You’re in good company because the Society of Dilettanti was formed to support the opera of Handel and led to the formation of the Royal Academy of Arts, which thrives to this day. I can’t claim to know much about anything, but my main interest is ballet and contemporary dance, and I can tell right from wrong in that department. Maybe I’m missing something with DSD, I did try it, but I have no issue with the playback quality of 16/44 PCM. The Lost in Venice recording was a bit like having 5 perfectly cooked ingredients, but they don’t combine to make a satisfying plate of food. My stereo system has a very low noise floor and sounds very clear to me, but the addition of a Shunyata Hydra Alpha conditioner about 3 years ago made a significant difference. It addresses several fundamental issues of good audio performance (noise reduction, component isolation, grounding, etc, and it does it passively). I just think that hifi reproduction is usually so far away from the experience of a real performance that a lot of it is chasing some sort of ideal that doesn’t exist. The Lost in Venice recording seems to show up DSD as an ideal that actually takes away from the potential realism of a recording because of the insurmountable processing limitations f DSD that are really needed for a moderate sized band.
I do find it ironic that Paul bashes on about how bad PCM is, people not caring and ProTools like it’s the devil incarnate, but it seems that when mixing of a stereo recording is required Pyramix offers a superb set of tools - using DXD for capture and mixing, that can be output as DSD if required. They recommend that only one conversion takes place, because the conversion generates high frequency noise.
My theory is that this format thing has a lot to do with how you choose the music you want to listen to. I read the reviews in Gramophone (over 30 years), more recently Jazzwise, and occasionally HiFi News & Record Review. I get to hear a lot of new music through dance. I go to recitals and often hear music I am unfamiliar with and explore it more widely. I buy or stream recordings by favoured performers even if I know nothing about the music (Pavel Kolesnikov is a good example, his performances and recordings are always interestingly programmed). Of course this is how many people make their choices (I’ve not mentioned the old-fashioned way - listening to the radio).
I do get 100% DSD transfers from tape, because that’s the reason why DSD was developed in the first place. I also get the live recording approach like Channel Classics, but I enjoy the PCM versions. If your method of choice is based on the perceived quality of a format, that’s fine, but to me it’s not got much to do with music. I’ve bought three Octave (I think), one was some demo tracks to see if I could hear the difference between DSD and PCM, a jazz one because it sounded promising but there were some recording issues and to me it didn’t hang together, and another one that sounded like a mediocre X-factor audition. Anyway, the music they record doesn’t interest me and I’m not going listen to it just for the format. My system can only play DSD64 and it converts it to 40/352 or 40/384 PCM, so it would never remain as DSD anyway.
Good to have company enjoying the music together. I can definitely tell the system has improved over years by listening to this CD, which I had a for a long time. Now I have that front row feel.
You’ve probably not heard about him as he is not a recording artist, primarily a teacher and runs a couple of music festivals in his native Italy.
There is a splendid recording by Alina Ibragimova. She is a force of nature, a Russian who came to the UK as a young child when her mother was appointed as violin teacher at the Menuhin School. Another of her mother’s students, Nicola Benedetti, became a lifelong friend. As students they performed at the great man’s funeral. My wife calls her a force of nature. The energy in her live performance is compelling.
Her Ysaye was recorded at Nimbus’ concert hall at Wyastone, built primarily for recording, used by several labels including Hyperion. It’s a straight 3 hour drive from London, so very convenient. It has a superb acoustic for solo and chamber music.
Shame on me for not having listened to Jack Leibeck’s acclaimed recent recording, because his father is a friend of mine. It has a feature article and review in Gramophone November 2021 issue. I think I shall listen to it now.
Jack’s recording was done at the Henry Wood Hall in London. This is a favoured location for many decades, with a great acoustic. Here’s Jack doing his thing:
This venue was also used by Alina for her most recent solo recording, which is spellbinding. Back in the summer of 2020 I asked her what she did in lockdown and she said she just played Paganini 8 hours per day, every day, for 2 months. This is the result. It was actually recorded in lockdown conditions, her in the hall, the producer and engineer in separate rooms upstairs.
