Revisiting the 2012 era Beatles remastered lps

 There have been countless re-issues of the Beatles studio albums since there first issues mono with the much acclaimed 2014 Beatles In Mono series which you could buy disc by disc as I did or as a box set and the stereo series which can be divided between those cut prior to 1987 using analogue tape to the cutting lathe and those after that used digital files of which the last whole set was issued in 2012.

That last series was based upon the digital re-masters that were issued with much fanfare on September 9th 2009 where the overall sound was shaped, clicks and the like removed and on the cd and usb stick versions a "small" amount of limiting applied.

When the record counterparts were announced audiophiles were not too happy that what was used to make the cds was going to play a big part of them rather than cutting and mastering from tape.

The ensuing row lead to the mono records being cut from tape.

Back in 2012 I was torn around this vinyl as I had by that point good sounding British stereo records collected over time from the 70's and 80's and apart from the Past Masters compilation of singles, an extended play record and two german language singles what could it offer me?

I bought the Magical Mystery Tour album as the 1976 UK edition had its issues like three songs in fake stereo which was pretty decent but three others did put me off.

Revolver and the White Album were altered on the cds, revolver losing some high notes not least on She Said She said and both to my ears seemed to have excessive bass and that carried over the record edition.

In some respects the oddest was Abbey Road where while many contend it was tinkered with a very clear cd seemed to loose a bagful of detail and top on the European Pressing.

I did accidentally get a US pressed version which sounded much better despite the odd minor pressing defect.

"What gives? " was very much my thought which brings up something which is a person can cut a lacquer but the plating can affect the sound too and with last example something went badly wrong on the German pressed editions.

A thought lingering for many years as I put any notion of buying any others on hold was could it be the others *might* of been capable of more than I heard because of this.

Because what you have may be good doesn't mean it is perfect and that is quite true of their first album, Please Please Me  which had the first single Love Me Do and it's b side in fake stereo which does not sound good at all while the 2009 cd series restored the album on cd to stereo but had those two tracks in mono.

Recently I did get a copy of the 2012 lp and on balance feel being a bit more dynamic, having a bit more bass and putting those two track in their original mono makes for better listen.

Another I tried was part of short lived magazine with a record series devoted to the beatles from around 2017 where the album was recut at Abbey Road studios by Sean Magee but plated and pressed by MPO in France.

It comes with all the extras, a booklet with the original 1987 notes on the album and cut outs.

The only minor irritant is the Italian SAIE tax sticker on the bottom right of the rear jacket.

This cut is a bit louder, using more of the vinyl area than the ones used in 2012 being a complete recut and it does miss off the 15khz dog whistle and jibberish on side two's end like North American originals like my Canadian Capitol did unlike British copies.

It does sound really good, smoother with deeper bass and even a bit more detail at the start of A Day In The Life compared to my mid 70's UK copy.

For just £24 delivered it's a great bargain.

How do I conclude this?

The 2009 cd series were a mixed bag, better booklets, sometimes bloated bass and questionable choices all impacted to varying degrees by that decision to apply limiting that in the case of the cd of Sgt Pepper does take away the power of the crescendo and coda decaying.

The best discs of that series such as Beatles For Sale, Please Please Me and With The Beatles in the remastered lp series transferred to great sounding lps that are rewarding.

Sgt Pepper which on cd sounded smoother gained from losing all the limiting making for a fantastic new lp that had extras no original did.

I would not recommend White Album  A Hard Day's Night and Revolver as the base mastering on the cd is flawed and Help and Rubber Soul use remixes that are too modern and obvious with their echo.

There are people who did like the MPO 2017 Abbey Road and that may be worth exploring but certainly using digital mastering doesn't mean a lp has to be bad and some of these are among my most impressive buys.

Mozart and his Requiem: a new recording

This week we going back to music I know, the first cd of this work I bought was way back in 1991 during the Two hundredth anniversary of one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's  death in 1791 as part of a special budget price collection.

Time moves on, those recordings from the 1960's and 70's featured full orchestras and modern instruments that were unknown of in Mozart's own day so many have attempted to strip his music back to that with period instruments and so-called (and still controversial in some circles) Historically Informed Performance techniques.

Mozart's KV 626 Requiem was the last work he wrote and was not complete at the time of death and questions around how much of it really is Mozart's vision or how much is more completed in the style of have always been around not that as a music lover I get too hung up such things.

To me the question is more how satisfying the work turns out however it completed and in the case of a piece such as a requiem what it says to us as human beings about the nature of how we mark the death loved ones and those emotions.

If, like me you were brought up with catholicism, Roman Catholic or Anglo-Catholic via the Anglican Church much of this resonates most strongly.

For this performance Jordi Savall conducts Le Concert des Nations with La Capalle Nacional de Catalunya, keeping much of the richness in bringing to life the impassioned fervour of the Roman Catholic Faith and the hope of divine mercy for our sins that runs through the setting of the requiem sung in Latin with just twenty choristers.

It's not envisioned in this interpretation about clear outlines of the score with the work that was necessary that one may dissect and examine with an analytical mind when it come to the scoring, it is above all a felt experience.

And it works well.

Technically this cd by AltaVox of France is a Super Audio cd with a layer for regular cd players.

Enjoying the view

The weather for most of this week to be honest has not been good at all with heavy showers for much of the time and strong winds that saw me attempt to retrieve many tings from near our sheds (yes there's two!) that had blown into our garden and beyond such as a box that had gotten to next street!!!

It's not that between all of that I hadn't been out, I had but frankly the conditions were hardly suited to any real sort of photography unless you're into water spotted pictures as they land on the camera's lens which being a zoom one with a protective shutter for when not in use is a pig to clean.

This though was something I did manage to get on a better day when I walked along to the canal one morning and spotted this scene as the barge makes its way into the "village" centre to moor up and use local facilities before moving on towards Macclesfield or further into North Staffordshire.

Looking forward to the Coronation

 

It all kicks off this weekend, the Coronation that is so far we've had events in schools and tonight there's a special concert from this area broadcast nationally with specially commissioned works that I'll be tuned to on the radio.

There have been various programs on the tv looking at the King's life, not least his childhood which of necessity had to different that of many of us and the events that have lead up this important event in national life coming as it does close to the seventieth anniversary of our late Queen Elizabeth  before sadly she passed away.

Bits around the ceremony have been drip feed from those who will be performing at a special concert, the attendees of the coronation ceremony itself world Heads of State, ambassadors, the "great and the good" of our own Country and that of the Commonwealth of Nations and the form the service will take.

It's something I'm looking forward to seeing and mixing with member of my own commonity as we mark this event.