Pentatone to release old DG quadraphonic recordings

[Peter H.]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?

http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4

[William Sommerwerck]

"Peter H." wrote in message
news:d2ba14f5-be19-47d5...@googlegroups.com...

> I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips
> quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?

> http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4

Kempff in quad? Hmmm...

Ozawa has never been a favorite conductor. Some of the other items (such as
Bernstein conducting "Carmen") look interesting. I hope the prices are
"reasonable".

[wade]

Personally, I am in total support of Any quad SACD reissues or Bluray Audio quad resuscitations of this material in its originally recorded form.

[Randy Lane]

I look forward to the Ozawa Berlioz. Too bad the Ozawa Berlioz Romeo isn't included; still my favorite recording.

The Tremonisha is also a great choice.

I'm one of the seemingly wierd people who really really like the Bernstein Carmen. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the Pentatone release with the great they somehow fix the tape-overload-like distortion that plagues a few loud passages of every CD set of the recording I've tried.

[William Sommerwerck]

"wade" wrote in message
news:f7d97c91-33e6-4e01...@googlegroups.com...

> Personally, I am in total support of Any quad SACD reissues
> or Bluray Audio quad resuscitations of this material in its
> originally recorded form.

So am I. I've been pushing surround sound since 1970. I have a lot of
PentaTone Philips quad recordings -- but not every last one. The performance
has to be reasonably good to justify the purchase.

[Lionel Tacchini]

On 08.11.2014 00:28, wade wrote:

> Personally, I am in total support of Any quad SACD reissues or Bluray
> Audio quad resuscitations of this material in its originally recorded
> form.

Personally, I don't care for any of this. Is this a poll site? Can I win
something?

--
Lionel Tacchini

[Sol L. Siegel]

"Peter H." <pbh...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:d2ba14f5-be19-47d5...@googlegroups.com:

Oh, great, I have to buy Treemonisha again. d;>)

Does this mean that the well has run dry on Philips quads?

- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA USA

[Herman]

On Saturday, November 8, 2014 7:12:22 AM UTC+1, Lionel Tacchini wrote:

>
> Personally, I don't care for any of this. Is this a poll site? Can I win
> something?
>

The big prize is getting kill filed.

[William Sommerwerck]

"Sol L. Siegel" wrote in message
news:XnsA3DF214468E...@130.133.4.11...

> Does this mean that the well has run dry on Philips quads?

More likely, it suggests PentaTone has run out of Philips quad recordings it
considers worth releasing.

[Steve de Mena]

On 11/7/14, 1:04 PM, Peter H. wrote:
> Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?
>
> http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4
>

I interpret this to mean that they are taking DG 4 and 8 channel
master tapes, never intended or originally mixed for "Quad", and
mixing them today for quad release. (Why wouldn't they use the .1 sub
woofer channel I wonder?)

This is unlike Philips, which seemed to make an effort during
recording to mic and record the quad sessions for potential quad release.

Notice the subtle differences in wording between the paragraph below
(from one of the 1st releases, Mozart concerti), with the press
release above:

"The seeds were planted in the early 1970s when Deutsche Grammophon
realised what amazing results could be achieved by recording the
multi-channel tapes, with either four or eight channels. Yet, due to a
few restrictions, they never fully blossomed. Flaws in the playback
equipment meant that music connoisseurs were prevented from enjoying
these recordings in the way that artists, producers, engineers and
other professionals intended, even though recording technology was
already way ahead of its time. "

I also wonder how they'll mix down an 8 track master tape "without the
intervention of any mixing consoles and/or other special equipment
which could have influenced the sound."

Sounds to me like they ran out of Philips Quadro masters and are now
taking multi-channel master tapes and creating pseudo quad SACDs,
misleading us into thinking this was the mix DG originally would have
liked to issue them as.

Steve

[wade]

I am surprised they didnt go into the Decca/London side first since my understanding is that there are issues there which were intended for quad presentation (Solti Tannhauser was one thing. I know I have a London SQ quad organ recital, so there have to be more).

