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Categories CLASSICAL Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue & An American In Paris : Leonard Bernstein - 180g LP
Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue & An American In Paris : Leonard Bernstein - 180g LP
Product no.: MS6091Usually 7-21 Days
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AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Speakers Corner / Columbia - MS 6091 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl
AAA 100% Analogue - Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas Germany
Speakers Corner 30 Years Pure Analogue This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production
George Gershwin: "Rhapsody In Blue", "An American In Paris" - The Columbia Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Silent surfaces, rich tonality and impressive dynamics -- musical qualities that leave my CD transfer sounding distinctly thin and threadbare and elevate this disc to essential status The Audio Beat
Both recordings feature excellent string tone and dynamic range, but the treble in the Rhapsody has greater sparkle. By any standards though this is excellent sound and a big improvement on the first UK label pressing it was compared to. - Classical Source
This fast and furious orchestral work with piano, which begins with what must surely be the most famous clarinet glissando of modern times, was composed with the intention of presenting as many facets as possible of music from the New World in short space of around 15 minutes. In his "Rhapsody In Blue", Gershwin wanted to "paint a musical kaleidoscope of America - our enormous melting pot, our typical national traits, our blues, our seething city life".
With this in mind, Leonard Bernstein made a number of recordings of the work and among the many excellent recordings that he made as a conductor or as a soloist, this present version, with the Columbia Symphony from 1959, is especially of note. Bernstein takes on a double function as conductor and soloist and maneuvers his way safely and surely through the highly diversified score to create a well-rounded picture filled with hefty orchestral dynamics and finely chiseled solo playing. In Gershwin's freely composed work the soloist and orchestra do not resort to bombastic shock effects or egomaniac keyboard acrobatics, and so this the work can be described as rhapsodic in the very best sense of the word.
The superb New York Philharmonic paint the impressions of a visitor to the hectic French capital city - that too is the sound of America.
The piano sound, although slightly distant, is far better than I’m used to from contemporary Columbia discs. I don’t have a US-pressed original of this record, although it is both cheap and readily available (at least in America), which might have you wondering why Speakers Corner would bother to reissue this popular disc. The answer to that lies in the silent surfaces, rich tonality and impressive dynamics -- musical qualities that leave my CD transfer sounding distinctly thin and threadbare and elevate this disc to essential status. The CD allows you to hear just how good the performances are, but it took this LP to match them with impressive sound. - TheAudioBeat
Musicians:
New York Philharmonic
The Columbia Symphony
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
George Gershwin
Rhapsody In Blue
An American In Paris
Recorded June 1959 and December 1958 at St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, New York.
AAA 100% Analogue This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 25 Years pure Analogue
MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
AAA 100% ANALOGUE - PURE ANALOGUE AUDIOPHILE MASTERING
We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios Worldwide
180 GRAM VIRGIN VINYL PLATED & PRESSED AT PALLAS GERMANY
Faithful Reproduction of the Original Artwork and Labels
LIMITED EDITION Released in Limited Quantities
All Licences and Mechanical Rights Paid
25 Years pure Analogue
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head
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.
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!
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