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John Williams & the Vienna Philharmonic: January 18/19 2020


Ricard

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2 hours ago, King Mark said:

that's one of the things sorely missing .To me the original recording can't be beat because of the choir ending the film, the opening of the End Credits on the OST has a more flourished version of the 5 note fanfare (similar to the Ouch alternate moment in E.T.), I can't live without the Special Edition interpolation of When you wish upon a star and the soft choir for the 5 note ending.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the original recording plenty. In fact, I have liked every one of the album presentations available for this. I think it is an amazing score that is good any way you can get your hands on it.

 

Overall though, for the sheer weightiness, I like the Gerhardt best. He conducts it like it's Bruckner.

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14 hours ago, blondheim said:

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the original recording plenty. In fact, I have liked every one of the album presentations available for this. I think it is an amazing score that is good any way you can get your hands on it.

 

Overall though, for the sheer weightiness, I like the Gerhardt best. He conducts it like it's Bruckner.

 

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2 hours ago, Biodome said:

Received all of my orders last week. Now I can die happy! :D

20200828_151911.jpg

 

Stunning! Would it be possible to send a photo of the message written by JW? I'm really curious to know what's written

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6 minutes ago, carlborg said:

 

Stunning! Would it be possible to send a photo of the message written by JW? I'm really curious to know what's written

 

On 8/6/2020 at 9:56 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

 

The privilege of conducting the esteemed Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein was, for me, the honor of a lifetime. I was particularly impressed with the magnificent acoustics of the Great Hall, which are so justly renowned and so beautifully captured in Deutsche Grammophon's splendid recording of these concerts. I was also very touched by the generosity and hospitality of the members of this great orchestra, all of whom performed this music with brilliance and enthusiasm. 

 

In these challenging days, when musicians and audiences around the world cannot come together to share the pleasures of music-making in person, I look back on these very special concerts with great fondness, and I hope that these recordings might give listeners and viewers some measure of the joy I experienced in visiting beautiful Vienna.

 

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2 hours ago, Biodome said:

Received all of my orders last week. Now I can die happy! :D

20200828_151911.jpg

This is proof that real music lovers are not satisfied by mp3 and online streams.

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43 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

This is proof that real music lovers are not satisfied by mp3 and online streams.

 

To be honest, I wouldn't be able to distinguish between a .wav and a 320 kbps mp3 in a double blind test. I just like to have the physical discs and LPs as a token, rather than a source of impeccable lossless audio.

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My mum received her copy and we watched the concert together while I was there. My copy in the UK was delivered apparently on the 10th of August (posted through a letterbox) but I came back on Tuesday and it was nowhere to be found. Amazon customer service placed a replacement order but the product is now out of stock with no resupply date. So I asked for a refund and re-ordered it from Amazon.de. £1.65 difference overall but I'll live. Hope it gets here! 😆

 

Karol

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On 8/25/2020 at 1:40 PM, rpvee said:

https://thesoundofvinyl.com/*/*/John-Williams-in-Vienna-Special-Edition/6L7X0000000
 

The limited, numbered vinyl appears to still be in stock here!

The will to resist finally failed me. I ordered this after reading how this was selling out everywhere; seeing @Biodome's photos sealed the deal. (Hopefully my wife will forgive what she'd call my "unnecessary" spending.) I was actually fully expecting to click the link and find it sold out, never to be had again.

On 8/20/2020 at 2:05 PM, JAMOcl said:

After the end of the concert and the album the two thoughts that kept swinging in my mind where: 1-This is how Carlos Kleiber would have played John Williams, and 2- John should really make a recording of the Beethoevn Cycle with th WPO.

I don't think I have any idea as to what I would do, what I would give, how long (or to whom) I would indenture my soul to one day come into possession of such a miracle.

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14 hours ago, Joe Brausam said:

 

I wish the signature on the vinyl were real!  My copy is still in transit.

 


I can see why that would be hard from a production perspective.

 

However, the exclusive message could have been signed with less hassle. That would’ve been nice.

 

But then it would’ve cost more, and also might’ve been even more limited than 1 000 copies.

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25 minutes ago, rough cut said:


I can see why that would be hard from a production perspective.

 

However, the exclusive message could have been signed with less hassle. That would’ve been nice.

 

But then it would’ve cost more, and also might’ve been even more limited than 1 000 copies.

 

I'm sure Bill Ross would have agreed to do it for a reasonable fee.

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34 minutes ago, blondheim said:

Sure. I wouldn't personally want to be the one going against Jean. He looks like he could handle himself.

Well, at one point he did get into a fistfight in Vienna against Brahms fanboys who were dissing Bruckner's music...

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Amazing. 63 pages! I'm assuming it's so active because a lot of people attended the concert.

 

I've noticed the review of the release that Frank Lehman posted on Twitter. Crazy stuff, but classic arrogant classical review that is a blast from the past. I'll pay it no attention; perhaps, as Frank says, it's even beneficial, because so many people can see how unreasonable it is.

 

Anyways, just popping my head in. I have no intention of reading all the pages of this thread. I'm just buying the release in Ocobter, calmly and without any hooplah.

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On 9/5/2020 at 8:26 PM, Thor said:

I'm just buying the release in Ocobter, calmly and without any hooplah.

 

The deluxe edition is back in stock!

 

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/search/europadisc_results.htm

 

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8785414--john-williams-in-vienna-cd-blu-ray-video-edition

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5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

And JPC are selling two versions of the single CD. Maybe the new one will come in a juwel case?

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7 hours ago, BB-8 said:

And JPC are selling two versions of the single CD. Maybe the new one will come in a juwel case?

