Byron Jannis, Doráti LS, Rachmaninov piano concerto no 3. (Oct 11, 2019)
Mlp SR90283 red/white sash : superb 3D sound, excellent piano , superb lifelike orchestra arranged around piano.
35MM white strip version: less focused. Oct 11, 2019
Oct 17:
MLP SR90387 Stravinsky Song of the Nightingale etc, Dorati. Very modern, up and down sudden dives and changes. Did not captivate me. Good sound though.
MLP SR90236 Dvorak Symphony no 4. Dorati. LSO. red/white sash. Good sound, good music. Does not reach to Beethovenesque heights, but nice to listen to and well recorded.
MLP SR90370 Bach suites for solo cello, Nos 2 and 5. Starker. Copy 1: -AA-M3-II: superb sound, centered image. Copy 2: ..M4… not as good sound, comes from left. As if he’s laying slower and with a dry bow.
MLP SR90001 Bizet Carmen, etc, Paul Paray. red/yellow sash. Good recording quality, nice content. Relaxed music. Nice for a quiet recharge.
MLP SR90179 green/white sash. Dorati, Kodaly - Dances of Marosszek [A] and Galanta (B). Side B is much better recorded, much better soundstage, much better dynamics, more natural sound. Also, the Dances of Galanta is a masterpiece. If you are curious about Bartok and Kodaly, this is where you should start. Could well be one of the most beautiful musical creations of the XX century. Interpretation is authentic, possibly this is the best recording of this piece. There is a very palpable soundstage depth. The second copy sounds more as if it was mono, everything is in the center, but there is still depth.
MLP MG50179 mono version: sides are flipped! dances of Galanta on side A! Teal / white sash. The imaging is amazingly layered. Thinner sound than the stereo versions, violins screechy, but there is a bite to dynamic peaks. Sonic theatre, imaging is so enjoyable. The fortes make the hair stand on your back, and are absolutely gut wrenching. Might get tears in your eyes, extremely touching piece.
Oct 11, 2019:
MG50041 MLP red/white sash, mono. Haydn oboe concerto. Sir John Barbirolli. Lots of energy. Very explosive. Evelyn Rothwell, soloist, superb oboe playing! Playing through mono the oboe has more clarity, and the intonation is better. Also, it sounds as if she played faster! Orchestra is more of a counterpoint, and more dynamic, more pinch and faster and deeper punch. Surface noise transforms. Instead of a background noise the orchestral music space is perfectly clear at the center, and the surface noise comes from the l and r speakers. Very refreshing and energizing music.
Copy 2: much more top end, sound stage much taller and reaches out more. Technique is even much more virtuoso, dynamics peels the walls. Drums demand awe. Hey, they have. Much better violinist complement! Their technique is just wow. The oboe has much more tone, minute shadings that was a not there in the other copy. Much, much more feeling and much more realism. Exact same sash version. Oct 11, 2019
Mlp SR90158 Handel-Harty Water music ; Royal fireworks. Doráti, LSO. Red/white sash. Neither copy is as clear and dynamic as the Barbirolli oboe. Copy 2 is more defined. These versions are not bad on their own right. I’m not expecting Handel, and the music I’m hearing is quite good, with good sound. Could have more definition, though. Violins sound very good.
MLP SR90153 Respighi The birds. Doráti. London SO. Blue/white sash. Absolutely beautiful music, very good recording. Little better body than EMIs reviewed on this day. Higher background noise though. EMIs are all dead quiet. Second copy: identical pressing. Higher recording level, higher background noise as well. First copy little more defined. (Oct 5, 2019)
Reviewed Oct11, 2019:
EMI Angel MHV Greensleeve ESD7172 Service of Thanksgiving, The Royal College of Music. Sir D Wilcocks, organ: Simon Preston. English pressing. Grand choir, organ. Very nice test record. festive. Truly a great celebratory music. Balanced. Need to test organ with low end extension speakers :)
Frank Bridge The Sea, Sír Charles Groves , Royal Liverpool PO.
EMI England, ASD3190. Quadrophonic. Ok Sound but debating whether I like the music or not, seems not transparent enough, and compressed dynamic peaks.
