Tuesday 28 September 2010

Shows how old I am: yesterday I bought my very first music download (flac files, from Andrew Rose's Pristine Audio). After a bit of faffing around, I managed to find a program that would convert the flac files to wav files that I could write to a music CD. Et voilà! The works I wanted to investigate for their boasted transfer sound qualities were two old Casals recordings: the Brahms double concerto (1929) and the Dvorak cello concerto (1935).

The sound quality was quite astonishingly good (for the vintage of the originals). Three stars for Mr Rose. I have both recordings in other guises, but the Pristine Audio beats them all hands down. As for the works: I have never really taken to the Brahms double concerto, where Brahms' usual muddy, bass-heavy orchestration suits the cello but not really the violin which stands out like a girl in a men's rugby team. Violin and cello make unsatisfactory concerto partners (which is probably why there are not many concertos for violin and cello). Here, Casals sounds magnificent (with a full tone for his cello). Jacques Thibaud hovers in the background, and Alfred Cortot conducts the Catalan orchestra. A classic performance of a less-than satisfactory work.

In the Dvorak concerto, Pau Casals is again magnificent and George Szell and the Czech orchestra now come over in pretty good sound quality. But it's not a concerto I particularly warm to, and I do not think the cello is really cut out to be a bravura solo instrument. Such things are best left to violins or pianos.

5 comments:

Lee said...

Goldwave reads FLAC and then you can convert it into WAV. I am an expert at this now - thanks to you Harry.

As Thibaud, he & I share the same birthday = 27 Sep.

As for Dvorak Cello Concerto - it's a brilliant work and so well written for cello & orchestra. It was a work I had to study for A-level music.

Harry Collier said...

Yesterday, Goldwave would not recognise the Pristine flac files. But I found a little freebie program that does most file conversions, so all was well. As for Dvorak's cello concerto -- tastes vary.

Lee said...

Gramophone listed Casals as the top pick on the Dvorak Cello Conc. They also cited Pristine as the best source. Dutton also have a mastering. How the 2 masterings compare please? I have never bought a Pristine CD/DL ever.

Harry Collier said...

Lee, I don't have the Dutton so cannot comment. However, I have been HIGHLY impressed with the latest batch of Pristine transfers / re-incarnations. The latest -- Heifetz'z 1952 Bach solo works -- is a 100% improvement on any previous versions of these recordings.

Lee said...

Thanks Harry. I have the RCA Heifetz S&P - horrid. I hardly listened to them. The sample Pristine track on their side was excellent - relative to the RCA.