Classical Record Labels and Recording Engineers...

Off and on we've had discussions about classical music record labels and recording engineers who reliably make great recordings with good performances. Some recent conversations in our local audio group here prompted me to offer the following thoughts from my experience. Please share your experiences/recommendations...


Record Labels...

On the classical side of things, I've found the following classical music labels consistently reliable for the engineering of the recording itself, for the pressing of the vinyl, and the generally high quality of the performances:

Accent
...(Some of the most natural sounding Baroque chamber recordings in my collection!)

Archive

Argo
...(A Decca label - see below.)

ASV

BASF

BIS

Calliope

Columbia (U.S.) ...only if Bruno Walter, Copland or Stravinsky are involved, otherwise watch out and buy for the music, not the sonic quality. The mastering quality is very often indifferent with dynamics being highly compressed, both ends of the frequency spectrum rolled off, and often fairly congested sounding. Chamber music typically fares a bit better than orchestral. Too bad there have been so many great artists recorded on this label.)

Columbia SAX (England)
...(An early British EMI label, highly valued on the collectors' market and scarce.)

Decca (SXL, SPA, STS, SDD, ECS, JB-Jubilee)
...(If I had to choose just one recording label around which I would build a classical music library, it would be Decca/London. In the '50s and '60s, Decca had the best engineering of any of the labels, together with wonderful artists. Many of the best of the vaunted RCA Shaded Dog recordings were actually recorded by the Decca recording team under contract for Decca. (If an RCA label LP says "recorded in England," you can assume it's a Decca contract recording.) And, no reason to shy away from the Decca reissue labels: Stereo Treasure STS -, Ace of Diamonds SDD-, and Jubilee JB-. These often are excellent, if different than the originals. Also see "London" below.)

EMI (HMV, ASD, SXLP)
...(The "Made in England" and "Made in Germany" EMI pressings are far superior to the Angel label pressings that were distributed here and manufactured by Capitol in the U.S. The EMI/Angel digital and digitally remastered LPS also are best avoided. Some of the very earliest Angels with the red label were actually pressed in England or were pressed from metal work that originated in England . These are quite good. After the red label came a blue label with lesser sound quality, and then the brown label with clouds that most of us know. Buy the brown label Angels for the music, not the sonics.)

Harmonia Mundi
...(including Black Label, USA Label, and original French - outstanding!)

Hungaraton
...(Consistently good sonics at least through the '70s. Digital Hungaratons are a mixed bag.)

Hyperion
...(Always reliable and worth a risk if you think you'd like to try the music.)

Gimmel
...(for the Tallis Scholars)

Gothic
...(For organ. Due to using a variety of recording engineers, there is some variability but overall quality is good.)

L'Oiseau Lyre
...(A Decca label, for early music. The analog recordings are better than the digital recordings. Early digital and period instruments just do not mix well.)

London (CS, OS)
...(London is the name used by Decca in the U.S. where the Decca name was controlled by another company. Made in England or Made in Holland only. Avoid the made in U.S. pressings (usually a pale yellow label).)

Lyrita (SRCS)
...(British composers. Recorded by the legendary Decca recording engineer Kenneth Wilkinson.)

Mercury (SR or SRI reissue)
...(The Mercury Golden Imports label was used for the reissues made in Holland after Mercury was acquired by Philips. These SRI- pressings are typically inexpensive and they often have excellent sonics. I never shy away from a SRI if I see one. The biggest downside with some of the SRI reissues is that Philips often crammed too much music on a side, resulting in some compression and sometimes rolled off bass to get more space for all the grooves. The SRIs are typically on quieter vinyl with a lower noise threshold and often have superior inner detail.)

Opus 3
...(A small privately owned Swedish label dedicated to acoustic music of all genre, very simply recorded with all the benefits coming from that.)

Meridian

New World
...(American composers)

Nimbus
...(I like their recordings, but some folks don't because of their reverberant acoustic)

Northeastern
...(American composers)

Pierre Verany
...(Excellent, but very pricey these days)

Philips
...(very reliable)

Proprius
...(primarily their analog recordings; their choral and organ recordings are among best recordings of choral groups and organs one may find)

Pure Pleasure (reissue label, popular and blues)

RCA (LSC, VICS plum)
...(RCA can be variable. The later ARL1 series is often not as good as the earlier LSCs. As a general rule, shaded dog and white dog labels can sound great. Red Seal labels can be quite variable. Of the Victrolas VICS-, the plum colored labels are often very good, and the pink labels are highly variable, often bright and edgy.)

Speakers Corner (reissue label, Decca, Mercury, Verve)

Telefunken

Testament (reissue label, EMI)

Valois

Vista
...(for organ, British)

Wilson Audio
...(Excellent recordings but the catalog is small)


There are other record labels that did a great job of recording, but a lousy job of manufacturing the LPs. In this category I would place as examples Command and Everest (except for the very earliest Everest pressings, the "purple mountain" labels).



Recording Engineers...

I will always look to see if the jacket tells who the recording engineer was for the record. My preference is for a "natural-sounding" recording that captures the performers and instruments in a real acoustic space where the performance occurred, and that gives me a sense either of looking through a window on the performance or bringing the performance into my room. I'm looking for natural soundstaging in width and depth, without artificial highlighting of instruments. I'm also looking for believable instrumental timbre and capturing the harmonic overtones of the instruments. Just like a stereo system, for me a recording must first capture the midrange accurately, then the frequency extremes, then the inner detail and micro-dynamics, then the macro dynamics, and then the acoustic space. With these priorities in mind, the recording engineers whose work I most highly value are (alphabetically):

Kavi Alexander (Water Lily Acoustics and free lance work)

Marc Aubort (free lance, often seen on Nonesuch with producer Joanna Nickrenz – a great recording team and on Vox/Turnabout)

Bob Auger (free lance, Hyperion, ASV , CRD)

Mr. Bear (pseudonym used by EMI engineer Mike Clements for his free lance work for Hyperion, Gimmel and other labels)

Mike Clements (see Mr. Bear)

Tony Faulkner (Hyperion and others)

Antony Howell (Hyperion and others)

David Jones (particularly his piano recordings for the Connoisseur Society label)

Peter McGrath (the Harmonia Mundi USA series)

Jean-Francois Pontefract (Harmonia Mundi, HM- series)

Tryggvi Tryggvason

Roy Wallace (Decca, '60s)

Kenneth Wilkinson (legendary Decca engineer, I'm particularly fond of his pre mid-'70s work for Decca. Starting in the early to mid '70s, Decca started dictating much more multi-miking. Contrast his mid-'70s recordings for Decca in Chicago with the work he was doing for Lyrita at the same time, where he retained full artistic control. Wilkinson is responsible for the wonderful sonics in the Readers Digest series of "Treasury of Great Music" with producer Charles Gerhardt, reissued in part by Chesky.)



So, what are your favorite labels? And what recording engineers make a difference for you?

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