Dutton Epoch Releasing 5 RCA/Columbia Classical Treasures on QUAD SACD (Jan 2017)

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I just received my latest order including my DV Epoch classical titles (haven't had time yet to listen. However,strapped to my order was somebody else's. I will forward that other order. In case it's someone on here, it's Eckl in zip 60013 and will soon be on it's way. I sent the follow email to Simon:
Hi Simon,
Just wanted to let you know I just received my latest order quickly and in good condition. However, my order was received strapped to another order, with only my name and address showing. I will forward the other order to it's owner. I read about this happening on the www.quadriphonicquad website, and I just wanted to let you know this is still happening. I think maybe US customs is doing this?
 
Hi. All I`ve already put my order in for the new 5...........

View attachment 28129

Hi. All
I have received my 5 today

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My shipment of these 5 discs showed up recently, so I'm going to try and write little capsule reviews of the discs here as I listen to them, mainly focusing on sound quality and mix because despite being a renaissance man in so many respects, I'm really a neophyte when it comes to classical music.

The shipment I got is actually a second attempt, like a few people here I had some shipments go missing. One in December of 3 classical discs, and one in January of these 5 discs. The good news is that Vocalion/Epoch's have moved to a new shipper (as previously reported) and these replacement discs came very quickly - the shipment of 3 discs which was sent in February took under 3 weeks, and this recent one in March was door-to-door in 10 days. That's 10 actual days, not 10 business days...so at least anecdotally speaking, it seems like shipping woes are behind us.

I've always had great interest in Columbia's classical releases despite not owning any, based on how much I like their rock and pop quads. The thing that put me off ever getting any is that to my mind, sound quality is so important, and with Columbia classical titles you're basically forced to make a Sophie's choice about sound quality, do you go for discreteness at the expense of sound quality with Q8 tape, or sound quality with poor separation on SQ vinyl? For me the answer was neither, so I'm really happy that Dutton Epoch is finally rescuing these old recordings from their poor sound quality shackles.

The other issue for me was that classical recordings seem to be a mixed bag of ambient and discrete, and I think like most people here, I really have no interest in buying stuff that just has ambiance in the rear speakers. I can happily report that the first two titles I auditioned are definitely discrete.

The first one I listened to was Pinchas Zukerman plays and conducts Vivaldi's Four Seasons / Four Concertos. This disc compiles two albums, one from 1973 and one from 1974. What I was really interested to see was if the Four Concertos portion was discretely mixed, because the original Four Seasons LP actually proclaimed on the cover 'In 360 degree surround sound' whereas the cover (or rear cover) of Four Concertos didn't say anything about the mix.

The mix for both albums ended up being almost exactly the same, and that is to say very discrete for a classical recording. There aren't any 360 degree pans or anything flashy, but the album is aggressively mixed. Zukerman's solo violin is in the front along with some of the higher register strings, with more of the lower register strings in the rear speakers. There's also a harpsichord (I think?) discretely mixed in the rear - on Four Seasons it's in the left rear, and on Four Concertos it's in the right rear.

If you're like me and have a very limited classical knowledge, you'll recognise the music on Four Seasons as the music they use in basically any movie or TV show when they want to indicate the location or character is either posh or educated. Like if it was an 80's screwball comedy and the villain was rich guy and you had an establishing shot of a rolls royce outside a mansion, this is what you'd hear in the background. Or mabye something in a museum, or even a university library. It's very versatile music, haha. :D

I'm not sure what Vivaldi's other works are like, but based on these two albums, he reminds me in a way of John Williams - it's like variations on one idea, but one idea that's so compelling it easily bears the repetition. Try humming the theme from Star Wars, Superman and Raiders Of The Lost Ark all in a row..they're all so similar that it's nearly impossible, but at the same time so good no one's complaining.

The mix is really effective as well, in the way that it moves from parts that are just solo violin (coming from just the front) in to parts where all the strings join in at once, and with the quad mix it really fills the room with sound - the contrast from 'small' to 'large' is really striking. I felt the music was a little too laid back at times to sustain my interest for a double album, but who am I to tell Vivaldi what to do, haha. The energetic bits were just so striking I wanted more of them. The sound quality is excellent on both, but I thought it was slighly better on the Four Concertos portion - there seemed to be a bit of extra detail in the upper-midrange, so I could really hear and feel the texture of Zukerman's bow against the strings when he played.

