What's the Latest MATRIX LP/CD Added to Your Pile? SQ, QS, RM, EV

[Soundfield]

The period instrument movement was only just starting to enter the mainstream in the seventies, so there aren’t that many quad recordings of that approach to classical music performance (apart from a few by David Munrow who was as the forefront of the exploration of those techniques and practices). So I was delighted to stumble across this fine recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto op.56 (which I have always loved):

And it claims to be the first ever on original instruments (which it almost certainly was!).

For some strange reason I hadn’t really been aware of SQ releases on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label before. On the evidence of this sample they have the same quality and style as the associated Electrola issues. Damn, as If I needed another collecting thread to follow!!!

 

[Simon A]

The period instrument movement was only just starting to enter the mainstream in the seventies, so there aren’t that many quad recordings of that approach to classical music performance (apart from a few by David Munrow who was as the forefront of the exploration of those techniques and practices). So I was delighted to stumble across this fine recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto op.56 (which I have always loved):

View attachment 36109

And it claims to be the first ever on original instruments (which it almost certainly was!).

For some strange reason I hadn’t really been aware of SQ releases on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label before. On the evidence of this sample they have the same quality and style as the associated Electrola issues. Damn, as If I needed another collecting thread to follow!!!

I absolutely love Anner Bylsma's playing! You lucky dawg!

 

[Soundfield]

I absolutely love Anner Bylsma's playing! You lucky dawg!

I know Simon , it's something of a gem, great soloists and the Collegium Aurem is a joy.

 

[Soundfield]

Ok guys, brace yourselves, this week there’s been major addition to my library of opera recordings (!)-

A little while ago, whilst hunting for interesting releases on the EMI/Electrola label, I came across this recording of Mozart’s little known opera “Bastien und Bastienne” :

I was enchanted by it, and was interested to see from the rear cover that it appeared to be a part of a series:

A little further investigation revealed that there were in fact a total nine titles in this series. All were of “singspiel”, small scale works or chamber operas. As such they were all available as “Gesamtaufnahme” ( i.e. a complete recording) on single discs. I naturally decided that I needed the complete series (!) and luckily have managed to track down fine copies of them all (several still sealed). So I now have, in addition to the Mozart above, these lovely performances:
Schubert “Die Verschworenen” (‘The conspirators’)

Schubert “Der vierjahrige Posten” (‘The four-year posting’)

Schubert “Die Zwillingsbruder” (‘The twin brother’)

Gluck “Der betrogene Kadi” (‘The betrayal of Kadi’)

Weber “Abu Hassan”

D’Albert “Die Abreise” (‘The departure’)

Mendlessohn “Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde” (‘The return from abroad’)

Lortzing “Die Opernprobe” (‘The opera rehearsal’)

This series must have been a very costly undertaking for EMI back in the seventies. These are very obscure works and have rarely if ever been recorded before or since – let alone in quad – and the market for such unknown works must have been very small (especially at the premium prices EMI Electrola SQ LPs commanded). Certainly this was no token effort, and was clearly a very a serious commitment by EMI, the casts are star studded (Kurt Moll, Helen Donath, Nicolai Gedda etc., etc.) and the performances are conducted by leading names such as Wolfgang Sawallisch. The gatefold sleeves give lots of details of the recordings and photos of the casts in rehearsal. I wonder how many people back in the seventies bought the complete set?!

These copies came variously from a dealer UK and a couple of dealers in Germany (and all surprisingly cheaply, this lot averaged about £5 a disc!) – but curiously, regardless of the source, all bar one has the EMI logo on the front cover obscured by an “Odeon” sticker (under the shrink wrap, so presumably applied at the factory in Germany) – I’ve no idea why or what significance it was supposed to have for the buying public at the time (and it does not appear anywhere else on the sleeve or on the discs themselves). I don’t think I’ve any other HMV/EMI/Electrola releases with this over-sticker.

 

[bigbillquad]

Fabulous hole there..... Soundfield…...you are becoming a stealth hunter :::::::::::::::::::7

 

[Soundfield]

Soundfield…...you are becoming a stealth hunter :::::::::::::::::::7

Thanks Bill, although I like to think of myself as more a latter day scarlet pimpernel. Instead of saving French aristocrats from the guillotine I try and save quad LPs from a similar horrible fate – the charity shop!

 

[Soundfield]

But why wasn’t Mozart’s comic singspiel The Impressario (Der Schauspieldirektor) included in the Electrola chamber opera series I hear you ask? It would certainly have been the obvious companion to the Lortzing “Die Opernprobe” (‘The opera rehearsal’) disc. Perhaps because it was slightly too long to fit on one LP as a complete “Gesamtaufnahme” recording. But also perhaps because EMI had already released an edited version narrated by Peter Ustinov on the Angel label. I’ve had a copy of that disc for some time but it wasn’t in top condition so I was prompted by my acquisitions above to get a decent copy and so have just added this sealed copy to the pile:

Interesting that the dummy record sleeve that Ustinov is holding sort of looks a bit like the style of the artwork of that later Electrola series.

