Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

    Well, here's my list of most frequently occurring labels and why:
    
    1) Telarc
    	I can be assured of at least a "B" performance with little
        background noise to distract me, since I listen with headphones
        a lot.
    
    2) CBS
        But only because I happen to like the Mahler Cycle with
        Lorin Maazel and the Weiner Philharmoniker.  I don't have much else
        on CBS, but much of the Mahler is 2 discs each.  Also, I bought these
    	before I got really upset about the copyguard thing...
    
    3) Archiv
    	Because I like Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert.
    
    4) Loiseau-Lyre
    	Because I like Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient
    	Music.
    
    5) Denon
    	About as good as Telarc in my opinion, but for some reason I
    	don't have many of theirs.  No real reason for this that I can
    	figure out.

    I also have a couple of Delos discs that are technically excellent
    and the performances are pretty good, but they don't seem to offer
    many selections yet - at least not where I shop.
    
    One label I stay away from is Arista - I have heard several of their
    discs and they all sound "muddy" to me.
    
    Bruce

    Interesting question! I have the following TELARC CDs:
     Beethoven: Piano Concertos 2 and 5 -- Rudolf Serkin/Ozawa (?)
     Rachmaninof: Symphony No. 2 -- Andr� Previn
     Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 -- Lorin Maazel
     Tchaikovsky : 1812 Overture -- (Can't remember the coductor)
    I was underwhelmed by the digital canons on the 1812. But then I
    was playing the disc VERY softly; when the canons started they sounded
    like cherry bombs popping about a block away. I ran over and turned
    the thing up and could feel the base vibrating my organs (along
    with the floor and walls of the room) with no audible distortion.
    And yet I somehow felt as though the whole thing were distanced,
    not quite real. And that is pretty much my impression of all these
    TELARCs. They are SO smooth, SO velvety (SO Velveeta, I want to
    say) that they remind me of the early days of transistors when everyone
    in my dorm was rushing out to get KLH sets (circa 1964).
    
    The best sound to my ears so far has come from the ADD London (Decca)
    catalog (lots of Solti, Bonynge's "Fille du R�giment," "Traviata,"
    and "Lucia di Lammermoor"), the ADD Angel (EMI) catalog (the Otto
    Klemperer Beethoven, the Shostakovitch chamber music with the Borodin
    Quartet, Sviatoslav Richter, pianist, the Maria Callas sets), and
    the ADD Deutsche Grammophone chamber music with Wilhelm Kempff and
    various soloists (the Beethoven trios are just about the most wonderful
    things I've ever heard outside a concert hall).
    
    Strangely enough, very few DDD recordings on ANY label sound quite
    as good as ADD and AAD recordings on the same labels. This may be
    the fault of my amplifier. Oh -- just remembered that the Bonynge
    "Traviata" IS DDD, not ADD. Well, I haven't been able to arrive
    at any convincing generalization. My conclusion is that some recordings
    are remastered with more care than others, regardless of label.
    But I am not very impressed with ANY of the TELARCs that I've heard
    so far.
    
    Cheers,
    Jack Truslow
    

    Deutsche Grammophon - For various Karajan/Berliner Philharmoniker
	    recordings including Beethoven symphonies and Peer Gynt Suites.
	    The Perlman/Levine/Wiener Philharmoniker versions of Mozart's
	    Violin Concertos are OK but not outstanding.

    Archiv - I too like Trevor Pinnock, esp. Brandenburgs.

    RCA - Rubinstein's Chopin collection is superb!

    Dick Schoeller

    Please note the lack of ordering...
    
    Chandos - If they have some piece that I'm looking, I can
    usually be pretty sure that the performance and sound quality
    will be good.  They have a "sound" that I like.
    
    BIS - I've gotten some good and REALLY good stuff from them
    too.
    
    Records International and HK Marco Polo - These look like the
    same label even if the names are different.  I've gotten some
    interesting, probably hard to find music on this label.  The
    performances are good enough.
    
    Telarc - Technical quality is among the best.  The quality
    of performances ranges from great to boring.  I don't buy
    Telarc's anymore JUST because they are Telarc's.  I used
    to, but there have been just a couple too many boring per-
    formances.
    
    Polygram labels (DG, Philips, London, Argo, Archiv, etc) - 
    Generally very good when they have something I want.
    
    ProArte - I usually buy these for the music that's on the
    disc, not because of the label.
    