[William Sommerwerck]

"Steve de Mena" wrote in message
news:_oSdnSCr7pP4avzJ...@giganews.com...

> I interpret this to mean that they are taking DG 4 and 8 channel master
> tapes, never intended or originally mixed for "Quad", and mixing them today
> for quad release. (Why wouldn't they use the
> .1 sub woofer channel I wonder?)

That is an "effects" channel. You wouldn't normally split off the low bass
from the main channels and direct it there.

> This is unlike Philips, which seemed to make an effort during recording to
> mic and record the quad sessions for potential
> quad release.

All the Philips recordings I've heard use the extra channels solely for
ambience.

> I also wonder how they'll mix down an 8 track master tape "without the
> intervention of any mixing consoles and/or other special equipment which
> could have influenced the sound."

Digitally.

[William Sommerwerck]

"wade" wrote in message
news:534ea963-3827-441c...@googlegroups.com...

> I am surprised they didnt go into the Decca/London side first
> since my understanding is that there are issues there which
> were intended for quad presentation (Solti Tannhauser was
> one thing. I know I have a London SQ quad organ recital,
> so there have to be more).

EMI produced a substantial library of quad recordings, which has not been
exploited.

Several Decca Phase 4 recordings were issued as quad open-reel tapes. One of
them, of Bernard Herrmann's film music, was supposedly //the// best-selling
quad tape, regardless of genre.

RCA also produced quad recordings, released on both QudraDisc and open-reel
tape, none of which have appeared on SACD (eg, Tomita).

And, of course, Columbia was notorious for its aggressive-surround quad
recordings.

[Sol L. Siegel]

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote in
news:m3t8a0$okj$1...@dont-email.me:

> RCA also produced quad recordings, released on both QudraDisc and
> open-reel tape, none of which have appeared on SACD (eg, Tomita).

A handful - mostly Stokowski and Ormandy - were released in Dolby
Digital Surround in the '90s, playable on home-theater systems
(like mine) with a receiver that can decode Dolby Pro Logic.

[Lawrence Chalmers]

On Friday, November 7, 2014 1:04:16 PM UTC-8, Peter H. wrote:
> Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?
>
> http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4

This may seem a dumb question but are those quad recordings the cd's that had
'4d' logos?

[rapu...@spiritone.com]

Some of the RCA CDs had Dolby Surround encoded. Does make a difference. The later RCA recordings in the first issue of the Stokowski box were like this. I think the High Performance series had Dolby surround.

Stan Punzel

[Lionel Tacchini]

DG's 4D logo was just their own state of the art recording technology.
Those who heard no difference might have spoken of "quadro phonies" but
had something else in mind.

--
Lionel Tacchini

[Steve de Mena]

On 11/11/14, 6:54 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:
> "Steve de Mena" wrote in message
> news:_oSdnSCr7pP4avzJ...@giganews.com...
>
>> I interpret this to mean that they are taking DG 4 and 8 channel
>> master tapes, never intended or originally mixed for "Quad", and
>> mixing them today for quad release. (Why wouldn't they use the
>> .1 sub woofer channel I wonder?)
>
> That is an "effects" channel. You wouldn't normally split off the low
> bass from the main channels and direct it there.

Yes, I looked into this more and understand better now. Your playback
equipment would just direct lower frequencies to your sub woofer if
that's how you have it configured.

Steve

[Steve de Mena]

No.

I'm sure DG has some techno-babble explanation for that 4D process,
but I think it was just a meaningless marketing term.

Steve

[William Sommerwerck]

"Sol L. Siegel" wrote in message

news:XnsA3E3BFA77A0...@130.133.4.11...

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote in
news:m3t8a0$okj$1...@dont-email.me:

> A handful - mostly Stokowski and Ormandy - were released in Dolby
> Digital Surround in the '90s, playable on home-theater systems
> (like mine) with a receiver that can decode Dolby Pro Logic.

