Lord Montague
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Posts posted by Lord Montague
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On 22/06/2022 at 2:07 PM, Chen G. said:
Nope, sorry. Not hearing it.
I mean, I do. But I don't think that connection is meaningful.
Not meaningful? In that (Wagnerian, Norse inspired) mythology, Siegfried is the bearer of hope for change. He is a young, yet unknowing, "Padawan" with superhuman "force". In that sense I very much see a connection.
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Odd comment. I hear nothing like anyone "screwing up" on this album. It sounds great to my ears. 8:05 in Rounds there might be a slight compression or limiting going on due to the loud Bass drum, but isn't that always the case in such recordings? The alternative of having the bass drum uncompressed in its full dynamic range means the whole album must be 10 dB or so quieter in level AFAIK. Probably not acceptable? Then everybody would complain why that album is so low in level. And all over I hear no compression on this album, except for these very few loud bass drum places. Where do you hear compression? I love the sound of that album. It has depth, it has dynamic range, it has a great balance between blend and detail.
'Gathering of friends' or the 'Berlin Concert' might have overdone the compression in some places, but here it seems fine to me.
Or did you hear the Dolby Atmos stream over headphones? That always sounds bad, blame Dolby or Apple with their "binaural" down mixes.
Always listen to the original stereo mix if you don't have a 3D loudspeaker setup.- TJH132 and Madmartigan JC
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not trying to get into a semantics fight, but it's not only lossy based on the data, but also because it intentionally changes the audio to make it sound "better", (introducing group delay distortions through upsampling with certain minimum-phase filters AFAIK). Again, nobody wanted this or needs this, the business idea behind is to have an encryption handshake between sender and receiver, a copy protection mechanism, the buzzword is DRM, digital rights management. You are not supposed to own anything anymore, they will happily sell it to you every time you want to use it...
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53 minutes ago, Amer said:
You need an MQA encoded player or amp to get that studio like sound. Otherwise the cd will only output as a normal sound.
I ahve a few of these inlduing the Berlin Concert but alas no DAC Codec to support this.
You don't get "studio like sound". MQA is by definition a lossy codec. And it changes the sound. With filters/delays. Yes, in order to "improve" you must change. You can't have it both ways. They claim it improves it. Of course they claim that, because they want to push the technology into the market. But it's not the studio sound, it's not what the engineers in the studio ever wanted and created. Nobody needs this nonsense, except those whose business model is highwayman robbery. (quite a few bad apples like this in the music/recording business. the fruit name is coincidence here, isn't it? ;-))
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15 hours ago, BB-8 said:
Interesting. The MQA part makes it incompatible with standard CD players I guess? MQA is bad. A copy protection mechanism, handshake sender receiver encryption type, sold as "better sound" aka as the tale of the Emperor's new clothes. Among the biggest horse shit the industry has ever seen. Can't damage a beautiful recording like this though.
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On 02/06/2022 at 10:30 AM, Rimsky said:
Is it just me or is the obi-theme a mix of Bruckner’s 4th (that even starts with string tremolo and a horn solo…) and Siegfried’s theme by Wagner?
I am personally not a big fan of the Obi-theme. It seems empty to me somehow.
Themes like f.x. Leia, Force and Yoda has some kind of inner narrative and direction in my ears while themes like Obis and Rey’s seem cold and directionless to me.
Siegfried Theme, which inspired the Force Theme, which inspired this theme, fitting to Obi-Wan's role in the tale, Bruckner orchestration, a bit of all of that it sounds to me.
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9 hours ago, QuartalHarmony said:
Isn’t it more a case of him finally achieving a degree of respectability in the eyes of certain parts of the musical establishment such that he’s now being asked to give interviews in some depth instead of the usual trivial fluff (if anything), which, sadly, is all his previous works have attracted?
I think it's a bit of that, but also the intense artistic relationship with Anne-Sophie Mutter, which makes it all more interesting for the mainstream media. Other than us geeks, the media need more than "only" absolute music, but also a good story. They together are a great story. Nothing against Yo-Yo Ma and the other great and serious musicians JW has collaborated with before, but the Mutter-Williams connection just is a great story that triggers many imaginations, last but not least the composer's own. She is his muse and gives him energy and joy.
We can tell he was a bit weary about the film music routines, so this other focus really inspires him, literally lifts his spirit. And the long Previn connection by both, a classic triangle story, makes this even into a psychologically complex tale.
The CD is very beautiful and one can tell from the music and how it's played and how it sounds, that there is more to it than only pure professionalism of two of the most accomplished artists on the planet. -
Because like all truly great people of good character, he strictly separates private and professional life, and because he doesn't think there is much of interest to the outside world about him, except his professional output for all to hear. And because he doesn't need any publicity except the one naturally evolving from his body of work.
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I don't understand the question.
All his scores are "released".
They are just not free under the usual protection of rights of composers.
Will they be released for performance by anyone who is willing to pay the fees? Probably.
Will they be free for anyone to use? Not for many decades, AFAIK currently 80 years after a composer's death. So considering JW will live for at least another 30 years, it will be a very long time out. :-)- Brando and Manakin Skywalker
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17 hours ago, lairdo said:
Oh, I forgot that Vienna was just stereo. That does make me think we will only get stereo here too. The CDJapan site does not have any details yet, and Tower Records Japan does not list the disc at all.
What is this about? Vienna recording (first concert in 2020) was published by DG in Stereo, Surround and 3D Dolby Atmos mixes.
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On 27/04/2022 at 5:12 PM, BB-8 said:
Perhaps the recording from NY comes closest.
