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TWELVE BEST RECORDS OF THE YEAR

EUGENE ORMANDY Symphonic Music

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Stereo ReviewKulaEdited by Christie Barter and Gordon Sell

PRE -CHRISTMAS RECORD SALES were goodenough for the RIAA to certify twentyalbums gold in the month of Novemberalone, each signifying sales of over500,000 LP's and cassettes. It was thebiggest month for gold certificationsin nearly two years and one of thethree best since the market began toshrink in 1979. Among the Novembergold titles were Billy Joel's "TheNylon Curtain," Elton John's "JumpUp," the Clash's "Combat Rock," andOlivia Newton -John's "Greatest Hits,Vol. II." Newton -John's album wasalso certified platinum.

MOTOROLA'S AM STEREO system has wonthe endorsement of General Motors'Delco Electronics division as the AMstereo system with the best combina-tion of price and performance factors.The decision was reached after testswere conducted on Magnavox, Motorola,and Harris AM stereo systems. Whilethe decision isn't binding on any ofthe GM car divisions, they are allexpected to offer AM stereo as anoption on their 1984 model -year cars.

SUPERTRAMP is tooling up for a tourthat should have them in Europe in Mayand the United States in July. Theirlast tour in 1979 was such a mammothundertaking that it involved fifty-twotons of gear, ten miles of cable, and$5,000,000 worth of equipment. Ittook a forty -man crew two days to setup for each date.

COMPACT DISC NEWS: CBS/Sony, whichis a corporation equally owned by CBSInc. and Sony Corp., plans to build aplant in this country to manufacturedigital Compact Discs beginning in1984. But sooner than that, "in thefirst quarter of 1983," the companywill begin importing CD's from Japan,with marketing being handled by CBSRecords. At the same time, Sony willintroduce its CD player domestically,well ahead of schedule. Launch of theCD system in Japan has been "a greatsuccess," according to CBS/Sony chair-man Norio Ohga, but costs are high andJapanese retailers give no discounts.Prices of thirteen CD players shown at

the Japan Audio Fair last fall rangedfrom $618 to $936, the average being$775. Digital disc prices were thesame as those projected for the J.S.,$13 to $15. CBS imports from Japanwill include pop, rock, and classicalrecordings....RCA Records is enteringthe market, too, joining CBS/Sony andthe Pnilips/PolyGram group in theEuropean launch of the Compact Discand its players in March.

PIONEER recently demonstrated a pro-totype PCM digital cassette recorderthat uses fixed heads in recordingfourteen -bit digital audio on a con-ventional compact cassette. The com-pany is also showing a prototype FMtuner with a "Direct Digital Decoder"that has an adjacent channel selec-tivity spec of 65 dB (specs of 6 to10 dB are common on good equipment)and stereo separa:Lon of 75 dB.

THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN,in London has been celebrating its250th season with special observancesin the last two months. Among themis the release of a commemorativefive -record album, "The Story of FiveSeasons," covering the years 1899 to1919. Compiled by Rubini Records, oneof England's leading specialists inhistoric recordings, the set is avail-able in the United States from GermanNews Company, 220 East 86th Street,New York, N.Y. 10028. Price: $39 plus$2 for shipping.

VIDEO TWEAK: With a process calledOptimax, CBS recording band Aerosmithhas made what it claims is the first3-D promotional videotape. Accordingto the producer, it is "so realisticthat it looks as tnough lead singerSteven Tyler has kicked through ycurTV screen, cakewalked around yourlivingroom, and is tweaking your nose."

SR CRITIC GEORGE JELLINEK has wona Gabriel Award "for excellence inbroadcasting" presented by the Ameri-can wing of the International CatholicBroadcasters Asscciation. Jellinek'swinning entry was a radio documentarytitled "Poland's Search for Freedom."

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There's no dial to turn. Just touch the tuning searchbutton and the digital circuit scans from each station tothe next, tuning it in with precision quartz -locked accu-racy. The exact frequency is displayed on a big. easy -to -

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You get an ample 30 watts per channel, minimumrms into 8 ohms from 20-20,000 Hz, with no morethan 0.020/0 total harmonic distortion. And a specialequalization switch shapes the amplifier output forenhanced bass from our Minimus-series and othermini -speakers so you'll get good vibrations over theentire audio spectrum.

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FEBRUARY 1983 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 2

EquipmentNEW PRODUCTS

Roundup of the latest audio equipment and accessories 10

AUDIO QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSSubliminal Rock, Car Stereo Specs, 45 -rpm Holes, Underdriven Tweeters LARRY KLEIN 16

AUDIO/VIDEO NEWSBits of the Future DAVID RANADA 20

TAPE TALKInternational Cassette Standards CRAIG STARK 24

TECHNICAL TALKDo You Hear What I Hear? JULIAN D. HIRSCH 27

EQUIPMENT TEST REPORTSHirsch -Houck Laboratories test results on the DCM QED speaker system, Onkyo TX -51AM/FM receiver, Denon DP -1I F turntable, Vector Research VCX-800 cassette deck, andKenwood C -I preamplifier and M-1 power amplifier JULIAN D. HIRSCH AND CRAIG STARK 28

2008: A SONIC ODYSSEYA survey of what lies ahead for audiophiles in the next twenty-five years ALAN LOFFT 63

MuskRECORD OF THE YEAR AWARDS -1982

STEREO REVIEW'S critics and editors select the recording industry's top artistic achievements 53EUGENE ORMANDY

He has probably reached more listeners than any other U.S. conductor HERBERT KUPFERBERG 58

BEST RECORDINGS OF THE MONTH 67"Utopia" 67 The Roches: "Keep On Doing" 69Reich: Tehillim 68 Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 15, 20. 21 69

POPULAR MUSIC 72Peter Gabriel: "Security" 74 Lionel Richie 78Linda Ronstadt: "Get Closer" 76 Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge 82

CLASSICAL MUSIC 84Beethoven: Piano Trios 86 Kodaly: Hary Janos 90

Re9111011BULLETIN CHRISTIE BARTER AND GORDON SELL 1

SPEAKING MY PIECE WILLIAM LIVINGSTONE 4LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 6ADVERTISERS' INDEX 100

COVER: Caricature of Eugene Ormandy by Al Hirschfeld (see page 8).

COPYRIGHT® 1983 BY ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Allrights reserved. Stereo Review, February 1983, Volume 48, Number 2. Pub-lished monthly by Ziff -Davis Publishing Company. Editorial and ExecutiveOffices at One Park Avenue. New York, New York 10016; Telephone: 212725-3500. Richard P. Priest, President: Furman Hebb, Executive Vice Pres-ident; Selwyn Taubman. Treasurer: Bertram A. Abrams. Secretary. Alsopublishers of Backpacker, Boating, Car and Driver. Cycle, Flying, PopularElectronics, Popular Photography. Psychology Today, Skiing. Stereo BuyersGuide. Tape Recording & Buying Guide, and Yachting. One-year subscrip-tion rate for the United States and its possessions, 59.98; Canada, 510.98. Allother countries. one-year subscription rate S14.98. cash orders only, payablein U.S. currency. Second-class postage paid at New York. New York 10016

and at additional mailing offices. Authorized as second-class mail by the PostOffice Department. Ottawa, Canada, and for payment of postage in cash.POSTMASTER: Forms 3579 and address changes should be sent to StereoReview, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 2771. Boulder, Colorado 80302.SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: All subscription correspondehce should beaddressed to Stereo Review. Circulation Department. P.O. Box 2771, Boul-der. Colorado 80302. Please allow at least eight weeks for change of address.Include old address as well as new-enclosing if possible an addresslabel from a recent issue. PERMISSIONS: Material in this publication maynot be reproduced in any form without permission. Requests for permissionshould be directed to John Babcock. Rights and Permissions, Ziff -DavisPublishing Company, One Park Avenue, New York. New York 10016.

Speaking mu PieceBy William

Livingstone

Editor Livingstone (right)with record producers

Richard Mohr (left) andJohn Pfeiffer

TWENTY-FIVE

IF you are an average reader of thismagazine, you are above the national

average in educational background andin annual income. You own severalhundred record albums, and you havespent more than $2,500 on your currenthi-fi equipment. You are male and be-tween twenty-five and thirty years old.That means you are just a little olderthan we are: STEREO REVIEW is twenty-five this month.

At our annual party honoring theRecord of the Year Award winners andEugene Ormandy, the recipient of thisyear's Certificate of Merit, we may notbe able to refrain from mentioning ourbirthday, but we are not planning tomake a big scene about it. Well, youknow how it is-somehow a birthdaydoesn't feel the same now as when youturned ten, or fifteen, or even twenty-one. Passing the quarter -century markdoesn't mean that you've entered theSeptember of Life, with the days dwin-dling down to a precious few, but astime goes on you do get a bit blaséabout being one year older.

In February 1958 when the magazinewas born, it was called HiFi & MusicReview. Stereo was just being intro-duced commercially, and in May 1958one of our columnists wrote that manu-facturers' marketing strategy would de-termine whether stereo was to become"a magnificent new listening mediumfor the home or a fiasco like color TV."I don't remember how long it took colorTV to find a place in American homes,but stereo established itself so quicklythat in February 1960 the name of themagazine was changed to HiFi/StereoReview, and it became STEREO REVIEWin November 1969.

In our twenty-five years we have pub-lished hundreds of laboratory test re-ports on audio equipment and thou-sands of new -product entries and recordreviews. There are a few articles that

we are especially proud of, such as theones on the audibility of distortion andpiracy in the record industry and theones in our American composer series.

We have given yearly record awardsfor sixteen years, and Maestro Orman-dy is the ninth recipient of our specialaward for outstanding contributions tothe quality of American musical life.The others are Mabel Mercer, JaschaHeifetz, Arthur Fiedler, RichardRodgers, Beverly Sills, Earl Hines, Aa-ron Copland, and Benny Goodman-apantheon that demonstrates STEREOREVIEW'S catholic taste in music.

So much for the magazine's past.Like most twenty -five -year -olds, we areconvinced that the best is yet to come,and we are eagerly looking toward thefuture. For our twenty-fifth birthday is-sue we asked Alan Lofft to survey theaudio industry and ask the experts howthey think the world of audiophiles willchange in the next twenty-five years.His report begins on page 63.

Twenty-five years from now, in theyear 2008, you average readers will bemiddle-aged when STEREO REVIEWturns fifty. The experts think there willstill be large numbers of you who willwant music and good sound in yourhome, car, or space shuttle, and theyhave some ingenious ideas about howyou will get it there.

I am glad they don't suggest thatcomputers will replace human compos-ers and performers in the future. Nomatter how hi-fi technology is per-fected, both extremes of the audiochain will still be human, beginningwith the expressive musicians and end-ing with the receptive listener. Musicwill remain a medium through whichpeople can transmit nonverbal thoughtsand feelings to each other. Even in 2008music will still be a language in whichone human heart can communicate toanother its secrets. 0

Stereo ReviewPUBLISHERJ. SCOTT BRIGGSEDITOR IN CHIEFWILLIAM LIVINGSTONEMANAGING EDITORLOUISE GOOCH BOUNDASART DIRECTORBORYS PATCHOWSKY

TECHNICAL DIRECTORLARRY KLEINTECHNICAL EDITORSDAVID RANADA, GORDON SELL

MUSIC EDITORCHRISTIE BARTERPOPULAR MUSIC EDITORPAULETTE WEISS

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORDAVID STEINASSISTANT EDITOR, RESEARCHRICHARD SARBINEDITORIAL ASSISTANTSBARBARA AIKEN, JOSEPH GLICKMAN,SUSAN STOLL

LONDON EDITORHENRY PLEASANTS

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSCHRIS ALBERTSON PAUL KRESHIRV COHN STODDARD LINCOLNNOEL COPPAGE MARK PEELRICHARD FREEDCHRIS GREENLEAFPHYL GARLANDDAVID HALLJULIAN D. HIRSCHGEORGE JELLINEKIGOR KIPNISIRVING KOLODIN

LINCOLN PERRYPETER REILLYEBET ROBERTSCHARLES RODRIGUESERIC SALZMANSTEVE SIMELSCRAIG STARKJOEL VANCE

ADVERTISING DIRECTORBRIAN E. McCABE

ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHERJEAN ANDERSON

Editorial and Executive Offices: 212 725-3500Ziff -Davis Publishing CompanyOne Park Avenue. New York, New York 10016National Advertising Manager: Richard J. HalpernEastern Advertising Representative: Charles L. P. Watson

Midwestern Office, The Pettis Group: 312 679-11004761 West Touhy Ave., Lincolnwood. Illinois 60648Arnold S. Hoffman. David W. Palcek

Western Office: 213 38741003460 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles, California 90010Western Advertising Manager: Marge Doherty -Wilhite

Japan: lwai Trading Co., Ltd.J. S. Yagi603 Ginza Sky Heights Building18-13, Ginza 7-ChomeChuo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 104Telephone: (03) 586-0165, 545-3908

Circulation OfficeP.O. Box 2771, Boulder, Colorado 80302

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS must be accompanied by re-turn postage and will be handled with reasonable care:however, publisher assumes no responsibility for the re-turn or safety of art work, photography, or manuscripts.

Member Audit Bureau of Circulations

ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

President: Richard P. FrieeePresident, Consumer Magazine Division: Albert S. TrainsExecutive Vice President: Furman HebbSenior Vice Presidents: Philip T. Heffernan,Sidney Holtz, Edward D. Muhlfeld, Philip SineVice Presidents: Robert Bayley, Paul H. Chock.Baird Davis, George MorrisseyTreasurer: Selwyn TaubmanSecretary: Bertram A. Abrams

4STEREO REVIEW

ONLY ONE AUDIODEALER IN TWENTY

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Hear the silence before youhear the sound.Switch on the R-851, switch fromone function to another. Try Phono.Tape 1. Tape 2. Auxiliary. Back toPhono.

Absolute silence (of course,you'll get sound on AM/FM). Thesilence is the mark of a great re-ceiver. And great engineering.

The kind of quiet an audiophileloves to hear.

Sound that takes you closer tothe source.We've turned on the R-851 for somevery experienced-even jaded- audioears, and all we can say is it stops'em. every time. The sound is dif-ferent. The sense of being there isalmost overpowering. All this comesfrom 85 watts per channel ofpower* (with dynamic power farabove this figure) and some of themost sophisticated circuitry in thebusiness. Above all, it uses MOSFET's, the new breed of outputtransistors, in the amplifier section.They can handle the transients, thepower surges, thewer require-ments of present-day sound (andtomorrow's digital sound) betterthan bipolar transistors ever could-and give you a sonic purity like noother (many claim MOS FET's havepicked up the warm, rich sound ofthe great tube amps and gone a stepbeyond!).

Fine tuned for every audio need.From front end to output jacks, theR-851 offers every feature an audioenthusiast might want. The mostcommonly used controls are rightup front-the more esoteric ones areplaced behind a neat flip -downfront panel. There's microprocessor -controlled quartz -locked tuningwith 14 station programmable mem-ory (7 AM & 7 FM); automaticstation seek; 3 -band parametric -style equalizer; fluorescent displaypanel; and two-way tape monitoringand dubbing.

If you need some help in findingthat one Kyocera dealer in twenty,contact: Cybernet International, Inc.,7 Powder Horn Drive, Warren,NJ 07060 (201) 560-0060.

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The genius of a music lovingphysicist was turned loose and theresult is an elegant technologythat substantially reduces themassive bulk, weight, and costof high power audio amplifiers.Conventional amplifier powersupplies are very costly andinefficient because they producea constant high voltage level atall times-irrespective of thedemands of the everchangingaudio signal -even when there'sno audio in the circuit at all!

In sharp contrast the M-400a'spower supply is signal responsiveand highly efficient. It producesexactly and only the power theamplifier section needs frommoment to moment to carry thesignal with complete accuracyand fidelity.

Once the crudeness of con-ventional power supplies was over-come, a wholly uncompromisedsignal path was designed: Fullycomplementary topology frominput to output; the latest, fastest.highest current transistors; directcoupling; linear metalized filmcapacitors; precision and finally,an output inductor whose cornerfrequency is connectors; lasertrimmed resistors; vapor -deposited24 Karat gold almost a quarter of amegahertz.

Audition the Carver M -400a andhear the difference: transparency,openness, detail. Without theclipping, distortion, and constraintof lesser amplifiers. With Carverthe pure sound of music can be,very affordably, yours.

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LettersBruce Springsteen

I wasn't surprised at Steve Simels's useof such words as "cynical" and "primitive"in his December review of Bruce Spring-steen's "Nebraska," but "boring"? Hasn'the ever heard of the blues? Perhaps thesongs are laden with simplicity and just notfun, but, excuse me, fun is not the point. Doyou really think the laid -off auto workerssing to the music of Gary U.S. Bonds? Didblacks sing to Bing Crosby or did they singto Billie Holliday?

Springsteen is from a lower -middle-classenvironment and sings about the lower mid-dle class. "Nebraska" is about having sec-ond-best, growing up with used cars. It'sabout working hard but getting the rugpulled out from under you. It's about frus-tration-frustration to the point of riskingyour life's savings on one night in AtlanticCity. "Nebraska" is realism-something,judging from Mr. Simels's review, that rockisn't quite ready for.

GEORGE D'URSOUnion, N.J.

Bruce Springsteen's first two albumswere brilliant, but those since have indeedbecome increasingly-to use Steve Simels'sshockingly honest word-boring. The "star -making machinery" built Springsteen intothe new rock-'n'-roll emperor, and he's triedhard to live up to the high standards ex-pected by critics who want what Mr. Simelscalls the "Big Statement." Thanks to Sim-els for pointing out the truth about the em-peror's new clothes. I hope that Springsteenwill think back to those early records andrealize that it's the sound that counts, andthat he doesn't have to imitate Steinbeck,Guthrie, Dylan, or anyone else to makesounds that count. He can leave the "BigStatement" to his banker.

Meanwhile, I'll follow Steve Simels in lis-tening to Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn,Turn, Turn while reading that new bookabout the Byrds. That's one way to get in-telligent words and great sounds at once.

CHARLES YOUNGGlen Oaks, N.Y.

Faust's Fate While I agree with Eric Salzman thatfew singers do justice to the French lan-guage, it appears from his December reviewof London's new recording of Berlioz'streatment of Goethe (La Damnation deFaust) that he needs a refresher coursehimself. Mr. Salzman says that Faust offershimself to be damned in place of Margue-rite, but during the ensemble in the previousact, Mephistopheles is already anticipatinghis capture of the "proud spirit" rather thanthe innocent he has brought to ruin. Faustcries to Marguerite that he is coming to her;

when he winds up directly in hell it is to hisconsiderable surprise!

RICHARD E. SEBOLTSpringfield, Mass.

