AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Speakers Corner / Decca SET 325/6 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue
Limited Edition - Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas Germany
Speakers Corner 25 Years Pure Analogue This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production
Mahler - Symphony No. 2, Resurrection / Heather Harper, Helen Watts and the London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra / Solti
The search for the extra-musical world in Gustav Mahler’s philosophical and programmatic works will doubtless continue to occupy future generations of music scholars. Today’s music lovers, however, are wholly satisfied with the highly varied interpretations and impressive sound reproduction – which is precisely what Mahler himself wished for his rugged works. For decades Mahler’s dramatic musical masterpieces were misunderstood and scorned as “kapellmeister music”. Luckily interest in his works was revived and all nine symphonies were recorded in the 1960s by the recently deceased conductor Sir Georg Solti. Right up to this very day, his cycle has clearly lost nothing of its aura, its reputation for “never having been surpassed” – how could it otherwise have been so successful for so many years in the light of all the highly competitive, more recent recordings?
After the success of the new pressing of Mahler’s First Symphony (DECCA SXL 6113), it was high time that the Resurrection-Symphony became available on LP once more. And the result is most impressive. One can only hope that the complete Mahler cycle will one day be resurrected in vinyl.
Though never wanting in artistic temperament, [Helen Watts] was a model colleague, always well-prepared and ready to sing a fully invested performance. Her voice, of medium size though firmly focused, had a plushness that often made it seem larger than its actual size. She began by specializing in Handel and Bach, but grew artistically to become an exemplary singer of Mahler and Wagner." - Erik Eriksson,
"Heather Harper, one of the most recorded singers of her time, made an extraordinary transition from a lyric soprano in the English pastoral tradition to a spinto-weight artist of great power and authority. While her earliest appearances and recordings brought to mind such other singers as Isobel Baillie and Jennifer Vyvyan, her prime years showed a voice that had grown in size and roundness while retaining its initial flexibility." -
Musicians:
- Heather Harper
- Helen Watts
- London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
- Sir Georg Solti (conductor)
Recording : May 1966 at Kingsway Hall, London by Gordon Parry
Production: David Harvey
Selections:
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
1. Symphony No. 2 (resurrection)
Side 1
1. Allegro maestoso
Side 2
2. Andante con moto
3. In sehr ruhig fliessender Bewegung
Side 3
4. “Urlicht”: Sehr faierlich, aber Schlicht
5. Part 1 – In tempo des Scherzos, wild herausfahrend
Side 4
5. Part 2 – Wieder zuruckhaltend…Der grosse appell…Conclusion
25 Years pure Analogue
Are your records completely analogue?
Yes! This we guarantee!
As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time
Are your records cut from the original masters?
In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.
Who cuts the records?
In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes.
Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s.
Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive.
So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source!
Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers.
In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers.
In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.
60 Years Pallas
Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!
