Speakers Corner - Classical reissues

[rockitman]

i have most of the Mercury's and just started getting the Decca collection. Listening to Stravinsky - Petrushka- Ansermet SXL 2011. Wow...so clear, robust and dynamic. Hoping the rest of the series is this good. Super good pressings...flat and quiet.

[Rob]

all of the SXL 2000 series reissues are superb with very few duds.

better you discovered them now than never, so get 'em while you can. some are already out of print and fetch a c-note or more on ebay.

[rockitman]

Thanks Rob. Great recordings and performances(DECCA). Nice to get out of the RCA house.

[Guest]

Speakers Corner does a bang-up job with their Deccas; they're capable of rivaling QRP.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Not really into Classical, but I have high regard for the Speakers Corner pressings. Hope you enjoy your purchases Christian!

[rockitman]

Just ordered more titles last night.

Peter Maag / Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Clifford Curzon / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Pierino Gamba / Rossini Overtures

Jacques Loussier / Play Bach No. 1

Aram Khachaturian / Spartacus & Gayaneh

Horenstein/ Hindemith / Bruch: Scottish Fantasia/ Hindemith: Violin Concerto

Borodin Quartet / Borodin: String Quartet No. 2 in D/ Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, op. 110

Kiril Kondrashin / Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante/ David & Igor Oistrakh, viola & violin

I may like the DECCA sound better than the RCA Living Stereo sound.

[MylesBAstor]

Just ordered more titles last night.

Peter Maag / Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Clifford Curzon / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Pierino Gamba / Rossini Overtures

Jacques Loussier / Play Bach No. 1

Aram Khachaturian / Spartacus & Gayaneh

Horenstein/ Hindemith / Bruch: Scottish Fantasia/ Hindemith: Violin Concerto

Borodin Quartet / Borodin: String Quartet No. 2 in D/ Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, op. 110

Kiril Kondrashin / Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante/ David & Igor Oistrakh, viola & violin

I may like the DECCA sound better than the RCA Living Stereo sound.

Deccas, like all the classical labels of the day, vary widely in sound depending upon where they were recorded, whether they used 1/2 speed mastering (say in the beginning) that some feel affected the bass negatively, before or after they changed from directional to omni mikes or of course, tubes to solid-state, mastering engineer, pressing, etc. Of course, the best of breed were the Wilkie/Kingsway Hall recordings.

I think the RCA's strength was their tone (with the CSO having one of, if not the best, string section in the world), midrange and perspective--not to mention recording two or two of the best orchestras in the world (BSO and CSO). On the other hand, the Deccas were a little more spot lit. RCA just had the best seat in the hall but what they lacked low end extensions (some were really bass shy) and dynamics.

Just some quick off the cuff comment on the different labels:

Mercury: Great dynamics, sense of space and low end. Little close up and biggest achille's heel was their string sound.

RCA (US): Great mids and tone, almost perfect hall perspective and sense of hall. Weak point: low end and rolled off upper frequencies and dynamics.

Decca: Great hall sound, soloists little spot lit. At their best, lush, liquid recordings; at their worst, say with Maazel and Vienna recording (or Israeli recordings that are the worst sound), wirey and hard sounding. Some composers seem to get better sound here such as Britten. Pretty much all of his recordings are top notch. The Royal Ballet might be string sound at its best.

EMI: Great sense of hall, multi-miking gives great sense of instrumental sections. Downsides: Music (you have to like English composers), limitations on dynamics.

Nonesuch: One label that sometimes gets really overlooked. Judiciously multimiked, great extension at both ends of frequency spectrum, transparency, hall sound, dynamics and detail. Downsides: have to like the music and the vinyl (during the oil crisis) left a lot to be desired.

Lyrita: see Decca (because used Decca engineers). I did think though the Lyritas were a little harder and thinner sounding than the Deccas. And one must like British composers. There are a few UK composers that I like but after a while, the all start sounding the same to me. Arnold, Bax, Bridge, Finzi, Holst, Ireland, Lloyd, Moeran and Vaughn-Williams stick out here.

Many of the smaller pieces in the Holst repertoire are delightful.
There's also Delius, Alwyn, and Elgar.
For a taste of Lyrita, try their 'Lollipops' sampler.
Near half the catalog was done by Wilkinson.
more: http://milestomozart.blogspot.com/20...ta-series.html

[Madfloyd]

Whoah, that link is amazing. I often scour the internet looking for info on classical LPs but have never come across that site before - thanks!

[MylesBAstor]

Just ordered more titles last night.

Peter Maag / Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream

On HP's list.

Clifford Curzon / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Pierino Gamba / Rossini Overtures

The de Gamba is a wonderful performance. Sound is OK. They pressed a million of these and it's hard to find an early pressing in good shape yet. I've bought four or five copies and they've all been played to death. Ughhh

Jacques Loussier / Play Bach No. 1

Aram Khachaturian / Spartacus & Gayaneh

Horenstein/ Hindemith / Bruch: Scottish Fantasia/ Hindemith: Violin Concerto

One of the best Decca recordings ever and original as Rob mentioned fetch a mint. This is the one to get from the Tape Project but is no longer available. The tape will make you weep.