Eric Salzman replies: Mr. Sebolt is beingawfully literal about this. I really do thinkthat Berlioz saw Faust as taking Marguer-ite's place in hell, as a kind of metaphori-cal sacrifice. It is not a common idea, onlya notion, but I feel it is the composer's atti-tude toward the Faust story.

Short Memories In the December issue there was a letterfrom Mark Schmieder correcting a review-er's reference to Steve Hackett as the origi-nal guitarist of Genesis, ascribing that hon-or to the "now -forgotten" Anthony Phillips.Forgotten? How could someone who has,since 1976, turned out album after albumof finely crafted music-from the renais-sance -flavored beauty of "The Geese and

Anthony Phillips

the Ghost" to the more song -oriented"Sides" [both on Passport]-possibly beforgotten? Well, Mr. Schmieder is right. Ican't remember one Ant Phillips albumever being reviewed in STEREO REVIEW.

DAVID A. LEEMHUISCharleston, S.C.

"Private Parts and Pieces III" by AnthonyPhillips and Enrique Garcia was favorablyreviewed in our November issue.

Jussi Bjoerling Harald Hcnrysson's letter in the Octo-ber 1982 issue omits several significantfacts about A Jussi Bjoerling Discographypublished by the Bjoerling Archive in May1982. Your readers deserve to know thesefacts, which can be fully documented fromthe correspondence files of the co-authors.

IR 1968, I, not Henrysson, initiated theoriginal work. In 1973, Henrysson asked meto help him prepare a Bjoerling discogra-

ar

CIRCLE NO. 8 ON READER SERVICE CARDSTEREO REVIEW

You'll be soldon our DRS 900amplifier afterjust one peak.Our new DRS- 900 amplifier will bring youas close as you can get to concert hall soundwithout buying a ti:ket. How? Power and lots,of it. And after all, who knows more abouthigh power amplifiers than Phase Linear? Webecame known for them back in the dayswhen everyone's idea ofgood stereo was loud stereo.If you could blow the win-dows out of your home,you had a good stereo.And nothing could blowout windows like anamplifier from PhaseLinear. Well, the volumeera is over. The quest forpurity is on. The troubleis, you just can't

get pure soundreproductionout of a lowpower amplifier.You need lots of

power... power forpurity. Advances in recording

- technology like direct -to -disc anddigital audio disc recordings re-quire enormous amounts of peakpower. Without it, the amplifiersimply clips the peaks leaving youwithout the full musical experi-ence. For example, accuratelyreproducing the final cannon shot

from a digitally recorded version ofTchaikovsky's 1812 Overturecan require 900 watts ofpeak power! And that's atreasonable volume levels.That much power is neededbecause the dynamic range(the ratio of the loudestnote to the residual noise)of a digital audio disc isabout four times that of aconventional record. phase linear

Our DRS 900 handled the previouslymentioned cannon shot. No clipping,no distortion. Yet, the DRS 900 isconservatively rated at 150 watts perchannel RMS (see specifications). Yousee, efficient power is the key. The DRS900 has a dual voltage power supply.It operates at an efficient 150watt capability. Then, when

the music ap-proaches a peak -requiring moredynamic head-room (more powerto keep it fromclipping), the

secondarysupply kicksin, instantlyproviding upto 900 watts ofpeak powerper channel. Aconventional150 watt ampli-fier has a peakpower rating of just about 300 watts.Keep that in mind the next time you're com-paring amplifiers. Don't go by RMS alone.You have to compare dynamic headroom,too. When you do, you II be sold on our DRS 900.

See the entire line of Phase Linear audiocomponents atyour PhaseLinear Dealer,today. For theaddress of thedealer nearestyou, call us tollfree at (800) 323-4815. In Illinois call (800) D42-

8833. Or write us at 4134 N.United Parkway, Schiller Park,IL 0176. Oh. and rememberto give us your address so wecan send you a copy of "ThePhase Linear Report: Powerfor ?urity." Its an excitinganalysis of audio amplifica-tion in the eighties. We think itshould be required reading foranyone seriois about audio.

DRS 900 SPECIFICATIONS150 Watts per channel cont nuousoutpu power, min mum FINS into 8ohms, with no more than .015% totalharmonic distortion, 20-20kHz. 9C0Watts peak per channel momenta -youtpu power into S ohms with nomore than .02% TIC, 20-20<Hz.

Power for PurityCIRCLE NO 38 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The ADC Sound Shapers:on perfection.

When you make a line of equalizersthat audiophiles consider to be thebest. it's difficult to make them better.

But we did. And our exciting newSound Shaper" line reinforces ourreputation as the leader in theequalizer world.

You'll find the same superb elec-tronics and high performance tech-nology that you've come to expectfrom ADC. With LED -lit slidecontrols that let you custom -tailoryour sound to compensate for roomand system deficiencies. And now,you'll find our Sound Shapersupdated with new refinements andsleek styling that makes them lookas good as they function.

Our top -of -the -line SS -30 is a per-fect example. A ten -band equalizerwith LED meters and two-way tapedubbing, it has its own integratedspectrum analyzer built in, so youcan clearly see the altered frequencyresponse. And unlike many otherequalizers with integrated spectrumanalyzers that require outside pinknoise sources, our SS -30 has its ownpink noise generator built right in.So now, you can accomplishcorrective equalizationof your room without

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phy. As we began our nine-year collabora-tion, I required, and Henrysson agreed, thatthe work would be published by us as co-authors. In February 1982, Henrysson andhis intended Swedish publisher failed tocomply with our earlier understandings thatwe would be presented unequivocally as co-authors and that the Bjoerling Archivewould distribute the book in "the U.S. andcertain other areas." I notified Henryssonand his intended publisher that I would nottolerate that situation and proceeded to ex-ercise my legal right as co-author to publishthe manuscript as our joint accomplish-ment. Before publication, the work waschecked many times over for accuracy andcompleteness. To date, there have been nosignificant corrections or additions.

A Jussi Bjoerling Discography has beenreceived with great enthusiasm by readersthroughout the world; it has been favorablyreviewed by music critics and was hailed byJohn Steane in Gramophone as "a model ofits kind." It is still available through theBjoerling Archive.

JACK W. PORTERJussi Bjoerling Memorial Archive, Inc.

P.O. Box 2638, Indianapolis, Ind. 46206

Correction An editing error produced an incorrectstatement in Ivan Berger's November "CarStereo" column ". . . cables used with 8 -ohm speakers in a car should be heav-ier . . . than with 4 -ohm car speakers"should have read: ". . . cables used with 4 -ohm car stereo speakers should be heavierthan with 8 -ohm speakers."

THIS MONTH'S COVERis being made available in a limited -edition poster version, 18 x 24 inches,in full color, to commemorate STEREOREVIEW'S 1983 award of the Certifi-cate of Merit to Eugene Ormandy.Send $4 (check or money order) toEugene Ormandy Poster, Stereo Re-view, P.O. Box 508, Murray Hill Station,New York, N.Y. 10018. Remember: it'sa limited edition, so first come, firstserved. The price includes handling,mailing tube, tax, and postage.

Stereo Review

44.

ySTEREO REVIEW

Belt driveIS esYentisl 'U-

,) Mierrrcif ;1

ti crr

The purpose of a turntableto remain quiet. It should

/ contribute no noise or vibration.; to the sounds picked up bythe cartridge.

; That's why our new T -Series/ turntables all use belt drive.

The belt drive provides acousticisolation from motor vibrations. It liter-

.

ally separates the motor from the platter/ and spindle. This avoids the noise prob-lems inherent in direct drive, where the

motor is connected directly to the platter.A belt design, of course, requires more

careful engineering to achieve a constant, platter speed. But we considered it wellworth the effort.

In fact, we went to greatlengths to make be T -Seriesamong the finest turntablesyou can buy. Doing sorequired using massiveplatters; wooden bases thatprovide isolation from roomvibrations; as well as discstabilizers and vibration -absorbent platter mats!

We also used low -masstone arms to handlewarped records, andcapacitance trim to elec-trically match your

andI eceiva.And even bough Harman Kardon's

new T -Series delivers features foundonly on the world's most expensive turn-tables, we haven't made ours expensive.

Harman Kardon turntables start at lessthan $200. You can see them at quality

audio retailers. But you certainly won't beable to hear them.

'Available on T40 and 160 models.

WI I '

TO KEEP ATURNTABLE QUIET

YOU HAVE TO GIVE ITA BELT.

For your nearest dealer, call 1-800-528-6050, ext. 870, or write Harman Kardon, 240 Crossways Park West,Woodbury, NY 11797-2057. In Canada, Gould Marketing. Quebec.

hannan/lcardon

720 T-IK) TOv

ELT DRIVETURN -1:2, L

flew ProductsLatest Audio Equipment and Accessories

Alpine's Top AutomotiveCassette / Tuner / Preamp

0 Alpine's Model 7347 FM/AM/cassetteplayer is described as a "state-of-the-art"unit. It includes both Dolby -B and Dolby -Cnoise -reduction circuits along with a dbx

5"-C7 4,.\J6 MEM

decoder. Digital frequency synthesis is usedin the tuner section, which also incorporatesa balanced -mixer FM front end said toeliminate r.f. overload. A programmableMusic Sensor permits automatic location ofany of nine selections on a tape. Other fea-tures include a ten -station preset capability,ignition -off cassette eject, locking fast -for-ward and rewind, separate bass and treblecontrols, dual preamplifier outputs withfader, and a light -touch keyboard.

The list of specifications includes an FMusable sensitivity of 16.3 dBf (1.8 micro-volts). Tape -drive wow -and -flutter is 0.09per cent (wrms). Frequency response withmetal or chrome tape is 40 to 18,000 Hz± 3 dB. Chassis size of this in -dash unit is7'/s x 2 x 51/s inches. Price: $599.95.

Circle 120 on reader service card

Sanyo's Fast -SpeedDubbing Cassette Deck0 Sanyo's RDW310 deck permits quickand easy copying of a stereo cassette for usein a portable tape player or car stereo sys-tem. The unit has Dolby -B noise reduction,metal -tape capability, and an Automatic

Music Select System for quick location ofspecific recorded selections. The dubbingtakes place at two and a half times normalplaying speed, enabling a C-90 cassette tobe copied in 36 minutes. One of the twotape transports is for playing tapes only, theother for either playing or recording. Otherfeatures include LED peak -level meters, arecord -mute function, light -touch transport

controls, microphone mixing, and a tapecounter. Specifications include a frequencyresponse of 40 to 17,000 Hz ±3 dB. Wow -and -flutter is given as 0.08 per cent (wrms).Signal-to-noise ratio is 65 dB (metal tape,Dolby -B). Dimensions are 161/2 x 41/4 x 834inches. Price: $219.95.


Hafler Upgrades ItsPower -Amplifier KitLI The David Hafler Company has intro-duced the DH -220 power amplifier as thesuccessor to its earlier DH -200. The newmodel features updated styling, increasedoutput power, and high -quality polypropy-lene capacitors in the signal path. Units areavailable in either kit or assembled form.

The DH -220 uses completely symmetrical,mirror -image complementary push-pull cir-cuits from input to output. The design is

said to give the amplifier enough reservepower to handle mismatched loads or theback-emf generated by loudspeaker coneswithout generating interfacing distortions.Special protective circuits are unnecessarybecause the self -protecting output stageprevents thermal "runaway."

The power rating is given as 115 watts

Five Low -ResonanceBang & Olufsen

Cartridges

0 The five phono cartridges in Bang &Olufsen's new MMC series are designedto take advantage of the principal reso-nances of a cartridge/disc system. Sty-lus/disc resonance usually occurs be-tween 50 and 60 kHz; cantilever/sus-pension resonance varies according tothe program material but typically liesin the 20- to 30 -kHz region. In theMMC line, the two resonances are atthe same frequency, 39 kHz, so thatthey will tend to damp each other out.The result is more diffuse resonances atgreatly reduced amplitude. The car-tridges' mass is lowered since less me-chanical damping is needed. A symmet-rical electromagnetic circuit in thesemoving -iron cartridges gives optimumchannel separation, less distortion, andgreater resistance to external humfields. Samarium -cobalt magnets ofhigh coercivity allow further reductionsin mass. Each cartridge in the seriesweighs only 1.6 grams (or 4.6 grams in-cluding '/2 -inch mounting bracket).

The Models MMC I through MMC 5(photo shows the MMC 3) differ only in

type of stylus and cantilever used. Thetop two models, the MMC I and MMC2, each incorporate a "contact -line" sty-lus with a hollow -tube crystal -sapphirecantilever. Tracking force for both is I

gram. Compliance is given as 30 micro-meters per millinewton. Frequency re-sponse is 20 to 20,000 Hz ± 1 dB for theMMC or ± 1.5 dB for the MMC 2.Channel separation at 1,000 Hz is morethan 30 dB for the MMC 1, more than25 dB for the MMC 2. Sensitivity forboth cartridges is greater than 0.6 milli-volt per cm/sec of rms groove velocity.The preamplifier load for all cartridgesin the series should be at least 47,000ohms, with no more than 400 picofaradsof parallel capacitance. Tracking forcesfor the other cartridges in the line are1.2 gram (MMC 3 and MMC 4) or 1.5gram (MMC 5). These models have el-liptical styli and aluminum -tube canti-levers. None of the MMC series styli areuser -replaceable. Prices: MMC 1, $445;MMC 2, $290; MMC 3, $180; MMC 4,$105; MMC 5, $60.


10 STEREO REVIEW

N a k a m i c h

P4-300 Mobile Power Amplifier

,2.- 7

31.8TD. 1200Mobile TunerCassette Deck

The Wait Is Over. 20-22,000 Hz ±3 dB' ± 0.045% WRMS Wow & Flutter 70 dB S/N with Dolby* C NR 70 Watts per Channel2 Less than 0.003% THD2

Finally, an audio system for your car that will do justice toyour best cassettes-the Nakamichi Mobile Sound System.It's here now, and it delivers performance well worththe wait.

The incredible TD -1200 Mobile Tuner/Cassette Deck is DIN -sized tofit virtua ly any dashboard. Its precision transport glides out to meetyour hand and handles your tapes with characteristic Nakamichigentleness, smoothness, and steadiness. Of course, the TD -120C incor-porates legendary Nakamichi head technology, EQ selection, and bothDolby B and C noise reduction.

0Way

Mobile Soeer System

Investment Protection:Engraved on your key is a

unique personal codewhich "unlocks" the

system and brings itto life. Without the

TD -1200Is absolutely inop-

erable and ofno use orvalue toanyone.

But the piece de resistance is NAAC-Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Correction-a re-markably clever servo system which automatically aligns the play head using onlythe audio signal already on the tape. The result: optimum response in both tapedirections regardless of any cassette housing asymmetry.

You can also listen to the air waves in style with the TD -1200's superb AM/FMquartz-PLL synthesizer tuner. It has 10 station presets (5 AM, 5 FM), manual andseek tuning modes, programmable Dolby FM, and special circuitry to minimizeinterference of all kinds.

Because the chain of sound should have no weak links, the Nakamichi PA -300Mobile Power Amplifier has generous power reserves and the lowest distortionamong automotive amplifiers. Similarly, the SP -400 3 -Way Mobile Speaker Systemuses a die-cast frame, precision drivers, and a sophisticated crossover network. Itreproduces a broad frequency range with uniformity, clarity, and power handlingnot possible with simpler designs.

The system you've been waiting for is now waiting for you at your nearestNakamichi Mobile Sound System dealer. Take some of your favorite cassettes withyou, and ask him for a demonstration. Or write for more information: 1101 ColoradoAvenue, Santa Monica, CA 904C1.'TM Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp 'play response with Nakamichi test tape eat 4 ohms. both channels driven Sat 1 kHz. 10 watts

AVAILABLE IN FEBRUARY

r liNakamichi

15 mg. "tar", 1.1 mg. nicotine ay. per cigarette, FTC Report DEC. '81.

WinstonAmerica's Best.

Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined

That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.

flewProductsper channel into 8 -ohm loads with less than0.02 per cent distortion at any frequencybetween 20 and 20,000 Hz. (For applica-tions requiring extra high power, the DH -220 may be bridged to convert it to a 350 -watt monophonic amplifier.) SMPTEintermodulation distortion is less than 0.005per cent from 1 to 115 watts output. Totalharmonic distortion at 1,000 Hz is given as0.0015 per cent. Frequency response is

±0.5 dB from 10 to 40,000 Hz. Signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 100 dB (below a115 -watt output). Input impedance is47,000 ohms, and 1.55 volts rms will drivethe unit to full output. Damping factor is150 at 1,000 Hz. Output into 4 -ohm loads isgiven as 175 watts. Dimensions are 51/8 x 16x 101/2 inches; weight is 26 pounds. Prices:kit, $349.95; assembled $449.95.


dbx Introduces Non-PCMDigital Audio Processor Intended primarily for professional usebut also usable with home Beta and VHSvideocassette recorders, thedigital -audio processor does not employ theusual technique of multibit pulse -code mod-ulation (PCM) as do other digital -audio

VCR adaptors. Instead, the device uses"delta modulation," a process in which thenumbers produced by the analog -to -digitalconverters represent the differences be-tween successive samples of the audio volt-age rather than the momentary values ofthe audio voltage itself. The dbx processoruses a "companded predictive delta modu-lation" technique in which an analog corn -pander forms an integral part of the analog -to -digital and digital -to -analog conversionprocesses. This system is tolerant of data er-rors, since a delta -modulated signal de-grades "gracefully" as the number of errorsincreases, unlike a PCM signal. The en-coded signal from the Model 700 is not di-rectly compatible with any other digital au-dio processor yet announced.

Frequency response is given as 10 to20,000 Hz ±0.5 dB. Dynamic range isgreater than 110 dB. Wow -and -flutter isless than 0.01 per cent unweighted, lessthan 0.006 per cent wrms. Total harmonicdistortion is given as less than 0.003 percent at 1,000 Hz. The error -correction cir-cuitry will completely correct as many aseight 1,024 -bit burst errors in a thirtieth of

a second. There are two thirty -segmentLED level -indicator arrays switchable toshow either the equalized record level, thesignal level, or a loudness -function -weighted level. The processor will feedNTSC-standard 1 -volt peak -to -peak signalsto a VCR. The video portion of the adaptoruses BNC connectors. Audio inputs arebalanced through both line and microphoneinputs. The dbx 700 measures 51/4 x 19 x111/2 inches and weighs about 20 pounds.Its price is less than $5,000.


