Speakers Corner / Decca - SXL 2030 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl
AAA 100% Analogue - Audiophile Mastering - Pressed at Pallas Germany
Jean Sibelius (1885–1957) composed songs from the beginning almost to the end of his lifetime. Shortly before his death, he arranged the piece, which closes this album, "Kom nu hit, Död", and so opened a stylistic gateway to Modernity. All the songs in this collection were composed around 1900 and are filled with Late Romantic harmony, a glorious sound and emotional feeling. The song "Svatar Rosor" is immersed in an alternating bath of major and minor to evoke a dramatic and tragic mood, while the wonderfully colourful "Den Första Kyssen", op. 37 no. 1 depicts in music a girl’s dialogue with the evening star. And with "Flickan kom ..." op. 37 no. 5 and "Var det en dröm" op. 37 no. 4, a powerful vocal drama is placed alongside a lyrical gem.
Of the latter work Sibelius allegedly said: »Here you are, this is my most beautiful song! Without a doubt, Kirsten Flagstad is the ideal singer for this repertoire. Her highly dramatic soprano voice rises monumentally over the surging orchestral sound but dims down appropriately and effortlessly in the hushed passages.
Wagnerians, Strauss lovers and fans of grand romantic gesture will thoroughly enjoy this LP.
Musicians:
Kirsten Flagstad, soprano
London Symphony Orchestra
Oivin Fjeldstad, conductor
Selections:
Jean Sibelius (1885-1957)
Side I:
1. Om Kvallen, Op. 17, No. 6
2. Var det en drom, Op. 37, No. 4
3. Hostkvall, Op. 38, No. 1
4. Demanten pa Marssnon, Op. 36, No. 6
5. Flickan kom ifran sin alsklings mote, Op. 37, No. 5
6. Arioso, Op. 3
7. Varen flyktar hastigt, Op. 13, No. 4
Side II:
8. Se'n har jag ej fragat mera, Op. 17, No. 1
9. Men min Fagel marks dock icke, Op. 36, No. 2
10. Pa Verandan vid Havet, Op. 38, No. 2
11. Den Forsta Kyssen, Op. 37, No. 1
12. Svarta Rosor, Op.36, No. 1
13. Saf, saf, susa, Op. 36, No. 4
14. Kom nu hit, Dod!, Op. 60, No. 1
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.