You're right. I'd forgotten about those. I think I have a few of the
movie-music disks.

By the way, Dolby Digital Surround and Dolby Pro Logic are completely
different things.

[Oscar]

For Christmas, I want The World of Harry Partch in quad on PentaTone SACD.

[William Sommerwerck]

"Oscar" wrote in message
news:5aafa182-bcf5-4954...@googlegroups.com...

> For Christmas, I want "The World of Harry Partch" in quad on PentaTone SACD.

You and me both. That was one of the titles I suggested, but PentaTone never
followed up on my suggestions. Here's the list. It's taken from an Excel page,
and isn't well-formatted, but I don't have the time.


ABC Classics EMI
Sonic Arts
AB 67012 La Dafne
AB 67013 Spell -- Mentagnana Trio S-36080 Toy
Symphonies and Other Fun LS15
Organasm
S-36091 Harris -- Folk-Song Symphony
LS28 Wheels and Pipes
BOMC S-36092 Music for Silent Film Classics
SQM 80-5731 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
S-36899 Richter -- Grieg & Schumann piano concertos
S-36995 Saint-Saens Symphonies 1 & 2 --
Martinon
Columbia S-37096 Cherubini Requiem in d --
Muti
63AP 821-3 Santana Lotus S-37097 Karajan
Conducts Wagner #1 Virgin
JS 3220 Funny Girl S-37098 Karajan Conducts
Wagner #2
OS 3550 Company S-37120 Rachmaninoff Symphony
#1 -- Previn VBOX1 Mike Oldfield
MQ 30683 Subotnck -- Sidewinder S-37140
Delius -- North Country Sketches
CQ 30737 I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus S-37141
Penderecki Magnificat
M2Q 31008 Bernstein -- Mass S-37142 Britten
Four Sea Interludes -- Previn
MQ 31018 Switched-On Bach S-37158 Isle of the
Dead / Symphonic Dances -- Previn
MQ 31019 Subotnick -- Touch S-37160 Music of
Victor Herbert -- Beverly Sills
MQ 31193 Music for Organ, Brass, & Percussion EPB
S-37169 Rachmaninoff The Bells -- Previn
MQ 31125 Holst -- The Planets -- Bernstein S-37170
Berlioz Overtures -- Previn
MQ 31227 World of Harry Partch S-37246
Poulenc Gloria -- Fremaux
MQ 31289 Antiphonal Music for Four Brass Choirs
S-37263 A Contemporary Elizabethan Consort -- Munrow
MQ 31368 Bartok -- Mandarin; Dance Suite -- Boulez
S-37301 Respigihi Ancient Airs and Dances -- Marriner
M2Q 31398 Brandenburg Concertos -- Anthony Newman
S-37413 Berlioz Harold in Italy -- Bernstein
MQ 31424 Bach Organ Favorites #5 -- EPB S-37470
Charpentier -- Te Deum; Magnificat
MQ 31726 Monster Concert S-37524 Monteverdi's
Contemporaries -- Munrow
M 31798 Vivaldi -- the Four Seasons


MQ 32132 Bartok Concerto for Orchestra -- Boulez
MQ 32198 Boulez Conducts Ravel #2
MQ 32297 Rheinberger Organ Concertos EPB SBLX-3856
Berlioz Pearl Fishers -- Pretre
PS 32346 Three Penny Opera
MQ 32577 Stephen Foster's Social Orchestra SLS 5070
Tchaikovsky -- Swan Lake
M2Q 32681 Mahler 2nd Bernstein
MQ 32685 Chavez -- Four Suns / Piramide
Wagner -- Ring -- Goodall
MQ 32736 Copland -- Appalachian Spring
MQ 32738 Carter SQ 2 & 3 SIC 6097/6098
Nielsen -- Symphonies -- Blomstedt
MQ 32739 Crumb -- Voice of the Whale SIC 6104
Art of the Netherlands -- Munrow
MQ 32741 4 Butterflies -- Subotnick
MQ 32779 Nielsen Symphony #2 -- Bernstein S 537277
Hungarian Rhapsodies #1 -- Boskovsky
MQ 32791 Bach Organ Favorites #6 -- EPB S 537278
Hungarian Rhapsodies #2 -- Boskovsky
MQ 32821 Music of Villa-Lobos -- Kostelanetz
MQ 32838 Boulez Conducts Ravel #3
Q2S 32923 Candide
MQ 32933 Bach -- Tocattas & Fugues EPB
M 32936 Pomp & Circumstances; Crown of India
MQ 32969 Ives -- Old Songs Derranged