Low -Profile ReceiverFrom Radio Shack The Realistic STA-700 AM/FM stereoreceiver (Radio Shack No. 31-1969) is

rated at 12 watts minimum per channel into8 ohms from 20 to 20,000 Hz with no more

than 0.5 per cent total harmonic distortionMeasuring 3 x 161/2 x 81/2 inches, the uniincorporates eleven -step bass and treblecontrols, a loudness switch, and connectionsand switching for one tape deck and twopairs of speakers. A special EQ switchmatches the receiver to the impedance andfrequency -response characteristics of theRealistic Minimus series of speakers. Theamplifier section's frequency response isgiven as 15 to 25,000 Hz ± 1 dB. Phono sig-nal-to-noise ratio is 82 dB. Usable sensitivi-ty in FM is 2.8 microvolts (14.17 dBf); cap-ture ratio is 2 dB. Signal-to-noise ratio inFM is 62 dB. Stereo harmonic distortion is0.6 per cent. Price: $179.95.


ADS Car Speaker SystemIs Easy to Install

ADS's Model 320i car speaker systemconsists of two tweeters, two woofers, andtwo crossover networks. Its modular designallows the tweeters to be placed in the most

favorable positions for accurate stereoimaging. The tweeters are surface -mount-ing units installed using bayonet bracketslike those found on camera lenses. Electri-cal connections are made automatically bynicked -plated contacts within each tweeter.Made of a woven material, the 1 -inch domedriver has a proprietary damping treat-ment, and its voice coil is a single -layer type

meant to withstand high temperatures.The 5 -inch cones of the 320i woofers are

made of structurally damped Stifflite witha butyl -rubber surround treated to be waterresistant. The encapsulation of the wooferbasket and magnet structure is rustproof,nonmagnetic, and corrosion resistant. Thecrossover components are mounted on aglass -epoxy circuit board housed in a glass -reinforced ABS plastic enclosure. Eachcrossover unit includes a quick -acting 1.6 -ampere fuse (with spare) and a three -posi-tion tweeter level control. Crossover occursat 2.5 kHz with 12-db-per-octave slopes.

Frequency response of the full system israted as 58 to 20,000 Hz ± 3 dB. Sensitivityunder laboratory conditions is 91 dB sound -pressure level at 1 meter with a 2.8 -volt in-put. Nominal impedance is 4 ohms; recom-mended amplifier power is from 5 to 100watts per channel. The tweeter requires 11/4inches of free space above it, none below ex-cept for screw -penetration depth. The woof-er also needs 11/4 inches above (includingthe grille), 15/s inches below. The crossoverhousing is 33/8 x 51/s x 11/2 inches. Price:$378 complete.


Integrated Sound Systems'Budget Audio Mixer A small audio mixer suitable for use insmall clubs or by audiophiles who wantsmooth mixes on tapes made at home, thePMX 7000 from Integrated Sound Systemsfeatures a transition control for smooth

blends and segues on tape or over speakers.There is also a three -band equalizer. TwoVU meters monitor program level and, to-gether with a rear -panel gain control, givean accurate indication of amplifier -inputoverload.

The unit will accept signals from twoturntables, two tape decks, and one micro-phone. The phono inputs have 18 -dB -per -octave infrasonic filters to prevent amplifieroverload, rumble, and feedback. A head-phone amplifier drives low- or high -imped-ance headphones, and the high -current lineamplifier can drive up to twelve power am-plifiers in a large-scale sound system. Thecue/audition system can select any inputfor headphone monitoring in one ear whilethe program being played is heard in theother ear.

Specifications include a phono signal-to-noise ratio of more than 70 dB below a 10 -millivolt input. Phono input impedance is47,000 ohms. Maximum input capability is220 millivolts at 1,000 Hz. Auxiliary -inputsignal-to-noise ratio is 85 dB below 1 volt.The 600 -ohm microphone input has a 75 -dB dynamic range and a 14 -dB reductiongain in talkover mode. The graphic equaliz-er uses FET-input operational amplifiersand provides boosts or cuts of up to 12 dB inthe 60- and 12,000 -Hz bands, up to 6 dB in

FEBRUARY 1983 13

flewProductsthe 1,000 -Hz band. Line output can drive a10,000 -ohm load with a 10 -volt rms signal.Distortion is typically less than 0.005 percent. The mixer is rack -mountable andmeasures 7 inches high and 19 inches wide.Weight is 11 pounds. Price: $299. Inte-grated Sound Systems, Inc., Dept. SR, 22-50 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City,N.Y. 11101.

Circk 127 on reader service card

Cassette Storage RacksFrom Wire for Sound0 Wire for Sound's C-42 cassette storagemodules each hold forty-two cassettes intheir plastic boxes. The stackable units fea-

f"...1111, 4111401t111111111141111.1.1

ture a pull-out drawer with a smoothly glid-ing track for easy and silent access to thetapes. Made of metal with a baked -on poly-ester finish, the modules come in six colors:chrome, black, brown, grey, blue, and red.A set of alphabetical divider and title cardsis included with each module. Price: $24.95.Wire for Sound, Dept. SR, 68401/2 Vine-land Avenue, North Hollywood, Calif.91605.


Panasonic Car EqualizerAlso Boosts PowerI=1 Panasonic's CY-SG50 graphic equalizerfor cars, called "The Composer," is in-tended to compensate for frequency -re -

.122°,12F3

sponse aberrations peculiar to a car's interior. Boosts and cuts of up to 12 dB are available in seven bands (60, 125, 250, 5001,000, 3,500, and 10,000 Hz), and in theimportant 125- to 250 -Hz region the deviceoffers an additional cut of up to 6 dB ( -18dB total). The front panel is marked withthe settings that extensive testing in carshas found to be usually most effective. Thecurve shows a large dip in the 125- to 250 -

Hz bands, a slight boost in the 500 -Hzband, a slight cut in the 1,000 -Hz band, anda slight boost in the 10,000 -Hz region.

The device also provides an output powerof 12.5 watts per channel (rms) into 4 -ohmloads from 20 to 30,000 Hz with no morethan 1 per cent total harmonic distortion.The 1,000 -Hz distortion at a 1 -watt outputlevel is given as 0.09 per cent. Signal-to-noise ratio is 83 dB, and sensitivity of the500 -ohm input is 0.9 volt for a 1 -watt out-put. The unit measures about 61/4 x 5 x 2inches and weighs 21/4 pounds.

The CY-SG50 is automatically activatedwhen the car's in -dash stereo system isturned on, and it has a lighted display panelfor easy use at night. There is an attenua-tor/equalizer-defeat button to switch outthe equalization and reduce the sound level.A fader is provided to control front/rearspeaker balance. Small enough for place-ment in a glove compartment, the unitcomes with a black cover to conceal thefront panel. Price: $120.


Canton Speaker HasTitanium TweeterJ The three-way, floor -standing CT 1000speaker system from Canton incorporates atitanium -dome tweeter. This material waschosen after extensive listening tests. The

thermal characteristics of the tweeter arealso said to be improved by the constructionsince heat is transferred from the voice coilto the dome for radiational cooling. Unlikeconventional sealed midrange drivers, theCT 1000's midrange unit is mounted in acylinder that is open at the rear of the cab-inet, with the opening covered by a domedperforated grill. Dispersion is said to be im-proved by this arrangement. The system'swoofer has a special coating said to reduceresonances. The cabinet-available in ei-ther oak or walnut veneer or with a black orwhite lacquer finish-is made of high -den-sity chipboard. Internal ribbing cuts cabinetresonances. An optional stand gives optimalclearance from the ground and proper lis-tening angles.

System impedance is rated at 4 ohms.Frequency response is given as 20 to 30,000Hz. The woofer is 310 millimeters in diam-eter, the midrange 120 mm, and the tweeter

25 mm. Bass -resonance frequency is givenas 41 Hz; crossover frequencies are 450 and3,100 Hz. Distortion is less than 0.1 percent. Dimensions are 133/4 x 321/4 x 26inches. Prices: $1,250 per pair; $1,400 withFG 200 stands. Canton North America,Dept. SR, 254 First Avenue North, Minne-apolis, Minn. 55401.


J.C. Penney ReceiverHas Pushbutton ControlsE The J.C. Penney MCS Series Model3285 receiver is rated at 85 watts per chan-nel into 8 -ohm loads with no more than0.005 per cent total harmonic distortionfrom 20 to 20,000 Hz. The low distortionfigure is made possible by circuitry said toeliminate the switching distortion commonto class -AB amplifiers. A four -bit micro-

processor executed in CMOS integrated -circuit technology permits all -pushbuttonoperation. The IC controls volume, bass,treble, balance, function selection, mode se-lection, tape dubbing, audio muting, and fil-ter positions. Two filter and tone -controlsettings can be memorized for instant re-call. At the right of the front panel a largevacuum -fluorescent display shows volumelevel, bass and treble settings, output power,and station frequency. LED's indicate ster-eo broadcasts and signal strength.

The amplifier -section features include in-frasonic, high -frequency, and multiplex fil-ters; a 20 -dB audio -mute switch; moving -magnet and moving -coil phono inputs; andconnections and switching for two tapedecks and two speaker systems. Specifica-tions include a power bandwidth of 5 to40,000 Hz, phono frequency response of 20to 20,000 Hz ± 0.5 dB, phono overload levelof 150 millivolts at 1,000 Hz, and phonosignal-to-noise ratio of 80 dB.

The digital -synthesis tuner section storesup to sixteen AM and sixteen FM stationsand has a switchable i.f. bandwidth for bestreception under difficult conditions. Rat-ings for FM include a usable sensitivity of10.8 dBf (1.9 microvolts), capture ratio of 1dB, frequency response of 20 to 15,000 Hz±3 dB, and distortion in stereo of 0.15 percent. The AM section has a sensitivity of300 microvolts per meter and a selectivityof 45 dB. Price: $699.95.


NOTE: AU product descriptions and specifi-cations quoted in these columns are basedon materials supplied by the manufacturers.who will respond directly to reader requestsfor further information.

Domestic inflation and fluctuations in thevalue of the dollar overseas affect the priceof merchandise imported into this country.Please be aware that prices quoted in thisissue are therefore subject to change.

14STEREO REVIEW

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iti

details .. A DIFFERENT KIND OF RECORD CLUB

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Audio Q. and A.By Lorry

Klein

Technical Director Kleincontemplates the acoustic

properties of a typicalchamber in a castle inHeidelberg, Germany.

Subliminal Rockn CBS News recently reported that

some rock-and-roll songs have sub-liminal messages recorded on them thatcan only be heard when played in reverse-as I have heard for myself on the songSnowblind by Styx. I would like to know ifthese messages will appear on tape when Irecord the song? And will these messagesbe audible when the tape is played enreverse?

PATRICK Ki LGORERising City, Nev.

ASince "subliminal" refers specificallyto stimuli that are outside the range

of conscious perception, I perceive a certainterminological confusion in your question."Subliminal" has lately come to mean atechnique that purports to plant ideas in aviewer's or listener's mind by presenting amessage in such a way that is lodged direct-ly in the unconscious, thus bypassing con-scious critical evaluation. The purpose ofthe subliminal message may be legitimate("Shoplifting is a bad thing to do"), illegiti-mate ("Vote for me"), or simply foolingaround.

The backward but audible Styx messageis obviously not an example of subliminalcommunication unless you feel that one ofyour unconscious talents is understandingreversed language. Sound is sound, and itshould be recordable and playable in re-verse if you can coax your machine to do it.One final point: a colleague on PsychologyToday magazine told me that there are nohard research data indicating that sublimi-nal sales or motivational messages have anyeffect at all-except possibly to enrichthose who are selling the concept.

Car Stereo Specsn How valid is it to evaluate car stereo,..4 equipment using standard home hi-fi specs?

RICHARD GARFIELDBronx, N.Y.

ANot very. Although a car stereo sys-tem resembles a home component

system in many of its functions and fea-

tures, you should be aware that there aresignificant differences between the twotypes of equipment. In a home hi-fi receiv-er, amplifier power is the specification thatmostly determines its retail price. High -power performance generally requires largeand expensive transformers, capacitors, andheat sinks as well as a chassis big enough toaccommodate it all. On the other hand,because it works on a 12 -volt battery (rath-er than 120 volts from the a.c. power line), acar stereo amplifier has to use different andmore complex techniques to achieve highpower. In addition, since the space in adash -mounted chassis is severely limited,separate power -amplifier modules are fre-quently used when the power rating isgreater than about 12 watts a Channel.

When comparing printed power specs,make sure that the comparison is a legiti-mate one, not of apples versus oranges-orlemons. This problem arises because onemanufacturer's honest rating of, say,3 watts from 50 to 20,000 Hz at 1 per centdistortion might be the equivalent of anoth-er manufacturer's fast -and -loose 25 wattsmeasured only at 1,000 Hz and with 5 to 10per cent distortion.

How much real power do you need in acar? It depends on what you are after. Ifyour purpose is to blow out the ears of back-seat drivers or to entertain the crowd in aparking lot, then don't stint yourself. But ifyou simply want to listen to wide -rangemusic at reasonably loud levels, 10 honestlyrated watts per channel should certainly beadequate. Keep in mind that every little bitof extra loudness you want requires justabout a doubling of the power output, andevery 3 dB of bass or treble boost applied byyour equalizer or tone controls also doublesthe power demand. Because of all these fac-tors, it is difficult to give precise poweradvice. Most manufacturers have availablepower boosters that can be added to alreadyinstalled equipment. So if down the road, soto speak, you find that you can't get enoughclean loudness from your honestly ratedlow -power installation, you can always adda power booster.

Another audibly important specificationusually not handled adequately in car -ster-eo manufacturers' literature is frequencyresponse. Unless there is a ±x dB designa-tion after the specified range-for example,

CIRCLE NO 18 ON READER SERVICE CARD16 STEREO REVIEW

MAXELL 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's UD-XL II were mistaken.The 1981 tape of the year award goes to Maxell XL II -S'.'

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.

To 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 WS and XL I -S carry a little higherprice tag than lesser cassettes.

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

CIRCLE NO. 58 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Revox B791The Straight Line on Precision Engineering

First, a few words about our straight line tracking system - Una -track ". Under the guidance of a sensitive infrared -interrupt servo circuit,Linatrack ^ guides the ultra -short (13/4" long) low mass tonearm straightacross the radius of the disc, thus eliminating tracking error. Linatrackmounts most popular cartridges, and the entire tonearm module swingsaside for quick record changing.

Next, the heart of the 8791: precision engineering. A quartz -

regulated Hall -effect direct -drive motor assures absolute speed sta-bility with no cogging effects. Even the vari-speed is quartz -locked,with an LED display to show the nominal speed and exact percentageof deviation.

The Revox 8791 issolid, substantial, and

0.100-- meticulously assem-bled. It is designed for

maximum user conven-ience, sonic accuracy,

and exceptional longev-ity. It is not inexpensive.

That's thestraight line. Hear

the full sound atyour nearest

Revox dealer.

R EVOX1425 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37210 (615) 254-5651


Before now, all ultra lightweight headphonesrolled off at 150-200 Hz.

Not so the Mura RED SET VII.

In addition to using samarium cobaltmagnets, RED SET VII incorporates uniquemagnetic uprisers to increase the already high

Yokerrrarne

qt.- Rare earth magnetUposet of magnetic ho.

Center Ca. -

Vac* Cod -(14Metal holder for diaphragm

12 rrucron Mylar diaphragm

tfa Resonator cover

Ear Pea - 0r -

magnetic flux density in the voice coil gap. Theresult is superb low frequency response, with 33Hz response, only 3 dB down from the 1,000 Hzreference point. Overall frequency response is 20-20,000 Hz (30-20,000 Hz at the 6 dB point downfrom the 1 KHz reference level). Sensitivity is 98dB at 1 milliwatt.

A 4 ft. cord with a 3.5mm stereo plug and anincluded 8' extension cord with a 1/4" stereo plugmakes RED SET VII ideal for both portable andhome hi fi listening.

Mum RED SET VII ... the one lightweight thatgives you all the bass the music has to offer.

A lightwVitAlpiLlull bassResponse

MURAYou'll he hearing tram us. -

RED SET and Mura are regostered trademarks of Mura Corp '1982 Mora Corporanon, Westbury. N Y 11590


30 to 15,000 Hz ± 3 dB-even an engineercouldn't guess how well the treble will beheard. Unlike the bass frequencies (whichin a car installation are not likely to gomuch below 60 Hz or so), high notes can becleanly reproduced and will be missed ifthey are not. The very -high -frequencyshimmer of wire brushes, the clash of cym-bals, and the characteristic sound of a tam-bourine are all dependent on the frequen-cies from about 9,000 to 12,000 Hz. If theamplifier, the speakers, or the tape head inthe cassette player can't reproduce thosefrequencies, much of the life and excite-ment in the music will be lost.

Other specifications require less discus-sion. By checking the catalogs from severalmanufacturers and the data in recent direc-tories, you will be able to get a good idea ofwhat level of performance is available forwhat price. Audiophiles will find that theyhave to reassess their technical aspirationswhen dealing with car stereo equipment.That's necessary because the small, moving,and noisy car environment places differentand sometimes more stringent demands onaudio equipment.

45 -rpm Holesn With the advent of the 45 -rpm disc,1/4-4 RCA came out with a small recordplayer with a large spindle to fit the largecenter hole. The record player, though pop-ular, was discontinued. My question is,why do 45's still have that large holeinstead of a standard (small) hole thatwould be more convenient?

JESSE W. COWANEveretts, N.C.

Al would guess that there are tworea-sons: ( I) Many of the 45 -rpm pressesand injection -molding machines are set upfor the large holes and retooling is tooexpensive, in the view of the manufacturer,to be worthwhile. (2) Inertia.

Underdriven Tweetershave some small speaker systems in

..b( my bedroom rated at 40 watts maxi-mum. / seldom go beyond five watts perchannel-and usually a half watt or less.My speakers, however, have gone throughJour tweeters between the two of them. Theother day an acquaintance told me that ifspeakers aren't powered adequately, thetweeters will tend to blow out from beingunderdriven. Is this true? If so, why?

ROB ROSEN BERGERAPO, New York, N.Y.

A Although my doctor maintains thathuman bodies are likely to suffer

from early failure if not exercised suffi-ciently, the same thing is not true of tweet-ers. Your friend has his facts slightly con-fused. What will destroy tweeters is aninadequately powered amplifier that putsout lots of spurious high -frequency energywhen consistently overdriven into clippingdistortion. Perhaps your amplifier is unsta-ble and puts out high-level ultrasonic sig-nals-or perhaps you are trying to driveyour amplifier to put out more power thanyou think you are.