Borodin Quartet / Borodin: String Quartet No. 2 in D/ Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, op. 110

Kiril Kondrashin / Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante/ David & Igor Oistrakh, viola & violin

I may like the DECCA sound better than the RCA Living Stereo sound.

[allenh]

Just ordered more titles last night.

Peter Maag / Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Clifford Curzon / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Pierino Gamba / Rossini Overtures

Jacques Loussier / Play Bach No. 1

Aram Khachaturian / Spartacus & Gayaneh

Horenstein/ Hindemith / Bruch: Scottish Fantasia/ Hindemith: Violin Concerto

Borodin Quartet / Borodin: String Quartet No. 2 in D/ Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, op. 110

Kiril Kondrashin / Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante/ David & Igor Oistrakh, viola & violin

I may like the DECCA sound better than the RCA Living Stereo sound.

Nice list, Christian. I have a few SC Decca reissues that I'm happy with. One that didn't ring my bell was the Nutcracker reissue. Some overripe bass, forget which passages. But overall happy with them as a whole.

[rockitman]

On HP's list.



The de Gamba is a wonderful performance. Sound is OK. They pressed a million of these and it's hard to find an early pressing in good shape yet. I've bought four or five copies and they've all been played to death. Ughhh



One of the best Decca recordings ever and original as Rob mentioned fetch a mint. This is the one to get from the Tape Project but is no longer available. The tape will make you weep.

Thanks for the education !

[Dre_J]

all of the SXL 2000 series reissues are superb with very few duds.

better you discovered them now than never, so get 'em while you can. some are already out of print and fetch a c-note or more on ebay.

Which ones are "worthy" and which ones are "valuable" ?

I've got over 40 sealed Decca reissues from Speakers Corner that I haven't even opened. And I may not, since I also have over 70 King Super Analogue London reissues waiting on my seal cracking fingers as well. I may need to share the love on some of these LPs.

Dre

[Rob]

Which ones are "worthy" and which ones are "valuable" ?

I've got over 40 sealed Decca reissues from Speakers Corner that I haven't even opened. And I may not, since I also have over 70 King Super Analogue London reissues waiting on my seal cracking fingers as well. I may need to share the love on some of these LPs.

Dre

hold it, you've got 70 (!) King Super Analogues from Japan (early/mid-nineties) mastered on an all-tube cutting system pressed on 180g vinyl? that's the mother load right there, I wouldn't trade any of those. As far as the SC Deccas are concerned, they will do nothing but appreciate, some of the very best all-analog classical recordings for sound and music. consider yourself blessed. If you must thin the herd, hook up with Christian I'm sure he'll take what you don't want.

[Dre_J]

hold it, you've got 70 (!) King Super Analogues from Japan (early/mid-nineties) mastered on an all-tube cutting system pressed on 180g vinyl? that's the mother load right there, I wouldn't trade any of those. As far as the SC Deccas are concerned, they will do nothing but appreciate, some of the very best all-analog classical recordings for sound and music. consider yourself blessed. If you must thin the herd, hook up with Christian I'm sure he'll take what you don't want.

Ok Rob,

You've convinced me to keep them all. (I gave the duplicates away a couple years ago)

70+ of these things:

and 40+ of these:


Dre

[Rob]

Ok Rob,

You've convinced me to keep them all. (I gave the duplicates away a couple years ago)

70+ of these things: [ATTACH=CONFIG]n16995[/ATTACH]

and 40+ of these:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n16998[/ATTACH]

Dre

yup, that's them. Cisco dist the Super Analogues way back when. The early series were very classy with hard plastic outer jacket protectors with squared edges and bonded seams. The 2nd series omitted the high grade jacket cover for conventional Japanese resealable mylar covers. I'm not sure if King Records internal catalog numbers changed with each series but jacket covers were identical maybe the OB sleeve was slightly different. yours look to have the later, resealable mylar covers - these are still every bit as good sonically. I have less than 20 of these I nearly had all of them at one time. They're the next best thing to owning a tape copy, dynamics can be off the charts.

I'm curious if Larry has theses what he thinks of them.

[Dre_J]

Hi Rob,

All of my Super Analogue Disc LPs have the plastic outer jacket (squared with seams on the sides) that are NOT the resealable mylar but have a flap about 3-4 inches long. There is a small gold colored circular sticker (around 1 1/2" in diameter) to seal the flap on each outer jacket that says "The Super Analogue Disc". I'm not sure if that information helps or confuses things more.

Thanks for the information.

Dre

[Rob]

You got the good ones, by that I mean the 1st press which sold out quickly. the 2nd press could have been run off worn metal parts/stampers and is a little less good. Hang on to those they are superb. IIRC, new they were about $40 each back then, which was a lot of money around '87-95.

[MylesBAstor]

#7.1

tima commented
06-01-2016, 01:08 AM

Many of the smaller pieces in the Holst repertoire are delightful.
There's also Delius, Alwyn, and Elgar.
For a taste of Lyrita, try their 'Lollipops' sampler.
Near half the catalog was done by Wilkinson.
more: http://milestomozart.blogspot.com/20...ta-series.html

Know it's getting a little OT, but on the topic of Holst.

Everyone or many know or have this on Argo.



But there are three other Holst recordings conducted by his daughter that are superlative too. I assume this quartet were all recorded as part of the same project. If you like Holst, you should definitely get ahold of these albums!