M33072 Frank/Liszt -- Andre Watts
MQX 33172 Orff -- Carmina Burana -- MTT Eurodisc
MQ 33208 Rodrigo/Villa-Lobos -- John Williams
MQ 33268 Wagner Organ Orgy -- Newman 89 036 XGR
Smetana -- Bartered Bride
M2Q 33303 Schoenberg Gurre-Lieder -- Boulez
MQ 33506 Massenet -- Le Navarraise 300 086-435
Bach -- Brandenburgs -- Baumgartner
MQ 33508 Stravinsky -- Firebird -- Boulez
MQ 33513 Footlifters -- American Marches
MQ 33514 Freiburg Organs -- EPB
MQ 33523 Daphis et Chloe -- Boulez Conducts Ravel
MQ 33886 Tchaikovsky #4 -- Bernsteing
M 33933 Plasir d'Amour -- Beverly Sills
MQ 33970 Falla -- Three-Cornered Hat


PS 34197 My Fair Lady
M 34205 Gershwin Plays Rhapsody in Blue
M2X 34256 Concert of the Century
M 34514 Bartok -- Wooden Prince --Boulez
M 34529 Britten -- Suite on English Folk Tunes
M 34536 Berlioz -- Te Deum -- Barenboim
M 34557 Stravinsky -- Rite of Spring -- Mehta
M2 34583 A German Requiem -- Maazel
M3 34585 Donizetti -- L'Elisir d'Amore

[tomm...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 6:47:53 AM UTC-5, Steven de Mena wrote:
> On 11/7/14, 1:04 PM, Peter H. wrote:

> > Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?
> >
> > http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4
> >
>> I interpret this to mean that they are taking DG 4 and 8 channel
> master tapes, never intended or originally mixed for "Quad", and
> mixing them today for quad release. (Why wouldn't they use the .1 sub
> woofer channel I wonder?)
>
> This is unlike Philips, which seemed to make an effort during
> recording to mic and record the quad sessions for potential quad release.

Steven's interpretation is incorrect.

I produced about 50 LPs for DG in the 1970s which were intentionally and "originally mixed for quad". Six out of the nine initial releases of DG quad recordings by PentaTone are from this group of 50, most notably the 1972 Metropolitan Opera production of "Carmen" with Bernstein, Horne and McCracken, "Symphonie Fantastique" and "La Damnation de Faust" with Ozawa and the Boston Symphony, and "Treemonisha" with Gunther Schuller conducting the original cast from the Houston Grand Opera production, transplanted to Broadway.

Two of the above (Carmen and Treemonisha) were originally recorded in 16-track, which, after editing in that format, I mixed down to 4-track quad and 2-track stereo. The stereo versions of these productions were released on LP originally, and then were subsequently re-released on CD. There they lived happily for several decades until, at my instigation, they were recently re-released by PentaTone on SACD -- both in my original stereo and my original quad mixes.

All of my other DG quad productions were very intentionally made for that medium. Some were made in 8-track, which were then mixed down to stereo and quad, and some were originally recorded 4-track, with that being the final quad mix.

PentaTone has done nothing to "enhance" these original mixes. They have simply transferred these original mixes to DSD. The buyer of the PentaTone SACDs will hear these recordings exactly as I left them in DG's Hannover post-production studios 42 years ago.