STEREO REVIEW

Tandberg TIA-3012Innovations And

Specifications

All discreteselected components

Moving -cal andmoving- magnet inputs

No electrolytic or ceramiccapacitors from phono in

to speaker out (cleanersound oath)

Separate ' listen/record"input selector switches

Minimum phase shiftfor superior imaging

High-speed design (1,000volt/micro-second slew rate)

Tone control circuits withvariable turnovers utilizing

1% calibrated resistors

Dedicated digital ;nput(no capacitors through entire

circuit) capable of 20 -voltinput without oveload

MOSFET output deviceswith no current orvoltage limiting

Toroidal powertransformer

Thermic servo -loop biasing

(maintainsstabilitywithout

affectingmusicalsignals)

Main/remotespeaker

switchingwith gold-

plated relays,heavy dutywiring, five -way

binding post

Unit constructed of extrudedaluminum profiles for

strength and heat dissipation

100 watts RMS/channel,8 ohms, 20 Hz to 20 kHz,

less than 0.02 THD and IM

THETOGETHERSEPARATESTandberg introducesthe latest addition to itscontinuing 3000 Series ofcomponents, based on fiftyyears of engineering excel-lence and innovation.

The TIA-3012 integratedamplifier matches othercomponents in the Tandberg3000 Series in its dedicationto musical excellence, flex -bility, quality, and value.

TANDBERG'Labriola CourtArmonk, New York 10504

(914) 273-9150

All these qualities areavailable in a series ofcomponents endowed withEuropean styling and simple,straightfo-ward operation.

The TIA-3012, in com-bination with either of ourhighly acclaimed 3000Series turers and a pairof rosewood side panels,forms the world's finestreceiver, with built-inflexibility without lossof investment.

Get together with theTIA-3012 at your localauthorized Tandberg dealer.

TIA-3012 Integrated Amplifier withTPT-3011 FM Tuner and Rosewood Side Panels

CIRCLE NO. 50 ON READER SERVICE CAPD

FREEEICHER ANNIVERSARY 1551/1

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Audio/ Video IleumBy DavidRanada

Technical Editor Ranadaholding a "wafer" of

integrated circuitsprior to its being cut

up into individual chips

BITS OF THE FUTURE

DIGITAL. No other word so completelysummarizes what the future holds in

store for audio and video media. This wasmade evident in recent meetings of both theAudio Engineering Society (AES) in LosAngeles and the Society of Motion Pictureand Television Engineers (SMPTE) in NewYork. These engineering conventions-where technical leaders in the audio, video,and motion -picture fields present their lat-est research findings and production tech-niques-are often the places to find theseeds of upcoming technological change.And digital and testingpervaded both conventions.

At the AES convocation, for example, pa-pers were given on integrated circuits forplaying digital -audio Compact Discs (Mat-sushita), on a new digital -audio adaptor forvideocassette recorders (again Matsushita),on the accepted format of a digital -audiomaster tape meant for Compact Disc distri-bution (Sony and Philips), on random-ac-cess digital -audio editing (Soundstream),on digital testing of audio equipment (CBSand NHK), and on using computers to helpdesign analog transducers (best representedby Bang & Olufsen's computer -aided de-sign of a series of phono cartridges).

These papers, however, generally repre-sented extensions of previous digital -audiotechnology, refinements of "old" tech-niques. The really fascinating stuff was pre-sented at the SMPTE meeting, where digi-tal techniques seemed to have taken over,and not just in audio soundtracks.

Television engineers seem to be takingdigitally encoded video signals far more se-riously than their 20- to 20,000 -Hz audiobrethren are taking digital audio. That dig-ital signals are the video waveforms of thefuture seemed to be a forgone conclusionjudging by the number of digital -video pa-pers given at recent SMPTE meetings.These have ranged from fairly abstrusetechnical works on digital -video bit -rate re-duction to popular and well -attended dem-onstrations of the latest in computer -gener-ated special effects and "graphics" for filmand television.

One of the greatest benefits of using digi-tal techniques-expanded control of me-chanical processes-was exemplified by

Kodak's presentation of a process the com-pany calls Datakode. As "the bridge be-tween film and computers," Datakode usesa very thin, transparent layer of magneticrecording particles deposited on the non -emulsion side of a motion -picture film. Onthis coating are recorded digital timing andcueing signals for reading by computerizedediting machinery. Kodak estimates thatfull use of the process can reduce post -pro-duction time and labor expenses by 30 to 50per cent. With the amount of work neces-sary to produce today's blockbuster films,

can amount to millions of dol-lars. (Kodak, by the way, used to makemagnetic audio tape. Since the coating offilms with emulsions and tapes with mag-netic particles are nearly identical pro-cesses, Datakode is perhaps Kodak's way ofreturning to magnetic recording.)

". . . filmgoers are oftenlucky to get any soundat all. Digital to therescue? Maybe."

Much post -production work is spent on afilm's soundtrack. Long neglected by bothfilm and video producers, the audio qualityof soundtracks received quite a bit of atten-tion at the last SMPTE meeting. The mostfascinating presentation was given byJames Moorer of Lucasfilm, Ltd. (StarWars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.). Hisgroup recently completed an all -digital au-dio -signal -processing "station" that is es-sentially a high-speed digital computer withan internal "architecture" optimized for theprocessing of digital audio signals. In digitalsignal processing, all changes to the signaloccur while the signal is in digital form andare the result of computerized arithmeticaloperations.

Although designed for audio editing,sound -effects synthesis and processing, andsound mixing, such a station can even syn-thesize music. The key is the programming.Future plans include "software" for speech

20 STEREO REVIEW

06 X1W """' Na" .401iss341,0

ETERNAL MUSIC-+ 1- )--1wet"

'sea

14Dual capstans and matched brass stabilization fly-wheels give you rock stable bi-directional play.

0

Musical Chain ReactorJust touch the Bi-Directional play button once and you'll experience a nonstcpmusical chain reaction. You can lis-

ten to this personal stereo while you're on the move or with the includedinterface, sit back and enjoy an evening of non-stop, uninterrupted music through your own home stereo. Even a regenerating power supply is included free.

Kick back and relax. Here's a personalstereo with thundering kaleidoscopicsound that you'll wear when you're out,but that you'll probably get even moreuse out of at home.

Later you'll read about the sophisti-cated electronics, the dual capstans andthe anti -rolling tape movement systemwith twin matched brass flywheels (pic-tured above). But, first let's see whatthis deck has to offer that's so specialfor use at home.

NOT A $1000 DECKNo, the new DAK Micro XV5000 con-

tinuous play auto -reverse deck won'toutperform the specs of your $1000home cassette deck. But, it's closer thanyou'd imagine. And when you use thespecial interface cable we supply as aFREE BONUS with the deck, you canplug the deck directly into any 'aux' or'line' inputs in your stereo system.Now here's the good part! The sophis-

ticated Bi-Directional play mechanismof the deck provides you with continu-ous unattended play of both sides ofyour cassette over and over again.

You can be in bed and have hours ofuninterrupted music. At the office, youcan listen to your cassettes withoutworrying about changing them whenthey get to the end.

So while you may prefer your currentexpensive cassette deck for its specs,you'll love this deck for the freedom itgives you from changing or turning overcassettes every 45 minutes or so.

And this deck is no lowlife. It playsboth normal and metal tapes. The fidel-ity is so good that if you want to copy atape, just play it on this deck and recorda new copy on your current home deck.

ON THE ROADSlip this ultra micronized champagne

gold personal stereo into its matchedprotective leatherette case completewith belt loop and shoulder strap.

Then plug in the 11/2 oz. Samarium Co -

bait headphones and you're ready to hitthe road. At 11 oz. and at only 4'/2" X3'/z" X 1Y2", it's less than 1/4" widerthan the cassette box it's pictured sit-ting on above. (Cassette not included).

Whether you're into gymnastics, longwalks, or mowing the lawn, you'll enjoythe unbelievably rich stereo sound.

The deck incorporates a special dualflywheel tape movement system with aunique anti -rolling mechanism resemb-ling a fine clock. It compensates formovement to keep the music smoothand stable even when you're not.

Wait till you see this incredible deckglide into action. As each of the dualcapstans (pictured above) effortlesslyand automatically engages you can seeand feel the mechanical quality just assure as you will hear the sophisticatedelectronic quality by the clear dramaticmusical sound this deck produces.

You can easily test the stability of apersonal stereo cassette deck by shakingit while you listen to music. If the musicwows badly, or even stops, you have acheap unit. DAK's is superbly stable. Wefeel it is easily equal or superior to any-thing we've seen on the market.

FREE BONUS ENERGY DYNAMOWhat you don't usually read about in

most ads is that as good sounding as per-sonal stereos may be, they tend to eatbatteries. Sc, every 3-8 hours or so youwill be laying down more of your hardearned cash to keep the music rolling.

Well No More. Here's a slightly ridic-ulous example. Let's say that you listento cassettes for 41/2 hours a day, 7 days aweek, 365 days a year for 3 years.

With the FREE BONUS dynamo char-ger and the FREE BONUS erergy cellsincluded with your DAK XV5000 MicroBi-Directional cassette deck you'll stillbe at full power in 3 years because theenergy cells we supply carry a separate1000 charge or 5 year limited warranty.And best of all, in 3 years, you'll be

severa hundred dollars richer in moneythat you haven't spent on regular 'throwaway' batteries. There's also a DC inputthat you can use to plug in any external3V DC power supply (not included).

GUARANTEEDThe XV5000 is made specially for DAKoy one of the largest manufacturers ofoersor al electronics. It's the latest gen-tration in microsize and features. And,wait till you hear the sound.

DAK is America's largest direct sellingmanufacturer of magnetic products. Wehave Deen in business over 11 years.Your deck is backed by the standardlimited manufacturer's warranty.

TRY BI-DIRECTIONAL PLAYRISK FREE

Take the DAK XV5000 on walks, tothe mountains or as you commute towork. Then just plug it into any homeor office stereo system for continuousnonstop play of your favorite cassettes.

If for any reason you aren't 100% sat-isfied, simply return it and our specialfree oonuses in their original boxeswithir 30 days for a courteous refund.

To 'order your DAK XV5000 Bi-Di-rectioial Personal Stereo Cassette Deckcomplete with the home stereo interfacethe dynamo charger and energy cellsrisk free with your credit card, call thetoll free hotline, or send your check forthe incredibly low introductory price of$79 plus $3.50 for postage and handlingOrder No. 9600. CA res add 6% tax.

Why settle for a radio station's choiceof music and commercials when you canhave tour own choice of nonstop un-interrupted music anywhere anytime.

ii

DAKINDUSTRIES INCORPORATED

TOLL -FREE 1-800-423-2636f busy, after hours, on weekends or in CACALL TOLL -FREE . . . 1-800-228-123410845 Vanowen St., N. Hollywood CA 91605

SOUNDS THAT SOOTHE.Tne ivlarsonci sound conditionoi

generates the primal sounds of nature-the surf, the rain, the rhythmic gushesof a waterfall. And these sounds aren'trecorded- but synthesized- with the useof advanced solid state electronics.

Hospitals use sound conditioners likethe Marsona to relax patients in thecoronary and respiratory care sections.Controlled laboratory tests at a universitysleep lab indicated that sound conditioned

CIRCLE

sleepers got to sleep quicker, slept longerand received about 50% more Delta(stage 4) deep sleep.

Marsona 's all -electronic design offersseveral advantages over earlier electro-mechanical models: more types of sounds(2 surf, rainfall, waterfall). There are nomoving parts, no tapes, nothing to wearout. And it uses less electricity than asmall night light. Measures only 7 x 8 x 5".

And you can fine tune sounds toexactly your likes; from a mere whisperall the way up to a strong masking sound.With the surf you can even vary therhythm from slow to fast to random.

The Marsona 1200 uses 'white noise'-long recognized by scientists for its abilityto mask out unwanted noise that interfereswith sleep, relaxation or work. We offeryou the Mar=ina 1200 for '1!! 30 daymoney -back One y, ,nty.

ORDER TOLL FREE

Urger product rI\ilL;b4..s. creditcard holders may use our toll -freenumber. Or send check for $129 plus$4.50 delivery (in California, add $7.74sales tax).

800 344-4444In Alaska and Hawaii 800 227-3826

THE SHARPER IMAGE'406 Jackson St nSan Francisco,

Call toll tree for our catalog of innovative products.NO 44 ON READER SERVICE CARD

McIntoshSTEREO CATALOG

and FM DIRECTORYGet all the newest and latest information on the newMcIntosh stereo equipment in the McIntosh catalog. Inaddition you will receive an FM station directory thatcovers all of No'th America.

SEND

TODAY!

rMcIntosh Laboratory Inc.East Side Station P.O. Box 96Binghamton, N.Y. 13904-0096

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SR

If you are in a hurry for your catalog please send the coupon to McIntosh.For non rush service send the Reader Service Card to the magazine.

1

synthesis, voice modification, and other"exotic" digital audio effects to go alongwith the company's digital video and filmeffects. On the hardware side, each proces-sor is capable of performing the basic sig-nal -processing operation (a multiplication/addition) twenty million times a second.The audio is encoded (or synthesized) insixteen -bit samples for wide dynamic rangewhile the internal machine registers aretwenty-four bits wide. This preserves a six-teen -bit dynamic range when the results ofmany arithmetical calculations are roundedoff or "truncated."

Dr. Moorer said that there were no plansfor using the processor in any upcomingfilm (the most likely candidate would be thenext installment of Star Wars, due outsoon), but that the processor could be rede-signed for mass production. With sales of afew dozen a year, digital audio processingwould be cost -competitive with convention-al film -sound techniques. As shown, the ba-sic architecture of the machine seems suit-able for home digital signal processing (fil-tering, equalization, reverb, imaging) if thehardware can be reduced to large-scale in-tegrated circuits.

The more -than -90 -dB dynamic range ofsixteen -bit -encoded digital audio would bevery effective in a movie theater if it wereonly possible to deliver it in such an environ-ment. Between scratched and dirty filmprints, misadjusted projectors, and malad-justed projectionists, filmgoers are oftenlucky to get any sound at all. Digital to therescue? Maybe.

A company with ties to the Disney em-pire-Digital Fluorescentsound-presentedinformation on how the standard six chan-nels of an audio soundtrack can be put on a70 -mm film print in digital form. The play-back -only process (still under development)also uses the back side of a film (Datakode,move over). Instead of magnetic particles,the Fluorescentsound system uses "bright-eners" similar in action to the chemicalsused to make your wash "brighter thanbright." Deposited on the film in the binarypatterns required by the digital encodingsystem, the brighteners absorb ultravioletlight and emit it as visible light, and yetthey are transparent in a normal projectorbeam. As the film passes through a specialreading mechanism, the brighteners arebombarded with ultraviolet light; the visiblelight returning from the fluorescing bit pat-tern is picked up by a light-sensitive deviceand digitally decoded to yield six discretechannels of digital audio sound (four chan-nels with 35 -mm films). To guard againstfilm damage affecting the sound quality,the encoding format (designed by ThomasStockham of Soundstream) is 100 per centredundant: each digital "word" is depositedtwice in separated locations on the film.

Not everything at SMPTE was digitalaudio, of course. Emil Torick of the CBSTechnology Center proposed that a three -channel sound system be adopted for stereoTV broadcasts. The third channel would bea quadrature-modulated sideband in eitherthe Zenith or Telesonics stereo -broadcastsystem. The addition of the third channelfor center -screen dialogue and sound effectswould degrade the stereo signal-to-noise ra-tio by only I dB, he said. Stereo TV of anykind, however, is at least a year away fromreaching the home market. 0

CIRCLE NO 32 ON READER SERVICE CARD STEREO REVIEW

Au. QuartzDOW

CONCORD.Anything else is a compromise.

Lquite a claim, we realize.But our goal of constantly per-

fecting sound has resulted in thefirst line of car stereos which offerstrue high fidelity specifications,and therefore true high fidelitysound reproduction.

So for the first time, the uncom-promising listener can hear musicin the car - and feel truly at home.

As an example, let's take a lookat Concords latest the HPL - 130

lasting Sen-alloy tape heads in carstereo, and the playback frequencyresponse of the HPL-130 is some-thing you really have to hear tobelieve (out to 20,000 Hz).

To ensure enough power to takeadvantage of all these features,there's a superb amplifier whim -like all the others in the Concordline - is designed with exactly thesame high fidelity specifications as

fader which lets you install a front/rear speaker system and adjust the

balance without loss of poweror frequency response.

Quite a list! But then theHPL-130 is quite a machine.

It all adds up to the first carcassette deck that canaccurately reproduce yourDBX recorded tapes throughits built-in amplifiers, andperlorm comparably to thehigh fidelity equipment in

your home.So as you perhaps suspected, at

around $600 the HPL- 130 costs alittle more flan average.

But as with all Concord equip-ment, we think you'll find thedifference is worth the difference.

BASS -e- OFF -VOL.EQUALIZER Push FADERLEVEL CONCORD

NR.UO ON ON

tM

AM

ON DN 1.0C AM

n n0 I .

AL. SrIND

YF

tO

TUNING -4- TREBLEPush SC!..T.N___ TONE

Frst and foremost, it featuresConcord's exclusive signal pro-cessor circuitry which (with our plug-in HPQ 90 adaptor) lets you enjoythe superb high fidelity of DBXrecorded tapes. Alternatively, youcan plug in a stereo imager or equali-zer for further sound enhancement.

But quite apart from its exclusiveDBX capability, the HPL-130's otherfeatures take it far beyond the cur-rent state of the art.

Take the tuner; ifs a quartz digitalfour gang unit which offers signifi-cantly improved selectivity andperformance over the three gangtuners used by our competitors,plus automatic scan and a 10 -station preset memory.

Then there's the HPL-130'sunidirectional tape mechanism,continuing Concord's 22- year -oldreputation for excellence in thisarea with outstancing wow & flutterand speed regulation characteris-tics, along with the convenience ofpower -off auto eject.

Concord originated the conceptof using high performance long -

home amplifiers. That's why we cangive you complete specifications:12 watts per channel into 4 ohmsfrom 30-20,000 Hz with less than0.8% distortion.

And if you'd like more power thanthat, just plug in our new HPA-25amplifier for a 48 -watt system (100watts maximum power).