John Williams Conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra | Carnegie Hall Live | WQXR
Oh dear, what a lousy sound mix from Carnegie Hall. Or did JW rewrite the pieces "For Glockenspiel, Mono Violin and remote Orchestra"?
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45 minutes ago, BB-8 said:
As already mentioned elsewhere, these signs on the door could have been historical and not related to the current activities inside and in front of the room.
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Well... There is also a two track tape recorder to be seen in the pic. Something that wasn't used in that room for about 40 years. Why should they use a tape recorder for recording this? So it seems to be true. The sign current. It was a direct-to-disc recording. Hard to imagine the orchestra would approve it, since those live performances have usually several flubs over the span of a side of an LP. Maybe it was only an experiment.
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3 hours ago, BB-8 said:
Well, freaking out in a positive sense that they were possibly doing independent recording sessions with the Vienna Phil before the concerts - maybe this was just to create sufficient back-up material for the live takes of the concerts (to repair e.g. horn flubs). However, a red light plus director's mic indicates that there was a requirement for real-time interaction between recording team and the ensemble.
With the red light looking exactly like the one Emil Berliner Studios use (which take commissions from various record labels including DG) it is likely that a dedicated recording is in the pipeline - not just an archival document that may or may not be released.
The mic is probably only there to record JW's voice. Since this was a direct-to-disc recording, as others have already found out, e.g. by the sign at the door of the recording studio, nothing was recorded, except direct to disc. Nothing will be edited. (otherwise the direct-to-disc concept makes no sense. direct-to-disc and editing are mutually exclusive) The red light in the dress rehearsal is probably to tell them, when the direct-to-disc process is running.
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5 hours ago, Amer said:
So at this point it’s only confirmed a cd recording is expected.We are not sure if this will come as a video concert?
no CD recording and no video recording this time...
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5 hours ago, bollemanneke said:
What's in the image? Is a Blu-Ray still possible?
That's a tape recorder. Nobody would bother with a tape recorder unless it was some kind of boutique analogue recording. Blu-ray seems very unlikely then.
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14 hours ago, Jay said:
Unlikely, but not impossible, yes?
Probably going to happen. She came out in the first Vienna concerts after the second half for encores, even though she didn't play in the regular part of the second half program then.
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- Popular Post
On 12/02/2022 at 8:35 PM, heritage said:Sensationel. German Music Album Charts: For the first time in their history Williams, DG and Berliner Philharmoniker at 1. Look here
https://www.offiziellecharts.de/charts/album
The Williams Vienna Album was already a sensationel 6th place. And now with Berlin at 1...
Now with the money earned from Vienna and Berlin albums, DG surely can finance a lot of musically interesting but less popular productions. Why not start with John William's concert works. And without combining them always with film themes "candy". DG kind of owes him, to show him the full respect as a composer. The 2nd violin concerto is a promising beginning.
- BB-8, michael_grig, bollemanneke and 1 other
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6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:
So that's what's going on in that Jaws performance.
what about it, exactly?
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6 hours ago, Disco Stu said:
Strawmen as far as the eye can see
More like a description of the general lack of familiarity, not to say ignorance, toward a performance tradition of prioritising intense musicality and cantabile playing over metronomic precision and playing 'safe' in THE traditional center of classical music. Give me a messy but lively performance of Vienna Phil any day over a precise but dead American orchestra any day.
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19 minutes ago, Biodome said:
Your sole interest in this petition is just having all the flubs documented. I protest!
we can already state, that the horns or trumpets will be late, because the traditional natural horns the Viennese use need a few milliseconds from first transient to full sound. It's a flaw that all classical orchestras have, unlike the great Casio MIDI keyboards users here possess.
Add to that exceptionally excellent musicianship like in Vienna, that allows for relative freedom vertically, 'notes inégales', then it's getting really dangerous for the metronome fixated. It's about time Vienna updates their instruments to Casio MIDI triggered. Otherwise today's modern ears can't hear them well. -
12 hours ago, Jay said:
We don't yet know if this album is a live recording or not.
'Live recording' is a diffuse term these days. Usually when a recording happens in the context of a rehearsals&concert week, like here, 'live recording' means all good (enough) material, rehearsals and concerts, is used to compile a best possible result in the final edit. How much of that is actually from the concert(s), and how much from rehearsals, varies wildly. There can also be a so called patch session. 'Live recording' only means, that recorded concerts were part of the edit, how much so only the producers know. Can be 100%, can be almost nothing from the actual concerts.
I doubt there were also dedicated recording sessions for other material than that of the concerts in that project, since those - in particular with American orchestras - cost the label a huge additional amount of money. -
11 hours ago, Jay said:
OMG. what a disgrace. which label executive okayed that? the sound quality is horrific for the levels one can cut into the grooves with that play time. DG would never do that. Anything above 20 minutes per side, you are going to make compromises regarding sound quality. 38 minutes like side A of that is just...wow... so bad. THD, SNR, Pre- and Post-echo... all over the place... Poor James Horner.
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5 minutes ago, rough cut said:
If it had fit, then it would have been better to put it on one side.
If not, I guess it’s fine.
vinyl holds about 20 to 25 minutes max each side. depending on the level. so obviously the whole concerto never could have fit on one side. neither could the film themes have fit on it as well. the way DG did it, is the only way that makes sense for one LP.
John Williams 90th Birthday Gala Concert at The Kennedy Center, Washington DC, June 23rd 2022
in JOHN WILLIAMS
Posted
and congratulations to Vienna Phil for keeping the trophy for best Imperial March performance ever. Excellent try though, NSO.
