Thread: Pentatone RQR, - no Kovacevich Mozart, alas.

Posts: 15
Page: 1 2 next

Post by nucaleena February 17, 2004 (1 of 15)
In corresponsing with Edo Groot of Polyhemia the other day I asked if my equal all-time favourite recording, a disc of Mozart piano concertos 25 & 21 with Kovacevich and Davis, had been recorded in quad sound. There was another Kov. & Davis disc, of 20 & 23 which wasn't in the same league as the 21 & 25 but was still lovely.

I got a reply today from Dirk van Dijk, General Manager of PentaTone Music in which he says "I am afraid that I have to disappoint you. All the Mozart Piano Concertos played by Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich have not been recorded quadraphonic. This implies that we cannot release them in our RQR series. With kind regards" ...etc.

Whilst this is unutterably tragic news for all mozart lovers, its really nice fo Polyhemia to reply so quickly and informatively. This is a company that cares about customer relations, unlike Chandos who haven't replied to any of my emails about 2-channel SACDs. I should give high marks to Opus3 and hyperion too, with whom I 've had some pleasant e-chats (albeit fruitless ones in the case of hyperion).

I've asked Dirk a) what new RQR releases are planned (other than those which Stephen aka Zeus has already been able to tell us about)
and b) if any other Kovacevich recordings (e.g. the other Beethoven concertos, his Bartok etc) were made in quad. I'll post his reply re. Kovacevich for anyone else who's interested.

Oh, and the other equal all-time fav? Gilels playing Beethoven 4 with Ludwig, from 1961, the most recent incarnation being on the Great Pianists series.

Post by Dinko February 17, 2004 (2 of 15)
The folks at Pentatone are great. I've emailed them a couple of times and they always got back with prompt, and very informative replies. Great products, great customer service.

Post by Castor February 18, 2004 (3 of 15)
Forthcoming Pentatone RQR releases up to 1 November 2004 are already listed on the Pentatone website.
They include the complete Beethoven Symphonies by Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, 2 Elly Ameling discs (Mozart and Schubert), Oboe Concertos played by Heinz Holliger,8 Vivaldi Violin Concertos / Accardo etc. Treasures indeed!
Like many who contribute to this forum, I think the Pentatone RQRs are among the best sounding SACDs and look forward to many more releases.
I would be interested to know how extensive is the archive of Philips Quadraphonic tapes available to Pentatone.

Post by nucaleena February 18, 2004 (4 of 15)
Castor said:

Forthcoming Pentatone RQR releases up to 1 November 2004 are already listed on the Pentatone website.
They include the complete Beethoven Symphonies by Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, 2 Elly Ameling discs (Mozart and Schubert), Oboe Concertos played by Heinz Holliger,8 Vivaldi Violin Concertos / Accardo etc. Treasures indeed!
Like many who contribute to this forum, I think the Pentatone RQRs are among the best sounding SACDs and look forward to many more releases.
I would be interested to know how extensive is the archive of Philips Quadraphonic tapes available to Pentatone.

dear castor, thats what i hope to get from them. I knew about the releases already planned until the end of the year because Stephen notified us of them ages ago, but I'd really like to know what else is in the vaults and could be given the RQR treatment. Regardless of when they actually came out, I'd wait for them rather than buy any recent recordings. Beardawgs and I have been discussing this, - my view that the new pentatones (for example, but not exlusively) lack the warmth which the old RQR's have in abundance. Beardawgs' view is that good recording depends more on microphone placing
and natural acoustics than anything else. "They knew where to put their
mics in the 70ties and thanks to the lack of 'sophisticated' sound post
production they relied more on the natural acoustics of the hall. " Whatever the reason, I'll go with the RQR's every time.

Post by Castor February 18, 2004 (5 of 15)
nucaleena said:

dear castor, thats what i hope to get from them. I knew about the releases already planned until the end of the year because Stephen notified us of them ages ago, but I'd really like to know what else is in the vaults and could be given the RQR treatment. Regardless of when they actually came out, I'd wait for them rather than buy any recent recordings. Beardawgs and I have been discussing this, - my view that the new pentatones (for example, but not exlusively) lack the warmth which the old RQR's have in abundance. Beardawgs' view is that good recording depends more on microphone placing
and natural acoustics than anything else. "They knew where to put their
mics in the 70ties and thanks to the lack of 'sophisticated' sound post
production they relied more on the natural acoustics of the hall. " Whatever the reason, I'll go with the RQR's every time.

Dear nucaleena I could not agree more about the warmth on all the RQR discs. The different venues eg Boston Symphony Hall, Watford, Frankfurt Alte Oper are all captured to perfection. I only wish Pentatone could get hold of some the many EMI Quadraphonic recordings issued at the same time, for example the wonderful Strauss discs recorded by Kempe and the Dresden Staatskapelle.