Sen-alloy chip

Core

Shield case

Shield plate

Other important HPL-130 fea-tures include a built-in bassequalizer for overcoming bassspeaker deficiencies, equalizerlevel, loudness and treble cutiboostcontrols, Dolby noise reduction,speaker pop muting circuitry,adjustable dual line outputs, and alow level preamplifier front/rear

SPECIFICATIONS:

Tuner SectionSensitivity

Stereo separation:Frequency responses

Tape SectionFrequency responseStandard tapeMetal tapeWow & flutterAmplifier SectionMaximum paverHigh fidelity power

30dB Quieting0 Microvolts 11 2 ail

min 35dB±2dB

30-16,000 Hz

±2dB30-15,000 Hz30-20.000 Hz0 08% WRMS

25 watts/Ch12 watts min RMS

perch into4 ohms 30-20.000 Hz with

0 8% THD max

Dolby' s the registered trademark of Dolby LabsDBX s the reg itered trader,ark 0 DBX

CONCORDAnything else Is a compromise.CONCORD ELECTRONICS 6025 Yolanda AvenueThrza,a Cabfornia 91356 (213) 344 9335


Tope TalkBy Craig

Stark

Contributing Editor Starkat the BASF technicalconference in Germany

INTERNATIONAL CASSETTE STANDARDS

RECENTI.Y Larry Klein, Julian Hirsch,and I, among others, had the opportu-

nity to spend nearly a week with BASF'stop technical personnel in Ludwigshafen,West Germany. Our hosts took us throughevery stage in the manufacturing of top-quality cassettes-from the grimy indus-trial processes necessary to produce chromi-um -dioxide particles to the final loading, la-beling, and packaging of the finished cas-settes. At each step along the way, includ-ing the testing of finished cassettes, the em-phasis on quality control was-if not un-paralleled in the very best of the many othertape plants I have toured-positively as-tounding in its scope and thoroughness.

With such dedication to top-quality tapeperformance, it is little wonder that BASFhas long been deeply involved in the devel-opment of proper mechanical and electro-magnetic tape standards. Indeed, the com-pany's chief application engineer for audio/video products, Wilhelmus (Bill) Andries-sen-as knowledgeable a tape expert asthere is anywhere-chairs the tape -stand-ards committee of the International Elec.trotechnical Commission (IEC), and he wasable to bring us all up to date on the nearlycomplete IEC cassette standards, adoptionof which will have world-wide ramificationsfor tape and tape -equipment manufactur-ers. Since many readers are probably un-familiar with the I EC, a little explanation isin order. Every industrialized country has anational standardizing body, such as ANSI(the American National Standards Insti-tute), DIN (Germany), CCIR (France),JIS (Japan), etc. Often these governmentagencies do not actually write a standardbut turn to the technical experts who belongto such organizations as the EIA (Electron-ic Industries Association) or EIAJ (Elec-tronic Industries Association of Japan). TheIEC is composed of national representativeswho hammer out common standards for ap-proval by their home countries' appropriatebodies in order to facilitate internationaltrade and communication. The process istortuous, for politics and national commer-cial interests may play an even larger rolethan honest technical differences.

Within the European Economic Commu-nity, and even in Communist -bloc coun-

tries, IEC standards have been accepted asthe basis for no -tariff -barrier trade and soenjoy essentially the status of law. In thiscountry, in contrast, some courts have de-cided that the use of many industry -estab-lished standards constitutes restraint oftrade! And in Japan (where most of thetapes and recorders that Americans use are

". . . politics and nationalcommercial interests mayplay an even larger role [inthe process] than honesttechnical differences."

made), despite growing interest in IEC tapestandards on the part of the technical dele-gates to the IEC, some of the commercialinterests within the EIAJ apparently stillhave reservations about key provisions inthe proposed standards.

There is little controversy about two im-portant IEC decisions. First, as everyoneknows, there are currently four basic typesof cassette tape-ferric, chrome (or Cr02-equivalent), ferrichrome, and metal-andthe IEC has decided to call them simply"IEC-1," "IEC-11," "IEC-111," and "IEC-IV." Further, as you may have noted fromHirsch -Houck Laboratories test reports,there are now official IEC playback -cali-bration tapes (manufactured by BASF). Aslong as different recorder manufacturersadjusted their machines with different play-back -calibration tapes, there was little hopethat a prerecorded cassette would sound thesame played on different decks.

Other provisions may engender more dis-pute, however. The IEC has agreed thatthere should be not only standard playback -calibration tapes, but also standard blankreference tapes of each tape with knownbias, sensitivity, and frequency -responsecharacteristics. BASF is the designatedproducer of IEC-1 and IEC-11 blank refer-ence tapes, Sony of IEC-III, and TDK ofIEC-IV. The proposed procedure is that a

tape manufacturer would test his tapesagainst the reference tapes using the IECstandard bias and level settings, then listany differences in bias and sensitivity heconsiders desirable to optimize a recorderfor his particular product. Further, the pro-posed standard would require deck manu-facturers to use the IEC reference tapes toset the bias, frequency response, and sensi-tivity characteristics of their recorders. Thiswould certainly tend to diminish the impor-tance of "bias optimizing" circuits andwould tend to discourage tape manufactur-ers from making tapes that differ signifi-cantly from the IEC reference tapes.

The IEC proposal has an appealing sim-plicity. After all, the cassette medium isused principally by consumers who don'tnormally have the instruments to determine"optimum bias," and for the real tape fa-natic some manufacturers will always pro-vide decks with user- or microprocessor -controlled adjustments to iron out any mi-nor remaining variations from brand tobrand. The response tolerances within eachtape type are said to be broad enough thatthey will, in practice, accommodate the per-formance of almost every high -quality tapenow on the market. Uniform record -levelsensitivity is also increasingly important,since the new Dolby -C noise -reduction sys-tem must be very accurately aligned or fre-quency -response errors will result. And tapemanufacturers would still be free to developnew tapes with higher maximum output ca-pabilities at all frequencies and/or lowernoise levels.

Against all this there is the argument thatto develop the "best" tape it may be neces-sary to use a non-IEC-standard bias, whichmight be discouraged by adoption of thestandard. (The IEC-II reference cassette,incidentally, closely resembles the charac-teristics of BASF Professional II.) Debateon this and other IEC-related matters occu-pied much of the time during the BASFpress trip, but they were conducted in themost friendly spirit. Judgment on all theproposed IEC standards cannot really bepassed until all the concerned parties have

Some of BASF's !EC standard calibrationand reference tapes.

had an opportunity to do some serious test-ing of the IEC reference tapes and proce-dures. To assist me in this process, Naka-michi was kind enough to lend one of theirsuperb GX-9 decks, which permits nearlyevery conceivable adjustment. In future col-umns I will report on the results of tryingout the IEC proposal.

24 STEREO REVIEW

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A unique solution to a serious turntable problem:Technics introduces turntables with the P -Mount system.Unfortunately, standard turntable design has left toomuch to chance in terms of cartridge mounting andperformance.

Technics turntables with the patented P -Mounttonearm/cartridge system change all that. By providingcomplete compatibility between tonearm and cartridgeto achieve the optimum tonearm resonant frequency:the level at which bass frequency interference isminimized. For the accuracy and fidelity conventionalturntables can deny you.

In addition, P -Mount is a plug-in system. You'll getoutstanding performance without struggling to installthe cartridge. There's nothing to wire. There's no longera headshell. There's no more fumbling to calibrateoverhang or stylus position. In addition, tracking andanti -skating adjustments have been virtually eliminated.

Just plug any P -Mount cartridge into a Technicsstraight, low mass, high performance tonearm, andtighten one locking screw. With Technics, your recordsare now virtually immune to the groove wear, poorchannel separation and distortion caused by impropercartridge-to-tonearm mounting.

And Technics standardized all key specificationswith manufacturers of P -Mount cartridges: cartridgeweight, external dimensions, connector shape, stylusposition and more. So you have a wide range ofcartridges to choose from.

The P -Mount plug-in cartridge system. Just one ofthe many advances you'll find in the new line ofsophisticated Technics turntables. From belt -drive todirect -drive to quartz -locked.

The turntable revolution continues at Technics.

TechnicsThe science of tic )f if 1( I


Technical TalkByJulian D. Hirsch

,4.,J0103,11111.11,11H!iiiirll.1

L.....k_I

Mai1

Do You Hear What I Hear?

RECENTcolumns have dealt with the con-

troversial question of whether electron-ic audio components have any distinctive"sounds" of their own. With loudspeakers,there is no question that different modelssound different. The issue is whether thereis any way to describe those differences interms that will mean roughly the samethings to at least a majority of readers.There is also the related issue of whetherevaluating loudspeakers on the basis oftheir perceived sound can be anything but apurely subjective process.

These issues were raised again in a recentletter from a reader who followed my often -repeated advice to take several favorite rec-ords to an audio showroom and use them toaudition a variety of speakers. Among thespeakers he listened to were several that wehave reviewed in these pages and praisedhighly. His reaction to hearing them, how-ever, was uniformly negative. To him, theyall sounded bad.

As it happens, these same speakers havealso been reviewed in other publications,which came up with conclusions generallysimilar to my own. So how is the discrepan-cy with my reader's reaction to be ex-plained? Are all the reviewers incompetentor even dishonest? Were all of us given spe-cially modified test speakers that differedmaterially from regular production units?Both of these explanations are extremelyunlikely. Most probably, since the criticsundoubtedly heard the speakers in roomswith different acoustic properties than theshowroom where my correspondent lis-tened, we simply heard different sounds.

The same reader also noted that electricalengineers at the large company where heworks find that my reported test measure-ments are meaningless to them. They wouldprefer that I simply state "in layman's lan-guage" how speakers sound with differentkinds of music. Of course, hardly any of mytest data is printed in our published speakerreports, for the very good reason that thisinformation would not be very meaningfulto most readers. It does have significance tothose familiar with the intricacies of speak-er design, who would understand the dataeven if they disagreed with the tests them-selves or with my interpretation of theirresults.

Believe me, I wish that I could describe"in layman's language" (or any other, forthat matter!) how a speaker sounds to me.That would be no small achievement from asemantic perspective, since English, likemost languages, has very limited descriptiveresources in this area. This problem has nothindered many other reviewers from regu-larly attempting such descriptions (and I

too have made a few small-scale efforts inthat direction), but I fear the results havebeen without much value to anyone.

There are several obstacles to "objective"listening tests or sonic descriptions. Besidesthe large differences in personal taste in re-produced sound (as well as, of course, in thetype of sound-the music-being repro-duced), there is the enormous influence ofthe listening room and the placement ofspeakers within them on their perceivedsound ("enormous" is really a rather mildadjective in this context). Even more impor-

tant, however, is that no two people everhear "the same thing" even when they arein the same room at the same time andplaced very close to each other.

It is possible to measure with reasonableaccuracy the sound field that impinges on alistener's ears in a given acoustic environ-ment. This is not as easy or simple as onemight wish it to be, but it is possible. Theproblem is that what is measurable is notwhat a listener hears! What we "hear" isnot the varying sound field at our outerears, or even at our eardrums, but the resultof our brains' processing of all the auditorydata it receives. There is absolutely no wayfor one person to know what another is"hearing" except in rather gross and impre-cise terms (which is not to say that we can'tknow what another person is listening to-that is, the source of the perceptual stimulithat result in the experience of hearing).

If, as I firmly believe, this is a correct as-sessment of the situation, a description ofthe "sound" of any speaker (or any otherstereo component, for that matter) is neces-sarily a matter of personal opinion. It is per-fectly possible for two sonically knowledge-able people to sit side by side, listening tothe same loudspeakers, and come to com-pletely different conclusions about whatthey have heard.

In view of all this, I feel that our reviewsought to present objective measurementsfor the most part and comment on the sound(the perceived sound) only in a rather gen-eral way. Such terms as "graininess," "def-inition," "haziness," and the like are entire-ly too specific and personal to have much

Tested This MonthDCM OED Speaker System Onkyo TX -51 AM/FM Receiver

Denon DP -11F Turntable Vector Research VCX-800 Cassette DeckKenwood C-1 Preamplifier and M-1 Power Amplifier

FEBRUARY 1983 27

meaning to another individual, especiallyone who is not sharing the same listeningexperience.

In the same vein, another reader wrote tosuggest that we rank speakers in order oftheir performance versus that of competi-tively priced units. He would be happy tosee additional comments on the individualspeakers' colorations, efficiency, etc. Some-how, the question of how to evaluate thosequalities when ranking the speakers in thefirst place seems to have been overlooked!This does not seem to have bothered the

staff of Consumer Reports, since their useof an overall merit rating, regardless of itsmeaning or worth, makes it simple for themto rank even products as acoustically prob-lematical as loudspeakers. Lacking confi-dence in such a rating system, we prefer toavoid comparative ranking except when weengage in a carefully designed listening orperformance test of several units at once.

In conclusion, I can only reiterate mysuggestion that you listen for yourself andchoose the speaker in the price range youcan afford whose sound is most pleasing to

you. No review can be as valid in guidingyour purchase decision as that approach, al-though we can offer guidance in determin-ing which_ speakers are worth auditioningand which can be excluded from considera-tion. Just try not to get carried away by ad-vertising hyperbole. My first correspondentsummed up the matter beautifully, sayingthat "No speaker [sound] even approachesthe real sound of instruments or voices. It isa crude analog." I certainly agree, but I

must add that listening to that crude analogcan still be a most enjoyable experience. 0

Equipment Test ReportsHirsch -Houck Laboratories: Julian D. Hirsch and Craig SEark

DCM QEDSpeaker System

pit DCM QED is a floor -standing, two -I way speaker system whose design em-

phasizes linear amplitude and phase re-sponse. It employs an 8 -inch woofer operat-ing in a transmission -line -loaded enclosurewhose port is at the end opposite to thewoofer (which is located at the top of thecolumn -shaped enclosure, close to a seatedlistener's ear level). The tweeter, which ap-pears to be a dome driver (it is not readilyvisible through the opaque, non -removable

foam -plastic grille), is located near thewoofer and just below it. The crossover fre-quency is not stated. The manufacturerspecifies only the system dimensions (36inches high. 113/4 inches wide, and 91/4inches deep), its net weight (41 pounds),and a few electrical ratings. These include asystem sensitivity of 87 dB sound -pressurelevel with a I -watt input at 1 meter in anormal listening room, a nominal 12 -ohmimpedance (8 ohms minimum), and the am -

plifier power recommendations (20 wattsminimum, 100 watts with integrated pro-gram material, 50 watts with pink noise).

According to the manufacturer, the QEDis the result of research into the audible ef-fects of variations in crossover design. In theQED the acoustic outputs of the woofer andtweeter are in phase through the crossoverregion. The outputs of the two drivers aremeant to combine to form a uniform acous-tic power output over the crossover range. A

28 STEREO REVIEW

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_Jest ieporespart of the crossover design is the additionof a short time delay to the tweeter circuit.This places the "plane" of correct timecompensation or alignment at the height ofthe drivers and thus at the expected heightof a listener's car. According to DCM, theenclosure is designed to stand about 3 feetfrom the wall behind it for best (flattest)bass performance.

Oil -finished walnut plates are used forthe top and bottom of the QED. the rest ofit being covered by a snugly fitting sleeve ofblack foam plastic. The connectors in therear arc jacks that accept standard dual ba-nana -plug connectors (furnished). Price:S504 per pair.

Laboratory Measurements. The close-miked woofer response of the DCM QEDwas flat within 2.5 dB overall from 60 to650 Hz; it dropped another 2.5 dB from 650to 1,000 Hz and fell more rapidly at higherfrequencies. The contribution of the port tothe total output was slight, affecting onlyfrequencies below 35 H7.

The smoothed and averaged room -re-sponse curve had the usual midrange peaksand dips, but it was notably smooth above 2to 3 kHz. After correction for room absorp-tion at high frequencies, the response was± 3 dB from 300 to 20,000 HZ. When it wasspliced to the woofer curve, the resultingcomposite response was flat within ± 3.5 dBfrom 45 to 20.000 Hz. Its general trend wasdownward with increasing frequency, witha peak of several decibels at 16,000 Hz anda 2.5 -dB irregularity in the 1.000- to1,700 -Hz range.

The quasi-anechoic axial frequency re-

sponse was measured with our IQS FFTsignal analyzer at a I -meter distance fromthe microphone to the grille. It was flatwithin ±2 dB from 300 to 17,000 Hz. Ashallow depression in the response could beseen at about 1,500 Hz. and there weresharper peaks and dips between 3 and 4.5kHz and between 7 and 8 kHz. These vari-ations were minor in the context of the over-all flatness of the system response, but theyshowed up at different microphone dis-tances and even in a measurement made 45degrees off the speaker axis.

The tweeter of the DCM QED had verygood dispersion up to about 11,500 Hz, al-though the outputs of the left and rightspeakers (representing an angular differ-ence of about 30 degrees as viewed from themicrophone position) differed by 10 to 12dB in the range of 12,000 to 20,000 Hz.

The phase response of the QED was verygood over most of the audio range, the prin-cipal deviation from linearity being around4.000 to 4.500 Hz, where the group delayfluctuated between 0.2 and 1.6 millisec-onds. Otherwise, except for a smaller fluc-tuation at 7.000 to 8.000 Hz, the group de-lay was uniform within 0.2 millisecond from1.000 to 20.000 Hz. The impedance hit aminimum of about 8 ohms at 35 and 140 Hzand about 7 ohms at 10,000 Hz, and itsmaximum was about 25 ohms at 67 and1.200 Hz. We would consider its true "nom-inal impedance" to be 8 ohms rather thanthe published 12 ohms. The sensitivity wasalmost exactly as rated, measuring an 88 -dB sound -pressure level at 1 meter when thespeaker was driven by 2.83 volts of band -limited pink noise.

The woofer distortion at a 1 -watt drivelevel was between 0.5 and 1 per cent from100 to 65 Hz, rising to about 8.5 per cent at30 Hz (the distortion was measured at theport for the lowest frequencies). Raising thedrive level to 10 watts increased the distor-tion to 1.5 to 2.5 per cent from 100 to 65 Hzand to about 19 per cent at 30 Hz.

Comment. The DCM QED soundedabout as smooth as it measured, with aslight but distinct warmth contributed (wesurmise) by the woofer output's being, onthe average, a couple of decibels higherthan the average tweeter level. Whateverthe cause, the sound was as enjoyable tohear for extended periods as that of almostany other speaker we have used.

The QED is an excellent example of awell -designed speaker system created toproduce a specific result (accurate impulseresponse, as described in DCM's litera-ture), making the inclusion of a tweeter -lev-el balance control neither necessary nor de-sirable. Frequency -balance modificationsfor speakers, in our opinion, are best madewith tone controls or an equalizer.

The virtues of the DCM QED becomeeven more apparent when one considersthat it is not only a very fine and musical -sounding speaker, it is also simply and at-tractively styled so as to be compatible witha wide range of home furnishings, its im-pedance properties will present no problemsto any amplifier, and it is priced only slight-ly above the class of medium-sized book-shelf speakers. -Julian D. Hirsch


Onkyo TX -51 AM / FM Receiver

nL Onkyo TX -5I AM/FM stereo re -I ceiver features a phono preamplifier

switchable for either moving -coil (MC) ormoving -magnet (MM) cartridges and abuilt-in CX decoder capable of reducingnoise by as much as 20 dB when playingCX-encoded discs. It is rated to deliver 40watts per channel into 8 -ohm loads between20 and 20,000 Hz with no more than 0.04per cent total harmonic distortion.