 

Interestingly, the Japanese deluxe edition comes in a jewel case with a sleeve of the main art and shiny gold logo. The deluxe is thicker than a standard CD jewel case. The booklet itself has the same image as the sleeve and the gold logo (but not shiny). Also included are  2 hard stock front insert cards - I guess if you don't want to have the booklet as the front image with JW and the orchestra? One card is an image with JW waving to the crowd with the traditional DGG yellow logo which is cool. (The DigiPack Deluxe Edition has this image as the gatefold when you open it.) The 2nd card is the Imperial March single cover art with the main image of JW & orchestra.

 

The audio CD is green (not ivory as in my US release). Maybe this is because of the MQA? (I picked up a Japanese MQA version of Decca's The Planets & Star Wars Suite (Mehta, LA Phil) and it is a green CD too. (You can see the reflection of the green color in the shiny logo on the sleeve to the left of the bottom image.)

 

The standard Japanese release is a normal sized jewel case. I have not opened that, so I am not sure if it has more than 1 card, but I am guessing it does not. Just the booklet. Probably a green CD too since the standard CD is also MQA. The DGG logo is also in gold on this release as it is on the US digipack. 

 

All the text of these releases are in Japanese, although the tracks are given in both English and Japanese. 

 

And very briefly (and preliminarily) on the MQA format which I wrote about earlier in this thread. Lots of hype out there about MQA taking a standard Redbook 44.1/16 bit audio pile and "unfolding" it up to 96/24 (or maybe 88.2/24). I listened to a few tracks of the CD on my Oppo 4k Blu-Ray which can playback MQA CDs natively. To my ear, this did not sound as good as the flac 96/24 files I bought from Preto Music. The MQA sounded dull in comparison. However, I want to redo this test as the signal processing path was different - in one case my Denon was decoding the Oppo's PCM stream, and in the other Mytek Brooklyn Bridge was doing this and feeding an analog system in to the Denon. So, same amplification, speakers and physical space, but different digital pathways. That could be what I heard. More to follow. 

 

My gold LPs were shipped weeks ago, but they seem stuck in customs somewhere on the way to the US... 

 

 

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IMG_0141.jpeg

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16 hours ago, lairdo said:

 

And very briefly (and preliminarily) on the MQA format which I wrote about earlier in this thread. Lots of hype out there about MQA taking a standard Redbook 44.1/16 bit audio pile and "unfolding" it up to 96/24 (or maybe 88.2/24). I listened to a few tracks of the CD on my Oppo 4k Blu-Ray which can playback MQA CDs natively. To my ear, this did not sound as good as the flac 96/24 files I bought from Preto Music. The MQA sounded dull in comparison. However, I want to redo this test as the signal processing path was different - in one case my Denon was decoding the Oppo's PCM stream, and in the other Mytek Brooklyn Bridge was doing this and feeding an analog system in to the Denon. So, same amplification, speakers and physical space, but different digital pathways. That could be what I heard. More to follow. 

 

 

Ok, so it turns out you can rip a MQA CD to lossless ALAC and retain that MQA info. Did not know that, and this makes A-B testing the files much easier!! (That I did know!)

 

As I suspected, the differences were harder to detect (if even noticeable) with the same signal processing. I think the native 96/24 file is slightly brighter and dynamics are a bit easier to pick up. But overall, I would say they are pretty equivalent. The MQA version unfolds to 176.4 / 24 - so basically 4x on the frequency and up on the bit rate - at least according to my set up and playback device. If those stats are really accurate, I guess the MQA is nice benefit for those picking up the CD version ----- and playing it back in a native CD player with support or ripping it and then using a set up that takes the MQA signal all the way through. Otherwise, the information is useless and not worth it. And given Tidal is using MQA on its digital files, you can get the same impact streaming. I think I read that Amazon devices can even do an Atmos playback if you have Amazon Music HD. 

 

Thus my conclusion, again so far and with limited testing, is that there is no downside to the MQA CD and probably not much upside either. It's just a thing.

 

I would still rather have a DSD surround SACD.

 

 

 

 

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56 minutes ago, Holko said:

Well... This is actually a bloody great concert for the overwhelming majority for the time. I didn't even notice what my problem was with the SW Main Title.


i still don’t know what the problem is with the Main Title. The transition between the Fanfare and the actual theme, because the High B flat seems to bridge the gap so to speak?

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On 9/9/2020 at 6:13 AM, lairdo said:

 

Ok, so it turns out you can rip a MQA CD to lossless ALAC and retain that MQA info. Did not know that, and this makes A-B testing the files much easier!! (That I did know!)

 

As I suspected, the differences were harder to detect (if even noticeable) with the same signal processing. I think the native 96/24 file is slightly brighter and dynamics are a bit easier to pick up. But overall, I would say they are pretty equivalent. The MQA version unfolds to 176.4 / 24 - so basically 4x on the frequency and up on the bit rate - at least according to my set up and playback device. If those stats are really accurate, I guess the MQA is nice benefit for those picking up the CD version ----- and playing it back in a native CD player with support or ripping it and then using a set up that takes the MQA signal all the way through. Otherwise, the information is useless and not worth it. And given Tidal is using MQA on its digital files, you can get the same impact streaming. I think I read that Amazon devices can even do an Atmos playback if you have Amazon Music HD. 

 

Thus my conclusion, again so far and with limited testing, is that there is no downside to the MQA CD and probably not much upside either. It's just a thing.

 

I would still rather have a DSD surround SACD.

 

 

 

 

The "new" CD from JPC is a glossy Digipack with a classic yellow (not golden) DGG label (content identical).

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