    Lately the last thing I look at for piece of music is the
    label, but it depends on the label.  I've gotten so much
    good stuff from Chandos and BIS that I've tended to go for
    those labels.

    ref CBS:
    
    Another reason to buy CBS are the Mozart piano concertoes by Murray
    Perahia.
    
    I like to add:
    
    Erato:   Marie Claire Alain playing J.S.Bach and some excellent cheap
    	     cd's in the Bonzai series
    
    Philips: Gewandhaus Leipzig/Concertgebouw/Alfred Brendel etc...
    
    I'll add my vote for Archiv/Loiseau Lyre: Pinnock/Hogwood
    
    Mari

    Telarc is very good at making recordings that sound like 'you
    are there'.  Unfortunately, 'there' isn't always a particularly
    good place to be, and many of the performances are VERY second-string.
    So, mostly I DON'T buy Telarc, unless I'm sure of the performers,
    or have had a chance to preview the disk.
    
    Mostly I do buy Philips, followed by (CBS).  I both cases, I buy
    for specific performers, not for sound.
    
    
    One of the very best sounding disks I own is an Erato recording
    of "Pli selon pli" by Pierre Boulez, performed by the BBC Symphony
    orchestra conducted by Pierre lui-m�me.
    
    					George

    
    Tops is Philips.  A lot of people don't like I Musici,
    but I like 'em, and they're on Philips.  Not to mention the Boston
    Pops.  I find Philips performance and recording quality to be
    consistently good.
    
    Second is CBS, for their Mahler and Schubert Symphonies, and a lot
    of double-disc sets of stuff I like to listen to (Bach Suites, Mozart
    stuff, etcetra).
                    
    A distant third is Telarc.
    
    Another thing I really like about Philips and CBS is the way they
    tend to bundle things into sets.  I like the way they bring things
    together.  Philips and CBS disks tend to be very full, too.  Philips
    and CBS disks usually run at least 50 min, where Telarcs tend to
    stop at around 40.
    
    It's proletarian, probably, but so what?
    
    DFW
    
    I freely confess I do not have the musical sophistication to judge
    between one performance or another.

Buying any CD based on it's manufacturer strikes me as really dumb.

TELARC does indeed make great recordings, but count me as one more listener
who would prefer to listen to a not-quite-as-good recording of an outstanding
(or even merely great) performance than have to suffer through a typical
outstanding TELARC recording of a mediocre performance.  Therefore, TELARC
is usually the last label I would consider buying.  To be sure, there have
been some outstanding performances on TELARC, (even a blind chicken will
find an occaisonal bit of food, after all), but you can't count on them.

My favorite labels are usually some of the less-known brands like ERATO, BIS,
NIMBUS, etc.  The two labels which I have had the best luck with so far, are
HUNGARATON and TELDEC -- I have about 15 CD's between these 2 labels, and I 
have yet to hear a less than A-quality performance and recording.  

Of course, it is hard to ignore DGG, LONDON, CBS, and RCA - after all they have
so many outstanding performances from the past (even if the recording is not
quite as clean as TELARC's standards).  I'd rather hear a scratchy recording
of Artur Rubinstein's great performances on RCA than the cleanest TELARC
recording of yet another mediocre effort by the Dallas Symphony.  In fact
I'd rather listen to my old, worn-out vinyl.  Luckily most of my favorite
old records are now being re-released on CD.  And RCA usually crams the CD
with 60 or more minutes per CD - THREE CHEERS FOR RCA!!!!!

Dirk

    
    Noone has mentioned Musical Heritage Society yet.
    
    I have only bought two of theirs so far (their catalog of CDs is
    still quite small) but both are excellent sonically and musically, 
    and cheap , too ($12.99).
    
    They mainly license from small labels like CRD, Erato, etc. though
    recently they have gotten ahold of some London/Decca things.
                            
    I have been also buying their cassettes and LPs for ten years now
    and they are very good, also.  Probably ther best domestically
    duplicated tapes on the market, in fact.
    
    

RCA and DG - for an excellent job in mastering old recordings (eg. Karajan's
Peer Gynt, Rubinstein's Chopin), the next best in this category is EMI-Angel.
However, compare EMI's Beecham to anything by DG-Karajan (or even the old
Furtwangler recordings) and the quality difference is obvious. Also, as 
mentioned in .8, RCA does tend to fill out their offerings.

Hyperion, ASV - for being bold enough to introduce new artists, the 
performances, however, belie the experience of the players. (eg. the
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Thea King)

Telarc - for audio quality and some of the best recordings of the Cleveland
Orchestra. For every disc they make of this orchestra, they are forgiven
the endless trash they release featuring Cincinatti and Kunzel.