I’ve not heard any recordings by Alina Ibragimova, yet I know her name. I shall have to seek out some of her recordings for a listen. The Ysaÿe would be a wonderful place for me to start.
Alina performs mostly in the UK and Europe and mainly chamber music, although I did hear he play Mozart’s 4th violin concerto with the London Symphony conducted but Bernard Haitink. I’ve not heard her recently, I had a ticket for a lunchtime recital at Flagey in Brussels in July, we had something there in the evening, I never got to it. She was playing Eugène Ysaÿe, Poème élégiaque, you can’t got to Belgium and not play some Ysaÿe. I’ve heard her play all the Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, the former were recorded live at Wigmore Hall and released on their label, the latter were recorded at Wyastone during the performance cycle and issued by Hyperion. also several Shostakovich pieces in the last couple of years.
First listen this morning. A collection of bits and pieces. So far, seems nicely played. (Released 2016)
Later: …competent, but uninspired. Missing the joie de vivre Rachel Podger always demonstrates on violin, or the humor and shear fun of Dana Zemtsov on viola.
I don’t stream, but I found that I can get some limited streaming through my local library. And thus I found Alina Ibragimova playing Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 at Wigmore Hall. Very nice! Very much in a different style compared to Rachel Podger’s most recent release. Well worth seeking out more of Ibragimova’s recordings.
This is a wonderful and critically acclaimed recording of two of the “cello” suites on viola. I’ve mentioned it before.
Inserting some of Signs, Games & Messages by György Kurtág is something Steven Isserlis when I heard him play the Bach cello suites (over two evenings). They are remarkable in saying so much with so little. I heard the piece * Eine Blume für Tabea * on this recording at a recital earlier this month (Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit).
I have her volume 1 and agree with you. And I thought her inclusion of Reger on that album was very nice. I did not know she’d released a second volume with the other two Bach pieces and now with Kurtag. I will have to get that.
Podger seems rooted in the 18thC. Ibragimova has a far wider repertoire. They are very different.
Some years go Ibragimova was afforded the rare privilege of performing the Bach sonatas and partitas over two nights at the Proms. Solo performances are offered to very few - the recording recently uploaded by the BBC mentions only the likes of Andrew Schiff and Yo-Yo Ma are given the honour. These follow after the main orchestral event.
Performing large chunks of Bach, solo, no score, in front of 5,500 people at the largest and most famous music festival in the world takes guts. These were considered the highlight of that year’s programme. Watching this video sends shivers down my spine.
Sales come and go so quickly, and I’m sure we don’t need to post something about every one. But, a 50% sale across the entire Outhere family of labels (Linn Records, Channel Classics, Alpha, Analekta, Arcana, and others) seemed like something classical music lovers would be disappointed to miss.
This 2004 DSD Delos recording features music that is a fusion of modern western and Chinese musical idioms. It also happens to be very well recorded, an excellent demonstration quality recording.
@stevensegal prompted me to get this and I’m playing it for the first time. And, I’m enjoying it very much. While many years separate this Vol. II from her Vol. I, her playing is similarly very engaging. And I’m very much enjoying her decision to include Kurtag this time around. Nice to now have a complete set of the Suites for Solo Cello arranged for viola from Ms. Zimmermann.
As noted in the Gramophone review, one of the pieces “…Eine Blume für Tabea…” was written for TZ by Georgi Kurtag following the death of her husband, the conductor David Shallon. It is a haunting minute of two voices talking through time. I heard it played live a few weeks ago in a violin and viola duet. It is far more taxing as a solo piece.
These things don’t happen by accident. Stephen Isserlis, also a good friend of Kurtag, talked about it in this pair of Bach cello sonatas/Kurtag recitals back in 2016 (still remembered like yesterday):
