hookups - americanradiohistory.com · how to solve six of the most perplexing component shopping...

Audio Buying Confusion Solved! (Page 33)U.K. £1.25 MARCH 1983 $1.75

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HE MAGAZIN OF AUDIO. VIDEO. CLASSICAL MUSIC. AND POPULAR M -SIC

ICD 08398

6 Revealing Lab Tests Super Car Stereo Buying Tips

Do You Need a Switching Box? 2 Video Switchers Evaluated

Computer -Age Drums-We Compare 5 Electronic Models

GuideStereo Syste

HookupsBest and Easiest Ways_to

Connect Any Add-onrtit

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11du George Shearing La Boheme Sunn Lake

America in Central Park

Kingston Trio

The Music ofMelissa Manchester

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Amin I.60;thb GteAfit MANG

Dave Mason

The Nutcracker

Liza in Concert

Grover Washington. Jr.

Horowitz

Kenny Logyins/ Alive

Rost mpovitch

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Paul McCartney & Wings"Rockshow"

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Pi°neerLaserDisc YOU MAY NEVERLISTEN TO A RECORD AGAIN.

Since the very beginning, there's beenan enormous gap between the feeling ofbeing at a concert and the feeling of itsreproduction.

Stereo could give you great sound, butthe picture was missing. TV could give youthe picture, but with sound never worthlistening to.

At last, picture and sound come togetherin Pioneer LaserDisc7

It's stereo as good as the best conven-tional audio records made today. It's a pic-ture as good as if you were in the TV studioitself. Its a remarkable combination of

sight and sound that gives you a sense ofperformance, a feeling of being there you'vesimply never experienced at home before.

There are a lot of systems that show youmovies at home. And we believe that PioneerLaserDisc is clearly the best of them. But ifyou care about music, if you really careabout music, there simply is no other way.

For the Pioneer Video Showcase Dealernearest you, call (800) 621-5199,*or write Pioneer Video, Inc.,200 West Grand Avenue,Montvale, NJ 07645.'(In Illinois, 800.972-5855)

Credits.. Pioneer Artists and Pioneer Video Imports.Simulated TV picture of Pioneer Artists' "The Music of Melissa Manchester."Available titles subject to change without notice. C1982 Pioneer Video Inc.All Rights Reserved. PIONEER'

Circle 9 on Reader -Service Card

VOLUME 33 NUMBER 3 MARCH 1983

AUDIO*Spring Stereo Component Preview by Peter DobbinA first glimpse at the latest audio and video equipment 8

CrossTalk by Robert LongGold-plated contacts; Taking advantage of tape headroom; Azimuth alignment 16

* The Autophile by Gary StockWhat you need to know before choosing a car stereo receiver/cassette deck 18

Basically Speaking by Michael RiggsThe preamplifier is the nerve center of your audio system 21

Sound Views by Peter DobbinLoudspeaker pioneer Dr. Amar Bose calls for a simplified approach to audio 22

*New Equipment ReportsAllison Nine speakers 23 Technics SL -5 turntable 29Sansui AU -D22 integrated amp 25 Audio Technica AT-122EP pickup 30Akai GX-91 cassette deck 26 Benchmark ARU ambience recovery unit 31

*Prescriptions for Audio Indecision by Harold A. RodgersHow to solve six of the most perplexing component shopping dilemmas 33

* Taking Control of Your Stereo System by Robert LongA practical guide to connecting add-on devices to your system 36

VIDEO TODAY & TOMORROW* Hands -On Reports: Video Switchboxes by Edward J. Foster

Signal routing devices from Showtime Video Ventures and Channel MasterVideo Q. & A. by Edward J. FosterAudio bulk -tape erasers for video; CED vs. Laser Disc playersTubeFood by Susan ElliottNew video programming: cassette, disc, and pay cable

41

43

43

CLASSICAL MUSICZoltan Kodaly: The Other Hungarian Centenary Reviewed by Paul Henry LangIn evaluating his art, one always comes back to Bart6k 44Expanding Early -Music Frontiers Reviewed by Nicholas KenyonA fascinating and varied group of recordings on Electrola's Reflexe label 46Reviews: Kenyon on Walton; More Mahler; D'Indy's Second Symphony 48Critics' Choice 52Ofra Harnoy: Artistry of a Natural Musician Reviewed by Harris GoldsmithThe young Israeli cellist is an authentic new talent 54Jozsef Gregor: A Lesson Well Learned Reviewed by Kenneth FurieA sturdy bass finds real people where others settle for caricatures 59From the Competitions, More Young Pianists Reviewed by Harris GoldsmithAnd most of them are worthy 62The Tape Deck by R.D. DarrellVox humana; Maximalism 65

BACKBEAT/Popular MusicA New School of Jazz Piano Reviewed by Don HeckmanThree new recordings probe the outer limits of improvisation

*Look Ma, No Sticks! by J.B. MooreFive electronic drum machines comparedPop Reviews: Michael Jackson; Kate & Anna McGarrigle; Randy NewmanJazz Reviews: Charlie Barnet; John Coltrane & Don Cherry

66

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DEPARTMENTSAbout This Issue 2 Reader -Service CardsLetters 6 Advertising Index

* Cover Story

4982

HighFidelity

Problem Solver 33

A.:i..17:11722411111111.1113Video Switcher 41

Hungarian Master 44

IMMO Oen 011121

Electronic Pacesetter

audio -talk. fromaucno-tecnnica.

Number 1 111,1 ser es

The FirstComponent

Most stereosystem buyershave little to say

about which phonocartridge is installed in

their first system. Indeed,many buyers aren't aware of the car-tridge as a separate component, andcertainly not as an important one!

A Vital PositionYet the phono cartridge is unique in itsposition as the first component for re-cord playing. It must touch your records.translate the tiny groove swings into avarying electronic signal, and comple-ment the virtues of the tone arm, whileminimizing any limitations.

The Limiting FactorBecause it is so small and light, andbecause some models sell for so little, itis easy to ignore the importance of thecartridge. But, to the degree that it isless than perfect, it limits the potentialof every other part of your stereo system.And it can literally grind the nuancesof music out of those expensive recordsyou buy.

Microscopic PrecisionMany of the goals of cartridge designersare contradictory, requiring imaginativeapproaches and superb workmanship ona microscopic level. Ideally, the styluswill barely touch the groove, yet it mustalso firmly follow its every vibration,changing direction in two planes asoften as 20,000 times a second or more!It must also carry along the entire tonearm mechanism, as it slowly worksits way to the inside of the long record-ing spiral.

A Crucial ChoiceAny deviation from perfection givesrise to one or more forms of distortion.And unfortunately, this kind of distor-tion can't be removed, no matter howsophisticated the electronics, or howexpensive the speakers. Your choice ofa phono cartridge and turntable willactually determine the ultimate per-formance of your system, and how longyour records will maintain their like -new quality. In this series, we'll discusssome of the important factors youshould consider when selecting thisvital component.

Jon Kelly, President

audio-technica.Audio-Technica U.S., Inc.

1221 Commerce Dr. Stow, Ohio 44224The World's Favorite Phono Cartridge

About This IssueInside the pages of March's HIGH FIDELITY

SOMETIMES THE BEST ARTICLE ideas comefrom our own personal experiences. "TakingControl of Your Stereo System," for in-stance, was an outgrowth of the complex andconstantly changing array of equipment inHF's listening room, and of our combinedfrustrations with our home systems. Authorand consulting technical editor Robert Longnot only has spent some fifteen years of shut-tling equipment in and out of stereo systems,but he is well along on designing what couldturn out to be the ultimate audio switchingbox for his own setup.

Coincident with the development of thatpiece, several video switchboxes came to ourattention. For the increasing number of you who own or are planning morethan a basic video system, we selected two for our video hands-on test.

Also featured this month is our "hot -off -the -press" preview of new au-dio and video components for spring 1983. As electronics features editor Pe-ter Dobbin points out, our predictions are based on a number of pre -WinterConsumer Electronics Show press conferences, as well as personal visits byand to various manufacturers. To help you sort through the array of newproducts, we've included "Prescription for Audio Indecision." Author Har-old Rodgers (a former member of HF's technical staff and currently techni-cal editor of Technology Illustrated) details the numerous factors governingthe choice of approach to a particular component, such as belt -drive vs. di-rect -drive in a turntable. And in the "Autophile" column, Gary Stock out-lines the three steps to making the right choice when buying a receiver/tapedeck for your car.

If you think you've heard everything electronic music has to offer, haveyou heard electronic drums? You probably have, though you may not knowit. Record producer and frequent drum -machine user J. B. Moore tells youwhere you can hear them and compares five of these revolutionary instru-ments that are spawning both raves and skepticism.

Next month's issue will feature our annual spring roundup of theWCES, with special reports by all of HF's technical staff analyzing thetrends in audio and video. You'll also find valuable tips on getting andkeeping your stereo system in phase in "Retsoff's Remedies"; a look athow FM tuners work in "Basically Speaking"; a hands-on evaluation ofsome new interactive laser video discs; our usual six test reports, includingone on the new Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck-the first deck to have au-tomatic continuous playback -head azimuth alignment; and a provocative in-terview with the ever irreverent Randy Newman.-W.T.

Taking control, page 36

High Fidelity

Guide toStereo System

Hookupse1 Anti Rosiest way,.

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Cover design: Robert MaddocksCover photo: Dennis Purse

ON THE COVER: (clockwise from center, rear) Allison Nine loudspeaker, DBX200 switcher, Russound SP -1 switcher atop Sansui AU -22 integrated amp,Showtime Video Ventures 5000S audio -video switcher, Benchmark AcousticsARU ambience enhancement system, Channel Master Video Control Centeratop Audiopatch 465 patch bay, and Akai GX-F91 cassette deck

Circle 52 on Reader -Service Card2 HIGH FIDELITY

New. And different.Til today, ADS has been famous for

superb speakers. And digital delay systems.And automotive audio.

Now for something completely different.What you see below are the first of the

new ADS "Atelier" audio components.Each of them, the record player (P2), the

receiver (R1), the cassette deck (C2), isabout as thick as a Michener novel.

An audiophile will be comfortable buyingone, or all, on performance specificationsalone.

But the refinements that make them soeasy to live with, and the future we haveplanned for them set these handsome in-struments forever apart.

While they can be bought separately, thecase for buying all is almost irresistible.When each unit is cabled to its neighbor, allcables are hidden by hinged covers on theback of the units. They can be stacked,placed sidety-side, or placed on and

plugged into the optional pedestalshown below.

It's the first audio ar-rangement that can beneatly placed on a table,shelf, or in the middle bfany room or decoratingscheme, at your discre-tion.

And other compo-nents housed in mod-ules of the same size andshape are on the draw-ing board, which is to saythat what you see on thispage is the beginning ofa system which cansomeday soon satisfy all

your audio dreams."Atelier" components are at

your ADS dealer's now. To find thedealer nearest you write us.

Analog & Digital Systems, Inc.,237 Progress Way, Wilmington, MA 01887.Or call 800-824-7888 (in CA 800-852-7777)Ope-ator 483.

ADS. Audio apart.

01982 ADS INC

DIGITALIS ANGEL!

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SCHEHERAZADEMUTI PHILADELPHIA

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imar

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MAHLERSymphony No.4

TENNSTEDTLucia Popp

LondonPhilharmonic

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RICHARD STRAUSSFOUR LAST SONGS

DEATH ANDTRANSFIGURATION

LUCIA POPPKLAUS TENNSTEDT

London Philharmonic OrchestraDIGITALEMI

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1"°111:1AV I S H AN KAR

ALI AKBAR KHANRaga Mishra Piloo

in performance at Carnegie Hall7

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Digital ReadyIntroducing the Tandberg TIA-3012 integratedamplifier, designed especially for tomorrow'shighly -dynamic source materials. Its specially -designed digital input can accept up to 20 voltswithout overload. Hear the TIA-3012 at your localTandberg dealer, or contact:

TANDBERG*Labriola Court Armonk, New York 10504 (914)273-9150

William Tynan.Editor-in-Chief/Associate Publisher

Shirley Fleming,Editor, Musical America

Susan Elliott.Managing Editor/Editor. Backbeat

James R Oestreich.Classical Music Editor

Michael Riggs.Technical Editor

Peter Dobbin,Electronics Features Editor

Robert Maddocks.Director of Graphics

Peter Hemingson,Copy Editor

Susan E Fingerhut,Assistant Music Editor

Janet Wolf,Assistant Editor

Mildred Camacho-Castillo, A Heather Wood.Editorial Assistants

Consulting Technical Editors. Edward J Foster.Robert Long

Contributing Editors Christine Begole. Crispin Cioe,R D Darrell. Harris Goldsmith, Edward Greenfield,David Hamilton. Dale Harris. Don Heckman, StephenHolden. Nicholas Kenyon, Allan Kozinn, Paul HenryLang. Irving Lowens. Robert C Marsh, Fred Miller,Andrew Porter. Steven X. Rea. Susan ThiemannSommer. John S Wilson.Contributing Graphics Staff. Robert Curtis. Photogra-phy, Roy Lindstrom, Technical Art

Kathleen Davis.Director of Production

Janet Cermak.Advertising Production Manager

Production Editors. Randy Brozen. Audio -Video.Lida A Silverman, MUSIC: Paula Ballan. Assistant

Susan M Allyn.Circulation Director. Subscription Sales

Dominic Mustello.Circulation Director. Newsstand Sales

William P Johnson.Circulation Service Manager

Suzanne Hochman,Circulation Manager

Michelle Bergan.Direct Mail Coordinator

Steven I Rosenbaum.Publisher

ADVERTISINGNew York: ABC Leisure Magazines, Inc . 825 7th Ave

7th Floor. New York N Y 10019 Telephone (212)265-8360 Sey-mour Resnick. Advertising Director. Raymond Foster. AssociateAdvertising Director. Richard A Frank, Eastern Advertising Man.ager. James R McCallum. Record Advertising Manager. VellaPeltzman. Classified Advertising Manager. Robert Maddocks.Director of Graphics. Kathleen Davis. Director of ProductionJanet Cermak. Advertising Production Manager. Cecelia M Giun-ta. Administrative Assistant

Midwest: ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc 415 South lokaAvenue. Mt Prospect. III 60056 Telephone (3121 398-7580

P Gordon. Midwest Advertising ManagerLos Angeles: ABC Leisure Magazines, Inc . 2020 Avenue

of the Stars. Suite 245. Century City. Call 90067 Telephone12131 557-6482 Rita Weitzen. Western Advertising Manager

Melons) Rims: Kathleen Cherie Kathleen G CherieAssociates. 21000 W Fourteen Mile Road, Birmingham. Mich48010 Telephone (3131 642-3482 Bill Good. Sr . Good Maga.zines. Inc 50 East 42nd Street. New York. N Y 10017 Tele-

(21216132-0385 Peter McCann. The McCann Group. 333N Michigan Avenue. Chicago, Ill 60601 Telephone (3121 782-

Tokyo: Japan Advertising Communications, Inc NewGinza Bldg . 7-3.13 Ginza. Chuo-ku. Tokyo 104. Japan Tele-phone (031 571-8748, Shigeru Kobayashi. President

HIGH FIDELiTY and HIGH FIDEUTY/MUSICAL AMERICA are pub-lished monthly by ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc a division of ABCPublishing. Inc and a subsidiary of American BroadcastingCompanies, Inc ABC Publishing. Inc Robert G Burton. Presi-dent. ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc Ronald Stuart. President. Her-bert Keppler. Senior Vice President. Photographic PublishingDivision. Anthony F Morgan. Vice President, Finance, Ernest GScarfone. Vice President. Graphics and Production. Steven I

Rosenbaum. Vice President. High Fidelity Group Member AuditBureau of Circulation Indexed in Readers Guide 10 PeriodicalLiterature Current and back copies of HIGH FIDELITY and HIGHFIDEL iTY.'MuSiCAL AMERICA are available on microfilm from Uni-versity Microfilms. Ann Arbor. Mich 48106 Microfiche copies 01these magazines (1973 forward) are available through Bell 8Howell Micro Photo Division. Old Mansfield Road. Wooster. Ohio44691

Editorial correspondence should be addressed to TheEditor. HIGH FIDELITY. 825 7th Ave New York. N Y 10019 Edito-rial contributions will be welcomed. and payment for articlesaccepted will be arranged prior to publication Submissions mustbe accompanied by return postage and will be handled with rea-sonable care. however. the publisher assumes no responsibilityfor return of unsolicited photographs or manuscriptsHIGH FIDELITY is published monthly at 825 7th Ave New York.N Y 10019, by ABC Leisure Magazines. Inc a subsidiary ofAmerican Broadcasting Companies. Inc Copyright C 1983 byABC Leisure Magazines. Inc The design and contents are fullyprotected by copyright and must not be reproduced in any man.ner Second-class postage paid at New York. New York. and atadditional mailing offices Authorized as second-class mail by thePost Office Department. Ottawa. and for payment of postage incash Yearly subscription in U S A and Possessions $1395. else-where $1995 Single copies St 75 Subscribers Send sub-scriptions. inquiries. and address changes to HIGH FIDELITY. P 0Ban 10759. Des Moines, Iowa 50340 Change of address Giveold and new addresses. including ZIP code Enclose addresslabel from last issue and allow live weeks for change to becomeeffective Postmaster: wind Form 3579 to HIGH FIDELITY, P.O.Doe 10759, Ow Wm*, lows 50340. Postal IdentificationNumbs, 243820.

Circle 20 on Reader -Service Card 4 HIGH FIDELITY

Once again, JVC harnesses higher techin the pursuit of higher fidelity

The power of higher tech, harnessedby superior engineering. Once again,it's the mark of JVC's leadership.Even in the realm of moderatelypriced components like these.

The intricacy of JVC turntable design.You see it, and hear it, in attention

to subtle, yet significant details. Like astraight, low -mass tonearm with trac-ing hold to stabilize tracking. Andquartz control to insure virtually per-fect platter rotation.

Powerfid, w nl.wiciLlly pure receivers.A JVC innovation called Super -A

removes subtle forms of distortion. So

musical overtones and transients areamplified intact for a pure, musicallynatural sound. Add graphic equaliza-tion and quartz tuning, and you havereceivers unsurpassed for perform-ance and versatility.

The innovators in metal cassette decks.It was JVC who first put together the

technology needed to record metaltapes. Now we've added Dolby* C forultra -quiet recordings. Plus featureslike Music Scan to find selectionsautomatically. Spectro-Peak metering.Logic controls, digital indication,memory and more.

---a* *Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories.._._ - - -

"' A...;

Speakers more precise than the ear itself.Ow Dyna-Flat ribbon tweeter

extends to 100 kHz, higher than theear can hear. By doing so, it helps pro-vide correct amplitude and phasecharacteristics in the audible range.So music takes on the focus, detailand spatial image of live sound.

Your JVC dealer is waiting to demon-strate the full new line of higher techcomponents. Computerized tuners."Thinking" tonearms. Self -optimizingcassette decks. Higher tech engineer-ing all focused on one goal - achievingthe highest fidelity possible.

4 IS a

JVCUS JVC CORP.

41 Sir ter Drive, Elmwood Park, N.J. 07407JVC CANADA INC., Scarborough, ONT.

Letters

A Tip for Good MusicI want to thank you for Peter Mitchell's article"Is Your Stereo System Obsolete?" [November1982]. I was particularly struck by the discussionof stylus replacement, since my Shure cartridgeand stylus were about ten years old. By your two-year replacement rule, they were long overdue.Just this past Friday, I installed a new stylus inthe cartridge, and the improvement was astound-ing! Here I thought I was growing tired of mysystem and my record collection, when all thatwas needed was an investment of less than $20. Itwas like having a whole new system.Ed HeissCincinnati. Ohio

Return of the PodIn the November 1982 issue of Hum FIDELITY.Robert Long mentions a friction type of record -hold -down device. About two years earlier, HFreported on the Eon Pod, a clamp -down unitmade in Canada by Eon and distributed here byHervic. The article said it proved effective.

Is the device Mr. Long had in mind theEon? I have looked all over this area for it with nosuccess.Ralph G. AbbottAnaheim, Calif.

Mr. Long replies: Yes, I was thinking of theEon, but I was also thinking of the rubber hold-downs made for 7 -inch open -reel tapes, which fita 1/4 -inch spindle and can help stabilize a disc.(The Eon is available for $20. money order orcashier's check, from A & N Electronics, 14225Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, Calif.91423.-Ed.I

Quite some time ago, I had a chance to hear theremarkable improvement in sound quality that arecord -hold-down device can provide. For morethan a year, I've been searching for a recordclamp that will work with my new Yamaha PX-2turntable. I had used a clamping device called"The Pod" on a previous turntable, but theYamaha's low dust cover does not provide ade-quate clearance for it.

Much to my delight, an illustration to Rob-ert Long's article "Record and Tape Care Prod-ucts That Really Do Work" showed a hold-downdevice fastened to a PX-2. Much to my dismay,the product was not identified in the accompany-ing caption. Can you tell me what brand of recordclamp was shown in the illustration and whetherthe device does perform satisfactorily with thePX-2?Ed ScheerWindsor, Ontario

The product shown (on a PX-3, by the way) isKenwood' s DS -21 Inner Disc Stabilizer, whichmeasures 15/16 inches high. According to Yama-ha, the clearance between the PX-2' s turntablepad and the dust cover is a sparse % inch. Unlessyou're willing to play records with the dust coverraised, I'm afraid you're out of luck.-Ed.

Alcohol for Tape HeadsI enjoyed reading Robert Longs article "Recordand Tape Care Products That Really Do Work"[November 1982], but his advice to use "isopro-pyl alcohol" for cleaning tape heads instead of"rubbing alcohol" is chemically amiss. Thecompound 2-propanol is known by many lesstechnical names, including isopropanol, isopro-pyl alcohol, dimethyl carbinol-and rubbingalcohol.Jim HoughtonCarrollton, Ga.

True, except that much of what is sold as rubbingalcohol contains lubricants, such as glycerine,which can coat the tape heads, defeating the verypurpose for which the alcohol was applied. Thepoint is to get pure isopropanol, diluted with nomore than about 10% water and no other addi-tives.-Ed.

Thomson Ill -ServedI was pleased to read Kenneth l'urie's perceptivereview of the new Nonesuch recording of VirgilThomson's Four Saints in Three Acts ["ClassicalReviews," January], and can only second hisclearly expressed hope that its release will intro-duce this great, necessary American work to abroad audience.

Since the whole tenor of Mr. Furie's reviewwas to stress the constructive, positive aspects ofa highly flawed recording, I hesitate to suggestthat I wish he had found room to mention what isclearly the major liability of the performance: theconducting of Joel Thome. Even without resort-ing to comparisons with Thomson's own work inthe same piece (in the old RCA abridgment) orwith tapes of the late Roland Gagnon's mini -Metperformances (which featured many of the samesingers as the Nonesuch recording), it's obviousthat Thome is simply inadequate. The recordinghas that tentative sound not of underrehearsal or"sight-reading," but of singers and instrumen-talists trying to deliver their best with incompe-tent leadership.

I mention this because it is my understand-ing that Thome was the moving force behind therecording, for which he should be thanked. It'sjust a pity that, for whatever reasons, this goldenopportunity was thrown away by his direct par-ticipation in a role for which he is clearlyunsuited.Nicholas DeutschNew York, N.Y.

Sheffield ShuffleI was disappointed to find no mention of Shef-field Lab direct discs in Sam Sutherland's "TheAudiophile Collector" [December 1982]. Shef-field Lab pioneered direct -to -disc recording fif-

teen years ago, and our efforts have led to theexistence of today's audiophile market. We arethe only company still pursuing the most difficultbut rewarding method of making a record: live,without editing, directly onto the master lacquer.We have released two dozen titles. Two ofthem-Thelma Houston and Pressure Cooker's"I've Got the Music in Me" and Dave Grusin's"Discovered Again!" -sold a total of more than400,000 copies before going out of print. I'msure many of your readers will be pleased toknow that new editions are available.

I was also surprised Mr. Sutherland madeno reference to the two albums we released fea-turing vocalist/composer Amanda McBroom andpianist Lincoln Mayorga. Their "Growing Up inHollywood Town" won us one of our eightGrammy nominations and has sold more than80,000 copies in two years. Nor did he mentionour recent "The Sheffield Track Record," thefastest -selling album (45,000 copies) we haveever released.

I feel it is most unfortunate Mr. Sutherlanddid not give Sheffield Lab even the most glancingreference in his article, despite our leadershipand longevity in this field and our proven abilityto make enormously popular pop and rock audio-phile records.Andrew TetonMarketing DirectorSheffield Lab

HIGH FiDEurr has been covering audiophilediscs-including Sheffield Lab's-since theirinception, so anything other than a marketupdate at this point would be redundant for ourreaders. Mr. Sutherland was commissioned towrite an overview of audiophile albums releasedduring calendar 1982. Neither this office nor theauthor has been made aware of any Sheffield Labpop records issued within that period.

Two further points: "Growing Up in Hol-lywood Town" was reviewed in these pages inNovember of 1980, and Sheffield Lab is not theonly company making direct -to -disc recordings.Nautilus has announced plans for severalprojects in that area, one of which, "Secret of theAndes," was released last June.-Ed.

Stereo FidelityI've enclosed a clipping from Stereo Review'sJanuary 1983 "Audio Q. and A." column,which contains a question [about modifying agarage for use as a listening room] that is alsoanswered in January's "CrossTalk" in HIGHFIDELITY. I've noticed quite a few duplications intest reports, too. Are you and Stereo Reviewmerging?Jason Z. HartmannPortland, Ore.

No, and we're usually just as surprised as youare when something like that happens. Neithermagazine knows exactly what the other is doing,and some readers send duplicate letters in hopeof seeing a reply in print. And in a time of tech-nological innovation (paradoxically combinedwith few new -product introductions), some over-lap in equipment coverage is inevitable.-Ed.

Letters should be addressed to The Editor, HIGHFiDEurr, 825 7th Ave.. New York. N.Y. 10019.All letters are subject to editing for brevity andclarity.

6 Circle 14 on Reader -Service Card 10.

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HOW CAN SANSUI CLAIM THE D-970 IMPROVESEVERY TAPE IVIIILL EVER MAKE? SIMPLE.

ITS NI -TECH FEATURES INCLUDE COMPU11REC.Sansui's remarkably innova-tive approach to microcompu-ter technology is the reasonSansui cassette decks havean unfair advantage overother cassette decks.

Sansui's new top -of -the -line D-970 full -logiccassette deck proves itconclusively.Compu-Trec fine tunes for

best performance.With its Compu-Trec

microcomputer system, theD-970 automatically finetunes itself for correct bias,recording level and equaliza-tion, for optimum high levelperformance froin any tape onthe market. And it does it inless than five seconds. That'sfaster than any other deck.Sansui's hi -tech features putmore pleasure in recording.

As the most advanceddeck Sansui has ever pro-duced, the D-970 is packed

with features and refinementsthat let you transfer everynuance of sound onto tape-and actually monitor it whileyou're recording. The uniquecombination of the precision,

1113 COMM IRK

war,27.11.

corelesE FG-servo direct -drivecapstarlmotor and the Dyna-Scrape filter with Hold -BackTension servo, glides the tapesmoothly over the three high-performance heads.

The result is 0.025% wowand flutter-less than the mostexpensive deck in the world.And Dolby C/B noise reductionis responsible for a superb81dB signal-to-noise ratio.There's also a Dual Memory forrepeat play on any section of

tape; a 4 -digit counter that'salso E. tinier and a real-timeclock: 12 LED peak meters; andaudic record mute. Sansui hasmade high-perfo-marce re-cording completely elfortless.

Great Sansui decks with theuncommon ill common.

There's a rot el theprecsion anc operating

COMPU con:lenience of the D-970in every cassette deck

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Aud -ion therr all allyourSansui audio specialist; orwrite lor-ull details tocay.

SANS JI ELECTRONICS CORPORATIONLyndt- ursI NJ 07071, Garden, 90248Sansui %WIC Co., Ltc , Tokyo, Japan

W. Cars3n Co., Ltd., Can Milli, Ont.,Canada tv13113G7

Dolby a a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories Putting more pleasure in sown!

Spring '83Component Preview

A first look at the newest and most exciting audio and video productsby Peter Dobbin

Though a soft economy and bulging inven-tories are forcing manufacturers to trimdown the number of product introductions,1983 will still see several important newaudio and video components. And withoutthe distraction of "fill-in" models-engi-neered chiefly to satisfy a price point-ourjob in reporting on the audio -video scene isa lot more exciting this year.

The majority of the 1983 introductionstook place in Las Vegas at the Winter Con-sumer Electronics Show as this issue wentto press. Prior to the twice -yearly tradeevent, HF' s editors attended special pressbriefings whose product demonstrationsprovided a good indication of what was tocome in Las Vegas. Over the next fewmonths, many of the models introduced atthe CES will be discussed in detail in our"High Fidelity News" and "VideoFronts" columns.

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If one company could be singled out forconsistently advancing the state of the art incassette -deck technology, it would surelybe Nakamichi. The Dragon, its newestrecorder and first with automatic reverse,actually senses and corrects azimuth errorsduring playback, completely eliminatingthe need for special test tones. Azimuthalignment has a profound effect on high -frequency response, and the beauty of theNAAC (Nakamichi Automatic AzimuthCorrection) system is that it functions onevery cassette, whether commercially re-corded or homemade. It accomplishes thiswith a playback head that derives two sig-nals from each track (using a total of eightgaps-four for forward play and four forreverse), read from the upper and lowerportions of the track. The signals then passthrough a bandpass filter and squaring cir-cuit, after which a phase comparator deter-

mines the phase error between them. Theerror signal is amplified and used to drive aservomotor that manipulates the playbackhead until the error disappears. Very neat,indeed.

The Dragon is also said to be the firstautomatic -reversing cassette deck to use aclosed -loop, dual -capstan drive system inwhich each capstan has its own direct -drivemotor. And finally-though we've barelybegun enumerating all its attributes-theDragon will automatically switch from therecording mode to the recording -pausemode whenever a program break of morethan ten seconds is detected. If you're inter-ested, you might start saving up now; thisincredible machine is priced at $1,850.

Pioneer joins the ranks of Carver andNAD in making a stunning breakthrough inFM tuner performance. Thanks to a circuitit calls a "digital direct decoder," Pioneersays adjacent -channel selectivity can beraised to 70 dB (to our knowledge, no pre-vious tuner ever exceeded 20 dB) and chan-nel separation can be raised to a mind -bog-gling 75 dB (35 dB is usually consideredexcellent). The company accomplishes thisby using a 1.26 -MHz intermediate frequen-

cy and a pulse -count detector that switchesa regenerated 38 -kHz sine -wave stereo sub -carrier. (Most tuners use a square -wavesubcarrier that can produce harmonics.)Pioneer expects to introduce the technologyto the U.S. market this spring in a separatetuner and in some receivers.

Electro-Voice's latest venture in consumeraudio is a new loudspeaker design. Calledthe CD Series Type 35i, the system is theresult of E -V's work in controlled -directiv-ity devices-particularly the horns that arethe hallmarks of the company's profession-al loudspeakers. The dish -like structures(dubbed "direktors") surrounding the

Digital: The Countdown ContinuesTHOUGH ONLY SONY AND Hitachi havepublicly announced that they will bringtheir Compact Disc players to theseshores by spring, we expect that justabout every Japanese manufacturer willbe exhibiting production models of theirCD players at the Winter ConsumerElectronics Show. Many brands havebeen on sale in Japan since October; thedelay in bringing the players to the U.S.seems to have been caused by the reti-cence of American record labels to em-brace the format. And without software,the players have no market value.

The good news is that CBS hasclimbed aboard the CD bandwagon. Aswe reported in February, the companywill allow discs pressed in Japan by its

CBS/Sony affiliate to be sold in the U.S.The introduction date forCBS/Sony discsis planned to coincide with that of theSony player. The joint software venturewill eventually broaden to includedomestic production, with a pressingfacility scheduled to go on line in 1984.Polygram, the international record con-glomerate, has been busy pressing CDsin Europe for several months, andalmost two hundred discs should beavailable here this summer. (See the listof Polygram titles in our January issue.)

What all this means is that the firsthurdle for the Compact Disc format hasbeen cleared. We expect further plans tobe announced at the CES and will fillyou in on what we learn next month.

8 HIGH FIDELITY

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SPECIALREPORTI 1/2 -inch midrange speaker and 1 -inchtweeter control the drivers' spatial cover-age. This, says E -V, assures stable stereoimaging throughout the midrange -to -tweet-er frequency band as well as assuring thebest possible match to the system's 12 -inchwoofer. A "power sentinel" circuit warnsthe listener (via amber and red LEDs) thatsafe operating limits are being exceededand then trips a relay to reduce input if thesituation is not corrected. The 35i is pricedat $750; the Type 35 version with a nonre-movable grille cloth and without flashingLEDs is $550.

Sansui's introductions include a new low-priced tuner, some integrated amps, and acar stereo tuner capable of receiving alltypes of stereo -AM broadcasts. The compa-ny's continuing loyalty to audiophiles isreflected in its new B-2301, a beauty of apower amplifier. With a power rating of300 watts (243/4 dBW) per side and a fre-quency response said to be flat from DC to300 kHz, the amp uses "Super Feedfor-ward" circuitry to reduce distortion. TheB-2301 is also said to use separate powersupplies for each channel in the power, pre -driver, and preamplifier stages. Its price is$2,600.

JRL's new speaker introductions are toonumerous for proper coverage in this limit-ed space, so fans of the California -basedcompany's products will have to make dowith a brief overview. A compact three-way bookshelf system, the L-86 (picturedhere), joins the company's high-perfor-mance L -Series. Replacing the Radianceline of loudspeakers is the J -Series, com-prising three modestly priced bookshelfsystems. And a new 61/2 -inch three-wayspeaker, the T-425, brings to seven thenumber of JBL models for the car.

Tape TrendsMEMOREX CONSUMER PRODUCTS has anew corporate name, Memtek, but itstapes retain the familiar Memorex mon-iker. For audio, there's the new "dB"series-an economically priced Type 1formulation available in C-60 and C-90lengths-and three microcassette for-mulations: metal, premium ferric, andstandard ferric. The Memorex line ofVHS cassettes has also been revampedto create a choice of three video formu-lations-High Grade, Pro Series, andStandard.

Sony follows up on its UCX-Sintroduction of last year with anotherType 2 formulation, UCX. Available inboth C-60 and C-90 lengths, UCX issaid to have a retentivity of 1,750 gaussand a coercivity of 600 oersteds. Thenew tape should come in at about $1 lessat retail than UCX-S.

Nakamichi adds SX-II, a double -coated Type 2 ferricobalt tape, to itslineup. C-60 and C-90 lengths are pricedat $5.85 and $8, respectively. And final-ly, Denon's latest is DX -4, a Type 1ferric for $4.25 (C-60) and $6 (C-90).

11====111111

One can't help but be impressed by theprices of Citation's two new preamps andpower amp-$3,500, $2,500, and $3,500,respectively. A division of Harman Kar-don, Citation is actively involved in realiz-ing Finnish designer Matti Otala's electron-ic imperative: low negative feedback. The$2,500 Model X -II preamp, pictured here,employs independent power supplies forthe left and right channels in both the phonoand main amp stages. Each electrical con-nector in the device is gold plated, and thefaceplate bears the signature of Dr. Otala.We'll bring you more Citation details nextmonth.

When the FCC failed to establish a stereo -AM standard, leaving the decision up toindividual manufacturers and broadcasters,it seemed that chaos would rule and that

IN APRIL'S ISSUE:complete coverage of the Winter ConsumerElectronics Show, with details on the newtape decks, receivers, loudspeakers, digital -disc and record players, and other compo-nents introduced there-as well as an analy-sis of important new trends

stereo AM would cease to be a commericalpossibility. A recent announcement by Del -co Electronics, however, has revived themedium's promise. The billion -dollar elec-tronics manufacturing subsidiary of Gener-al Motors intends to recommend the Motor-ola stereo -AM system for use in GM vehi-cles' receivers. In its statement to the press,Delco said its decision was based on a five -month evaluation of three of the competingsystems. Don't expect to see Delco carreceivers equipped with the Motorola cir-cuit until the 1984 model year, though.

AU three decks in Teac's new Z series areequipped with Dolby B and C and DBXnoise reduction circuits. The top -of -the -lineZ-7000 is fairly mouth-watering in its com-plement of features: automatic tape -tuningcircuitry (bias, level, and EQ), a real-timetape counter, and a dizzying array of pro-grammable music -search functions. We aremost intrigued with a button labeled"STR"; if tapped while the deck is in therecording mode, the control orders thetransport to rewind the tape to the pointwhere recording was initiated, thus facili-tating fast retakes. The automatic fader isalso quite neat: The fade-in and fade-out

10 HIGH FIDELITY

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Shure's new V15 Type V Phono Cartridge is the only cartridge that allowsyou to hear all of the music engineered into these SuperDiscs! It's Shure's finestnew cartridge that, according to Julian Hirsch of Stereo Review," ...virtuallyoutperforms the best cartridges we have previously tested."

Check out the V15 Type V's flawless tracking and clarity on your ownsystem-in addition to the two Nautilus discs, we'll give you Shure's test recordfree to prove to yourself how good the Type V cartridge really is!

The superiority of the Type V will be especially apparent on your NautilusSuperDisc albums. The Type V clearly reproduces the most difficult passagesand provides unprecedented trackability of the most acrobatic grooves. Thehighs are crisper and the bass is more forceful than you've ever experienced.

Take advantage of this limited time offer and you'll not only own the finestphono cartridge in the world but two of the finest recordings. And after all, as amusic lover, you deserve only the best!

Offer ends May 27, 1983. Only available on purchases made in the U.S.

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SPECIALREPORTtimes are separately adjustable from one toten seconds. The three -head, three -motorZ-7000 is priced at $1,800, but siblings inthe line can be had for $1,000 and$1,400.

A portable phonograph that you listen towith earphones, Audio Technica's AT -770"Mister Disc" represents the lengths towhich manufacturers are willing to go tosatisfy the burgeoning market for high -quality portable sound. The battery -operat-ed record player measures just over 11inches long, 4 inches wide, and 21/2 incheshigh; it weighs about 21/2 pounds. It playsstandard LPs and 45s-yes, they do pro-trude out of the player case-and uses abelt -drive motor and a tonearm equippedwith an A -T fixed -coil pickup. Normally,you listen to the AT -770 with high -efficien-cy headphones (included with the system),though line-out jacks on the player allow itto be plugged into a standard stereo system.A note for joggers: Though Audio-Techni-ca calls "Mister Disc" a personal portablephonograph, it can only be used on a sta-tionary and stable surface.

The beautifully finished, massively builtDenon DP -60L turntable this year receivesa new arm and a new model number, DP -62L. Dubbed Servo Tracer, the armresponds automatically to vertical and hor-izontal displacements caused by warpedLPs, generating a counter force sufficient toprevent excessive infrasonic output. Denonsays that just about any phono cartridge canbe mated to the arm with little fear of warp -induced mistracking. The upgraded turnta-ble is priced at $600.

Those of you who want KEF loudspeakersat a lower price can now choose from threemodels in the new Standard Series. Each,

says KEF, incorporates technology devel-oped for the Reference Series: vertical driv-er alignment, low -diffraction baffles, com-puter -aided design, and sophisticated cross-over networks. The three models range inprice from $300 per pair to $750 per pair.The top -of -the -series Carlton III (picturedhere), a two-way system with a passive bassradiator, is rated at ±-21/2 dB over a frequen-cy range of 47 Hz to 20 kHz, measuredon -axis.

Among the new Radio Shack products, weadmit to an overwhelming fondness for thelooks of the Realistic ST-500/SA-500 tun-er/amplifier combination. The whole pack-age costs just $300 and includes a poweramp section rated at 30 watts (143/4 dBW)per side, an FM signal -strength meter, anda variable mike echo feature for vocalsweetening.

The popular Bose 301 bookshelf loud-speaker has been modified and now bears aSeries II suffix. Gone is the high -frequencydirecting vane, and in its place is a Free -Space array-two side -mounted angledtweeters, one delivering its output to thefront and one to the rear. The enclosure hasalso been modified with a new ducted portthat is said to improve low -frequencyresponse at high playing levels. Externaldimensions, however, are the same as theoriginal speaker's. The 301 Series II ispriced at $390 per pair.

With no direct connection to the signalpath, the output protection circuitry inTandberg's TIA-3012 integrated amplifiermakes use of heat -difference sensors toeliminate DC voltage at the amp's output.

Circle 16 on Reader -Service Card 12 HIGH FIDELITY

The unit is rated at 100 watts (20 dBW) perside, uses MOS FET output transistors, andhas foil -type capacitors in place of electro-lytic or ceramic devices. With an optionalset of rosewood side panels, the amp can bepaired with a Tandberg tuner to make athoroughly deluxe "receiver." Shown hereare the TIA-3012 amp ($995) joined to theTFI'-3001 tuner, for a total price (includingside panels) of $2,090.

Canton, the West German speaker manu-facturer, is introducing the Ergo P to the

U.S. market. A handsome (if somewhatstark -looking) loudspeaker, it contains twowoofers mounted in acoustically dividedchambers, a specially loaded midrangedriver, and a titanium dome tweeter. The$1,000 speaker is said to have extremelygood dispersion characteristics.

If you've been wanting to try DBX noisereduction but have been put off by the priceof add-on encode/decode devices, DBX'sModel NX-40 should strike a happy note.The $159 add-on processor supplies simul-taneous encode/decode circuitry, makingaccurate off- the -tape monitoring possiblewith three -head recorders. Separate switch-ing on the device makes decoding of DBX-encoded discs possible.

VIDEOlithe number of new products is any indi-cation, the video boom is losing somesteam. What the market needs-and whatwe are eagerly awaiting-is Beta HiFi, the

Sony -developed technique for recording astereo soundtrack via a VCR's helical -scan-ning tape head. The system promises to becapable of audio performance as good as, orbetter than, that of audio -only open -reeldecks. Decks so equipped will, accordingto Sony, still be capable of playing back themono soundtracks of previously recordedBeta cassettes; a standard stationary audiohead will handle that job. A joint press con-ference by all the Beta HiFi licensees-Aiwa, Marantz, NEC, Sanyo, Teknika,Toshiba, and Zenith-is scheduled for theConsumer Electronics Show and shouldresult in more detailed information on priceand availability. VHS fans, do not despair.Word has it that the VHS camp has devel-oped a similar audio recording system.

The inventor of the VHS format, JVC hasremained adamant on the importance offour -head VCRs. The company feels that,with separate heads for the SP (two-hour)and EP (six -hour) recording modes, picturequality in both speeds is maximized.Though playback in the intermediate LP(four-hour) speed is available in JVC decks,the company maintains that LP recording

The Jensen RE530 travels in a classby itself.

Car audio performance moves muchfurtherdown the road. withthe newJensen'RE530 electrorcally tunec stereo cassettereceiver. By con inuously self-adjusting forsignal quality, of r Automat c Program Con-trol makeserscelent reception ofboth localand distant signals possible. And coupledwith our 4-elerrent tuner a -id doable bal-anced mixer the RE530 dehyers the best FMperformance or the road.

The RE530 s packed with other greatfeatures. toc Lite auto reverse End tapesearch. Dolby' and Dynarr is Noise Reduc-tion" systems. and Jensen s exc usiveFlex -Fader` circuitry that ets you use anexternal arro while still utilizing -he RE530internal amplif er. Its simp y the most com-plete package o- top sounc performance incar audio today. And maybe torraprrow.

CAR AUDIO

When it's the soundthat moves you.

©Jensen Sound Laboratories 1982 Dolby' and Dolby System' are the registerel trademarksof Dolby Laboratories, Inc DNA° is 3 registered trademark 3f f.Etional SemicDnducnr Corporaticn

Circle 15 on Reader -Service CardMARCH 1983 13

SPECIALREPORTwould entail too great a compromise.

All of this is by way of introduction toJVC's new, bottom -of -the -line HR -7100UVCR. Priced at $700, the new recorder maylack some of the features of its more expen-sive siblings, but it retains their four -headdesign. Moreover, its transport and timercontrols (ten-day/one-event) have all beendesigned to be accessible and easy for thenovice to operate. Also new from JVC thisyear is the C-2073US color receiver ($750),a 19 -inch set with direct audio and videoinputs, comb filter, 134 -channel tuningcapability, and full -function wireless re-mote control.

Acknowledging that projection televisionsystems can be an eyesore, Magnavox hascome up with a number of approaches to

ease the aesthetic strain. Particularly suc-cessful in that regard is the Model RC -851540 -inch projection set, pictured here be-tween two HD -5640 video organizer cabi-nets. The rear -projection TV set is equippedwith a wireless remote control, 112 -channeltuning capability, direct -access tuning,channel scan, and a "stereo" audio system.The entire setup costs $3,600.

