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Schumann / Lalo - Cello Concertos : Janos Starker : London Symphony : Skrowaczewski - 180g LP

Product no.: SR90347

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Schumann / Lalo - Cello Concertos : Janos Starker : London Symphony : Skrowaczewski - 180g LP

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Description

AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Speakers Corner / Mercury - SR90347 - 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

Schumann: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra / Lalo: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra - Janos Starker and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

"Starker's focused tone and intense style of playing - this isn't a sloppy sort of romanticism - is captured by a recording manifesting natural balances between soloist and orchestra. Tonally, sonics are not particularly bright, as some might expect from Mercury. Skrowaczewski's alert and carefully shaped accompaniment is reproduced with good detail and depth." - Andy Quint, The Absolute Sound

Schumann rapidly composed his Cello Concerto in only two weeks during an extremely productive creative phase. Its first performance was quite another story. Although the piece was written »first and foremost for this beautiful instrument«, so Schumann, no cellist showed any desire to perform the work in concert. Initially the cellist Robert BockmЯhl from Frankfurt had shown interest in the piece, but then declined to play it after Schumann had refused to comply with his wishes for certain changes. This led to the unfortunate fact that Schumann did not live to see the work’s premiere. Things went quite differently with Edouard Lalo, who described himself as a self-taught composer; an excellent cellist himself, Lalo could be sure that his work would be heard in the concert hall.

Both works are connected by the pioneering attempt to establish the cello as a solo instrument in concert life in the 19th century. Right from the fifth bar of the Schumann concerto Janos Starker is able to display his mastership in the expansive main theme. He enjoys to the full the opportunities to explore the instrument’s range of tone and expression, and this he does with clarity and a full tone. In the Lalo too he demonstrates his absolute virtuosity: in the lyrical passages he delights us with a melting cantabile, in the Saltarello finale he demonstrates his perspicacity and fills the triumphant writing with elegance and tonal resonance. Luckily this music has found its way to one of today’s most outstanding cellists.

July 1962 in der Watford Town Hall, England, von C. Robert Fine

Production: Wilma Cozart-Fine und Harold Lawrence

Musicians:

London Symphony Orchestra

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

Janos Starker, cellist

Selections:

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129

Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)

Cello Concerto in D Mionr

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

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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!