EMI HMV Greensleeve DMM. Holy carp, father of fishes! Astounding dynamics, imaging is insane. Super deep, big and natural. Music content sounds way better, as if listening to a different record.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD1436171. Boris Godunov. Good sound, selections from the opera.
EMInAngel England HQS1395. Mozart clarinet quintet. Gervase de Peyer. Good sound, very nice Mozart.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD7040 quadraphonic. Massenet Le Cid. Louis Fremaux. Machi likes it! Good music, nice quality.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD7038 quadrophonic. Saint Saens Organ symphony. Fremaux. Little thin sound, not bad though. Got to hear with more lower end speakers.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD7114 stereo. Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf. Efrem Kurtz, Philharmonia Orchestra. Good sound, good interpretation.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD7159. Sibelius. Bournemouth symphony orchestra. Paavo Berglund. The aria of Brunhilde. Pretty kick ass wagneresque music. Superb recording.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD7062 quadraphonic. Eric Coates, Sydney SO. John Lancherby. Very good dungeons and dragons music.
EMI ASD3367. Quadraphonic. Glazunov piano concerto no 1. Paavo Berglund, Bornemouth SO. So so music. pass.
EMI stereo ASD2434. Daniel Barenboim, Mozart piano concertos no 14,15. Average conducting and playing. Did not grab me.
EMI HMV Greensleeve ESD1077801. Malcolm Arnold, cond himself, Four Cornish dances. Superb sound quality, very modern. Lots of disjoin,t music pieces, many good melodies but they don’t stick together. Pass on.
EMI ASD3176 quadraphonic. Jacques Ibert, Symphonie marine. Fremaux. Ever wonder about the music score if Hitchcock has done porn? Well, this would have been its soundtrack.
EMI HMV ASD2477 Barbirolli / Delius. VG sound, okayish music,but not special.
EMI Angel HMV Greensleeve ESD7005 Eric Coates favorites.VG sound, music ok but did not find it special to keep.
September, 2019:
MLP SR90016 Offenbach Gaite Parisienne- red/white sash. Mediocre dynamics and body. Mlp washed strings, colored. Quite jumpy unbalanced music. I guess works for showing off legs, but listening alone is not quite there.
MLP SR90394 Porgy and Bess - good sound, but music is not the standard of Beethoven. pass.
MLP SR90312 Tchaikovsky no 6 Pathetique Doráti - very good sound. Bothers the cats. Pass.
MLP SR90360 Fennell - Bravos in brass - circus music, etc. very upbeat. Does not let you sit down, too much excitement for relaxation or comfy music listening. Otherwise, good sound, and superb conducting.
MLP SR90419 Prokofiev violin concerto no 1. Szigeti. How can you destroy a violin? If you do not know yet, then listen to this piece. Quite painful. Let’s approach from another angle. It’s like sonicating your ears. Thank you, but no. I still need them in the future. Ciao ;
MLP SR90165 Hanson Nordic symphony no 1. Red/white sash. Good sound. The piece did not catch me.
MLP SR90147 Hanson conducts Kennan, etc. purple/red sash. Big sound, very good tone. Superb recording, but music is crap.
MLP SR90160 red/white sash. Suppe overtures. Very poor tone, not good sound. Very jumpy, in medias res, no beginning no transition, limbo akimbo.
MLP SR90002 white/blue sash. Gershwin, etc. pretty decent sound, but material not the bestest best.
MLP MG50176 white/red sash, Mozart serenade no 10, for wind instruments Fennel. Pretty nice. Good sound. Other copy quite poor sound.
MLP SR90136 Adventures in a perambulator - blue / white sash. Copy1: strong bass, highs screechy. Copy2: much lower signal level, very washed. Bass is cleaner though. Music is nice.
MLP SR90133 Schumann no3 Rhenish. Paul Paray. Red/blue sash. Very good sound. Did not like the music.
MLP 35mm SR90383 Byron Jannis Schumann Piano concerto A minor. Promo copy sounded weak, quite underwhelming. Second (non-promo) copy much more detail, presence, dynamics, Cana thallium year the orchestra (auto correct kicked in, I have no idea what I wanted to say there originally... got it! cannot hear the orchestra.) Much higher signal level.
