_Composers – Dvorak

Dvorak / Violin Concerto – A Killer Philips Recording

More of the Music of Antonin Dvorak

  • Excellent sound throughout this Philips import pressing of Dvorak’s Classical Masterpieces, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The orchestral passages are rich and sweet, the violin present, its harmonics gloriously intact
  • We audiophiles are fortunate indeed that a violinist of Accardo’s skill and taste recorded this piece for Philips at a time when their recording technology was still capable of capturing the sound of his violin in rich, warm, sweet, clear analog
  • A superb performance from Salvatore Accardo, not only competitive with the best we have heard, but superior – we know of none better
  • A superb performance from Salvatore Accardo, not only competitive with the best we have heard, but superior – we know of none better
  • These links will take you to some of the orchestral “sleeper” recordings we’ve discovered with Demo Disc sound

Yes, it was still possible to record classical music properly in 1980, though not many labels managed to pull it off. (Londons from this era are especially opaque and airless. We find them as irritating and frustrating as most of the Heavy Vinyl releases being foisted on the audiophile public today.)

This is still analog, with the better copies displaying much of the Tubey Magic of 50s and 60s vinyl without as much compressor distortion (the Achilles’ heel of so many of the great recordings from the Golden Era).

Accardo is an accomplished performer of the works of Paganini, but those recordings are on DG and we would not expect them to be of acceptable audio quality for our customers. We will investigate further of course, as Paganini’s works for violin are some of the most sublime in the repertoire.

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Dvorak – Cello Concerto / Starker

More Mercury Classical Recordings

  • Starker and the LSO’s sublime performance, here with big, lively and rich Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this pressing of SR-90303
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • The cello is present and immediate, with sound that is wonderfully full and harmonically natural
  • Some old record collectors (like me) say classical recording quality ain’t what it used to be – here’s all the proof anyone with two working ears and top quality audiophile equipment needs to make the case
  • As you may well imagine, shootouts for this album are exceedingly rare. For a sought-after TAS List title such as this, we’re lucky to be able to do one every five years or so. Until the next one comes around, please consider trying some of our other classical and orchestral Hot Stamper pressings

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Brahms and Dvorak / Serenades / Kertesz

Hot Stamper Pressings on Decca and London Available Now

This London Whiteback LP (CS 6594) has Super Hot Stamper sound on side two, which is where the Dvorak Serenade for 10 wind instruments, cello and bass can be found. It has lovely space and depth, with dead on tonality and lots of Tubey Magic.

If you love the sound of wind instruments (and who doesn’t? British Band Classics springs immediately to mind as one of the most enjoyable classical recordings I own), then this just may be the classical chamber recording for you.

We reviewed this recording using a single pressing back in 2011. We don’t do things like that anymore, but we have to admit that we often did things that way back then. Everybody else did them that way too, and we see no evidence that they have adopted any of our methods

Until about twenty years ago we had no idea how incomplete and inadequate our understanding of any title could be with only a single copy on hand.  When we began doing shootouts in 2004, immediately it became obvious that only a stack of cleaned pressings allowed us to recognize what a recording’s strengths and weaknesses might be.

More to the point, it offered us the opportunity to clearly identify the best record in the group — the pressing whose superior sound quality stands out above all the others. (We call such records White Hot Stampers and put them in this section if at least one side earns a 3+ grade.)

These “record experiments” taught us many important lessons. The process of playing copy after copy of the same record and detailing the specific differences we heard forced us to become better listeners.

Through this work, carried out over the course of many years, we learned that there is only one way to find better sounding records. Everything else is a guess, just like our review of this London was.

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Brahms & Dvorak / Hungarian & Slavonic Dances / Reiner

Hot Stamper Pressings of of the Music of Brahms Available Now

UPDATED in 2022 for CS 6198

The last time we played copies of this London title, CS 6198, we were quite a bit less impressed than the review below might lead you to believe.

We found the sound to be plenty Tubey Magical, but the louder peaks were sour. Overall we judged the sound to be OK at best.

Having played a number of different pressings over the years, our favorite recording of the Slavonic Dances these days is the one with Kertesz on the Decca World of Great Classics budget reissue label.

It may come as a shock to some record collecting audiophiles, but there are actually budget reissues of some titles that can beat any and all comers.

Here are some that we’ve come across, discoveries which we are happy to share with you.

