Thread: EMI Music Japan Will Release 5 SACDs of Karajan in April 2013

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Post by Claude February 23, 2013 (11 of 22)
ar80 said:

I'm only the messenger, so please don't shoot me!

Simon, thanks for returning to this forum, despite some negative comments on your work made here. I think the vast majority of the readers here appreciate the input of insiders like you.

It's great to see more EMI classics being releaased in hi-rez. I hope they will also be made available in Europe at some time. Japan SACD imports are expensive, and HDtracks downloads are theoretically only available in the US.

Post by old-dog-newtricks February 23, 2013 (12 of 22)
Claude said:

Simon, thanks for returning to this forum, despite some negative comments on your work made here. I think the vast majority of the readers here appreciate the input of insiders like you.

That's a +1 from me too. I have thoroughly enjoyed my EMI SACDs. My fingers are crossed for Simon.

Post by petrushka1975 February 23, 2013 (13 of 22)
ar80 said:

Stereo remasters only. And yes, the source audio for HDtracks files is the remastered 9624 WAV file we produced for the SACDs.
We are all wondering what will happen to Classics - we know no more than anyone else! In the menatime, Japan keeps us busy.

That's great. There are so many wonderful titles in this project. My personal favorites are the Giesking Debussy, the Fischer-Dieskau Schubert, and the Furtwangler Ring and Tristan. They sound so good (in mono or stereo, who cares) on my Wilson speakers with such abundance of detail, air and warmth. Frankly I don't know what the detractors are complaining about.

Post by samayoeruorandajin February 23, 2013 (14 of 22)
I want the Sawallisch Schumann recordings. I never thought the later remasterings of these were as good as the original masterings that were on RBCD in the 80s.

Post by ramesh February 26, 2013 (15 of 22)
I'd like to ask Mr Gibson if he is able to comment on his new remasterings of the Karajan digital recordings from the early 1980s- specifically the overtures/intermezzi and the Sibelius 1, 2 and 6.
I bought all of these on their first CD transfers, but when I bought my first 'audiophile' CD player, a Denon circa 1995, their shortcomings were quite apparent compared to the Sibelius recorded in analogue, both from EMI and the 1960s DGG, and also to the Richard Strauss tone poems. This was a great pity, since Karajan and the BPO gave unsurpassed performances of S2 and 6 in particular. I gave away those CDs- I recall that in the ethereal fadeout of the strings, for instance in the final bars of the Sixth, instead of the sound fading from mp to pp to ppp, on my system it was 'quantised' at ppp, i.e. going from ppp to inaudibility to ppp again, and repeated!

Is there anything you were able to wrest from the master tapes?

I do plan to order the Mozart wind concertos and Strauss sets without waiting for any reviews, based on the quality of the transfers that Abbey Road have recently given us.

Post by SACD Hunter February 26, 2013 (16 of 22)
chenzl said:

Are these Hybrid releases?

Vaan said:

Karajan didn´t record the Sibelius 7 with BPO for EMI.

According to the latest information from Japan, I revised some of the details of my original post:

EMI Music Japan (formerly Toshiba/EMI from 1973 to 2007) will release 5 single layer SACDs of recordings of Karajan on April 10, 2013. The titles are as follows:

TOGE-15097~99 (3 Discs) Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 29, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Karajan, 1960, 1970)
JPY6960 (ca. USD74)

TOGE-15100~02 (3 Discs) Mozart: Wind Concertos - Clarinet Concerto / Bassoon Concerto / Flute Concerto No. 1 / Oboe Concerto / Concerto for Flute and Harp / Sinfonia Concertante for Winds / Serenade No. 13 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" (Leister, clarinet / Piesk, bassoon / Blau, flute / Koch, oboe / Galway, flute / Helmis, harp / Stahr, clarinet / Hauptmann, horn / Braun, bassoon / Steins, oboe / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Karajan, 1971, 1959)
JPY6960 (ca. USD74)

TOGE-15103~05 (3 Discs) Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Don Quixote, Sinfonia Domestica (Rostropovich / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Karajan, 1974, 1975, 1973)
JPY6960 (ca. USD74)

TOGE-15106~09 (4 Discs) Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 / Orchestral Works - Karelia Suite / Valse Triste / Finlandia / En Saga / Tapiola / The Swan of Tuonela (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Karajan, 1976, 1980, 1981)
JPY8450 (ca. USD90)

TOGE-15110 Overtures & Intermezzi - Massenet: Meditation from Thais / Cherubini: Anacreon Overture / Weber: Der Freischütz Overture / Schmidt: Notre Dame Intermezzo / Puccini: Suor Angelica Intermezzo / Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo / Mascagni: L'Amico Fritz Intermezzo / Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel Overture (Mutter / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Karajan, 1980, 1981)
JPY3980 (ca. USD42)

Post by petrushka1975 February 27, 2013 (17 of 22)
ar80 said:

Stereo remasters only. And yes, the source audio for HDtracks files is the remastered 9624 WAV file we produced for the SACDs.
We are all wondering what will happen to Classics - we know no more than anyone else! In the menatime, Japan keeps us busy.

I've read that many of the titles on HDTracks.com come from SACD -> PCM conversions done by Bruce Brown at Puget Sound Studios. In this case, the labels authorize HDTracks to rip the SACDs rather than providing a PCM master, and HDTracks.com contracts Bruce to do the ripping.

Is this true for the EMI Classics titles as well?

Post by ar80 March 4, 2013 (18 of 22)
Definitely NOT. We supply the original 9624 PCM remastered files, which are the sources for the DSD conversions.

Post by rmathuln March 4, 2013 (19 of 22)
Chris said:

Not that I am planning to buy any of these on SACD at Japanese prices, I already have them all on LPs.
But imho the opposite applies SQ wise DGG versus EMI. The SQ on most, but not all, of these recordings from EMI's Wolfgang Gülich are clearly better than his DGG releases from the same period.
The EMI recordings are much more naturally balanced with far fewer mikes employed. WG used only about half the number of mikes that DGG did in the same venue in those days.The EMI's are much more realistic and closer to how that in those days, absolutely SUPERB orchestra sounded live.
I wouldn't know what pcm remastering has done to the SQ. But as released on LP some of these recordings were imho SOTA.

I agree totally. Another factor that often made the EMI recordings sound warmer and less harsh was the use of the Jesus-Chistus Kirche instead of the Philharmonie. Good example are the EMI recordings from the early 1970s of the Tchaikovsky last three symphonies.

Post by petrushka1975 March 4, 2013 (20 of 22)
ar80 said:

Definitely NOT. We supply the original 9624 PCM remastered files, which are the sources for the DSD conversions.

Will all the titiles remastered by Abbey Road for Japan eventually be made available for download (including the Furtwangler ones)? Thanks.

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