- Thomas Mowrey, New York, 4/20/15

[rapu...@spiritone.com]

I bought the Carmen release. Nice spread over the speakers. Look forward to hearing more.

[Dana John Hill]

Thank you for the helpful information. Just so I understand you
correctly, you're saying the quad AND stereo mixes on Pentatone's SACDs
are the ones you made? I have not done enough reading about SACD to
know whether in making a stereo mix the labels usually use a preexisting
mix (like yours), or make a new one in some fashion.

Dana John Hill
Gainesville, Florida

[tomdeacon]

I would have expected no less.
--
TD

[tomm...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 2:54:30 PM UTC-4, Dana John Hill wrote:

> Thank you for the helpful information. Just so I understand you
> correctly, you're saying the quad AND stereo mixes on Pentatone's SACDs
> are the ones you made? I have not done enough reading about SACD to
> know whether in making a stereo mix the labels usually use a preexisting
> mix (like yours), or make a new one in some fashion.
>
> Dana John Hill
> Gainesville, Florida

That is correct, Dana, at least insofar as my recordings are concerned (I can't say what others are doing or have done). Following is an excerpt from an email that I wrote to Dirk van Dijk, one of the founders of PentaTone, on June 9, 2011, right after I had first informed him of the existence of the DG surround recordings, a fact of which he had previously been unaware:
------------------------------------------------------------
Van: Thomas Mowrey
Verzonden: donderdag 9 juni 2011 17:45
Aan: Dirk van Dijk
Onderwerp: Re: DG Quadro recordings

"I want to emphasize that all of my quad recordings (opera, symphony and pops) had rear tracks which were fully loaded. Furthermore, the rear tracks were loaded in such a way that, when folded into the front tracks at a 1-to-1 ratio, the resulting two-track mix was the ideal stereo mix. Thus, when preparing the quad tapes for SACD release, there must be no rebalancing or any alteration of the levels of any of the four tracks. Doing so would result sometimes in loss of actual direct instrumental sounds, and at the very least would produce a misbalance of direct to reflected sound."
------------------------------------------------------------
The engineer who prepared my quad recordings for release by PentaTone was Jean-Marie Geijsen at Polyhymnia, which to my knowledge does all of PentaTone's engineering. There is a video of Mr. Geijsen here -- https://www.youtube.com/embed/GBctVE8qGEs -- in which he confirms that these were "hands-off" transfers. You may also be interested in reading a rather detailed history of the beginnings of the modern era of surround sound which I wrote on SA-CD.net, with particular emphasis on matrixing and DG's absention from that medium. It is here: http://www.sa-cd.net/showthread/128156/129984#129984

It is nice to read of your interest, as well as Tom Deacon's and the others above, in these tales of yore!
T.M.

[O]

In article <407ab3a3-0182-4115...@googlegroups.com>,

Thank you Thomas for your comments about this. Just to be clear, the
SACD is capable of 5.1 channel audio streaming. Are we to assume that
only 4 of the these channels are used, (a la quadrophonic sound), or is
there content in both the center channel and subwoofer?

-Owen

[wade]

Very much interested in hearing these. I wish the EMI quads could be absorbed into the pentatone stable. But I know this is just wishful thinking. Thanks for being involved in the development of these. I ordered the Carmen but was always leery of the Ozawa's because for the most part I considered him a dull conductor, though I loved the BSO. I will try the Faust and see. Were there any DG opera recordings other than the Carmen recorded in Quad?

[Dana John Hill]

This gets more and more interesting! I was especially delighted that
someone from Acoustic Research appears in your story. About five years
ago I was doing some research on AR (Acoustic Research research), and
became especially fascinated with how much of their marketing was
targeted at the classical music enthusiast. Indeed, some of the
musicians whom you recorded for DG are depicted in AR literature
listening to their recordings on AR equipment.

Meanwhile, your thorough detailing of the quad technology, record label
personnel, and recording artists is fascinating. Have you, by chance any
other online sources to recommend where I can read more of your
recollections?

Thanks again.