The tuner section of the TX -51 employsdigital frequency synthesis for both FM andAM bands, with tuning intervals of 100 and10 kHz, respectively. Like many other digi-tal receivers, the TX -5I is tuned by pressingeither end of a horizontal bar, pivoted at itscenter, to move upward or downward in fre-quency. Above the tuning bar (which is inthe lower right corner of the panel) arethree light -touch pushbuttons, marked

MEMORY, MANL AL, and AUTO. In \I:\`1 Althe frequency shifts by one step each timethe bar is pressed, and the tuner scans rap-idly if the bar is held in for more than asecond or two, stopping when it is released.In ALTO, a single touch of the bar starts thescanning action, which stops automaticallywhen it encounters a signal strong enoughto overcome the muting threshold. The

(Continued on page 34)

30 STEREO REVIEW

II'A new and revolutionary sound systemFourth in a serieson who [laic°

Electronics and Bow tech- has been developed by the most unlikelynology contribute to yourenjoyment

of driving partnership ever to be created in the audioindustry... General Motors... has teamed up with

Bose Corporation to create a car stereo system that is sofar ahead of anything currently available in car audio that

audio enthusiasts who can afford it may well bespending more time listening to music in their cars

than they do at homeLen Feldman, Audio Times

"The performance of the Delco-GM/Bose Music Systemwas astounding...I can't imagine anyone... buying

(one of these cars) without the Music System."Gary Stock, High Fidelity

"If your car is this well equipped, you won't wantto go home again."

Rich Warren, Chicago Magazine

"...you have to hear it to believe it!"Popular Mechanics

The Delco-GM/Bose Music System is available as a factory installed option onCadillac Seville and Eldorado, Buick Riviera, and Oldsmobile Toronado.

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1

Sound so real it will changehow you feel about driving.



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FREQUENCY IN HZ (CYCLES PER SECOND)

MEMORY button is used with the eight sta-tion -preset buttons to store the frequenciesof up to sixteen stations (each button servesfor one AM and one FM channel).

About half of the front panel is devoted toa display window containing the frequencyreadout (four large, pale -green numerals), afour -segment signal -strength indicator, andorange stereo and cx NOISE REDUCTIONlights. The preset buttons, below the righthalf of the window, are supplemented by il-luminated indicators. To the left of this con-trol group are the input selectors: squarepushbuttons for TAPE -2, phono,and tuner (an FM/AM button next to thelast switches between the two bands). Thesebuttons operate with a very light pressure,and illuminated symbols above them showwhich function is selected.

The left half of the panel contains a num-ber of slim rectangular pushbuttons that ac-tivate the two sets of speaker outputs, theCX noise -reduction system, the loudnesscompensation, and FM muting. Other but-tons select mono or stereo'operation (withany program source), the MM or MCphono-preamplifier mode, and either thenormal 75 -microsecond FM de -emphasistime constant or the 25 -microsecond valuefor use with an external Dolby -FM decoder(connected in one of the tape circuits).

Below the buttons are three knobs, for thebass and treble tone controls and the RECSELECTOR. The last supplies the TAPE -I and

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TAPE -2 outputs with either the tuner or thephono signal, disconnects them from all sig-nal circuits, or cross -connects them for dub-bing tapes from either machine to the otherwithout interfering with the normal use ofthe receiver. These knobs are detented, withpanel markings to show their settings, butthe setting of each knob is also shown by aback -lit green identifier visible though asmall window above the knob. The remain-ing front -panel controls are the power but-ton, the headphone jack, and a large volumecontrol at the right above the tuning con-trols. The volume control is concentric withthe balance control, a narrow ring close tothe panel, which is adjusted by means of asmall, protruding tab.

On the rear apron of the Onkyo TX -51are the usual signal input and output phonojacks, binding posts for the AM and FM(75- and 300 -ohm) antennas, and a detach-able pivoting AM loop antenna whose 2 -foot connecting cable allows it to be posi-tioned for best reception. There are also twoCA MA controls for matching the cartridgeoutput level to the requirements of the CXdecoder circuit. A small flexible disc pro-vided with the TX -5I contains 3.54 -cm -per -second calibration test tones recorded sepa-rately for left and right channels. Whileplaying one channel at a time, the corre-sponding adjustment is varied until theLED lights. That occurs only within a lim-ited range of adjustment, making this a con -

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venient and accurate means of calibratingthe CX decoder system. The speaker outputterminals resemble binding posts with holesinto which the stripped ends of the wires areinserted. A clockwise rotation of the postmakes a solid electrical connection with afirm mechanical grip on the wire. One ofthe two a.c. outlets is switched. The outputtransistors of the receiver are protected byfuses in the speaker lines that are readilyaccessible by removing a plastic protectivecover in the rear of the unit. The front panelof the Onkyo TX -5I is finished in silver,contrasting with its grey metal cabinet. Itmeasures 161/2 inches wide, 151/2 inchesdeep, and 41/4 inches high and weighs about21 pounds. Price: $400.

Laboratory Measurements. The OnkyoTX -5I amplifier clipped at 52.5 watts perchannel when driving 8 -ohm loads at 1,000Hz, for a clipping -headroom rating of 1.18dB. With 4 -ohm loads, the clipping powerwas 68 watts. When we drove 2 -ohm loads,the 4 -ampere output fuses blew before thewaveform clipped. We temporarily replacedthem with 5 -ampere fuses and observed aclipping power output of 84.5 watts perchannel. The dynamic -headroom test pro-duced clipping outputs (during 20 -milli-second tone bursts) of 62.6, 92.5, and 105.5watts per channel into loads of 8, 4, and 2ohms, respectively. This corresponds to an8 -ohm dynamic headroom of 1.95 dB. Theslew factor of the TX -5I was greater than25, and it was stable with reactive simu-lated loudspeaker loads.

The 1,000 -Hz distortion into 8 ohms in-creased smoothly from 0.0013 per cent at I

watt to 0.0145 per cent at 50 watts output.With 4 -ohm loads, the distortion increasedfrom 0.0025 per cent at I watt to 0.016 percent at 65 watts. Driving 2 -ohm loads re-sulted in appreciably higher distortion(though still much less than would be audi-ble in actual use), ranging from 0.005 percent at I watt to 0.036 per cent at 70 wattsand rising rapidly to 0.36 per cent at 80watts. The distortion varied little with pow-er, over the audio frequency range, typicallyreading between 0.001 and 0.003 per centfrom 20 to 10,000 Hz at power outputsfrom 4 to 40 watts and rising slightly to0.007 per cent at 20,000 Hz. All distortionreadings were far below the very conserva-tive 0.04 per cent amplifier rating. The I H F


34 STEREO REVIEW

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.

Powerful musi pure receivers.A JVC innovation called Super -A

removes subtle forms of distortion. So

A

musical overtones and transients areamplified intact fora 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.

I,

?!!"....!!

iz. I

Speakers more precise than the ear itself.Our 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.

im

_

6'7"....

7.7 r.r JVC COMPANYOF AMERICAHigh F Manly Oholsion7-T 77 7 : t,""7-- - i

, - Slater Orly*, Elmwood /ark, N.,107467,77t---_--7I Akkj bl Is aligishired trad ernark of Dotty La borator ee. -JVCCANADAINCj3carborougi,Gnt.

-.7 a . i -

The Institute of Jazz Studies is proud to announceits. Official Archive Collection

THE OKMTEST

JAll IKOKIANOSOf MIN

Unprecedented in recording history-the completeand definitive collection of great jazz performances

"Now its all together ... all the best of jazz,at long lasT in one place. With all the joy,the sorrow, the vitality that makes jazz great.It gives me a tremendous feeling to knowthis collection is being done, andI'm delighted to be a part of it."

-Dave Brubeck

A collection that only the Institute of Jazz Studies could assemble:

The best of over 60,000 records from the Institute's archivesand the vaults of every great jazz label.

Including rare out -of -issue pressings, unreleased recordings -and studio "takes" just recently discovered.

The first and only collection to tell the entire jazz story.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, the greatestrecorded performances in the history ofjazz will be brought together in a single,definitive record collection.

This unprecedented collection is be-ing issued by the Institute of Jazz Stud-ies, home of the world's largest archiveof original jazz recordings. It will in-clude the most important recordings ofevery major jazz artist who ever lived.And it will span all periods ... all labels... all the great styles that have madejazz the most inventive and excitingmusic of our century.

From the world's largest jazz archiveThe Greatest Jazz Recordings of AllTime is the culmination of years of workcarried on at the Institute's headquar-ters at Rutgers University-by a staff ofauthorities unique in all the world.

As they set about making their selec-tions, no resource was denied them.They considered countless recordings,beginning with the Institute's own ar-chive of more than 60,000 records. Inaddition, they received the support ofall the great jazz labels, whose vaultshold the master recordings essential forthis collection.

The most comprehensivecollection ever assembled

As a result, this will be the first col-lection to capture the all-time best of

Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz Photos by Robert Parent, Ella Fitzgerald.Photo by Raymond Ross, Lionel Hampton. Dave Brubeck DavidBedfern/Retna Ltd.. Benny Goodman Rex Features Ltd , King Oliver'sCreole Jazz Band Courtesy of the Tulane University Jazz Archive

jazz, as it flourished in each generation.The greatest music from the goldenage -the dazzling trumpet solos ofLouis Armstrong, the biting elegance ofBix Beiderbecke's cornet, and the vital,vibrant piano styles of Fats Waller.

From the era of swing -the inno-vative bands of Benny Goodman,Count Basie, Gene Krupa; the incom-parable Duke Ellington; singers BillieHoliday, Bing Crosby; guitarist DjangoReinhardt in his "Hot Club of France"recordings.

The best of bop and cool jazz -withalto sax artists ranging from the fieryCharlie Parker to the impeccablygraceful Paul Desmond .. trumpetersDizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis ... theOscar Peterson Trio ... Mit Jackson,with the Modern Jazz Quartet.

And the great musicians who arebringing jazz to more people than evertoday -including George BensonHerbie Hancock and Chick Corea

A collection you couldnever assemble in any other way

This is a collection that could not beduplicated by any individual. For itdraws upon a wealth of rare recordingswhich belong to the Jazz Institute-including important material just un-covered in the last few years.

Some of these recordings, such asTeddy Wilson's solo piano version of'Somebody Loves Me,' have actuallynever been issued before. Others havebeen unavailable for decades-suchas Art Tatum's 'Chloe.' And among themost fascinating of all are the pre-viously unreleased studio "takes" ofwell-known numbers like 'Benny's Bu-gle' by Charlie Christian and 'I Can'tGet Started' by Bunny Berigan.

And all the classics and hits of jazzwill be here. Unforgettable perfor-mances of 'St. James Infirmary' by JackTeagarden, 'China Boy' by Eddie Con-don, and 'Star Dust' by Lionel Hampton.

The superiorsound of proof -quality records

The sound quality of each record will bea revelation. For every vintage record-ing will first undergo a painstaking res-toration. Each will be electronically"cleaned," groove by groove ... bring-

ing you closer to the actual perfor-mance than was previously possible.

Furthermore, the Institute of JazzStudies has appointed The FranklinMint Record Society, one of America'sleading producers of high -qualityrecords, to press the records for thiscollection. And they will use a specialvinyl compound containing its own anti-static element. In addition, each recordwill be pressed in an atmosphere con-trolled "clean room." The result -apressing of superior fidelity that is alsomore durable and resistant to dust. Arecord of true proof -quality.

The records will be issued in hard-bound albums. Each album will hold aset of four 12" long-playing records.And each will present a specially con-ceived program of selections, whichbrings together related performancesin a way unique to this collection. Ac-companying each album will be an ex-pert commentary, written under thesupervision of Institute Director DanMorgenstern.

Available exclusively by subscriptionThroughout the world today, people are

rediscovering jazz: realizing anew whata vital musical form it is. If you have alove for jazz . . whether you follow itav'dly or remember it with nostalgia ...this is an opportunity not to be missed.

The collection is available only bysuoscription. Albums will be shipped atthe rate of one every other month, andthe price of $10.75 for each proof -quality record will be guaranteedthroughout your subscription period.

o subscribe now, mail the accom-panying application to The FranklinMint Record Society, Franklin Center.PA 19091, by February 28, 1983.

0 1963 FM1111


*PEI ffrw u iaiaintermodulation (1\4) distortion, usingmixed test signals of 18 and 19 kHz whosepeak level was equal to that of a 40 -wattsine wave, was -88 dB at 1,000 Hz and-61 dB at 17 and 20 kHz (relative to 40watts).

Through the high-level (aux) input, 24.5millivolts (mV) was needed to drive the am-plifier to a reference output of 1 watt, andthe MM phono sensitivity was 0.4 mV. TheMC input sensitivity was 0.06 mV. The A -weighted noise level (relative to I watt) was-70 dB for aux, -77 dB for phono (MM),and -69 dB for phono (MC). The onlymeasurement we made of the CX noise -re-duction system was a spectrum analysis ofthe noise output of the amplifier using thephono input with the CX switch on and off.The reduction was about 15 dB over muchof the audio range, decreasing to about 10dB at 10,000 Hz and 5 dB at 20,000 Hz.

The phono (MM) overload input levelwas between 185 and 200 mV over the 20 -to 20.000 -Hz range. The phono (MM)preamplifier input termination was 47.000ohms in parallel with a rather high capaci-tance of 275 picofarads (pF). Many car-tridges will operate perfectly well with a to-tal load capacitance of 400 pF or more(which would result from using this ampli-fier with turntables having average output -cable capacitance), but some might not.The MC input termination of 330 ohmsshould be compatible with most moving -coilcartridges.

The tone controls had the usual Baxan-dall response shape (a sliding turnover fre-

quency in the bass and hinged curves in thetreble), although the control range was un-usually large (the maximum bass boost, forexample, was 20 dB). We also noted thatmost of the control action took place in thelast half of the control rotation. The loud-ness contours provided a moderate boost ofboth low and high frequencies at controlsettings of -20 dB and below. The RIAAphono equalization was flat within ± 0.5 dBfrom 60 to 20,000 Hz, and it was up 1.3 dBin the 20- to 40 -Hz range.

The FM tuner section had a usable sensi-tivity of 11.6 dBf (2.1 microvolts, or µV) inmono, and the stereo sensitivity was set byits switching threshold of 19 dBf (5 µV).The 50 -dB quieting sensitivity was 15.6 dBf(3.3 µV) in mono and 35 dBf (30 µV) instereo. The tuner distortion at 65. dBf(1.000 µV) was 0.14 per cent in mono and0.22 per cent in stereo, and the respectivesignal-to-noise ratios at that level were 76and 64.5 dB (the former is an excellent fig-ure. the latter a little below average). TheFM IHF IM distortion (14- and 15 -kHzmodulating signals) was -65 dB at 1,000Hz and -49 dB at 13 and 16 kHz in mono,-52 and -49 dB in stereo. While thesereadings are not particularly low comparedwith those of some tuners and receivers wehave tested, they are quite negligible fromthe standpoint of audibility.

The stereo FM frequency response wasflat within 0.5 dB overall from 30 to 15,000Hz. The channel separation was about 40dB at low audio frequencies and 37 dB at1.000 Hz, decreasing smoothly to -30 dB

at 15,000 Hz. The FM capture ratio was anextremely good 0.79 dB at 65 dBf input, atwhich level the AM rejection was a fairlygood 53 dB. The image rejection of 36.5 dBwas only fair. Alternate -channel and adja-cent -channel selectivity readings were 61dB and 4.1 dB, respectively, both typical ofmoderate -priced receivers. The mutingthreshold was 16.6 dBf (3.7 µV). The 19 -kHz pilot -carrier leakage into the audio wasa relatively high -38 dB. but the only prac-tical disadvantage of this would be a possi-ble interaction with cassette recording usingDolby -C if the recorder lacked an MPX fil-ter (which very few do). The tuner hum lev-el was an extremely low -78 dB. The AMtuner frequency response was down 6 dB at70 and 2,600 Hz relative to the 1.000 -Hzlevel.

Comment. In many respects the OnkyoTX -5I is representative of a new generationof moderate -priced receivers offering per-formance and operating features that couldnot have been imagined only a few yearsago. Some of these, such as digital -synthesistuning, are now standard in most receiversabove the budget class. Others, such asswitchable MM and MC phono inputs anda separate recording output selector thatdoes not require the user to forgo his pre-ferred programs while recording or dubbingtapes from other sources, have been avail-able on much more expensive separatepreamplifiers and amplifiers for severalyears but were not at all typical of receiversin the $400 price class. The latest feature toappear in this product category is the CXdecoder, and we can only hope that CX rec-ords will be more aggressively promoted.

In use, the TX -5I presented us with nobugs or unpleasant surprises. It sounded ex-cellent, and it was a smooth performer inevery respect. We played our collection ofCX-encoded records through it and found itto be subjectively every bit as impressive asthe separate CX decoders we evaluated af-ter the introduction of the system by CBS.The setup of the receiver with a phono car-tridge takes only moments with the suppliedrecord, after which using the CX system re-quires only the press of a button. The noisereduction of 15 dB or so is definitely worth-while, although it may not always be ob-vious because of the masking effect of theprogram, and we found no disadvantagewhatever to the CX system when used withencoded records.

We were also pleased to find that the TX -51 has a very healthy current -output capa-bility and can drive 2 -ohm loads to a consid-erable output without difficulty. Althoughthe receiver is not rated for use with loadslower than 8 ohms (this is true of most), itapparently depends more on its output fusesthan on a severe internal current restrictionto protect itself, and the result is a benefit tothe user. The relatively high peak -poweroutputs of the TX-51-at least comparedwith many other moderate -priced receiv-ers-should stand it in good stead not onlywith CX-encoded discs but with true digitaldiscs as well. -Julian D. Hirsch


"... I rake it hack. Lionel-your amplifier didn't clip!" (Continued on page 441

40 STEREO REVIEW

"Polk reinvents the loudspeaker"High Wady -

"literally a new dimension in the sound"st.eo ReL ter,

pelksuege

Revolutionary SDA-1.

"Astounding...Mind Boggling... Flabbergasting..." t*gh FtThe Critics Agree!

