News

On March 12, 2013 Reference Recordings will release a CD version and then sometime later a double 45rpm 1/2 speed mastered 200 gram Quality Record Pressings edition of a new recording by Piedmont blues specialist Doug MacLeod.

The long awaited announcement came today of VH1 Classic's new television series "For What It's Worth" starring Gary Dell'Abate and Jon Hein. The series premiers Thursday February 10th, 2013 and will continue weekly on Thursday evenings through March.

If you didn't buy the deluxe Pink Moon box set reviewed here by Randy Wells, you are in luck: the upcoming domestic UMG standard reissue, selling for far less, will still be pressed at Optimal in Germany, mastered AAA at Abbey Road, just like the deluxe box set's LP.

Here's a company that fell well below my radar screen for years until a reader alerted me to its website. The Electric Recording Company and its founder Pete Hutchison is dedicated to reissuing on vinyl much sought after classical music fare from the early LP era, including those of legendary violinist Johanna Martzy as well as recordings by violinists, Leonid Kogan and Gioconda De Vito, ‘French School’ pianists Yvonne Lefébure and Germaine Thyssens-Valentin and cellist János Starker.. Or as the website describes the musical choices "...iconic 'Holy Grail' recordings by the most revered classical performers."

We often talk about "cross-pollination" opportunities in the high performance audio world, like putting a cool system in a high-end furniture store or at trade-shows not associated with audio. It's a good way to interest a different demographic to the hobby.

I was just alerted to this event by a friend who is the oleologist (olive oil specialist) at New York's Eataly, the world's largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace, organized along similar lines, at Del Posto, one of New York's premier Italian restaurants—the first Italian restaurant in forty years to receive a four star review from The New York Times (in 2010).

Oh well. My segment on Gary Dell'Abbate's and Jon Hein's VH-1 Classic TV show "For What It's Worth" aired last night. I thought it was next Thursday evening.

The Ukranian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, who has more than 30 million YouTube channel views (and you thought classical music was 'dead'?) and is currently signed to Decca Records, will soon issue a collection of Liszt pieces recorded two different ways: digitally and all-analog with no edits, recorded from the same set of microphones.