{"product_id":"bernsmusic_2607-1","title":"Bernstein - The Music of Leonard Bernstein \/ Rogers - White Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a swoosh that plays 15 times lightly at the start of track 1 on side 2, \"Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story' - Prologue (Allegro Moderato).\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis London Phase 4 British import has some of the most spectacular sound we have ever heard reproduced from disc. The sound is so \u003ci\u003ebig\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ebold\u003c\/i\u003e that it handily puts to shame 95% or more of all the Golden Age Shaded Dogs, London Bluebacks, Mercury Living Presences, EMIs and Deccas we've ever played. If we had a Classical Top 100 list, this record would belong in a Top Ten taken from it, right near the top judging by what we heard when we played it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you have a system with the speed, power, and size to play this record properly (yes, you will need all three and a whole lot more), \u003cstrong\u003eit's hard to imagine it would not qualify as the best-sounding orchestral recording you've ever heard\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDemo Disc barely begins to do it justice. What sound. What music. What a record!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSide two is where some of the best orchestral action can be found, and it is presented here with spectacular audio fidelity the likes of which you may have never experienced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of The Music of Leonard Bernstein Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221961%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1961\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTHE All Time Sleeper\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis record is a real sleeper, for which I am much indebted to Robert Pincus, the man who first brought it to my attention more than a decade ago. It contains the music of Leonard Bernstein, conducted by Eric Rogers, played with extraordinary skill by the Royal Phil. Rogers, to these ears anyway, seem to understand Bernstein as well or better than Bernstein himself. I certainly don't know a better recording of the selections of Bernstein's music compiled here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRogers really breathes \u003ci\u003efire\u003c\/i\u003e into these pieces, especially on side two. We have never heard anything like it, and we play a lot of records!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On The Music of Leonard Bernstein\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePhase IV, Are You Serious?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes, absolutely. Allow me to make the case this way. Phase 4 has the life, dynamics, and deep articulate bass not found on most Golden Age recordings. There is no compression to speak of on the album, not on the best copies anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShaded Dogs may have sweeter strings and more Tubey Magic (which, as anyone who listens to live classical music knows, is mostly a euphonic coloration), but this recording sounds dramatically more like live music than most of them in every way other than soundstaging.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are of course multiple mikes being used, and sometimes they call attention to themselves, but for the most part the stage is wide and deep enough, and the mikes far enough from the orchestral sections, to create the illusion of a real orchestra in a hall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tympani at the back (along with most of the percussion) are especially convincing in this regard. On the copies with the most correct top ends, the triangles and bells are shockingly lifelike, sounding, to my \"mind's ear\" exactly the way they do in the concert hall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the way...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you with a recording of Glinka's Russla and Ludmilla Overture will no doubt notice the surprising similarities between it and Lenny's Overture to Candide found here. I wouldn't want to call it a 'steal'; let's just say he borrowed liberally from that work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThis Bernstein Album Is a Monster\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Music of Leonard Bernstein ranks right up at the top of our \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22difficulty-of-reproduction%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edifficulty of reproduction scale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. Do not attempt to play it using anything but than the highest quality equipment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnless your system is firing on all cylinders, even our hottest Hot Stamper copies -- the Super Hot and White Hot pressings with the biggest, most dynamic, clearest, and least distorted sound -- can have problems .\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour system should be thoroughly warmed up, your electricity should be clean and cooking, you've got to be using the right room treatments, and we also highly recommend using a demagnetizer such as the Walker Talisman on the record, your cables (power, interconnect and speaker) as well as the individual drivers of your speakers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a record that's going to demand a lot from the audio enthusiast, and we want to make sure that you feel you're up to the challenge. If you don't mind putting in a little hard work, here's a record that will reward your time and effort many times over, and probably teach you a thing or two about tweaking your gear in the process (especially your VTA adjustment, just to pick an obvious area most audiophiles neglect).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bernstein, Leonard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52164158357800,"sku":"bernsmusic","price":399.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/bernsmusic.jpg?v=1785087176","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/bernsmusic_2607-1","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}