[wanwan]

Thanks for posting this information. I look forward to picking them up. Any chance of the Penderecki/Williams/Mayuzumi album or any of the Steinberg/BSO recordings will be issued by Pentatone in 4 channel?

--------------
Eric Nagamine

[Arno Schuh]

wade <wade...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Very much interested in hearing these. I wish the EMI quads could be
> absorbed into the pentatone stable. But I know this is just wishful
> thinking.

Oh yes! And then hopefully the Widor 5th with Jane Parker Smith at salisbury
Cathedral will made it on SACD!

Arno

[tomm...@gmail.com]

> Thank you Thomas for your comments about this. Just to be clear, the
> SACD is capable of 5.1 channel audio streaming. Are we to assume that
> only 4 of the these channels are used, (a la quadrophonic sound), or is
> there content in both the center channel and subwoofer?
>
> -Owen

That is right, Owen. All of my quad productions for DG were either recorded directly to 4 tracks (the early ones, from 1970-71), or they were recorded on 8 or 16 tracks and then mixed (simultaneously) to 2-track stereo for immediate release and 4-track quad for eventual release (in this case, "eventual" meant 40 years later!). The point is that the were produced for quad listening, and when I first brought the idea of releasing them to PentaTone's Dirk van Dijk, he said that they would not gussy them up with a "derived" center channel, which would only have degraded them, and he has kept his word on that. I guess that listeners with reasonably sophisticated playback setups could siphon some deep bass information into a subwoofer, which might add to the overall effect without doing any harm.

[O]

In article <42bff25b-f2ae-4406...@googlegroups.com>,

Thanks, Thomas, for clarifying that. I fully agree that any content in
the center channel would not improve the source, especially since most
of the purpose of the center channel in the 5.1 format is for movie
dialog, and I would think that center channel speakers would be
designed to favor voice conversational clarity rather than strict music
fidelity. Also your point about the subwoofer is valid too.

-Owen

[tomm...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 3:19:51 PM UTC-4, wade wrote:
> Very much interested in hearing these. I wish the EMI quads could be absorbed into the pentatone stable. But I know this is just wishful thinking. Thanks for being involved in the development of these. I ordered the Carmen but was always leery of the Ozawa's because for the most part I considered him a dull conductor, though I loved the BSO. I will try the Faust and see. Were there any DG opera recordings other than the Carmen recorded in Quad?

I'm glad to hear that you ordered Carmen, Wade, and that you're also getting The Damnation of Faust. These two were the most complex surround productions that I made for DG, with 360-degree immersive direct sound sources. I think you will enjoy them. Treemonisha was produced in the same fashion, and you might like it too, if the music itself is to your taste. And if you want to sample a 360-degree-direct recording of a strictly orchestral piece, get the Symphonie Fantastique with Ozawa/BSO on PentaTone. Strings and winds are arrayed in a wide spread in front, and brass and percussion are similarly arrayed in the rear.

BTW, I don't get royalties on these (unfortunately)!

DG did record lots of operas in quad -- I would say, practically all operas they recorded in the 1970-75 period -- but no other producer was making them with 360-degree-direct-sound. Rear channels contained only ambiance.

[tomm...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 6:31:59 PM UTC-4, Dana John Hill wrote:

> This gets more and more interesting! I was especially delighted that
> someone from Acoustic Research appears in your story. About five years
> ago I was doing some research on AR (Acoustic Research research), and
> became especially fascinated with how much of their marketing was
> targeted at the classical music enthusiast. Indeed, some of the
> musicians whom you recorded for DG are depicted in AR literature
> listening to their recordings on AR equipment.
>
> Meanwhile, your thorough detailing of the quad technology, record label
> personnel, and recording artists is fascinating. Have you, by chance any
> other online sources to recommend where I can read more of your
> recollections?
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Dana John Hill
> Gainesville, Florida

You are correct, Dana, that AR was very focused on the classical music enthusiast. The late Robert Berkovitz was kind of the point man on that. They even sponsored a contemporary music recording project around that time, which included the Milton Babbitt "Philomel" with Bethany Beardslee; I produced it, and it was selected as one of the National Recording Registry's first 50 "best recordings of all time" list. And in those days, everyone in the business was listening on either AR or KLH speakers (both companies had been founded by the late Henry Kloss).