At $400, Sanyo's new Beta -format VCR -3900 is the least expensive deck we've seenyet. (Just a year ago, the industry was won-dering when the $500 retail price barrierwould be broken.) It also has a very respect-able complement of features, including athree-day/one-event programmable timer, afreeze-frame function, and Betascan high-speed picture search. For $600, Sanyo alsohas the new VCR -6300, which offers a thir-teen -function wireless remote control, aseven-day/one-event programmable timer,and a 105 -channel tuner.

BP Electronics' five -in -one V-1880 pro-cessor is among the most versatile videoaccessories available. It combines a stabi-lizer to ensure good dubs, an image enhanc-er to increase detail, an RF converter, a fad-er, and a dual -output distribution amplifierin one compact box. The V-1880 costs$250.

A Phoenix -based company calling itselfthe PortaVideo Entertainment Group isabout to give some competition to Renta-Beta, the Beta VCR rental plan inauguratedby Superscope two years ago. PortaVideo ispresently setting up distributorships for aspecially designed sixteen -pound playback -only VHS deck. The VCR is encased intough plastic, and its operating controls andconnections have been designed for maxi-mum ease of use. To be offered on a per -night basis, the PortaVideo player shouldfurther broaden the market for rental cas-settes; VCR owners might also make use ofit for their periodic dubbing needs. HF

ORIGINRL MRSTER RECORDING.DONNE WARWICK

Hot! Live and Otherwise

For a FREE copy al our newest color catalogueplus exclusive information regarding upcomingnew products and releases. circle the readerresponse card in this magazine or write: MobileFidelity Sound Lab. Dept. HF P.O. Box 919.Chatsworth. CA 91311.

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AUDIO

CrossTalkPractical answers to your audio questions by Robert Long

All Glitter?

Are gold-plated input and output contactsor low -loss patch cords with gold-platedplugs superior to the everyday varie-ties?-Don May, East Aurora, N.Y.

Yes. By preventing oxidation, the goldplating minimizes RF interference, signalloss, and intermittency in the contacts. I'mnot so sure about some of the other virtuesclaimed for them, but the demonstrableadvantages are enough to make me, forone, go for the gold.

A Question of Bias

In your February 1982 issue, you reporton the Yamaha K-960 cassette deck,which I have since purchased. In the re-port, you suggest that a bias higher thanthe "zero" setting recommended in themanual might be desirable for TDK SAtape. By how much should the control beadvanced for SA or SA -X or MaxellUDXL-II or XL -HS? Also, I notice inyour tape tests in the same issue that therelative bias of the thirty -odd tapes variesfrom 87% to 127% (a spread of fortypercentage points). But the Yamaha'sbias adjustment range is ±8%, or justsixteen points. If I read your test reportscorrectly, the deck's range of adjustmentis insufficient to cover the bias require-ments of all the available tapes.-BertSharp, London, Ontario, Canada

The cassettes we reported on in the Febru-ary 1982 issue included some very atypicalferries and some slightly atypical metaltapes. If you stay with the Type 2 tapes(which evidently is what you're interestedin, since all the tapes you ask about fall intothat group), the relative bias spread runsfrom 90% to 110%-approximately thesame as the Yamaha's control range. Our"100% standard" for this group is the biasrequirement of a Nakamichi SX samplesome four years old. Relative to it, the biasrequirements of our test samples of UDXL-II and SA (both tested in August 1978) were99% and 107% respectively; XL-IIS andSA -X (February 1982) both measured108%. But we have no objective fix on thecalibration of the Yamaha control, and cur-rent samples of these tapes-particularlythose we tested four years ago-wouldprobably yield somewhat different results.

Although you might try turning the

control half -way up from its "zero" settingas a starting point for SA, SA -X, UDXL-II,and XL-IIS, aural comparison of resultswith the original source material is the onlyway to get the best possible match withouttest instruments. A very noisy disc can be abig help. (A 78 is ideal, if you're set up toplay them.) Record a passage; play it back,synchronizing the tape to the disc; adjustthe output of the deck to match the disclevel; and compare the relationship of themusic to the record scratch in each. If thedisc sounds scratchier, the tape is over -biased and you should back off on the con-trol; if the tape sounds scratchier, itsresponse curve is still peaking at the highend from insufficient bias.

Keep in mind that by providing thiscontrol, Yamaha gives you more flexibilitythan you would have without it. But by lim-iting its range, the designer has eliminatedthe possibility of gross misadjustment-which could easily occur without instru-ments to assist in the adjustment if the rangewere anything like forty points.

What's Left?My Sansui 4900Z receiver's right channelis much louder than its left. The metersread that way, and i f I turn the volumedown the sound disappears altogether inthe left channel. Is the fault in the receiv-er or in the speakers?-Tommy McNa-mara, Bronx, N.Y.

Congratulations! You have just discovereda use for output meters. In this case, theydemonstrate that the receiver needs servic-ing-assuming that you get the sameresults with all signal sources. If the leftchannel is low only when a particular exter-nal source is selected (especially if thedevice is something other than a turntable),then it's probably the attached unit thatneeds servicing, rather than the receiver.

To Break the Mold?

I made the mistake of storing some of myrecords in a closet, where they seem tohave become quite attached to some mil-dew. My Discwasher doesn't completelyfree the records of the resulting noise.Can you tell me what to do?-StevePieri, Oceanside, Calif.

Unfortunately, no. The Discwasher solu-tion contains a mild antifungicide to prevent

the growth of mildew and similar molds,but once they have eaten into the recordvinyl, the damage is irreversible.

On the LevelI would like to know at what signal levelto record on my Harman Kardon hk-400cassette deck when using a DBX 128noise reduction unit. To date, I haven'treceived the same answer twice.-JimmyRay Hunter, Fort Myers, Fla.

This is an endlessly confusing subject, part-ly because the recent decks with DBX builtin put the compression after the metering,whereas an outboard DBX unit like yoursapplies the compression ahead of themetering. The rules for the two situationsare entirely different.

Some years back, DBX was recom-mending leaving about 8 dB of headroom asstandard with cassette recorders: If yourtape can normally be recorded to +3 onyour deck's meters, for instance, -5 (8 dBlower) would be a good maximum level forrecordings with an outboard DBX unit-atleast for starters. The ideal headroomdepends on a number of factors, but basi-cally it is required because the compressionof DBX encoding squeezes maximum high -frequency levels closer to maximum mid-range levels, thereby exceeding the verylimited high -frequency headroom of cas-sette tapes-if the midrange is recorded atthe highest possible level. You may notneed the full 8 a, however. You can chipaway at it if (1) your deck's meters havequick peak -reading response, as most newones do, (2) there is some means of supply-ing extra high -frequency headroom (HXProfessional does an excellent job here), or(3) the deck's meters are equalized (asTandberg's and Dual's have been for someyears, though few other companies havefollowed this lead). I'm not familiar withyour deck and therefore cannot say howmuch of this applies. But if you're in doubt,a series of experiments in copying record-ings with lots of high -frequency energy(bells, solo trumpet, loud triangle, etc.)should help. When these sounds begin toget dull, fuzzy, or distorted, you've got thelevel too high.

If you had a deck with the DBX builtin, the reply would be simple: Follow thedirections in the owner's manual.

We regret that the volume of reader mail is toogreat for us to answer all questions individually.

16 HIGH FIDELITY

NIA/CELL IS PLEASED TO PRESENT ANEVEN HIGHER PERFORMANCE TAPE.

If you're familiar with Maxell UD-XL tapes you probably find it hard to believe that anytape could give you higher performance.

But hearing is believing. And while we can't play our newest tape for you right here onthis page, we can replay the comments of Audio Video Magazine..

"Those who thought it was impossible to improve on Maxell UD-XL11 were mistaken.The 1981tape of the year award goes to Maxell XL II -Sr

How does high bias XL WS and our normal bias equivalent XL I -S give you such highperformance? By engineering smaller and more uniformly shaped epitaxial oxide parti-cles we were able to pack more into a given area of tape. Resulting in a higher maximumoutput level, improved signal-to-noise ratio and better frequency response.

o keep the particles from rubbing off on your recording heads Maxell XL -S also hasan improved binder system. And to eliminate tape deforma-tion, XL -S comes with our unique Quin-Lok Clamp/HubAssembly to hold the leader firmly in place.

Of course, Maxell XL II -S and XL I -S carry a little higherprice tag than lesser cassettes.

We think you'll find it a small price to pay for higherperformance. IT'S WORTH IT


uinx o Arnefko. Er*, Moonachie. N J. 07074

AUDIO

The AutophileGoing on the road with stereo by Gary Stock

Choosing aFront EndONE OF THE FEW penalties we pay for livingin an era of plenty is having to choose fromits cornucopia of pleasures. It's a backhand-ed curse of sorts, and nowhere is it moreapparent than in the area of electronics. Theprolific peoples of Europe and the Far Easthave given us so many options that it's dif-ficult enough to know what all of them are,much less which one of them is the best.

A quick shuffle through my files tellsme that there are at least 150 different AM/FM cassette players for the car (I'll callthem front ends henceforth, for reasons ofbrevity) available at this moment. So ifyou're the owner of a conventional automo-bile, the winnowing process will have toeliminate 149 -odd contenders.

That's not quite as difficult a task as itmay initially seem, especially if you're sys-tematic about it. By using a logical processof elimination, you can chop your waythrough the jungle of possibilities, hackingaway dozens of poor choices with eachmachetelike stroke of your pencil. In the

end, you should be down to a manageablehandful of contenders, all of which will beequally suitable for your vehicle. Here's thesystem:

Step one is figuring out what will fitinto your car. Front ends come in a bewil-dering array of sizes, with code names like"minican," "DIN nosepiece," and "GMvertical." But don't worry about thenomenclature at this stage; just go out intothe driveway and measure the size of theopening in the dash and the depth of theaperture, using a flexible steel tape mea-sure. You might also want to jot down theyear, make, and model of the car, as well aswhether it came with any optional equip-ment such as air conditioning or a gaugepackage that might occupy space behind thedashboard. (If you're replacing a factory -installed AM radio, you'll have to remove itbefore making your measurements.)

Armed with this information, youshould be able to look through the applica-tion guides put out by virtually all of thereputable makers of car stereo front ends(they're usually available at the dealer) todetermine which models will work in yourcar. A few general remarks here: If you own

Car stereo receiver/cassette decks, or 'front ends," come in a wide variety of models.Typical of deluxe units are Panasonic's CQ-S747 (top) and Pioneer's UKE-I000 (bot-tom). Features include Dolby, tape EQ switching, separate bass and treble controls,circuits for improving FM reception, and electronic station presets (15 each, in the caseof these two models). Especially with units that have a substantial number of controls,it's important before you buy to make a hands-on evaluation, preferably in dim light.This will help you determine how easy they are to operate under typical nighttimedriving conditions, when you must use them primarily by feel.

a traditional American land cruiser from theSixties or Seventies, virtually anything willfit with room to spare. Japanese cars usual-ly accept only the small models in a manu-facturer's line-so-called "mini" or "im-port" designs-while European cars maytake intermediate -size front ends or minis.A handful of oddball vehicles accept onlyspecial front ends: GM X -body cars, forinstance, use vertical -format units offeredby only a few manufacturers.

Having now eliminated any front endsthat won't fit, press on to weeding out thosethat won't look right. Burlwood faceplatesclearly won't do in a high-tech Mazda RX-7, while the black digital look of many oth-er designs will hardly be appropriate in arestored '57 Chevy Nomad.

Step two is deciding how much you'rewilling to spend, which should reduce thefield even more dramatically. Front endsfrom name makers cover an astonishinglybroad price span: from about $50, whichwill buy you a unit with a modest radio, adistinctly limited tape section, and a coupleof watts of power per channel, to more than$1,000, which purchases not only superbradio and tape performance, but also con-veniences like automatic mono/stereoswitching, automatic reverse for the tape,elaborate tone controls, and-in mostcases-a healthy power output.

Where on the price continuum youdecide to operate depends on how importanta place music occupies in your mobile life.For the casual, noncritical listener lookingfor on -the -go aural wallpaper, any of the$75 to $100 models should provide ade-quate fidelity and power. The $125-$200range upgrades the fidelity of reception andtape playback to standards approximatingthose of midpriced home stereo equipment.Beyond that point, additional money essen-tially buys convenience and automation-afront end that thinks more for itself (by,say, adjusting radio reception parametersand reversing the tape), remembers more(in the way of electronically stored stationfrequency presets), and plays louder (byvirtue of either a higher power output or anexternal power amplifier included in thetotal cost).

When making a decision on how muchto spend, it's also wise to bear in mind thequestion of compatibility: Budget speakerswith limited range certainly won't revealthe sonic subtleties that a high-priced frontend can deliver, while an elaborate sub-woofer/component speaker system cansound equally bad, mercilessly reproducingthe sonic errors of a cheap radio/cassette-

18 HIGH FIDELITY

player. Try to maintain a balance betweenthe costs and capabilities of the front endand the loudspeakers-with a ratio of about3:2 between their respective costs (e.g., a$150 front end and a speaker package thattotals about $100).

Step three is evaluating two importantfactors: the comparative performance of theremaining contenders and their relative easeof use. Performance is not an easy thing tomeasure in car equipment, but for the pur-poses of comparison, look at the specifica-tion sheets of the units in question. See ifthey contain a note to the effect that themeasurements were made in accordancewith "IHF," "EIA," or "Ad Hoc Com-mittee" standards: These phrases all meanthe same thing-that the measurementshave been performed using the one set ofconditions the huge and disparate electron-ics industry has been able to agree on fortesting auto sound gear. (Discard any specsheet that doesn't mention any of thesestandards: It might just as well be blank, forall the useful comparative data it will pro-vide.) Look at power output, amplifier dis-tortion, and tuner distortion, giving a men-tal "plus" to any unit that offers a two -to -one numerical advantage over its com-petitors on any of these figures (lower dis-tortion figures and higher power outputs arebetter). Hence a unit with 0.5% or lessamplifier distortion gets a "plus" relativeto a unit with 1% or more distortion, while aunit with 8 watts of power into 4 ohms foreach channel receives a "plus" comparedto one of 4 watts or less. At the end of theperformance comparison, add up the num-ber of pluses for each model. The winnersshould be clearly apparent.

As to the question of ease of use, this isbest evaluated hands-on in the showroom.Try to do this in dim light, to approximatenight -driving conditions. Repeatedly insertand withdraw tapes. Close your eyes andtry to use the controls. See how rapidly thefast forward and rewind switches cycle thetape to desired positions, and note whetherthe controls are locking or whether youhave to keep your finger on to make themwork. In general, fiddle with all the knobs,dials, and pushbuttons to see whether theunit feels comfortable to you.

A few minor, though nonetheless sig-nificant, points remain to be factored in:length of warranty for your remaining con-tenders; the relative reputations and atti-tudes of the various dealers selling them;and whether wiring, an installation kit, andother needed accessories are included in theprice of the unit.

By the time you've considered all ofthe above, the best model for your purposesshould have emerged, front and center. Inwhich case, congratulations! You've suc-ceeded against odds of 150 to 1, and all ittook was a little organization and a coolhead. HF

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INSIDEOUTHEADPHONES.

Introducing Inside -Out" MS 100 headphones from Sennheiser.If you thought you couldn't get the kind of lifelike musical reproduction

from your portable that you get from the finest home equipment,prepare to think differently.

Most people who know audio know that Sennheiser Open -Airedesign delivers sound that clearly surpasses even the most expensive homeloudspeakers. It's unequalled in wide linear response, in transient ability, in

ultra lightweight comfort.Now comes the breakthrough.

For the first time you can have headphones rugged and reliable enoughto bring you that same performance not only at home, but outdoors as well.

All thanks to the advanced electroacoustic technology that madeSennheiser a legend among recording studio technicians, astronauts,

and audiophiles alike.Of course, you'd expect Inside -Outheadphones to cost more. But once

you go to your Sennheiser dealer andput them on, you'll be so fascinated

you won't want to take them off.Inside or out.

SENINHEISER.heiser Electronic Corporation (N.Y.)

IL West 37th Street, New York, N.Y. 10018(212) 239-0190

Manutadunng Plant: D-3002 Wedemark, West Germany *1983 Sennheiser Electronic Corporation (N.Y.)

AUDIO

Basically SpeakingAudio concepts and terms explained by Michael Riggs

Grand Centralfor SignalsTHE NERVE CENTER of a stereo system is itspreamplifier, which performs a variety ofessential functions. (Even systems thatdon't appear to have a preamp really do,bundled up in an integrated amplifier orreceiver that does other things, as well.) Itswitches and routes input signals from turn-tables, tape decks, tuners, and othersources, provides basic (and sometimesnot -so -basic) signal -processing facilities,boosts the very weak signals from a mag-netic phono cartridge to levels high enoughto drive a power amplifier, and suppliesappropriate electrical terminations forequipment connected to its inputsand outputs. All this is necessaryto transform what otherwisewould be merely a conglomera-tion of disparate, almost uselessmachines into a flexible, high-performance audio system.

A typical preamplifier hasthree types of inputs (aux and tun-er, magnetic phono, and tape)and two kinds of outputs (mainand tape). Let's begin by follow-ing the path from an aux (or tun-er) input to the main output feed-ing the power amp.

The signal first goes to aninput selector switch, whose po-sition determines whether the sig-nal stops there (so some other can pass) orgoes on to the volume and balance controls.The VOLUME is used to change signal levelsin both channels simultaneously by thesame amount, while the BALANCE is used toadjust the levels of the two channels relativeto one another, so as to correct for imbal-ances in source material and so forth.Although the VOLUME can be used toincrease the strength of an incoming signalsubstantially, it far more often is used as anattenuator, since most power amplifiersrequire only about 1.5 volts of input toachieve full output.

What features come after the balancecontrol varies considerably, from none tobuilt-in parametric equalizers, noise reduc-tions systems, and image enhancers, de-pending on the preamp. Usually, however,there will be at least a stereo/mono modeswitch, bass and treble tone controls, andperhaps some filters as well. One particu-larly beneficial item is a good infrasonicfilter, rolling off at 12 dB per octave or

more below 20 Hz. This does not necessar-ily mean that you have to see a switchlabeled "subsonic" on the front panel: Thefilter need only affect the phono input andcan therefore be built into it and remain onall the time. Indeed, that is the betterarrangement. since then it will protect yourtape deck as well as your amp and speakersfrom the ill effects of infrasonic signalsfrom warped records and badly placed arm/cartridge resonances.

The signal's last stop is the main out-put itself, which serves as an exit portal andas a suitably low -impedance termination forthe power amp's input circuitry. The rule ofthumb is that impedances of inputs shouldbe at least several times (preferably tentimes or more) higher than the impedancesof the outputs feeding them, to prevent

high -frequency rolloff in the audible range.Because most power amps have inputimpedances of 10,000 (or 10k) ohms whilemost preamps have main -output imped-ances down in the low hundreds of ohms,mismatch is seldom a problem. Neverthe-less, it's a good idea to check impedancespecifications before you buy.

Phono signals follow a path just slight-ly different from the one just described.Instead of going directly to the selectorswitch, they first pass through a special cir-cuit dedicated to handling the very weaksignals from magnetic cartridges. This pho-no preamplifier, as it is called, has threefunctions: to boost these low-level signalsup to the strength of the outputs from high-level sources, such as tuners and tapedecks; to correct for the treble boost andbass cut applied to all LPs by the RIAArecording -equalization curve; and to supplyan electrical termination that will assureflattest possible frequency response.

Because of their low output imped-

ances, moving -coil cartridges are almostentirely insensitive to electrical loading, butmany moving -magnet, moving -iron, andother fixed -coil cartridges are quite touchyabout it. Most require the industry -standard47,000 ohms of resistance in parallel withsome capacitance between 100 and 500ohms, the exact value depending on the par-ticular model. Without optimum capacitiveloading (within about ± 10%), fixed -coilcartridges are often prone to high -frequencyresponse errors.

The capacitance seen by a cartridge isthe sum of the tonearm wiring and cablecapacitance and the phono input capaci-tance. Some preamps have trimmerswitches to adjust their phono-input capac-itance, but many do not. In the latter case, itis mainly important that the input capaci-

tance not be so high that the total(including tonearm capacitance)exceeds your pickup's rating: It'seasy to add extra capacitance (DBSystems, for example, sells ahandy kit for that purpose), but itis usually very difficult to get ridof a surplus.

Although a few preampshandle tape inputs the same waythey do other non-phono inputs(aux, tuner, and so forth), mostuse an isolated tape monitor loopbetween the main selector switchand the volume control. The out-put feeding the tape recorder (orsignal processing device) istapped directly off the main

selector switch, just as in the other system.The difference is that the output from thetape deck goes to a separate switch down-stream from the main selector and the tapeoutput but ahead of the VOLUME. This elim-inates any possibility of a three -head tapedeck's output being fed back to its inputduring recording and thereby creatingsevere and possibly speaker -damagingfeedback (the primary disadvantage ofputting tape inputs on the main selector). Italso enables you to make source/tape com-parisons during recording simply byswitching the tape monitor.

Ideally, there should be a buffer circuitat each tape output to keep the input imped-ance high and the output impedance low.Often, however, the input signal goesdirectly into whatever is connected to thetape outputs, making the tape loop's outputimpedance the same as the source's. Andthe source's output impedance may be quitehigh, so, again, it pays to check the specs,just to be on the safe side. HF

MARCH 1983 21

AUDIO

Sound ViewsOpinion and comment on the changing audio scene by Peter Dobbin

Mystery onThe MountainIN SOME RESPECTS, this column continuesthe theme I began in January-the return ofinnovation in audio design. Though wehave always charted the progress and direc-tion of high fidelity by the component mile-stones along our path, the past several yearshad left us somewhat jaded in our expecta-tions: Though faceplates underwent theirperiodic redesigns, the actual performanceof audio components seemed to havereached a plateau. In this atmosphere, therecent, almost simultaneous appearance offour remarkable products-the Philips/Sony Compact Disc, the Carver TX -11 tun-er, the Polk SDA- I loudspeaker, andSony's proposed Beta HiFi system-cameas a delightful surprise. As milestones, theirclustering in time told us that the plateaumight be nearing its end.

The notion of the broader audio marketas still being stuck on a performance pla-teau figured heavily in a recent discussionwe had with Dr. Amar Bose at The Moun-tain, Bose Corporation's hilltop headquar-ters in Framingham, Massachusetts. Whatwe had expected to be a brief meeting,timed to coincide with his return fromM.I.T. (where he teaches a class in electri-cal engineering), became a long andthought -provoking encounter. The futureand necessary redirection of high fidelitywas the topic of the day. As it turns out, thefounder of one of the most successfulAmerican loudspeaker companies is not atall happy with the state of the audio indus-try.

Many estimates put the total marketpenetration of audio components at fewerthan 30 percent of American homes. As anengineer and researcher with a vested inter-est in expanding that market, Dr. Bose seesthe need for a new class of equipment,designed for simplicity of purchase choiceand operation. From his adamant insistenceon its necessity, we gathered that he is pres-ently working on such a system, though ourefforts to pin him down as to its configura-tion and functions were greeted with smilesand polite refusals.

As Dr. Bose explains it, the high fidel-ity industry started in the '40s as an adjunctto the radio parts business. Armed withmore enthusiasm than knowledge, would-be audiophiles built their own amplifiersand speaker systems, scouring stores forraw drivers, tubes, unmounted record

The listener is theneglected link in thetraditional audiosystem.-Dr. Bose

changers, and the like. Some of those sameearnest audiophiles eventually banded to-gether to form the nucleus of the Americanaudio industry. As manufacturers, theyperiodically reinvented the wheel, an-nouncing the news with advertisementscloaked in oblique, pseudo -scientific jar-gon. The result, according to Dr. Bose, isthat the high fidelity industry as we know itnow is still predicated on complex separatecomponents, whose welter of controls ismore cosmetic than functional.

As illustration, Dr. Bose points to theaverage owner of a complex audio setup.Should anyone approach his bank of equip-ment and attempt to alter its settings, saidowner shivers with anxiety, pronouncingthat he likes to listen to music with every-thing set flat. Why then, wonders Dr. Bose,do manufacturers continue to compete onthe basis of complexity? Why continue toelevate the prices and intricacies of compo-nents by loading them down with featuresthat go unused? A novice approaching sucha piece of equipment, he opines, is fre-quently so put off as to avoid investing in itat all.

If Dr. Bose is right about the need forsimplicity, then the future of the audioindustry does not lie with separate compo-nents. Though the analogy he chooses toillustrate his argument-assembling yourown refrigerator by purchasing parts chosen

on their individual merits-is questionable,his underlying premise is well taken. If psy-choacoustics and user convenience are giv-en high priority in the design of audioequipment, then the listener becomes partof the total audio system. Otherwise, equip-ment becomes an end unto itself, appealingmore to gadget lovers than to music lovers.Women are said to purchase less audioequipment than men; that in itself is evi-dence of the off-putting, techno-machonature of the high fidelity business.

Though we must content ourselves atpresent with musings on the form andnature of Dr. Bose's mysterious newapproach, it is not surprising that he wouldbe the one to suggest it. His most renownedwork-the Model 901 loudspeaker-shocked the audio world when it was intro-duced in 1968. Here was a loudspeakerenvisioned as part of a larger system: theroom itself. By projecting a mix of directand reflected sound, the 901 presented thelistener with a more spacious and, argu-ably, more lifelike stereo soundstage. Eachsucceeding Bose loudspeaker-and therehave only been a handful over the past fif-teen years-has remained true to the 90I'sdesign objective. The venerable patriarchof the clan endures as well; still flagship ofthe line, its Series IV suffix attests to subtlefine-tuning over the years.

Car stereo, too, has received the real -world systems touch of Dr. Bose's hand.The Delco/Bose setup (evaluated by GaryStock in his November 1982 "Autophile"column) demonstrates that the automobilelistening environment can be conquered.and that natural -sounding, well-balancedmusical reproduction need not be limited tothe home. The significance of the achieve-ment-aside from the pleasure it affordsowners of certain GM cars-lies in itsacknowledgement of the car's interior as anintegral part of a successful stereo system.

The introduction of a home system thatintegrates the user/listener into its basicdesign may well have a profound effect onthe audio industry. By making high fidelitymusic reproduction available to a wideraudience, even the troubled record businessshould benefit. We are most intrigued,however, by Dr. Bose's insistence that suchan integration would also elevate perfor-mance beyond its present plateau. For fearof missing the mark, we will forgo airingour conjectures now on the configuration ofhis mysterious new system. Indeed, onlyone thing is certain: Audio in the '80s willbear little resemblance to audio in thepast. HF

22 HIGH FIDELITY

AUDIO

New Equipment ReportsPreparation supervised by Michael Riggs, Peter Dobbin, Robert Long, and Edward J. Foster.Laboratory data (unless otherwise noted) supplied by Diversified Science Laboratories.

Allison'sNew -LookLoudspeakerAllison Model Nine floor -standing loudspeakersystem. in wood cabinet with oak veneer finish andintegral metal base. Dimensions: 12's by 37,4 inches(front). 1034 inches deep. Price: $495. Warranty:"full." five years parts and labor. Manufacturer:Allison Acoustics. Inc., 7 Tech Circle, Natick. Maas.01760.

ROOM RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICSDB

+50

-5-10

HZ 20 50 100 200 500 11(

boundary -dependent regionon -axis responseoff -axis (30') response

2K 51( 10K 20K

SENSITIVITY (at 1 meter: 2.8 -volt pink noise,250 Hz to 6 kHz) 92 dB SPL

AVERAGE IMPEDANCE (250 Hz to 6 kHz)6.3 ohms'

APPROX. TWEETER CONTROL RANGE )re "flat")--3 dB above 6 kHz'

APPROX. MIDRANGE CONTROL RANGE (re "flat")-2 dB. 600 Hz to 2 kHz'

See text

LIKE THE VERY FIRST Allison loudspeaker(called, appropriately, the Model One), theModel Nine lets you know right away that itis something out of the ordinary. Finishedin oak veneer, with dark, acoustically trans-parent grilles over the drivers, it tapers atthe bottom to a wedge resting Oh a virtualknife-edge atop a nickel -plated steel base. Itlooks like nothing else on the market. Andindeed, the Allison Nine is different-notmerely in appearance, but in design aswell.

In the early Seventies, Roy Allison'sresearch led him to the conclusion thatacoustical interactions with room bound-aries significantly affect a loudspeaker'slow -frequency power response, almost al-ways adversely. Proximity of a driver toone or more room surfaces augments itsdeep -bass output, because the wavelengthsare long enough that the reflected energyfrom those boundaries is almost perfectly inphase with the direct radiation. As the drivefrequency goes up, the wavelength shrinksand the reflected sound gradually slides outof phase with the direct, until the distancefrom the driver to nearby surfaces is equalto a quarter -wavelength. At that point, therecan be as much as 11 dB of cancellation,usually somewhere in the upper bass orlower midrange between 100 and 300 Hz,creating a clearly audible dip. When all thesums are done, it turns out that boundaryeffects alone (never mind room resonances)can create peak -to -trough swings of asmuch as 20 dB in a speaker's response, withtypical systems showing 6 to 12 dB of vari-ation.

Allison's strategy, which has influ-enced the design of many other speakerssince, begins with a specified optimumplacement for the speaker: standing on thefloor two feet or more from the nearest sidewall and with its back against the rear wall.That puts the side wall far enough away tohave negligible effect on the systemresponse. The woofer is mounted as closeas possible to the floor, with the distancefrom the center of the driver to the rear wallapproximately equal to its distance from thefloor, thereby ensuring uniform bass rein-forcement. This is achieved by angling thebaffle, which accounts for the enclosure'sunusual shape, with the woofer mounted onits sloping bottom surface.

As a result of this unconventional

Report Policy: Equ pment reports are based on labora-tory measurements and controlled listening tests. Unlessotherwise noted. test data and measurements are ob-tained by Diversified Science Laboratories. The choice ofequipment to be tested rests with the editors of HIGHFIDELITY. Samples normally are supplied on loan from themanufacturer. Manu'acturers are not permitted to read

reports in advance of publication, and no report or por-tion thereof may be reproduced for any purpose or in anyform without written permission of the publisher. All re-ports should be construed as applying to the specificsamples tested. HIGH FIDELITY and Diversified ScienceLaboratories assume no responsibility for product per-formance or quality.

MARCH 1983 23

AUDIO New Equipment Reports

To Order Test Report Reprints, send usa letter with the following information: thetype of product, the name of the product,the model number, manufacturer, and theissue in which the test report appeared.Also enclose a self-addressed stampedenvelope and send to Test ReportReprints, High Fidelity, 825 SeventhAve., New York, N.Y. 10019. Requestsfor three or fewer reprints will be filled freeof charge.

arrangement, the woofer's response re-mains essentially flat up to an unusuallyhigh frequency before cancellation sets in.Placing the midrange drivers well up off thefloor pushes their "dip frequency" downbelow that of the woofer. Flat low -frequen-cy response can then be achieved by select-ing a crossover frequency between the tworesponse notches, rolling off the woofersbelow their dip range and the midrangesabove theirs. Variations of this technique,which Allison calls Stabilized RadiationLoading, are at the heart of all of the com-pany's speakers. The particular versionused depends on the room position forwhich the model is designed.

The Model Nine's woofer crosses overat 350 Hz to a 31/2 -inch midrange driver,which in turn gives up at 3.75 kHz to aI -inch tweeter. The two upper -range driv-ers are unusual, in that they are neithercones nor ordinary hemispherical domes.Rather, they are what Allison calls ConvexDiaphragm drivers. Unlike conventionaldomes, which they superficially resemble,these units are not driven at the rim.Instead, the rims are fastened directly to themounting plate and the voice coil isattached about half -way up the inside of thediaphragm. According to Allison, thisresults in a driver that, in addition to mov-ing fore and aft in the usual manner, alsoflexes radially, thereby improving disper-sion.

All three drivers are mounted flush totheir baffles and protected by removableperforated plastic grilles. On the rear panelis a pair of flat, two -position toggles thatcontrol the outputs of the midrange andtweeter. Below the driver -level controls aretwo pairs of color -coded binding postslinked by jumpers. Removing the jumpersseparates the woofer from the upper -rangedrivers for biamping, with or without anexternal electronic crossover. Leavingthem in place enables you to use either setof posts for conventional connection to asingle stereo amp.

For both listening and lab tests, theNines were set up according to Allison'srecommendations, standing on the flooraway from side walls and with their backsagainst the rear wall. Diversified ScienceLaboratories' measurements show the Nineto be a high -sensitivity loudspeaker -2 dBbetter than Allison's specification, in fact.Its impedance varies somewhat accordingto the settings of the driver -level controls,especially at high frequencies, averagingbetween 6.3 ohms in the flat setting and 6.6ohms in the full -slope position. Maximumimpedance is 10 ohms with either setting,occurring at 40 Hz for flat and additionallyat 600 Hz for full -slope. The minimum is3.5 ohms at 13 kHz at flat and 3.8 ohms at110 Hz for full -slope. Most amplifiersshould have no difficulty with this load,provided you don't run another pair ofspeakers in parallel.

On 300 -Hz tone bursts, the Nine

accepted the full output of DSL's testamp -67 volts peak, equivalent to 271/2dBW (561 watts) into 8 ohms or 301/2 dBW(1,122 watts) into 4 ohms-indicatingexcellent power -handling ability. This isconfirmed by the speaker's exceptionallylow distortion. At a moderately loud soundpressure level (SPL) of 85 dB, total har-monic distortion (THD) averages less than1/2% over DSL's entire test range, from 30Hz to 10 kHz, rising above 1% (just barely)only at 40 Hz. In fact, average THD doesn'ttop 1% until a thunderous 100 dB SPL isreached; even then, the maximum THD isless than 5% and the average is a mere11/4%. The absence of the usual distortionpeaks near the crossover points furtheremphasizes the ruggedness of Allison'sdrivers.

The response curves shown here repre-sent the Nine's performance with the slopetoggles set to flat. Both are smooth andextended, remaining within approximately±-31/2 dB from 45 Hz to 20 kHz on axis andwithin approximately ±-4 dB from 45 Hz to16 kHz off axis. The close match betweenthe two curves, even out to high frequen-cies, indicates very good dispersion.

Because Allison suggests using one orthe other of the slope settings for all but thevery best recordings, DSL ran on -axisresponse plots at all possible positions ofthe driver -level controls. The results areintriguing. We have not generally beenkindly disposed toward the switches andknobs that sometimes adorn loudspeakers,given the usual grossness and irregularity oftheir effects, but those on the Nine aresmooth and gentle in their action and seemto provide useful results. Depressing thetweeter switch flattens out the high -endpeak and yields the smoothest lookingcurve. Depressing both squashes down abump in the octave between 500 Hz and IkHz and gives a slight southbound tilt to theentire treble.

In listening, we have found all foursettings useful at one time or another,though usually we prefer to operate thedrivers flat. The Nines are, in any case, res-olutely musical reproducers: It does notseem possible to make them sound bad,except by feeding them ugly program mate-rial (all of whose warts the Allisons willdutifully reveal). On really good material,they sound superb-smooth, clean, andtransparent, with a rarely encountereddegree of solidity and punch in the lowerregisters. String tone is particularly impres-sive, exhibiting none of the stridency sooften apparent with lesser reproducers.Occasionally we have detected a touch ofheaviness or sometimes a just -noticeablelack of sparkle, but never enough to causediscomfort. And the Nines image very well,with a sense of unstrained openness.

In short, the Allison Nine is an excel-lent loudspeaker and well worth the atten-tion of serious listeners.Circle 96 on Reader -Service Card

24 HIGH FIDELITY

MONITOR SELECTOR (TAPE 1 TAPE 2 AUX TUNER PHONO)

AC POWER-

HEADPHONES --04)

SPEAKERS (ON OFF, AB)BASSTREBLETONE DEFEAT (ON/OFF)

Fine Valuein a SansuiIntegrated AmpSansui AU -D22 Integrated amplifier. Dimensions: 17by 4 inches (front), 12 inches deep plus clearance forcontrols and connections. AC convenience outlets:one switched (100 watts max.). one unswItched (300watts max.). Price: $250. Warranty: "limited." twoyears parts and labor. Manufacturer: Sansui ElectricCo.. Ltd.. Japan: U.S. distributor: Sansul ElectronicsCorp., 1250 Valley Brook Ave., Lyndhurst, N.J. 07071.

RATED POWER 151/2 dBW (35 watts) channel

OUTPUT AT CLIPPING (both channels driven)8 -ohm load 163/4 dBW (47 watts) channel4 -ohm load 161/4 dBW (42 watts) channel16 -ohm load 15 dBW (32 watts)/channel

DYNAMIC HEADROOM (re rated power, 8 -ohm load)42V4 dB

HARMONIC DISTORTION (THD; 20 Hz to 20 kHz)at 151/2 dBW (35 watts) < 0.015%at 0 dBW (1 watt) <0.01%

FREQUENCY RESPONSE4 0, -V2 dB, 13 Hz to 22.7 kHz;+ 0, -3 dB, <10 Hz to 55.2kHz

RIM EQUALIZATIONfixed -coil phono

moving -coil phono

+0, -1 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz;-71/4 dB at 5 Hz+<14 -3 dB, 27 Hz to 20 kHz:- 20 dB at 5 Hz

INPUT CHARACTERISTICS (re 0 dBW: A -weighting)sensitivity S N ratio

fixed -coil phono 0.43 mV 771/4 dBmoving -coil phQno 42 4V 68 dBMIX 35 mV 82 dB

About the dBWWe currently are expressing power in terms ofdBW-meaning power in dB with a reference (0dBW) of 1 watt. The conversion table will enableyou to use the advantages of dBW in comparingthese products to others for which you have nodBW figures.

PHONO SENSITIVITY (MM,MC)

BALANCEHIGH FILTER (ON/OFF)

RECORDING SELECT. (AUXTUNERPHONO/OFF/DUB 10.2/DUB 210.1)

FEW COMPANIES HAVE HAD more successthan Sansui at making separates (tuners,preamps, and the like) whose good looksand high performance belie their modestprices. The AU -D22 integrated amplifier isyet another model in this tradition: amplebut unassuming in its power rating andmore than capable in both performance anddesign.

Among its nicest features is a separaterecording selector (including two-way tape -dubbing options) below the five main selec-tor pushbuttons on the front panel. Thereare two sterling benefits to having separatemain- and tape -output switching. One isthat it enables you to tape from one sourcewhile you listen to another. The second isthat the recording circuit can be turned offaltogether to eliminate any possibility ofdistortion from nonlinear loading of thepreamp section by attached tape deckswhen you're not recording. (An alternative,but more expensive solution is to add anactive buffer stage to the recording output.)The main selector buttons have green pilotlamps for the tuner, aux, and phono, andamber ones for the two tape monitors thatmake it easy to distinguish from across theroom whether, for example, you're listen-ing to the tuner directly or via the tape mon-itor. The speaker switches light a small redpilot (similar to that for the power switch)when either speaker pair is connected. Theswitching prevents simultaneous use ofboth speaker pairs and is so arranged that

VOLUME

MUTING(0/-20 DB)

LOUDNESS(ON/OFF)

normai operation (that is, with the main pairon) leaves both buttons in the out position,for a neat appearance.

Despite the aforementioned flour-ishes, however, this is a relatively simpleintegrated amp. Among the touches thathave been omitted in keeping the qualityhigh and the price low are pre-out/main-inconnections and an infrasonic filter, al-though there is some rolloff built into theinfrasonic region of the phono response-especially in the moving -coil position. Butfor many users, this degree of simplicitywill be not only adequate, but welcome.

The data from Diversified ScienceLaboratories indicate that the bass controlshelves below about 50 Hz, with a maxi-mum effect of approximately ± 10 dB; thetreble control has its maximum influence( +12, -71/2 dB) at around 7 or 8 kHz. In themeasured sample, response rises slightly atthe top end of the spectrum-by about 11/2dB above 15 kHz-with the tone controls attheir centered positions, but is admirablyflat throughout the audio range when youpush the TONE -DEFEAT. The LOUDNESSboosts a broad range in the bass, shelvingbelow 100 Hz, and the very top of the treblerange. The amount of emphasis variesaccording to the volume setting, measuring6 dB at DSL's standard setting for thistest.

The one disappointment is the high -filter curve, which starts much too high(down 3 dB at 12.5 kHz) and rolls off too

WATTS1.00

CONVERSION

dBW

TABLE FOR PONER OUTPUT

WATTS dBW100 10

1.25 1 1 2 5 11

1.6 2 16 12

2.0 3 20 13

2.5 4 25 14

3.2 5 32 154.0 6 40 16

5.0 7 50 17

6.3 8 63 188.0 9 80 19

WATTS dBW100 20125 21

160 22200 23

250 24

320 25

400 26500 27

630 28

800 29

MARCH 1983 25

AUDIO New Equipment ReportsPHONO OVERLOAD (1 -kHz clipping)fixed -coil phono 170 mVmoving -coil phono 16 mV

PHONO IMPEDANCEfixed -coil inputmoving -coil input

51 3k ohms, 150 pF100 ohms

HIGH FILTER -3 dB at 12.5 kHz; 6 dB/octave

slowly (at 6 dB per octave) to be of muchuse. The owner's manual suggests that itmay help reduce noise from AM tuners, butmost models cut off well below the filter'soperating range. (Sansui, however, is

among the exceptional manufacturers thathave attempted broad and relatively flatresponse in high-performance AM gear andmay be thinking of its own top products.)

Distortion is very low at rated powerand essentially unmeasurable at more nor-mal levels (around 0 dBW, or 1 watt). Thegenerous dynamic headroom of 21/4 dB

means that in reproducing music the ampli-fier's 8 -ohm power limit is the equivalent of181/4 dBW, or about 67 watts, per channel.Power into 4 ohms is less than into 8 ohms,however, suggesting that the AU -D22 willwork best when not required to drive verylow -impedance loads. The remaining datarepresent, at minimum, all you couldexpect in a good, up-to-date amplifier. Infact, that description is an apt summation ofthe AU -D22: a fine modern product-andat a surprisingly moderate price.Circle 99 on Reader -Service Card

AC POWER

HEADPHONES --a.-

TRANSPORT CONTROLS(EJECT, REWIND. STOP. PLAY, FAST FORWARD)

DOOR OPEN

DOLBY B. C INDICATORS

Akai's"Thinking"Cassette DeckAkai GX-F91 cassette deck, with automatic tapetuning control. Dolby B and C noise reduction.Dimensions: 171 4 by 334 inches (front), 141,4 inchesdeep plus clearance for controls and connections.Price: S750; optional RC -31 wired remote control.S35: optional RC -91 wireless remote control, $115.Warranty: "limited." one year parts and labor.Manufacturer: Akai Electric Co.. Ltd.. Japan: U.S.distributor: Akai America. Ltd., 800 W. Artesia Blvd..Compton, Calif. 90224.

PLAYBACK RESPONSE (BASF test tape: -20 dB DIN)

DB

-5 -I- 1

I I

HZ 20 50 100

L chR ch

200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K

+0, -3 dB, 315 Hz to 15 kHz+0, -3 dB, 315 Hz to 14 kHz

RECORD. PLAY RESPONSE, TYPE 2 TAPE (-20 dB)DB

JTHZ 20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K

;1'

10K 20K

L ch +114 -3 dB, 40 Hz to >20 kHzR ch +114-3 dB, 30 Hz to 20 kHz

with Dolby B noise reductionR ch +11/4, -3 dB, 23 Hz to 16.5 kHz

with Dolby C noise reductionR ch +11/4, -3 dB, 22 Hz to 17.5 kHz

THAT THE MICROPROCESSOR has had a pro-found influence on the look and "behav-ior" of home cassette hardware is by nowabundantly clear. Few models, however,have taken its multiple talents so much toheart as Akai's GX-F91. Indeed, at timesthat heart seems almost to beat. Not onlydoes the microprocessor's logic control thetransport and tape -matching functions, butit also encompasses some others normallyleft to the operator. This can be somewhatdisconcerting at first, if you're used todoing things for yourself, but misgivingsturned to admiration on point after point aswe saw how the deck's "impulses" canreally help the user.

A minor exception is the motorizedfaceplate, which when closed presents a setof transport controls and a button for thedoor itself. Press it, and the entire panelswings down, pivoting along the bottomuntil it is horizontal, and then retractsbeneath the deck, leaving only a narrowrow of controls along the front edge pro-truding. We can't discern any sound func-tional reason for the motorization, but thecontrol layout is more convenient with thekey elements arrayed horizontally-so thatthey can be seen easily even when the deckis well below eye level-than is the all -vertical arrangement of typical front -load-ers. And it makes for a very clean lookwhen the door is closed, while retainingmost playback control functions. So theonly outstanding question is whether themotor driven panel may be significantlyless reliable than a manually operated doorwould be.

