* RECORDS with ERROR ; Items

1. Beethoven

1) Complete Symphonies(+Triple Concerto in C major, op.56)

- Felix Weingartner(con.)/London po.(Nos.4,5), London so.(No.2), Royal po.(No.6),
    Vienna po.(Nos.1,3,7~9)
- Recording ; 1927~38
- Grammofono 2000 AB 78012~16
- Contribution ; Hwaseop LIM, The Classical Music, No.5(July 1997)[ by courtesy of the author ]

   ... It's very happy that we can buy Weingartner's Beethoven Complete symphonies, in case its transferring to CD is not bad. Alas, this reissued CD by Italian Fono Enterprise is not good, judging from the quality of CD transferring. It's never good and do not safisfy even the least creteria to listen it.
   At least, it's almost sure that Eroica's transferring is not directly from 78s. By characteristic noise, the source was already transferred LP. At the beginning of the second movement, the frequency of noise is about 2 seconds(a little bit shorter than it), which are totally absurd in normal transferring from 78s. I think it was processed by CEDAR system to reduce noise and to manipulate sound balance from LP of 33 1/3 rpm(moreover it was not at good condition). Different from notes "Transferred from 78s or original tapes" in the jacket, there is no possiblity that this CD has transferred from 78s(NB; this recording has no original tapes).
   At the fourth movement of the 'Choral' symphony - about playing time 11:00, there is very strange phenomenon that it seems to be 'LP-needle jump', and several second of playing is gone out and not audible. The CDs by Preiser(#90193) and Pearl(#9407) have no defect at this position. I have no choice to conclude that Alessandro Nava, who produced this CD, is musically deaf or totally absurd man that releases CD as he do not even hear the master tape of it. Yoshio Okazaki, who missedited to make a 4th pause too short in Beethoven's 5th symphony of Furtwängler, is never comparable to A.Nava in spoiling record. (^^ NB ; the item is explained in HS-2088 page)
   Though I don't consider these errors, this is the worst in the transferred CD of Weingartner's Beethoven recordings undoubtedly. Treble over some level is cut and under the level is unnaturally raised, so it made sounds dull and rough. Bass resolution is unnaturally low and has severe humming, therefore it totally failed to capture subtle nuances. It seems that the reason is why he reduced noise too much and artificially manipulated sound characteristics. In addition, there are many points with pitch fluctuation because perhaps the speed of turntable was not uniform. I cannot find the delicacies Weingartner instilled into this recordings - I felt some of them heard in well-transferred CD - and this CD only gives grotesque sound in bass humming...

   ... Even if this 5CD-set is not normally transferred but bad copy of the former transferred LP from other company, it can have some meanings if it's the world first release of the recordings. But not at all, because LYS/Dante had already released it though deleted from catalogue now.
   In fact, Fono Enterprise and LYS/Dante don't have good reputation in transferring 78s, because they prefer to 'musical xeroxing', copying other company's LP or CD releases. But the latter does not manipulate the 'copied' source at heavy hand, which can be good if the original source(LP or CD) was in good state. Gramofono 2000 transferring is inferior to even that of LYS/Dante. Anyway, this releases cannot be made by the transferrer with the minimum pride. Therefore, it may be meaningless to say which is the better - but Gramofono 2000 is surely inferior to that of even LYS/Dante in the release date and the sound quality. At least, even the faithful xeroxing would give the better results than now ....

>> See ; Cortot's Chopin Ballade No.1, 'Hall of Shame'

3 Issue of Toshiba-EMI(TOCE 9285~89)

2) Complete Violin Sonatas

   - Fritz Kreisler(vn), Franz Rupp(p)
   - Recording ; 1935~36
   - Naxos 8.110969~71(3 set)
   - first appeared at This page(Jan. 2004)

   These recordings were only issued as CD by Pearl from now on except Toshiba EMI. Naxos's release is deserved to be acclaimed of course by virtue of its price, but the famous restoration producer, Ward Marston, made a strange mistake.

(105kb)

   Listen to the time 8:35.5~8:48.5 of sector 5(CD 3), 2nd mvt. of Kreutzer sonata by clicking the cover image. Do you agree to my opinion that a pause at the end of a phrase is too long? Perhaps, the editing of the two 78s disk side change is wrong.

3) Complete String Quartets

- Vienna Musikverein Quartet
- Recording ; January 1990~ April 1992, Wien
- Platz PLCC-606~613(Japanese)
- Contribution ; The Classical Music, No.1(June 1996)

   This set is one of my favorites by its fluency and well-balanced music, but has a big mistake.
   In 'Grosse Fuge'(track #7 of CD #6), I was very surprised at absurd missediting at the playing time about 13:20. The first half of 605th bar was cut(see score below), which can be never explained by the difference of version, etc. As in the score, 4-notes in the dotted line is motive of fugue theme, so there is no reason that the half bar has to be cut. This missediting is obviously the producer(Hiroshi Minagawa)'s error.
   Of course, I do not want recording producers to be perfect as God and understand that they can make mistake. But can a CD like this be sold as normal? It's delinquency of producer's duty, I think, because he did not even inspect the master tape before release. (Though after issue, correcting this error is easy in modern recording technique...)

(60kb)
5 Grosser Fuge, bars 601~608

4) String Quartet No.12 & 16

   - Alban Berg Quartet
   - Recording ; 1983
   - EMI CDR 5 69791 2
   - Contribution ; Classical Music Forum in HiTEL, Message Board No.8,
      #1259 & 1413(In Korean, 29th Sep.1997 & 13th Jan.1998)

   This is very popular item in Red line series. There is a severe flutter in the 1st movement of No.16 in playing time 6:01~6:05, which has much instability in sound quality, and especially distortion of 1st violin. This item is reissue of older version(CDS 7 47135 8), and I don't know whether it has the same problem. I wish this problem is not due to its price grade(budget).

5) Piano Sonatas No.23,28,30, & 31

   - Solomon(p)
   - Recording ; 1950s
   - Testament SBT 1192(pub. 2000)
   - Contribution ; This page at first(Jan. 2004)

   No.31 in this CD is reissue of EMI CHS 7 64708 2(2 set; published on 1993) by Testament. In EMI's set, there is a note about a problem ;

Towards the end of the last movement of this Sonata, there is an audible edit which comes from the original analogue tape. Everything possible has been done to improve this edit, but, unfortunately, there are two notes missing in the right hand part and these could not be replaced.

   This 2 versions has same error; it is plausible that Testament and EMI uses same source. However, Testament issue omitted the kind notes in EMI's sleeve. Therefore, before I buy EMI's release, I think Testament does not know this error. Why did it delete this info?

(60kb)
5 Piano Sonata No.31, Fuga, bars 161~65; sector 14, 5:21.4~5:28.2(2 notes missing)

(c) 1996~ , Youngrok LEE ; Link free, but please get my approval before you reuse, copy, or quote this materials.

Created ; 26th Dec. 1999
Last Update ; 4th Jan. 2004

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