Post by nucaleena February 18, 2004 (6 of 15)
Castor said:

Dear nucaleena I could not agree more about the warmth on all the RQR discs. The different venues eg Boston Symphony Hall, Watford, Frankfurt Alte Oper are all captured to perfection. I only wish Pentatone could get hold of some the many EMI Quadraphonic recordings issued at the same time, for example the wonderful Strauss discs recorded by Kempe and the Dresden Staatskapelle.

dear graham (castor) a great idea, the Kempe set was marvellous. Why don't you, I and beardawgs write to Pentatone and press to see if they could do some sort of deal with EMI. Anyone else who's interested, please do the same.
(BTW, graham, whereabouts do you live in Lancs, - maybe we could temporarily swap a few discs.)

Post by beardawgs February 19, 2004 (7 of 15)
nucaleena said:

dear graham (castor) a great idea, the Kempe set was marvellous. Why don't you, I and beardawgs write to Pentatone and press to see if they could do some sort of deal with EMI. Anyone else who's interested, please do the same.

We started building our SACD collection with RQR Pentatone discs and I still remember all the excitement when we heard for the first time Mozart’s horn concertos. Then we were a bit disappointed with their new recordings, which, IMO are not as natural and warm as their analogue transfers. Paul and I been discussing this issue in private for a while, and as he quoted me, I’m pretty sure that the key to success of those early recordings is simplicity. At least that’s what I’ve learned during experience as a recording technician.

As of EMI’s recordings in quadro, I don’t want to sound like Cassandra, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing them soon on SACD, under any label. EMI’s experiment with DVD-A wasn’t success by any standards – we have a couple of those and listen to them rarely. Kempe’s Strauss is also on DVD-A, we don’t have that one, and if anyone had a chance to hear it please let us know is it any good. EMI giving their quadro recordings to Universal (Pentatone) seems to me very unlikely, but I agree – lets write to both EMI and Pentatone and push them. I’m sure that Pentatone will do much better job than EMI in any option.

Post by zeus February 19, 2004 (8 of 15)
beardawgs said:

As of EMI’s recordings in quadro, I don’t want to sound like Cassandra, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing them soon on SACD, under any label. EMI’s experiment with DVD-A wasn’t success by any standards – we have a couple of those and listen to them rarely. Kempe’s Strauss is also on DVD-A, we don’t have that one, and if anyone had a chance to hear it please let us know is it any good. EMI giving their quadro recordings to Universal (Pentatone) seems to me very unlikely, but I agree – lets write to both EMI and Pentatone and push them. I’m sure that Pentatone will do much better job than EMI in any option.

I gather EMI have now farmed their Classics titles out to DTS. Should PentaTone want a crack at these, they'd likely have to just demonstrate distribution reach, commit to promotion etc. Maybe it'll happen in time. There's a ton of stuff from EMI Classics that I'd love to see on SACD.

Post by Castor February 20, 2004 (9 of 15)
zeus said:

I gather EMI have now farmed their Classics titles out to DTS. Should PentaTone want a crack at these, they'd likely have to just demonstrate distribution reach, commit to promotion etc. Maybe it'll happen in time. There's a ton of stuff from EMI Classics that I'd love to see on SACD.

I fear that you will be proved right, Stephen, with regard to EMI, but another possibility from the 1970s would be the CD-4 Discrete Quadraphonic discs made by RCA. I remember a Shostakovitch 15th Symphony, two volumes of orchestral showpieces called 'The Fantastic Philadelphians', Sibelius Symphony 2, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazde and a Debussy/Ravel collection. All these were played by the Philadelphia Orchestra coducted by Eugene Ormandy and were well received at the time. BMG have shown some interest in SACD and it would be interesting to know if they have these tapes in their vaults.

Post by Dinko February 20, 2004 (10 of 15)
[Dinko drools like Homer Simpson thinking about donuts]
hmmmm... Philadelphia Orchestra on SACD... yummy

The Fantastic Philadelphians sounds excellent on CD. If the SonyBMG merger goes through, then I hope the BMG Classics division will take a greater look at SA-CD. Maybe they can even start releasing internationally all of those Ormandy recordings that BMG Japan have been releasing in their three series of The Eugene Ormandy Edition. Unfortunately, it appears that RCA managed to damage parts of the Ormandy catalog.
The Alexander Nevsky has been restored in 24/96 by BMG Japan, but there is still what sounds like damaged tape wobble at times. I seem to recall an explanation or an excuse from BMG as to the quality of some items in the Ormandy Edition.

Page: 1 2 next

Closed