The inside transport controls (in the lipof the door) are somewhat unusual. There isa red button for RECORDING/PAUSE (not theusual interlock), a RECORDING CANCEL, anAUTOMATIC MUTE, and an AUTOMATICFADE. Once the deck is in the recording/pause mode, you can either begin actualrecording by pressing PLAY or convert to theplayback mode (even after you have begunrecording) by pressing the CANCEL. Youcan also go the other way-for a so-calledflying start-by holding in PLAY duringplayback and touching RECORDING/PAUSE(which, in this instance, will put the deckdirectly into the recording mode with nopause) at the point where you want record-ing (or erasure) to begin. The MUTE recordsabout a four -second blank before going intothe pause mode, no matter how long youpress it.

The AUTOMATIC FADE delivers a briskfade-in to whatever recording levels youhave preset and a moderately quick fade-out. One button is used for both functions;the logic knows which to employ,depending on whether the deck is in therecording/pause mode or the recording isalready in progress. The logic also figuresout from the commands you've given itwhich monitoring mode-source or tape-makes the most sense and switches accord-ingly. (If you disagree, you can alwayspress the monitor button, which doubles asan illuminated source/tape indicator, andoverride the logic.)

We find this automatic switching par-ticularly useful in dubbing excerpts fromanother tape, using the automatic fader to

26 HIGH FIDELITY

AAKAI

TAPE -MATCHING 8. METER CONTROLS

; gm,

TRANSPORT CONTROLS

MANUAL BIAS HEADROOM CONTROL

MONITOR(TAPE SOURCE)

RECORDINGLEVEL ADJUST.DOLBY B, C, MPXFILTER (ON/OFF)

HEADPHONE LEVELADJUST.; OUTPUT

RECORDING PAUSEAUTO MUTE

RECORDING CANCELAUTO FADE

- LEVEL ADJUST.;RECORDINGBALANCE ADJUST.

DOOR CLOSE

RECORD PLAY RESPONSE, TYPE 4 TAPE (-20 dB)DB - -

0

-5GIN Pa.

4:Minferts,

HZ 20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20K

L ch +11/4, -3 dB, 40 Hz to >20 kHz- Rch + 1, -3 dB, 30 Hz to >20 kHzwith Dolby B noise reduction

Rch 4 1/4, -3 dB, 24 Hz to 20 kHzwith Dolby C noise reduction- - Rch 3/4, -3 dB, 22 Hz to 18 kHz

RECORD/PLAY RESPONSE, TYPE 1 TAPE (-20 dB)DB

0

-5HZ 20

1

50 100 200 500 1K 21( 51( 10K 20KL ch +11/2, -3 dB, 40 Hz to >20 kHzRch +11/2, -3 dB, 30 Hz to >20 kHz

with Dolby B noise reductionRch 11/2, -3 dB, 23 Hz to 17 kHz

with Dolby C noise reduction-.- Rch +11/2, -3 dB, 22 Hz to 20 kHz

S N RATIO (re DIN 0 dB: R/P; MIR/ARM-weighted)Type 2 tape Type 4 tape Type 1 tape

without noise reduction55 dB 55 dB 5314 dB

with Dolby B noise reduction65I/2 dB 651/2 dB 64 dB

with Dotby C noise reduction731/2 dB 731/2 dB 721/4 dB

INDICATOR READING FOR DIN 0 dB (315 Hz)'Type 2 tape +6 dB (with 1.9% THD)Type 4 tape +6 dB (with 2.1% THD)Type 1 tape + 5 dB (with 1.1% THD)

INDICATOR READING FOR 3% DISTORTION (315 Hz)'Type 2 tape t 8 dB (for +1 dB DIN)Type 4 tape 7 dB (for 4- 11,2 dB DIN)Type 1 tape 7 dB (for + 23,4 dB DIN)

DISTORTION (third harmonic: at -10 dB DIN)Type 2 tape 1.2%. 50 Hz to 5 kHzType 4 tape 0.75%. 50 Hz to 5 kHzType 1 tape 0.80%. 50 Hz to 5 kHz

create graceful elisions. When you put theAkai into recording/pause, it automaticallyswitches to SOURCE. You can then listen tothe original tape and, when your recordingcue comes around, press AUTOMATIC FADE.Instantly, the transport starts and the soundgoes dead as the monitor switches to TAPE.

A moment later, you hear what you record-ed, and you know immediately, with noguesswork, if you've mistimed the fade.When the passage you want copied is over,you press AUTOMATIC FADE again, hear theresultant fade-out and the few seconds ofmuting (slightly less absolute here than withthe mute itself, for some reason) that followthe fade, and then the return to source mon-itoring when the transport goes back intothe pause mode. It's almost like having awell -trained assistant at your elbow.

Tape selection is strictly automatic onthe basis of cassette -shell keyways, with nomanual override for nonstandard shells.The GX-F9 I accommodates Type 1 (and0), 2, and 4 tapes. As in most current decks,there is no provision for Type 3 ferrichromeformulations. There are preset values ofbias, recording equalization, and level(tape -sensitivity compensation) for eachtype, and the manual names specific tapesappropriate for use with each preset. Themanual also indicates the reference formu-lations, which Diversified Science Labora-tories used in measuring the deck: TDK SAas the basic Type 2 ferricobalt, TDK MA asthe Type 4 metal, and Maxell UD as theType 1 ferric.

There is also an automatic fine-tuningsystem that can match recording parametersto a wide spectrum of formulations. Whenyou press TUNING, the transport fast -windspast the leader, records a series of tones,evaluates the recorded results, supplies anynecessary alteration of recording values,and rewinds the tape to the head of the lead-er. It will stay adjusted accordingly untilyou change to a different class of tape (say,from a Type 4 formulation to a Type 2). Ifyou want to save the values arrived at by theautomatic adjustment process, you can useany of four memories. Each memory hasroom for data on three tapes, one of eachtype for which the deck has provision, for atotal of twelve-the most generous tapememory capacity we've yet encountered.The contents of these memories, or thestandard settings for the reference tapes,can be summoned up at the press of a buttonany time you don't want to spend the fifteenseconds required for the auto -calibrationprocess.

There are two further features de-signed to give the user an extra measure ofcontrol in optimizing his recordings. Nei-ther is adequately explained in the owner'smanual (which is otherwise distinctly aboveaverage). The first is what Akai calls an"auto tuning bias control"-actually a ver-nier that supplies a bias adjustment range ofabout -17 14% with respect to the standardvalues delivered at its center detent. Theidea is to "bend" the tape's headroomcurve a bit, depending on the nature of the

A Quick Guideto Tape TypesOur tape classifications, Type 0 through 4. are based pri-marily on the International Electrotechnical Commissionmeasurement standards.

Type 0 tapas represent "ground zero" in that theyfollow the original Philips -based DIN spec. They are ferrictapes. called LN ( ow -noise) by some manufacturers, re-quiring minimum (nominal 100%) bias and the original."standard" 120-m crosecond playback equalization.Though they include the -garden variety- formulations.the best are capaole of excellent performance at moder-ate cost in decks that are well matched to them.

Type 1 (IEC Type I) tapes are ferrics requiring thesame 120 -microsecond playback EC) but somewhat high-er bias. They sometimes are styled LH (low -noise, high -output) formulations or "premium ferrics."

Type 2 (IEC Type II) tapes are intended for usewth 70 -microsecond playback E0 and higher recordingbias still (nominal 150%). The first formulations of thissort used chromium dioxide: today they also includechrome -compatible coatings such as the ferricobalts.

Type 3 (IEC Type III) tapes are dual -layered ler-richromes, implying the 70 -microsecond (-chrome") play-back Ea. Approaches to their biasing and recording EOvary somewhat from one deck manufacturer to another.

Type 4 DEC Type IV) are the metal -particle, or -al-loy' tapes, requiring the highest bias of all and retainingthe 70 -microsecond E0 of Type 2.

MARCH 1983 27

AUAl inn New Equipment Reports%..1, Br/ .110

ERASURE (100 Hz)Type 2 tapeType 4 tape

64,,2 dB573. dB

CHANNEL SEPARATION (315 Hz) 40 dB

INDICATOR "BALLISTICS"VU mode

Response time 220 msecDecay time -300 msecOvershoot 0 dB

peak mode'-1 (MIX

sec0 dB

SPEED ACCURACY 0.3% slow. 105-127 VAC

FLUTTER (ANSI/IEEE weighted peak; R/P)-±0.094%

SENSITIVITY (re DIN 0 dB; 315 Hz) 108 mV

MAX. OUTPUT (from DIN 0 dB) 0.77 V

*See text

signals you're recording. (It might also bethought of as a brightness/richness soup -upcontrol, in view of the response changesthat accompany those in the headroomcurve.) When the music is abnormallydemanding in the highs, you can steal a lit-tle midrange headroom and apply it to thehigh end by reducing bias a bit; increasingbias reduces headroom in the highs in favorof maximum midrange headroom for sig-nals that concentrate their energy in thisband.

This is the second deck we've testedwith a headroom control of this generaldescription, and though we consider theconcept to be an interesting approach to yetgreater refinement in home decks, it seemsto us not altogether successful. For a userwith a good deal of savvy about the record-ing process and the nature of audio signals,it can yield a slight improvement in thequality of home -recorded tapes under somecircumstances. However, one who is not sowell informed, careful, and alert is equallylikely to get some tapes that are not quite asgood as they might have been were this con-trol ideally adjusted.

The other special control is the so-called dynamic -compensation buttonamong the metering controls. When thisfeature is on, the signals are metered afterthey pass through the recording equaliza-tion (a technique that has been used bysome European equipment makers foryears, but that has been slow to catch on inJapan). Meters normally read only mid-range values, because energy levels are somuch lower outside this frequency band.By boosting the highs before metering, thedeck can tell you when levels approach tapesaturation here, even though the signal val-ues involved are much weaker than thosethat would be needed to produce overloadin the midrange. This is a genuinely usefulfeature-so useful that we wonder whyAkai bothered to make it defeatable (thoughsome might argue in favor of the normal,unequalized metering in order to reduceconfusion when the same signal is moni-tored on a more conventional deck as wellas the Akai).

There are three other buttons for themetering, marked VU, PEAK 1, and PEAK2. According to the owner's manual, theVU mode is the basic reference, though itsbehavior (which approximates the ballisticsof conventional meter movements) is toodamped to respond to fast transients. Thepeak modes, on the other hand, respond soquickly that they will display transients toobrief to cause audible distortion, accordingto the manual, should they be recorded atexcessive levels.

Ideal signal evaluation might thereforeinvolve a comparison of readings in thepeak and VU modes. There is little differ-ence in time constants between the twopeak modes, but PEAK 2 has a peak -holdfeature (displaying maxima for about onesecond) combined with an otherwise faster

response characteristic than PEAK 1, whichhas no peak hold. When you switch fromVU to peak, the indications for tape over-load (which light at different places on thescale, depending on which of the three tapetypes has been inserted in the well) stayfixed, but the calibrations shift to the left byabout 8 dB. For example, the overloadrange for Type 2 tapes is marked at about+2 dB in the VU mode, + 10 dB in the peakmode. Peak -to -average ratios differ consid-erably with different types of music, ofcourse, and the careful recordist will checkboth meter modes. With sine -wave inputs,DSL found the two meter modes and thesource/tape comparison to be well matchedand generally within 1 dB of the figures inour data column, which were measured inthe VU mode while monitoring the sourcesignal.

The test results generally are verygood, though the measured distortion is alittle higher than we might have expected ofan Akai in this price range, and there aresome anomalies (of even less consequence)in the response curves. We don't reallyunderstand the latter, which include a slightimprovement in the lowest bass when thenoise reduction is turned on, a slight risearound 5 kHz when the multiplex filter isturned on, and some instability of output atvery high frequencies (making our 3 -dB -down cutoff points a little less reliable thanusual) with SA and MA tapes (but not withUD). That the slight droop at the top end ofthe playback response curves is due to aminor azimuth disparity between the deckand the test tape is evident from the record/play curves, which don't reflect that rolloff.The GX-F91's DC servo motor and dual -capstan closed -loop drive doubtless con-tribute to the good flutter performance.

More important even than the mea-sured performance is the ease with whichyou can elicit the best the deck has to offer.In addition to the features we have alreadydiscussed, there are a number of random-access and related capabilities: a scan tosample ten seconds of each recording that ispreceded by a four -second blank, whatAkai calls IPLS (instant program locatingsystem, which fast -winds in either directionto the nearest four -second blank and beginsplayback there), automatic playback fromthe head of the tape (rewinding from anypoint), memory play (from counter zero),and memory stop. The counter can be set toread either the usual position numbers orelapsed recording or playback time inminutes and seconds.

Then there are the separate level con-trols for the line output and the headphonejack-particularly welcome if you're re-cording live, though you would then needan accessory mike mixer since no micro-phone preamps are built into the GX-F91.(The line -output level control facilitatesmaking careful source/tape comparisons byear, using the monitor switch on yourreceiver or preamp. This is fortunate, since

28 HIGH FIDELITY

A TechnicsTangent -Tracker forEverymanTechnics SL -5 two -speed (33 and 45) tangential -tracking automatic single -play direct -drive turntable.Dimensions: 12,4 by 121/2 Inches (top); 3"3 incheshigh with cover closed. 151/4 Inches high with coveropen. Price: $200. Warranty: "limited," two yearsparts and labor. Manufacturer: Matsushita ElectricCo., Japan; U.S. distributor: Panasonic Company,Division of Matsushita Electric Corporation ofAmerica, One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, N.J. 07094.

SPEED ACCURACYat 33at 45

0.27% fast, 105-127 VAC0.17% fast, 105-127 VAC

WOW & FLUTTER (ANSI/IEEE weighted peak)*0.040% average; ±0.046% maximum

TOTAL AUDIBLE RUMBLE (ARLL) -61 dB

TONEARM RESONANCE & DAMPING (with AT-122E1nvertical 15.5 Hz; 81/2 -dB riselateral 15.4 Hz; 133/4 -dB rise

STYLUS GAUGE ACCURACY see text

TOTAL CABLE CAPACITANCE 95 pF

'See separate report in this issue.

Akai's own monitor switch leaves a

slight-shorter than one second-hiatus inthe sound whenever you use it, compromis-ing such comparisons.) The recording con-trols include a separate balance adjustment,which we always welcome in favor ofclutched controls for the two channels. Anda back -panel jack accepts either of twooptional Akai remote -control units, wiredor wireless.

Altogether, the GX-F91 offers an out-standing array of features for the price.With the front panel closed, only the mostessential controls are exposed. And formost everyday purposes, they're all youneed, given the GX-F9l's high degree ofautomation. With the panel open, the fullpanoply of options is available, to delightthe heart of the creative tapester.Circle 98 on Reader -Service Card

AC POWER

aREPEAT

CUE UP DOWN

SPEED(33/45/AUTO)

STOP, CUE OUTSTART, CUE IN

THIS IS OUR THIRD TIME around with Tech-nics' expanding line of tangent -trackingturntables, all of which use the P -Mountplug-in cartridge mounting system inaugu-rated with the very first model, the SL -10.When we reviewed the SL -10, in our May1980 issue, it sold for $600, including abuilt-in pre-preamp and a moving -coil car-tridge. It offered manual or automatic sin-gle -play operation with a repeat option, allin a package so compact that you couldpractically hide it under an LP jacket. InDecember 1981, we tested the similarlysized but considerably more elaborate SL -15. For $875, it gave you a fixed -coil pick-up (with no pre-preamp, of course) and aprogrammable random-access track -selec-tion system that would play the bands of anLP in any sequence you liked.

Now, with the SL -5, we have a turn-table that is only slightly simpler than theSL -10, but retails for a mere $200. This is atribute to the format's popularity, which hasenabled Technics both to reduce productioncosts and to stop including a cartridge(compatible models now being availablefrom virtually every major pickup manufac-turer). Aside from the cartridge and headamp, surprisingly few features have beeneliminated. The SL -10's optical disc -sizesensors have been replaced by mechanicalones, and the record hold-down is gone(making it impossible to play records verti-cally-which wasn't encouraged even with

the models that could do so). The main con-trols have been moved from the top frontedge of the lid to the front of the base,where they are only a little less convenient,and the momentary -on switch, which aidedrecord cleaning by turning the platter, hasbeen omitted. (This last doesn't mean youcan't use record -cleaning devices-onlythat you must turn the platter by hand.)

The basic operation of the turntableresembles that of the SL -10 very closely.The two main pushbuttons (or touchbars)control start and inward arm motion, andstop (or reject) and outward arm motion,respectively. For automatic operation, youneed only press START; the arm will cue upto the lead-in groove of a standard 12- or7 -inch disc and begin play, then return to itsrest position when the record is over. If youlike what you hear, you can press REPEATand the entire side will play over and over;pressing REPEAT once again or STOP cancelsthe feature. If you tap START during play,the arm will return to the beginning of therecord side and start over. But if you holdthe button in for more than a second, theturntable reverts to "manual" operationand the arm recues toward the label-eithercontinuously (though not, like the SL -10,with two speed options) if you hold the but-ton in or in tiny increments when you mere-ly tap it. The STOP works similarly, butrecues toward the start of the record side.The remaining cue button raises and lowers

MARCH 1983 29

AUDIO New Equipment Reportsthe arm in manual operation.

Instead of automatic speed selection(based on record size) with a manual over-ride, the SL -5 has a three -position switch,labeled 33/auto/45. The owner's manualsensibly instructs you to leave the switch atAUTO unless you're playing a nonstandardrecord, such as a 12 -inch 45 -rpm superdisc.The turntable's disc -size sensor is an armthat comes out through a window in thebase to touch the edge of the record; whereit stops determines the rotation speed andthe arm's setdown point in the automaticmode. If you're playing a really unusualdisc-something as esoteric as a 10 -inchLP, for instance-you can use a little gad-get Technics supplies with the SL -5. It is ared plastic plug of sorts that fits over thewindow and stops the feeler arm, making it"think" a full-size record is present whenyou're playing a smaller one. Without it,the turntable's logic prevents the arm fromcueing down any farther from the spindlethan the lead-in groove of a standard 7 -inchdisc.

With the adapter-and even withoutit-we have been able to play an astonish-ing variety of records with oddball combi-nations of speed, diameter, cut, and physi-cal characteristics, some of which haveproved troublesome even on the simplest ofmanual turntables. Some warped or verylight records (the so-called sound sheets,pressed in plastic film) need the help of afirm finger to trigger the platter sensor thatdecides whether a record is present. (If itsenses none, the turntable won't turn andthe arm won't move.)

Also very capable, in our estimation,is the way the design "bails out" of anemergency. For instance, if you absent-mindedly raise the cover before a record has

finished playing, the arm simply retreats toits rest position, out of harm's way. If thepower goes off while a record is playing,the arm rises from the record; when poweris restored, it returns to rest and awaits yourcommand.

Some of Diversified Science Labora-tories' usual measurements simply couldn'tbe made with the SL -5 because the neces-sary apparatus (to check vertical trackingforce, for example) can't be introducedthrough the cover, which must be closed forthe turntable to operate. Nor could the labmount its "standard" test cartridge in theSL -5's arm to measure resonance and effec-tive mass. Instead, all measurements weremade with the Audio-Technica AT-122EPP -Mount pickup reviewed in this issue. Thelow -frequency resonance thus measured ismoderate in amplitude, though it falls a lit-tle above the 10 -Hz "ideal." (Resonancecharacteristics depend on the cartridge aswell as the arm, so another pickup mightyield different results.) Warped recordstrack very well on the SL -5, and only verystrong external shocks are transmitted audi-bly to the pickup. We therefore judgemechanical performance in these areas to bevery good.

In fact, the level of performance in allregards belies the SL -5's modest price anddiminutive dimensions. (Note that, foronce, no extra clearance is needed at theback when you open the lid.) Even withfewer features, it would be an admirabledesign and a good value; the automation isenough to raise the SL -5 above most com-peting models. You may be able to findhigher performance in one respect or anoth-er elsewhere, but we don't think you'll finda significantly better buy.Circle 95 on Reader -Service Card

P -MountExcellence fromAudio-TechnicaAudio-Technica AT-122EP fixed -coil pickup cartridge,with biradial (elliptical) diamond stylus, for plug-inmounting In P -Mount tonearms. Price: S95. Warranty:"limited," one year parts and labor. Manufacturer:Audio-Technica Corp.. Japan; U.S. distributor: Audio-Technica U.S., Inc., 1221 Commerce Drive, Stow, Ohio44224.

THE P -MOUNT PLUG-IN CARTRIDGE systemseems to be taking the record -playing worldby storm-and with good reason. Installa-tion is simplicity itself: The electrical con-tact pins on the cartridge plug directly intomatching sockets in the headshells of P -Mount tonearms (no tiny wires to fiddlewith), and a single, built-in setscrew holdsthe cartridge in place (no lilliputian nuts,bolts, washers, and whatnot to get lost onthe living -room carpet). And optimum per-formance of P -Mount systems is virtuallyguaranteed by the tight compatibility spec-ifications enforced by the concept's origi-nator, Technics. It isn't even necessary toadjust overhang or tracking force.

Audio-Technica was one of the firstmanufacturers to introduce P -Mount car-tridges. The AT-122EP under consider-ation here is number four in the company'spresent line of five models-all moving -magnet designs. Its biradial nude -diamondstylus is mounted in a thin -walled tubular

alloy cantilever, whose damping and com-pliance are said to be hand -adjusted at thefactory. Nominal tip dimensions are 0.3 mil(the scanning radius) by 0.7 mil; the nextmodel up (the AT-122LP) uses a slightlyfiner line -contact stylus, while the bottommodel's bonded biradial tip is slightlycoarser (0.4 mil). The Vector -Aligned dualmagnets (an Audio-Technica hallmark) arepositioned just forward-that is, toward thestylus tip-of the damped cantilever pivot.This construction is said to promote maxi-mum channel separation and vivid stereoimaging.

We tested the AT-122EP exclusivelyin the Technics SL -5 turntable. The adapterneeded for mounting the pickup in a con-ventional arm did not arrive in time forDiversified Science Laboratories to mea-sure dynamic compliance. The cartridge'sabsolute performance in this regard seemsmoot, however, in view of the unlikelihoodthat it would be chosen over a conventional

30 HIGH FIDELITY

FREQUENCY RESPONSE 8 CHANNEL SEPARATION(test record: JVC TRS-1007 Mk. II)DB

0

-510

15

- 2025

-30-35

HZ 20 50 100 200 500 1K 2K 5K 10K 20KFrequency response

L chR ch

Channel Separation

+11/2, -21/2 dB, 30 Hz to 20 kHz±21/2 dB, 30 Hz to 20 kHz

241/2 dB, 450 Hz to 4.5 kHz;171/2 dB, 100 Hz to 20 kHz

SENSITIVITY (1 kHz) 1.47 mVicrnisec

CHANNEL BALANCE (1 kHz) ±1/4 dB

VERTICAL TRACKING ANGLE 25°

LOW -FREQUENCY RESONANCE (in Technics SL -5)vertical 15.5 Hz; 81/2-0B riselateral 15.4 Hz; 133/4 -dB rise

MAX TRACKING LEVEL (re RIAA 0 VU; 11/4 grams)lateral +15 dBvertical > +12dB

WEIGHT 6.1 grams

SQUARE -WAVERESPONSE

model for use (with the adapter) in a nonP -Mount arm. Use of the Technics arm alsoraised some question about tracking force.The arm is fitted with a VTF-adjustmentsetscrew calibrated for three forces: 1, 11/4,and 11/2 grams. These figures correlate neat-ly to Audio-Technica's rated minimum,median, and maximum recommendedtracking forces, respectively, for the AT -I 22EP. The lab couldn't use its VTF gaugein the SL -5, so we don't have our usualconfirmation of that parameter; but we haveno reason to assume that the SL -5 is inac-curately calibrated and therefore accept itsmarkings without further caveat.

The pickup passed DSL's tracking"torture test," for frequencies in the audioband, at its minimum recommended VTF ( Igram). It did break up at bass resonance(about 15 Hz in the SL -5's arm), but sincecommercial recordings aren't cut to fre-quencies that low, there is no cause forcomplaint. (The breakup decreased withincreasing tracking force, but never entirelydisappeared.)

The remaining tests-including ourlistening-were done at the 11/4 -gram

median setting. Output is high, even for amoving -magnet pickup, and interchannelbalance at 1 kHz is good. As measured bythe low -frequency twin -tone method, verti-cal tracking angle is 25 degrees (5 degreesover DIN standard)-only marginally dif-

ferent from the 24 -degree reading obtainedon the midfrequency test intended to ferretout poor rake -angle alignment (whichwould be indicated by a significant discrep-ancy between the results of the two tests).Maximum tracking levels are not quite ashigh as those of some costlier pickups, butare certainly satisfactory for well -cut discs.Resonance is only moderately pronouncedand just a little higher than the 10 -Hz ideal.Warp-tracking-and the AT- I 22EP had anunusually tough workout here as we put theSL -5 through its paces with all manner ofoddball discs-is therefore excellent.

So. too, is the sound. The AT- I 22EPis the sort of pickup that confounds criticsbecause it's so self-effacing: You keep find-ing you re listening to the music instead ofthe cartridge. And that's exactly the way itshould be. It's true that when we comparedthe sound to that of our favorite pickups-costing considerably more-we discoveredsubtle virtues that didn't appear in the AT -I 22EP's sonics, but we never once detecteda sonic fault intrinsic to the little Audio-Technica. Its output is very clean, very wellbalanced (the slight rise near the top of theresponse curves lending a little crispness,perhaps, but never harshness or edginess),and very well focused in stereo imaging. Itis, in short, an excellent cartridge and a finevalue.Circle 97 on Reader -Service Card

AmbienceEnhancement ala BenchmarkBenchmark ARU Ambience Access System, in twometal cases with maple end caps. Dimensions: 131/2by 2 inches (front panel of main unit), 7 Inches deepplus clearance for controls and connections: 534 by2 inches (front panel of remote unit), 7 inches deepplus clearance for controls. Price: $950. Warranty:"full," two years parts and labor. Manufacturer:Benchmark Acoustics, Inc., 201 W. 89th Street, NewYork. N.Y. 10024.

IF YOU LIVE ON A STEADY diet of recordedmusic (as most of us do), it's easy to forgethow glorious the real thing can be. Livemusic has a rich, open, three-dimensionalsound that stereo, even at its best, can'tquite deliver. The function of an ambience -enhancement unit, such as the BenchmarkARU Ambience Access System, is to helpyou transcend the limits of ordinary stereoand thereby reclaim a large measure of whatnormally is lost in the long journey fromconcert hall to living room.

The Benchmark has six channels. Thefirst two feed regular, unprocessed stereosignals to the amplifier driving the mainloudspeakers at the front of the room. Asecond pair delivers the same signals, rolledoff slightly at high frequencies and delayedabout 30 milliseconds, to speakers at thesides of the listening room. The trebleattenuation simulates the tonal balance inthe reverberent field of a concert hall, whilethe delay effectively unmasks the ambienceinformation in the signal without disturbingnormal stereo localization. (Without equal-ization and delay, the side speakers wouldtend to compete with the front ones for yourattention, instead of contributing the de-sired sense of unobtrusive, nonlocalizedambience.) A third pair of outputs sendsrandomized out -of -phase (L -R) signals toyet another set of speakers at the back of the

room, again with a treble rolloff and a 30 -millisecond delay. The rear channels aredesigned to take advantage of the high con-centration of ambience information in theL -R component of a stereo signal and tofurther diffuse the ambient sound field.

As you have undoubtedly gathered bynow, use of the ARU requires at least oneadditional stereo amplifier and set of speak-ers, for the side channels-preferably two,so as to take advantage of the rear outputs,as well. But since you can start with just theside channels and a relatively modestamplifier and speakers, the cost need not beexorbitant. Power requirements for theambience channels are usually less than aquarter of those for the front channels, soinexpeesive, low -power basic or integrated

amps will serve nicely in most installations.And you can use very compact speakers,provided they have some reasonable bassresponse (true minispeakers are usually lessthan optimum in this respect) and a tonalbalance similar to that of the main speakers(the more so, the better).

The ARU comes in three pieces, thefirst being a power -supply module thatplugs directly into a wall socket. It attachesto the main chassis by a cord that terminatesin a miniplug, staying on continuously toprevent turn -on and turn-off transients.Besides the power jack, the main unit has a

MARCH 1983 31

AUDIO New Equipment Reports

MODE

REAR BALANCE

SIDE LEVEL ADJUST.MASTER VOLUME

SIDE BALANCENULL ADJUST.

- REAR LEVEL ADJUST--LOW FILL ADJUST.

OUTPUT AT CLIPPINGFront channelsSide channelsRear channels

8.9 volts8.9 volts3.8 volts

MAXIMUM INPUT LEVEL 5.7 volts

S/N RATIO (re 0.5 volt; A -weighted; IHF loading)Front channels 731/2 dBSide channels 711/2 dBRear channels 69 dB'

HARMONIC DISTORTION (THD; 20 Hz to 20 kHz)Front channelsat 1 volt out 5. 0.091%at 2 volts out 5 0.18%Side channels see textRear channels see text

FREQUENCY RESPONSEFront channels +0, -V4 dB, <10 Hz to 27.4

kHz;+0, -3 dB, <10 Hz to 99.1 kHz

Side channels +0, -vis dB, <20 Hz to 3 kHz;+0, -3 dB, <20 Hz to 11 kHz'

Rear channels +0, -1/4 dB, <20 Hz to 2 kHz;+0, -3 dB, <20 Hz to 10 kHz'

DELAYSide channelsRear channels

'See text

30 msec.30 msec.

pair of input pin jacks and three pairs ofoutput jacks, for front, side, and rear. It isdesigned for installation between apreamp's main outputs and the inputs ofwhatever amplifiers are used. But an easilyprepared set of homemade voltage dividers(see "Sonic Ambience-The Missing In-gredient," October 1982, for details) willenable you to run the ARU from the speakeroutputs of an integrated amp or receiver thatlacks pre-out/main-in jacks. It is also possi-ble to operate the ARU from a set of tape -output jacks, although that necessitatesreadjustment of the side and rear levels anytime you change the volume setting on yourpreamp. (Even that is not much of an incon-venience, however, since the ARU has itsown master VOLUME that can be used for thewhole system without altering the criticalfront -side -rear balance.)

There are four front -panel controlknobs: a mode switch, a null control, a side -speaker balance control, and a rear -speakerbalance control. The mode switch selectsfront channels only, all channels, side chan-nels only, rear channels only, or null. Thislast position enables you to use the null con-trol proper to adjust the rear -channel cir-cuits for maximum L -R extraction. Theremaining two knobs control balance for theside and rear speaker pairs.

The controls on the main unit are pret-ty much of the "set -and -forget" variety.The more commonly used ones are rele-gated to a smaller, remote module that at-taches to the main unit by a long, flat cable.It, too, has four knobs: a master VOLUME forall six channels, individual side- and rear -channel level controls, and a "lo -fill"adjustment for adding mono information tothe rear channels below 60 Hz, to beef upthe bass -shy L -R signals commonly foundon LPs.

Diversified Science Laboratories'measurements document generally verygood performance in all the traditionalrespects, despite a couple of peculiarities.For one, the rear -channel noise increasesabout 6 dB with the "10 -fill" control turnedall the way up (which is, however, an

unlikely setting). Front -channel total har-monic distortion (THD).rises somewhat athigh output levels., but nonetheless remainswell below the threshold of audibility. Inthe side and rear channels, THD is reason-ably low at midband; at the frequencyextremes, however, it reaches several per-cent. But much of this, especially at highfrequencies, consists of noise spikes andother phenomena that are not true harmonicdistortion. Considering that, and the domi-nance of the front channels, we're not sur-prised that we hear no evidence of distor-tion.

For our listening tests, we used AllisonNine speakers up front and Allison Sixes atthe sides and rear, with the latter driven bylow -power integrated amplifiers. Once wehad everything adjusted properly-a fewminutes of easy work with the handyremote control-we sat back to enjoy. Andenjoy we did! With the ARU in the circuit,the sound blooms, taking on a vivid, three-dimensional quality that's hard to give uponce you're used to it. Indeed, it's possibleto forget that anything out of the ordinary isgoing on-until you switch the ARU outand hear the sound collapse back into thefront speakers. We do sometimes detect atrace of hiss from the unit when listening tovery low-level passages. This can be ame-liorated by bouncing the sound from theside and rear speakers off nearby walls andby turning down the ambience channels. Itis not always possible to eliminate the noiseentirely, however, without recourse to tonecontrols or filters.

But even when we have to accept alittle extraneous hiss (which isn't often), weprefer listening with the ARU on: Stereoalone sounds dull and lifeless by compari-son. In fact, our experience with the Bench-mark reaffirms a long-standing convictionthat the single most dramatic improvementone can make to an already good system isto add ambience enhancement. And theBenchmark ARU stands among the best am-bience -enhancement units we have tested todate.Circle 94 on Reader -Service Card

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Prescriptions forAudio IndecisionPractical advice for solving the six mostperplexing audio shopping dilemmasby Hal Rodgers

AUDIO INDECISION SEEMS to be on theupswing these days. Triggered by the anx-iety of making the wrong choice, its mostnoticeable symptom is temporary paralysisof the right hand, frozen enroute to thepocket or purse. Interestingly, those mostprone to the condition are usually the bestinformed: The classic victim can, forinstance, recite the relative merits of vari-ous components, but finds it almost impos-sible to choose among them.

This sort of vacillation responds quitereadily to treatment, however, provided thepatient is willing to make an accurateassessment of his or her particular needsand to separate meaningful informationfrom the myth and mystique that often passas fact in audio lore. To that end, we'vere-created some typical shopping dilemmasand provided some practical prescriptions.

al Moo

.1! a a a Ati.1-C-rel son I 0

7000

Electronics: Receiver or Separates?

This is an old question, and its answer restsvery little on technical considerations. Thekey point is: How well do you know yourown needs and habits? For example, if youwant to put together an excellent systemwith a minimum of hassle, you probably

Hal Rodgers is technical editor ofTechnol-ogy Illustrated and former associate audio -video editor of HIGH FIDELITY.

E13

should be looking for a receiver. Combin-ing tuner, preamp, and power amp on onechassis, a receiver's ultimate functionalityis limited by the number of devices (tapedecks, turntables, signal processors, and soon) that can be accommodated by its inputs,outputs, and switches.

Separates, on the other hand, are moresuitable for someone who likes to changethings around and experiment. Individualcomponents divide up the jobs done by thereceiver; they don't necessarily do thembetter. But since you have access to the con-nections between components, it is easy toreplace one or to introduce new elementsinto the system. This flexibility comes at aprice: The use of three chassis, along withmultiple power supplies, adds considerablyto the overall cost.

Of course, receivers are catching up alittle in flexibility. Some now incorporate a"pre-out/main-in" connection that allowsseparate access to the power -amplifier sec-tion. (This feature also is found in manyintegrated amplifiers, which are essentiallyreceivers without tuner sections.) Andthough separate access to the tuner outputof a receiver is unheard of, most receivershave at least one aux input to make it easy tohook up a new tuner, if you so desire.Moreover, even if you envisage the possi-bility that some day you'd like to connect adigital audio disc player, video disc player,

and VCR to your audio system, you canalways expand even a single aux input withan inexpensive switch box.

Turntables: Direct -Drive or Belt -Drive?

Most turntables nowadays have direct -drivemotors. The system is simple, accurate, andreliable. Belt -drive models are generallyfound at the low end of manufacturers'lines. Apparently, a belt -drive turntablethat is just about adequate can be madequite inexpensively, but one that can equalor outperform a direct -drive model willmost likely outprice it as well.

Direct -drive turntables usually matchor exceed belt -driven units in speed accura-cy, wow and flutter, and start-up torque.Where belt drive makes its claim to fame isin freedom from rumble; some manufactur-ers even say that their belt -driven turntableshave rumble levels below the residualsfound on test discs. Considering that testrecords are cut under conditions at least asgood as (and usually far better than) thoseused for commercial pressings, it's doubt-ful that this advantage can be heard at all.

Which is right for you? The choice hasless to do with the turntable's drive systemthan with the features and performance ofthe specific models that fall within yourbudget. Remember, even a direct -driveturntable can exhibit poor performance if ithas not been well engineered. HIGH FIDEL-ITY's equipment reports are a particularlygood source of performance data andhands-on analysis of features.

Tonearms: Tangential -Tracking orPivoted?

Although prices for turntables with tangen-tial -tracking tonearms are beginning tocome down, the extra machinery containedin their fairly complex arm assemblies stillmakes them more expensive than compara-ble tables with pivoted arms. In fact, if I

were presented with two $200 automaticturntables, one with a pivoted arm and onewith a tangential, I'd pick the pivoted mod-el. Chances are the manufacturer had to cutcorners somewhere to make the tangential -tracking model's price so competitive.

If you are willing to spend a bit extra,however, tangential arms do make sense.Basically, since the entire arm movesacross the record in a straight line, skatingforce is not an issue, eliminating the need toapply counterbias. Also, a tangential or lin-ear -tracking arm can be made shorter (andtherefore much less massive) than a con-ventional tonearm, which improves warptracking with a high compliance pickup.

A tangential arm's most touted benefitis its ability to keep the stylus perfectly ori-ented in the groove, thereby minimizingtracking -error distortion. This does notseem to be a big improvement over a piv-oted arm's performance, however. Recentwork has shown that a linear -tracking arm'sservo mechanism (which must sense somedeviation from tangency before it can rem-edy it) does keep tracking error down tolevels lower than the peak errors with piv-oted arms. But when averaged over theplaying surface of a record, the trackingerrors of the two types of arms are oftenquite comparable.

Ultimately then, the choice of a turn-table comes down to economics and howinvolved you're willing to be in the initialsetup procedure. Getting the best perfor-mance from a pivoted arm involves pains-taking cartridge alignment. With a tangen-tial arm, one simple overhang adjustment(setting it to zero) is all that's required.

Phono Cartridges: Fixed Coil or MovingCoil?

You should resist the temptation to choose aphono pickup on the basis of the muchtouted (and often mystically expressed)benefits of moving -coil over fixed -coildesigns. Some of the most expensive andhighly regarded moving coil models haveprobably gained their reputations for sonicexcellence more on the basis of how theyreact electrically to the preamp that booststheir minute output than on any inherentsuperiority of their transduction scheme.Your primary concerns in selecting a phonocartridge should be how it will sound withyour amplifier and whether it provides agood match to your tonearm.

An important electrical difference be-tween a moving -coil cartridge and mostfixed -coil pickups is that the former willhave a very low output impedance. Thisensures that its frequency response will notbe significantly affected by the impedanceof the phono input to which it is connected.And (though this is somewhat less impor-tant) a moving -coil eliminates any possibil-ity that RIAA equalization errors mightarise from interaction between the pickup'soutput impedance and the response -shapingcircuits of phono preamps susceptible tothis now relatively rare problem. Usually,however, moving -coil cartridges pay a pen-alty in the form of reduced output-often tosuch a degree that an additional step-uptransformer (or pre-preamp sometimescalled a head amp) is necessary between thecartridge and the phono input.

It is possible to make a low -impedancefixed -coil cartridge, but again, usually atthe expense of sensitivity. A typical fixed -coil cartridge will have enough output toassure adequate volume and a good signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) with any phono inputdesigned for use with magnetic cartridges.To be sure of getting flat frequencyresponse, however, you will usually have tomake sure that the total capacitance contrib-uted by the tonearm cables and the phonoinput is close to that recommended by thecartridge's manufacturer.

Another common difference betweenfixed -coil and moving -coil cartridges iscompliance. Most of the top fixed -coilmodels are highly compliant designs,whereas moving -coil units are relativelyless so. As a result, many fixed -coil car-tridges require a fairly low -mass tonearm totrack warped records properly. The majori-ty of moving -coil cartridges, on the otherhand, can be used successfully with heavierarms.

7/1

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litiEZ2ZW.Mir

=cloac. II

Cassette Noise Reduction Systems:Which One(s)?

There is no single best noise reduction sys-tem. Under certain unusual conditions bothDolby C and DBX -the major contendersright now-will produce audible artifactsof one sort or another. Although there aredifferences in philosophy between the sys-ems, they do not, in my opinion, lead to

differences in performance clear-cut

34 HIGH FIDELITY

enough to provide a basis for choice. As inso many cases, the determining factor lieselsewhere.

There are indications that the popular-ity of prerecorded cassettes is growing, par-ticularly as a premium -quality alternative toaudiophile discs in the $20 -and -up range.But with most prerecorded tapes, noisereduction is de rigueur, and Dolby B (notthe newer C -type) dominates the field.However, there also exists a fairly large cat-alog of DBX-encoded tapes (not to mentionDBX discs, which can be played backthrough the circuitry used to decode DBXtapes). These, in general, duplicate materi-al already released on conventional LPs,but they retain a good deal more of themaster tapes' dynamic range. For the timebeing, there is not much prerecorded mate-rial encoded with Dolby C. It's somewhatlike the situation back in quadriphonicdays, when to be sure of enjoying all one'sfavorite artists, one had to acquire decodersfor all of the various competing four -chan-nel systems.

If you already own a cassette deck,therefore, it makes sense to look at out-board DBX units. Unfortunately, very fewdecks currently offer all three noise reduc-tion schemes (two is the usual limit, withDolby B always occupying one slot), so ifyou're in the market for a new recorder andwant to listen to prerecorded cassettes, youmight be wise to invest in one of the newmodels equipped with Dolby C (which, ofcourse, always appears with Dolby B).Though cassettes encoded with Dolby C arerare, outboard Dolby C decoders are rarerstill. (And there are none at all designed foruse in a car system.) And if the experiencewith Dolby B is any basis for prognostica-tion, Dolby C outboard decoders willbecome virtually unobtainable in years tocome. DBX, on the other hand, is commit-ted to the aftermarket, and you're assuredof a ready supply of DBX tape and discdecoders for years to come.

Loudspeakers: Conventional Pairs orSubwoofer-Plus-Satellites?

Traditionally, loudspeakers for home usehave been dominated by models in whichdrivers for a given channel are contained ina single box. In recent years, as very small

speakers attained popularity, it becameclear that their bass response could beextended by the addition of an outboardwoofer. Because bass frequencies belowabout 100 Hz [the region small speakershave trouble handling) propagate nondirec-tionally, the placement of the outboardwoofer (or "subwoofer") is relatively non-critical. In fact, one subwoofer can evenserve both channels. (And when the bass ofthe two channels is combined, most turnta-ble rumble cancels out.)

In small rooms especially, a satellite/subwoofer system can have definite advan-tages. Often it is difficult to find space forloudspeakers at all, and the diminutive sizeof the satellites can be a big help in book-shelf mounting, for instance. The largest ofthe three elements, the subwoofer, can beplaced virtually anywhere provided thatdoesn't result in too much or too little bassfrom room reinforcement or cancellation.Satellite/subwoofer systems have acousticadvantages as well. It often turns out, par-ticularly in small spaces, that the locationsthat are optimum for low -frequency re-sponse give poor results for middle andhigh frequencies, or vice versa. Here thesatellite/subwoofer system allows a flexi-bility that the all -in -one systems simplycan't. Where such a system begins to falteris in a large room where loud playback isdesired. The power -handling capability ofmost satellites is somewhat limited, and ifpushed too hard in a large room, they candistort badly. Fortunately, in large roomsthe placement of all -in -one speakers be-comes simpler.

It would be convenient to say that sat-ellite/subwoofer systems are the best solu-tion for all small rooms. However,depending on the shape of the room, moreconventional types of speakers will oftenwork as well. The key point, though, is thata three-piece (or four -piece) system willsolve placement problems that convention-al speakers simply cannot.

What Not To Worry About

Audio components should be bought withcare, but certainly not with trepidation. Ifyour power amplifier can supply enoughpower to make your speakers play as loudas you want, and your speakers can takethat power, you won't blow anything up.The only other crucial matches are betweenthe tonearm and the phono cartridge andbetween the phono cartridge and thepreamp. And if you live in a problem recep-tion area, you may have to give careful con-sideration to your choice of FM tuner. Butonce those factors are under control, that'sabout it. From then on you are dealing withmatters of personal preference or conve-nience. Don't let anyone try to frighten youaway from components you like. And don'tworry about distortion in the electronics.The days when it was a significant factorare long gone. HE

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MARCH 1983 35

A practical guide tosystem interconnectionsby Robert Long

CONNECTING A STEREO SYSTEM that in-cludes outboard components-signal pro-cessors, in particular-can be a confusingand sometimes frustrating procedure. Infact. system interconnection dilemmas ac-count for much of the reader correspon-dence I've received over the years. Often,the difficulty stems from trying to arrive at aconfiguration that will create or preserve allthe desired switching options within a com-plex system. And sometimes the salientproblem is interaction: Will signals thathave been altered by component A beappropriate for processing by componentB, or should the signal be routed through Bfirst?