 

[Soundfield]

Further to those Electrola Autumn special offer sampler sets of a couple of weeks ago I've found this Electrola quad promo disc, produced in collaboration with Sony:

In the centre of the gatefold sleeve is stapled a fairly substantial booklet which goes into quite a bit of technical detail and explains the merits of Sony SQ equipment;

I've feeling that there were variants of this disc, sponsored by other manufactures where the booklet was promoting their particular equipment range.

 

[Soundfield]

Here’s a real curio I had to get to investigate – the question being, is it quad or not?

Vedette Records was a small Italian company which from 1962 to about 1986 had, as far as I can determine, a catalogue largely of jazz and easy listening music. They briefly flirted with a system they called “Phase 6 Super Stereo” – I assumed that this was some stereo enhancement process akin to Decca’s “Phase 4” technique:



But strangely, this particular Vedette LP's rear sleeve also claims it is SQ quadraphonic:

But not, you will have noticed, using the normal (CBS) SQ logo. The disc itself also claims to be SQ quadraphonic:

Although I’ve not seen it, there was a Vedette EP sampler/demo disc:

which seems to make no such quad or SQ references and indeed is very specific that only two speakers are required, explaining (and I use the term loosely here!) thus –

“The modern stereo sound obtained with our 6-PHASE system adds to its particular purity properties the third dimension of sound. It then reaches the clear distinction between the first floor, intermediate sound and background as well as between the sound sources of the right, center and left. Using only two speakers, we can hear the three dimensions of the sounds”

(I hope that’s all much clearer now!)

As the rear cover of the Vivaldi LP tells me that the recording is also available as a cassette (VM 335) a stereo cartridge (V8S 08520) and a quad cartridge (Q8S 3085) I can only assume that Vedetta did on this occasion create a four channel master using the Phase 6 Super Stereo technique. It seems like a strange combination of techniques - I’m intrigued as to what my SM will make of it!

 

[Soundfield]

I’ve no idea who Werner Baumgart was and in truth I really only bought this dual LP set because I worked in the beautiful town of Baden Baden a few times and thought it might bring back a few memories:

I think the connection to Glenn Miller is pretty tenuous and the “2000” reference just seems to have been stuck on to make it sound ‘hip’ way back 1973 (if only they knew!)

Odd that it should appear on the BASF label, not a company I’ve ever previously associated with LPs, and whilst SQ encoded does not carry the standard SQ logo:

Curiously the band all seem to look fairly miserable:

Hopefully the performances are actually a bit jollier!

 

[fredblue]

Here’s a real curio I had to get to investigate – the question being, is it quad or not?

View attachment 36278

Vedette Records was a small Italian company which from 1962 to about 1986 had, as far as I can determine, a catalogue largely of jazz and easy listening music. They briefly flirted with a system they called “Phase 6 Super Stereo” – I assumed that this was some stereo enhancement process akin to Decca’s “Phase 4” technique:



But strangely, this particular Vedette LP's rear sleeve also claims it is SQ quadraphonic:

View attachment 36279


But not, you will have noticed, using the normal (CBS) SQ logo. The disc itself also claims to be SQ quadraphonic:

View attachment 36280

Although I’ve not seen it, there was a Vedette EP sampler/demo disc:

View attachment 36281

which seems to make no such quad or SQ references and indeed is very specific that only two speakers are required, explaining (and I use the term loosely here!) thus –

“The modern stereo sound obtained with our 6-PHASE system adds to its particular purity properties the third dimension of sound. It then reaches the clear distinction between the first floor, intermediate sound and background as well as between the sound sources of the right, center and left. Using only two speakers, we can hear the three dimensions of the sounds”

(I hope that’s all much clearer now!)

As the rear cover of the Vivaldi LP tells me that the recording is also available as a cassette (VM 335) a stereo cartridge (V8S 08520) and a quad cartridge (Q8S 3085) I can only assume that Vedetta did on this occasion create a four channel master using the Phase 6 Super Stereo technique. It seems like a strange combination of techniques - I’m intrigued as to what my SM will make of it!

got a couple of these Phase 6 LPs, can't remember if they decoded ok tbh i was v.new-fangled with the Surround Master and had a lot of discs coming in at that stage, a few things slipped between the cracks.. i'll check 'em out and report back

 

[fredblue]

I’ve no idea who Werner Baumgart was and in truth I really only bought this dual LP set because I worked in the beautiful town of Baden Baden a few times and thought it might bring back a few memories:

View attachment 36327

View attachment 36328

I think the connection to Glenn Miller is pretty tenuous and the “2000” reference just seems to have been stuck on to make it sound ‘hip’ way back 1973 (if only they knew!)

