you buy, say, a DSD256 recording, but your DAC only supports DSD64, you can download the DSD64 as well without having to pay for the same song a second time (lower resolutions than the ones you've purchased seem to be free). I think they use a Pyramix workstation to do DSD SRC, which (ostensibly) is better quality than you may get out of more "pedestrian" algorithms like those in JRMC and other low-cost conversion & music management applications for PC & Mac.
Another great site to check out is 2L (www.2l.no, https://shop.klicktrack.com/2l).
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The Bruckner symphony cycle by Eugin Jochum on DG is phenomenal. Jochum shared some similarities in his life with Bruckner (both organists from similar Austrian Catholic upbringings, for example) and he really seems to get what Bruckner was trying to say. There's a real life to the music. I'd say the recordings are very good as well. I seem to remember a friend saying that there was a solo cd of the 8th with Jochum which wasn't quite as good as the one in the cycle, but that was just his opinion.
So it's been a while since you posted this, and I finally got around to listening again to parts of the two Jochum cycles, this one as well as the EMI cycle with Dresden... The Dresden 5th is incredible, recorded in 1980, I have yet to get around to the DG version (since the last time I listened to it), which is a 1957 recording. On the notes for one of Jochum's other recordings it says he conducted this symphony 93 times in his life! (as opposed to Furtwangler who only did it 23 times and Karajan who did it 28 times)
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I think they use a Pyramix workstation to do SRC, which is way better quality than you get out of more "pedestrian" algorithms like those in JRMC and other low-cost conversion & music management applications for PC & Mac.
Go here and pull up Pyramix 8.1.8 Linear Phase and SoX 14.4 VHQ Linear Phase. ;)
http://src.infinitewave.ca/
I was kinda hoping that Native DSD would offer PCM conversions too but honestly I'd probably be happier to do that myself anyway.
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Very groovy site.
Would love to see the charts for doing DSD conversions. Any idea if they've got that in the works? :)
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Very groovy site.
Would love to see the charts for doing DSD conversions. Any idea if they've got that in the works? :)
I don't think so. You could email the guy.
Here are some very relevant posts doing a similar thing, though. I won't lead this thread any further on this tangent after these links:
1: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/04/analysis-dsd-decoders-2015-windows-mac.html
2: http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2015/04/analysis-dsd-to-pcm-2015-foobar-sacd.html
3: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/05/analysis-dsd-conversion-impulse.html
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They've already been mentioned, but Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, and BIS generally produce great recordings.