S-ereo Review raved: "Hirsch HoukLab s tests of the Polk SDA-1 epeakershow that it does indeed add L newdimersion to stereo sound ... cam-plellelly without ary undesiraEleeffects . . it borders on the spectacular... the result is always better thanwould be achieved by convelienalspellers qui-e literally a Newdimersion in the scund beautitulliybalarced tie speakers soandsuperb."-Stereo Review I .1 \II Kahl. -2t, I

High Fidelity raved: -The SDA-1loudspeaker represents al altogetherunique rethinking of what a loud-speaker can And should d.) ... devas-tatingly dramatic ... nind bogglirgpowers of sonic persuasicn ... depthand precision of the sterec image wereastounding ... flabbergas:ing ...sim-ply bowled us over .. great good fun. . . sonic portrait so palpa de in its left -to -right positioning auj depth as toleave auditicners agog ... will influ-ence other designers for years tocome." - High Fidelity len 198t

Incredible Polk scnnxi at emery priceA 17 Polk Monitor .ystemt- -namy

o-th, sonic qualities and design- fez orestl4e Ord winning SD % 1. Even; Pah I AUJ-spea<er offers superb ,Jund and siperi3rva ue; quite simply the best so..mc fo- thenion.?, available on the marke. Ole i; thepyfecr:hoice to fulfill sour needs.

Po k Audio, Inc. -915 Arrapoiis Rd.,Saki -Dre, MD 21230 In Canada b.oIJ-ti audio. Use the rea*r's service/or writetor into-mation.

poll< a ucgoThe Speaker Speciaists


Pt es ulated

THE FIRST TV AS EXCI1948 The living room was dark, the neighbors crowded

around the couch, no one made a sound, and youturned on the black -and -white box. Suddenly, there weren'tenough adjectives to describe it. Amazing! Unbelievable!Incredible! We were looking at something called television.And we were seeing magic.

COLOR MADE TV BETTER. THEN SONY' MADEBETTER COLOR.

New technology soon gave TV a bright new dimension:color. Suddenly, the sky was blue...the grass was greenand the experience was more vivid.

TRINITRON*In 1968, Sony engineered another major development:

Tnnitron,® the Emmy Award -winning, one -gun, one -lens

system that brought color to life. And the difference wasremErkable. Trinitron revolutionized color TV and set anew standarc for the industry.

INTRODUCING PROFEEL,`M THE ONLY COMPONENTTELEVISION THAT'S A TRINITRON!

If the first miracle was putting it all together, the secondmiracle was taking it all apart. Now Sony has transformedtelevision intc a series of individual components. Theseextraordinary components are designed to give you a farbetter picture and sound than any single unit can.

And what makes Sony so supeJor to every other compo-nent :elevision is the unique Trinrron system. Because ofTnn.-ron, Pro "eel will give you a picture of breathtakingclarity, color, End detail. But Profeel is more than just a newTV -set- it's ar. entirely new TV system.

TING AS THE FIRST TV.THIS NEW IV MAKES OTHER NEW TVS LOOK OLD.

The giant 25" or 19" monitor (measured diagonally) hasa much higher resolution ban conventional television. Soyou get a pic-:tre so cood it can be compared with aprofessional broadcast.

Profeel ado's another dimension that TV has alwayslacked high -f delity sound. The separate speakers have ahigh-perforrr_Ence woofer to give you nch, resonant lowsand a precision twee:er for crystal-clear highs. The wooferis magneticalli shielded to eliminate TV distortion. Andwitz Profeel, you can choose either side -mounted orfree-standing speakers.

The Access. Tuner' is Profeel's control center. With it,you can adjust volume, tone, and balance. Or you canswitch instant,/ among five different video and audio

inputs like direct VHF/UHF/Cable TV reception, or your VCR,videodisc player, and home compLter. The 10 -key infraredExpress CommanderTM' gives you comp ete remote -controlconvenience from anywhere in the room.

IF YOU THINK IT'S TERRIFIC NOW, STAY TUNED...Profeel is ready to receive future program sources hke

stereo TV subscnption television, 'information sources iketeletext and videotex, and direct -broadcast satellitetransmission. So why buy a new PROFEELtelevision when you can buy

FROMthe first really new television.

THE CNE AND ONLYO 1983 Sony Corporation of America Sony E. ld Trinitror are reqnstered trademarks of Sony CorpProfeel, Access Tuner and Express Commalids1 are trademafts of Sony Corp

CIRCLE NO. 47 ON READER SEF.ICE CARD

111 Dcnon DP -1 I F is a single -play auto-matic turntable with a two -speed

quartz -locked direct -drive motor and a ser-vo -controlled low -mass straight tubulartone arm. The overall operation of the turn-table is controlled by a microprocessor, en-suring safe and "foolproof' automatic rec-ord -playing performance.

The operating controls of the DP -11F areflat push plates or buttons located on theupper front surface of the grey plastic base,where they are accessible with the coverlowered. The poWer is switched by a buttonat the left, and next to it are the controls forselection of 331/3- or 45 -rpm speeds and armindexing for either 7- or I2 -inch records. Ineach case the selection is made by pressingthe corresponding end of the plate, and eachhas a back -lit indicator to show that it hasbeen selected. Similar controls activate therepeat and arm -lift functions. Pressing theformer causes a record side to be replayedindefinitely until the button is pressed a sec-ond time. The 1.11 TER control raises andlowers the tone arm on alternate presses.The remaining controls are start and stop,which affect the automatic operation of theDP -I I F.

The turntable's speed is regulated by acombination of a quartz reference oscillatorand a magnetic pulse generator. A coatingof magnetically recorded material on the in-ner rim of the platter induces electricalpulses in a base -mounted pickup head as theplatter rotates. The frequency of thesepulses is compared with that of the oscilla-tor, and a servo amplifier constantly regu-lates the voltage to the platter motor tomaintain the correct speed. The 12 -inch die-cast aluminum platter weighs 2 pounds,10 ounces (including its rubber mat).

The arm has a low -mass headshell thatcan be rotated (after a setscrew is loosened)through an angle of up to 120 degrees, per-mitting a cartridge to be easily mounted orremoved without separating the shell fromthe arm tube. Cartridges weighing fromabout 4 to 6 grams can be balanced by anintegral counterweight, which is adjustedby turning a ring at the rear of the arm(with the turntable switched off) until itfloats freely in a balanced condition. Thedownward tracking force is set electronical-ly by turning a calibrated knob on the mo-torboard next to the arm (the scale is cali-brated from 0 to 3 grams at intervals of 0.1gram). This knob varies the current througha torque motor that supplies the verticaltracking force. Antiskating compensation isapplied automatically as the tracking forceis adjusted.

The Denon DP -1 1 F is a compact unitmeasuring 143/s inches wide, 13 inchesdeep, and 4 inches high with the clear -plas-tic cover lowered. It weighs about IIpounds. Price: $200.

Laboratory Measurements. Althoughour test sample of the DP -11F was suppliedto us with a Denon DL300 moving -coil car-tridge installed (the DP -I I F is not normallysupplied with a cartridge), we made most ofour measurements with another cartridge,the Dynavector DV 10X Type 3, whosehigher output simplified the test process.Installation of the cartridge in the nonre-movable but rotatable shell of the arm wasstraightforward.

We used a tracking force of 1.7 grams(both cartridges require approximately thesame force). The actual force was slightlyhigher than the control setting, with a typi-

cal error of +0.2 to +0.4 gram, which, be-ing in the "safe" direction (too high) pre-sented no operational problem. The track-ing error of the arm was very low, less than0.4 degree per inch for radii between 2.5and 6 inches.

When we measured the cartridge fre-quency response in the Denon arm, wefound some rather large peaks in the cross-talk (separation) curves, corresponding tosmaller peaks in the cartridge -responsecurves. The left -channel peaks were at 400Hz, and the lower right -channel peaks wereat about 600 Hz. We repeated these meas-urements with both cartridges, using boththe CBS STRIO0 and JVC 1007 test rec-ords, with essentially identical results. Theanomalies seem to stem from the tone armof the DP -11F, and we assume that they aretorsional resonances or, since they were ofdifferent frequency and amplitude in thetwo channels, perhaps related to the armpivots or servo -control system.

The very -low -frequency tone -arm reso-nance, as would be expected from a servo -controlled arm, was very well damped.Playing the Shure "Audio ObstacleCourse-ERA V" test record, we could seea very small amplitude resonance over therange of 8 to 15 Hz, but it was impossible todetermine the actual resonance frequencyfrom the physical arm movement. Thearm's effective mass without a cartridgewas about 7 grams (measured with the pow-er off, since the arm servo would have af-fected our measurement). This confirmedthat the light -appearing Denon arm was in-deed a low -mass design. The antiskatingcompensation was approximately correctusing the criterion of equal distortion inboth channels when playing high -velocity

STEREO REVIEW

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reportsrecords I he arm cueing (LIFTER) systemworked very smoothly and rapidly, but theoutward drift of the pickup during its de-scent caused about 7 seconds of a disc to berepeated each time the arm was lifted andlowered.

The turntable had a rather low un-weighted rumble of -36 dB. improving to-57 dB with ARLL weighting. The rum-ble spectrum was fairly uniform from 5 to35 Hz. with narrow peaks at 10 and 25 Hz.The flutter was 0.07 per cent weighted rms(AS) and ±0.08 per cent weighted peak(DIN). and its spectrum was confined prin-cipally to the range below 5 Hz. The turn-table speed was virtually exact, reading0.05 per cent fast (the speed is not adjusta-ble, and the "error" is well within the toler-ances of our test records). The four soft rub-ber mounting feet of the base provided iso-lation of the record player from conductedvibration that was about as good as that ofmost other direct -drive players we havetested. The principal transmission frequen-cies were 25 and 40 Hz.

The automatic operation of the DP -1 I Fwas notably smooth and silent, and it wasflawless in its handling of the record andcartridge. When the start button is pressed,the arm begins to move slowly inward andthe turntable starts to rotate before the armreaches the lead-in grooves, where it stopsand descends. The automatic ON cycle re-quires about 8 seconds, and the oil cyclefrom arm -lift to motor shut -down is about 9seconds. The arm -lift and descent require

less than I second each. In general, the cy-cling times of this turntable are appreciablyshorter than the average for the automaticrecord players we have tested.

Comment. The low price, compact size,and ease of operation of the Denon DP -I I Fmake it a most attractive choice for a bud-get -priced stereo system. In addition to itsnormal fully automatic mode of operation.the DP -11F can be used as a manual playerby simply lifting the tone arm (this startsthe motor) and cueing it by hand or with theaid of the I II I LR button.

The turntable's operating characteristicsare good enough that the DP -1 I F will notdegrade sound quality. In other words, theflutter and rumble are below audiblethresholds under ordinary circumstances.And one cannot overlook the outstandingwarp -tracking ability conferred by the ser-vo -controlled low -mass tone arm. Thisplayer was able to track the very warpedrecords in our "chamber of horrors" collec-tion of discs that would long since have beenthrown out by even a modestly seriousphonophile. Furthermore, it negotiated thehills, dales, and eccentricities of most ofthese records without any audible indica-tion that they were not perfectly flat andreasonably well centered.

Our only reservation about the DP -I tFconcerned the arm resonances at 400 and600 Hz. We have observed similar reso-nances on other tone arms, though alwaysof much smaller amplitude. One reason for

our changing cartridges, and for using twodifferent types of test records, was to be cer-tain that the problem lay in the arm and notin the cartridges. The resonances had notbeen apparent in the listening tests con-ducted before our measurements weremade. From their very high "Q" (narrowbandwidth), we would not have expectedthem to be excited significantly by musicalmaterial. (Unless a frequency component ofappreciable amplitude were to fall exactlyon one of the resonant frequencies, it wouldbe unlikely to generate any significant spu-rious output from the cartridge.) As a fur-ther check, we listened to the sweep recordsthat had disclosed the resonances on ourchart recorder and heard no trace of thepeaks either in the direct response or in thecrosstalk to the opposite channel. There-fore. while we would have preferred not tohave these resonances present, we cannotdowngrade the DP -1 I F too greatly becauseof them. More annoying from the averageuser's standpoint would be the excessiveoutward tone -arm drift during the cueingdescent.

All things considered, though, the DenonDP-IIF impresses us as an attractivelystyled, very attractively priced recordplayer with considerable operating versatili-ty and excellent warp -tracking ability. Wefind many more pluses than minuses in ouroverall appraisal of this unit.

-Julian D. Hirsch


vettor research STE REO COSSET TE °ECM vcx.sco

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Vector Research VCX-800 Cassette Deck

Vector Research VCX-800 is aT three -head. dual -capstan cassette deckwith both Dolby -B and Dolby -C noise re-duction, the Dolby-HX headroom -exten-sion system, and a programmable tapecounter whose digital display reads out di-rectly in remaining minutes and seconds perside. It also includes a number of highly un-usual features.

The record and playback heads arc sepa-

rate Sendust units contained in the samephysical casing. This permits optimizingboth head -gap widths for their differenttasks, and it also allows the user to make aninstantaneous comparison between the in-put and the recorded signals. A phase -locked -loop (PLL) d.c. servomotor drivesthe two capstans in a closed -loop configura-tion, and a second d.c. motor is used to turnthe reels. Cassettes are mounted, tape open-

ings downward, into slides on the rear of thecassette -well door. When the door is closedthe reels are driven momentarily, taking upany tape slack. The cassette well is illumi-nated, and the cover is easily removable forhead cleaning and demagnetizing.

The transport of the VCX-800 is solenoidcontrolled, and the buttons for record, re-wind, play, fast forward, and pause func-tions have LED indicators. Pressing the re -

46 STEREO REVIEW

wrd pushbutton automatically activates thepause function as well; recording actuallybegins when the pause button is pressed. Arecord -mute pushbutton. with LED indica-tor, inserts a four -second silent space be-tween selections; the silence can be ex-tended by holding the button down.

A twenty -segment peak -reading fluores-cent display, calibrated from +8 to below-30 dB (the two lowest segments are notmarked) is used to show recording and play-back levels. Dolby level is set at 0 dB. A pairof associated pushbuttons determine wheth-er the peak level is to be held and, if so,whether the length of the hold will be indef-inite or for only a few seconds. Also asso-ciated with the display is one of the VCX-800's more unusual features: a properlyequipped test generator for making finebias and tape -sensitivity adjustments.When the TEST button is pressed, a 400 -HzDolby -level tone in the left channel is used,with a RECORD CALIBRATION control, tocompensate for differing tape sensitivities,ensuring minimum Dolby tracking error. Atthe same time a 400- to 15,000 -Hz swepttone, shown on the right -channel indicator.is used for setting the BIAS ADJUST control toflatten the frequency response of differenttapes of the same overall type. (The swepttone is, of course, recorded at a low level toprevent high -frequency tape overload, butcompensating additional amplification is

switched into the right -channel displaywhen the test procedure is used.) Pressingthe TEST MONITOR switch permits the tonesto be heard.

While most memory rewind/repeat fea-tures use a 0000 tape -counter reading astheir reference point, the microprocessorthat controls the digital counter of theVCX-800 permits two separate locations tobe stored in its memory. The SAVE I andSAVE 2 buttons can be used to store current-ly shown remaining times from the real-time counter display, or they may be inde-pendently programmed using ten numericalpushbuttons (0 to 9). In either case the lo-cation(s) stored can be checked by pressingMEMORY READ or cleared with SAVE CLEAR.Pressing the SEARCH button moves the taperapidly to the SAVE I location, and pressingALTO REWIND finds the SAVE 2 point. In ad-dition to using the ends of the tape for auto-matic rewind/replay, therefore, the usercan select a specific section of a cassetteside for comparable treatment. A littlepractice in thinking backwards is necessarywhen programming the display, since itsreadings constantly decrease to correspondto the remaining time, but this difficulty isquickly overcome. The SEARCH, ALTO RE-WIND, AUTO PLAY, and SAVE buttons allhave LED indicators, as do the C-45. C-60,and C-90 buttons that calibrate the counter.For nonstandard tape lengths a LOCK but-ton, pressed in conjunction with C-90, setsthe counter to read in untimed units.

Dolby -B and Dolby -C noise reduction areswitch -selectable, and the VCX-800 addstwo more Dolby functions rarely found oncassette decks today. One is a Dolby -FMswitch that automatically provides properdecoding either for recording or for listen-ing to Dolbyized broadcasts. (Rear -paneladjustments are provided for calibrating theDolby system for such broadcasts, since the

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50 100 200 500 1K 2K 6K 10K 20K-70 (S (METAL /Cr02

120AS (FERRIC/

PLAYBACK RESPONSE

FREQUENCY IN HZ (CYCLES PER SECOND)

The upperupper curves indicate overall record -playback response at the manufacturer's indi-cated 0 -dB recording level using the tapes designated on the graph. In the center are thesame measurements recorded at -20 dB relative to the upper curves, a level convention-ally used for tape -deck frequency -response measurements. Bottom curves show playbackresponse from calibrated test tapes and indicate performance with prerecorded tapes.

normal record -level controls are bypassed inthis mode.) Further, the Dolby-HX head-room -extension system, which extends tapetreble capacity by modifying recording biasand equalization simultaneously in the pres-ence of high-level signals, is also switch se-lectable. Each of the Dolby functions has itsown LED indicator.

A three -position switch sets the properbias and equalization for ferric. CrOrtype,or metal cassettes; no provision is made forferrichrome. The output control affectsboth the level at the rear jacks and at thefront -panel stereo headphone jack, and adual -concentric input control sets the re-cording level. Both these controls are mul-tiply detented. Plugging one or two micro-phones into the front -panel jacks discon-nects the line -level inputs automatically. Athree -position switch is included for exter-nal timer activation, and a pushbutton in-serts an FM stereo -multiplex filter.

The rear panel of the Vector ResearchVCX-800 contains the normal line -level in-put and output jacks, Dolby -FM adjust-ments, a socket for plugging in an accessoryremote -control device, and an interconnectjack for operation under the control of thematching VRX-9500 receiver. Rack -mounting adaptors are optional. Overall,the VCX-800 measures 175/is inches wide,55/e inches high, and 145/s inches deep, andit weighs a little under 211/2 pounds. Price:$1,000.

Laboratory Measurements. Vector Re-search supplied the actual cassettes used inits factory setup of our sample of the VCX-800, and we used them for our primarymeasurements. These were: TDK AD (fer-ric), TDK SA (CrO2-type), and TDK MA(metal). At the same time, however, by us-ing the bias and calibration procedure(which takes only a few seconds), we ob-tained virtually identical results with somewell-known premium tapes from Maxell,Fuji, Sony, BASF, 3M, and Memorex.

Playback frequency response, checkedwith our BASF New IEC Standard testtapes, was extremely smooth, within +1.5,-1 dB throughout the 31.5- to 18,000 -Hzrange. The response with ferric tape was so

similar to the Cr02-type response that it isbarely possible to separate them on thegraph. On an overall record -playback basis,measured at -20 dB, high -end responsewas within +2.5, -3 dB to 18 kHz withthe ferric TDK AD, to 19 kHz with TDKSA (Cr02-equivalent), and slightly beyondour 20 kHz measurement limit using TDKMA (metal). Low -frequency response be-gan to fall off appreciably below approxi-mately 40 Hz. At a 0 -dB record level thehigh -frequency headroom of the metal tapeis clearly shown in the graph, but switchingin the Dolby-HX system improved the tre-ble capability of the ferric AD substantial-ly. Nearly as much improvement was notedwith TDK SA, but the HX system did notmaterially improve the performance of themetal tape.