I feel like this would be a really good 'entry level' album for someone wanting to buy classical for the first time, it's not overly complex and the melodies are really strong, and also the tracks are all relatively short (between 2.5 and 3.5 minutes generally) so you never have that feeling of getting lost in the middle of some 30 minute long baroque jam session or something.

Also a nice touch that the cover for this release uses the Columbia Quadraphonic 'gold border' cover of the Four Seasons album, I think little details like that should warm any quaddie's heart.

The other album I listened to was E. Power Biggs' Rheinberger: Two Concertos for Organ and Orchestra. Given that the Biggs 4 Toccatas quad SACD that Sony put out 10 years ago fetches nearly $200 a copy these days on the used market, probably a wise move for Dutton Epoch to put out more of his stuff.

This one was a little more challenging of a listen than Vivaldi, but still very interesting. The best word I could use to describe the music is 'triumphant' - you could imagine it being performed for the monarch of a European country or something to exalt the glory of his rule or something.

The mix again is very discrete, but in a slightly different way than the Vivaldi disc. The Orchestra is entirely in the front two speakers, with generous hall ambiance in the rears - the ambiance sounds like real hall reverb recorded in the venue, rather than a reverb plate or an echo chamber in the mixing studio. When the orchestra swells, the ambiance gives it a real sense of power.

The liner notes for the album say that Biggs played a Moller pipe organ on this album, and judging from Google image search, it looks like the organ has at least 4 keyboards. It sounds like they mic'ed and recorded the output of each of these keyboards seperately, and they've placed them discretely in the quad mix. The main one is up front, but other organ sounds often come from the rear left or rear right, or sometimes both and often at the same time as what's going on in the front speakers. The resulting effect is that Biggs at times sounds like he's got four arms, and when some of these tracks reach their crescendo they're incredibly powerful. There are also a few real sub-shaking bass notes which is pretty cool. The sound quality as usual is excellent, it probably sounds like an oxymoron to say that a recording of classical music doesn't sound like it's 40 years old, but that's definitely the case here.

This album also has a really cool inclusion at the end, in the form of the two tracks from a 7" EP called 'A Mini-Discourse by E. Power Biggs' that originally came with the vinyl version of this album. If you've never listened to this album or are unfamiliar with this kind of music (as I am/was) you could even listen to these two tracks first - it's basically E. Power Biggs himself giving a brief history of the organ concerto, interspersed with recorded examples of what he's referring to. Biggs is an enthusiastic and engaging speaker and the 10 minute history lesson he gives really give you good context for what you're listening to. As a classical moron I really appreciated its inclusion, it was almost like having an audio version of liner notes.


I spoke to Michael Dutton recently and he said they've been really happy with the response to this first batch of classical discs so there will definitely be more. If you like this kind of music I don't think you can go too wrong with these discs, not to mention you'll be voting with your wallet for more.
 
Thank you for the review Dave!


The liner notes for the album say that Biggs played a Moller pipe organ on this album, and judging from Google image search, it looks like the organ has at least 4 keyboards. It sounds like they mic'ed and recorded the output of each of these keyboards separately, and they've placed them discretely in the quad mix. The main one is up front, but other organ sounds often come from the rear left or rear right, or sometimes both and often at the same time as what's going on in the front speakers. The resulting effect is that Biggs at times sounds like he's got four arms, and when some of these tracks reach their crescendo they're incredibly powerful. There are also a few real sub-shaking bass notes which is pretty cool.


That's what has always fascinated me whenever I watched organ players at work. Since the pedal board is essentially a keyboard of its own, the two feet almost become two extra hands. I've had that disc for a short while and will try to listen to it this weekend. You really piqued my interest with your excellent and enthusiastic review. :)
 
Did some listening to the five Epoch SACDs last night; a few thoughts:

Rubinstein plays Rachmaninov, Saint-Saens, and Falla with Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra: The biggest names in this batch of releases, and it's incredibly cool to hear Rubinstein in quad - it's crazy that he was born in 1887 and was over 80 at the time. And the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy give their customary plush accompaniment. There have been some quibbles about the sound and especially in comparison to some of the other releases, I kind of understand what they mean - it's a bit recessed, but the mix is nonetheless active and engaging. Not the audiophile demo of the bunch but the most significant in terms of performance.

Zukerman plays Vivaldi Concertos - The audiophile demo of the bunch in my opinion - recorded at Abbey Road in the early 70s, and a really active quad mix - note the harpsichord in the real channels and such.

