* Veracini: Sonatas (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (ECM CD)
* Geminiani: Cello Sonatas, Op.5 (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics CD)
* Handel: Trio Sonatas, Op.2 & 5 (Academy of Ancient Music/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)†
* Venice Baroque Orchestra (Marcon/Carmignola): Concerto Veneziano (Archiv Produktion CD)
* Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (Boston Symphony/NEC Chorus/Munch) (RCA-Victor CD)
* Charles Mingus: The Great Concert of Charles Mingus (Paris 4-19-64) (Verve 2CD)
* Sun Ra: Pathways to Unknown Worlds/Friendly Love (Evidence CD)
* John Coltrane: The Complete Africa Brass Sessions (Impulse! 2CD)
* John Coltrane: Impressions (Impulse! CD)
* Anthony Braxton Large Ensemble: Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 5-08-08 (AUD CDR)
* Anthony Braxton Septet: Hursaal Chamber Hall, San Sebastián, Spain 7-25-08 (FM CDR)
* Anthony Braxton Quartet: Opéra Théâtre de Besançon, France 6-27-08 (AUD CDR)
* Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Moscow) 2008 (Leo CD)
* Mary Halvorson Quintet: Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12 CD)
* Tom Rainey Trio: Pool School (Clean Feed CD)
* The Beatles: Please Please Me (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: With The Beatles (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Beatles For Sale (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Beatles For Sale (2009 stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Help! (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Rubber Soul (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965 (2009) stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1987 (2009) stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Rubber Soul (U.S. stereo) (Capitol CD)
* The Beatles: Revolver (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Revolver (2009 stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (2009 mono) (Apple/EMI CD)
* The Beatles: Mono Masters (Apple/EMI 2CD)
* Grateful Dead: Oklahoma City Music Hall, Oklahoma City, OK 11-15-72 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Go To Nassau (GDP/Arista 2CD) †/‡
* Van Morrison: A Night in San Fracisco (Polydor 2CD)
* Lucinda Williams: Live @ The Fillmore (Lost Highway 2CD)†/‡
* Yes: The Yes Album (Atlantic/Mobile Fidelity CD)
* Yes: Fragile (Atlantic/ Mobile Fidelity CD)
* Yes: Close To The Edge (Atlantic/Rhino CD)
* Genesis: Duke (Atlantic LP)
* Robert Pollard: We All Got Out of the Army (GBV, Inc. CD) †/‡
* Robert Pollard: Moses on a Snail (GBV, Inc. CD) †/‡
* Boston Spaceships: Our Cubehouse Still Rocks (GBV, Inc. CD) †/‡
†=iPod
‡=car
Commentary:
A year later, The Beatles remasters continue to astound me. The mono box is just awesome, from its jewel-like packaging to the audiophile sound quality. Yes, standard Redbook CDs can sound good—if you try! I tend to prefer the mono mixes in general, but some of the stereo remasters are truly revelatory, particularly Beatles For Sale. The vocals are amazingly lifelike and the stereo effect actually manages to achieve an exquisite three-dimensional ambience surrounding the chiming acoustic and electric guitars. This was an album I had mostly overlooked, but it has since become one of my favorites—especially in stereo.
Rubber Soul is perhaps the most problematic album of them all, with no fewer than four different versions to choose from. The mono mix is, of course, the most cohesive whereas the original 1965 stereo mix is a murky mess. In 1987, George Martin remixed the album for compact disc and that is the version that is used on the new remaster. Sadly, Sir George utilized primitive digital tape for his mixdown and while the remaster certainly improves on the original CD, the high frequencies still suffer from a grainy hardness that is grating on the ear. Oh, and then there is the “butchered” version of Rubber Soul released by Capitol in the United States, with some songs were added while others deleted and the whole thing slathered with an extra bath of reverb. As a Yank, I grew up with this version and, for me, the U.S. sequence nicely emphasizes the new folk-rock aspect of their songwriting during this period, making it in some ways my favorite version—even in yucky hard-panned stereo. Heresy, I know!
Revolver is more of a toss-up: the mono is, as usual, just exactly perfect, yet the stereo remaster sounds great too, with a vivid, Technicolor presentation. But when it comes to Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, the mono mixes are where it’s at; they are very, very different from the stereo versions, meticulously constructed for maximum psychedelic impact. As John Lennon insisted, “you haven’t heard Pepper until you’ve heard it in mono.”
Not to quibble, but I do wish they had included all the relevant singles on each canonical album instead of relegating them to a separate set of discs. Yeah, sure, I understand why they wanted to preserve the integrity of the original albums, blah blah blah—but it still seems kind of chintzy when most of them are barely thirty-five minutes long and the singles are so integral to their epoch. Oh well, it seems ridiculous to complain; the folks at Abbey Road did a spectacular job in delivering the definitive edition of The Beatles catalog. Rumor has it a vinyl edition is forthcoming. We’ll see if they lavish the same kind of care and attention to detail on these as they did with the CDs, which are impeccable. If the LPs are mastered from the high-resolution digital files (and the plating and pressing is of good quality), they could sound quite stunning.
What is it about The Beatles that makes their music so timelessly enjoyable? I don’t know. But I do know one thing from listening to a whole bunch of bootlegs over the years: they worked exceedingly hard to achieve this kind of perfection. They spent hours and hours making zillions of re-takes and they always just chose the right one, the one where the spark caught fire and magic happened. It is, I think, this sense of craftsmanship that enables these songs—these specific recordings—to appeal to a broad swath of humanity and stand up to near-infinite hearings.
Now, how about a definitive edition of the uproariously funny (and incredibly strange) fan-club Christmas messages? ‘Tis the season and all…Heh heh…I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