MLP MG50348 mono Szeryng plays Kreisler. Charles Reiner pianist. amazing presence and outstanding dynamics! Puts everything above to a third or fourth class grade. Real violin and piano speed and dynamics, superb tone.
SR90348 stereo version: not as dynamic, but still superb. Both super highly recommended.
MLP SR90332 RK Scheherazade Doráti. Uber loud, tons of gazillions of violin crescendos, too screechy and loud for my ears. Good tone though, certainly one of Mercs best. Hurts my ears…. too much highs. Not a recording issue. It’s the piece. If you can handle a thousand screaming cats, you will enjoy this piece. Hats off to George Piros, for squeezing such unbelievable amounts of energy onto a record!
MLP SR90331 Saint-saens 3rd symphony, Dupre plays the organ. uh. Quite boring, uninvolving piece, lacks cohesion. Expected much more. No substance. Nice recording quality, but nothing spectacular. Quite a waste of Maitre Dupre's talents.
MLP SR90297 Pepe Romero Flamenco. Red/pink sash. Olé!! Smashing, foot tapping flamenco guitar. Machi likes it.
MLP Copland, Rodeo: Random music, no musical cohesive force, no like.
MLP sampler OLD-6: not good sound
MLP Bloch concerto Grosso 1: - no like.
MLP Bloch schelomo SR90286 pink/red sash good sound, features cello. Starts nice but gets overdramatized.
MLP Alban Berg- Wozzek Lulu - music for quiet listening gone psycho… SR90278
MLP Bloch Sinfonia breve - failed at intro, psycho murder soundtrack
MLP music of Leroy Anderson vol 1 - nice and light. Too much top end. Shrill, and tons of bass. Midrange lacking. Violins super plastic and very bad sounding. (How can one mess up violins sooo badly? This is a form of art in itself!) Mixed quite badly, butchering an otherwise well recorded recording. One for Marie Kondo. SR90009 green/white sash.
MLP Green sash. SR90043 Music of Leroy Anderson Vol 2. Fennel. Copy 1 - channel imbalance. Copy 2 - ch balance ok. Dynamic big sound. Music: OK for background music, not engaging. Nelli did not like it, me neither. (Reviewed earlier.)
MLP mono Samuel Barber - Medea, blue-white sash. MG50224. By FAR better sound than any of the above records! Superb dynamics, soundstage, balance. Okay musical moments turning to batshit crazy punches. Again, Marie Kondo!
MLP, Barber Symphony No 1. Cond. Hanson. Not as good sound as Leroy Anderson Vol 2. Fake stereo (electronic mono repro). Not bad D&D music though. Second copy: pressing defect, thick outer vinyl bump prevents playback!!(Reviewed earlier.)
MLP Paray DSO Bolero - SR90005 white/red sash VG sound, recording gets messy at forte. Late issue problem?
MLP SR90271 Fennel marches for orchestra - superb marching demo record, green/white sash. VG dynamic range, good tonal balance.
MLP SR90276 Fennel: Wagner for band - white/silver sash, even better sound than previous record. Demo category. Cat approved.
MLP Doráti Firebird LSO SR90226 white/gold sash super dynamic, noisy. Needs cleaning. Nice music. Demo quality hopefully cleans up well with US.
MLP Doráti Handel Water music SR90156 red/white sash. Worn or dirty. Vg recording, ⅗ Handel, good pressing.
MLP Doráti Delibes Coppelia SR2-9005 blue/white sash. Super dynamic, super sound stage. Big sound. Drums. Very nice ballet music. Highly recommended for entertainment and demo / test music.
MLP Delibes Sylvia LSO Fistoulari SR2-9006 yellow/white sash reissue. Very harsh sound, loud tape noise highs boosted quite a bit. Otherwise very nice recording, would love to see earlier edition / pressing. Maybe can try playing with tweeter level dropped? (A lot). Dynamic peaks: huge drum, but it distorts a LOT! Clearly, the master tape was worn out and they tried boosting the levels beyond the possibility.
MLP Adam - Giselle LSO Fistoulari pale green / tan sash. NM cover. Very dirty or worn, needs cleaning. Vg sound and music.