If a complicated audio system is to behooked together in a way that will makesense-a way that will allow you the fullintended use of all the parts-it's alwayshelpful to begin by preparing a flow chart. Iinvariably make one when I want to hookup a system in a way that's substantiallymore ambitious than usual. If the signalpath is merely a variation or elaboration ofmy usual practices, the flow chart is strictlymental. But even then, a clear picture of therouting is an absolute necessity, and it'shard to picture the easy cases unless you'vemapped the hard ones.

A crucial element in such a flow chartis, of course, the so-called tape loop. Oftendescribed as a "circuit interruption" fea-ture, at least one such loop (and the monitorswitching necessary to "enter" it) is stan-

ock:hock. ,.rwrOsno

orectionAA) {For t:orrect

dard equipment on all modern receivers andall but a handful of preamps. The basicmonitor function does, indeed, interrupt thesignal flow from the source (say, the turn-table) to the power amplification stages andspeakers by routing it through whateverequipment is connected to the recordingoutput and tape -playback input of thereceiver, preamp, or integrated amp.

When there are connections (and mon-itor positions) for more than one tape deck,there may also be switching to enable easydubbing between decks. There are variousways this switching can work, and owner'smanuals aren't always very clear on thesubtler distinctions. Understanding the ca-pabilities and limitations of a dubbingswitch, therefore, is crucial to its full use incontrolling outboard equipment that mustuse the tape connections. In fact, the dub-bing options of a "core" component (par-ticularly a receiver) may be the trickiest sin-gle point in the flow chart of many a homesystem.

The most common dubbing setup is aseparate switch (or a series of positions on amonitor switch) that connects the output ofone recorder to the input of another. A fullcontrol lets you copy from any (usuallyboth) of the decks for which there are jacksto any other. A simpler alternative thatyou'll frequently find in moderate -costreceivers is one-way dubbing; here, dupli-cates can be made only on the deck connect-ed to Tape 2, copying from that on Tape 1.

101

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rvn Y Ns.,se IA 250V AGC

i2Ovac50 40 Ht 500 VA

Usually such a scheme offers no monitoringcapability, particularly if the control is partof the monitor switch. With separateswitching for the two functions, it's oftenpossible to monitor either deck during thedubbing.

I'm assuming standard nomenclaturethroughout this article, but your systemmay not be so cooperative. In general,equipment is marked in terms of its owninputs and outputs, and these are the mostappropriate terms to think of when you'redevising a signal -routing scheme. It's aquestion of feeding the output of one to theinput (or an input) of another.

On your preamp, integrated amp, orreceiver, however, the tape outputs maysimply be marked "recording" and the tapeinputs marked something like "tape play."Similarly, recorders may have "recording"inputs and "playback" outputs. Theseterms aren't incorrect, of course, but theyleave it to the user to puzzle out the crucialinput/output distinction.

Much more confusing are the compo-nents (usually switching boxes or other out-board units) whose terminals are identifiedin terms of the inputs or outputs to whichthey are to be connected. Thus an equaliz-er's output for routing signals to a tape -deckrecording input may be labeled "to tapeinput" (which isn't too confusing) or sim-ply "tape in" (which is). When I get a com-ponent that indulges in ambiguous nomen-clature, I usually relabel the connections

36 HIGH FIDELITY

What You Should KnowBefore Hooking Up Your Outboards

When connecting components to the tape orprocessor loops of your main stereo system,there are several dos and don'ts you should beaware of. Here's a rundown of factors youshould take into account in making yourplans.

Equalizers

Most equalizers, graphic and parametricalike, can be used for two purposes: programEQ (to ameliorate response anomalies in thesource material) or speaker EQ (to smoothand otherwise refine the speakers' inherentresponse). Even if the equalizer is equallyadept at both functions, using it for bothposes perplexing questions of application (atleast if you plan to record equalized signals,but still need the same equalizer to adjust thetonal balance of your speakers) and systemrouting. I'd strongly urge separate equalizersfor each function.

For program EQ, a so-called pre/postswitch (by means of which you can equalizeeither the feed to or the playback from a deckconnected to the equalizer's tape terminals) isjust about obligatory for the serious recordist.The alternatives to having such a switch areto reconnect the unit whenever you want tochange between equalized recording andequalized playback or to use a separate tapeloop plus a full dubbing control to route theequalized signal to or from the main tapeloop. Some (though by no means all) of theseparate switching boxes solve such prob-lems neatly.

For speaker EQ, which you presumablywill want in the circuit whenever you're lis-tening to the speakers, a nonswitchable con-nection (such as that between preamp andpower amp in many systems) may be themost convenient. But-particularly if thespeaker equalizer is designed as an inherentpart of the speaker system-consult the own-er's manual to see what hookup is recom-mended. Equalizer hum that can be reducedto inaudibility by lowering the volume in nor-mal systems may be all too audible if theequalizer is used after the volume control-that is, following the preamplifier section.

Expanders

Along with the drama that is created when an

expander exaggerates the existing programdynamics, you may also get some sonic prob-lems, unless every element in the signal path"downstream" can handle the wider dynam-ics. For that reason, it's generally best tokeep the expander as close to the system'score component as possible. It should, how-ever, remain ahead of ambience or delaydevices that require separate back -channelamplification; otherwise, the dynamics in theback channels won't match those at thefront.

Filters

Filters, whether fixed or dynamic, generallywork best when they're as near to the sourceas possible, and therefore as close as possibleto the signal from which something (rumble,infrasonics, hiss, or whatever) must be fil-tered. The longer the polluting element isallowed to remain in the audio chain, themore opportunities it has to create intermodu-lation, overload, and other forms of sonic"mud" that can't be filtered out.

Noise reduction

Sometimes this term is used for dynamic fil-ters (see above), but most often it specifiesthe encode/decode companders of whichDolby Laboratories and DBX are the best-known exponents. Ideally, no signal proces-sor should ever come between the signalencoder and the recording tape deck orbetween the playback deck and the decoder.Otherwise, decoding will fail to somedegree-depending on the type of processingand on the type of noise reduction-torestore the original signal as it should. Somerecordists insist on using both Dolby B andDBX simultaneously for their tapes-a prac-tice advocated by neither of the companies. Ifyou must, though, make the order DBXencode, Dolby encode, tape, Dolby decode,DBX decode.

Some DBX equipment offers a provi-sion for decoding DBX discs, in addition to(or instead of) tape processing. You'll wantto route signals from the phono input throughthe decoder, even if you're not recording.Generally, such a path is no problem,because DBX is good about offering appro-priate switching.

CX decoding

The CBS CX system is somewhat similar tothat of DBX, but there's one practical differ-ence in terms of system configuration:Whereas CX discs are designed to be play-able without decoding, DBX discs are not.Consequently, to make a tape of a DBX discyou must employ a DBX decoder somewherein the process-either in recording or play-back. This holds true whether you plan toplay the tape at home or away (say, in yourcar). CX discs can be taped and played backundecoded. But you can realize the fullpotential of the CX recording's dynamicsonly when you play it through a system thatincludes a decoder.

Spatial enhancement

The ambience recovery or simulation de-vices that derive a third (or third and fourth)channel for separate amplification at the sidesor back of the listening room generallyshould be at the end of the processing chain.Otherwise, later signal manipulations wouldhave to be duplicated (via a separate proces-sor) in the extra channel(s) so the ambiencechannels would sound as though they "be-longed."

Stereo enhancers like the Carver SonicHolography Generator, on the other hand, arebest placed close to the source of the music.Since they must make the best possible use ofsubtle interchannel differences, it is best tolet them process the signals before those dif-ferences have been altered or blurred by othersignal -processing devices. Since no extra sig-nal channels are involved, any subsequentprocessing will cover the full output of thestereo enhancer.

Tape decks

Finally, remember that tape decks are not allalike in their signal routing. From a systemspoint of view, it makes a big differencewhether or not you can monitor the signalfrom the tape as you record. (A few deckswon't even feed the source signal through tothe output terminals.) So know your equip-ment's capabilities when you're laying outyour flow chart. Don't include a signal paththat doesn't exist.

(using Dennison or Avery stick-ons fromthe stationery store) to prevent gettingthings wrong every time I reconnect thecomponent.

Make a careful distinction on yourreceiver between source inputs and input/output loops. With some equipment, mostor all of the tape inputs can be chosen byway of the main source selector. That con-trol usually makes a distinction betweenthose that are intended for playback -onlypurposes (the equivalent of an aux input)and those that can be used as full record/play monitoring loops. There have evenbeen models in which it's possible for a tape

monitor to interrupt itself (when the mainselector and the monitor are switched to thesame deck), creating feedback. And if atape input doesn't necessarily imply a loop,neither is a loop always identified with tape:Some products have "signal processorloops" with in/out switches on the frontpanel. Don't let the nomenclature throwyou: Every processor loop I've looked atclosely is constructed exactly like the com-ponent's tape -monitor loops and is inter-changeable with them.

Channel labeling can also confuse theneophyte. Instead of "left" and "right,"some pro and semipro gear says "Channel

1" and "Channel 2" (or "A" and "B").You can use either for left or right, but stan-dard practice is to put the left signal intoChannel 1 (or A). With consumer equip-ment, the right signal (Channel 2 or B) isusually denoted by a red marking on theinput and output jacks. You'll find it mucheasier to keep channels sorted out if you usestandard double -wire stereo interconnectcables. with a red plug at each end for theright channel, and save any single -wirecables for mono signals. If you have equip-ment whose permanently attached cablesuse the European gray and black color cod-ing, I'd suggest a dot of red paint on the

MARCH 1983 37

ANTENNA INS

PHONO IN-

AUX IN -111.

1,,i4),4

CxDECODER

TAPE APE

tuz cc

O

DUB

RECEIVER

-SPEAKERS OUT

Fig. IA: A simple receiver -based system with one-waydubbing switch, CX decoder, and one tape deck

CX 17 TAPEDECODER DECA

PI It )NU IN

PH,

RECEIVER

0z0

00

Fig . IB:IB: Signal path when switched far playing standardnon-CX-encoded LPs

TAPE 41! TAPE IN

0RECEIVER

Fig. IC: Signal path when switched for playing CX-encoded LPs

CxDECODER

TAPEDECK

Fig. ID: Signal path when switched for copying CX-encoded LPs

SPEAKERS OUT

SPEAKERS OUT

SPEAKERS OUT

right -channel plug. (I never can rememberwhether right is black or gray-that's why Iuse the red paint.)

If it were not for one exception, I'dhesitate to raise the question of mono con-nections, because they've so seldom beenrequired in modern audio. But that oneexception-audio tracks from most TVsources, including all domestic broad-casts-is an application for which allow-ance is being made in more and more homeequipment. If you need to make a transitionfrom mono to stereo wiring, Y -adapters arethe easiest and cheapest solution. You canbuy them with two male plugs and onefemale (which mates a stereo component toa mono cable) or with two female and onemale (to connect mono equipment to stereocables). I like to keep both handy.

Typical home stereo systems-wheth-er based on a high -quality receiver or builtup from separates-have inputs for nomore than two line -level source inputs (auxor equivalent) and two line -level in/out(tape or processor) loops. Leftover loopinputs can be used to accommodate sources(CD player, video -disc audio, or whatever)for which you don't have enough aux con-nections. (In that case, of course, the outputconnections for the loop in question will gounused.) But conversely, if you run out ofloops, extra aux inputs without correspond-ing outputs won't fill the need.

To solve this problem, many of theadd-on components that will need loop con-nections include their own replacementtape -monitor loop. The basic idea is that ifyou have used up all the loops in your sys-tem, you can disconnect a tape deck, attachyour new component in its place, and thenattach the deck to the tape -monitor jacks onthe back of the newcomer. To get the deckinto your signal path, you must engage themain monitor, turn on the added component(though many don't even have a powerswitch and are intended for use from aswitched AC outlet), and then turn its mon-itor switch to the tape position.

Fig. 1 shows how a fairly simplereceiver might be used with various out-boards. The receiver has two sets of tapeconnections, one-way dubbing, and fullmonitoring. With it, we've decided to use asingle tape deck along with a CX decoder torecover the full dynamic range of appropri-ately encoded discs. We'll need to be ableto play records both with and withoutdecoding, of course, and we'll want to beable to record from either radio or LPs. Ifthe LP is CX-encoded, we might choose totape it that way and save decoding for play-back (which would put the least strain onthe dynamic range of the tape medium). Onthe other hand, we could decode the signalbefore it's fed to the recorder (yieldingtapes that can be played with maximumdynamic range on any system, even if it hasno CX decoder).

Let's assume the latter case, whichmeans that we must be able to insert the

38 HIGH FIDELITY

decoder into the recording circuit but neednot use it in playback. If we attach the deckto the Tape 2 connections and the decoderto Tape 1, we can do just that. When play-ing regular records, we would leave boththe monitor and dubbing switches turnedoff, in order to feed the signal straightthrough the receiver (Fig. 1B). For tapingrecords, we would leave the switches setthe same way and monitor the source sig-nal. Or, if we had a three -head deck, wecould switch the monitor to Tape 2 andmonitor the copy. When we play a CX disc,switching the monitor to Tape 1 puts thedecoder into the signal path (Fig. IC). If wewant to tape it, we can switch in the tape -dubbing circuit, which will feed the outputof the decoder to the deck at Tape 2 in ourhookup (Fig. ID). The deck itself can beplayed using the Tape 2 monitor position.

Cascading one loop off another isillustrated in Fig. 2. Here we're assuming areceiver with two tape loops plus a pre -out/main -in connection. A program expanderand a cassette deck are cascaded, or piggy-backed, from Tape 2; a program equalizer,a DBX disc-decoder/tape-noise-reducer, aDolby B noise reduction unit, and an open -reel deck are cascaded from Tape I.

Let's take the big group connected toTape I first. The two noise reduction sys-tems are included there because both maybe used with the open -reel deck. (Cassettedecks normally have noise reduction builtin, but additional systems can be out -boarded.) You'll find the logic of cascadingthe Dolby B from the DBX, rather than thereverse, among the points discussed in"What You Should Know Before HookingUp Your Outboards." The equalizer musthead this group-that is, be closest to thereceiver's tape out-for several reasons. Itshould not be placed between the Dolbyunit and the recorder if using the noisereducer and the equalizer simultaneously isa possibility; switching logistics are handierif you keep the Dolby/DBX noise reducergroup together; and with the equalizer closeto the receiver, it's easy to add EQ to anysignal without turning on all the remainingoutboards. Note that a dubbing switch inthe receiver will allow you to route signalsfrom the main output of the equalizer to thecassette deck; however, unless the equaliz-er itself has pre/post switching (see "WhatYou Should Know . . ."), you'll be able toequalize only the open -reel deck's playbackoutput. If you wish to equalize playbackfrom the cassette deck, you can use the dub-bing switch (Tape 2 to Tape 1).

The remaining system elements arerelatively simple. You might make a casethat the program expander (a dynamic -range -enhancement unit) and speakerequalizer could be transposed to keep theexpander last in the processing chain (al-ways a good idea). In fact, that arrangementwould promote the best possible signal-to-noise ratios through the speaker equalizer,because higher signal levels are to be

TAPE OUT TAPE IN

n.1 PROGRAMEQUALIZER

Fig. 2: A cascaded receiver -basedsystem

El

CASSETTE

TAPE GUI

/IVANGFIDAEMR

rSPEAKER

EQUALIZER

MAIN IN

ANTENNA IN-0.--10-

PHONO 1 IN

PHONO 2 IN -0.

AU? IN

oa-D

RECEIVER

O

2A0

,1 AKE HS OUT

Fig. 3: A variant of cascaded systemwith passive feed -through

ri 1-1

TAPE

TAPE 00

CASSETTEDECK

SPEAKEREQUALIZER

TAPE IN PRE OUT

PROGRAMEXPANDER

MAIN IN

RECEIVER

expected at tape -loop connections thanbetween the volume control and the poweramp. I've gone the other way here, howev-er, on the assumption that this equalizer isengineered for such a hookup and that,because we won't want to reset it oncewe've gotten any adjustments just right, theseparate connection may make it easier tostow this unit out of harm's way, while theexpander controls must be easily accessi-ble. Remember, however, that the expan-der-particularly at high expansion ra-tios-puts maximum stress on the dynamicrange of this equalizer; if hum or clipping

prove a problem with this setup, we'd bettergive the alternative a try.

It should be obvious that there's a limitto how far cascading can be carried if sig-nals are not to be degraded. Purists claimthat you should never have any more con-nections than you really need in the signalpath, and it's certainly true that every timeyou insert a plug into a jack you increase thepotential for hum, static, RF interference,and intermittency. To minimize audibledegradation-which, in properly function-ing modern gear, should be slight to negli-gible (at worst) for most music -listening

MARCH 1983

Tr 'I III aiMMEInit

39

When we reviewed the Russound SP -1 (test report, January 1978), wecalled it a prescription for "Gordianknot" systems. Though it's no longeralone in that category, it remainsamong the more interesting options.Up to four decks and up to ten pro-cessors can be connected to pin jackson the back panel. Slider switches onthe front panel choose input, output,and dubbing options for the fourdecks; miniature phone jacks andpatch cords permit you to insert anyprocessor or sequence of processorsinto the input, dubbing, or outputsections of the tape signal -routing scheme. You can monitor the playback and thedubbing buses before and after processing. The SP -1 costs $190.Circle 93 on Reader -Service Card

The DBX 200 ($130) dispenses with patch cords in favor of front -panel switching,for a big improvement in neatness at some expense of potential flexibility. There isroom for three signal processors, each with its own bypass/process switch, and theprocessing section can be switched to affect either the recording feed or the play-back (pre/post switching). A fourth, unswitched processor loop handles encode/decode noise reducers (like DBX' s own). There also are connections in the backpanel for three tape decks; for them includes monitoring ofany of the three decks, a copy switch that allows any one deck to be used as therecording source, and line/copy source selectors for each of the three decks.Circle 92 on Reader -Service Card

By wiring a "standard" system configuration that can be interrupted and reorga-nized with patch cords, the Audiopatch Model 465 ($225) combines the flexibility ofpatch systems with some of the neatness of switches. Eight sets of inputs and outputsare located on the back panel (pin jacks) and normally provide direct feed -throughin each set. To alter this arrangement, stereo phone patch cords can be plugged intothe front -panel 1/4 -inch "headphone" jacks, routing an input to a different output orcascading processors between normally -connected input/output pairs.Circle 91 on Reader -Service Card

purposes-you can seek out add-ons withpassive bypass circuitry. Ideally, for exam-ple, you should not have to turn on the pro-gram equalizer in Fig. 2 in order to use theopen -reel deck and noise reduction unitsoutboarded from it; direct wiring connec-tions should shunt signals from the equaliz-er's inputs to its outputs at all control set-

tings (except, of course, when the equalizeritself is selected).

The usual design approach for out-boards puts completely passive circuitryinto the tape-out/tape-in connections, butputs active components into the processorsignal path, even when their controls are setto bypass actual processing. Thus, there

will be signal fed through the tape connec-tions when the processor's AC switch isoff-or even when its AC cord is discon-nected-but the signal will not be fedthrough the main processing channel. Thefew exceptions, in which a bypass switch orpower -off switch position cuts out all activecomponents along with the processing, per-mit the kind of hookup shown in Fig. 3.Here we've taken the Tape 2 loop of Fig. 2,assumed that the expander becomes passivein its off position, and moved the speakerequalizer to this group to get it ahead of thevolume control and the expander. We cancascade the cassette deck from the speakerequalizer and run the expander in serieswith the cascade; it will simply drop out ofthe picture when you decide against pro-gram expansion.

Not all add-ons have tape -monitorconnections, of course, and the sonic limi-tations of cascading remain a real barrier tounlimited system expansion using this tech-nique. Both problems can be solved byemploying switching boxes, of which thereare quite a variety on the market today. Themost obvious sort uses regular pushbutton,slide, or rotary switches to choose the cir-cuit configuration. Generally, these boxesare made to solve specific problems-recording and dubbing with more than twodecks, A/B comparisons, and so on-andmust be purchased accordingly. More gen-eralized devices often use patch bays,whose mating patch cords can createextremely flexible signal -routing paths. Butbays move some of the rat's -nest tangle ofwires, hidden at the back of most systems,out into view. Professional patching gear isusually based on the same 1/4 -inch jack/plugdesign as old-fashioned Bell TelephonePBX equipment: good for reliability, butrather bulky and very expensive by con-sumer standards. An elegant recent varianton this scheme, designed specifically withhome systems in mind, requires that youinsert patch -cord plugs into the jacks onlywhen you want to alter a standard systemconfiguration. Otherwise, signals feedstraight through the patch points to theequipment connected to the patch bay'sback panel by standard pin connectors.

Obviously, a switching unit of somesort is the way to go if you have a reallycomplicated stereo system. The choice ofthe unit-and the way in which you hook itinto your system-will depend on thenature of the complications. But don'texpect these devices to be cheap justbecause they contain no active parts. Tran-sistors, resistors, and capacitors used inactive units don't cost much in themselves,but more construction can be required to fiteverything under the hood of a complicatedpassive switcher than you would need tobuild a simple power amplifier. So don'tplan to skimp. If you do, you're likely to getpoor -quality parts that won't stand up toregular use-and faceplates that you'llwant to cover with an antimacassar. HF

40 HIGH FIDELITY

Two VideoSwitchboxes

HANDS-ONREPORTS

The Showtime Video Ventures Systems Switcher Model 5000Sand the Channel Master Video Control Center Model 0770 can addoperating flexibility to your home video setup.

These Hands -On Reports were conducted under the supervision ofEdward J Foster consulting technical editor of HIGH FIDELITY andClorector of Diverafied Spence Laboratories

HOOKING UP A MULTICOMPONENT video sys-tem is even more complicated than organiz-ing an audio -only one. Audio componentscan be easily cascaded, and a simple dub-bing control on many audio receiversaffords some fairly flexible switchingoptions. (See "Taking Control of YourSystem," page 7.) Unfortunately, no tele-vision receiver we know of can match eventhe humblest of audio receivers in switchingflexibility.

A modern TV set may have severalinputs and outputs, but there is usually noway of controlling signal flow from thereceiver itself. Thus, should a TV receiverhave inputs for a VCR and a video discplayer (and precious few have even that),you would still have to reconnect cables todub a video disc program onto tape. Add tothis the problems created when a local cableoperator decides to scramble certain premi-um channels-necessitating some mechan-ical switching to route the cable feedthrough an external decoder-and you havea frustrating situation. But you're not alone:The vast majority of video queries wereceive each month address the question ofhow to configure a system to do B withouthaving to reconnect everything just to do Aagain.

The solution is a video switchbox. Butbefore you run out to buy one, you'd betterhave a clear idea not only of how to config-ure your system, but also how you maywant to reconfigure it in order to have sig-nificant flexibility in signal handling. Notall video switchers do the same thing in thesame way. In fact, the two switchboxes weare reviewing this month-the ShowtimeVideo Ventures Model 5000S and theChannel Master Model 0770-are quitedifferent in application and function.

The Channel Master Model 0770 Vid-eo Control Center is an inexpensive ($50),

Channel Master's Video Control Center is a four-inithree-out RF switcher.

completely passive (no AC required) RFswitcher. It allows any one of three receiv-ers to choose among four sources-a so-called four-in/three-out arrangement.Channel Master has identified the receiversas two TV sets and one VCR on the unit'sfaceplate and connectors, but you needn'ttake those labels literally. Each TV receivercan choose among four sources-antenna,cable (called "pay") VCR, and aux. TheVCR gets a choice of three sources-anten-na, pay, and aux.

Inputs and outputs are made by F -con-nectors on the rear panel. No cables are pro-vided; you can use your VCR's or purchasewhatever extras are needed. The systemaccepts 75 -ohm unbalanced (coax) lines, soyou will need a 300 -to -75 -ohm balun trans-former to convert twin -lead antenna sig-nals. We found that the F -connectors werespaced far enough apart to allow use of thepackaged baluns that come with manyVCRs.

Switching is accomplished with elev-en pushbuttons on the front panel. The leftfour select the signal fed to the remote TVreceiver, the center four control the feed tothe main TV, and the remaining three routethe signals to the VCR. Pressing any onebutton within each group releases whateverother one might have been engaged. Thebuttons are equally spaced across the panel

and clearly grouped by legend and colorbars.

The Channel Master is said to have afrequency range of 5 MHz to 890 MHz-which means it can handle all VHF, UHF,and cable channels-and to provide morethan 60 dB of isolation between inputs inthe VHF band and 40 dB on UHF. With apassive device, there will always be someloss when a signal is split to feed more thanone receiver. The company specifies thisloss at 8 dB (VHF) and 10 dB (UHF) whenthe antenna is feeding both the main TV setand the VCR; 4 dB (VHF) and 6 dB (UHF)when the antenna is feeding only the remoteTV or when the VCR is feeding both TVsets.

If your system consists of, forinstance, two TV sets, a VCR, and a videodisc player, and your primary concern isrouting signals to one or both of the TVs,the Channel Master should accommodateyour seeds quite nicely. You can recordbroadcasts off the air or from the cable(PAY) feed. If your video disc player isplugged into the switcher's aux input, youcan tape from it-but only through theplayer's RF output. (Remember, the Chan-nel Master switcher is an RF-only device; itcannot handle direct video signals.) Thisprecludes stereo recording onto the VCR (ifyours has that capability), and also entails

MARCH 1983

Ai 11Ni. I

41

some loss in picture quality, since the signalmust be modulated up onto a VHF carrier(Channel 3 or 4) in the disc player thendemodulated in the VCR.

These same constraints apply if youhave two VCRs and no disc player. Youconnect one of the VCRs to the switcher'saux input and copy from one to the other,but only from the aux VCR to the main one.This is because the Channel Master's auxinput is a send -only circuit. For the samereason, the only way you can record abroadcast onto the auxiliary VCR is to buyanother splitter and feed the aux deckdirectly from the antenna or cable feed.

There is a way to accomplish two-waydubbing, however, and that's by forgoingone of the TV links and one of the send -onlyinputs. If you feed the second VCR's anten-na input from the Channel Master's remoteTV output and connect that VCR's RF out-put to an unused input on the switcher (theone marked PAY, for instance), the secondVCR would be able to record signals fromthe antenna, main VCR, and aux (disc play-er) sources. You would select the sourceyou want to record via the REMOTE pushbut-tons. You would not, however, use the PAY

button on the remote bank; that would feedthe second VCR's output back into itself.

Though the Channel Master is a fairlyflexible device, it does have its limitations,most of them stemming from its reliance onthe RF link. This not only injects noise andsignal degradation, but also precludes rout-ing stereo audio signals through the patch -bay. Furthermore, there's no way to hookin signal processors, such as video stabiliz-ers and equalizers, for these work only withdirect video signals.

The Model 5000S Systems Switcher($350) from Showtime Video Venturesdoes handle direct video and audio signals,as well as RF. The AC -powered switcher isnot, however, recommended for UHF sig-nal switching, which could be an importantconsideration in some areas of the coun-try.

The rear panel's thirty jacks make theunit look like a porcupine. All direct -audioconnections are made via standard RCAphono jacks; RF and direct -video connec-tors are F -type coax fittings. Inputs to the50005 are labeled with letters, outputs withnumbers. These markings should help youto avoid mistakes, since switcher inputscorrespond to outputs from other equip-ment, and switcher outputs go into inputterminals on other equipment.

The rear panel gets pretty tight, andthe F -connectors are arrayed so closely thatplug-in baluns cannot be used on adjacentconnectors. (Unless a balun is orientedappropriately, you may have a hard timefitting even a straight F -connector on thenext jack!) If you use 300 -ohm twin -lead inyour system now, plan on using in -linebaluns to convert to 75 -ohm coax some-where prior to the 5000S. You'll probablyalso need to buy a number of phono-jack-

STEREO AUDIO -VIDEO

NORMALSWITCHING

KA,

.4*

PROCESSING

0-4 MODE

SLAVE

SYSTEMS SwITCHER- MODEL %GOBS

VHF BAND-RF

RECEIVER A

POW.

0RECEIVER B

Showtime's Mode! 5000S routes RF as well as direct video and stereo audio signals.

to -F -connector adapters since the direct -video outputs on most VCRs and disc play-ers accept phono plugs.

The 5000S handles stereo direct -audiopatching from four inputs (A, B, C, and D) tofour outputs (i, 2, 3, and 4). If your videoequipment is mono, only the left -channelset of input and output jacks is used. Cor-responding to the four sets of stereo connec-tions are four direct -video inputs and fourdirect -video outputs labeled in the samealphanumeric manner. RF connections-four-in, two-out-complete the array.

The Showtime 5000S is really twoswitchers in one, capable of handling bothRF and direct audio -video sources. Directsignals are controlled by a pair of four -position rotary knobs and a toggle. In thetoggle's normal -switching position, the ro-tary controls connect the output from anyone of four direct audio -video sources to theinput of any one of four receivers (monitorsor VCRs). If you are willing to give up onesource and one receiver, you have the add-ed option of inserting whatever video pro-cessing equipment you like (enhancer,noise reducer, etc.) between them. You canalso daisy -chain more than one piece of vid-eo processing gear in this loop if you wish.Enter the processing loop by switching thetoggle to PROCESSING D-4 MODE; the videosignal then passes through the processorchain before it gets to the receiver.

Apparently, Showtime envisions theswitcher being used for dubbing. Theswitch that selects the source is markedMASTER, and the one that selects the receiv-

inputs and outputs on the back pane! of theSystems Switcher are logically grouped:direct video and RF on the left, and stereoaudio on the right.

er is marked SLAVE. If you intend to use itthat way, remember that you can copy ontoonly one slave at a time. We prefer to usethe words source and receiver, since themaster might be a source you don't want tocopy-perhaps the NTSC-composite out-put of a home computer-and the slavemight be a video monitor. The 5000S cancertainly handle that situation with ease, asit can routing signals in a component -TVsystem that employs a separate monitor.

The RF portion of the 5000S enablestwo receivers-A and B-to choose amongfour RF sources through independent rotarycontrols. If one of the receivers is your TVset, then one of the RF sources would beyour antenna, cable, or whatever. (Butremember, the system is not designed tohandle UHF signals!) The remaining RFinputs (2, 3, and 4) will then accept the out-puts from your other video sources.

RECEIVER B can be assigned to a VCR,and by switching B to ANTENNA, you couldrecord broadcasts. In such an arrangement,a second VCR would not have access to theantenna; moreover, if receiver B were a sec-ond TV set linked to an antenna input, nei-ther VCR would be able to record off theair. The solution to this is to use a three-wayRF distribution amplifier or splitter to feedthe two VCRs and one of the switcher's RFinputs with the antenna signal. Each VCRcould then record off the air, and receiver Bcould then be a remote TV set. Such a hook-up would have one other advantage. UHFbroadcasts could be "received" by one ofthe VCRs, which would then convert thesignal to VHF Channel 3 or 4 for distribu-tion through the switcher to the TV set. Thiswould circumvent-albeit clumsily-theUHF limitations of the device.

Signal switching can be quite com-plex, but Showtime's 5000S and ChannelMaster's 0770 go a long way toward sim-plifying the process. The product that isbest for you depends on how you plan to useyour system's capabilities. HF

For Channel Master Model 0770 circle 89on Reader -Service Card; for ShowtimeModel 5000S circle 90.

42 HIGH FIDELITY

VIDEO

TubeFoodNew video programming: cassette, disc, pay and basic cable by Susan Elliott

Video Cassettes

FEATURE FILMSCBS/Fox Video: New York, New York; TheSpy Who Loved Me; The End; Gator:Revenge of the Pink Panther.Embassy Home Entertainment: Breaker!Breaker!: The Exterminator: The Soldier;Zapped; Summer Lovers; Humongous;Nightkill.MCA Videocassette: Homework; FastTimes at Ridgemont High; Duel; Reel Deal;Hold That Ghost.Media Home Entertainment: Johnny GotHis Gun; Raw Force; Demonoid; House ofShadows.RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video:The Boat (Das Boot); Things Are Tough AllOver: To Sir with Love; The Professionals:The Big Heat; Lost and Found; We AllLoved Each Other So Much.Thorn EMI Home Video: The Dam Bust-ers; Wolfman: The Demon; Endless Night:Waitress; Deep Red: Hatchet Murders.Warner Home Video: The World Accord-ing to Garp; Night Shift; Hey, Good Look -in'; Victory at Sea; The Twisted Cross;Blazing Saddles; A Clockwork Orange;Enter the Dragon; The Road Warrior. ANight at the Movies: 1959-The Young

Philadelphians: 1960-Ocean's 11:1961-Fanny; 1962-Days of Wine andRoses; 1963-PT 109.

MUSICMGM/UA Home Video: Who's Afraid ofOpera. A three -cassette series with JoanSutherland, puppets, and the London Sym-phony Orchestra (Richard Bonynge, cond.)in Faust; La Traviata; Daughter of the Reg-iment; The Barber of Seville; Lucia diLammermoor.Thorn EMI Home Video: Genesis, ThreeSides Live.

Video Discs

FEATURE FILMSCBS/Fox Video (CED): The Alamo; Bird-man of Alcatraz; A Bridge Too Far; Chitty,Chitty, Bang, Bang; Dr. Dolittle; F.I.S.T.;The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.Embassy Home Entertainment (CED):The Exterminator; The Soldier: Zapped.Embassy Home Entertainment (laser):Zapped; Summer Lovers.Pacific Arts Video Records (laser): MyDinner with Andre; The Endless Summer;Hungry I Reunion; To See Such Fun.

HOBBIES/HOW TOPioneer Video: The Creative Camera(SLR instruction; interactive).

Pay Service Premieres

(Check local listings for availability andschedules.)Cinemax: Barbarosa; Ticket to Heaven;The Bible; Moscow Does Not Believe inTears; Forbidden Games; Guys and Dolls;The Tender Trap; Never So Few.Home Box Office: Chariots of Fire; Questfor Fire; Shoot the Moon; I Ought to Be inPictures.Showtime: Chariots of Fire; Shoot theMoon; I Ought to Be in Pictures; Quest forFire; Cat People; A Little Sex; K -God; TheAmateur; Butterfly: Superfuzz; BobbyDeerfield: Over the Edge; Girl in White;Scapegoat; Because You're Mine; Small-town Girl; Dead End; Enchantment; TheGoldwyn Follies; Heidi; The LearningTree; Mark Twain Theater: The FinalChapter; Santana and Heart: Concert forAmericas; Divorce: Kids in the Middle.The Movie Channel: Chariots of Fire;Quest for Fire; I Ought to Be in Pictures;Cat People; Shoot the Moon; Ticket toHeaven, The Beast Within.

0.&A.Your video questions answered by Edward I. Foster

QCan I use my bulk -tape eraser- the Radio Shack Model 44-210-to

erase video cassettes? Is there any possi-bility of it harming them?-Rev. AndrewComeaux, Baton Rouge, La.

A Your audio bulk -tape eraser certainly will not harm your video cassettes,

but since I have not tested this particularmodel, I can't be sure it will erase them,either. Radio Shack specifically states thatthe 44-210 is not designed for use with met-al -alloy audio cassettes, which suggeststhat the magnetic field it generates is of nomore than average strength. Although cur-rent video tapes do not have the coercivityof a metal formulation (their magnetic prop-erties are in the range of a chrome or ferri-cobalt audio tape), they are nonethelessquite difficult to erase. Also, half -inch vid-eo tape is over three times as wide as the0.15 -inch tape used in audio cassettes, soportions of it will be far from the bulk -

eraser's coils and thus subject to a weakermagnetic field.

If you want to experiment with yourbulk eraser, turn it on and bring it up to oneside of the cassette. Move it slowly over theentire tape pack. Then withdraw it slowly,turn the cassette over, and treat the otherside. Bulk erasing the tape will not improvethe audio or video signal-to-noise ratio toany meaningful extent, however. So unlessyou have some overriding reason for eras-ing the entire tape pack at once, the VCR'serase head will do a perfectly adequate jobof removing previously recorded materialprior to rerecording.

QI've been checking into LaserDisc and CED video disc players, and

I'm somewhat confused about which tobuy. I've been told that CED discs aremore widely available and have beenmore successful in the marketplace. Will

movies continue to be available on Laser-Disc?-Richard Austin, New York, N.Y.

AI'm confident that the LaserDisc and CED formats will continue to coexist

for many years and that plenty of movieswill be available in each format. It's truethat some early LaserDiscs would not trackcorrectly, but the discs we have receivedrecently have been flawless. The digitalaudio disc, which uses a similar laser -basedpickup technology, should also generaterenewed interest in the optical format.Finally, the greater popularity of the RCACED format was largely due to the lowerprice of both player and discs, but CED'scost advantage is rapidly diminishing. Insome markets, comparable LaserDisc andCED players are priced only a few dollarsapart. (If you haven't read it already, take alook at HF's November 1982 "Hands -OnReport," which compares LaserDisc andCED players.)

MARCH 1983 43

Zoltan KockIly: TheOther HungarianCentenaryIn evaluating the art of Kodaly,one always comes back to Bartok,his lifelong friend and confrere.Reviewed by Paul Henry Lang

IT WAS NINETEENTH-CENTURY musicogra-phy that dreamed up the pairing of greatcomposers: Palestrina/Lasso, Bach/Han-del, and Haydn/Mozart-to which our cen-tury added Bruckner/Mahler, Debussy/Ravel, and Bartek/Kodaly. In truth, greatcreative personalities cannot be lumpedtogether on the same plane; they are alwayssui generis. Nevertheless, Bart& and Ko-daly, though vastly different in personalityand talent, are inextricably bound together,especially in their homeland, by a great dis-covery they made together, which changedtheir life and art as well as the musical cul-ture of Hungary. They heard a voice that,

millennia after it originated: the authentic,pristine voice of the folk music of the Mag-yars, reaching back to the people's originsin the Ural Mountains.

Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) intendedto follow the profession of scholar, earninghis doctorate in linguistics and literature(1906) with a dissertation on the strophicconstruction of Hungarian folk poetry. Buthe was also a musician and felt in this poet-ry an inner, hidden musical quality that,like the Hungarian language itself, has nocounterpart in Indo-European cultures. Im-pelled to investigate, he roamed the villagestucked away in the nearly inaccessiblefringes of pre -Versailles Hungary and, soonjoined by his friend Bela Bartok, undertookto record the songs of peasants as yetuntouched by urban influences. Graduallythe contours of a hitherto unknown musicalculture began to emerge. Redoubling theirefforts, the two scholar -musicians collectedand classified this music over many years,their specimens eventually numbering inthe thousands. Although at this stage theiractivity remained essentially ethnomusico-logical research, they realized that the newmusical culture they dreamed about mustrise from this pure layer of folk art-buthow?

The next step was the recognition that,in order to join the mainstream, this "new"art must be brought into the context of theadvanced art of the West, invested with theaccoutrements of the modern art of compo-

sition. "Genuine folksong is to the compos-er what nature is to the landscape painter,"said Bartok. It is a world that has no wallsof time. The danger is that when it is onlyquoted, or composed a la maniere de . .

it can become a mere exoticum. Haydn,Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, and many othersused ethnic materials just that way,unaware that their sources were not authen-tic ethnic artifacts, but urban -descendedand German- and gypsy -influenced popularmusic. The real Magyar folk art was like asubterranean river that here and there brokethrough to the surface. The creators of thenew Hungarian art music immersed them-selves in this river just before it disappearedforever, as the flotsam and jetsam ornrbanlife-especially the radio-debased theancient peasant culture into a shallow andeffete "entertainment" medium.

Slowly there emerged in the music ofthe two young composers an unmistakablypersonal quality that was nourished by thespirit and idiom of folk music, alreadybeginning to be evident in Kodaly's earlyorchestral piece Summer Evening (1906).Not program music, but a sort of medita-tion, it has a little Wagner and Debussypeeping out of it, as well as some of the oldturns and figures of pastoral music, Englishhorn solos, and so forth. Though it's gen-erally innocuous-a nice, warm, fin de sie-cle piece-some of the new tone is herealready, even if it doesn't yet go beyondcut -flower Hungarianism. Henceforth whatis "popular" in Kodaly's music is nolonger something exotic, nor is it a show ofpatriotism; it is the natural manifestation ofan original creative mind.

Audiences, both professional and lay,were at first perplexed, and a heated debatewas sparked when the two pioneers gavetheir first concerts of their own works in1910; nevertheless Kodaly began to beknown and performed both in Hungary andabroad. Universal Edition, the Viennesemusic -publishing firm, always looking tocorner the market, judged him a good risk(as it did Mahler, Bartok, and other futuremasters) and took him on. The decidingmoment came in 1923, when Psalmus hun-

Conductor Kodaly in rehearsal, 1946

garicus was performed at festivities com-memorating the fiftieth anniversary of theunion of the two cities, Buda and Pest,straddling the Danube. The work met withpublic acclamation, soon conquered Eu-rope, and was well received even in NewYork, where Toscanini, not known for hissympathy for contemporary music, per-formed it. With the composition of thepeasant song -play Hdry Janos in 1927,Kodaly became the nation's recognizedmusical poet.

In the meantime he continued hisscholarly activity and published importantwritings-notably, an essay on the penta-tonic elements in Hungarian folk music-and, as professor of composition at theRoyal Academy of Music, guided theyoung generation with methods so originalthat his students hung on his words. Therewere none of the old standbys-figured-bass exercises, chorale harmonizations,species counterpoint, and all the otheringredients of nineteenth-century Germanpedagogy still practiced virtually every-where. Instead, Kodaly would distributeEulenburg scores of middle -period Haydnquartets with the viola part pasted over withfresh note paper: "Write a new viola part,"he would order, and after the studentspeeled off the parts they had written, thepostmortem would provide a revelation.The students could never tell what trick hewould play next, but they were sure that itwould be interesting and inspiring. Hisideas for teaching music to children, nowknown as the "Kodaly method" are alto-gether free of the pseudoscholarly baggageof his "competitor" Carl Orff, whose ideasalways breathed Germanic metaphysicalvapors; purely musical and direct, Kodaly's

dd FIDELITYHIGH

pedagogical system gives the student free-dom.

But ultimately we must return to thepairing of composers mentioned above, forBartok and Kochily cannot escape theirlongstanding association or their similarbeginnings, and Kodaly's role and staturebecome clear only in relation to the work ofhis lifelong friend and confrere.

Psalmus hungaricus is a remarkableand original composition. The redolent oldpoetic language of sixteenth -century Hun-garian psalmist Mihaly Kecskemeti Veg,his pregnant expression and accents, andhis shift from plangent lyricism to challeng-ing rhetoric (he wrote during the tryingtimes of the Turkish occupation) are beau-tifully captured and conveyed by Kodaly'smusic; sorrow and piety, but also deter-mined refusal to acquiesce to fate, emanatefrom the tenor soloist's flowing parlando-arioso, while the chorus here stammers andwails, there erupts with indignation andprotest. The melodic design rests on theinner music of the language; words andmusic are always in equilibrium, neithertrespassing on the other, as the energy ofthe language is faithfully shared by themusic. Such a work should never be sung intranslation. The orchestration is well han-dled, though the composer never descendsto tricks.

The Missa brevis (1944) is anothergreat work. There is no hesitation here, thelanguage is plain, lean, and clear, every-thing superficial is honed away, and everysection of the Mass is solidly composed.The Kyrie, a fine piece, quietly pleads formercy. The Gloria has the traditional jubi-lation-but in the new Hungarian idiom.Significantly, whenever Kodaly falls backon the old liturgical practice of letting thepriest -precentor intone the opening wordsbefore the chorus takes over, he uses not thetime-honored Gregorian chant, but folk -song -descended Hungarian parlando-andit fits beautifully! The Sanctus is arresting,the Benedictus a moving choral song. TheAgnus Dei starts, quite originally, in thedeepest depths of the orchestra; light filtersin when the solo tenor enters, and the wholetexture brightens wonderfully when thechorus joins the ensemble. There are prac-tically no reminders of the old-fashioned"sacred" style, and no attempts at thosestile antico turns and phrases once consid-ered de rigueur. It must be admitted, how-ever, that the Introit and the "he missa est"do not measure up to the rest of the work.They are not, of course, parts of the Ordi-nary of the Mass and are not normallyincluded in its setting anyway, and perhapsthey should be omitted in performances ofthis work to guard its remarkable unity.

The Te Deum (1936), considered achef d'oeuvre in Hungary, is less success-ful, though it seems to strive for the sametone as the Psalmus hungaricus. Here weencounter the first significant differencefrom BartOk's music: There is a certain his-

- -1

Kod4ly with his Edison recorder, 1955

torical quality in this work, as in some ofthe later ones; Kodaly, amazed and movedby the past, tries to recapture it in a newguise. But while, as a scholar, Bartok wasinterested in the past and took his point ofdeparture from the same folk elements thatinspired Kodaly, as a creative artist, healways looked toward the future. The TeDeum is a little too rhapsodic, with ratherconventional harmonies, somewhat con-trived melismatic melody, surprisinglyLisztian instrumental recitatives, and anaccompaniment replete with figurationsthat do not seem germane to the whole. Thetessitura of the upper choral parts is consis-tently high, though they probably do notsound so shrill in performance as in thisrecording.

