Previn Britten Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra Reviews

Likewise, Variations on a Theme of Frank Span. Benjamin Britten; London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra. JVC XRCD 0226-two.

While upgrading to new and amend hardware is always fun and nigh oftentimes rewarding, if one can afford information technology, the struggle to notice suitable software--similar audiophile LPs, tapes, CDs, or DVDs--to practice the new equipment justice has long haunted the audiophile. Open-reel master tapes would seem to be the ideal answer only patently impractical. Directly-to-disc and half-speed remastered LP recordings took up some of the slack in the old vinyl days, with gold discs taking their place early on in the meaty-disc era. Only now that the golden disc has pretty much gone the way of the dodo, one has fewer choices.

Understand, during all the time I reviewed gilded discs from Mobile Fidelity, Sheffield Labs, DCC, Chesky, Compact Classics, and the like, I often constitute improvements in the sound of the gilt over their silver counterparts; but as I said time and over again, they never convinced me it was actually the gilt-foil that contributed to the sound'southward edification so much every bit information technology was their superior transfer engineering. The gold, I e'er figured, might have just added to the discs' allure and justified their loftier cost. Careful, proficient, and time-consuming engineering of the tape to disc is where I considered the improvements to have come. This is where JVC, the Victor Corporation of Japan, entered the scene some years ago, followed by other companies like FIM/LIM and Hi-Q. The folks at JVC have eschewed the aureate-plating road and gone with the best possible transference to silver disc, first remastering some of RCA'south best "Living Stereo" recordings and so doing some of Decca's older product, such every bit here in their XRCD24 processing system.

Nigh of JVC's choices accept been consensus classics, and in the comparisons I've made with dozens of discs, I take establish improvements--some slight, to be sure--in JVC's production over the conventional equivalent. The folks at JVC have as well packaged the production handsomely in Digipak-type foldout albums. Unfortunately, JVC accept non eschewed the aureate-disc price. They accept been issuing exactly the same content as on the original LPs--no more, no less--and at a price almost double the cost of the conventional compact disc. Worth it? Not for about people, and, in fact, not for me if I didn't already own the things I've gotten so far and didn't already beloved each and every 1 of them. Permit me but say I have non been entirely disappointed. The sonic improvements take ranged from barely aural, maybe not audible at all and simply imagined, to conspicuously audible and extremely worthwhile. In most cases, the improvements take unremarkably been in all-around smoothness, oft in definition, and sometimes in dynamic impact, bass extension, and full general tautness.

Yet it's here that we run into the old audiophile vs. sceptic argument: The audiophile will contend that if you cannot hear the differences, it is because your equipment is not good plenty to reveal them. Conversely, the sceptic will argue that if you hear differences, it's considering y'all desire to hear the differences, especially if you've just laid out a chunk of greenbacks for the new production.

My advice: Try ane of these audiophile discs for yourself. Compare it to your onetime disc. If you hear no departure, accept it dorsum and never purchase another one. Information technology'southward that simple. Here are a few JVC remasterings in which I have personally establish some sonic improvement: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with Van Cliburn (JMXR24004); Stravinsky's Rite of Leap with Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony (JVCXR-0225-2); Offenbach's Gaite Parisienne with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (JVCXR-0224-ii); and Rimsky-Korsakoff'south Scheherazade (JMCXR-0015), Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (JMCXR-0020), Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (JMCXR-0007), Respighi's Pines of Rome (JMCXR-0008), and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (JMCXR-0016), all with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony.

Now to the field of study at hand, Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra:

Benjamin Britten wrote what he initially called The Instruments of the Orchestra for a school children'due south pic in 1946, basing his music on a hornpipe theme by Henry Purcell. The idea was to highlight and showcase each family of instruments in the symphony orchestra. Information technology may seem overly simple to some listeners and perchance fifty-fifty clumsily constructed, simply it hit a chord with the public and continues to make for delightful listening, particularly when presented and then felicitously by the composer himself and the London Symphony Orchestra in this 1964 recording. Britten conducts the piece at a rather quick but enlivening pace, and it's done without narration so you can improve bask the music. Also on the disc we notice Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Span (Bridge existence his mentor), played by the English Sleeping room Orchestra and recorded in 1968. The Decca disc's inclusion of the Simple Symphony was not a part of the original Decca LP and is, therefore, absent on this JVC edition.

So how is JVC's remastering of these Britten chestnuts? Commencement, although I'd had the Decca disc for a very long  time, I had never really idea of it equally an audiophile favorite earlier. It was always a good-sounding disc but zip especially transparent or realistic in any audiophile fashion. Anyhow, when listening to an A-B comparison of the Decca with the JVC, the most noticeable differences showed upwards during the Young Person'due south Guide in terms of the JVC'south very slightly greater smoothness. Whereas the original Decca disc sounded a tad glassy, steely, and hard, the JVC remastering seemed a touch softer, the edges delicately smoother, rounder, and easier on the ear. Other differences sounded more subtle, with the JVC remastering being perhaps a touch more dynamic overall and firmer in the bass.

Here's the affair, though: My listening did not settle the matter of which disc was "best"; that is, which disc sounded more than like the primary tape. Usually, one can tell when a deviation in sound is an improvement; information technology usually manifests itself, as I've said, in an increased clarity, resolution, dynamic dissimilarity, bass tautness, etc., oft along with increased smoothness. But without access to the master tape and direct A-B testing of the remastered product, one can never be sure. It is always possible, for instance, that in this instance the JVC engineers simply softened the sound, either by intent or past blow, making it announced smoother and easier on the ear; or that they may accept gotten it exactly correct, duplicating the actual sound of the master tape. As I say, without my having access to the master tape, I tin can never know for sure. Therefore, "best" in this instance becomes a affair of which disc appears to a listener as preferable according to taste, not which ane is more accurate, and for me that was the JVC by a slim margin.

The accompanying Frank Span Variations, however, reveal much less of a difference, indeed, practically none at all, and I daresay in a blind exam I wouldn't be able to tell the JVC remaster from the Decca original. Sonically, and then, the disc's coupling becomes moot.

Then, would I recommend the JVC disc to anyone? No; it'south nonetheless as well much an open question for me, the differences beingness likewise small on which to build a case. Too, the disc is costly; it excludes the Unproblematic Symphony plant on the Decca disc; and the small, admittedly controversial sonic improvements I heard show up only in the Young Person's Guide. Yes, I did bask the smoother sound of the JVC, but perhaps not plenty to recommend one'southward paying double the Decca disc's price for it.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

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Source: https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2012/11/britten-young-persons-guide-to.html

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