Memorable Swedish String Quartets 5cd Set
Label: CAPRICE Catalog: CAP21506 Format: CD BARKEL QUARTETLet me directly state that this box with five CDs from Caprice with a duration in excess of six hours is a rare treasure for anybody, who like me, is fascinated by historical recordings. Here we are faced with recordings that have survived the decades on forgotten acetates or crackling reel-to-reels, as well as in the choked up, dusty tracks of 78 RPMs. Only a very fragile line of causality between then and now has made possible this rare collection of string quartets out of the Swedish chamber music tradition. This material could very easily have gone a waste over the years, through a not so uncommon thoughtlessness, through negligence, ignorance or accidents out of the workings of Chance, Fate and the Powers in the continuum of space-time. By way of the CD transfers this material has been made available, put in its historical perspective and been rendered a new significance. Thankful thoughts reach out to the people who once made sure these recordings were made, to those who took care of the material and saved it, and last but not least to those who brought it to surface and presented it to us in this splendid way. One of the CD media’s greatest advantages – though often overlooked – is that old recordings, otherwise lost forever to all but the most stubborn of the collectors, now can be enjoyed by the general public. The phonogram publication has thereby taken on a beautiful depth of perspective. Many recording companies today indulge in such transfers and reissues. We might for example mention Pearl, who almost exclusively deals with historical material. Other companies have sub-divisions who release this material. Among the latter we can mention Nimbus, who in its Prima Voce series issues singers of the past, and who, on the sub-label Grand Piano releases new recordings of the Duo Art rolls from 1914 – 1930, with pianists like Ignaz Friedman, Alfred Cortot, Percy Grainger, Ignaz Paderewski and many more. Big mighty Sony Music has released wonderfully restored material on its Masterworks Heritage series. We should also mention defunct Russia Revelation (hopefully to be back one day) who in its publication of older – after the Soviet fall – rediscovered tapes, among other gems has provided us with a line of CDs with Shostakovich at the piano. Caprice also releases historical recordings in a series called Collector’s Classics, with this string quartet box as the first issue. All historical material – with the exception of the newly recorded Duo Art piano rolls – is naturally afflicted with crackling and hiss, to a higher or lesser degree. Some companies try to rid the recordings of these disturbances the best they know, while others pour the recordings out onto CD, unaltered. There are pros and cons both ways. Sony has laid down a costly and time consuming labor with the latest sound cleaning equipment and their own procedures as well, with expertise overview of the process from technical as well as artistic standpoints. The result is brilliant! There are no other transfers of old material that reach these sublime heights! These 78s have never been heard like this before! The sound that rises out of the CDs in the Masterworks Heritage series is nothing short of a revelation! As an example I might mention a recording from 1905 with the bass Marcel Journet, on a transfer from the original metal master, which has a dynamics up to 8000 Hz. Most acoustic 78s fall within a range of 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz. I can also assure you that the bass singer Alexander Kipnis - also in the Sony series – never before has been heard this way on a phonogram. Further more Sony presents its issues in the Masterworks Heritage series in specially designed, sober boxes with a masterly text material, where you can find all you could ask for – and more – in the way of facts. Sony has – through knowledge, expertise, artistic diligence and reverence succeeded in reducing the hiss of the 78s to a minimum, without compromising the sounding material in the process. As a gaudy contrast you may want to listen to some of the CDs from Italian Grammofono 2000. That obscure label also issues historical material, but in this case the responsible people have saturated the recordings with so much noise reduction that the original sound, that you’d want to protect, is utterly ruined. The company doesn’t provide enough background facts either. In the opposite corner we have Pearl, for instance, who shows off an ample and impressing catalogue of historical issues. Pearl is in fact the company that it feels most natural to turn to when tracking down historical recordings. They have the most extensive publication of this kind of material, and you can, so to say, always trust them. They are very careful and restrained in their usage of noise reduction, and mostly they don’t apply any technical wizardry at all. Instead they go looking for the best-preserved copies of the discs. The result is sometimes quite noisy, but on the other hand you are guaranteed a natural, original sound without a sometimes falsifying noise reduction. Personally I applaud the Pearl way of handling things without tricks, if you cannot afford to call up mobilize the kind Sony utilizes. After you’ve listened to historical recordings for a while you’re no longer affected by crackling and hiss. It’s only the artistic quality of the music that reaches you through the hiss that means anything, and you quickly adapt to using your own head’s discriminating noise reduction, enabling the music to liberate itself off the disturbances – like the high notes in Tuvinian khoomei singing – and appear transparent and clear across the years, and a new – i.e. old! – world is opening up in a surprising immediacy. On the five CDs in the box Memorable Swedish String Quartets from Caprice Records we listen to recordings by for example The Barkel Quartet, The Stockholm Quartet, The Garaguly Quartet, The Kyndel Quartet, The Ivan Ericsson Quartet, The Grünfarb Quartet, The Skåne Quartet, The Hälsingborg Quartet, The Gothenburg Quartet, The Kjellström Quartet etcetera. The repertoire is Swedish to a high extent. Caprice has restrained itself when adopting noise reduction, and the music emerges in clear contours. Naturally the sound quality shifts, depending on the state of the original sound carriers. The company has used 78s, shellac recordings, – sometimes recorded directly from broadcasts of early radio transmissions! – steel tapes and other early magnetic tapes. The historical and artistic quality of the recordings readily outweighs the sometimes obvious shortcomings of the recorded sound. The rarity of the material is also an important factor when assessing the recordings. A big part of the material is in good shape, though, with a quality not far behind present day recordings. The recordings were conducted between 1916 and 1964, and these cuts out of the flow of time give insights into the ideals of style and artistic preferences of days gone by. A 96-page booklet accompanies the box. The booklet – actually a small book – carries a lot of historic documentation in Swedish and English. It is expertly administered, and satisfies even the most inquisitive of listeners. In addition, each CD is supplied with an inlay with detailed information. I can only bow to Caprice and extend my gratitude for this superior issue, as I’m also recommending it to every honestly musically and historically inclined citizen! ~ Sonoloco Price: $93.98 |