The last piece here is Kodaly's Con-certo for Orchestra (1940), which-to-gether with his symphony-is rather puz-zling. Aside from the opening part, with itsattractive syncopated theme that reappearsritornel-fashion, it is difficult to see whythis work should be called a concerto; itseems rather a sort of orchestral fantasy.

KODALY: Choral and OrchestralWorks.

Maria Gyurkovics*, Edit Gams*, TimeaCser*, and ken Szecsodyt, sopranos; MagdaTiszay, alto*t; Endre ROsler*$ and Tibor Udvar-dyt, tenors; Gyorgy Littasy* and Andras Fara-got , basses; Budapest Chorus*tt, HungarianState Orchestra*tt, Budapest Philharmonic Or-chestra**, Zoltan Kodaly, cond. [Laszlifo Beck,prod.] HUNGAROTON SLPX 12410/2, $29.94(electronic stereo; three discs, manual sequence)[from various Hungaroton originals, 1956-60].

Missa brevis*; Budavari Te Deumt; Psal-mus hungaricust; Concerto for Orchestra**;Summer Evening**.

Frankly, by 1940, this was vieux jeu, to thepoint of the almost obligatory fugato, whichusually occurs when a composer gets him-self into a cul-de-sac and must make a newstart, as we see in Liszt's Faust Symphonyand other late -Romantic works. Neither theharmony nor the orchestral technique goesbeyond standards prevailing toward the endof the previous century, and there is someundeniable noodling. Comparison withBartok's Concerto for Orchestra, thatwarm, witty, brilliant, and virtuosic workcomposed five years later, is inevitable.

How shall we finally evaluate Kodaly's arton the occasion of the centennial of hisbirth? He had talent, intellect, and integrity,and enough human warmth to match them,as well as a musical mind that could envi-sion, pursue, and grasp a goal to which oth-ers, except BartOk, were blind. He cultivat-ed this new, imagination -born world ofnational music with skill, yet what is newand original in his compositions is not setforth with BartOk's boldness and violentforce. After the great works following thefirst stunning breakthrough, he settleddown to a steady but unadventurous exis-tence. His music, though simple, alwaysattractive, and disciplined, often has a con-servative, even didactic tinge. It lacks Bar-Vc's darkly glowing dramatic visions; forwhenever it threatens to escape beyond thehorizon, Kodaly bends it back to earth.Even in his late works, he is addicted tosequences and repetitions that simplymount the ladder of keys, and his polypho-ny is generally of the kind exemplified bythe end of the Meistersinger Overture-notso long ago considered the acme of latter-day polyphony, but really just a very pleas-ant game with tame and well-behaved coun-terpoint. However, there is also in Kodaly'smusic a noble masculinity, and as one con-templates his oeuvre, one finds no looseends within his purview. He was a distin-guished composer who knew his limits andstayed within them with admirable consis-tency. Most engaging in his songs and othervocal works are the sunniness of villagefeasts, the amusing wit of the tales aboutNary Janos, that Hungarian -peasant BaronMiinchltausen, and above all, the laughterof children.

These recordings disclose good, com-petent conducting, an activity Kodaly tookup relatively late in life. Unfortunately, it isnot matched by the engineering. The instru-mental pieces come across nicely, with theorchestra precise and colorful, but the cho-ral sound, that bete noire of recording, isnot the best. The good chorus sings enthu-siastically, and since Kodaly is essentially avocal composer, it should have soundedbrilliant, yet trebles and altos are piercinglyshrill in the animated outbursts. TenorEndre Rosier, who carries the brunt of thesolo work, does very well, as do the othersolo singers in brief roles that emerge fromor alternate with the chorus. 11F

MARCH 1983 45

Expanding theEarly -Music FrontiersElectrola's Reflexe series remains a fertile sourcefor important, innovative, and sometimescontroversial performances.Reviewed by Nicholas Kenyon

THE REFLEXE SERIES on EMI Electrola hasproduced the most important corpus ofmedieval -music recordings in existence-those made by Thomas Binkley's Studioder Frithen Musik at the height of its activ-ity. The range and substance of these discsremain unique; neither Noah Greenberg inthis country nor David Munrow in Englandapproached the originality and consistencyof Binkley's work. Though each producedoutstanding individual albums (Green -berg's classic Play of Daniel, MCA 2504;Munrow's magisterial "Music of the Goth-ic Era," Archiv 2710 019), only Binkley-with the advantages of a small ensemblethat rehearsed regularly and players com-pletely committed to its activities-sus-tained the feat over several years.

Sampling again the Reflexe discs thathave been imported by German News, Ifind the idiosyncrasy and much -criticizedimprovisatory style of the Binkley groupless significant than its absolute convictionand peerless virtuosity. The Machaut chan-sons (IC 063-30106, -30109) stand up wellto anything recorded since, while the bril-liant originality of the Moorish -style ap-proach to lberiart music on the Camino deSantiago disc (IC 063-30107) is far moreexciting than the more flamboyant versionsby the Clemencic Consort and others. Mosthypothetical, but most intriguing, is theStudio's disc of Italian instrumental musicfrom the Tuscan manuscript in the BritishLibrary (Add. 29987), called "Estampie"(IC 063-30122). Here Binkley leads hiscolleagues in partly controlled improvisa-tion with the student players of the ScholaCanton= Basiliensis (who include somenow familiar names, Paul O'Dette, Hop-kinson Smith, and Alice Robbins). Theresults have a thrilling unanimity and per-suasiveness, however much of what goeson both rhythmically and harmonicallymust necessarily be invention.

Some fine Studio performances havealso been reissued recently on Telefunken(26.35519) a two -disc set distributed byPolygram Special Imports that bringstogether troubadour and trouvtre songs,two collections still available separatelyfrom domestic sources (6.41126, 6.42175).Countertenor Richard Levitt's declamationof Vidal's "Baron de mon dan covit" is

Hilliard Ensemble (from left): Paul Hillier, Paul Elliott, Leigh Nixon, David James

very gripping, as is Andrea von Ramm'slong discursion around Comtessa de Dia's"A chanter m' er" (with interludes suppliedfrom other sources). The trouvere songs,less characterful, tend to be atmosphericrather than directly expressive of the texts:"Chanterai por mon courage" conjures upa wonderful wash of somber, meditativesound, and in the anonymous "Lasse, pourquoi refusai," a wailing noise gives way toa low, lamenting vocal line from VonRamm that only gradually becomes moreanimated. There is plenty of experimenta-tion with instrumental improvisation, spo-ken texts, and so on; the results, though notfixed or final, are invariably stimulating.

Medieval music presents a particular chal-lenge to the performer because of this lackof certainty. As Thurston Dart once put it,acidly, every singer or player has to "knithis own middle ages"-and the shortage ofevidence all too easily becomes an excusefor doing whatever happens to cross a per-former's fertile twentieth-century mind.The achievement of Binkley and his circle(though the Studio has ceased operation,Binkley himself is still active, havingstaged a superb account of the Carminaburana Passion play in Indiana and NewYork last season) has been to develop a rhe-torical style for this music that owes noth-ing to later notions of expressiveness.

Among the younger performers influ-enced by the Studio are the four-three of

them Americans-who make up Sequen-tia. They gave an electrifying performanceat a recent Holland Festival, where I

chanced on their concert by accident in amedieval music -circus that included severalrecitals in small rooms of an atmosphericcastle near Amsterdam, and made a consid-erable impact here, in Boston during the1981 meeting of the American Musicologi-cal Society and in New York in the series"Music Before 1800." Their first record issuperbly successful.

"Spielmann and Kleriker" exploresthe interaction of sacred and secular stylesof music around the year 1200, with espe-cial attention to the lai and to the dramaticsequence. The marvelously evocativeFrench lais are sung uncut, and the storiesof Hercules and Samson in the twosequences are presented with a cool, hard -edged drama. The simplicity of the actualmusical material (small melodic cells,repeated and varied) is belied by its emo-tional force. Both singers, soprano BarbaraThornton and baritone Benjamin Bagby,take total command of the material andproject it vividly; the playing of MargrietTindemans on fiddle and Crawford Youngon lute and gittern is deftly supportive(though they get carried away in the finalpostludes, which aren't totally convincing:Wouldn't the performances have endedwith the voice?). In Samson dux fortissime,the intricate rhyming scheme of the versesis used to great effect, with jangling alliter-

46 HIGH FIDELITY

ations serving to emphasize Delilah's exul-tant rejoicing and Samson's plangent lam-entation.

This disc was coproduced with WDR,the West German radio station in Cologne,which has one of the most active of all ear-ly -music broadcast departments, directedby Klaus Neumann. (In financial resourcesand time devoted to this repertory, it out-strips even the BBC, and needless to say,leaves anything in this country milesbehind.) Significantly, two of the newestbatch of Reflexe releases are also WDRcoproductions-the Hilliard Ensemble'sPower disc and the Ricercare Ensemble'sSchein disc.

The Hilliard record is an especiallynotable achievement, because our under-standing of Leonel Power's life and workhas only recently been advanced by RogerBowers. It was he who established connec-tions between Power and the Duke of Clar-ence, and hence the likelihood that the OldHall Manuscript-the most importantsource of English polyphony from the late -fourteenth and early -fifteenth centuries-came from the duke's household, for Poweris the composer who figures most promi-nently in the manuscript. The range anddevelopment of his style are well repre-sented on this disc, which includes earlyisolated Mass movements and an Ave regi-na in simple descant style, and the greatAlma Redemptoris mater Mass, one of thefirst in which all the movements are linkedby the use of a cantus firmus.

The Hilliard Ensemble, here usingseven male voices, brings a sober yet occa-sionally too sweet timbre to the music; thesound is mellifluous, but perhaps a touchmore incisiveness would have allowed theextraordinary harmonic language to pene-trate more effectively. Tuning and ensem-ble are impeccable, however, and theblending of voices (apart from some slightoverprominence of the countertenors) isalways musical. In most movements thevoices are doubled, two to a part, but Ienjoy the final two motets, Ibo michi andQuam pulchra es, sung one to a part.

The Ricercare recording explores a lat-er period, the early German baroque.Johann Hermann Schein occasionallyshows up in brass programs, but a completedisc of his music is rare and welcome: Hiswork combines typical German sturdinesswith Italian warmth and elaboration. Here,however, it comes across as rather pallid,because the instrumental playing, thoughperfectly competent, seems lacking inrhythmic vigor and precision. PerhapsMichel Piguet, the oboist who leads thegroup, is aiming at a gently expressive stylein this repertory; if so, he has not quite suc-ceeded in matching the claims of precisionwith those of eloquence. In addition, HilkeHelling is a disappointing soloist in thevocal numbers. Though the music is uni-formly splendid, this record is for special-ists only.

Colin Tilney's two albums in thisReflexe group, however, may be recom-mended to anyone who cares for sensitive,stylish keyboard playing. The harpsichorddisc explores an important and neglectedfield, better-known to organists than toharpsichordists-Bach's predecessors, dis-cussed in detail last century by Spitta butrarely played. Georg Bohm's three pieceshave a strange, jerky, imaginative qualitythat must surely have captured the youngBach's ears; the combination of French cha-conne, sober fugue, and sudden, inspira-tional postlude (in the G minor work) ismirrored in the mixture of national styles insome of Bach's greatest organ works, andperhaps his G minor Fantasia owes a directdebt to this Bohm fantasy. Johann Kuh-nau's Biblical Sonatas are better-knownand have been recorded before, but Tilney(whose style is sometimes rather intro-verted) plays Hiskias agonizzante, with its

Georg Bohm'sstrange, jerky,imaginative piecesmust have capturedBach's ears.

quotation and transformation of the famousPassion chorale Herzlich tut mich verlang-en, with real pathos.

Oddly, the one unsuccessful perfor-mance here is of the Bach piece: his great,neglected (perhaps because not part of anycollection) Fantasy and Fugue in A minor,S. 904. The sustained lines of the fantasianeed an organ, and Tilney adopts a verydeliberate pace, so that the suspensions fadeaway; the fugue, with its magnificent com-bination of a second chromatic subjectannounced in the middle, is also playedslowly and stodgily. (Alfred Brendelrecorded this work rather awkwardly on thepiano, for Philips; I don't know of a reallygood performance.)

Would that Tilney had tried that pieceon the little chamber organ he uses for his"Early English Organ Music" disc, foreverything he plays on it here he transmutesto gold. This is a most remarkable record-ing of repertory that is particularly suited tohis qualities of quiet sensitivity and emo-tional reserve. Playing Gibbons, Tallis, andBull on a genuine seventeenth -centuryorgan in Knole, Kent, Tilney sounds as ifhe is meditating spontaneously on the plain-chants and hymn melodies that provide thecanti fermi for the collection. The melodieswend their way slowly and distinctly; therunning scales and chiming thirds that elab-orate them are precisely articulated andgently phrased. The organ has a delicioussound-mellow in the bass and tenor, sud-denly bright at the top of the treble range.

Several of the pieces come from the Mul-liner Book; Tilney adds or omits ornamen-tation from the Musica Britannica edition atwill-or perhaps he is following differentsources. There are delightful natural noises,the release of keys, and even something thatsounds like a twittering bird after ThomasTallis' Isle confessor. The most magnifi-cent, restrained, and noble piece is the con-cluding In nomine No. 9 by John Bull; but Ilike the six different settings Gloria tibiTrinitas by William Blitheman and theGround by Thomas Tomkins almost asmuch. This record proves what the combi-nation of an ideally suited instrument and asensitive performer can achieve in bringingneglected repertory to life: an outstandingsuccess. HF

SPIELMANN UND KLERIKER.Sequentia. [Thomas Gallia, Klaus L. Neu-

mann, and Paul Dery, prod.] HARMON1A MUNDIGERMANY IC 067-99921, $10.98 (digital record-ing) (distributed by German News Co., 220 E.86th St., New York, N.Y. 10028).

ANON.: Olim sudor Herculis. Lai du Kiev -refuel. Lai Markiol. Lai des amain. Samson duxfortissime.POWER: Masses and Motets.

Hilliard Ensemble, Paul Hillier, dir. [GerdBerg and Klaus L. Neumann, prod.] EMI ELEC-TRoLA REFLEXE IC 069-46402, $11.98 (distrib-uted by German News Co.).

Missa Alma Redemptoris mater; Gloria;Credo; Sanctus; Agnus Dei. Ave regina; Salveregina; Beata viscera; Ibo michi ad montem;Quam pulchra es.SCHEIN: Instrumental and VocalWorks.

Hilke Helling, mezzo-soprano; AnthonyBailes, lutet; Pere Ros, viola da gambat; BaselRicercare Ensemble for Old Music, MichelPiguet, dir. [Gerd Berg and Klaus L. Neumann,prod.] EMI ELEcntoLA REFLEXE IC 069-46405,$11.98.

Banchetto musicale: Suites: No. 6, in Aminor; No. 15, in G. Musica boscareccia: Songs(3).*1 Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam.tLobet den Herrn in seinem Heiligtum. Intrada a 5(2). Canzon a 5. Canzon a 6. Galliarda a 5. Pa-douana a 4.COLIN TILNEY: German HarpsichordMusic.

Colin Tilney, harpsichord. [Lucy Robinsonand Colin Tilney, prod.] EMI ELEcntoLAREFLEXE I C 069-46406, $11.98.

BACH: Fantasy and Fugue in A minor, S.904. BOHM: Prelude, Fugue, and Postlude, in Gminor; Suite No. 6, in E flat; Capriccio in D.KUHNAU: Biblische Historien: Sonata No. 4, inC minor (Hiskias agonizzante). PACHELBEL:Hexachordum Apollinis: Aria No. 5, in Aminor.COLIN TILNEY: Early English OrganMusic.

Colin Tilney, organ of the Chapel of Knole,Kent, England. [Colin Tilney and Martin Ren-shaw, prod.] EMI ELF_CIROLA REFLEXE IC 069-46403, $11.98.

ALWOOD: Voluntary. BLITHEMAN:Gloria tibi Trinitas (6). BULL: In nomine, No. 6;In nomine, No. 9. GIBBONS: Fantasia of FoureParts; Fancy in G. TALLIS: Isle confessor.TOMKINS: Ground. ANON.: Upon La-Mi-Re.

MARCH 1983 47

CLASSICAL

Reviews

Murray Perahia tackles Beethoven-characteristically, in unjustly neglected sonatas

BACH: Aria and Variations in the Ital-ian Style, S. 989-See page 62.

BEETHOVEN: Sonatas for Pia I: \o.4, in E flat, Op. 7; No. 11. in It flat, Op.22.

Murray Perahia, piano. [Andrew Kazdin,prod.) CBS MASTERWORKS M 36695. Tape: MT36695 (cassette). [Price at dealer's option.]BEETHOVEN: Sonatas for Piano: No.7, in D, Op. 10, No. 3; No. 23, in Fminor, Op. 57 (Appassionata).

Russell Sherman, piano. [Thomas Frost,prod.] PRO Alum PAD 108, $9.98 (digital record-ing). Tape: PAC 108, $9.98 (cassette).

Murray Perahia is renowned for his Schu-mann and Chopin, but also for his Mozart.Now he ventures his first recorded Beetho-ven-characteristically, for this cultivatedmusician, in two of the master's mostunjustly neglected sonatas. Op. 7-secondin length only to the Hammerklavier, Op.106-is perhaps the most profound andsuccessful of Beethoven's early works; Op.22 combines aspects of the "traditional"Beethoven with a Rossini -like Italianatefancy: The scurrying first movement sug-gests La Cenerentola or La Scala di seta-or at the very least, Mozart's Nozze di Fi-garo Overture.

One thinks back to other great pianistsnot born to the Beethoven manner: Rubin-stein began by playing him a la Chopin andlater "reformed," treating him more likeBrahms (which was Backhaus' lifelongapproach). Gieseking cultivated a taut clas-sical symmetry and gave even the lateSonatas, Opp. 109 and 110, an almostMozartean fizz and sparkle. (The flippantlyexecuted turn in the theme of Op. 109'sthird movement is typical-and objection -

5St

able.) The celebrated Spanish virtuosoEduardo del Pueyo played the Hammer-klavier for brilliance and clarity, with fla-menco theatricalities (Arrau likewise, albe-it less extremely), and Richter treats Bee-thoven much the way he treats Bach-superpianistically, in the manner of Czer-ny's School of Velocity.

Not too surprisingly, it is the classicalaspect of Perahia's artistry that surfaceshere: The brightness of tone and acuity ofrhythm are somewhat Mozartean, butunlike Gieseking, Perahia takes care to givebite to his sforzandos and weight to his cli-maxes. He is no shrinking violet; in fact, hebecomes even a trifle aggressive in thesebright -toned, slightly glaring reproduc-tions. On the whole, he gives Op. 22 a littlemore nuance and freedom than Op. 7,which is almost constricted. If I have anyquibble about these readings, it is that bothare just a bit too poker-faced. The pianismis superbly managed, yet I would like just atrace more spring in the step, an infusion ofhumor and geniality to temper the stringen-cy of part-writing and (relevant) detail.Still, this is an auspicious beginning, andthat elusive relaxation will surely come asPerahia eases into his new role as a Beetho-venian. The CBS processing and pressingare excellent.

Russell Sherman, who partakes of aLisztian school of thought (much like hisEuropean counterpart, Alfred Brendel),turns in his most successful recording todate. He, too, favors-for all the rhetoricaltheatricalities-a lean, cutting, classicalsonority rather than billowing expanse. IfOp. 10, No. 3, sounds a trace febrile andsuperficial at times (certainly in comparisonto Arrau's great interpretation of the Largoe mesto, Sherman skims a bit), the Appas-

Reviewed by:John CanarinaScott CantrellKenneth CooperR. D. DarrellPeter G. DavisKenneth FurieHarris GoldsmithMatthew GurewitschDavid HamiltonDale S. HarrisR. Derrick HenryJoseph Horowitz

Nicholas KenyonAllan KozinnPaul Henry LangIrving LowensKaren MonsonRobert P. MorganJames R. OestreichConrad L. OsborneAndrew PorterPatrick J. SmithPaul A. SnookSusan T. Sommer

sionata is thoroughly engaging in this slash-ing, forward -moving, and structurally clar-ified account, which never loses the dra-matic thread. (Note how he stresses keydetails in the chordal first -movement devel-opment section, highlighting the essentialnotes within the overall mass.) The sound islarger and more ambient than on Perahia'srecord, yet detail is never blurred or lost.

Compliments to both companies forthe quality of their annotations. Pro Arte, infact, gives double comment-by Shermanhimself and by the eminent Konrad Wolff;and since both are well-read scholars, theyalso bring in viewpoints of such originalthinkers as Rudolf Kolisch, Charles Rosen,and Donald Francis Tovey. H.G.

BEETHOVEN: Sonata for Piano, No.32, Op. 111-See page 62.

BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme ofPaganini, Op. 35-See page 62.

CHOPIN: Piano Works-See page 62.

COURBOIS: Dom Quichotte. JAC-QUET DE LA GUERRE: Samson; LeSommeil d'Ulisse.

John Ostendorf, bass -baritone; Bronx ArtsEnsemble Chamber Orchestra, Johannes Soma-ry, cond. [Mamie Hall, prod.] LEONARDA LPI109, $8.98.

The criterion of excellence in a miniature isnot size, but compression. The three Frenchcantatas recorded here present the figures ofDon Quixote, Samson, and Ulysses briefly(each lasts about a quarter of an hour) andeconomically (the band, including contin-uo, ranges from four to eight pieces, with asingle singer carrying the entire narrativeburden), but by the same token, they do nottell much. In means and in scope-thoughnot, perhaps, in intention-they are not somuch concentrated as small. Also highlyconventional. The prerevolutionary, corn -

48 HIGH FIDELITY

placent (not to say oblivious) spirit of theearly eighteenth century fans every phrasewith its airy formality, nowhere more sothan in the mandatory little codas that wrapup each cantata with a tidy aphorism.

Yet within narrow limitations, thepieces' charm, variety, and invention can-not be denied. The vocal writing in the airsdisplays by turns fluent grace, vivacity, anda handsome introspectiveness. The instru-mental parts, not driven by contrapuntalambition, sing along with the voice inmelodious, sometimes virtuosic, colloquy.The recitatives, however, even the moregrandly conceived, fully accompaniedones, are, by the standards of the great Ital-ians, tame stuff.

Perhaps because Philippe Courboishad the advantage of a satiric and reason-ably contemporaneous subject, Dom Qui-chotte seems more roundly imagined thanElisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's excursionsinto sacred and classical myth. In one way,the lady attempts more, for, while observ-ing the requirement for emotional contrastfrom movement to movement, she crowdsfive airs into each cantata (against Cour-bois's three, the number also favored by theprolific Rameau). Among her happierinventions are a lilting meditation in 6/8,the meter of the siciliana, on the fragility ofwillpower when confronted with a pair ofsparkling eyes (in Samson) and a gallantinvocation of Minerve bienfaisante (inUlisse). In the end, though, her music, likeher unattributed texts, does not seek toreenact an interior drama, but to present herheroes decoratively, from afar, and theeffect is only heightened when the anony-mous narrator delivers in parting the versethat points the moral. In Dom Quichotte, itis Sancho Panza who has the last word. Hisbumpy drinking song, begun over emptyfifths, makes mock of his master's preced-ing heroics, whose authenticity is not there-by put in doubt, but ironically confirmed.Thus Courbois goes beyond the static tab-leau to a lifelike double portrait.

The performances by John Ostendorfand the Bronx Arts Ensemble ChamberOrchestra under Johannes Somary havecommendable brio and elegance. Withoutdistorting textures or upsetting delicate bal-ances, the instrumentalists in their solosjump at every chance the composers givethem to shine (the oboe, bassoon, and vio-lin with particular success; the trumpet per-haps without that last glint of brilliance).Ostendorf's solid technique sees himthrough florid passages without strain orincident, and his legato is well supported.He interprets the text in straightforward butimaginative fashion, drawing striking ef-fects from the judicious mordent or subitopiano. His dark, clearly focused, manlytone projects with a force well suited to thelanguage and much of the music but sitsuneasily with the scores' tenderer mo-ments, where the ability (which Ostendorflacks) to color the sound to fit the sense

would count for a great deal.The readings are marred by a liberal

scattering of faulty pronunciations andquestionable liaisons that grate dispropor-tionately because the singer's diction is oth-erwise so polished. There are also numer-ous departures from the miserably editedFrench texts in the notes, some in plain vio-lation of the evident meaning. (Nor do thetranslations always pass muster.) Still, thecase for the neglected cantate francoise ismade with catching affection. M.G.

DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II-Seepage 62.

HAYDN: The Seven Last Words ofChrist, H. III: 50-56.

Gidon Kremer and Kathrin Rabus, violins;Gerard Causse, viola; Ko Iwasaki, cello. PHILIPS6514 153, $12.98 (digital recording). Tape: 7337153, $12.98 (cassette).

Via Nova Quartet. MUSICAL HERITAGE

SociEry MHS 4507, $7.75 ($4.95 to members)(add $1.60 for shipping; Musical Heritage Soci-ety, 14 Park Rd., Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724).

Haydn's string quartets contain some of themaster's most inspired and potently expres-sive writing, and nowhere is his geniusmore evident than in this problematical anddeeply moving sequence of eight slowmovements followed by a convulsive Pres-to finale. In its quartet version (there arealso oratorio and orchestral settings), TheSeven Last Words is a difficult nut to crack,requiring a tremendous concentration span(from audience as well as performers; this isnot an item for the casual "music lover").Diversity and contrast must be generatedthrough the subtlest of means-by way ofunobtrusive gear -shifts, textural interplay,and coloristic nuance. Without such incur-sions of resourceful artistry, this processionof largos, adagios, and graves-many ofthem employing an insistent ostinato-fallsvictim to an inherent rigidity and monoto-ny.

Thirty years ago, Alexander Schnei-der, Isidore Cohen, Karen Tuttle, and Mad-eline Foley made a magnificent recordingof the work for the now defunct HaydnSociety. Although a few versions haveappeared in the meantime, my contentmentwith Schneider was so complete that I

didn't even have the curiosity to investigatethem.

Both new editions do reasonable honorto Haydn's music. They are quite differentfrom Schneider-and from each other. Thesonic discrepancies are surprisingly minor,given a time span of thirty years and theinequalities of aging mono, analog, anddigital techniques. The Schneider disc, ifless realistic, sounds believable enough-and often more delicate and evocative (as inthe veiled pizzicatos depicting "I thirst";by contrast the tangible realism of the twonewer versions seems distinctly heavy andprosaically unalluring).

The Philips foursome does not always

sound like an integrated quartet. GidonKremer is a soloistic player, with a volatiletemperament and a wide dynamic range athis disposal. His three colleagues (whosenames appear in smaller type) are morebroadly emphatic in phrasing and tone pro-duction-even stolid on occasion. In one ortwo places, as in the passage beginning atbar 51 of the third movement, "Verily I sayunto thee . .," the first -violin line isalmost engulfed by the heavy -gaited quar-ter -note ostinato. The ensemble coopera-tion is admirable, but the tonal imbalance isunusual in a quartet performance.

On the whole, though, I suspect thatKremer and friends wanted this unhomo-geneous quality; certainly, they wanted theostinatos insistently executed, for the angu-larity and vehement stress-along with alean and sometimes vibratoless sound-give the interpretation a stylized austerity.Tempos are on the fast, militant side, withfew changes of gear, and dynamic contrastsare emphasized sharply. When gear -shiftsdo occur, they sound obtrusively idiosyn-cratic: Each time the pizzicato motif reap-pears in "I thirst," the tempo becomesfractionally but perceptibly slower. (Wasthis an interpretive decision, one wonders,or the inadvertent result of splicing andcopying?)

For the most part, this is a perfor-mance of decided honesty, commitment,and distinction. The aesthetic is cooler,more theatrical, than Schneider's lyricaland less self-conscious approach. Predict-ably, the Kremer version excels in the final"Earthquake" section, the deliberate,strongly rhythmic accentuation of the play-ing stunningly projected by Philips' asser-tive engineering.

The French Via Nova Quartet (in anErato -derived recording), with its somberdignity, broadly inflected pacing, and fond-ness for thick, creamy vibrato, reminds meof those old Beethoven recordings by thePascal Quartet. Since the portamento ismostly uniform, the playing doesn't soundhysterical or pressured (as, for instance, insome of the Griller and Amadeus perfor-mances of classical repertory), but the con-stant broadness of attack does blunt thrustand impact. After a while, a certain monot-ony sets in with the side of the brush usedeven where finely pointed articulation isneeded. The "Earthquake" is decidedlyanemic and unstressful.

In its undramatic way, however, theVia Nova shows fine musicianship. Its firstviolinist is the best informed-or in anycase, the most consistent-in executingappoggiaturas on the beat in melodic man-ner. Schneider is steadfastly old-fashioned,taking them all as grace notes before thebeat, and Kremer, for no discernible rea-son, wavers in his approach, playing themlong in bars 40 et seq. of "Verily . . ." andin a few other places, short elsewhere.Kremer's account is the only one to observeall the repeats, but his alertness makes the

MARCH 1983 51

CLASSICAL Reviews

Critics' ChoiceThe most noteworthyreleases reviewed recentlyBACH: Goldberg Variations. Gould. CBS IM37779, Jan.BARTOK: Orchestral Works. Budapest Phil-harmonic, Budape;t Symphony, Job. SEFEL

SEFD 5005/9 (5), Sept.BERNSTEIN: Dybbuk Suites Nos. 1-2. NewYork Philharmonic, Bernstein. DG 2531 348,Jan.BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1. Les Musiciens.HARMONIA MUNDI FRANCE 1073, Jan.FAURE: Penelope. Norman, Vanzo, Dutoit.ERATO STU 71386 (3), Dec.FRANCK: Symphony in D minor. Liege Phil-harmonic, Bartholomee. RICERCAR RIC 009,Feb.GRANADOS: Danzas espanolas (12). De Lar-rocha. LONDON CS 7209, Feb.

HANDEL: Messiah (excerpts). U. of MichiganEarly Music Ensemble and Ars Musica, Parmen-tier. SCHOOL OF Music SM 0017, Feb.HAYDN: Symphonies, Vols. 1, 2. L'EstroArmonico, SOIOMORS. SAGA HAYDN 1 (3), 2 (3),Oct.JANACEK: Cunning Little Vixen. Popp, Jed-lieka, Mackerras. LONDON LDR 72010 (2),Nov.MAcDOWELL: First Modern Suite; PianoSonata No. 4. Fierro. NONESUCH H 71399,Nov.MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde. Norman,Vickers, C. Davis. PHILIPS 6514 112, Jan.MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto. BRUCH:Concerto No. 1. Mutter; Berlin Philharmonic,Karajan. DG 2532 016, Dec.MONTEVERDI: Combattimento di Tancredie Clorinda. Kwella, Rogers, Thomas; CologneMusica Antigua. ARCHIV 2533 460, Jan.MOZART: Apollo et Hyacinthus. Mathis,Wulkopf, Hager. DG 2707 129 (2), Dec.

PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet Suites (2).Philadelphia, Muti. ANGEL DS 37776, Feb.SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata, D. 960. Richter.EURODISC 86 222, Feb.SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10. BerlinPhilharmonic, Karajan. DG 2532 030, Nov.TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1. Cli-burn, Kondrashin. RCA ATL 1-4099, Dec.TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2.Cherkassky, Susskind. Vox CUM LAUDE VCL9011, Jan.VERDI: Aida. Ricciarelli, Domingo, Abbado.DG 2741 014 (3), Feb.WAGNER: Tristan and Isolde. Price, Kollo,Kleiber. DG 2741 006 (5), Feb.BERLIN PHILHARMONIC: 100 YEARS.EMI ELECTROLA IC 137-54095/9 (5), Dec.BERLIN PHILHARMONIC: 100 YEARS,VOL. 2. Furtwangler. DG 2740 260 (6), Dec.HEINRICH STROBEL: Verehrter Meister,lieber Freund. Southwest German Radio.SCHWANN/DG 0629 027/31 (5), Oct.

performance seem shorter than Via Nova'sand no longer than Schneider's (which nev-ertheless flows with an easier curve andmore supple expression).

Both new recordings have tiny blem-ishes that should have been remedied: TheVia Nova second violin and viola fallmomentarily out of sync in the pizzicatos atbar 11 of "I thirst"; and in bar 94 of thesame movement, someone in the Philipsgroup accidentally plops a finger on analien string, creating an unseemly disso-nance. H.G.

D'INDY: Symphony No. 2, in B flat, Op.57.

Orchestra of the Theatre du Capitole (Tou-louse), Michel Plasson, cond. [Eric Macleod,prod.] EMI FRANCE 2C 069-73100, $12.98 (dis-tributed by International Book and Record Dis-tributors, 40-11 24th St., Long Island City, N.Y.11101).

"Everybody" knows the Saint-Saens Thirdand Franck D minor Symphonies, and theChausson B flat turns up at least occasion-ally in concert and on records. But whoknows, nowadays, the fourth cornerstoneof the great late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century French symphonic tetralogy: theSecond (1902-3) by Vincent d'Indy(1851-1931)? Only a small band of fanati-cal aficionados, who have been ferventlypraying for years for a modern successor tothe first-and until now, only-recording,Pierre Monteux's with the San FranciscoSymphony for RCA Victor away back in1943.

It's hard, especially for an aficionadolike me, to understand why a work so wide-ly ranked as a masterpiece should have beenso long ignored. To be sure, the piece isdifficult to perform, and to follow intelli-gently on only one or a few hearings. Butthat certainly doesn't warrant its-and itscomposer's-reputation as being austerelycerebral. It may not be as immediatelyappealing as the bracingly outdoorsy Sym-

phony on a French Mountain Air or as gor-geously exotic as the Istar Variations (notto mention the franker melodic and harmon-ic attractions of the Saint-Saens, Franck,and Chausson works). Yet D'Indy's Sec-ond by no means lacks haunting if less obvi-ous melodism, fascinating contrapuntal in-tricacies, even anticipations of Scriabinishmysticism, and above all, architecturalgrandeur and dramatic power.

Perhaps it's because we've needed andeagerly anticipated a technologically out-standing version for so long that the one wenow get turns out to be relatively disap-pointing-not so much for its 1981 Pattie -Marconi audio engineering as for its con-ductor's apparently uncertain, patently unconvincing reading. Michel Plasson hasbeen doing creditable work in building hisprovincial orchestra into one to be reckonedwith; and some of his earlier recordings,especially of operas and operettas, havebeen well received. (I haven't yet heard hisc. 1977 Chausson symphony, on SeraphimS 60310.) But this work's problems bafflehim: Too many slow passages are dragged,too many quick ones rushed, too many lightones labored. And my immediate sense of ageneral lack of assurance and passionateconviction was confirmed when I re-checked my not entirely faded memories ofthe wartime Monteux version via a helpfulaudiophile neighbor's tape dubbing of DM943. The 78s' mono sound was far fromideal even by 1943 standards, yet it neverhid Monteux's charismatic authority, elo-quence, and infectious relish of this magnif-icent music.

So we still lack a fully satisfactoryD'Indy Second-or any recording at all ofhis unpublished First of 1870-72 or his Sin-fonia brevis (de bello gallico) of 1916-18.The sole consolation is that at least we'vebeen getting some D'Indy lately-occa-sional samplings of chamber music as wellas Pierre Dervaux's batch of mostly unfa-miliar tone poems (Arabesque 8097-2,

November 1981). And now that the sym-phonic ice finally has been broken, perhapsPlasson's brave if unsuccessful examplewill inspire others. In any case, this partisanhas had to cope with D'Indy disappoint-ments before: I began my concertgoing life(Boston Symphony Friday afternoon rushlines) just a few weeks too late to catch themaitre's guest -conducting appearance inDecember 1921! On the other hand, I waslucky enough to first hear, the next season,D'Indy's Second as played by the Bosto-nians under Monteux. R.D.D.

KODALY: Choral and OrchestralWorks-See page 44.

LOEWE: Ballads (11).Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; JOrg

Demus, piano [Cord Garben, prod.] DEUTSCHE

GRAMMOPHON 2531 376, $10.98.Edward, Op. 1, No. 1; Erlkonig, Op. 1,

No. 3; Herr Oluf, Op. 2, No. 2; Der Schatzgra-ber, Op. 59, No. 3; Sasses Begrabnis, Op. 62,No. 4; Hinkende Jamben, Op. 62, No. 5; KleinerHaushalt, Op. 71; Der Mohrenfiirst auf derMesse, Op. 97, No. 3; Archibald Douglas, Op.128; Tom der Reimer, Op. 135a; Meeresleucht-en, Op. 145, No. 1.

Loewe had slipped out of SCHWANN entire-ly until this disc resurrected him, and hedeserves representation. Even if no one islikely to mistake him for a great song com-poser, he knew how to tell a story-or rath-er to provide promising materials for animaginative singing storyteller.

Fischer-Dieskau went on a Loewebinge in the late Sixties, producing in rela-tively short order a single Electrola discwith Gerald Moore, cryptically billed as"1. Folge," and two DG discs with JorgDemus. No repertory was duplicated on theDG discs (now repackaged as 2726 056),putting them at something of a disadvantagein that the Electrola disc had skimmed offmost of Loewe's Greatest Hits. This belatedsequel is essentially a remake of the Elec-

52 HIGH FIDELITY

trola, with two bonus tunes, "HinkendeJamben" and "Meeresleuchten."

Contrary to expectation, this materialdoesn't seem to stimulate the ham inFischer-Dieskau. On the whole, he contentshimself with making the more obviousvocal effects (e.g., the tinkling bell in therefrain of "Tom der Reimer"), which isn'tmy idea of gripping storytelling but is atleast fairly easy on the ear. (The midrangesounds reasonably solid here, while thenow precarious upper range is handled withseemly discretion.) More importantly,these ballads do come to life in Demus'accompaniments (e.g., note the rhythmicdefinition and zest of the very long "Archi-bald Douglas"), which contain perhaps theliveliest and most colorful playing I'veheard him do.

For the Basic Loewe, then, this discshould serve adequately. For Loewe com-pulsives, there's a slew of imports in addi-tion to the Fischer-Dieskau set, includingPhilips, Acanta, and Electrola discs by Her-mann Prey (the last formerly available hereon Vox) and a Preiser anthology of 1923-39 performances by twelve mostly distin-guished artists (LV 200). K.F.

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1, in D.Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Claudio

Abbado, cond. [Rainer Brock and WolfgangStengel, prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2532020, $12.98 (digital recording). Tape: 3302 020,$12.98 (cassette).

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, LeonardSlatkin, cond. [Robert Woods, prod.] TELARC

DG 10066, $17.95 (digital recording).MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, in C minor(Resurrection).

Edith Mathis, soprano; Doris Soffel, mez-zo-soprano; London Philharmonic Choir andOrchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. [John Willan,prod.] ANGEL DSB 3916, $25.96 (digital record-ing; two discs, manual sequence). Tape: 4X2S3916, $19.96 (two cassettes).

Gabriela Betiadkova-tapova, soprano; EvaRandova, alto; Prague Philharmonic Chorus,Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Neu-mann, cond. [Pavel Kuhn, prod.] PRO ARTS2PAL 2011, $19.96 (two discs, manualsequence). Tape: 2PAC 2011, $19.96 (two cas-settes).MAHLER: Symphony No. 5, in C sharpminor; Riickert-Lieder (5)*.

Hanna Schwarz, mezzo-soprano*; ChicagoSymphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, cond.[Rainer Brock, prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

2707 128, $21.96 (digital recording*: two discs,manual sequence). Tape: 3370 040, $21.96 (twocassettes).MAHLER: Symphony No. 7, in Eminor.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Le-vine, cond. [Thomas Z. Shepard and Jay DavidSaks, prod.] RCA RED SEAL ATC 2-4245,$31.98 (digital recording; two discs, manualsequence). Tape: ATK 2-4245, $31.98 (two cas-settes).

London Philharmonic Orchestra, KlausTennstedt, cond. [John Willan, prod.] ANGELDSB 3908, $25.96 (digital recording; two discs,manual sequence). Tape: 4X2S 3908, $19.96

(two cassettes).Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav

Neumann. cond. [Pavel Kiihn, prod.] PRo ARm2PAL 2003. $19.96 (two discs, manualsequence). Tape: 2PAC 2003, $19.96 (two cas-settes).

And still they come! The latest Mahlerofferings run the now usual gamut fromexcellent to routinely competent.

My first acquaintance with Mahler'sflawed but wonderful Seventh Symphonycame in 1962 concerts by the late WilliamSteinberg and the New York Philharmonic.His subsequent performances with the Bos-ton Symphony only deepened my regretthat he never had the opportunity to recordthe work-or any other Mahler symphony,save the First-for he brought to Mahler aunique combination of authority, tradition,sanity, and his own personal brand of Stein-bergian feistiness, which made for thor-oughly illuminating experiences.

"Illuminating" describes James Le -

The Chicagoans'playing in theSeventh is trulyawesome.

vine's clear-headed Seventh as well.Whereas Klaus Tennstedt's admirable ac-count conveys the opening movement'sfeeling of strain, Levine seems more con-cerned with crystallizing its symphonicarchitecture; in fact, his is the most success-ful unification of this gigantic movementI've heard. (In any case, so effortless is theChicagoans' playing that they can't evenpretend to be straining; of course, as withall great ensembles and artists, it is aneffortlessness not achieved without consid-erable effort-the art that conceals art.)

Levine and Tennstedt offer similarviews of the first Nachtmusik, with adelightful swagger to the march episodes.Levine is brisker in the Schattenhaft Scher-zo, Tennstedt more attentive to the under-lined admonition nicht schnell. (Steinbergwas slower than anyone in this movement.)Still, Levine makes it flow, again, effort-lessly.

In the second Nachtmusik he comesperilously close to Viclav Neumann's un-usually slow tempo but is saved by a sup-pleness and flexibility not supplied by theCzech conductor. Levine is really amoroso.The Rondo -Finale opens with a wonderful-ly brilliant flourish, setting the stage for asuperb rendition of this problematic move-ment, again conceived with an eye to archi-tecture; the elements carried over from thefirst movement fit like a glove.

The Chicago Symphony's playing istruly awesome (to appropriate a word cur-rently in vogue in the sports world). For all I

know, the whole work may have beenrecorded in one take; this kind of perfor-mance is the orchestra's norm. The natural-ly balanced recording presents everythingin proper perspective. Like most conduc-tors these days, Levine faithfully followsthe score's markings and details, but unlikemost, he does not call undue attention toth not -- rare-- 1, ' neineers.

With its fortuitous combination ofsuperb conducting, playing, and recording,this has quickly become my favorite MahlerSeventh, though the highly touted GermanTeldec pressings are not entirely silent.Jack Diether's always knowledgeable andauthoritative notes further enhance the set'svalue.

Tennstedt's Seventh completes his tra-versal of the odd -numbered symphonieswith the distinction we have come to expectfrom him. He succeeds as well as anyone inovercoming the work's obstacles, abettedby magnificent playing from the LondonPhilharmonic, surely now among theworld's great Mahler orchestras. Thehorns, especially, play beautifully through-out, as does the first movement's powerful"tenor horn" soloist.

Termstedt takes the first -movementintroduction (and its recurrences) fasterthan usual, without detriment, and pacesthe lengthy main Allegro risoluto excellent-ly. The first Nachtmusik goes somewhatdeliberately, but the alternating macabreand bucolic moods are given fine contrast.The horns' melody, however, is sometimesobscured by the overly prominent accompa-nying cellos, while the cowbells are a littletoo distant at their first appearance, barelyaudible. The digital recording depicts theScherzo's "shadowy" aspect too brightly,often negating its element of mystery. Thesecond Nachtmusik is suitably amorosowithout descending into sentimentality orrising to passionate heights. Parts of theFinale do sound a bit frantic, though basi-cally the maestoso and grazioso sectionshave a good feel. Never have I heard thecowbells rattled so loudly in the coda-perhaps to atone for their earlier reticence.All told, an excellent performance, inter-pretation, and recording, albeit with slight-ly hissy and occasionally clicky surfaces.Must we have digital surface noise aswell?

And now it's on to the even numbersfor Tennstedt. It took me several hearingsto come to terms with his Second. (Moreoften than not, repeated hearings only con-firm one's first impression.) I have alwaysadmired his grasp of structure, his sincerityand integrity, evident in everything hedoes, as well as his ability to sustain andmake sense of an unusually slow tempo, asin the Mahler Ninth finale (Angel SZB3899, October 1980). Initially, I felt he hadgone too far in that direction with hisextremely deliberate pacing through mostof the Second, but increased familiarity has

MARCH 1983 53

CLASSICAL Reviews

Ofra Harnoy:The Burgeoning Artistryofa Natural MusicianReviewed by Harris Goldsmith

Israeli cellist Ofra Harnoy: abundant precocity, musicality, facility-and charisma.

