1950's Unfiltered: The Beecham Scheherazade (1957)
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- Опубликовано: 22 май 2023
- Fifties Unfiltered: The Beecham Scheherazade
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35
(After the "1001 Nights")
1. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship (0:08)
2. The Story of the Kalender Prince (10:12)
3. The Young Prince and the Young Princess (22:17)
4. The Festival of Bagdad - The Sea - The
Ship Goes to Pieces on on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior (33:03)
Steven Staryk - Solo violin
Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded on March 17-19/23, 1957
at Kingsway Hall, London
The Beecham Scheherazade has the historic distinction of being so successful since its original issue in 1958 that it has never been "cut out" from distribution. Joining the Reiner Version (Also coming), it has been seen as the one the greatest recordings of this piece from that era of early stereo. Critics and collectors alike were just dazzled by the fidelity of the original LP. Every effort has been made to preserve that sound here.
Fifties Unfiltered is a series of issues on this channel that seek to present original recordings from the early stereo period without filtering or alteration of any kind. Often these recordings have been re-mixed for modern issue by the major labels to the detriment of their original sound.
The present recording is taken from 20th Century digital transfers made without processing, and fully optimized at 24-bit for issue on RUclips. This allows modern listeners to hear these great recordings, as closely as possible, to what they originally sounded like when issued.
NOTE:
All recordings from the 1950s have tape hiss. It is part of the original sound. The final image in all from this series features the original cover art as it appeared on the LP.
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Видеоклипы
What a phenomenal, "broad" sound. Thank you!
As one who grew up with stereo LP's from this era, I love the sound. If balanced properly with good center fill like this, l think they are exquisite. I thoroughly agree that many supposed remasterings have been detrimental to the original recordings. It's a nice interpretation and performance, too. Thanks much, Paul.
Une très bonne version que je connaissais pas, et pourtant je dois avoir une douzaine de Scheherazade !
Un grand merci de l'avoir postée.
Thanks for this upload. It is good to be able to access famous recordings in this way. As a non-technical person could you explain how this upload is different from previous incarnations? I presume it is taken from a commercially available CD?
It is taken from an early CD published in the 1980s, when the master tapes were playable, and the digital mastering involved simply aligning the tape machine and transferring the recording. After getting complaints about tape hiss, the labels began to re-issue with noise reduction, reshaping, and worst of all, convolution. This destroyed the fidelity. Compare this to other uploads(including the one from Warner), and you'll hear what I mean. By the early 21st century, most analogue tapes became too delicate to play, and many required baking. Once distributors realized the risk of remastering from them, they started using 1610 or 1730s, M-Discs, and solid state sourcing. New issues are almost never from the master tapes these days, and almost all of the studios who knew how to work with them are are gone now.
@@RS3DArchive Thanks for the detailed response. Very interesting. Not sure what 'convolution' is in this context though! Are you saying that unless master tapes or first-generation CD transfers are used, the new versions can only be a degradation? A lot of stuff is sold as 'new and improved' through remastering and/or 24 bit optimization. Do you think this is a marketing ploy to re-sell CDs that people already own or are there genuine improvements? I'm thinking the expensive versions of things like Maazel Sibelius's Symphonies on Decca. And what about BluRay for audio? There are claims of big differences, again for example in the Maazel Sibelius.
@@hobhood7118 The use of convolution is usually to mask the effect of noise reduction which can strip away both harmonics and natural reverb, resulting in a "gated" sound.
You raise multiple issues.
First, many re-issues are from older generation digital tape. These can have issues such as zippering which have to be concealed, many major artists like Toscanini have been subjected to this, his latest issue on Sony of the Beethoven Symphonies fall into this category; they were made from 35 year old digital masters. Some issues are from master tapes, but labels are justly leary of using them, as baking dries out the base and causes the tapes to become brittle. The idea is to keep them for future technology when they can be transferred without physical damage.
Using 24-bit does actually increase the ability to control noise in mastering and removes the notch filter effect that 16-bit mastering induced. Most of the problems induced with hiss were the result of 16-bit quantization. It has been realized that higher resolution at the source actually does work in 16-bit re-issues. Once quantized at the higher rate, the effect goes away at lower resolutions.
Finally, Blu-Ray uses lossy compression like digital cable, MP4, etc. This can be greatly reduced by adjusting the original signal in a way that gives the compressor less to do. When we "optimize", we are actually adjusting the audio signal deliberately so that compression does not do the job for us in quantization to the lossy format.
Interesting. On the one hand, I think I'm happy that my old ears are now largely oblivious to things like tape hiss and other sonic impurities. On the other hand, maybe it's many years of learning to ignore them, the way I unconsciously tune out my tinnitus. Whatever the case, I'm just looking to cram in as much listening as possible, in case my ears eventually do a Beethoven on me. Your expertise is making a substantial contribution to that effort.
@@leestamm3187 Good comment! People actually can teach themselves to "hear through" tinnitus. I have friends who do do that.
Didn't this recording come out at about the same time as Monteux's Living Stereo "Scheherazade"?
ruclips.net/video/pzSaALg8yGM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/Z1e6T02b65w/видео.html