Record Error ; Brahms - Youngrok LEE's Music Page

Tedious

* RECORDS with ERROR ; Items

2. Brahms

1) 2 Piano Concertos(+7 Fantasies op.116)

- Emil Gilels(p)/Eugen Jochum(con.)/Berlin Philharmonic
- Recording ; 1972
- DG Originals 447 446-2
- Contribution ; Classical Music Forum in HiTEL, Message board No.8, #1511
(In Korean, Mar. 1998)

I was perplexed in listening the second movement of Concerto No.2. I think Gilels was 'absent-minded' for a moment in the recording. In Trio of this movement, orchestra only plays about 30 seconds after modulation to D major, and piano plays solo more than 10 seconds. This solo consist of two phrase - a melody is played first by octave-unison(time 5:27~5:34), then by harmonization(~5:42). In this harmonized phrase(5:38~5:39), suddenly the music gets confused^^.
Miss such as this takes place occasionally in Gilels' playing, and you will be able to find at his live recordings - Schubert's Impromptus D.935-1 and Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata in BMG-Melodiya 74321 40116 2. But, this is a Studio recording in tape era, so I think producer must correct miss such as this by editing and that it is one of basic etiquette to record listeners. This is larger mistake than I think humorous^^.

2) Piano Quartet No.1 in g minor, op.25

1. EMI CDH 5 65190 2(+String Quartet No.3)

- Rudolf Serkin(p)/Members of the Busch Quartet
- Recording ; 25 & 26th May 1949, London
- Contribution ; The Classical Music, No.1(June 1996)

This recording was very attractive and persuasive in playing quality judging from LP version(I think only Gilels-Amadeus' DG recording is better than this in 9 recording of mine), but some serious problems perfectly made this CD garbage. This is the worst case of transferring problem that I have ever heard.

* 1st movement

Between 4:05 and 4:06(130^th bar), there is an absurd pause which is not in original score. I was able to know that the recording pitch is a bit lower than that before the strange pause, and that the low pitch was maintained to the end of this work[See score 1 & 2].

[Score 1] Original ; 1st movement, 128~131st bars. There is no rest in piano part at 130th bar.

(105kb)
[Score 2] As played in this CD, 128~131st bars (at ~ 4:05) ;
There is an absurd rest, after which the pitch are lower than before it.

Third movement

(1) There is a 16th rest in original score in 59th bar. In this CD, this rest is too long (between 3:01 and 3:02). - [Score 3]
(2) The eighth rest at 133rd bar is too long, which is between 5:41 and 5:42. - [Score 4]

(90kb)
[Score 3] 58~60th bar. In this CD, marked 16th rest is too long.

(75kb)
[Score 4] 130~133rd bar. In this CD, marked 8th rest is too long.

Comparison to other issues of this recording

Because I doubted this recording originally has strangeness above, I listened and inspected other issues comparing to the record. The one is released by EMI France(LP), and the other 'The Art of Adolf Busch(17-CD set)' by Toshiba-EMI(Japan). The playing time of international version is considerably longer than those of the both(see right table and backjacket image beneath), and the pitch of 2~4th movements is lower. Judging only from the playing time, who can know these issues have the same source? And none of the both have the same problems as the international version, and strange long rests are never detectable in them. At the same place of LP, I was able to discern only small junction noise of tape editing.

Version	Record No.	format	1st mvt.	2nd mvt.	3rd mvt.	4th mvt.
International	CDH 5 65190 2	CD	13:10	9:00	10:17	8:29
EMI France	2908061	LP	13:05	8:35	9:14	7:51
Toshiba-EMI	TOCE 6781~97	CD	13:08	8:33	9:18	7:48

I could not but conclude that this strangeness stemmed from mistakes of CD transferring error of EMI International. My conclusion is that the low-pitch problem must be due to slowness of master tape speed, long rests missediting of master tape junction. My colleagues are for me, too. One referred the problem in his review as the CD seems to have missediting, and the other listened to say, "It is sure that the pitch is low."(Both of them are credible as well-known CD reviewer in Korea). I thought over the possibility that only my CD has this problems, but concluded it is not because the backprint playing times of the CD also includes error and my colleague found same error heard in another.