IT IS ALWAYS GRATIFYING to discoverauthentic new talent-all the more so justnow, with some of the titans of a previousepoch passing from the scene. While it istoo early to make any long-range predic-tions about young cellist Ofra Harnoy (bornin Israel in 1965, now resident in Toronto),these three discs and a couple of year-endNew York appearances show uncommonpromise; her playing has abundant precoci-ty, musicality, facility-and charisma.

Any one of these recordings wouldsuffice as an introduction to Harnoy's bur-geoning artistry, but the three together addup to an even more fascinating whole,enabling one to chart her progress year byyear. (The Franck recording, with its over -side encore pieces, was made at age fifteen,the "Arioso" collection a year later, andthe MMG anthology last July.)

Hamoy imbues the Franck sonata withlovely lyrical expression and sensitivenuance, though compared with her moreconcentrated and purposeful New Yorkrecital performance, the recording is a bitskittery and tentative, lacking cumulativedirection and tonal weight. The short com-panion pieces, however, provide some of

her most affecting moments: Ben Haim'sSong Without Words, a cellistic counterpartof Bloch's Nigun, is given lustrous, puretone and shows a feeling for color, line, andpassionate expression. The etudes-Sara-sate's Zapateado and Popper's fearsomeupper -register workout, Dance of theElves-are played with untrammeled hu-mor and lightness, at breakneck (but flexi-ble) speed. Two arrangements from Gersh-win's Porgy and Bess are freely inflectedand pure in sound. (A third Porgy excerptappears on the MMG record.) Chopin's Csharp minor Nocturne is played so haunt-ingly that I was tempted to rehear theincredible recording of this same piece (inthe violin arrangement, of course) made byGinette Neveu at age eighteen. While Har-noy cannot quite sustain that comparison,she comes within range and suggests that,by the time she is eighteen, she will indeedbe able to mold phrases with equal intensityand focused authority.

The second Discopaedia anthology,with very tasteful accompaniments bytwenty -year -old Canadian organist MichaelBloss (excepting a bit of "switched -on -Bach" registration in the Vitali chaconne),

already evidences increased tonal ampli-tude and somewhat more decisive attacksand releases. Again, it is Harnoy's naturalwarmth and grace that command attention.These melodic largos and adagios, requir-ing little prestidigitation, keep her lyricalexpression very much in the limelight. Itscombination of sonic and musical valuesmakes this record the most uniformly excel-lent of the three. The Bach excerpts aretouching, the Casals Song of the Birds andBruch Kol nidrei magical.

The first thing one notices about thefinal record is the change in recording per-spective, from a spacious ambience to aclose, pop -style, "knock -'em -dead"sound. Both cello and accompaniment,though certainly more impactful here, aresomewhat coarsened by the proximity; Har-noy's cello takes on a slightly grainy tinge,and William Aide's piano becomes some-what clattery. (Aide, like Helena Bowkunin the first -disc encores, is a responsive andartistic accompanist.) While MMG's soundis acceptable, Discopaedia's produces amore artistic effect.

Again, some of the playing is notewor-thy: Rimsky's Bumblebee once more dem-onstrates fleet fingers and excellent intona-tion in the higher register. (About the onlyplace where Harnoy disappoints on the lat-ter score is in the Paganini Twenty -FourthCaprice; admirable for its attempt to infusean etude with musicality, it neverthelesssounds rather labored at times.) Stravin-sky's "Russian Maiden's Song" has a dis-tinctive nasality that gives point to the tem-po, slightly slower than usual. The two Fal-la arrangements are robustly delivered andif the central part of the "Ritual FireDance" sounds for all the world like Havanagillah, well, why not? The Chopin polo-naise is full of dash and spontaneity. ThePopper serenade's fiorituras unfold grace-fully, and the Piatti Caprice is well propor-tioned, with noteworthy delineation of mel-ody, countermelody, and arpeggiated back-ground rustle; again, one applauds theattempt (here successful) to make music outof drudgery. Tchaikovsky's "AutumnSong" and Gershwin's "Summertime"add little to the similar materials on the firstrecord, though in the Gershwin, Harnoy'suse of an authentic blues device, pitch fluc-tuation for expressive effect, is instruc-tive.

Harnoy's natural musicianship is botha blessing and a potential danger: That shedoes what she does largely by intuition ofcourse adds expressive conviction to hermusic -making. And it takes brains as wellas heart to play the cello this well, even byinstinct. But naturalness is a two-sidedcoin, and already one critic-in extollingher New York recital-has stated that "totalk of 'technique' would be irrelevant." Iheartily disagree. Hamoy may be playingnaturally and effortlessly at the moment,

54 HIGLI FIDELITY

but there will inevitably come a time whenshe will have to take a more analyticalapproach to both music and instrument. Justas a singer, even a plentifully gifted one,must pay heed to support and production(not to mention the demands of variousroles) so as not to burn out the voice, aninstrumentalist must pay heed to-and beprepared for-certain muscular changesthat come with age. For all her virtuosity(really quite remarkable for one of suchtender age and experience; the cumbersomecello, after all, is considerably harder tomaster than the violin or piano), there arechinks, and potential chinks, in her tech-nique that should be tended to before theytake their toll.

For one thing, the Discopaedia series

This genuine giftshould be allowedto develop fully.

title "Masters of the Bow" is something ofa misnomer here, since Harnoy's playing isdecidedly left -hand -oriented. ("Masters ofthe Fingerboard" might be more appropri-ate.) Such an approach enhances speed,grace, and agility but leaves the sound with-out much weight or core. I happen to likethe violinistic, "tuck -it -under -your -chin"type of cello -playing better than the heavy -treading Mack -Truck style favored by somany cellists, yet Harnoy's sonority-par-ticularly in the treacherous upper reaches-is exceedingly light and small, and oftendeficient in carrying power. She can holdher own with piano or organ accompani-ment, but against an orchestra, she wouldundoubtedly be overwhelmed.

Moreover, Harnoy's right and lefthands are not always ideally coordinated:Often the vibrato stops with a change ofbow; at other times it surges belatedly, pro-ducing little "hairpin" bulges in the musi-cal line that are compounded by problemsof articulation and an overreliance on onekind of shifting (the "anticipated" variety).The parlando middle part of the Tchaikov-sky nocturne, for instance, takes on aslightly ungainly portamento, making theline bumpy. While I do not oppose the useof portamento or anticipated shifting onsome occasions, they should be supple-mented by other modes of note connectionto form a truly resourceful interpretivevocabulary.

None of these defects is serious-yet.Harnoy is in her muscular prime now, andshe possesses basic agility and patriciangrace. But as her reflexes begin to slow, hervibrato is bound to spread into a wobble;and as she seeks a larger, more powerfulsound in the interest of greater scope andintensity, tension and forcing may intrude.If, on the other hand, these incipient prob-lems are corrected now, she will have atechnical foundation able to adjust to, andassimilate, the aging process.

I stress this because well-meaningbenefactors seem to be pushing the young-ster a bit prematurely into a strenuous per-forming career. It is to be hoped that shewill be able to withstand the pressure and-now that she has established her creden-tials-will take time to appraise her capa-bilities, to study further, and to gain greaterinsight into her long-range goals. She has agenuine gift, which should be allowed todevelop fully, without undue haste orexploitation. Her evolution will be watchedhere with interest-and affection, for this isa young musician who deserves to suc-ceed. HF

OFRA HARNOY: Debut Recital.Ofra Harnoy, cello; William Aide* and

Helena Bowkun, piano. [James Creighton,prod.] DISCOPAEDIA MBS 2011, $8.98 (distribut-ed by Recordings Archive, Edward JohnsonMusic Library, University of Toronto, Toronto,Ont., Canada M5S 1A1).

FRANCK: Sonata for Cello and Piano, inA.* BEN HAIM: Song Without Words (Sephar-dic Melody). CHOPIN (art. Piatigorsky): Noc-turne in C sharp minor, Op. posth. GERSHWIN:Porgy and Bess: Bess, You Is My Woman Now;It Ain't Necessarily So. POPPER: Dance of theElves, Op. 39. SARASATE: Zapateado, Op. 23,No. 2. TCHAIKOVSKY: Nocturne, Op. 19, No.4.OFRA HARNOY:. Arioso.

Ofra Harnoy, cello; Michael Bloss, organ.[James Creighton, prod.] DISCOPAEDIA MBS2013, $8.98.

BACH: Cantata No. 156: Arioso (arr.Isaac). Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue, in C, S.564: Adagio (arr. Siloti and Casals). Violin Con-certo, in E, S. 1042: Adagio (an. J. Hamoy).BRUCH: Kol nidrei, Op. 47. CASALS: El Cant

dels ocells. A. CORELLI: Sonata in D, Op. 5,No. 8 (an. Salmon and Lindner). Sonata, Op. 5,No. 5: Adagio (art. Schuster). MOZART (arr.Goltermann): Ave verum corpus, K. 618. T.A.VITALI (attrib.): Chaconne in G minor.

OFRA HARNOY: Cello Encores.Ofra Harnoy, cello; William Aide, piano*.

[Anton Kwiatkowski and Jacob Harnoy, prod.]MMG 1137, $7.98. Tape: CMG 1137, $7.98(cassette).

CHOPIN (an. Feuermann): Introductionand Polonaise, Op. 3.* FALLA: El Amor brujo:Ritual Fire Dance (arr. Piatigorsky).* La Vidabreve: Spanish Dance (art. Gendron). GERSH-WIN: Porgy and Bess: Summertime.* J.P.A.MARTINI: Plaisir d'amour. PAGANINI (art.Silva): Caprice, Op. I, No. 24. PIATTI:Caprice, Op. 25, No. 7. POPPER: Serenade,Op. 54, No. 2. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (art.Rose): Flight of the Bumblebee. STRAVIN-SKY: Mavra: Russian Maiden's Song.* TCHAI-KOVSKY: Chant d'automne, Op. 37a, No. 10.*TSINTSADZE: Chonguri. ZUCKERT:N'ilah.

convinced me of the rightness of his vision(for the most part), to the point that otherversions now sound superficial.

Tennstedt brings great weight andgravity to the mighty opening movement;more than anyone else I've heard, he heedsMahler's admonition to play "with seriousand solemn expression throughout." Notonly is the basic pulse unusually slow, butthere are further extensions of the tempo,such as in the pesante section between cues5 and 6. By the same token, the passagemarked vorwarts at cue 12 is extremelyfast, making for an unusually striking con-trast. In its tempo extremes, this readingreminds me of Leonard Bernstein's NewYork Philharmonic account (CBS M2S695), yet more than Bernstein or almostanyone else except Bruno Walter (OdysseyY2 30848), Tennstedt presents this section-al movement as a unified whole.

The second movement, also a bitdeliberate, but appropriately not heavy,lacks Walter's buoyancy and charm,though I suspect that Tennstedt was notstriving for those qualities. Instead of aslow Landler, the main theme has the qual-ity of a hushed cradle song. While thescherzo shows a proper appreciation of itsirony, the vorwarts section really is toofast, unrelated to the main tempo; the hornscan barely keep up in their acrobatic pas-sage beginning five bars after cue 50. Vor-warts does not mean a new tempo per se,but rather a moving ahead within the exist-ing tempo.

"Urlicht" is the one failure in this per-formance, and no amount of repetition canconvince me that it should proceed (barely)at this snail's pace. Mezzo-soprano DorisSoffel makes hardly any impression at all inthis context and is, in fact, unable to singthe final phrase ("selig Leben!") in onebreath, unlike five other mezzos I heard forcomparison.

As he did in the first movement, Tenn-stedt achieves extraordinary unity in themassive finale, again at fairly deliberatetempos-save for the extremely briskmarch episode, whose shallowness is there-by emphasized. The soloists perform well,and the chorus is exemplary-beautifullyhushed in its first entrances, wonderfullyfervent later on-though it slightly antici-pates two of its climactic moments, at cues47 and 48.

Other versions of this score offergreater excitement, and I shall listen tothem when that is what I crave. When I'min the mood for a profound experience, Ishall turn to Tennstedt.

With its spectacular 1970 perfor-mances and recording of the Fifth, the Chi-cago Symphony could be said officially tohave entered the Solti era, and Sir Georg'sexciting account (London CSA 2228)remains one of the most compelling ondiscs. Claudio Abbado's version brings theorchestra another step closer to becomingthe first to record the complete cycle twice,

MARCH 1983 55

CLASSICAL Reviewswith various conductors.

Abbado presents a thoughtful ratherthan an aggressive interpretation, well cal-culated, with scrupulous observance ofevery score marking. The opening Trauer-marsch moves at a measured tread, yet asense of flow prevents any static feelingfrom intruding. The same applies to thenext .1, its, a her Jc,theratesecond, not as stormy as some but withmany warmly surging passages, and a mod-erate though lilting Scherzo. The famousAdagietto, though stretched to the very lim-its of slowness, somehow does not seemexcessive. It's a feeling of serene suspen-sion of time that Abbado achieves here-quite an accomplishment. (It should be not-ed that Adagietto is the movement's title,not its tempo marking, which is sehr lang-sam, or molto adagio.) The Finale moveswithout haste, at a perfectly natural tempo.Abbado, unlike Dimitri Mitropoulos (NewYork Philharmonic 881/2, November1981), does not slow down for the graziosoepisodes, yet the proper feeling is there allthe same.

As in his previous Mahler recordings.Abbado displays a real feeling for the struc-ture and idiom of the work, for its manychanging moods and emotions. I have buttwo mild reservations: First, the rushingcodas of both Scherzo and Finale seem tooprecipitate, isolated events rather than out-growths of what has come before. Second,the calculation mentioned above does attimes entail a lack of spontaneity. Onecould argue that a truly spontaneous perfor-mance would miss the many felicitousdetails found here; the trick is, of course, tocalculate everything and still sound sponta-neous-no easy task, to be sure.

Nevertheless, this is a distinguishedaccount of a great symphony, with the Chi-cagoans, who really have this score in theirblood, playing magnificently. Specialpraise must go to Dale Clevenger, principalhorn, and Adolph Herseth, principal trum-pet, who are superb; it's a pity they aren'tmentioned anywhere in the booklet or onthe labels. The recorded sound is wonder-fully rich and natural.

The Riickert-Lieder are not heard sofrequently as the Kindertotenlieder orSongs of a Wayfarer. Contemporaneouswith the Fifth Symphony, they are, ofcourse, glorious songs, and the central "Ichbin der Welt abhanden gekommen" is obvi-ously related to the Adagietto. HannaSchwarz sings them beautifully, withutmost conviction and sensitivity, aided byextremely sympathetic support from Ab-bado's orchestra. The songs are recordeddigitally, the symphony isn't (!)-a discov-ery I made only after hearing the two andthen reading the fine print.

Abbado takes the Chicagoans yetanother step with a superb traversal of theFirst. Several factors distinguish this ver-sion at the very outset: One is at last madeaware that the sustained string harmonics

are supported by a low A in the double bass-es-generally audible only with difficultyif at all; its firm presence here is mostappropriate to Mahler's picture of nature,emanating from the ground, as it were. Thetempo of the introduction, which Mahlerhas marked to be slow and dragging, is ofthe utmost "slowth" (if I may use such a

ord to denote the creepy, crawling atmo-sphere thus created). Rarely have I heardsuch a depiction of stillness and mystery inthis section, with the trumpet calls so faraway as to be barely-yet sufficiently-perceptible.

Save for the unusual and effectiveslow opening and its later recurrences,Abbado's tempos are quite normal through-out. In the first movement he builds to atremendous climax six bars before cue 26,after the long passage of three repeateddescending notes in the lower strings. If oneis taken aback by how softly he begins this

Abbado's Firstachieves aninevitable feelingof rightness.

section, a look at the score shows thedynamic marking ppp, a nicety seldomobserved by others.

The scherzo is suitably lusty, with astraightforward trio section, and the funeralmarch, heeding Mahler's indication "sol-emn and measured, without dragging," hasthe weight and somberness needed to avoidthe feeling of superficiality sometimesimparted to it. The finale, alternatelystormy, tender, and majestic, never goes topieces.

What sets this performance apart fromall recent ones, and many not so recent, isits inevitable feeling of rightness-an inde-finable quality achieved partly by followingthe score scrupulously (though, as noted,many conductors do that), partly by main-taining an inner vision of what the score'snotes and markings mean in and of them-selves and in relationship to each other,partly by wielding the ability to transmitthat vision to the players and listener. Hav-ing access to a great orchestra steeped in thetradition doesn't hurt either. This is a Mah-ler First to live with; I do not hesitate torecommend it over all others of recent vin-tage and to place it in the august company ofearlier accounts by Walter, Jascha Horen-stein, Bernstein, Rafael Kubelik, and . . .

name your favorite.Listeners should be forewarned of this

recording's extremely wide dynamic range.A normal setting for the quiet opening willvirtually blast you out of your seat at fortis-simo climaxes and perhaps rain bits of the

ceiling on your head. Some of theseextremes seem electronically fabricated,for no orchestra-not even the Chicago-sounds like that. The approach is similar tothat adopted for many of Karajan's DGrecordings-seemingly closely miked for-tissimos, distant pianissimos.

Leonard Slatkin offers a restrainedview of the work, somewhat akin to LorinMaazel's recent version (CBS M 35886).No eccentricities will be found here-normuch excitement, either, I'm afraid. It is ascrupulously straightforward, extremelywell -played performance, the St. LouisSymphony demonstrating once again whata really fine orchestra it is. But it doesn'tadd up to a very personal statement aboutthe work. Slatkin favors brisk tempos, forthe most part-even in the funeral march,which, though it shouldn't drag, shouldhave a bit more weight; here it sounds mere-ly flippant, albeit with a nice lilt to the satir-ic passages. The finale's "Hallelujah"theme sounds quite perfunctory, and themovement lacks the magnificent rhetoric ofBernstein' s account.

Diether's excellent and authoritativenotes enhance this release, too, as does thenatural -sounding recording. In neither ver-sion (nor in any other I've heard) is thereaudible difference between passages fortrumpets muted and "stopped" (presum-ably with the hand, in the manner of aFrench horn; when so played, the effect canbe truly chilling).

Neumann's Second, like his recentSixth (Supraphon 1410 3141/2, November1981) and Slatkin's First, is a direct, brisklypaced, no-nonsense account that presentsthe score plain but with little sense of com-mitment. The second movement in particu-lar is utterly charmless. Eva Randova, how-ever, is a very affecting soloist in "Ur-licht" and elsewhere. The entrance of thechorus, which should be magical, is merelyprosaic, so unatmospheric and lacking inmystery was the music preceding it and soforwardly is the chorus recorded at thatpoint. It does sound as though the trumpetsare "stopped" in the passage shortly aftercue 14 in the finale. However, Neumannignores, as do many other conductors,Mahler's instruction to hold back slightlythe tempo of the horn triplets at cue 6. It'shard to understand how anyone could fail toobserve this instruction, written out verbal-ly in the score. There is even a little handpointing to it-the kind one sees in publicplaces showing the way to rest rooms.

Hissy surfaces and rather constrictedsound inhibit whatever impact this perfor-mance might otherwise have had.

It's difficult to write about Neumann'swork, so unexceptional is it usually. HisSeventh is certainly a letdown after Levineand Tennstedt, though there is more toenjoy here than his previous efforts wouldlead one to expect. The first movement dis-plays more feeling for the music than doesanything else I've heard from him. But

56HIGH FIDELITY

whereas Tennstedt was deliberate in thesecond, Neumann goes at quite a trot, mak-ing it seem trivial. The Scherzo is heavy-handed, with no lilt at all in the waltz epi-sodes. Neumann does at least becomeexceptional in the second Nachtmusik-butin the wrong way; no one serenaded at hisdirgelike tempo would have the patience toendure it. He simply ignores indications tobroaden or ritard, anyway impossible in thecontext of his pervkrse tempo; this might beacceptable were there any compensatingsensitivity or tenderness in the playing.Alas, it is all most prosaic and decidedly notandante amoroso. The Finale also suffersfrom too deliberate a pace-basically agood rehearsal tempo for a student orches-tra learning the notes.

The estimable Czech Philharmonicplays earnestly throughout, with a certaingrimness not inappropriate to portions ofthe score, but again, with a complete lack ofcharm in the many pages requiring it. Asbefore, the recording, favoring the brass,well matches the performance.

Much has been written in recent yearsabout the so-called "Mahler boom." Thismay be partially a myth. Granted, Mahler isrecorded and performed with a frequencyundreamed of even twenty years ago, andpresumably all the recordings sell wellenough to justify their existence. Yet I sub-mit that the idea of a Mahler boom in per-formance and attendance is confined to the

major metropolitan areas of this countryand Europe.

I live and work in a midwestern Amer-ican community of moderate size, nearwhich an even smaller university communi-ty regularly presents festivals involving thegreatest international orchestras. Peoplecome from hundreds of miles around tohear these concerts. In recent years, perfor-mances of Mahler symphonies have drawnthe smallest attendance ever. When thePhiladelphia Orchestra plays the Secondand the Concertgebouw Orchestra the Sev-enth before audiences of 800 or 900 in anauditorium seating 2,700, usually sold outfor other concerts, it's hard to believe that aMahler boom really does exist throughoutthe country-certainly not in portions ofthe hinterlands. When Mahler draws as wellas Beethoven in Ames, Iowa, then I'llbelieve in the boom. J.C.

MOZART: Thamos, Ktinig in Agypten,K. 345.

Rosina Latschbacher, soprano; AgatheKania, alto; Reinhard Salamonsberger, tenor;Robert Holl and William Hackett. basses; Salz-burg Chamber Chorus, Salzburg MozarteumOrchestra, Leopold Hager, cond. [GottfriedKraus, prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2537

060, $10.98.

This is more like it. Unlike the dismal Tele-funken (6.42702, May 1982) and Turn-about (QTV 34679) recordings, this one

makes these forty minutes of incidentalmusic for Baron von Gebler's Thamos(grand choruses to open Acts I and V, fourentr'actes, and a stirring choral finale withbass solo) sound like major Mozart. Hag-er's phrasing has continuity and shape; thesinging outclasses even that of Philips'deleted East Berlin recording, especially asregards the quartet of chorus soloists andthe High Priest in the finale (Ho11); thesound is first-rate; and the notes helpfullyplace each number in the context of theplay. Consider this catalog gap-finally -well filled. K.F.

MUSSORGSKY: Boris Godunov (ex-cerpts; ed. Rimsky-Korsakov).

CAST:

Xenia Nadia Dobrianova (s)Feodor Neli Bozhkova (ms)Prince Shuisky Milen Paounov (t)Boris Godunov Nicolai Ghiaurov (bs)

"Svetoslav Obretenov" Bulgarian Nation-al Chorus, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, EmilTchakarov, cond. TURNABOUT TV 34781, $5.98.

Tape: CT 4781, $5.98 (cassette).

Here, in the Rimsky edition, are four well-chosen excerpts (in the ten -to -twelve -minute range), covering most of the titlerole: the Coronation Scene, complete; twochunks from the scene in the imperial apart-ments, the first running from Boris'entrance to the end of the monologue, thesecond running from Shuisky's entrance

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MARCH 1983 Circle 19 on Reader -Service Card 57

CLASSICAL Reviewsthrough the clock scene; and Boris' Fare-well, Prayer, and Death.

No date is specified for this Balkanton-licensed recording, but whenever it wasmade, Ghiaurov had his voice quite reason-ably pulled together. No longer command-ing his former vocal brilliance, as heard inhis early recital excerpts and then the com-plete Boris with Karajan (London OSA1439), he sings with rather more care, espe-cially on top. The role's upper reaches arein fact often more smoothly integrated thanin the complete recording. The interpreta-tion is accordingly shifted to a prevailingquiet -spoken dignity, a plausible if limitedview of the role, quite pleasant to hear.

Both women are excellent in their briefappearances. Milen Paounov, however, isvocally overextended as Shuisky. (He hasrecorded the lighter role of Missail withboth Cluytens and Karajan.) The choral andorchestral work also sounds a bit pinched,and the subdued conducting is unrecogniz-able as the work of the man who led such adashing Barbiere di Siviglia at the Met thisseason. Turnabout furnishes transliteratedtexts and translations.

For what it is, this is an attractive disc,but remember, if you're shopping for Borisexcerpts, that London lists a disc from theexcellent Ghiaurov/Karajan set (OS 26300)and that Quintessence lists a disc drawnfrom Melodiya's fine Bolshoi performanceconducted by Melik-Pashayev, with IvanPetrov's vocally and dramatically morepointed Boris (PMC 7192). K.F.

POWER: Masses and Motets-Seepage 46.

PROKOFIEV: Sonata for Piano, No.6, Op. 82-See page 62.

RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2, inE minor, Op. 27.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Tem-irkanov, cond. [John Willan, prod.] MOBILEFIDELITY MFSL ; -521 (half -speed remasteringfrom ANGEL S 37520, 1978) [price at dealer'soption].

Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vladimir Ash-kenazy, cond. [Andrew Comall, prod.] LONDONLDR 71063, $12.98 (digital recording). Tape:LDR5 71063, $12.98 (cassette).

Scottish National Orchestra, AlexanderGibson, cond. [Brian Couzens, prod.] CHANDOSABRD 1021, $13.98 (digital recording). Tape:ABTD 1021, $13.98 (cassette). (Distributed byHarmonia Mundi U.S.A., 2351 WestwoodBlvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90064.)

One of the more salutary by-products of theBruckner/Mahler overkill of recent yearshas been to make the world safe for the likesof Rachmaninoff. As recently as 1973,Andre Previn felt compelled to apologizefor his uncut recording of the Second (An-gel S 36954): "It makes the symphonyundeniably long (just under an hour], but Ifeel that its honesty, its power, its heartfelt

lyricism can stand it." Now, scarcely adecade later, the complete version hasbecome standard-so much so that Londondoesn't see need even to mention its probity(though anomalously, neither did EMI wayback in 1974 with regard to James Lough-ran's reading, CFP 40065, formerly avail-able on Sine Qua Non). Next thing, some-one will quietly slip in the first -movementexposition repeat. Thus has the Secondcome of age under the ministrations of Pre -vin, Loughran, and others.

Especially Yuri Temirkanov. In a

review elsewhere of his original Angelrelease, I noted Temirkanov's ability to dis-tinguish dynamic foothills from peaks.More's the wonder, considering the way thetopography has been ravaged over the years(albeit perhaps less so at Temirkanov's baseof operations, Leningrad, where Previnclaims to have found religion; cf. Sander-ling's recording, Everest, deleted). Thecoherence of Temirkanov's conceptionmakes all those cuts one has so painstaking-ly marked in one's score seem utterly inex-plicable and reprehensible. Following aseries of climactic surges near the end of thefirst -movement development, a deceptive"recapitulation" enters, hushed and unsta-ble, over a dominant pedal, with the move-ment's biggest climax still to come, twenty-six measures later; of course, the traditionalcuts dispense with the first sixteen of thosemeasures (the entire dominant pedal), run-ning the earlier surges right into the if per-oration. Temirkanov makes perfect sense ofthe original progression, with a tense, omi-nous opening, a superheated climax, and aspent, languid subsidiary theme, proving,here as elsewhere, that restoration of thecuts doesn't just make for a longer string ofnice melodies; it provides a framework thatcan actually support the full weight of sym-phonic argument. And this from Rachmani-noff!

Mobile Fidelity, therefore, has chosenwell. Though my Angel copy has seen bet-ter days, I recall having found its sound andsurfaces superior to the label's then prevail-ing standards. Specifically in relation to thePrevin, the perspectiye is truer, the dynam-ic range wider; indeed, without the latter,many of Temirkanov's exquisite gradationswould have gone for naught. Predictably,Mobile Fidelity preserves these virtues andto some extent enhances them. The cli-maxes now have even greater transparencywithout any loss of weight. The low stringsproject more clearly, allowing more indi-vidual pitches to be discerned in the some-times murky scoring and giving bass pedalsgreater solidity and steadiness. The onlyunwelcome addition is a slight pre -echobefore the sff fugato opening in the secondmovement.

No sooner does the Temirkanov reap-pear than London poses the worthiest alter-native-another superb account, by Vladi-mir Ashkenazy and the ConcertgebouwOrchestra. Ashkenazy is swifter in the fast

movements, slower and wanner in the Ada-gio. He uses rubato and tempo fluctuationmore sparingly and forgoes portamento.(Temirkanov applies all three more liberal-ly than I recalled, so impressed had I beenby his logic.) The interpretation is equallywell thought out and equally convincing,with proper restraint in the lesser outbursts.If Ashkenazy doesn't ever quite attain Tem-irkanov's heights of steamy passion, onecan safely assume that he's not striving forthem, since the orchestra hops eagerly tohis every exhortatory grunt; the playing issimply magnificent. The principal clarinet,presumably George Pieterson, takes thesecond -movement solo firmly and proprie-tarily in hand, as though it had been writtenjust for him. London provides a good, res-onant acoustic, lacking only an occasionalbit of strength in the bass-a quality thatLondon used to supply in superabundancebut that often proves deficient in its newerDutch pressings.

While Ashkenazy hasn't shaken myfondness for the Temirkanov, even strongernow than at first acquaintance, I can recom-mend the London recording unqualifiedly.What has become increasingly apparentthrough numerous solo and collaborativeperformances is now perfectly clear: Ash-kenazy is Rachmaninoff s most gifted,sympathetic, and versatile exponent since. . . Rachmaninoff.

The other new recording, from Chan -

dos, rivals (and indeed, surpasses) the Lon-don only in price. Alexander Gibson'sexhortation takes the form of podium-

thumping, and the playing he elicits is notsuch as to sweep aside even minor distrac-tions. The strings, often lacking purity oftone and unanimity, are strained and scraw-ny. In the first -movement recapitulation, aflute fluff in the subsidiary theme soundslike a flippant appoggiatura; though onedoesn't advocate sterile, note -perfect studioperformances, neither can one condoneerrors that inject inappropriate elements ofexpression. The interpretation, generallybrisk in tempo, is nevertheless episodic,and momentum flags. The sound, diffuseoverall, has graver defects as well-notleast, an odd clanking thud at cue 42 in thesecond movement. In a strong, now almostcrowded field of complete Seconds, thisone is superfluous. J.R.O.

SAINT-SAENS: Symphony No. 3, in Cminor, Op. 78 (Organ).

Frederick Minger, organ; Baltimore Sym-phony Orchestra, Sergiu Comissiona, cond.[Seymour Solomon, prod.] VANGUARD AUDIO-PHILE VA 25008, $12.98 (digital recording).Tape: CVA 25008, $12.98 (cassette).

Pierre Cochereau, organ; Berlin Philhar-monic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, cond.[Gunther Breest and Michel Glotz, prod.]DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2532 045, $12.98 (dig-ital recording). Tape: 3302 045, $12.98 (cas-sette).

Noel Rawsthome, organ; Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic Orchestra, Loris Tjeknavorian,

58HIGH FIDELITY

Jozsef Gregor:A Lesson Well LearnedReviewed by Kenneth Furie-IN THE SECOND YEAR Of my career,' Jo-zsef Gregor writes in the "Soliloquy AboutMy Friends" that accompanies this delight-ful recital, "I was given the part of Dulca-mara in the second cast of the Szeged[L'Elisir] production in 1965. I did it terri-bly badly and got a slating from the critics.The role was taken away from me, and[conductor Viktor] Vaszy said, 'You didvery badly in this, so learn your lesson!'I've been learning it ever since."

On the present evidence, that lessonhas been learned extremely well. Gregorstarts with the advantage of a sturdy legiti-mate singing bass: a dark and weighty bot-tom and midrange thinning into a lighter,more baritonal top. You're not apt to hear"La vendetta" more completely vocalizedthis side of Kipnis' recording. But he bringsto this repertory qualities perhaps rarer still:respect and affection. The way he puts it isthat he "can only breathe life into a char-acter if I feel I could accept him as my

friend."The way I would put it is that Gregor

insists on finding real people where mostperformers settle for silly caricatures. Heunderstands, for example, that Dulcama-ra's livelihood depends on earning hispotential customers' trust, and his "Udite"consequently has a warmth and largeness ofscale that rival Corena's. Interestingly, hecites Corena as his "other great ideal,"after Mihaly Szekely: "He's quite differentfrom me, yet I've learned a great deal fromhim." Indeed he has, and in the best way-not by imitation, but by absorption into hisown performing personality. Not the leastsatisfaction of this recording is the shrewdand self -knowing commentary, which goesa long way toward rendering any reviewsuperfluous, and also reminds us that very

little truly creative activity depends on wait-ing around for some sort of mysteriousinspiration.

It's a special pleasure to have the Cen-erentola arias, finally giving us an alterna-tive to the hamming of Montarsolo in theLondon and DG complete recordings. Is

there any chance of getting a completeMagnifico from Gregor? For that matter,I'd enjoy hearing more of all these roles.Alternatively or additionally, there shouldbe enough comic -bass repertory for a sequeldisc. Three roles in particular spring tomind that we ought to be hearing him in,both on disc and in the flesh: Mozart's Fi-garo and Leporello, and above all-giventhe humanity and vocal richness displayedhere-Verdi's Falstaff (which he indicateshe has sung).

Istvan Gati, an uncommonly interest-ing lyric baritone in his own right, makes alively and bright -toned contribution to theDon Pasquale duet, and 'Camas Pal's warm -spirited and singing accompaniments areconsistently winning. To complete thepackage, full texts are printed with Hungar-ian and English translations. HF

JOZSEF GREGOR: The Great BuffoScenes.

.16zsef Gregor, bass; Savaria SymphonyOrchestra, Tamas Pal, cond. [Andras Szekely,prod.] HuNGARcrroN SPLX 12359. $9.98.

DONIZETD: L'Elisir d'amore: Udite,udite, o rustici (with Hungarian State Opera Cho -ms). Don Pasquale: Ah! un foco insolito; Cheti,cheti (with Istvan Gati, baritone). MOZART:Zaide, K. 344. Wer hungrig bei der Tafel sitzt.Die Entftihrung aus dem Serail, K. 384: Solchehergelauf ne Laffen; Ha! wie will ich triumphier-en. Le Nozze di Figaro, K. 492: La vendetta.ROSSINI: II Barbiere di Siviglia: A un doctor.La Cenerentota: Miei rampolli; Sia qualunquedelle figlie. JOzsef Gregor at a recording session

cond. [Brian J. Culverhouse, prod.] CHALFONTSDG 312, $15 (digital recording).

COMPARISONS:

Gavoty, Martinon Ang. S 37122Zamkochian, Munch RCA ATL 1-4039

Much the way every new war is first foughtjust like its predecessor, initial explorationsof new audio technologies obstinately clingto musical materials that worked best earli-er. Witness digital recording's preoccupa-tion, so far, with the sonic -spectacularshowpieces that so brilliantly sold audio-philes on the powers of "high-fidelity"monophonic and, later, stereophonic re-cording.

But in audio (and still more in art)newest is not necessarily best. There may

be a salutary lesson in the failure of no few-er than four digital attempts at one show-piece to match two analog triumphs. Likethe first digital Saint -Satins Third, Orman-dy's with the Philadelphia (Telarc 10051,August 1980), the present three are impres-sive for sheerly sonic qualities but fall farshort of conveying the music's essentialGallic grace and nobility.

Comissiona's entry is scarcely in therunning, for although Sony digitalism pro-vides strong testimony that the Baltimor-eans are being brought up to full symphoniccaliber, they aren't yet entirely competitivein warhorse repertory. Moreover, Minger's(Aeolian -Skinner) organ swells too Roman-tically in the Poco adagio and blares harsh-

ly in the finale, while the overall reading isunimaginatively routine.

Karajan's first tto my knowledge)tackling of the Organ Symphony is ofcourse characteristically packed with per-sonality, and a superb example of the Ber-liners' orchestral playing. But DG's digitalsystem, for all its magnificence, permitsmoments of tonal harshness at climaxes, inboth orchestra and (Notre -Dame Cathedral)organ. And the decisive negative factor forme is the indulgent arbitrariness of Kara-jan's reading, which veers from languidschmaltz to brutal vehemence.

Tjeknavorian's Chalfont version(Soundstream digital, like Ormandy's)stars an exciting, even higher -voltage per -

MARCH 1983 59

CLASSICAL Reviewssonality, though the bravura is not alwaystautly controlled. This is the fastest perfor-mance I've ever encountered: 32:48 (incontrast to Karajan's slowest: 37:55). ButRawthorne's (Willis and Sons) organ part ismovingly poetic and the Liverpool Cathe-dral's long reverberation period enhancesthe impressiveness of the big momentswithout-thanks to digital lucidity-seri-ously hazing the sonics themselves.

To hear this music at its best, one stillhas to go back to older versions that differalmost more in kind than in degree from allfour digital examples. Not only is Marti-

non's quintessential French reading morevitally dramatic and idiomatically "right,"first bar to last, but its c. 1975 sound is stillincomparably impactful and expansive.And the memorably grand 1960 Munch ver-sion, especially in its recent 0.5 -seriesdeluxe disc reissue, remains steadfast as atowering monument of the early stereo era.(Yet unlike the DG and Vanguard cassetteeditions, near identical counterparts of thecorresponding discs, the new chromiumtape of the Munch version differs, perhapsinsignificantly, from both the half-speed-remastered disc and the original master-ing-as I noted in the January 1982 "TapeDeck"-with a slightly tilted spectrum bal-ance.) R.D.D.

SCHEIN: Instrumental and VocalWorks-See page 46.

SCHUBERT: Symphonies: No. 5, in Bflat, D. 485*; No. 8, in B minor, D. 759(Unfinished)t.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, KarlBOhm, cond. [Werner Mayer* and Michael Hor-watht, prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2531373, $10.98. Tape: 3301 373, $10.98 (cassette).[*From DG 2531 279, 1980; trecorded in per-formance, June 19, 19771SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9, in C, D.944.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, GeorgSolti, cond. [James Mallinson, prod.] LONDONLDR 71057, $12.98 (digital recording). Tape:LDR5 71057, $12.98 (cassette).

During his long career, Karl B6hm record-ed the Schubert Unfinished three times inthe studio-twice with the Vienna Philhar-monic, once with the Berlin. The presentversion, a 1977 Vienna concert perfor-mance, provides a posthumous memento toset alongside the recent "live" account ofthe "Great" C major with the DresdenStaatskapelle (DG 2531 352, January).

Once again, whether because of great-er "maturity" or simply conditions of actu-al performance, the concert taping is slowerin pacing, more improvisational and freelyinflected than either of the studio LP ver-sions. (I haven't heard the HMV 78 set.)This is a dark -colored, solemnly introspec-tive account-roughly analogous to thoseof Fricsay, Furtwangler, and Casals, albeitwith the granite tempered by a vein of gen-tle lyricism.

There are few surprises here-no first -movement repeat; no iconoclastic "Ur -text" dissonance in that controversial spotin the first movement-but there's lots ofmellow affection. Though I used to regardBohm as something of a phlegmatic Kapell-meister, here he is all heart. The orchestra,aside from a ragged chord or two and a fewpizzicatos not quite together, plays withfinesse and personality (the peculiarities ofmicrophoning sometimes make it seem as ifonly the first stand of cellos were playing incantabile passages, giving a rarefied, cham-ber -music effect), and the audience is most-ly unobtrusive. The sound is rich andcreamy.

The overside Fifth Symphony wasissued previously, coupled with the Schu-mann Fourth. Bohm here secures moredetailed phrasing and finely sculpted play-ing from the Vienna Philharmonic than hedid from the Berlin in his older DG record-

Solti's Ninth showsan interestingamalgam ofcross-purposes.

ing (139 162, with the Berlin Eighth)-orfor that matter, from the Vienna in the still -older London account. In its orthodoxgemiitlich manner, this affectionate readinggives considerable pleasure despite its over-stuffed strings, a few bothersome conces-sions to "tradition" (feminine phrase end-ings in the first movement and a pausebetween Minuet and Trio in the third), andan infusion of lethargy throughout.

The Vienna Philharmonic, of course,is noted for its proprietorial attitude towardSchubert. There is a story, perhaps apocry-phal, about a young conductor who hadprogrammed the "Great" C major with theaugust orchestra. Since rehearsal time waslimited, one experienced instrumentalistsuggested to the maestro that he specifywhich interpretation he wanted, Furtwang-ler's or Walter's. Solti, one surmises fromthe new recording, is a man of compromise;his interpretation-with some of his petnotions and some of the "traditional" onesblended in unholy alliance-suggestssomething of a trade-off, an interestingamalgam of cross-purposes. In fact, onecan almost follow the performance as onewould a baseball game: In the top of thefirst, the conductor scores a point for hisapproach (which also happens to be Schu-bert's) by admirably holding the players toa steady tempo at the consummation of theintroduction instead of losing his cool asmost conductors still do. But in the bottomof the first, the orchestra ties things up.(Literally: The movement's final chords fall

like water bombs and sound even more list-less than in the usual echt-deutsch presen-tation.) Conflicting ideals also show up inthe treatment of rhythm and sentiment, withthe orchestra's inbred manner thwarted bySolti's "objective" lack of spring and flex-ibility, and conversely, his ostensible dyna-mism "tempered" by an inherent rhythmicmushiness. The Andante, for example,begins at a suitable alla marcia but soondegenerates into a trudge. And the tonalcoloration manifests a basic heartiness andingratiating warmth (typical of the Vienna)along with a decided lack of subtle nuance(typical of Solti's approach: "Ormandy forsnobs").

A few unusual details must be men-tioned: Solti observes the seldom heardfourth -movement repeat, with its interest-ing flare-up in the first ending. (Happily, heforgoes most of the earlier repeats.) In addi-tion, he applies an enormous diminuendo tothe work's very last note, just as KlausTennstedt did last season with the NewYork Philharmonic. I know all about thecontroversy but-with head held high-still contend that the sudden diminuendosounds ridiculous (particularly in the con-text of a basically gung-ho performance)and that Schubert surely intended anemphatic stress mark instead.

In the main, though, my basic com-plaint is that Solti's reading just' doesn'tlead coherently from one detail or section tothe next: While each of his tempo choices isat least defensible, their interrelationship istenuous: thus, the jaunty tempo of the firstmovement's dotted -note theme seems to begrafted onto the massive introductioninstead of growing out of it (as in Toscani-ni's great Philadelphia recording). To thecasual listener, Solti and the Vienna Phil-harmonic might seem sleek and earnestSchubert champions, but on a deeper level,they disappoint. London's digital sound iseuphonious and crisply etched. H.G.

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphonies: No. 2,in B. Op. 14 (To October); No. 3, in Eflat, Op. 20 (The First of May).

London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra,Bernard Haitink, cond. [Andrew Cornall, prod.]LONDON LDR 71035, $12.98 (digital recording).Tape: LDR5 71035, $12.98 (cassette).

Had Charles Ives lived in the Soviet Union,he might well have written music resem-bling the first section of Shostakovich'sSecond Symphony-which is to say, thesame kind of music he wrote in the U.S. It'sdoubtful that Shostakovich, in the 1920s,knew the works of Ives, yet here is the sametype of opening Ives wrote so often-aseemingly formless pianissimo weaving ofmany instrumental strands, as thoughemerging from a void. After severalminutes, a distant trumpet intones a melody(not a hymn tune!). More vigorous andmartial music ensues, establishing that thecomposer is indeed Shostakovich, thoughat times Mussorgsky and Jangek peer over

60 HIGH FIDELITY

his shoulder, just as Shostakovich seemsabout to peer over the shoulder of RodionShchedrin. An exciting fugato section cul-minates in music again of Ivesian complex-ity, replete with trombone glissandos.

The Second and Third Symphonies areamong Shostakovich's least -known works.In spite of the First's success, he apparentlyhad difficulty finding himself; althougheach contains thrillingly colorful and strik-ing passages as well as beautifully lyricmoments, neither adds up to a convincingwhole. Perhaps accounting for their infre-quency of performance in the West, eachextols a significant event in Soviet history.The Second commemorates the tenth anni-versary of the October Revolution. Strictlyspeaking, it's not really a symphony at all,and the composer designated it a "sym-phonic dedication." A single movement ofabout twenty minutes' duration, it com-prises a series of orchestral episodes culmi-nating in a majestic choral finale, to a textby Alexander Bezymensky. The longerThird (1929) is similarly structured (albeitwithout an Ivesian beginning), the finalethis time setting a poem by Semyon Kirsa-nov commemorating the annual Soviet MayDay celebration.

It's fascinating to imagine what kindof composer Shostakovich might havebecome if allowed to develop along thelines of these two works, especially the

Second. This is by no means to denigratethe composer he did become-one whoproduced some of our century's mostenduring masterpieces. His genius wassuch that masterworks would have resultedwhatever the circumstances, though per-haps of a different style and character.

