As I've commented before, Bob Witrak's High Definition Tape Transfers catalog is like walking into a treasure house of wonderful recordings, some classics, some little known, some new. I regularly discover recordings that I'm delighted to add to my music library. Unfortunately, a separate article on each recording I would recommend is just not practical. Thus, there are many releases of interest for me, and maybe for you, that will never appear if I don't approach this a bit differently.
So, I'm upping my game to begin posting some "Notes on Recent Finds" articles, of which this is the first. For HDTT releases, what I put in these articles will pretty closely match the purchaser reviews I try to post on the HDTT site itself, so if you're reading any of those, you'll find a repeat here with perhaps some greater elaboration.
Other issues of "Notes on Recent Finds" may include albums from a variety of sources, such as NativeDSD or Northstar Recordings. But this first article (and perhaps the next) is all about HDTT releases because I have a backlog of comments to share.
I'd really appreciate hearing from you in the comments if this sounds like it will be helpful.
In this first article, you will find comments about the following albums, all of which I happily recommend:
- Falla: The Three Cornered Hat - Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos, Victoria De Los Angeles
- All Mornin' Long – The Red Garland Quintet, featuring John Coltrane and Donald Byrd
- Oscar Peterson Trio + One Clark Terry
- Schumann & Grieg: Piano Concertos - Leon Fleisher (piano), George Szell
- Stokowski - Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
- Stokowski - Rhapsodies - RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (Redux)
- Antonio Gallego: Missa De Defuntos (Requiem Mass) - The Piping Rock Singers
- Judy Garland - The Final Concert In Copenhagen
Falla: The Three Cornered Hat, Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos, Victoria De Los Angeles, The Philharmonia Orchestra. HDTT 1964, 2022 (DSD256, DXD) HERE
This is one of the great performances of Manuel de Falla's The Three Cornered Hat, possibly THE greatest. Victoria De Los Angeles is in glorious voice on this recording. The performance by De Burgos is by turns rousing, raucous, delicate, and filled with wry humor.
This recording by the legendary HMV/EMI recording engineer Christopher Parker (not identified by HDTT) is an astounding great success. It is detailed, fully fleshed, and dynamic, with excellent resolution of inner detail (woodwinds shine!), and a broad well-defined soundstage.
Original EMI/His Master's Voice cover
No, this is not the sound of Decca or Mercury. But it is vintage EMI and truly excellent. For an alternate listening experience, try Ansermet/OSR on Decca, also available from HDTT in a Pure DSD256 transfer HERE. The perspective of the EMI recording is a bit more distant in the hall (typical of many EMI recordings), the sound from Decca engineer James Walker is more up-front. Two great recording engineers. Two somewhat different aesthetic choices.
Both the Ansermet and the De Burgos performances are excellent and I would not attempt to choose between them. But they are different.
The De Burgos performance is more refined, the orchestra plays with greater ensemble and delicacy, the sound is a bit more sweet, rounded and warm. At the same time, De Burgos captures that fiery Spanish inflection that Ansermet seems to miss.
Ansermet's performance is bright, energetic, a bit more brash, a bit more direct, and sometimes a bit frenetic. As much as I like the performance overall, it is just missing a bit of that Spanish flair that De Burgos achieves. And the OSR are as they often sound: plenty of energy, a bit wiry in tone, occasionally out of sync with one another, but always full of fun and musical wit.
An even greater difference is whether you prefer Teresa Berganza or Victoria De Los Angeles as your vocalist. They are both great. But they are very different, just like the orchestras, just like the performances.
So, my solution is: Don't choose—get both!
Highly recommended.
P.S., and if I really, really had to choose... Yes, it would be the De Burgos.
All Mornin' Long, The Red Garland Quintet, featuring John Coltrane and Donald Byrd. HDTT 1957, 2022 (DXD) HERE
A "many-splendored, deep-dish demonstration of feeling, mood and melody" wrote jazz historian and critic Ira Gitler about the title track All Mornin' Long. And indeed it is.
Pianist Red Garland brings to the Rudy Van Gelder's studio an accomplished set of musicians in November 1957. The results of that session are only three pieces, but they are fast, bluesy, complex, and dynamically meshed. It is a truly wonderful jazz recording from the hard bop period in jazz. Joining Garland are John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, George Joyner, Arthur Taylor. What a great combination of players!
Byrd and Coltrane offer extended solos, Red Garland keeps it all on track, and the music is everything one might expect from such iconic players. Coltrane shines in a free flowing, joyous playing style with this recording session just following the creative highs of his time with Thelonious Monk and his recording of Blue Trane.