Stokowski conducts Bach transcriptions - Stokowski was legendary for his transcriptions of Bach, most notably the Toccata & Fugue featured in Fantasia. That piece isn't here, and the showpiece is his transcription of the 17-minute chaconne, originally for solo violin. Self-recommending, with the fun bonus of Mark Dutton's quad mix of Stokowski's 1976 Recording Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene from Wagner's Gotterdammerung. This isn't Stokowski's first outing on quad SACD (he's on two Pentatone SACDs), but this is the only one in the repertoire he's identified for - and he must be the oldest individual on quad SACD, as he was born in 1882. There's still a number of his other great recordings on RCA Quads, and I hope Dutton gets to them.

E. Power Biggs plays Rheinberger Organ Concertos / A Mini Dialogue - Really interesting and unique pieces, probably the most important organ concertos from the romantic era (admittedly an era when the form was out of fashion). This is the first release of this disc in any digital format, and it impresses mightily. The Mini Dialogue is basically a quadraphonic presentation about Rheinberger's importance, originally released as a 7" quad single. The narration is somewhat dated, but it's still fascinating and filled with musical examples from his other recordings.

I haven't gotten to the Bream disc, it will probably come next. Regardless, if you enjoy classical, get them all. Even if you're only curious this is all top-shelf popular repertoire - only the Rheinberger disc is in any work obscure.
 
Oh the embarrassment! I thought that the neighbours were out. I've just finished listening to the Rheinberger disc at an "appropriate" volume.

And then I heard a noise coming through the wall...
 
I get the feeling D-V are an old fashioned record company, its the music that counts, and the fact they can make a living from it is a bonus. I'm going to buy quite a few of their more modern Classical composers as well. We've a few good re-release labels in the UK Cherry Red is one (Mark Powell there seems to like surround so we've had some nice new mixes). I just hope Brexit doesn't mess up the cost basis of things with tariffs on imports though.

Michael Dutton can master 2-channel and 4-channel tapes to high-res digital himself which must save many thousands on mastering fees that Marshall has to pay out to various mastering professionals. I would think D-V have their own mastering lab, and they have good enough ears, they don't need a Hoffman or Gray to advise them.

D-V also might have lower cost shipping bills (than a US operation) from the pressing plant in Austria to the office in the UK.
 
Michael Dutton can master 2-channel and 4-channel tapes to high-res digital himself which must save many thousands on mastering fees that Marshall has to pay out to various mastering professionals. I would think D-V have their own mastering lab, and they have good enough ears, they don't need a Hoffman or Gray to advise them.

D-V also might have lower cost shipping bills (than a US operation) from the pressing plant in Austria to the office in the UK.

Not just that...for the disc of Stokowski conducts Bach (a quad release), he made his own quad mix from the original multitrack session tapes of the filler track - Götterdämmerung final scene - Brünnhilde’s Immolation (arr Stokowski). I haven't heard of anyone else being allowed access like that. More info: https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7337
 
Not just that...for the disc of Stokowski conducts Bach (a quad release), he made his own quad mix from the original multitrack session tapes of the filler track - Götterdämmerung final scene - Brünnhilde’s Immolation (arr Stokowski). I haven't heard of anyone else being allowed access like that. More info: https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7337

And a very fine job, he accomplished. IMO, Michael Dutton is somewhat of a magician. OK, so we all haven't been enamored with his selections but with the latest batch, he's diversifying in a positive direction and with his seemingly robust access to some rare titles and multitracks from the RCA/CBS vaults, I hope this glittering trend continues.
 
Well, other than Steven Wilson or any number of others responsible for remixing classic albums into 5.1...

I believe ubertrout was referring to the head of a reissue company being allowed access to multitracks from the reissuing company to do the actual remix.....pretty unprecedented AFAIK.
 
I believe ubertrout was referring to the head of a reissue company being allowed access to multitracks from the reissuing company to do the actual remix.....pretty unprecedented AFAIK.

Yeah, the SW remixes have all been done in collaboration with the original artist. I've never heard of a reissue company being allowed to create their own multichannel mix before, with permission presumably only from the label.
 
Yeah, the SW remixes have all been done in collaboration with the original artist. I've never heard of a reissue company being allowed to create their own multichannel mix before, with permission presumably only from the label.

Which IMO bodes well for D~V since it illustrates a level of trust and an amicable rapport between SONY/RCA and Michael Dutton.
 
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