The pioneering recording of both sym-phonies, from the late 1960s, was by noneother than Morton Gould, with the RoyalPhilharmonic (RCA, deleted). The presentrelease brings Bernard Haitink closer tobecoming the first conductor to record thecomplete Shostakovich symphonies; onlysix of the fifteen remain. As previously, heand the London Philharmonic (which hasjoined him in eight of his nine outings)deliver the goods handsomely, with excit-ing, virtuosic performances. The only pos-sible drawback is the London PhilharmonicChoir, which sings well enough but hardlybegins to suggest the proletarian massespraising the glories of Lenin and the firstday of May. I do miss the blast of the fac-tory whistle in No. 2; Haitink uses the alter-native scoring for horns and trombones.

As with so many recent releases fromvarious companies, the first side of myreview copy has a beautifully quiet surface,the second a somewhat grittily noisy one.Why can't both surfaces be equally silent-or is this beyond the limits of contemporarytechnology? J.C.

SCHUMANN: Symphonic Etudes, Op.13; Toccata, Op. 7-See page 62.

WALTON: Symphony No. 1, in B flatminor.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Bernard Haitink,cond. [Suvi Raj Grubb, prod.] EMI ASD 4091,$12.98 (digital recording). Tape: EMI TCC ASD4091, $12.98 (cassette). (Distributed by Interna-tional Book and Record Distributors, 40-11 24thSt., Long Island City, N.Y. 11101.)WALTON CONDUCTS WALTON.

Donald Bell. baritone*: Philharmonia Cho-rus* and Orchestra, William Walton, cond.[Walter Legge, prod.] EMI SLS 5246, $26.94(monot, stereo; three discs, manual sequence).Tape: EMI TC SLS 5246, $26.94 (three cas-settes). [From various EMI originals, 1951-63.](Distributed by International Book and Record.)

Symphony No. 1.t Belshazzar's Feast.*Facade: Suite.t Partita. Crown Imperial.t Orband Sceptre.t Johannesburg Festival Overture.Portsmouth Point.t The First of the Few: SpitfirePrelude and Fugue. Henry V: Suite. Richard Ill:Prelude.

Walton's First Symphony will surely sur-vive as his finest orchestral achievement. Inits first movement, in particular, it capturesa mood of turbulence and disillusionmentthat aptly reflects the confused emotions ofEngland between the wars. The symphonymade a powerful impact when first heard infull in 1935; along with Vaughan Williams'

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61

CLASSICAL Reviews

From the Competitions,More Young PianistsMost of Them WorthyReviewed by Harris Goldsmith

Prizewinner Dang Thai Son: seemingly incapable of producing an ungracious sound

THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION route re-mains a launching pad for talented younginstrumentalists, as this group of pianorecordings, most of them debuts, bearsout.

Three of these recitals, interestingly,involve participants in the 1980 ChopinCompetition held in Warsaw: First prizewent to Dang Thai Son (born in Hanoi,1958), and one of the runners-up was EwaPoblocka (born in Gdansk, 1957). IvoPogorelich, of course, never made it to thefinals, but-thanks to the scandale involv-ing a walkout by Martha Argerich and othernotable members of the jury-the youngYugoslav seems to have clinched the big-gest prize of all, at least in terms of public-ity.

One could hardly imagine three morediverse types. A certain pristine innocencepervades the limpid pianism of Dang ThaiSon, whose fingers seem incapable of pro-ducing an ugly or ungraceful sound. At firsthis Chopin recital seems a mite bland andinsipid, but before long this gifted young

artist's ideas begin to crystallize; particular-ly arresting are moments in the F minor Bal-lade and B flat minor Scherzo. His patricianstyle has much to recommend it, and DG'sstudio sound falls graciously on the ear. Mycopy, however, has a small skip at the endof the scherzo.

Poblocka's sober account of Chopin'sB minor Scherzo is a trifle stolid in temper-ament, but her Bach and Debussy have realcharacter. Especially affecting is herinward, unflashy account of Bach's lovelyVariations in the Italian Style. The contra-puntal lines are scrupulously etched, andher selfless (yet actually very personal)playing has an altogether touching serious-ness. In Debussy's Images, she stressesstructural values and sobriety without los-ing sight of possibilities for tone painting. Ilook forward to hearing more from this ear-nestly unassuming artist; in its quietly intro-spective way, her pianism has strength andcharacter.

Pogorelich alternately fascinates andannoys with his sometimes riveting, some-

times distorted playing in Beethoven's Op.1 1 l and Schumann's Symphonic Etudes(done without the five extra variations). Hecan take one's breath away with ultrasoftplaying, magnificently voiced, and there isundeniable "presence" and magnetism inhis timing. At the other end of the spectrumare his hard, jangly tone in some of the pas-sages marked for ff, his deadpan rattling -off of some of the filigree in the Beethovenfirst movement, his predilection for rumi-nation to the point of stagnation (and oftenbeyond). He is an immensely gifted artist,but one with much maturation ahead ofhim. His brilliant rendition of Schumann'stoccata, happily, is free of the problemsencountered in the larger pieces: The pyro-technical tour de force moves with analmost insolent confidence, the fingersalways striking dead center, the voicing fullof unusual weight shifts, the articulationclear and bristling. This is a reading to putalongside those of Richter and Lhevinne(and a stylistic kin to that of the youngHorowitz, albeit more adroit technically).If only for this performance, DG's interestin Pogorelich is justified.

Mikhail Faerman is a Soviet pianistwho won first prize at the 1975 Queen Elis-abeth Competition in Brussels, when hewas twenty years old. This Concoursalbum, recorded at a Munich recital fiveyears later, presents a thoroughly matureartist. Faerman's album portrait shows abroad -shouldered young man, and I expect-ed a bull -like virtuoso, full of bravura andshort of subtlety. How misleading physicalappearance can be! Faerman, in fact, is anexceptionally finished, elegant player: HisBrahms Paganini set has to be one of thefinest ever recorded, with prismatic trans-parency of texture, and superb nuance,detail, and rhythmic acumen. In place ofthe thick, blotchy, overpedaled sonoritiesso often encountered in this frankly virtuo-sic writing, Faerman energizes the music bymusical detail alone-clarifying voice -leading, orchestrating the layers of sound,paying careful heed to relationships andnote values. At times, he tapers the soundalmost violinistically, so free from strain ishis amazing command of difficulties. Thereare too many felicities to enumerate, butparticularly striking is the variation with theglissandos, which Faerman takes ratherslowly, with the slides carefully measuredout. There are many other such instances ofremarkable control here and in the oversideProkofiev sonata-which comes close toequaling Richter's fabulous 1960 CarnegieHall concert recording. The bright, deli-cate, incisive fingerwork, and the vibrant,translucent colors are splendidly caught byDG. (All of DG's live -performance tapingshere, in fact, represent a striking advanceover the first Concours releases.) Faerman,incidentally, does not repeat the Paganinitheme before Book H of the Brahms.

62 HIGH FIDELITY

Alexander Lonquich was only nine-teen when he taped his Schoenberg Op. 11Pieces and Schubert D. 845 Sonata in aMunich recital-a fact belied by theimpressive poise and maturity of his perfor-mances. Winner of the Casagrande Compe-tition in Terni, Italy, this pupil of Paul Bad-ura-Skoda has his mentor's penchant forlyricism and color but already seems tocommand a more incisive rhythmic back-bone and a wider range of dramatic expres-sion. These very winning performancesdraw just the right balance between subjec-tive license and stringent discipline. Andagain, the engineering is splendid.

At the 1981 International Liszt-BartokCompetition held in Budapest, the judgesapparently found no one worthy of firstprize. Hungaroton's disc bears out their res-ervations, for while both twenty -six -year -old second -prize-winner Muza Rubackyteand twenty -three -year -old third -prize-win-ner Hortense Cartier-Bresson are indeedcompetent pianists and responsible inter-preters, neither shows the enkindling spark,the personal nuance, the command of time -in -space that mark a great solo personality,no matter how inexperienced. And I wouldalso agree with the decision that placed theSoviet -born Rubackyte ahead of the Pari-sian Cartier-Bresson (related to the photog-rapher?), who is currently studying withGyorgy Szebok at Indiana University. Infairness, though, Rubackyte's more nu-anced performances of the Bartok Elegies,the Scriabin G sharp minor Etude, andLiszt's Tenth Transcendental Etude weretaped under studio conditions, while Car-tier-Bresson's Liszt sonata comes from anactual recital. The latter, incidentally, playsthe sonata in an edition by Hungarian pia-nist Zoltan Kocsis, but in truth, I don'tdetect any notable divergencies from theusual text.

Peter Orth, winner of the 1979 Naum-burg International Piano Competition,proves perplexing in his solo debut record-ing of Chopin. To be sure, the young Amer-ican produces an uncommonly lush, lovelykind of piano sonority (beautifully repro-duced in this spacious, full-bodied acousti-cal frame), and despite certain manifesta-tions of rhythmic flaccidity, his genialaccount of the elusive Polonaise-Fantaisieholds together pretty well, realizing muchof the poetry along the way. But in the Op.25 Etudes, he is grotesquely self-indulgent;though the C sharp minor "cello" study iseffectively expansive, the rest are besetwith miserable affectations of phrasing andrhythmic scansion. Orth seems to have aningrained mannerism that he uses-andreuses-to the hilt: He begins nearly everypiece below basic tempo and lurches to hisultimate-and usually still too deliberate-pace. And while some pieces are solidly setforth (e.g., the D flat study in doublesixths), others suffer from overpedaled,

smeary fingerwork. The E major Scherzohas its convincing moments but on thewhole also suffers from Orth's lack of hair-trigger rhythmic control. Again and again,this undeniably talented pianist seems to beswooning over the music, responding toChopin's poetry much the way an allergicperson responds to ragweed. Long beforethe first side of this generous recording end-ed, I took a strong dislike to Orth's over-bearing sophistry. He makes everything sounbearably "beautiful" that one almostbegins to believe that unkind appraisal ofChopin as a "sickroom talent." HF

CHOPIN: Piano Works.Dang Thai Son, piano. [Hamm Rinke,

prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2531 359,$10.98.

Noctumes: in F sharp, Op. 15, No. 2; in Csharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1. Mazurkas: in C, Op.24, No. 2; in G minor, Op. 67, No. 2. Waltz in Aminor, Op. 34, No. 2. Ballade No. 4, in F minor,Op. 52. Scherzo No. 2, in B flat minor, Op. 31.Andante spianato and Grande polonaise bril-lante, Op. 22.BACH: Aria and Variations in the Ital-ian Style, in A minor, S. 989. CHOPIN:Scherzo No. 1, in B minor, Op. 20.DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II.

Ewa Poblocka, piano. [Hanno Rinke,prod.] DG CONCOURS 2535 015, $6.98 [recordedin concert].BEETHOVEN: Sonata for Plano, No.32, in C minor, Op. 111. SCHUMANN:Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13; Toccata,Op. 7.

Ivo Pogorelich, piano. [Hanno Rinke,prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2532 036,$12.98 (digital recording). Tape: '3302 036,$12.98 (cassette).BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme ofPaganini, Op. 35. PROKOFIEV: Sonatafor Piano, No. 6, in A, Op. 82.

Mikhail Faerman, piano. [Hamm Rinke,prod.] DG CONCOURS 2535 013, $6.98 [recordedin concert].SCHOENBERG: Three Piano Pieces,Op. 11. SCHUBERT: Sonata for Piano,in A minor, D. 845.

Alexander Lonquich, piano. [HannoRinke, prod.] DG CONCOURS 2535 014, $6.98[recorded in concert].INTERNATIONAL LISZT-BARTOKPIANO COMPETITION, BUDAPEST,1981.

Muza Rubackyte* and Hortense Cartier-Bressont, piano. [lbolya Toth* and TiborErkelt, prod.] HUNGAROTON SLPX 12425,$9.98 [trecorded in concert].

BARTOK: Two Elegies, Op. 8. LISZT:Sonata for Piano, in B minort; TranscendentalEtude No. 10, in F minor*. SCRIABIN: Etude inG sharp minor, Op. 8. No. 9.*CHOPIN: Etudes (12), Op. 25; PolonaiseNo. 7, in A flat, Op. 61 (Polonaise-Fan-taisie); Scherzo No. 4, in E, Op. 54.

Peter Orth, piano. [David Hancock. prod.]MUSICMASTERS MM 20038, $8.98. Tape: MMC40038, $8.98 (cassette).

Fourth, premiered in 1934, it was performedand broadcast repeatedly before and duringthe war.

Bernard Haitink's new account, for allthe brilliance of its recorded sound (vividand immediate, though not necessarilybecause it's digital; other EMI digitals I'veheard recently have been very uninvolv-ing), is fundamentally too cool. He pacesthe first movement deliberately, allowingall the details to tell, and the grinding osti-natos do build firmly to a climax-and yetit seems to be treated in an abstract, dis-tanced manner, without the passionateinvolvement one hears in the best perfor-mances. Haitink's architectural skill (likethat of a great interpreter of this symphony,Adrian Boult) is always in evidence; but itneeds balancing with passion.

Similarly, the scherzo seems moregentle than malicious, the slow movementmore ruminative than melancholic. Theplaying is superb here, however, with love-ly wind solos and long-drawn-out lines inthe strings.

The finale is the symphony's problemmovement. Walton had great trouble writ-ing it and even allowed the unfinished workto be performed in 1934 without it. The fulldetails of his difficulties were discussed byHugh Ottaway in two Musical Times arti-cles (March 1972, October 1973); in his lin-er note for the new release Alan Frank, for-merly of Oxford University Press, adds theamusing extra detail that he remembers"seeing an open postcard from [Walton) tohis publisher with the fugue subject scrib-bled on it and, below, the question 'Willthis do?.' " Well, Haitink's account of thefinished movement won't quite do, I'mafraid. Simply too bland, it comes to a con-fident final conclusion without hinting atthe music's ambiguity and unresolved ten-sion.

Perhaps I am blinkered and refuse tosee that Haitink offers a fresh view of thework. But in almost every respect the com-poser's own version, included in the "Wal-ton Conducts Walton" box, is superior-the exception being the sound quality, morethan a little foggy. Still, what one hears ofthe playing of the Philharmonia (in its vin-tage, early Walter Legge days) is magnifi-cent, and the interpretation is cogent andarresting.

I don't accept the statement of Wal-ton's future biographer Gillian Widdi-combe, in her note in this box, that the com-poser was "the most distinguished andeffective conductor of his own works . . .

for many years"; surely Boult had that hon-or. But Walton was a perfectly good con-ductor, as this enjoyable collection demon-strates. It's good to have the biting, hard-hitting Belshazzar' s Feast (a stereo record-ing) with Donald Bell, and a spiffy poisedFaçade Suite. I can't get so excited abouteither the film music or the marches,though undeniably, Walton conducts themas well as they're likely to be conducted.

MARCH 1983 63

CLASSICAL Reviews(The Johannesburg Festival Overture is afirst stereo release, but the piece is distress-ingly negligible . )

I would have preferred inclusion ofmore major works, and one unaccountableomission is the fine recording of the violaconcerto by the late William Primrose, oneof the very early Legge/Walton collabora-tions with the Philharmonia (1946, 78 -rpmnumbers HMV DB 6309/11). Neverthe-less, the box is an apt tribute to the com-poser on his eightieth birthday (1982)-

more valuable than additional bits of dis-carded Façades. N.K.

The 1946 recording of Walton' s viola con-certo to which Mr. Kenyon refers wasrecently issued, along with Vaughan Wil-liams' Flos campi (also 1946, Boult con-ducting), on Cambridge IMP 6 in tribute toWilliam Primrose, who died last May 1.The record ($9.98 list) is distributed byDiscocorp, Inc., P.O. Box 771, Berkeley,Calif. 94701.-Ed.

Recitals and MiscellanySOFIA COSMA: Piano Recital.

Sofia Cosma, piano. [Lincoln Mayorga,prod.] TOWNHALL S 29, $9.98 (TownHallRecords, P.O. Box 5332, Santa Barbara, Calif.93108).

BEETHOVEN: Thirty -Two Variations onan Original Theme, in C minor, WoO. 80.BRAHMS: Capriccios: in F sharp minor, Op. 76,No. 1; in C sharp minor, Op. 76, No. 5. Inter-mezzos: in A minor, Op. 118, No. 1; in A, Op.118, No. 2. CHOPIN: Mazurkas: in B flat, Op.7, No. I; in F minor, Op. 63, No. 2; in C sharpminor, Op. 63, No. 3; in A minor, Op. 67, No. 4.Waltz in A flat, Op. 34, No. I.

Sofia Cosma is a Romanian pianist of Rus-sian Jewish descent, who came to Americain 1978 to visit her daughter and son-in-lawand returned two years later to stay. Now inher late fifties or early sixties (to judge fromphotographs), she plays in a recognizablymature, Central -European Romantic style,with a warm, freewheeling sonority andplenty of intelligent rubato. Her pianism,surprisingly, works even better in the Bee-thoven than in the Brahms. Her account ofthe C minor Variations (actually a cha-conne) is hot-blooded and emotional, a tru-ly stirring, spiritual rendering as impressiveas any I have heard. She also distinguishesherself in the F sharp minor Capriccio; theremaining Brahms items, however, for alltheir tasteful intelligence, are slightly atarm's length, and the Chopin lacks tonalvariety and rhythmic spice (and in the Op.34 Waltz, a touch of the specified bril-liance). Yet by any standards, this artist (apotential major roughly comparable in stat-ure to Bella Davidovich and Annie Fischer)should be far better-known than she is, andperhaps this superbly reproduced recordingwill help rectify the situation. H.G.

ELECTRONIC ART ENSEMBLE: In-quietude.

Electronic Art Ensemble, Gregory Kramer,dir. GRAMAVISION GR 7003, $8.98.

Cauldron; Hudson; Inquietude; Inquietude2; Sentences; Three Bursts Set Out.

The Electronic Art Ensemble is a foursomededicated to the creation of electronicworks that can be reproduced in the concerthall without the aid of prerecorded tape butthat retain the structural and textural com-plexity composers of taped music have tra-

ditionally aimed for. It includes two synthe-sists-Stephen Horelick and the ensem-ble's director, Gregory Kramer-who dou-ble on other keyboards, percussion, a drumcomputer, and voice (used simply as anoth-er electronically processed sound sourcerather than in the conventional sense of"singing"). The third member, CliveSmith, plays electric guitar, bass, and trum-pet, and the fourth, Russel Dorwart, servesas engineer and sound mixer, in the style ofthe Philip Glass Ensemble's Kurt Munka-csi.

As its instrumentation suggests, thegroup draws on a broad combination of aes-thetics and vocabularies. Alongside thekind of gently tactile sounds one finds in themusic of Morton Subotnick and the moreexplosive sound bursts and modulationeffects familiar from the works of other"serious" electronic composers, there aretraces of what used to be called "artrock"-sections reminiscent of the metri-cal gyrations of mid -Seventies King Crim-son, and touches of feedback/sustain-pedalguitar sound that call to mind the likes ofJimi Hendrix, Steve Hillage, and RobertFripp.

But to put too fine a point on the deriv-ative aspects of the ensemble's musicwould be unfair, for there is much original-ity and variety in these six works. Perhapsthe most facile yet most attractive of the setis Hudson, an evocation of the majestic riv-er painted in soft, sustained hues, whichgive way to shifting sunrise -over -the -waterchordal masses. By contrast, the aptly titledCauldron, which might make an effectivedance piece, seems to bubble over threaten-ingly, and Inquietude creates a sinisteratmosphere.

Each work, in fact, seems a study oftextures, moods, or structures. In the first,Three Bursts Set Out, cacophonous chordclusters with guitar feedback and alteredvoices resolve into mellow, pointillisticeffects: Inquietude 2 takes the oppositetack, developing from pure pitches tostrained chordal textures. It's difficult totell what role improvisation plays in thesescores, but Sentences, the most transparent-ly structured, seems to grow, like a chainletter, out of a single riff that is embellished

further each time around (eventually yield-ing the pattern: a; a+b; a+b+c; a+b+c +d; etc.), culminating in a veritable sonicmaelstrom.

As in many other electronic produc-tions, the spatial placement of the sound istreated as an important compositional ele-ment here; and although it is sometimesgiven a bit too much emphasis (ping-pong-style movement for the sake of movement,without a textural or musical context, cansound contrived), it is for the most partemployed tastefully.

The group, obviously, does its ownrecording and production work, and itsmusical and engineering efforts on thisintriguing debut LP are well served by aclean, quiet pressing. A.K.

J6ZSEF GREGOR: The Great ButToScenes-See page 59.

OFRA HARNOY: Debut Recital; Ari-oso; Cello Encores-See page 54.

INTERNATIONAL LISZT-BART6KPIANO COMPETITION, 1981-Seepage 62

EGON PETRI IN RECITAL.Egon Petri, piano. Dell'Arte DA 9009,

$10.98 (distributed by German News Co., 220E. 86th St., New York, N.Y. 10028).

BUSONI: lndianisches Tagebuch, Op. 47.FRANCK: Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue. LISZT:Tre Sonetti del Petrarca. MEDTNER: Two FairyTales, Op. 20; Danza festiva, Op. 38, No. 3.

This is a handsome addition to the legacy ofEgon Petri, who died in 1962-the sameyear as Alfred Cortot, his chief competitorin the Franck in 78 -rpm days. (Rubinstein'sfirst recording came later.)

All of the performances presented herewere recorded for Swiss radio (DRS) in1957 and 1958, about the time Petri beganrecording for Westminster (in his heyday,he was a Columbia artist), and all are notonly splendid in sound, but also remarkablein documenting this onetime Busoni pupilat his incorruptible best. The Franck is justas powerfully sculpted and virtuosic as the78 version. True, none of these works isparticularly noteworthy from a coloristicstandpoint, but Petri was always somethingof a sober, intellectual sort-less a Giese -

king -style lapidary than a pianistic SirJacob Epstein, forging noble, rough-hewnedifices out of bronze.

Dell'Arte promises more live Petri,including the last four Beethoven sonatas.It's high time someone did something tohonor this undervalued keyboard giant.

H.G.

SPIELMAN UND KLERIKER-Seepage 46.

COLIN TILNEY: German Harpsi-chord Music; Early English OrganMusic-See page 46.

64 HIGH FIDELITY

CLASSICAL

The Tape DeckCritiques of new cassette and open -reel releases by R.D. Darrell

Vox humana(and Imports)The latest unpredictably shifting releasetides have brought me more vocal programsthan for any month since last July. Alsomore foreign -made musicassettes than usu-al-topped by three exceptionally variedand rewarding sets distributed here byenterprising small firms: Tioch Produc-tions, Qualiton Records, and EuroclassRecord Distributors.

Tioch has the blockbuster: Wagner'sDie Walkiire (Eurodisc Prestige Box 501143, $59.90), second in the digital DresdenRing series. Again, Marek Janowski's read-ing is conservative, but the music -dramaitself is far more gripping than Das Rhein -gold ("Tape Deck," May 1982), while dig-italism and ferrichrome tape markedlyenhance such fresh voices as those of Sieg-fried Jerusalem, Jessye Norman, and Jean-nine Altmeyer. Qualiton has the paprika'dnovelty: Kodaly's picaresque Singspiel-adventures of Hilly Jdnos (HungarotonPrestige Box MK 12187/9, $29.94). UnlikeKertesz's deleted 1969 London version,this one is all -Hungarian, complete with theextensive dialogue. Yet every role is so dra-matically enacted, if only competentlysung, that one doesn't have to know thelanguage to be consistently amused andeven-if one can follow the microscopicprint in the multilingual libretto-spell-bound. The kaleidoscopic scoring is vividlyrealized with the same verve and authorityconductor Janos Ferencsik demonstrated inhis 1976 version of the orchestral suite("Tape Deck," December 1978).

Even more precious is the "FenbyLegacy" of mostly late Delius works thatEric Fenby copied for the blind composer;now-along with British vocal and orches-tral forces-he also proves their ideal inter-preter. The music, detailed in John Cana-rina's disc review (February 1982 HF),includes rarely heard as well as more famil-iar works, all so persuasively presented thateven long -lapsed Delians will be mesmer-ized anew (Unicorn-Kanchana PrestigeBox, digital/real-time, RT 9008/9, $28; viaEuroclass, 548 Warren St., Hudson, N.Y.12534).

Omnivorous importers furnishing re-view samples from their extensive multila-bel catalogs include International Book andRecord Distributors, 40-11 24th St., LongIsland City, N.Y. 11101, and Brilly

Imports, 155 N. San Vicente Blvd., Bever-ly Hills, Calif. 90211.

IBR's appetizingly varied imports in-clude two notable Prestige -Box sets. One isthe first new recording in a decade of Han-del's most dramatically operatic oratorio,Saul (EMI analog/chrome TCC SLS 5200,$38.94). There are a few small cuts, thesolo singing is uneven, and conductor Phil-ip Ledger is no match for Mackerras inDeutsche Grammophon's c. 1973 disc ver-sion. But the gleamingly recorded EnglishChamber Orchestra does full justice at lastto Handel's extraordinarily imaginativescoring.

The other set is an invaluable docu-mentary: "Walton Conducts Walton"(EMI TC SLS 5246, $26.94), 1951-63recordings reissued to commemorate thecomposer's eightieth birthday. Even themonos (First Symphony, two CoronationMarches) wear remarkably well, and theJohannesburg Festival Overture appearsfor the first time in 1957 stereo. There isalso a generous representation of the popu-lar film scores. The whole set is a must forWalton aficionados, obviously, but non-specialists may well prefer an updated Bel-shazzar's Feast and First Symphony-thelatter preferably in the new, distinctive Hai-tink/Philharmonia version, another EMIimport (digital/chrome, TCC ASD 4091,$12.98).

From earlier Brilly shipments I haveonly some very oddball leftovers. The mostwidely appealing is the recital of Finnishfolksong settings by the Helsinki UniversityMen's Choir, some with solos by the greatbass Martti Talvela-surely the finest acappella male sonorities since the palmyyears of the Russian Symphonic Choir!(Calig MC 595, $11.98.) From across theocean comes a lusty miscellany of Argen-tine and other South American folk dancesand songs, realistically recorded by thepiquantly idiomatic Cochabamba vocal andinstrumental ensemble (Pierre Verany19791, $11.98). No notes or texts for these,but the Koto Ensemble's sixteen transcrip-tions of Beatles hits are not only annotatedin Japanese and English, but more hand-somely packaged than any cassette singleI've seen (Yupiteru C20 343, $11.98).

Domestic processings of overseaschoral recordings proffer liturgical -musicextremes: Jartgek's powerful primitive -Christian Glagolitic Mass in a spectacularfirst digital recording (Angel 4XS 37847,$9.98, no notes or texts); Schubert's sixLatin Masses (Vox Cum Laude PrestigeBox 3VCS 9016X, $29.98). The former is

less intensely and idiomatically sung andplayed by Simon Rattle's British forcesthan in Kubelik's memorable 1965 DG ver-sion, but that is no longer available on tapeand now seems unnaturally spotlighted son-ically. The latter set is rather coarselyrecorded and only passably performed byNorth German forces under Martin Behr-mann-but the music itself soars fromdelectable teenage Schubertiana to theempyrean sublimities of his last year.

Major all-American productions co -feature the first digital Handel Messiah andfirst complete Thomson Four Saints inThree Acts, also digital. Richard Westen-burg's Musica Sacra Messiah (RCA RedSeal Prestige Box ARE 3-4352, $38.94) isadmirable for its small -scaled forces, most-ly spirited readings, and near ideal digital/superchrome lucidity and vividness. But forme, Judith Blegen and the other vocal solo-ists remain victims of the now senileBritish -oratorio stylistic tradition.

In any case, the long-awaited record-ing of the American masterpiece is muchmore needed (Nonesuch 79035-4, $23.96;libretto on request). It's a joy to hear bothGertrude Stein's words and Virgil Thom -son's sui-generis music with such gleamingtransparency. It must be only my unfadeddelight in the composer's own sadlyabridged 1947 mono RCA version thatmakes this Joel Thome performance seemlacking in zestful savor.

Maximalism is the word for In Sync Labs'state-of-the-art real-time cassette transmog-rifications of relatively recent orchestralmaster tapes produced by Marc J. Aubortand Joanna Nickrenz for Moss MusicGroup. Fine as the original Vox ferricswere, the new superchromes demonstrateeven greater breadth, weight, and impact-for insatiably perfectionist audiophiles only($17.98 each; choice of Dolby B or C; noteson request).

For me, sonic attractions outweighstrictly musical ones in Robert Shaw'sBernstein and Tchaikovsky (C 4105),Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's Wagner (C4108), and Walter Susskind's Hoist Planets(C 4103). Leonard Slatkin and the St. LouisSymphony offer better -balanced, more po-tent appeals in un-Bennetted Gershwin(Catfish Row, etc.; C 4106) and ultrasump-tuous Rachmaninoff (Second Symphony; C4107), as does Skrowaczewski in Ravelfavorites (Bolero, La Valse, etc.; C4104)-one of the extraordinary firstrecordings made in Minneapolis' then newOrchestra Hall. HF

MARCH 1983 65

A New Schoolof Jazz PianoProbing the outer limits ofkeyboard improvisationReviewed by Don Heckman

Stein and Walder: Jarrett-esque repetiti,m brightened by harmonic clumgcv of gear

THREE NEW RECORDINGS typify a growingnumber of entries in what has become a vir-tually separate genre of jazz activity. It is amethodology that suggests that what wehave come to call jazz improvisation neednot necessarily be defined by either the dia-lect of the blues or the tyranny of the beat.Of its proponents, Keith Jarrett has been themost visible. His performances fill volumesof recordings, and his large concert audi-ences range from rock -oriented teenagers toacademically trained aesthetes. His influ-ence has been felt widely, particularlyamong younger performers.

Pianist Ira Stein is one of them. Thesix pieces of "Elements" are dominated bya Jarrett-esque pattern of repetition, repeti-tion, repetition, sudden surprise. Kivingtossed his lot in with that composer, Steinand oboist Russel Walder are plagued withthe same problems as their model's. Thelong (over eleven minutes) title track, forexample, spends most of its time andenergy exploring one rhythmic motif. Thefew introspective moments of surceasewould be far more appealing if they werenot dominated by a floating, nondynamic,immobile harmonic expression.

When Stein decides to brighten hispalette, he generally does so by usingunprepared harmonic changes of gear (TheEpic) and chromatic and whole -tone back -and -forth cycles (Rice Fields and Eden).Walder is generally restricted to providinglong -limbed, floating melodies and back-ground textures. The exceptions are someextremely effective uses of overdubbing inthe pastoral -sounding Rice Fields and amarvelous cadenza near the end of Cara-van.

Sharon Davis, in what she has thegood humor to call a "recital of jazzy clas-sical music" chooses a more conservativerole on "Cool Cookin'." A classicallytrained pianist with mechanical skillsgalore, she performs her own CocktailEtudes and four works written for her: BorisPillin's Tune in C Minor, Rayner Brown'sSonata Breve, and William Schmidt and

66 HIGH FIDELITY

Moorman: a highly evacuate imagination, a strong sense of communicability

Davis: technical prowess, unet.,n i r ,ults

William Pillin's The Beast and The Bull-dozed Promenade, with narration by Vale-ria Vlazinskaya.

The results are uneven. The Beast andThe Bulldozed Promenade, despite preten-sions to the contrary, have about as much todo with jazz as West Side Story has to dowith salsa. Under any circumstances, theyare lightweight entertainments reminiscent,here and there, of Virgil Thomson's Por-traits. Brown's Sonata Breve is much moreinteresting. Its central organizing motif is awide -leaping melody that echoes Thelon-ious Monk, especially in the Allegro. TheAdagio's major sevenths and ninths bringGershwin to mind, and the Prelude andFugue is tinged with a Russian coloration.Davis' technique is extraordinary, especial-ly in the Prelude, as is her exceptional abil-ity to liven it with jazzlike articulation.Tune in C Minor sounds promising when itopens on a percussion -accented, fanfarelikefigure. But it soon diminishes to little morethan a compositional exercise. Davis'capacity to coordinate the many fleet six-teenth- and thirty -second -note figures with

Ira Stein & Russel Walder: ElementsWilliam Ackerman, producerWindham Hill C 1020 (P.O. Box 9388,Stanford, Calif. 94305)Dennis Moorman: Circles of DestinyBob Cummins. producerIndia Navigation IN 1055 (60 Hudson St.,Rm. 205, New York, N.Y. 10013)Sharon Davis: Cool Cookin'Wim Records WIMR 16 (2859 Holt Ave.,Los Angeles, Calif. 90034)

Barry Silverman's percussion is impres-sive, to be sure, but the whole thing is toostudied, too lacking in spontaneity.

The album's highlight is CocktailEtudes. Its four sections range across animpressive array of influences: Gershwin-like blues harmonies in Aperitif; a glorious-ly airy melody in On the Rocks that trans-forms itself, strangely (and sadly), intoalmost pure cocktail jazz; a curious piece ofBart6k-ian boogie-woogie in Night Cap-played with breathtakingly fast fingers;and, in Chaser, a two-handed octave studythat tosses in a few thematic recapitulationsand another taste or two of boogie.

Presumably, most of "Cool Cook -in' " was composed rather than impro-vised. But Davis interprets the written noteswith the subtle accents of jazz. Like manyclassically trained performers, she has dif-ficulty with the unevenly emphasizedeighth notes common to much jazz phras-ing. (For jazz players, the accent lies in avariable territory somewhere between dot-ted eighths and tied triplets; classical play-ers seem to need .to have it one way or theother.) But she clearly is a gifted performerwhose heart and spirit are in the right place.I'd like to hear more from her.

Dennis Moorman, unlike Davis, startsfrom a very traditional jazz base. Most ofhis works on "Circles of Destiny" assumethe sectionalizations of song or blues form.A technically adroit piano player with ahighly evocative imagination, he uses thefamiliar jazz method of stating his theme,playing his variations, and then closingwith a thematic cap. But these are only partof the story. Pieces like One Lady, TwoSides and For the Peace Within are brim-ming over with rich Ellingtonian harmo-nies, replete with deceptive cadences, flat-ted ninths, and major sevenths. Moormanimprovises in the style of, say, Cecil Tayloror Ornette Coleman-in other words, onthe feeling and imagery rather than on thespecific harmonic and rhythmic content.And he does it very well. It is no disparage-ment to either Taylor or Moorman to saythat in some instances the latter manages tobring a strong sense of communicability tothe thick bombastics of the former'sstyle.

Like Taylor, Moorman's rhythmicpatterns deal with the movement of great,surging chunks of sound. Listen to, forexample, Three To Go and Me 'n. . . .

Pieces that demand more traditional jazzmethods, such as Explorations of EarthLight, are not as effective, perhaps becauseMoorman seems less comfortable withstraight -ahead jazz articulation.

The evidence in all of these albums isheartening: A growing cadre of players isprobing the outer limits of improvisationand, in so doing, finding never -before -imagined connections between jazz, classi-cal music, ethnic music, and more. For theadventurous listener, that is good news,indeed. NF

MARCH 1983 67

Look Ma, No Sticks!Electronic drum machines have come of age.Have you heard?by J.B. Moore

INPUTOUTPUT

BACK IN THE SIXTIES, every bar mitzvahband and Holiday Inn lounge act had a sim-ilar -sounding rhythm section, thanks to aninsidious little device called a Rhythm Ace.Fortunately, drum machines have come along way since. In fact, about the onlyaspect they have in common with their fore-bear is the ability to keep perfect time and,in the case of the variety we're discussinghere, you don't need sticks to get soundsout of them.

Drum machines, digital drums, ordrum synthesizers are popping up every-where. You can hear them on records bysuch artists as Steve Winwood, MarvinGaye, Toto, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen,Michael Jackson, Roxy Music, QuincyJones, ABC, and Phil Collins, among oth-ers. For some, like the group HumanLeague, the machine (a Linn drum in thiscase) is almost an end in itself, the basis ofan intentionally synthetic sound. For oth-ers, it is a means to an end. Liner notes onFagen's "The Nightfly," for instance,mention "sequencing, percussion, and spe-cial effects: Roger Nichols and Wendel 2."There is no way of hearing the exact extentof Wendel 2's contribution, because forFagen the point is not so much to create aconspicuously synthetic sound as to use themachine as one element in a total pop -jazzproduction sound.

Somewhere between the HumanLeague's Linn drum and Fagen's Wendel 2lies a wide variety of rhythm machines-atleast fifteen that I know of-some requir-ing sticks (e.g. Syndrums), others not.Those listed on the chart are fairly represen-tative of the price and feature range of thesticklers variety.

Arguing in favor of these silicon -chipmiracle boxes is easy. First, they are notsubject to the limitations of the human con -

DRAWING BY MICHAEL J. COLEMAN

Clockwise from bottom left: Roland TR-808, Roland DR -55, Korg KPR-77, Linn Drum,Oberheim DMX. Marvin Gaye used the TR-808 on Sexual Healing; Human League favorsthe Linn drum. Most musicians use them in combination with real drums.

dition. Suppose a drummer is playing a six-teenth -note pulse on the hi -hat and needs todo a tom-tom fill. He must leave the hi -hatand lose the pulse for as long as the filltakes. The drum machine can handle bothand never lose a beat. For that matter, itcould play all three tom-toms, a snare, anda crash cymbal, and still maintain the six-teenth -note pulse on the hi -hat. Played onreal drums, that part would require three

takes in the studio or three drummersonstage.

Which brings us to the business ofexpense. A digital drum represents a highinitial investment, as much as almost$3,000 for the Linn or the Oberheim. But agood drum kit costs only about $500 less,and you still need someone to play it.Machines don't charge for their time,they'll play for as long as you can stay

6S HIGH FIDFI ITV

Unit Linn Drum

Five Different DrummersOberheim DMX Roland TR808 Korg KPR-77 Roland DR55

SuggestedList Price $2,995 $2,895 $1,095

INSTRUMENTS

Snare DrumBass DrumTom -TomsHi -HatCymbalsClapsCongasTambourineCowbellKabasaMaracasRim ShotSide Shot

HARDWARE

LevelsMaster OutTrigger InTrigger OutTempo LEDSync PulseChangeable ChipsFootswitch

1 3L T1 2L3 T2 2L D2 DYES2 TYESYESYES

YES

1 3L T1 3L T6 T2 2L2 2LYES

YE- S

YE- S

YE- S

1 T TC1 TC D3 T1 D1 TC DYES3 T

YE- S

YE- S

YES

569 5195

1

1

21

1

YES

YES

15 SStereo R51

YESYESYES2

8 SStereo S8

YE- S

YESYES2

1 RMono Hi & Low

1

YE- S

1

1 5Stereo R

2

YE- S

1

Mono

1

YE- S

1

PROGRAMMING

Note Divisions 64ths down 64ths downNo. of Songs 49 50No. of Patterns 99 2 -bar 255 2 -barNo. of Instruments 15 15Cassette Offload YES YESReal Time YES YESStep Mode YES

32nds down

76-8 bars9

YE- S

YES

32nds down3256 bars6YESYESYES

16ths down

8 2 -bar4

YE- S

KEY

D Decay controlL LevelR Rotary faderS Slide faderT TunableTC Tone control

HARDWARE

Levels: number of individual levelsMaster Out: stereo or monoTrigger In: can an instrument on the machine be triggered byan external source and if so, how many instruments can betriggered at one timeTrigger Out: can the machine send a trigger pulse to anoth-er machine (e.g., a synthesizer) and if so, how manyTempo LED: an LED display of the tempoSynch Pulse: an electronic signal that either can be put on

tape or sent to another instrument to synchronize it to themachine or vice versaChangeable Chips: are additional chips with new or differ-ent sounds available from the manufacturerFootswitch: a pedal to start and stop the machine; a secondfootswitch can activate preprogrammed fills or change the pro-gram to another in memory

PROGRAMMING

No. of Songs: how many songs can be stored in memoryNo. of Patterns: how many patterns in each songCassette Offload: can the programming information in themachine go on a cassette to allow for more programmingReal Time: the ability to "play" the machine as if it were aninstrument-i.e., by hitting the appropriate buttons in time withthe musicStep Mode: programming the machine by telling it whatinstrument to play on what beat through a keypad of somekind

awake to listen, and they never need somuch as a coffee break.

For further information, circle the following num-bers on the Reader -Service Card

Korg KPR-77 84Linn Drum 85Oberheim DMX 86Roland DR -55 87Roland TR-808 88

I am currently working on a recordwith my partner, Jimmy Bralower, using aLinn drum and my Tascam Portastudio 1 SeeBACKBEAT, November 19821 to demo thesongs. Preproduction work like this withmusicians, even in a low-priced rehearsalroom, already would have cost hundreds ifnot thousands of dollars. Furthermore, wewouldn't have come up with all the pat-

terns, fills, etc., that we've gotten just try-ing out ideas on the Linn. By the time we gointo the studio, we'll be spending most ofour time recording instead of experimentingat $190 an hour. Also, it takes longer to geta good drum sound in the studio than it doesto get the right sound for the rest of the bandinstruments put together. In a good studio,(Continued on page 81)

MARCH 1983 69

BACKBEAT

Reviews

. 4 ,

. % re. 3

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Jackson: confidence and competence beneath the sleek image

A Thriller with a DifferenceMichael Jackson: ThrillerQuincy Jones, producerEpic QE 38112

"Thriller" is a sleek and sharp machine, awork of amazing confidence and pacingthat follows the programming strategy of1979's "Off the Wall," the first MichaelJackson -Quincy Jones collaboration. It'snot a record that takes many risks-it isconservative in ways that a number of Jack-son's contemporaries are breaking awayfrom-but almost every turn it takes is onethat pays off. On the surface, the LP justzips along like a variety show, completewith guest stars, production numbers,dance tunes, a curtain -raising sizzler (thesmashingly effective Wanna Be Startin'Somethin' ), and a ballad for a coda (the sen-timental The Lady in My Life). "Thriller,"however, is a lot tougher than it looks, andJackson isn't all technical agility.

Take the somewhat ominous notestruck by the opener . . . Startin' Some -

thin' , a Jackson song that raises some trou-bling aspects of fame and offers sage adviceabout pride and responsibility, all atop atrack that winds up quoting one of the ear-liest disco hits, Soul Makossa. The singerhere makes passing reference to a menda-cious motor mouth who, on Side 2, gets asong of her own, Billie Jean. That track'sscene seems typical enough-a dancefloor, a propositon-until it turns out thatBillie Jean is accusing Jackson (who wrotethe song) of fathering her child. Over andover he sings, "Billie Jean is not my lover/She says I am the one, but the kid is not rayson," as the music matches his escalatinginsistence.

Those two songs and one other byJackson, Beat It-a hard rocker that coun-sels restraint in times of crisis, whilecontradicting that message with a bristlingEddie van Halen guitar solo-are the mostpersuasively dramatic moments on "Thril-ler." The rest is more predictable, includ-ing a lightweight duet with Paul McCartney

on The Girl Is Mine and P.Y.T. (PrettyYoung Thing), a James Ingram -QuincyJones composition notable only for the elec-tronically produced vocal imitation on thechorus. Rod. Temperton, the author of someof the best songs on "Off the Wall,"pitches in with The Lady in My Life, theappealingly seductive Baby Be Mine (themelody of the verse sounds like a perfumecommercial), and the title track, whichmakes a clever midsong switch from thehorrific thrills on the screen to thrills of amore intimate variety. The song is cappedoff by a Vincent Price narration that recallsPrice's most laughable self -parodies in theRoger Corman-Edgar Allen Poe movies.

The LP's calculation is part of the fun:the inner -sanctum sound effects on Thril-ler, the cameo appearance by Van Halen,the synthesizers and horns that mesh togeth-er throughout the album, Jackson's bitterbut playful vocal on Billie Jean. It's rare tohear commercial pop music makers whohave such a definite sense of what they'reup to, who don't just touch all the bases, butbreeze around them with flair, tipping theirhats to the bleachers as they go. MichaelJackson and Quincy Jones are genuinecrowd-pleasers. MITCHELL COHEN

Michel Berger: Dreams in StoneMichel Berger & Philippe Rault,producers. Atlantic 80029-1

Arranger/composer Michel Berger is un-known on these shores, but he obviouslyexerts considerable clout at home: For thisconceptual album, his French record com-pany has picked up the tab both for U. S.studio time and for a dauntingly long andfamiliar list of musicians. A valentine toNew York City created by a Frenchman andrealized by a group of largely West Coast-based performers, "Dreams in Stone"seems an improbable concept. Yet it isnonetheless charming in execution. With itsoccasional injections of crisp L.A. pop andcountry rock, Berger's music achieves big -city glamour through vivid orchestrationsthat variously recall the '60s pop symphon-ics of Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb andthe portentous widescreen string settings ofPaul Buckmaster and George Martin.