Regarding your question as to other online sources for comments I have made on this subject -- after PentaTone's recent release of its first nine DG quad recordings (of which I produced six), I have been following the reviews on several websites, and have commented on many of them. Some of the URLs are listed below. In particular, I got into a colloquy with Michael Birman on the "comments" page of the first one which you might find interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/Bizet-Carmen-Marilyn-Horne/dp/B00SKEZBDO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427884251&sr=8-1&keywords=bernstein+carmen+pentatone

http://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-Damnation-Faust-Donald-McIntyre/dp/B00SKEZ9EU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427884330&sr=8-1&keywords=damnation+ozawa+pentatone

http://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-fantastique-Boston-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B00SKEZ8EQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427883912&sr=8-1&keywords=berlioz+fantastique+ozawa+pentatone

http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2015/03/19/Record-reviews-A-tale-of-two-Carmens/stories/201503190018

http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/10435

http://www.sa-cd.net/showreviews/10440#11118

http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/10478

http://www.sa-cd.net/showreviews/10479#11153

http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/04/12/cd-review-seiji-ozawas-exciting-berlioz-remastered/

http://parterre.com/2015/03/23/mais-nous-voyons-a-nouveau-la-carmencita/#more-38214

http://parterre.com/2015/03/25/tale-of-the-tape/#more-38257

[tomm...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 4:23:30 AM UTC-4, wanwan wrote:

> Thanks for posting this information. I look forward to picking them up. Any chance of the Penderecki/Williams/Mayuzumi album or any of the Steinberg/BSO recordings will be issued by Pentatone in 4 channel?
> --------------
> Eric Nagamine

I look forward to your comments after you have heard these recordings, Eric -- in surround, I hope! I produced the Penderecki/Williams/Mayuzumi DG recording with the Eastman Wind Ensemble under Donald Hunsberger in 1969, shortly before I joined DG. Although this was dead in the middle of my surround sound experimentation period in Rochester, I'm almost positive that it was recorded only in 2-track stereo. If it was quad, those tapes are still in the Eastman School of Music archives in Rochester, as I am absolutely certain that the tapes I sent to DG in Hamburg were 2-track on quarter-inch Scotch 202 tape. I can still see the reels!

The Steinberg/BSO recordings of The Planets, Also Sprach Zarathustra and Hindemith were absolutely recorded in quad, in live four-track mixes by Günter Hermanns directly to half-inch tape. I have recommended The Planets and Zarathustra to PentaTone, but my guess is that DG won't let go of them, as they have been best-sellers for over 40 years. Maybe DG itself will release them in surround on Blu-ray or as Hi-Res downloads.

[Steve de Mena]

On 4/20/15 7:36 PM, rapu...@spiritone.com wrote:
> I bought the Carmen release. Nice spread over the speakers. Look forward to hearing more.
>

I read a post by the original producer on a forum and he recorded
Carmen on 16 track and made both 2 and 4 track mixes at time of the
original release of the LP. The Pentatone used his 4 track mix.

But do we think the other DG releases they are issuing were truly
envisioned to be quad releases or were some just mixed today from
multi tracks. I know Philips had a known "Quadro" program back in the
1970s but we never heard anything about DG doing something similar
until Pentatone seemed to run out of Philips Quadro tapes.....

I ordered the Carmen and Ozawa Symphonie Fantastique. Very reasonable
from Amazon marketplace sellers. The 3 disc Carmen was a little over
$20 + shipping. Whole opera would have fit on one Blu-Ray Audio disc.