MLP Olympian MG50048 Doráti/MSO Ravel Daphnis & Chloe. Mono. Compared to previous ballet recordings, bottom end is missing (-12dB). Also much less detail. Lots of surface noise, needs cleaning. Conducting and playing very good, piece is entertaining. Needs eq to play.
MLP SR90429 Virgil Thomson - Feast of love, etc. Great baritone singing, great recording quality but boring piece. Not my kine, good bye.
MLP SR90164 Grieg: Peer Gynt. Not nearly as good musically as expected. B-track Tschaikovskij feel to it. Conducting is not involving.
MLP SR90430 Hanson piano concerto 36. Very random piano stuff. Meh.
MLP SR90400 Leroy Anderson vol 3 - very good sound, but too upbeat. Makes you agitated…
MLP SR90149 Charles Ives - gosh. Kind of uninteresting, and then you wake up with a wtf??! moment. Marie Kondo come and help me!
MLP SR90421 Copland symphony no 3. Etc. Nope, too much suffering and screeching interspersed in the ouverture, which is like a lullaby. Is this a kids sleep well song or a horror movie track? Please decide, the two does not mix well. If you dash over, you can find soon this record at the Beretania street Goodwill!
Mlp SR90423 Hanson / Hovhanes Piston sessions. Another film soundtrack… not the Amadeus, but the Lost skeleton of cadavra. Totally random. How fast can you say: konmarie?
Mlp SR90422 Macdowell: Indian suite. The soundtrack of a cool cowboy movie. I want to see the film! Maybe it’s me, but I want to see the film with movie soundtracks. Beats the above 5-6 recordings with content by far, though. I think the Indian dies towards the end. Too sad for me. Nevertheless, one of the much better pieces of modern composing.
MLP SR90366 Hovhaness symphony 4: much better recording quality than the 5-6 recordings above. Huge surprise! Very good music. Modern, but not random. Has cohesion and creativity, not just a random hodgepodge using an orchestra, as modern orchestral music in general. Kintaro likes it! Me, too. Also, superb sound, very good demo disc.
Mlp SR90372 Debussy la mer, etc - Paray, DSO. Mid/late pressing, not much detail level. Music so-so. Not keeper.
MLP SR90010 Red/orange sash. Paul Paray, Debussy La Mer / Iberia. Very dynamic. Noisy vinyl, highs screech. Music okish, but lots of banging. Not a keeper. Reviewed spring 2019.
MLP SR90373 Ravel Ma mère l’oye, pavane, tombeau,... Paul Paray, DSO. Promo. Absolutely refreshing evening entertainment. Very good sonics. Very, very much recommended. Possibly the best pieces of Ravel in a superb performance, and superb recording quality. Defo a keeper.
Merc SR90410 Bach three concertos for clavier and strings, Rudolf Barshai, Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Very nice. Perfect for evening recharge. Comrade Barshai knows his Bach well! Adds his own flavor to it, but it's not obtrusive.
Mlp SR90053 music for quiet listening. Hanson. Not bad. The jury is still out, got to listen again.
Mlp SR90415 Haydn symphony n.100, Beethoven symphony n.6;Doráti, London Symphony: very nice Haydn. Superb conducting. Strings not as mushy as mlp in general. Very nice soundstage. Decent dynamics. Needs a good cleaning! One spot distorted at dynamic peak. Strangely, a second copy of the record also distorted at the same spot. Might not be a dirty record issue, might be a slip from the recording engineer?
MLP Blue ribbon, Schubert Symphony No 4, LSO Walter Susskind SR90196 (2018 summer) Good sound but poor interpretation. Not Schubert at all, very disappointing to hear when you are in the mood for Schubert. Removed from collection.
MLP SR90150 Howard Hanson: Elegy. Sounds OK, music is meh. Not a keeper. (2018)
MLP SR90010 red/orange sash. Paul Paray / Debussy La mer, Iberia. Washed together Mercury sound, can’t handle dynamic peaks well. Drums enter with amazing body and foundation, everything else lacks substance and presence, body. Consistent in two copies.
Olympian Living Presence MG50101 Paul Paray. Smokes the MLP version big time. Super sound. Dynamic, much better imaging, tone.
