{"product_id":"holstplane_2611-3","title":"Holst - The Planets \/ Previn \/ LSO - Super Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch that plays 25 times lightly at the start of the first piece on side 2, \"Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e This record was not noisy enough to rate our M-- to EX++ grade, but it's not quite up to our standards for Mint Minus Minus either. If you're looking for quiet vinyl, this is probably not the best copy for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese sides have practically the best sound we have ever heard for the work, and that's saying something considering the scores of recordings we have played of this famous and famously well-loved piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately for audiophiles who love The Planets but are disappointed by most performances, a group that includes us to be sure, the amazing sound found on this copy is coupled with a superb performance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs you might imagine, on a big system this would make for a powerful listening experience, which is exactly the experience we ourselves had during our recent shootout. This copy actually deserves its place on the TAS list.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sides earned strong grades for their powerful energy and orchestral excitement, especially from the brass section, a subject we discuss at length below.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of The Planets 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:%221974%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1974\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 War Test -- Side One\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWar, the first movement, has the string players \"bouncing\" their bows upside down to create the effect you hear, a technique known as \"col legno.\" It's not fingers plucking the strings, it's the wood of the bows bouncing on the strings. The quality of that technique is so obvious and correct sounding on the good copies and so blurry and indistinct on the bad ones that you could almost judge the whole first side by that sound alone. When it's right it's really right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd of course the players are spread out wider and the soundfield is so much more transparent when these types of sonic qualities are brought out. This bouncing bow test makes it easy to separate the better copies from the also-rans when it comes to smear, resolution, transparency and the like.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Saturn Test -- Side Two\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was the real revelation in our shootout back in 2013. We had on hand performances by Steinberg on DG, Previn, and Boult on EMI, as well as Mehta and Karajan on London -- well known and highly regarded Golden Age recordings one and all. (I gave up on the Solti with the London Phil years ago; that opaque later London sound just won't cut it on the high-rez stereos of today.) None of the above could match either the performance or the sound of Saturn on the EMI by Previn and the LSO.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe brass is so big and powerful on EMI's recording that other orchestras and recordings frankly pale in comparison. Until I heard one of our top EMI pressings show me brass with this kind of weight and energy, I simply had no idea it was even possible to play the work this powerfully. The lower brass comes in, builds, gaining volume and weight, then calms down, but soon returns and builds relentlessly, ever and ever louder. Eventually, the trumpets break out, blasting their way forward and above the melee, the heavier brass has created below.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuite honestly I have never heard anything like it, and I heard this work performed live in late 2012! In live performance, the members of the brass section, being at the back of the stage, were at least 100 feet away from me, perhaps more. When playing the best EMI pressings, the brass was right there in front of me, eight to ten feet away. This is, of course, \"unnatural\" in some sense, but that fact takes nothing away from the power of the subjective experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly the conductor can stand at the podium, but the EMI producers and engineers have managed to put the listener, at least in this movement, right there with him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On The Planets\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\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePowerful bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\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\u003eThe EMI Sound\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEMI's are usually recorded with a mid-hall perspective, which is somewhat distant for our taste. That's not our sound. We prefer the Front Row Center seats (especially at these prices). That said, when an EMI from the 70s is recorded, mastered and pressed properly, it actually sounds more like the real thing, more like the live performance of orchestral music in a concert hall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's uncanny how real the best copies of this record sound. For a recording of The Planets it has no equal in our experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrevin Vs. Mehta\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 1974 release is widely considered one of the great recordings of The Planets. Previn is simply outstanding throughout. He's not going after effects, he's making all the pieces fit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course it trounces the Mehta recording that many audiophiles, HP included, are seemingly enamored with. We certainly never have been. EMI knows how to make an orchestra sound like a seamless whole, unlike the Decca recording engineers who appear to take perverse pride in awkwardly spotlighting every section. (Was it a Phase 4 experiment gone wrong? That's my guess.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the average London or Decca pressing of The Planets is lackluster, so opaque and smeary it's barely second-rate, a fact that most audiophile record collectors have mostly failed to appreciate since it first appeared on Harry's Super Disc list.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEMI pressings are virtually always going to be lightly ticky in the quietest sections of the music, and this is no exception.\u003c\/p\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\u003eA Must Own Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22orchestral-spectacular%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eorchestral spectacular\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e should be part of any serious classical collection. Others that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-classical-collection%22\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Holst, Gustav","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68115482870056,"sku":"holstplane","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/holstplane.jpg?v=1762883898","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/holstplane_2611-3","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}