With the George Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me," Byrd and Coltrane offer up extended solos, with the classic Gershwin standard tune occasionally showing through the inventive flow of notes. Listening for how long the soloists play before taking off on their own directions is half the fun of listening to standards—as is then listening for sly references to the tune returning during these extended extemporizing flights. Byrd gets his finest moment on the album here, crafting a very catchy arrangement with bassist George Joyner and drummer Art Taylor.
HDTT has chosen to use Esquires' fried egg cover from the U.K. release of this album instead of the atmospheric original Prestige cover, here:
Original Prestige cover courtesy of Discogs
Such a loss for fifties British jazz aficionados. I may have to substitute covers displayed in my JRiver Media Center library.
Great mono sound from Rudy Van Gelder and an excellent transfer by HDTT. The runtime may be a bit short, but what you have is superb jazz. Highly recommended.
Oscar Peterson Trio + One Clark Terry. HDTT 1964/2022 (DXD) HERE
We know we're in for a wonderful ride from the opening cut. With Clark Terry matching Oscar Peterson point for point, you can tell this is going to be a collaboration to relish. And it is.
This is a bona fide jazz classic, and a treat to listen to from beginning to end. With Oscar Peterson on piano, Ed Thigpen on drums, and Ray Brown on bass, we are in good hands. Add Clark Terry as the Plus One on trumpet, flugelhorn and voice, and the energy just goes up. I've always enjoyed the way Clark Terry brings humor to his recordings, not taking himself too seriously. I laugh aloud each time I listen to "Mumbles" (track 5)—it's Terry just having too much fun and pulling our legs all the way along. Same with "Incoherent Blues" (track 10). Just total fun.
Peterson, Thigpen and Brown blow things out with some dynamic creative playing. Perfection as usual. All four of these fine musicians sound like they are having a great time in the studio together, creating a very fine recording. And aren't we the lucky beneficiaries?
Another excellent transfer by HDTT, with sound that seems as clean and clear as listening to the original tape itself (in the DXD release). Well done!
And that's all I have to say about that. Just get the download and be happy.
P.S., Want to know what Clark Terry is singing in Mumbles? Well someone even crazier than me worked it out and posted "the lyrics" on the web. Here you go: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Oscar-Peterson-Clark-Terry/Mumbles
Schumann & Grieg Piano Concertos, Leon Fleisher (piano), George Szell The Cleveland Orchestra. HDTT 1960, 2022 (DSD256, DXD) HERE
In the Schumann, Szell achieves a chamber-performance-like transparency of articulation from his orchestra that superbly matches the lithe, fluidity of Fleisher, whose ability to deliver tonal shading and color was unmatched. It is a masterful combination. The Grieg is performed with intensity and depth of feeling. In a crowded competitive field, this is a top tier performance.
The only thing holding this recording back is, and has always been, the Columbia orchestral sound quality. It simply fails to match the results being achieved at the same time period by Decca, Mercury and EMI and often reflects a less that refined upper frequency register and lack of realistic sound stage.
But, notwithstanding some limitations of the original sound quality, the HDTT transfer is excellent. Very open and clean, with good frequency extension and low noise floor. One star is dropped simply for the original sound quality over which HDTT has no control but which HDTT has improved with some judicious post processing (and magic pixie dust) over every other version of this performance (both vinyl and CD) that I've heard. It certainly replaces by CD copy!! Well done.
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Stokowski The Stadium Symphony Orchestra Of New York. HDTT 1958, 2022 (DSD256, DXD) HERE
In this new DSD256 release, my eyes are opened to what a truly enjoyable performance of Shostakovich's Fifth this is. I'd only ever had a rather indifferently pressed LP of this recording and never found it to be a recording I returned to. But, in this transfer, I am hearing virtues I'd not heard before. And I'm becoming rather much a fan of this performance.
There are other great performances and recordings of the Fifth, and I'll not offer comparisons other than to say that Stokowski is here very uncharacteristically aligned to staying with Shostakovich in this performance. There are none of Stokowski's well known extremist tendencies; no going off the rails as in some other performances by conductors not to be named. He lets the music speak for itself. And his restraint pays off significantly as the contrasts of mood spring forth from the score. As the forth movement comes in, the prior restraint pays off so nicely with the contrast presented. The final movement continues with moderation, no going off the rails, which makes such a nice interpretation. There is MUCH to like here.
Everest's original recording is very good, capturing a nice balance of the orchestra as a whole while maintaining a lot of inner detail and good resolution throughout (which was NOT apparent in my rather indifferently mastered and pressed later release on LP).