Odd that it should appear on the BASF label, not a company I’ve ever previously associated with LPs, and whilst SQ encoded does not carry the standard SQ logo:

View attachment 36329

Curiously the band all seem to look fairly miserable:
View attachment 36330
View attachment 36331

Hopefully the performances are actually a bit jollier!

have a few of those BASF SQ LPs also, pretty sure i did get around to decoding some of them thru the SM, don't remember a thing about them i'm afraid it was a slightly crazy time! anyhoo, enough idle chitchat, i'll go back thru the files and let you know what i find in there, hope its not too messy/scary!

 

[fredblue]

some pics for Soundfield (and any other interested QQ members!) of a few BASF SQ LPs;

 

[fredblue]

also, primarily for Soundfield (but maybe someone else here will enjoy it ) I could only lay my hands on one Phase 6 Super Stereo SQ LP this morning (marked SQ on the rear of the sleeve only btw) but I'm pretty sure I have at least one more of these, anyway here's Peter Hamilton Orchestra's 'Destination Musicland'..

 

[Soundfield]

some pics for Soundfield (and any other interested QQ members!) of a few BASF SQ LPs;

I never knew BASF were in that field at all - you learn something new everyday, thanks!

 

[Soundfield]

also, primarily for Soundfield (but maybe someone else here will enjoy it ) I could only lay my hands on one Phase 6 Super Stereo SQ LP this morning (marked SQ on the rear of the sleeve only btw) but I'm pretty sure I have at least one more of these, anyway here's Peter Hamilton Orchestra's 'Destination Musicland'..

Cheers - I knew you'd have some! I never ceased to be amazed by the complexities around record companies / labels, I see that yours doesn't carry the Vedetta brand (although it seems to follow their numbering system) and that in this case "Phase 6 Super Stereo" has apparently become the name of the record label rather than just a recording technique.

 

[fredblue]

I never knew BASF were in that field at all - you learn something new everyday, thanks!

anytime!
me neither til jumping on the Surround Master SQ joyride!

afaik BASF also issued some of these SQ LPs as encoded compact cassettes.. no idea how well they'd decode but i'll bet someone here has some and has tried it!

 

[fredblue]

Cheers - I knew you'd have some! I never ceased to be amazed by the complexities around record companies / labels, I see that yours doesn't carry the Vedetta brand (although it seems to follow their numbering system) and that in this case "Phase 6 Super Stereo" has apparently become the name of the record label rather than just a recording technique.

you're welcome as ever
quite remarkable isn't it.. i couldn't imagine the label would be hoping to shift too many copies on the strength of the LP being SQ Quad encoded by 1977.. just a bonus for the relative handful of dedicated Quaddies still into it all by that point maybe?

 

[Soundfield]

afaik BASF also issued some of these SQ LPs as encoded compact cassettes.. no idea how well they'd decode but i'll bet someone here has some and has tried it!

You mean you haven't got any?!!
I remember there was a bit of talk back in the day about the possibility of SQ encoded cassettes but it obviously never came to anything commercially. The concern always seemed to be that the phase response of cassettes wasn't good enough. In fact it would appear that the performance of run-of-the-mill domestic reel-to-reel decks of the day wouldn't be good enough either. Sony made a bit of a thing about a range of reel-to-reel decks they branded as "Uni-Phase" being suitable for the purpose - here's a bit of blurb on one such:

Interesting that the 'cure' simply seemed to involve a decent set of heads! Many cassette decks would go on to have very exotic head designs and with the dual capstan drive most hifi decks then adopted I don't think head contact would have been an issue for SQ playback. Perhaps that technology (like decent decoders) just came too late. Although I half wonder if the problem might at least at much have been at the duplicating end where in the early days cassettes were mass produced on some very ropey equipment!

 

[fredblue]

You mean you haven't got any?!!
I remember there was a bit of talk back in the day about the possibility of SQ encoded cassettes but it obviously never came to anything commercially. The concern always seemed to be that the phase response of cassettes wasn't good enough. In fact it would appear that the performance of run-of-the-mill domestic reel-to-reel decks of the day wouldn't be good enough either. Sony made a bit of a thing about a range of reel-to-reel decks they branded as "Uni-Phase" being suitable for the purpose - here's a bit of blurb on one such:
View attachment 36357
Interesting that the 'cure' simply seemed to involve a decent set of heads! Many cassette decks would go on to have very exotic head designs and with the dual capstan drive most hifi decks then adopted I don't think head contact would have been an issue for SQ playback. Perhaps that technology (like decent decoders) just came too late. Although I half wonder if the problem might at least at much have been at the duplicating end where in the early days cassettes were mass produced on some very ropey equipment!

no!
not yet..