DECCA - another quality sound outfit. They also have some of the more famous
artistes (Ashkenazy, Marriner, etc.). They are only just beginning to release
old recordings (Kertesz) and they sound great, too.

Finally, I hardly ever make a selection based primarily on the label. The 
label comes into consideration, when choosing between two artists of equal
calibre and/or two equally famous performances.

Enjoy,
Sudhir

    re: .8
    
    Of course buying based on label alone is dumb.  The question in
    .0 was "what labels show up most often".  My reply, and I expect
    that a lot of the others, simply lists what labels are common in
    my collection, and a guess as to why.
    
    In my case, and many of the others, we seem to have a favorite label or
    labels because of the PERFORMERS who are available on that label (e.g.
    Hogwood/AAM, Pinnock/TEC, etc.)  Or, in my case, since I often listen
    with good headphones (a very technically unforgiving experience) I have a
    preference for labels that consistently produce very clean recordings.
    So I have a tendency to buy Telarc when all else is about equal. I have
    noticed that many other people so this Telarc, also, though I don't
    know their reasons.  I, at least, certainly don't buy Telarc because I
    have any love for Erich Kunzel.  The only time I have bought Telarc
    strictly for the performance is the Telarc series of Mozart by Sir
    Charles MacKerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. I really like these
    performances of the Mozart Symphonies 36 & 38, 40 & 41, and the
    Posthorn Serenade.  Eine Kleine Nachtmusic (coupled with the Posthorn)
    isn't bad, but I've heard better.  
    
    Agreed, for most people who don't need to use headphones as often as I
    do, the requirement for very clean recordings can be less, allowing
    even more weight to be placed on performance.  In general, I don't
    think most people, including those replying to this note, buy mostly
    based on label - they are simply answering the question as posed in .0. 

    My favorite lable is DECCA. I am very fond of Antal Dorati's
    recordings with the Detroit SO. The same can be said of the
    Shostakovich series with Bernard Haitink. The recordings are
    very well balanced and perform a dynamic, chilling at one time
    shocking some other time
    2. L'oiseau lire. I'm fond of Christopher Hogwood and AAM. The	
       recordings sound a bit too artificial
    3. Although not perfect PHILIPS is good, and much of my favorite
       music is published on this lable  		

    
    While I have to agree that I, too, seldom buy by label, the couple
    of Erato disc I own are of such good quality (sound, selecton, and
    performance) that I always loo twice if I see an Erato disc. 
    
    In particular, the Erato recordings of Bach organ chorals by Marie
    Clair Elain and the Bach motets by (mumble) are excellent.
    

    Add another vote for ignoring labels in choice of CDs.  If the question
    is, as it was in .0, "Which label shows up most often?" then the answer
    for my collection goesd something like this:

    1.  Philips.  At last count, about 20 percent of my library

    2.  EMI.  About 15 percent.

    3.  CBS.  About 10 percent.

    In all cases, it's solely because the particular label had the
    particular performance I wanted.

    There is a reason why most DDD discs don't sound as natural as ADD or
    AAD remasterings.  There is, with the analog recording technologies, an
    inevitable intermodulation between channels - it's for this reason that
    cartridges and tape decks are rated for stereo separation.  That
    intermodulation adds what we call "ambience" to a recording - it
    simulates the bouncing of sound from the basses and cellos off the left
    wall, and the violins off the right wall.  DDD CDs lack it and, as a
    consequence, lack that "realism" to which we've become accustomed.

    One solution to the ambience lack is to add a sound processor, such as
    one of the dbx dynamic range controllers, to your system.  You can then
    dial in the ambience you like; in fact, you can open a living room up
    into a concert hall or, if you prefer, close it down to an intimacy
    that will amaze you.  You can also piddle with dynamic range and impact
    recovery, which will add life and brilliance to old tapes and LPs or to
    less-than-successful remasterings thereof.  Not a cheap toy, but worth
    every penny of it in my opinion.

    - Dick Binder

    
    Telarc,Philips,EMI, DG(selectively)
    
    Used to buy a lot of CBS but no more (copyguard jerks)
    
    JL
    

                       -< Another for Hungaroton >-
    
       I've never been dissapointed by Hungaroton (Vivaldi's Viola d'amour
    is to die for). 2nd Loiseau-Lyre for the Hogwood/Beethoven. 3rd
    Archiv for Bach.