So, very high marks for both performance and sound quality with this release! Just another outstanding result from HDTT.
Stokowski - Rhapsodies, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (Redux). HDTT 1960, 2022 (DSD256, DXD) HERE
This famous and justly treasured Living Stereo recording has long stood listed as one of the great RCA releases. Whatever one may think of Stokowski's excesses, love them or cringe with them, this is undeniably a set of iconic performances and a recording that regularly appears in most audiophile's list of outstanding albums.
HDTT's new Redux release of this album gives it full justice. The sound is full, impactful, exceptionally clear, and with bass impact that will make your woofers tingle in excitement. This HDTT release betters in every way the CD reissue from RCA. I don't have the SACD to compare. I did once have the AP 45rpm release on vinyl, and my recollection of the 45rpm vinyl is that it came close to the sound I hear in this DSD256 release, but not that it was better. A great transfer!
Antonio Gallego - Missa De Defuntos (Requiem Mass), The Piping Rock Singers, Kevin M. Clarke, Director. HDTT 2018, 2022 (24-192) HERE
This is a 2018 world premier recording of this 16th Century Mass by Anonio Gallego. Don't know the composer? Neither did I. But I'm delighted to be introduced to this Requiem—the music is superb. And the performance by this Houston choral group well-captures the type of choral singing I expect in this genre. It is very well done. The other choral works in the program (from Gustav Holst, Stephen Shewan, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and others) are similarly interesting and a pleasure to hear. The variety provided by including both ancient and modern works creates a very interesting and musically engaging overall program.
The combined men and women chorus sing with discipline and precision, providing a full sound that is highly articulate. The soloists perform admirably. All of this is beautiful music, expertly performed, and superbly well recorded.
Do not let the 24-192kHz resolution of the recording put you off. This album achieves for me all the key points for an excellent recording: good artists, a recording venue with an acoustic environment well suited to the music, careful attention for microphone placement, using minimal mikes, to best capture the natural acoustic environment, and low electrical noise throughout the recording chain. It is a purist audiophile recording in every way. The result is what we have here: a thoroughly natural sounding recording with excellent capture of voices with near perfect imaging.
The important matters I mentioned at the outset are well taken care of, resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable musical (and aural) experience. Might it sound even better had the recording engineer access to a DSD256 ADC? Undoubtedly, and it is sad to have such a nice recording that missed this. But, I celebrate having this wonderful recording and the care that clearly has been put into making it great.
Judy Garland - The Final Concert In Copenhagen (First release of Judy Garland’s complete final concert in Copenhagen, March 25, 1969). HDTT 1969, 2022 (DXD) HERE
(Updated July 23 2022 with some further thoughts and information from HDTT)
If you know and love the work of Judy Garland, you will want to have this complete final concert for your music library, as I do. It is a touching, heart-warming final tribute to a great entertainer.
On the other hand, if you're not all that familiar with her works from earlier in her career, if you're not sure you're a fan but just want to get to know what her performances are like, this might not be the right first introduction. In this case, look for some recordings from earlier in her career, then come to this final concert.
This last concert has often been called "tragic" and "difficult to listen to," but with the drastically improved sound quality in this restoration by John Haley, you can finally hear that she sounds happy, relaxed and in much better voice than you might expect. In fact, she sounds amazing. The mono sound quality is clear and highly listenable; Judy's banter with the audience and the band is such a pleasure to be able to hear clearly. And the love for her from the audience simply radiates through the audio.
HDDT and John Haley have created a phenomenal release. The mono sound quality is clear and highly listenable; Judy's banter with the audience and the band is such a pleasure to be able to hear clearly. For more about what into making the release (working from two master tapes of the concert), follow the link above to HDTT's summary. All of their effort, and I'm sure the effort was great, pays off in a compelling tribute that warms my heart to hear.
A note from the HDTT website about the source of the tapes used to compile the complete concert for this release:
"This release is based on HDTT’s new high-definition digitizations of two independent, superior quality original recordings of the concert... One recording is a set of two tapes prepared by Danmarks Radio for the subsequent broadcast of much of the concert a few days after it occurred (tapes privately owned by Lawrence Schulman, who wrote the liner notes for this release), based on that station’s live recordings made in the hall at the concert. The other recording is a high-quality tape-recorded in the hall by the hall itself (original tape privately owned by John H. Haley of Harmony Restorations, LLC, who restored the instant release for HDTT). Fortuitously, having both excellent sources available has allowed the first complete release of this concert."