Now, I assert to my friends that this CD is absolutely of no use to listen Piano Quartet No.1. How can I say it is normal if the playing time is totally wrong(Tempo is very much important in playing!!!) and there are missediting errors? I remember EMI Int'l exchanged the CD jacket of Hans Hotter's Schwanegesang(CDH 5 65196 2, some had misbinding with Heifetz's CD jacket). The error of this CD is by far more serious than that of Hotter's, so it deserves to be recalled in my opinion. I cannot but have some suspicions ;

This CD is on EMI catalogue(homepage DB searching, insert Busch at artist) even now, so it is very strange to me that EMI would not correct this error. I think anyone to like the quartet will find these problems very easily. Could there be no inquiry on this CD really though it was reissued 5 years ago?
I informed EMI Korea of this problems about 4 years ago, but EMI Korea told me that they received a reply that EMI Int'l only said the CD had no problem after they listened this CD(EMI Korea received my tape-copy of this CD & LP of EMI France, consenting to my opinion). Did EMI Int'l reply so because they had already corrected the error then?
Even if the error was already corrected, EMI has duty to recall CDs with error. I think EMI's attitude to this item is never good to customers because I send an e-mail on errors of this CD to EMI International and asked them to see this page, receiving answer that they would investigate it.
ps ] In Aug. 2000, I found an online review of this CD in Gramophone, Nov. 1994. Next is the original article about Piano Quartet ;

There is a big difference with the Piano Quartet, recorded only a week later (with a different sound engineer). Busch's intonation is still not 100 per cent, but his tone is less edgy; Serkin, though, tends to be over-assertive and heavy-handed in the initial Allegro; yet in general this performance glows with intensity and perception. Particularly impressive are the nobility of the third movement (but is this Andante really con moto?) and the gipsified high jinks of the finale. The recording is marred by a distressing drop in pitch between what were originally the first two 78rpm sides: in these days of electronic marvels, could not that downwards lurch of the D major chord have been obviated somehow?

The reviewer(whose initial is LS) referred to the pitch drop at the same place told by me, but omitted other errors. Though, he said 'Andante really con moto?', alluding too slow tempo. I think he knew something is going wrong.

Apendix ; Evidences of my insistences

Because EMI International did not believe me, I have no choice to upload backjacket images of CD and LP so as to show the playing times. If you listen to my uploaded .rm files, no more explanation would be needed.

[Left image] Jacket of LP by EMI France(2908061).
Cover photo is the same to that of CD including Brahms' Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet No.2(EMI CDH 7 64702 2). This image had to be editted because the bed size of my scanner is smaller than the LP size.

* EMI CDH 5 65190 2 ; Playing times at backjacket. Please compare to those of LP beneath.

* EMI LP 2908061 ; Playing times at backjacket.
NB] I editted this image to reduce file size, deleting bar code and information of Piano Quartet No.2. Of course, I didn't touch the playing times.

2. Testament SBT 3063(+Piano Quartet No.2 & 3, Piano Quintet, String Quartet No.2, Schumann ; Piano Quintet)

- Victor Aller(p)/Members of the Hollywood Quartet
- Recording ; 1956, Los Angeles
- Contribution ; The Classical Music, No.4(Feb. 1997)

Testament successively released CD of Hollywood Quartet, with which I am pleased. But this CD has a big miss.

There are missediting in 3rd movement, so about 2 beats are missing at 125~126th bars(See next score).
I can't know the exact cause - CD transferring error or original tape source problem - because I have no other release of this recording.

(31kb)

5 3rd Movement, Bars 125~126

3. Koch 3-7701-2 H1(+Bach, Beethoven's works)

- Edwin Fischer(p)/Vittrio Brero(vn), Rudolf Nel(va), Theo Schürger(vc)
- Recording ; 1939~41, Berlin
- Contribution ; The first at this page(Dec. 1999)

(75kb)
5 Missediting in 3rd movement ; Bars 104~108

Maestro Edwin Fischer did not make many chamber music records in studio, but this recording is memorable. This Koch reissue has two errors, though.

This record has missediting problem in 3rd and 4th movements. In 3rd movement, at playing time [4:23], about a meter is cut. And similar error is in 4th movement at playing time [3:52]. This error is not repeated when repeating.
I could not find same errors in Opus MLG-74(Private LP), so these surely result from miss of Koch's remastering.

(75kb)

3 Missediting in 4th movement ; Bars 187~190

3) Intermezzo in C major, op.119-3(+Schubert ; Sonata No.21, etc.)

- Clifford Curzon(p)
- Recording ; 1962
- Decca Classic Sound 448 578-2
- Contribution ; The Classical Music, No.2(Sep. 1996)

This reissue is for 'Classic Sound' series, and contents are very good - in special, Schubert's Sonata is one of the most beautiful recording of this work I have ever heard. But Brahms' Intermezzo op.119-3 has miss-starting error at this reissue.
This work starts the melody line 'E-G-A-G-E' of right hand. In this item, the first note E is very shorter(almost not heard) than G and A, which is absurd.

Obviously this error results from wrong remastering, judging from the fact that I confirmed older issue of this item of Decca('Curzon plays Brahms', CD, 417 641-2) had no problem.

(31kb)

ps. I do not know if Original Masters issue(Decca 475 084-2) has same problem.

Tedious

Created ; 26th Dec. 1999
Last Update ; 4th Jan. 2004

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