RCA Victrola VIC-1246, with Toscanini: much quieter, more delicate. Pretty amazing, not the Toscanini stereoptype. Would be better than Olympian but dynamic peaks compress and distort. It runs out of headroom. But when within headroom, it's much better than any of the Mercuries. (Sept 2019)
MG50139 Mercury Olympian mono version: seems even more dynamic and deeper bass than the stereo version, although thinner sound. Violins and instruments have a huge load of Mercury-flavor cheesy distortion, extremely colored. Record is pretty dirty, could use clean up. Dynamics is super fast! Drums are insane. All instruments are super fast speed. But not credible, too processed for that.
MLP SR90139 version: Tonally not colored! Well balanced tonality, extreme dynamics and outstanding drums. A truly kick ass demo disc! Could be the best MLP record out there! Courtesy of George Piros. Superb job from the legendary record engineering maestro! (Aug 2019)
Listening impressions, Jan 2017. In general: the recording levels, tape noise, imaging and dynamics varies from recording to recording. Even on a single CD, two recordings can have drastically different imaging and levels, tape hiss, dynamics.
Frederick Fennell:
Very enjoyable recording. If you are not familiar with brass music (such as myself), then this is a very good introduction. I would suggest to skip the first piece, it gets too busy in the beginning. In general, it is easy listening and opens way to your fantasy and imagination. Thumbs up!
Schönberg etc:
I could not get into complementing the ability of this recording to blow your drivers and amps with large scale very loud stuff, as the material is impossible to listen to. Highly recommended for Hitchkock-wannabees who are looking for soundtracks to scramble the mind of horror-ready spectators. Two thumbs down. I feel for the poor musicians who were forced to play it.
Respighi - Birds, Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome:
Although Pines and Fountains of Rome are highly acclaimed, I found them fickle, badly written, lacking harmony and just plain painful for your ears. The dynamic peaks are at the wrong places, the tension is not building up properly before the peaks and they become intrusive. Not recommended before eating, will ruin your appetite. Thumbs down. Thumbs up for the birds, though! Respighi is a talented musician, but as in many cases, not his best work becomes popular but the unorthodox ones.
Ancient Music:
Surprisingly refreshing, medieval songs transposed for orchestra by Respighi. This is the kind of stuff musicians should be doing. There are good and bad transpositions in music history - these are examples of good ones! Thumbs up!
Dvorzak Symphonies Nos 7 and 8:
Nicely recorded, dynamic. I would use these as the soundtrack for the new Conan movie. Lets the imagination flow, very delightful. Thumbs up.
Beethoven 5 & 6 Doráti, LSO:
Read the in-depth review in the Beethoven section.
Hanson conducts Hanson, symphonies 1 and 2. CD31:
Symphony 1: Start with the Third movement, which is quite pleasant, and starting around 2.45min it has some amazing drums which will make it an exciting test record. However, the first movement is without much positive comment: way too busy, the composer lost control over the music. There was a distinctive feeling of driving a car with the break pedal missing. At the start, you have no time to buckle up, they are already at full speed. Then, full stop followed by unexpected and unexplained/unprepared highs, all seemingly at the wrong places where they should not be. I guess this is an expectation from modern music: rushing about and coming to a dead halt, both pointlessly and in an unorganized sequence - just as in our daily lives in our current society. So we need not bash the composer, as he accurately portrays the lack of control and the lack of preparation permeating our age. He catered to the demand with the overture. However, in case you have a keen addiction to superficial modern music, you shall be disappointed with the second movement. That will put you to sleep in comparison, and take you back to more substantial music which takes a mature attitude to digest. We can regard it as a road of a modern person coming from a heedless perspective, reaching balance.
This first movement reminds me of Gustav Holst’s works, namely, the Somerset Rhapsody and Egdon Heath. While Holst was in control of the flow: of the highs and the lows, building up anticipation and masterfully reaching climax - Hanson is dragging us up and down without context. It is either too busy, or too uninvolving. I felt that it was an attempt to write a score for a very unbalanced movie that has super busy scenes followed by utter boredom - as a mad collage of Hitchcock and Tarkovsky would be. In an effort to say something good about the work, I listened to it again. Second time it was friendlier to the ears, that is, it is definitely an acquired taste, and should you listen to it enough, you will get used to it. Although without a movie to watch along with it makes no sense whatsoever.