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Dvorak – Slavonic Dances / Martinon

More of the Music of Dvorak

  • Martinon and the LSO’s lively performance of Slavonic Dances debuts on the site with big, rich and Tubey Magical Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) Living Stereo sound throughout this original Shaded Dog pressing
  • These sides are clear, full-bodied and present, with plenty of space around the players, the unmistakable sonic hallmark of the properly-mastered, properly-pressed vintage analog LP
  • We’ve been trying to get this shootout going for many years – some of the pressings we’ve come across have been absolutely some of the best sounding Living Stereo titles we’ve ever played
  • If we ever create a Living Stereo Top Ten, this album will be a serious contender of the honor
  • This record will have you asking why so few Living Stereo pressings actually do what this one does. The more critical listeners among you will recognize that this is a very special copy indeed. Everyone else will just enjoy the hell out of it.
  • Marks and problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music

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The Dvorak Violin Concerto – Was Sound This Good Still Possible in 1980?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dvorak Available Now

You’ll find amazing Hot Stamper sound on this exceptionally quiet Philips recording of the Dvorak Violin Concerto.

As well as a SUPERB performance from Salvatore Accardo, one that is certainly competitive with the best we have heard.

Yes, it was still possible to record classical music properly in 1980, though not many labels managed to pull it off.

(Londons from this era are especially opaque and airless. We find them as irritating and frustrating as most of the Heavy Vinyl releases being foisted on the audiophile public today.)

The orchestral passages are rich and sweet, the violin present, its harmonic colors gloriously intact. This is still ANALOG, with the better copies displaying much of the Tubey Magic of ’50s and ’60s vinyl without as much compressor distortion (the Achilles’ heel of so many of the great recordings from the Golden Era).

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Dvorak / Symphony No. 2 – Hard to Recommend on Living Stereo

Hot Stamper Pressings of Living Stereo Titles Available Now

I have never heard a copy of LSC 2489 sound better than decent. We would say the sound quality of this Dvorak title is most likely to be passable at best. True, we haven’t played all that many copies, but the copies we did play were either unimpressive or not good at all.

It certainly is very unlikely to have the wonderful sound of the best Living Stereo pressings that you can find on our site, each of which has been carefully evaluated to the highest standards.

If you can get one for cheap, under five bucks say, go for it. Otherwise we recommend that you pass if what you are looking for is audiophile quality sound.

Perhaps the poor recording quality (I’m guessing; obviously I’ve never heard the master tape) explains the poor sound of the Classic Records remastered version from 1994.

Not that that stopped anybody from buying those awful 180 gram pressings! They may have been mastered by one of the greats, Bernie Grundman, but he was well past his prime when he was working for that awful label, as we explain here.

Have You Noticed?

If you are a fan of Living Stereo pressings, have you noticed that many of them – this one for example – don’t sound good?

If you’re an audiophile with good equipment, you should have. But did you? Or did you buy into the hype surrounding these rare LSC pressings and just ignore the problems with the sound?

I would say RCA’s track record during the 50s and 60s is a pretty good one, offering (potentially) excellent sound for roughly one out of every three titles or so.

But that means that odds are there would be a lot of dogs in their catalog. This is definitely one of them.

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Brahms & Dvorak / Hungarian & Slavonic Dances – Updated

Hot Stamper Classical and Orchestral Imports on Decca & London

UPDATE 2022

The last time we played a few copies of this London title, CS 6198, we were quite a bit less impressed than the review below might lead you to believe.

We found the sound to be plenty Tubey Magical, but the louder peaks were sour. Overall we judged the sound to be OK at best.

Having played a number of different pressings over the years, our favorite recording of the Slavonic Dances these days is the one with Kertesz on the Decca World of Great Classics budget reissue label.

It may come as a shock to some record collecting audiophiles, but there are actually budget reissues of some titles that can beat any and all comers. Here are some that we’ve come across, discoveries which we are happy to share with you.

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Dvorak – Symphony No. 8 / Von Karajan

More Imported Pressings on Decca and London

  • Here is an early pressing (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site) with the big, rich and tubey Decca sound we were hoping for, earning excellent Double Plus (A++) grades from first note to last
  • These sides are doing just about everything right – they’re rich, clear, undistorted, open, spacious, and have depth and transparency to rival the best recordings you may have heard
  • Our recent major survey for the 8th symphony produced this outstanding London – no other recording had sound even close to this quality, and the performance by Karajan was as good as any we heard
  • The original Decca pressing we had was especially disappointing, especially considering that it was mastered by one of our favorite cutting engineers, Ted Burkett
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we think offer the best performances with the highest quality sound. This record is certainly deserving of a place on that list.

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Robert Fine Does It Again

Hot Stamper Pressings of Mercury Classical Recordings Available Now

The notes you see below are for our Shootout Winner, which earned our top grade of at least 3+ on side one with its Hard to Fault (HTF) sound.

If you are interested in a record with the kind of sound described below, please contact us and we will be happy to put you on the waiting list for the next killer copy that comes along and blows our minds.

As you may well imagine, shootouts for this album are exceedingly rare. For a sought-after TAS List title such as this, we’re lucky to be able to do one every five years or so. Until the next one comes around, please consider trying some of our other classical and orchestral Hot Stamper pressings.

Robert Fine’s recordings for Mercury are some of the most amazing sounding we have ever played. To see what might be available, please click here.

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