Steve

[Steve de Mena]

On 4/21/15 6:57 PM, tomm...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 2:54:30 PM UTC-4, Dana John Hill wrote:
>
>> Thank you for the helpful information. Just so I understand you
>> correctly, you're saying the quad AND stereo mixes on Pentatone's SACDs
>> are the ones you made? I have not done enough reading about SACD to
>> know whether in making a stereo mix the labels usually use a preexisting
>> mix (like yours), or make a new one in some fashion.
>>
>> Dana John Hill
>> Gainesville, Florida
>
> That is correct, Dana, at least insofar as my recordings are concerned (I can't say what others are doing or have done). Following is an excerpt from an email that I wrote to Dirk van Dijk, one of the founders of PentaTone, on June 9, 2011, right after I had first informed him of the existence of the DG surround recordings, a fact of which he had previously been unaware:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Van: Thomas Mowrey
> Verzonden: donderdag 9 juni 2011 17:45
> Aan: Dirk van Dijk
> Onderwerp: Re: DG Quadro recordings
>
> "I want to emphasize that all of my quad recordings (opera, symphony and pops) had rear tracks which were fully loaded. Furthermore, the rear tracks were loaded in such a way that, when folded into the front tracks at a 1-to-1 ratio, the resulting two-track mix was the ideal stereo mix.

The Philips Quadro mixes seemed to use the rear channels more
aggressively, as more of an immerse quad experience.

Steve

[Steve de Mena]

The Steinberg/BSO Planets/Also sprach has shown up in Blu-Ray audio
disc booklets but I haven't seen the actual release yet. All their
recent Blu-Ray audio discs have been 2.0.

Steve

[Steve de Mena]

On 4/20/15 7:20 PM, tomm...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 6:47:53 AM UTC-5, Steven de Mena wrote:
>> On 11/7/14, 1:04 PM, Peter H. wrote:
>
>>> Apologies if this has already been mentioned. I have enjoyed several of the reissues they made of Philips quad recordings. Any titles here of interest to others?
>>>
>>> http://www.pentatonemusic.com/series/4
>>>
>>> I interpret this to mean that they are taking DG 4 and 8 channel
>> master tapes, never intended or originally mixed for "Quad", and
>> mixing them today for quad release. (Why wouldn't they use the .1 sub
>> woofer channel I wonder?)
>>
>> This is unlike Philips, which seemed to make an effort during
>> recording to mic and record the quad sessions for potential quad release.
>
>
> Steven's interpretation is incorrect.
>

I stand corrected. I just thought the timing strange as they've been
releasing all of the Philips Quadro tapes onto SACD but nothing from
DG, and then when the Philips library was depleted than we start
seeing DG releases, which the Pentatone web site does NOT were
originally recorded with quad in mine:

They said: http://www.pentatonemusic.com/ravel-orchestral-works-ozawa

"The seeds were planted in the early 1970s when Deutsche Grammophon
realised what amazing results could be achieved by recording the
multi-channel tapes, with either four or eight channels. Yet, due to a
few restrictions, they never fully blossomed. Flaws in the playback
equipment meant that music connoisseurs were prevented from enjoying
these recordings in the way that artists, producers, engineers and
other professionals intended, even though recording technology was
already way ahead of its time.

Now – over a quarter of a century later – thanks to the arrival of the
multi-channel Super Audio CD, there is finally a system available
which permits these precious recordings to be released in the quality
they already deserved back then.

As a result of PENTATONE’s labour of love of re-recording and
remastering this release, we get to witness and experience all of the
images from different moods and places that Ravel intended to arouse
with his impressionistic pieces. In this release, we are spoiled with
his works such as Le tombeau de Couperin, Menuet antique, Ma mère
l’oye, Valses nobles et sentimentales and Une barque sur l’océan. As
Ravel is famous for his melodies, exquisite orchestration and
imaginative instrumental textures, PENTATONE is equally known for its
superior audio quality, and this handsome collection of orchestral
works on SACD is surely one not to be missed."

SO... I was expecting these releases to be new 5.1 mixes since they
claimed to be "re-recording [what is that?] and remastering"

Steve