The approach seems almost quaint inits scope, which harks back to pop's pre -recession grandeur with nary a hint of theflinty cynicism now common to the genre.If the songs allude to the perils of life in theBig Apple, their net effect is still celebrato-ry. Bringing winning zest to sometimeshackneyed texts, Berger's large cast ofvocalists balances gritty, blue-eyed soul(Bill Champlin, Lynn Carey, and MaxGronenthal), lambent, country -tinged bal-

70CIrcI 7 on Readar-SarvIca Card a.

lad inflections (Jennifer Warnes and Ro-sanne Cash), and salty black pop (BillWithers). The gumbo of different vocalstyles succeeds in adding spice rather thandetracting from the composer's masterplan.

Berger's suite isn't revelatory in theleast, but his melodies are simple, sturdy,and attractive enough that we can forgivethe forced melodrama of the lyrics (writtenby a rotating crew that includes several ofthe singers). This is lush, craftsmanlike popsuitable for listeners who still have prob-lems taking gurgling synthesizers serious-ly, and who privately favor time -testedromanticism over brainier topics.

SAM SUTHERLAND

Paul Brady: Hard StationHugh Murphy & Paul Brady, producers21 Records T 1-1-9001 (PolygramSpecial Imports, 137 W. 55th St.,New York, N.Y. 10019)

Each year brings its share of sleepers,albums that slip past critical and publicnotice but come to exert a special magne-tism for the lucky few who've managed tofind them. Paul Brady's "Hard Station" isa rich collection of story songs that easilyfits that description, even after severalmonths on my turntable.

The reasons for Brady's obscurityaren't hard to fathom. An Irish singer/song-

writer, his only significant American expo-sure came nearly a decade ago as a memberof the Johnstons, a failed folk trio whosegentle style fared poorly against the glitter -rock, Southern -fried boogie, and narcissis-tic confessional pop of the day. Brady him-self returned to traditional Irish music, andthis putative solo debut, while tappingundeniably muscular rock instrumentationand sophisticated production values, is stillout of step with much modern rock.

Which by no means suggests that"Hard Station" sounds dated. These arepassionate, often tough vignettes paced byBrady's urgent and melodic singing and asatisfying mix of ringing guitars and ham-mering rhythm sections. His characterspresent themselves with the directness anddetail of traditional balladry, evoking timeand place yet touching timeless themes: Onthe opening Busted Loose, a young loserbetrayed by friend and lover risks every-thing to escape prison. Brady makes thisold and familiar tale riveting through astring of haunting images and a ferociousvocal performance.

Hard luck fables are Brady's stock intrade. His skill at making them ring with theauthenticity of an overheard conversationrather than the calculation of a pop song iswhat renders much of this album indelible.An atmospheric foray into modern folk-rock, "Hard Station" echoes the much bet-ter-known work of players like Jackson

Browne, Warren Zevon, and their peers,yet never falls neatly into any of their foot-prints. SAM SUTHERLAND

Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson:Poncho and LeftyMerle Haggard, Willie Nelson, & ChipsMoman, producers. Epic FE 37958

Those who consider country music lyricsstrained and maudlin might turn to the songHalf a Man to back up their position. "If Ionly had one arm to hold you," it begins,"then I would more closely resemble thehalf a man you made of me." That is not,I'm sad to report, the only such moment onMerle Haggard and Willie Nelson's "Pon-cho and Lefty." On two separate songs,Reasons to Quit and No Reason to Quit,Haggard and/or Nelson twist themselvesinto rueful knots about whether to abandontheir nasty habits (booze and tobacco, most-ly). And All the Soft Places to Fall finds thetwo self-proclaimed outlaws ready for "ahome life and clean -smelling sheets." Theonly thing standing in the way of said situ-ation is that the women they've known(many, they boast) just don't understandthem.

The album's pokiness, its reliance onhoary country music pronouncements, isn'tso damaging as to smudge the reputationsof these two singers, but it does represent amissed opportunity. Teaming them up

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KENWOOD You are one phone call away. From an excellent deal.

Laswell and Beinhorn of Mate, nri. new music" you can dance to

seems more of a corporate decision than acreative one, and the small number of trueduets doesn't give Haggard and Nelsonmuch of a chance to play their strengths offeach other. Imagining an LP that crossesHaggard's fondness for Dixieland swingwith the freewheeling sound that Nelsoncaptured on "Somewhere Over the Rain-bow" only makes "Poncho and Lefty" thatmuch more disappointing. These are vocal-ists whose phrasing abilities have been just-ly heralded. Why are they wasting theirtime on Reasons to Quit ("laughing at theprice tag that we pay . . . roaring down thefast lane")? They should be singing LeftyFrizzell, Hoagy Carmichael, RodneyCrowell, Johnny Mercer. . . .

On the antique -sounding My Mary, asimple memory song with sweet countryfiddling, Haggard sounds as tenderlyreflective as the song demands. Poncho andLefty, a ballad by Townes van Zandt aboutbandits and betrayal, has a graceful melodyand a weighty narrative. But the best youcould say about the rest of the album is thatas country crooners Haggard and Nelsonare as unruffled and relaxed as a rusticCrosby and Como. MITCHELL COHEN

Material: One DownMaterial, producersElektra 60206

Characterizing Material's work as "newmusic" could be somewhat misleading,since synthetic pop proponents have recent-ly begun to use the term in lieu of "newwave." But its earlier definition describedan odd coalition among elements of avant-

garde jazz, classicism, and points betweenand beyond, and Material stacks up as anexample of how far this freewheelingmovement has traveled.

The very nature of the group's formatand the musical vision on its second albumare illustrative: Principals Michael Bein-horn (keyboards, vocals, percussion,"tapes"), Bill Laswell (bass, "effects"),and Martin Bisi (engineer) have assembleda rotating crew of funk, jazz, and rockmusicians to create dance music at onceimmediate in its rhythmic impulse andabstract in its sonic palette. "One Down"initially implies a compromise when com-pared to its essentially instrumental prede-cessor. Yet the texture of these morestraightforward; vocally oriented songs isdeceptive, the mix intermittently buryingthe vocals in the instrumentation. Kineticpercussion, bass, and electronic effectscompete with the singers to draw the listen-er in, giving the somewhat prosaic lyrics anodd grandeur. Taken literally, the messagescarried here are simply variations on the oldequations of sex, 'romance. and dancing,cut to lines and riffs found on any number ofvenerable r&b workouts. Yet the playing istoo hypnotic to lump these performances inwith assembly -line funk.

In that respect, Material is reminiscentof Detroit's Was (Not Was), even if thetexts never reach for the dense poetry of thatduo. Here, the studio crew variouslyemploys funk and disco veterans like vocal-ist Nona Hendryx and Chic's Nile Rodgerson guitar, credentialed jazz mavericks likesaxophonists Oliver Lake and ArchieShepp, and bona fide rock eccentrics like

guitarist Fred Frith. The rest of the playersare equally inspired, enabling Beinhorn,Laswell, and Bisi to shape a rich gumbo oftimbres into some irresistibly danceablemusic that ultimately reveals some dauntinggoals. SAM SUTHERLAND

Kate and Anna McGarrigle:Love Over and OverKate, Anna, & Jane McGarrigle,producers. Polydor 422-810

Love Over and Over" is a vinyl rarity.Initially released in Canada late last year, itis a beguiling collection of songs aboutfamily life, love, and romance by Kate andAnna McGarrigle. It's ironic that this, theirfifth and finest LP, had to prove itself inanother country before being releasedhere.

Like that other gang of songwritingsiblings, the Roches, the McGarrigles makemusic that is eccentric and personal anddeceptively blithe. But whereas the Rochesteeter on cuteness, Kate and Anna cut astraighter, emotionally keener piece ofcloth. On "Love Over and Over," Anna(who penned the Linda Ronstadt hit Heartlike a Wheel) offers Sun. Son (Shining onthe Water), a wonderful, waltzy portrait ofa father and his son. On the title track,which shuffles along on the bouyant, bluesyguitar of Mark Knopfler, the two sing inharmony-Anna high and clear, Kate lowand goofy-about the dizzying, stultifyingeffects of romantic love. With a wry refer-ence to another batch of sisters, the Bron-tes, the pair describes the utter befuddle-ment that love spawns, turning them "Overand over and over . . . till my tongue spiralsout of my head."

Along with Dire Straits' frontmanKnopfler, the McGarrigles are backed by atop-flight group of musicians: GuitaristsAlun Davies and Andrew Cowan, bassistPat Donaldson, and drummer Gerry Con-way, who infuses even the oddest num-bers-Kate's The Work Song and MidnightFlight-with a steady, determined back -

beat.

The sisters' last disc was sung entirelyin French. Here, they perform a looselytranslated version of Bob Seger's You'llAccompany Me called Tu Vas M'Accompa-gner. Like the "French Record," it doesn'tmatter whether you know the language ornot. The song is a winsome piece of popthat demonstrates both the sense of playfulfun and breadth of pop music knowledgethat the McGarrigles have at their com-mand. STEVEN X. REA

Randy Newman: Trouble in ParadiseLenny Waronker & Russ Titelman,producers.Warner Bros. 23755

Since cracking through his longstandingcult status with 1977's "Little Criminals,"Randy Newman has added a livelier if more

72HIGH FIDELITY

conventional pop -rock sweep to his music.He has also shifted his topical focus toinclude privileged hipsters and high -rollersas well as the losers, oddballs, and histori-cal figures that once dominated his work.Those threads are knitted even more closelyon "Trouble in Paradise," a quasi -concep-tual collection that its author has alreadyhinted is a travelog.

Inevitably, Newman's practiced andjaundiced eye is drawn to the darker detailsin his landscape, which here traces a pathfrom Southern California (the giddy yetgrim I Love L. A.) to South Africa, withstops in Miami, New England, and less spe-cific middle class stomping grounds. Apartfrom two delicate ballads (Same Girl andReal Emotional Girl) that share the subduedmelancholy and solo piano focus of New -man's late '60s works, the album employs arich palette of rock and pop instrumentationand sly production effects.

As always, it's the characters them-selves who set much of the tone, dramatiz-ing the disparity between their implicitmaterial comfort and the shadows plaguingtheir Good Life. And if Newman reflectshis own upscale circumstances through hisfascination with the denizens of Bel -Air,he's no less fearless in creating decidedlyunsympathetic personae. My Life Is Good isa smug hymn of self -love intoned by a Bev-erly Hills Babbitt who brags about his live-in Mexican housekeeper, his kids being in

private schools, and his licentious designson a friend's wife. He even claims BruceSpringsteen as a close personal friend. Inone of the record's silliest, most deliciousmoments, he recounts how a weary Spring-steen has asked his pal "Rand" to take overas Boss. Newman's delighted agreement,backlit by synthesized choirs, is pure Dis-ney, while the chorus is pure SpikeJones.

His comedic skills also shine on TakeMe Back, the perky reggae lament of ahard-working middle class boy whose Stan-ford diploma is cold comfort for a ruinouslove life. But Newman is at his best whenthe laughs he inspires ultimately curdle inthe light of more menacing themes. Party atMy House runs through a series of sock -hopclichés to twist into an unnerving hint ofsexual bondage for a hapless guest. Mikeyunexpectedly leaps into the mechanisticrhythms and grating electronic textures oftechnopop as its aging everyman narratorwatches the world around him changebeyond recognition. In its strikingly briefset of lines, Newman manages to compressromantic despair, racism, and even a dollopof musical criticism: "Didn't used to be thisugly music playin' all the time," he com-plains against the squealing electronicdin.

That song is one of several whereNewman acts more than sings his part,underlining the conversational acuity of the

lyrics. On Christmas in Capetown, he doessing an edgy melody, but the message hasthe directness of a dispiriting, overheardconversation. Even in his incongruousdrawl, this glimpse into the embitteredworld of a white South African is sober-ing.

Production on "Trouble in Paradise"is lavish and the auxiliary crew of rock andpop singers impressive: Paul Simon, LindaRonstadt, Lindsey Buckingham, ChristineMc Vie, Don Henley, Bob Seger, and otherluminaries. But while their presence willdoubtless add commercial allure, this is stillNewman's show. Its scale may be largerthan the close -focus miniatures that gavehis early work such emotional force, but themusic justifies these larger frames.

SAM SUTHERLAND

Ray Parker Jr.: Greatest HitsRay Parker Jr., producerArista AL 9612

I don't know Ray Parker Jr.'s marital sta-tus, but if anybody deserves to be Cosmo-politan's Bachelor of the Month, he does.Through five albums, first with his groupRaydio and more recently as a sumptuousone -man -band, he has spun out stylishlysultry love songs notable for their crisp exe-cution and new -man attitude. Parker maybe dazzled by his own bedroom eyes, buthe's also looking for pleasure for two. In

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BAC K BEAT Reviews

I he I eleti\ff,,n:11,11%11,,a. Richard Lloyd. Iona Verlaine, Fred Smith

the soulful pop grooVe A Woman NeedsLove, he explains that "a woman needslove, just like you do," and reminds thefellas that she can also cheat, just like theydo.

A multi -instrumentalist who cut histeeth playing guitar on Motown sessionsand later with Boz Scaggs and Herbie Han-cock, Parker arranges his tunes as smoothlyas his seductions. Though irresistible fin-ger -poppers, his uptempo songs are bestcharacterized as soft funk, with the beatswaddled in squiggly synthesizer lines andbacked by a full-bodied, bouncing bass.For Those Who Like to Groove is an insin-uating instrumental that conjures up Chic,while Bad Boy cuts a rockier beat with Par-ker promising to do the dishes if his babywill let her wayward man come home. Flip-ping the coin, on the lush ballad Let MeGo-which, like much of the album,makes liberal use of background voices-he tells his love to walk unless she's readyto make a commitment.

Parker is so old-fashioned that heseems almost modern. Instead of being anold-style breather like Barry White or a newwave outrage like Prince, he wears his sen-suality like a silk shirt. A longterm roman-tic who hasn't soured, he's the guy on ThatOld Song who remembers an old flamethrough a lyric and a melody. More than afew lovers will find some of their favoriteson "Greatest Hits"; for others, it's a finealbum with which to begin an affair.

JOHN MILWARD

Party Party SoundtrackVarious producersA&M SP 3212

On the soundtrack of the not -yet -releasedmovie Party Party, Dave Edmunds gets

another chance to indulge his Chuck Berryhero-worship, the Police's Sting bashes outa '50s rocker and takes a stab at r&b emot-ing, Davoid Bowie and Bob Marley are paidsincere homage, and a rant by the Sex Pis-tols is turned almost chipper by the femalegroup Bananarama. The score travels allover the map, zigzags back and forth intime, and is alternately giddy and doggedlyearnest. From the stills on the LP cover andthe description in the press kit, Party Partylooks like one more youth -targeted sex -and -music comedy-this one takes placeon a rowdy New Year's Eve-but its com-panion LP is of more than routine interest,if only for what it reveals about the influ-ences on modern British rock.

Elvis Costello has written the title songthat makes the party sound somewhat grim,Madness does its own Driving in My Car,and Bad Manners performs an original Eliz-abethan Reggae with all the verve of Book-er T. & the M.G.s after too many bottles ofRed Stripe beer. But the premise behindmost of the score is having some ofEngland's top artists interpret songs notassociated with them, and the combinationsare at times witty and revealing. AlteredImages, led by the always -chirpy ClareGrogan, is more purposefully sprightly onDel Shannon's Little Town Flirt (whichtakes on a new angle as a girl warning aboy, rather than one male tipping off anoth-er) than on most of the band's own too -ephemeral material. Another gender -trans-ferral, by Modern Romance, takes the Dun-bar -Wayne hit Band of Gold (with a touchof Also sprach Zarathustra interpolated)and shifts the blame for the honeymoonnight fiasco, thus making the song less psy-chologically intriguing.

Not all of the cover versions are suc-cessful. Bad Manners' Yakety Yak is sloppy

revivalism on the level of Showaddywaddyor Sha Na Na, and much as he tries to injecthis vocal with the appropriate spirit, Stinglacks the roaring abandon essential to TuttiFrutti. He makes a better showing on theLittle Willie John ballad, Need Your LoveSo Bad, with producer/lead guitarist Ed-munds playing straight blues licks as hehasn't since his tenure with Love Sculpture.Edmunds also does a faithful -to -the -sourceRun Rudolph Run, a Berry Christmas songhe first approached a decade ago.

While Edmunds bows to the rock &roll of the U.S., younger musicians fromEngland look not as far afield, and not as farback, for their inspiration, with Midge Ure(of Ultravox) doing Bowie, and Bananara-ma bringing back No Feelings from theJohnny Rotten songbook. If nothing else,by encompassing Little Willie John and theSex Pistols, "Party Party" makes a curiouscase for the continuity of the rock experi-ence. MITCHELL COHEN

Singles: The GreatNew York Singles SceneTom Goodkind, executive producerReachout International Records A 116Television: The Blow UpSteve Rolbovsky, executive producerReachout International Records A 114(611 Broadway, Suite 214, New York,N.Y. 10012) [cassettes only]

"I've got something to hide here calleddesire," snaps Patti Smith on her 1974debut single Piss Factory, spitting out herNew Jersey -accented words over a vampingblues piano. "I'm going to get on that trainand go to New York City and I'm going tobe somebody." Not just anybody. "I'mgonna be a big star and I will never return."This is her first record, cut at Jimi Hendrix'Electric Lady studios; she ends it by saying,"Watch me now."

Smith, who has since dropped out ofthe pop life to become a Michigan mom,leads off "Singles: The Great New YorkSingles Scene," a cassette -only collectionof songs that were considered hits in thelate -'70s in punk/new wave dives likeCBGB's. Most of the numbers aren't verygood, as conveniently hinted at by the pack-aging. Patti, Television, and Richard Helland the Voidoids are headlined in hugetype; the other eleven acts' names are halftheir size. But stars need a scene in which toflourish, and that's what this recording isabout-the scene.

In addition to Piss Factory, Side I

contains Television's Little Johnny Jewel,in its original skeletal form, and Hell'spunk anthem Blank Generation, which hadmore ferocity on his Sire debut. Thoughthere are some hidden (and altogether sub-jective) charms in the other tracks, there'salso a lot of bad singing by groups notableonly in name (the Erasers, the Mumps, theSpeedies). It's no accident that the three"stars" are contained within Side I and the

74 HIGH FIDELITY

group Marble starts off the flip with thebouncy Red Lights. Part of Reachout Inter-national Records' rationale for marketingcassettes is consumer convenience: If youget sick of the prerecorded material, youcan always record over it. Still, much ofwhat these bands were scratching atevolved into slicker movements of themoment, from power pop to commercial-ized new wave. The cassette comes com-plete with liner notes, band histories, and aspecial guarantee: "All Bands 100% Certi-fied Split Up," which is to say that some ofthem only a mother could miss.

I'd recommend punching out the safe-ty tabs on Television's "The Blow Up."Here is eighty -five -minutes' worth ofincendiary guitar rock that builds a bridgebetween stone-gray Manhattan and psyche-delic San Francisco that's decidedly worthpreserving. One of punk's principles wasthat anybody could be creative (except,maybe, fat old rock stars). Solos were sus-pect; guitars played loud, all right, but itwas the cacophonous rhythms, not the indi-vidual lines that caught people's fancy.Television broke that rule: Tom Verlaine'ssongs were often spun from cascading leadlines that emphasized the different tonesemployed by his and Richard Lloyd's gui-tars. Where Lloyd rounded his attack withreverb and sustain, Verlaine more oftenscreeched raw and rough, a razor bladefracturing his fretboard. His rhythm wouldestablish a pattern, and then his solos wouldskirt off the edge only to return and leaveagain. Verlaine's guitar playing is closestto, of all unpunky people, Neil Young.Both men defy nonemotional standards ofvirtuosity.

Television released two albums onElektra, and most of the material on itsdebut, "Marquee Moon," is performedlive on "The Blow Up." Side 1 sticks tostudio arrangements for the most part, andconsequently adds few new twists to thegroup's recorded repertoire; Verlaine's wa-fer-thin voice even suffers by comparison.Later in the set, however, beginning withFoxhole and kicking in with a cover ofDylan's Knockin' on Heaven's Door, thecassette captures a looser side of Televisionnot found on its albums. Heaven's Doorsounds like New Mexico in a lightningstorm and underscores Verlaine's absorp-tion of Dylan's style of cryptic poetry andJim Morrison's fondness for atmosphericbravura. Still another version of Little John-ny Jewel, in which the protagonist "had nodecision, he's just tryin' to tell a vision,"applies those same dark visions to moreurban terrain.

"The Blow Up" is close -your -eyesmusic, where your mind follows guitars upa blind alley and out through a hole in thewall. The goal is nothing more or less thanto evoke the moment-a sweaty club, nosleep, rhythm, spilled beers, electricitycoursing through the amplifiers and out intothe thick air. Punk/new wave was about art

Squeeze's Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook: Leiber and Stoller of the '80s

and fun for the here and now, and you canpractically taste the New York scene in thesweep of Side 2, listening to one of the era'smost vital bands find some exhilaratingsense in it all. JOHN MILWARD

Dusty Springfield: White HeatHoward Steele & Dusty Springfield,producers. Casablanca NBLP 7271

This is a real surprise: Dusty Springfieldsinging some top-notch tunes with the sameclass and breathy verve that marked herstring of '60s hits-Stay Awhile, You Don'tHave to Say You Love Me, and I Only Wantto Be with You (the last having been recent-ly botched up by Nicolette Larson). Withmaterial from the likes of Elvis Costello,Sting, and keyboardist/composer Jean -Alain Roussel, "White Heat" is easily herbest album in over a decade.

Perhaps unavoidably, commercialconcessions have been made. GuitaristsCaleb Quaye and Steve Sykes. pianistNicky Hopkins, and a revolving team ofrhythm sessionists fashion a crackling,modern sound whose beat -heavy, glossyelectronic mix recalls the slick pop of KimCarnes. But nine times out of ten.. Spring-field bests the gravelly voiced Carnes. Thearrangements may be similar, but Spring-field's singing is seductive and cool, notabrasive and affected.

And she brings something different toeach song. She is both sexy and sardonic onDonnez Moi (Give It to Me), a punchy, sul-try dance track that virtually sheens withbright keyboard embellishments. Her wa-vering vocals on Costello's Losing You arespiked with a tough, taut edged. In a way,Springfield's version is harder than Costel-lo's, less sentimental. The charged -up funkromp / Don't Think We Could Ever Be

Friends, which the Police's String had ahand in writing, finds her singing like shewas in the mood for a big party.

A few tunes-notably / Am Curiousand Blind Sheep, with its heavy-handedmetaphors-don't quite make the grade,but they're quickly swallowed up by thesmart, soulful pop that surrounds them.Though "White Heat" is nowhere near themasterpiece that "Dusty in Memphis" is,it's certainly as sharp and assured as any-thing Springfield has done since that 1969classic. STEVEN X. REA

Squeeze: Singles -45s and UnderVarious producersA&M SP 4922

In retrospect, the breakup of the Britishband Squeeze was inevitable. It was badenough that the group, formed in the mid -'70s by guitarist/lyricist Chris Difford andguitarist/vocalist/composer Glenn Til-brook, was likened to the Beatles at everyturn. Worse still was the hoopla accordedthis undeniably great songwriting partner-ship: the comparisons not only to Lennonand McCartney, but to Gilbert and Sulli-van, Leiber and Stoller, and Rodgers andHart. To read some of the critics, Diffordand Tilbrook were the biggest thing to hap-pen to music since the piano.

In addition, Squeeze always operatedin a state of flux. Difford, Tilbrook, anddrummer Gilson Lavis stuck it out from thebeginning. But there were three keyboard-ists-including quirky blues buff JoolsHolland and Paul Carrack (who sang leadon Tempted, Squeeze's one certified Amer-ican hit)-a couple of bassists, producersas diverse as John Cale and Elvis Costello,and to put it mildly, a lot of managerial

MARCH 1983 75

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BACKBEAT Reviewshassles. So, after six years of roaring suc-cess in its homeland and modest commer-cial inroads in the States, it's hardly surpris-ing that Squeeze threw in the proverbialtowel at the end of last year.

As a farewell present to its U.S. fans,the quintet left "Singles -45s and Under,"a twelve -tune collection that includes astring of the band's peppy, pugnaciousU.K. chart -toppers (Goodbye Girl, Coolfor Cats, Up the Junction) and a hefty doseof would-be American greatest hits fromthe last. two studio albums, "East Side Sto-ry" and "Sweets from a Stranger."There's also the heretofore unreleasedAnnie Get Your Gun, one of the last tracksthe group recorded. Like the best of Diffordand Tilbrook's compositions, it is a heady,exuberant affair marked by a lot of deft dou-ble-entendres and a melody that clangs mer-rily along on the buoyant rhythms of theduo's guitars. The rousing chorus is cheer-ful, sly, and endearingly funny.

The other material here-the skip-ping -record rhymes of If! Didn't Love You,the wistful, Beatle-ish Is That Love, Anoth-er Nail in My Heart, Pulling Mussels (fromthe Shell), and the pop r&b of Tempted andBlack Coffee in Bed-provides apt testa-ment to Squeeze's achievements. A wackybrand of romanticism pervades Difford'sportraits of working-class characters whospend most of their time drinking them-selves under the table and falling head overheels in love. These short-storylike vi-gnettes are invariably framed in a spry,boppy flurry of harmonies and hooks. Thesongs have all the right ingredients: wit,intelligence, and melodies that just won'tquit.

Though Squeeze has disbanded, Dif-ford and Tilbrook, by all reports, are intenton continuing their collaboration. This isgood news, indeed. Until more is heardfrom them, "Singles -45s and Under" isan eminently listenable legacy.

STEVEN X. REA

jazz

The Complete Charlie Barnet:Vol. 5, 1940-41;Vol. 6, 1941-42Frank Driggs, producerRCA -Bluebird AXM 2-5587; AXM 2-5590(two discs per set)

These two sets represent the final install-ments in RCA -Bluebird's "CompleteCharlie Barnet" series. Initiated five yearsago, the finished collection covers thebandleader's RCA years from 1935 to1942, providing an overview of a signifi-cant Swing Era band in the process ofgrowth and development. Although never

mentioned in the same breath with BennyGoodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, orTommy Dorsey, the Barnet band wasequally interesting and much more fun.When it got going, it had an exultant drive,spurred along by Barnet's crisp, barking,highly individualistic saxophone, BillyMay's and Bobby Burnet's rough -toned,cutting trumpet work, and the brilliantdrumming of Cliff Leeman.

Vols. 5 and 6 show the band on theloose in its own wildly swinging world onMurder at. Peyton Hall and Wild Mab of theFish Pond. Barnet's love affair with DukeEllington's music is documented in the bestnon -Ellington performances ever of suchpieces as The Sergeant Was Shy, Birming-ham Breakdown, Merry -Go -Round, Har-lem Speaks, and Ring Dem Bells. (A six-teen -year -old Barnet rang the bells onDuke's original 1930 recording.) Also hereare some unusual interpretations of suchestablished tunes as !'m Comin' Virginiaand Blues in the Night. Like every '30s and'40s big band, Barnet had his share of pophorrors of the moment. But by 1940 and '41he had managed to put some interest intothem, primarily through his warm, full-bodied tenor and soprano saxophones.

Barnet's RCA career unfortunatelywound up with two dismal sessions, oneincluding a then -fashionable violin section,the other consisting of three dreary songssung by one Al Lane. Still, the series fin-ishes on a high note with two unissued,exhilarating performances from 1939:Knockin' on the Famous Door and ClapHands, Here Comes Charlie.

Barnet was one of the bright spots ofthe Swing Era. He never got the red carpettreatment that RCA gave his peers, but hisrecords, bridging the chasm between blackand white bands, had a unique quality thatstill sets them apart. JOHN S. WILSON

Doc Cheatham & Sammy Price:Black BeautyJohn Norris & Bill Smith, producersSackville 3029

Trumpeter Doc Cheatham was born in 1905and pianist Sammy Price in 1908. Both menare almost as old as jazz itself, both havebeen active in it throughout their long lives.They have known first-hand the paths blackmusicians had to follow to get an opportu-nity to play. Now in their seventies, theyare vital, vigorous, and highly expressivemusicians who serve as a living link with anearlier era. When they play the songs ofblack American songwriters on "BlackBeauty," they are not reaching toward adim past, they are passing along the musicwith which they grew up.

The writers represented here includeEubie Blake, James P. Johnson, J.C. John-son, Fats Waller, W.C. Handy, Louis Arm-strong, Shelton Brooks, Will Marion Cook,and the team of Creamer and Layton. The

Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.L ___76 HIGH FIDELITY

songs are all recognized American clas-sics-Some of These Days, After You'veGone, Old Fashioned Love, I'm ComingVirginia, Squeeze Me, Memphis Blues, andI've Got a Feeling I'm Falling, among oth-ers.

Doc's approach on trumpet is muted,warm -toned, and singing. The exception isI'm Coming Virginia, usually a subduednumber, on which he blows a strong, openhorn. The unquenchable Sammy comes onstrong on everything-swinging, takingbreaks, rolling his boogie figures. He's theblues man, Doc the melodist. Betweenthem they give these classic tunes a warm,bluesy, emotional appeal. They are com-pletely at home in this idiom and they con-vey it beautifully. JOHN S. WILSON

Meredith d'Ambrosio: Little Jazz BirdHerb Wong, producerPalo Alto PA 8019 (755 Mill Page Rd.,Palo Alto, Calif. 94304)

Meredith d'Ambrosio is not a singer whocatches your attention immediately. She istoo low-keyed and seemingly unprepos-sessing. What does catch your attention on"Little Jazz Bird" is her choice of material.Basically, it is less appropriate for a jazzaudience than for a supper -club audience-the kind that appreciated Mabel Mercer,Lee Wiley, Teddi King, and Mildred Bai-ley.

The songs come from a fascinatinglywide variety of sources. Little Jazz Bird is1920s George and Ira Gershwin. Thecharming The Wine of May and the sensi-tive Songbird (a tribute inspired by King)are Loonis McGlohon's; if he wrote nothingelse, they alone would put him in the song -writing pantheon. There is a funny lyric byGene Lees. Self Defense Waltz, and an evenwittier piece, Clichés, by a trio of writersthat includes pianist Harold Danko. DaveFrishberg's somewhat obscure Our LoveRolls On is balanced by Spring in Manhat-tan, a Blossom Deane standard. The teamsof Mack Gordon and Harry Revel and Sam-my Cahn and Jimmy van Heusen contributeone number each from the pop music mills,and an interesting new songwriter, DeborahHenson -Conant, adds two more.

What does D' Ambrosio's perfor-mance have to do with jazz? Like Wiley,Bailey, and King, she wisely surrounds her-self with great jazz musicians. The basicaccompaniment is Phil Woods's quartet,with Hank Jones sitting in on piano. Woodsis the strongest and most pliable instrumen-tal voice; bassist Steve Gilmore and drum-mer Bill Goodwin are close seconds. Withthis kind of support, D'Ambrosio does nothave to worry about stretching her limitedvocal range and can concentrate instead onphrasing and interpretation.

A few pieces with string quartet.rhythm, and Woods on clarinet show her togreat advantage. And when she accompa-

nies herself on piano, the close relationshipbetween her playing and singing parallelsthe homespun quality of Hoagy Carmi-chael's blend. JOHN S. WILSON

David Lahm: Real Jazz for theFolks Who Feel JazzBarry Rogers, Bernard Fox, & DavidLahm, producers. Palo Alto PA 8027

Being the son of IYricist Dorothy Fields (/Can't Give You Anything But Love, On theSunny Side of the Street, Exactly like You)may have opened some doors for pianist -composer David Lahm, but it may alsohave created suspicions of trading on herreputation. Lahm has been soloing, accom-panying, and playing with various groupsaround New York for several years withoutbreaking through from the musical fringes."Real Jazz for the Folks Who Feel Jazz,"his first album, may change that.

He uses his own compositions or lyrics(set to tunes by Chick Corea and RichieCole), a dangerous programming ploy for arecording debutant. But his writing is com-municative and varied, an attribute that alsoapplies to his performing context: Ratherthan working with a single group, he uses arevolving cast of refreshing and individual-istic instrumentalists and one very distinc-tive vocalist. Janet Lawson. Gary Valenteand Barry Rogers are both huge -toned,exultant trombonists; Bob Moses and JoeLaBarbera are sensitive and explosivedrummers; Roger Rosenberg is a marvel-ously rugged baritone saxophonist who alsoplays flute and soprano sax with flair; JohnD'earth is a crisply electrifying trumpetplayer.

With all these elements, Lahm createsa kaleidoscope of sounds and themes thatrange from the clear, easy, Basie-like swingof I'm Taking the Day Off to the exploratoryIndianapolis Blues. He plays two numberswith vibraharpist David Friedman, one ofwhich, Half Moon Bay, is a beautifullywoven pairing that manages to be bothinsistent and hesitant, creating a tantalizingtension.

Lahm presents his compositions in thebest possible light. There are no self-serv-ing, long-winded piano solos to distractfrom the merits of his writing; when he doessolo, it is in context. "Real Jazz . . ." is anextremely well thought-out album thatannounces the arrival of an important andinteresting jazz musician. JOHN S WILSON

Arnie Lawrence: RenewalArnie Lawrence, producerPalo Alto PA 8033

Composer -saxophonist Arnie Lawrence isone of life's constant learners. His curiosityand responsiveness have taken him fromDixieland to free jazz, with stops at almostevery genre along the way. This album pro-vides an overview of his varied career. He

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Murray: an ambitious attempt that has its share of problems

himself calls "Renewal" "an accumula-tion of my musical life up till now . . . per-haps a doorway to the future."

The tunes include Treat Style by Jim-my Garrison, a bassist with whom Law-rence played after John Coltrane's death;Poinciana, which he used as a theme for aradio show in Kentucky; and A Secret Love,from his days with Clark Terry's band. Lov-er Man, one of his personal favorites, fea-tures its composer Ram Ramirez at the pia-no. Drummer Chico Hamilton provides therhythmic foundation for Liza Is Her Name,a piece that reflects Arnie's interest in Latinbands.

All of the above relates to variousphases of his life. In addition Lawrenceleads a quartet of individuals-Hilton Ruizon piano, Mike Richmond on bass, BillyHart on drums-who can meld their dis-tinctive personalities into a cohesive whole.His own alto and soprano saxophone play-ing never imitates anyone else's and neverreaches for clichés. For Lawrence is him-self in whatever form the moment suggests,pouring more than a quarter of a century oflearning into each of his self-styled and var-ied settings. His music has always been anadventure, and never more rewardingly sothan on "Renewal." JOHN S. WILSON

David Murray Octet: HomeDavid Murray, producerBlack Saint BSR 0055 (Polygram SpecialImports, 137 W. 55 St.,New York, N.Y. 10019)

The last several months have seen therelease of at least three large -group record-ings in the contemporary jazz vein: "WhenWas That?" (About Time) by the HenryThreadgill Sextet, "Blues Forever" (BlackSaint) by Muhal Richard Abrams' big band,and now "Home" by the David Murray

octet. Though the small group is a fairlywell -established and flexible context for theavant-garde, the large ensemble is not. Partof the reason is pure economics: Club own-ers just won't book more than four or livepieces anymore, preventing the biggergroups from working out their musicalproblems on a nightly basis. As a result,many composers/bandleaders have givenup on large-scale projects. While "Home"has its share of problems, it would be ashame to fault as gifted a writer as Murrayfor his ambitious attempts.

Murray's range as a soloist is quitebroad-from the lyricism of Ornette Cole-man to the raunchiness of Earl Bostic andthe playful humor of Sonny Rollins. Hiswriting has similar scope and, like Thread -gill (who appears as a sideman here), heuses such devices as contrasting sectionwork and uninhibited atonal riffs to exhibithis soloists to great advantage. UnlikeThreadgill, he tends to use more contrapun-tal lines and long improvised sections thanscored tutti passages. At times, the inter-play of soloist and section develops into aswing so remorseless I'm reminded ofJohnny Griffin's Big Soul Band of yearsago. This is particularly true of 3-D Family,an apt title in view of the multidimension-ality of Murray's writing. In fact, most ofthe tunes are accurately described by theirtitles-Blues Choctaw, Home, Last of theHipmen.

"Home" is full of what reviewers liketo call "raw energy" and lacking in subtle-ty and tonal shading. No amount of greatsoloing by George Lewis, Olu Dara, oranyone else can compensate. Still, Murrayis only twenty-seven years old, andalthough he has appeared on umpteen dif-ferent records as sideman and leader, this isonly his second octet album. He is to becommended for a ground -breaking effort.

JOE BLUM

Resnick: one of a kind

Ephie Resnick & Marty Grosz:The End of InnocenceEphie Resnick, producerMark Records (c/o Ephie Resnick, 31-2782nd St., Jackson Heights, N.Y. 11370)

This is a most unusual album. Ephie Res-nick is a trombonist with a stirringly broad,lusty attack and a musical sensitivity befit-ting a Juilliard graduate. He started a prom-ising jazz career in the early '50s with WildBill Davison, but financial need led him tothe Broadway pit orcheitras, where heremained until a severe accident incapaci-tated him. During his convalescence, hedecided he had paid enough dues: It wastime to get back into jazz.

To make that reentry, he would needan audition tape. His bank book dictatedthat it would have to be inexpensive, so theband for the occasion was reduced to thesmallest possible number-two: Resnickon trombone and Marty Grosz on guitar.With the former calling the tunes as theywent along, they taped duets of such oldjazz and pop standards as Runnin' Wild,Dixieland One -Step, Don't Blame Me, andAvalon. The result-this record-is, to putit bluntly, absolutely wonderful.

Trombone and guitar may seem a rath-er awkward pairing, but not in the hands ofResnick and Grosz. Resnick is so fluent, hisphrasing so propulsive, his shading so sen-sitive, his tone so warmly burry and idiom-atically trombonistic that the instrumenttakes on new or unexplored qualities.Grosz's light, delicate, and rhythmic back-ing lends a soft coloring to the trombone'ssometimes -gruff sound, and his own unac-companied guitar solos swing beautifully.

"The End of Innocence" was intend-ed for audition purposes, but it is also avail-able (by mail) to those interested in sheerlistening pleasure. JOHN S. WILSON(Continued on page 82)

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80 HIGH FIDELITY

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INPUT OUTPUT(Continued from page 69)the sound you finally get will probably begood. In a not so good studio, not so good.With a drum machine, the studio itselfbecomes less important.

Wilt drum machines make their humancounterparts an endangered species? Yesand no. A good drummer is hard to comeby; for those bandleaders frustrated withtheir current, less -than -adequate one, a

machine may be a viable alternative. On theother hand, these machines, like comput-ers, are only as good as their programmers.And both producers and artists are findingthat the best programmers are drummers-the people who have spent many yearslearning the subtleties of integrating percus-sion sounds with other instruments. BeforeBralower and I formed a partnership, I didmy preproduction work solo, using a

Roland DR -55 and a TR-808. That workedfairly wel, but I'm no drummer. Braloweris, and the difference in time saved and cre-ative ideas generated is, well, astounding. Ialso feel that electronic drums are mosteffective when used in combination withreal drums. We did this on Kurtis Blow'sEP "Tough," using just the bass drumfrom a TR-808. Judging from most of therecords out today, this appears to be themost popular application.

Each of the machines has its own dis-tinct signature. As mentioned earlier, Hu-man League's albums are pure Linn drum.The strangely overechoed claps and tinnyhi -hat at the beginning of Marvin Gaye'sSexual Healing are a dead giveaway:Roland TR-808. That company's first andmost basic box, Dr. Rhythm (DR -55), ispretty unrealistic sounding but still vastlymore pleasant to listen to than (and is oftenused instead of) a studio's click track. Youcan also get some incredible syncopationsfrom it. In fact I'd highly recommend it ifyou're in the market for a reasonablypriced, basic unit. The TR-808 and KorgKRP-77 still have a somewhat syntheticsound, but the former is nevertheless usedon many records (including my own), aswill undoubtedly be true of the brand new,slightly less complicated Korg. (Space hasprevented including the Roland TR-606Drumatrix on the chart, but anyone interest-ed in a medium-priced-$395-machineshouldn't overlook it.)

As for the high-priced spread, the Linnand the Oberheim DMX both have abso-lutely mind -boggling capabilities. The Linnsounds more like the real thing, but Ober-heim has said it will be providing new chipsfor a more natural sound in the near future.If you're thinking that drum machines willgo the way of the Hula Hoop, you'rewrong. For the drummer and the nondrum-ming artist, writer, or producer, they'reboth a godsend and good fun. But they'reserious business too: Just listen to them onMichael Jackson's "Thriller," and thenwatch the record shoot up the charts. HF

MARCH 198381

BACKBEAT ReviewsADVERTISING INDEX

ReaderService #59 Angel Records

ADS

63 American International

7 Audio Spot

52 Audio-Technica U.S. Inc.

Delco

51 Discount Music Club

53 Discwasher, Inc.

19 Hi Fi Buys

15 Jensen Car Stereo

27 J & R Music WorldJVC Company of America

Illinois Audio

Page No.4

3

76

71

2

Cover III

77

Cover IV

57

13

73

5

35

16 Institute of Audio Research 12

18 LaBelle Camera & Stereo

12 Maxell Corp.

56 McIntosh Laboratories

3 Mobile Fidelity

9 Pioneer Video

15

17

19

14

Cover II

14 Sansui Electronics Corp.

Sennheiser Electronics Corp.

50 Shure Brothers, Inc.

29 Stereo Corp. of America

20 Tandberg

10 TDK Electronics Corp.

43 Wisconsin Discount

7

20

11

77

4

9

19

Coltrane: soprano sax debut Cornetist Don Cherry

The Cutting Edge RevisitedJohn Coltrane & Don Cherry:The Avant -GardeNesuhi Ertegun, producerAtlantic Jazzlore 90041-1

At the time this recording was made, 1960,its title was quite accurate. John Coltranehad left the Miles Davis band to become theprimary influence on the tenor saxophonescene; cornetist Don Cherry was a veryactive partner in Ornette Coleman's trend-setting new group.

Despite both players' credentials asleaders of the burgeoning avant-garde,together they represented a curious amal-gam of styles. Coltrane's roots clearly werein harmony -based improvisation. As hematured, his point of view expanded toinclude modes and scales as the basis for hisplaying. Cherry, on the other hand, wasfirst heard nationally in the free -blowingColeman group. Although he clearly had aDavis -based sound and style, his improvi-sations tended to slip and slide through avariety of chromatically oriented points ofview.

Surprisingly, the two styles workedquite well together. Three Coleman tuneson "The Avant-Garde"-Focus on Sanity,The Blessing, and The Invisible-help pro-vide Cherry with a familiar starting point.Thelonious Monk's Bemsha Swing wasfamiliar to both players. And surprisingly,Cherry's quite traditional Cherryco seemedto stimulate one of Coltrane's better solos.Listening to it today, one is impressed withhow easily Coltrane adapted to the "free"improvisational style. About halfwaythrough he is quite literally all over theinstrument, probing some of its "noise"devices in a way that few players will risk,even today. Yet he does so in the context oforder. Throughout, he continually refers toa recurring B flat (C on the tenor). Thisfocus point easily and simply holds theentire improvisation together.

Recorded a few months before themore celebrated My Favorite Things, TheBlessing marks Coltrane's vinyl debut onsoprano sax. In 1960, the instrument wasgenerally viewed as an antiquarian survivorfrom New Orleans jazz; only Steve Lacywas effectively using it in a contemporarystyle. Coltrane dramatically pulled it intothe vanguard of jazz. His solo here is morein the style of his tenor playing than wouldbe true somewhat later. He soars up anddown the instrument's two registers, build-ing a solo out of an accretion of repetitions,scales, modes, etc., that gradually takeshape. The method is not dissimilar fromthat employed by Indian classical musi-cians.

Cherry's improvising survives far lesswell than Coltrane's. Clearly he feels mostcomfortable in the unrestricted confines ofthe Coleman pieces. On Focus on Sanity,for example, one gets a sense of manyspurted -out phrases, usually played in thesame middle register. Yet, in the first half,the phrases never come together into a larg-er whole. Toward the end, however, hedoes open up his line, alternating therepeated eighth notes with long phrases,high -reaching squeals, etc. On The Bless-ing Cherry's Harmon -muted solo is anarticulate Davis clone. On The Invisible heloosens up more and tries to break out of hisself-imposed prison of repeated eighthnotes.

Coltrane and Cherry are backed ex-tremely well by the rhythm team of CharlieHaden and Ed Blackwell on Cherryco andThe Blessing; Haden's replacement by Per-cy Heath on the balance of the tracks is lesssuccessful. Twenty -some years later, thereal value of this reissue lies in the playingof Coltrane. Challenged by a newly emerg-ing avant-garde of young players, he placedhimself in a position of leadership. "TheAvant -Garde" provides a very clear pictureof how he did it. DON HECKMAN

Y -12-

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