Third -harmonic distortion of a 0 -dB 315 -Hz tone measured 1.2, 1.2. and 2 per centfor the ferric, CrOrtype, and metal tapes,respectively, and the 3 per cent distortionlevels were +2.5, +2.75, and +1.65 dB.Unweighted signal-to-noise ratios, withoutnoise reduction, measured 50.2, 52.2, and51.2 dB for the three tapes, and the additionof IEC weighting increased these figures to55. 56.2. and 55.3 dB. With Dolby -B andA -weighting the ferric, CrO2-type, andmetal tapes had signal-to-noise ratios of63.7, 63.9, and 63.2 dB, respectively; withthe more powerful Dolby -C noise -reductionsystem and CCIR-ARM weighting, the ra-tios were 71, 71.2, and 70.5 dB.

Wow -and -flutter, measured with a TeacMTT- I I I test tape, was 0.034 per cent onthe customary wrms basis and 0.06 per centwith the more stringent DIN peak -weightedstandard. Dolby calibration was exact, andtracking error, with -20- and -30 -dB in-puts, was within ± 1 dB with Dolby -B and±2 dB with Dolby -C. The addition of theHX system produced a gradually rising re-sponse in the upper treble region, amount-ing to a maximum of about 2.5 dB with Dol-by -B and 5 dB with Dolby -C in the 10- to15 -kHz region with the ferric and Cr02-type tapes. Although the rise was measur-able, the audible effect was negligible withmusical material. Fast -forward and rewind


FEBRUARY 1983 47

Where a

LIGON mg. "tar", 0.7 mg. nicotine ay. per cigaret:e, FTC Report DEC

FILTERS:15 mg. 'tar', 1.1 mg. nicotine ay. per cigarette by FTC method.


That Cigarette Smoking Is D mgerous to Your Health.

VilLIGHTS

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1410P"-- 400

Experience tCamel taste in Lights and Filters.

import stimes for a C-60 cassette were each 110 sec-onds, which is somewhat on the slow side.At the line -level inputs a signal of 0.064 volt(64 mV) was required for a 0 -dB indication,which produced an output of 0.71 volt. Mi-crophone sensitivity was 0.22 mV, and themike inputs accepted levels of up to 30 mVbefore overload-rather typical results.

Comment. Sonically, the VCX-800 pro-duced no surprises: dubs of FM and discswere extremely clean, and only with certain

test signals (such as interstation FM hiss)did the combination of Dolby -C and HXmake the copy sound slightly brighter thanthe original. As good as Dolby -B is, onlywith Dolby -C were the last vestiges of tapenoise eliminated. While we have measuredslightly better wow/flutter figures, wefound that audibly the VCX-800 was par-ticularly good in this department.

With some forty switches on the frontpanel it naturally takes a little time to be-come acclimated to the VCX-800, but the

intelligent use of LED indicators at nearlyevery point eases the task. And the test cir-cuitry particularly appealed to our sense ofgood engineering, though most peoplewould probably not use it as often as we did.Overall, we found the combination of fea-tures and performance of the VCX-800very impressive, and we suspect it will givethe really serious recordist everything hewants-and then some. -Craig Stark


-1111201110.111111

Kenwood C-1 Preamplifier and M-1 Power Amplifier

KENWOOD'S Basic C -I preamplifier andBasic M -I power amplifier are part of

its "Audio Purist" series of high-fidelitycomponents. The C -I and M-1 are matchedin size, appearance, and function, forming avery high -quality amplifier system of mod-erate cost.

The C -I preamplifier, 175/16 inches wide,127/s inches deep, and about 3 inches high,weighs 91/2 pounds. The M -I power ampli-fier, the same width, almost exactly thesame depth, and 47/16 inches high, weighs 20pounds. The units are finished completely inflat black, with controls of the same color.

The C -I has inputs for two high-levelsources (aux and tuner) and a single phonocartridge with front -panel switching for ei-ther a moving -magnet (MM) or a moving -coil (MC) type. There are input and outputfacilities for two tape decks, and selectingboth simultaneously connects them for dub-bing from deck A to deck B. All signal se-lection is by means of narrow rectangularpushbuttons (mechanically interlocked)with red LED's above them to show whenthey are engaged. A smaller button turns onthe SUBSONIC FILTER, which rolls off the re-sponse at 6 dB per octave below 18 Hz. Thepower switch is a large square button at theleft of the panel.

The other front -panel controls of the C-1are a large volume control, small center -de -tented knobs for bass and treble tone con-trols and the balance control, and a loud-ness knob. At the loudness knob's farthestcounterclockwise setting the loudness com-pensation is off, and turning the knob pro-gressively clockwise adds a low -frequencyresponse boost. Unlike most loudness con-trols, this one acts independently of the vol-ume setting. On the rear of the C -I arephono jacks for the various signal inputsand outputs and for the two preamplifieroutput jacks. There are three a.c. conve-nience outlets, one of them unswitched.There is no headphone output. The per-formance specifications of the C-1 are im-pressive, especially in view of its modestprice. They include distortion of less than0.005 per cent at a 1 -volt output from anysignal source and a frequency responsedown by 3 dB at I Hz and 250 kHz. Therated output is 1 volt, with a maximum out-put of 5 volts before clipping sets in.

The companion M- I power amplifier car-ries a rating of 105 watts output into 8 -ohmloads from 20 to 20,000 Hz with no morethan 0.005 per cent total harmonic distor-tion. Although the M-1 has no formal pow-er rating for lower load impedances, Ken -

wood does specify its 1,000 -Hz clipping -power and dynamic -power outputs into both8 and 4 ohms, as well as the correspondingheadroom ratings. The dynamic -output rat-ing of 210 watts per channel into 4 ohmsimplies a good current -delivery capability.Like the preamplifier, the M-1 is a wide -band design. Its response is rated at -3 dBat 1 Hz and 300 kHz, with a slew rate of± 100 volts per microsecond.

The M-1 has no controls on its panel oth-er than the square power button (with anadjacent pilot light) and two narrow push-buttons for independent (not simultaneous)operation of two sets of speakers. It also hasa front -panel headphone jack. The M-1 fea-tures the Sigma Drive circuit introduced byKenwood a couple of years ago. The tech-nique essentially extends the negative -feed-back path of the amplifier to the speakerterminals themselves instead of only to theamplifier output terminals, as is usually thecase. This allows the negative feedback tocompensate for any losses or other unde-sired effects in a long speaker cable, and itrequires either a special four -wire cable orthe use of two wire pairs per speaker.

On the rear of the M- I are large insulatedbinding posts for the speaker outputs (in-cluding an extra pair of SIGMA SENSOR ter -

50 STEREO REVIEW

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minals for each of the speaker -A outputs),the input phono jacks, and three a.c. outlets,one of them switched. The Sigma Drive cir-cuit operates only on the speaker -A outputs,and the speaker -B terminals are two sets ofconventional binding posts.

The suggested retail prices of the Ken -wood C- I and M-1 are $225 and $330,respectively.

Laboratory Measurements. The C-1preamplifier had a frequency response flatwithin 0.5 dB overall from 20 to 20,000 Hz,and the SUBSONIC FILTER reduced the 20 -Hzoutput by about 1.5 dB. Its 6 -dB -per -octaverolloff rate is too slow to be very effective atreducing infrasonic signals, however. Thetone controls had conventional characteris-tics, with a moderate control range of about± 10 dB at the frequency extremes.

The loudness control, as specified, alsohad a modest effect on the overall response.At its maximum setting, the maximumboost below 100 Hz was only 8 dB. Wenoted that the turnover frequency of theloudness compensator was approximatelythe same as that of the bass tone control,making the two somewhat redundant (ex-cept in the unlikely case of using both si-multaneously). The loudness compensationdid not affect the high -frequency responseof the amplifier.

The RIAA phono equalization was per-fectly flat from 100 to 20,000 Hz, risingonly 1.5 dB at 20 Hz. The phono (MM) in-put termination was 47,000 ohms in parallelwith 30 picofarads, an unusually low valuethat makes the C-1 compatible with virtual-ly any combination of cartridge and tone -arm wiring. The phono preamplifier over-loaded at a relatively high input level of 200to 217 millivolts (mV), depending on thefrequency, over the entire audio range. Theinput sensitivity for a reference output of0.5 volts was 84 mV for the high-level in-puts and 1.4 mV for the phono (MM) input.The sensitivity of the phono (MC) inputwas approximately 20 dB higher, or 0.12mV. The A -weighted noise level, for any in-put, was below our 100 -microvolt measure-ment "floor" ( -76 dB referred to 0.5 volt).The isolation between inputs of the C -I wastotal, with no cross -coupling detectable,even at 20,000 Hz, down to -140 dB.

The distortion of the Kenwood C- I, atmost frequencies and output levels, was

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nearly unmeasurable. From 0.0003 per centat 1 volt output (1,000 Hz), it rose smoothlyto 0.0008 per cent at 4 volts and 0.0028 percent at 5.7 volts, just before the outputclipped at 5.75 volts. (All measurementswere made with a standard 1HF load of10,000 ohms in parallel with 1,000 picofar-ads.) At a 1 -volt output, the distortion was0.0013 per cent at 20 Hz, 0.0003 per cent at1,000 Hz, and 0.007 per cent at 20,000 Hz.At 5 volts it was slightly higher, 0.0045,0.001, and 0.022 per cent, respectively.

During its hour of preconditioning at one-third power (35 watts), the M-1 power am-plifier became only slightly warm over theheat -sink ventilating slots. Later, our high -power tests, especially with 4 -ohm or lowerload impedances, caused the top of the am-plifier to become quite hot, although itsthermal protection system never shut it

down. In normal use, its top plate becameonly slightly warm.

We made all our measurements on theM-1 at its speaker -B outputs (without Sig-ma Drive). With both channels driving8 -ohm loads at 1,000 Hz, the outputsclipped at 132 watts per channel, for a clip-ping -headroom rating of I dB. With 4 -ohmloads, the clipping power was 177 watts (itis specified as 160 watts). Although theN1-1 is not rated for driving 2 -ohm loads, wealso tested it in that way and found that the6 -ampere power -line fuse blew before wereached clipping (it is an internal fuse, notintended to be user -replaceable). Dynamicpower measurements produced maximumoutputs of 178 watts and 284 watts for8- and 4 -ohm loads, respectively (the rat-ings are 170 and 210 watts). Thus, the 8 -ohm dynamic -headroom rating is a very

"Dave, there's an erratum clip in the owner's manual...."

FEBRUARY 1983 51

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DIGITAL

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`R 1-1.572HOROWITZ.

IN LONDON

Selectionstram his

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Recorded Livein Royal

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May 22,1982

because theseare two of our

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Kenwood C-1 and M-1(Continued from page 51)

good 2.3 dB. We also found that the M-1delivered a considerable output (200 watts)into 2 ohms under dynamic -test conditions.

The M-1 was stable with reactive loads,although we observed a tendency for its pro-tective relay to shut it down momentarilywhen we drove a 10,000 -Hz square waveinto a load whose impedance fell to about2 ohms at about 70 kHz. This is highly un-likely to occur with any reasonable combi-nation of speaker load and input signal. Theinput sensitivity of the M-1 (for a referenceoutput of I watt) was 100 millivolts. Theoutput noise was less than our measurementfloor of 100 microvolts, or -90 dB referredto 1 watt. The frequency response of theamplifier was flat from 10 to 20,000 Hz,falling to -0.3 dB at 5 and 50,000 Hz, andto -4 dB at 500,000 Hz (our upper meas-urement limit). The slew factor exceededour measurement limit of 25.

The distortion of the M-1, like that of theC-1, was difficult to measure. At 1,000 Hz,it was 0.00045 per cent at 1 watt, 0.0034per cent at the rated 105 watts, and 0.0045per cent at 120 watts. With 4 -ohm loads,the readings were very similar, 0.00045 percent at most listening levels, 0.0025 per centat 120 watts, and 0.0045 per cent at 160watts. The IHF intermodulation distortionwith test signals of 18 and 19 kHz was -82dB for second -order (1,000 -Hz) compo-nents and -69 dB for third -order (17- and20 -kHz) components referred to 105watts.

Comment. Our measurements on theKenwood Audio Purist Basic componentsspeak for themselves. For all practical pur-poses (and most impractical ones!) they aredistortionless and noiseless. The C -I pream-plifier offers all the control flexibility mostof us will ever need, yet it is simple to useand free of any "bugs" that we could find.The combination of the C-1 and the M-1power amplifier was audibly completelynoise -free at maximum volume on any inputexcept phono (MC); the high gain of thisinput produced an audible hiss at maximumvolume, but the amplifier was totally quietat any normally usable control setting.

Naturally, these amplifiers have no soundof their own. We did not attempt to usethem with Sigma Drive, but we have pre-viously tested Kenwood amplifiers havingthat feature and have found no effects, goodor bad, from its use. The ability of the M-1to drive almost any speaker load under pro-gram conditions is a strong plus (the blownfuse during its high -power steady-state op-eration into 2 ohms is a sign of the effectiveprotection designed into the amplifier).

It is satisfying to find this caliber of per-formance at what must be considered verymoderate prices in today's market. At high-er prices one can probably find more or dif-ferent control features or added signal -processing flexibility as well as higher pow-er (though we doubt that many people willfind the power capabilities of the M-1 inad-equate). We are quite certain, however,that more money will not buy better -sound-ing amplifiers. -Julian D. Hirsch

Circle 144 on reader service card.41&,GivetheMit

mak.Specialb priced

CIRCLE NO 41 ON READER SERVICE CARD STEREO REVIEW

Stereo Review'sRecord of the YearAwards for 1982in recognition of significant contributionsto the arts of music and recordingduring the 1982 publishing year

EUGENE ORMANDY iS the ninth recip-

ient of STEREO REVIEW'S Certifi-cate of Merit for outstanding

contributions to the quality of Americanmusical life, but the magazine has beengiving Record of the Year Awards forsixteen years. The 1983 honors listcovers the 1982 publishing year and in-cludes the records that most impressedour staff and contributing editors.

The six "popular" and six "classical"Records of the Year pictured on thenext two pages were all reviewed in themagazine during 1982-with one nota-ble exception, the recording of Bach'sGoldberg Variations by the late GlennGould on CBS Masterworks, which wasselected as a Best of Month recordingin the January 1983 issue. But it was a1982 release, and its review took threemonths or so to be printed because ofthe long "lead time" required in publish-ing a monthly magazine.

By the same token, some of the otherRecords of the Year, like Ghost in theMachine by the Police on A&M andLena Home's The Lady and Her Musicon Owest, as well as a few of the al-bums given Honorable Mention, wereactually released in 1981. Each ofthem, however, at the time of its review,was singled out as a Best of Month re-

cording, a Recording of Special Merit,or a release that for some particularreason was given feature treatment.These awards, then, should really beconsidered an extension of our policy atSTEREO REVIEW Of highlighting everymonth the recordings we feel are artis-tically outstanding.

And artistic quality is the basis of theawards. That inc udes, in part, the qual-ity of an album's recorced sound, whichis also the result of artistic considera-tions. The awards are In no way tied tothe actual or potential sales of an al-bum, although some have enjoyed, orwill enjoy, award -winning sales. Otherswill not. These albums, covering a

broad spectrum of musical taste, weresimply the ones we all felt representedthe very best the record industry pro-duced last yea in terms of artisticachievement-and enduring appeal.

In making these best -of -year selec-tions, we found it especially gratifying tonote that, despite its widely publicizedproblems, there's plenty of life in therecord industry yet. Whatever itsmalaise at the moment, it can still pro-duce some pretty remarkable musicaltreasure.

-Christie Barer, Music Editor

FEBRUARY 1983 53

Selected by the Editorial Staff and Critics

MAHLER: Symphony No. 7, in E Minor (ChicagoSymphony Orchestra, James Levire cond.). RCAATC2-4245.

O CIIIIIMMIEDB .yths ten: a Nos.16f2YOYC kiA EMANUEL..-VX

BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonatas Albs. I and 2(Yo -Yo Me, cal); Emanuel Ax, piano)CBS IM 37251.

hasL._ Ama Lady and Nor Wald

LENA MCRAE: The _k iy arid Her Music.()VEST 20W 3E97

MARSHALL CRENSI-Ar/ WARNER BROSBSK 3873

Honorable MentionsTHE ART CF THE TRANSCRIPTION (Ear Wild. piano) RuDiDFON 2003 2

J. S. BACht The Harpsichord Concertos (-revor Pinnock, harpsichorct. theEnglish Concert) ARCi-.v 2723 077.

BARTOK: Grcheetral Works (Budapes Symphony Orchestra andBudapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Arped Job cond.). SEFEL SEFD 5005-9.

BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto it 0 Majdr, Op. 61 (Itzhak Perlman, violin;Philharmon a Orchestra, Carlo Maria CiLyiri cond.). ANGEL CS -37471.

GARY U.S. BONDS On the Line. EMI 5, Mari IC A SO -17068.

BRAHMS. Clarinet Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, Op. 120 (Richard Stoltzmar,clarinet; Richard Goode, piano) RCA ARC 1-4248.

FLUTE MUSIC CF "LES SIX" (8onita 3oyd, flute; Kimberly Schmidt,piano). STOL AT S?M 0119.

JANA EK: The Cunning L.tile Vixen le maPhilharmonic Orchestra, Sir Chaves Madterrascond.). LONDON LDR 72010

CATS

CATS (Original London Cast) Go FFEN2GHS 2017

ARETHA FRANKLIN: Jump to It ARISTA AL 9602

THE GRIFFITH PARK COLLECTION (Freddy Hubbard, Joe Henderson,Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White). ELEKTRA ,MUS1CL,N E1-60025.

BILLY JOEL. The Nyzn Curtain. 'aOLUalalA TC 38200.

KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS: Wise Guy. SIRE ZE SRK 3681.

KING CRIMSON Beat. WARNER Elaos./EG 1-23892.

CLEO LAINE AND DUDLEY MOCRE Smilin' Through. FMEs3E FW 38091.

SUSANNAH McCORKLE- The Music of Harry Warren. INNER Crry IC 1141.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Original Broadway Cast). RCA CBL1-4197.

MOZART The Marriage of Figaro (Ramey, Allen, Te Kanawa. Popp VonStade, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Solti cond.). tarpon LDR '4001.

MARK MURPHY: Bop for Keroua:. MUSE MR 5253.

a\ag EP14 LCOrFor the Readers of Stereo Review

HAYCN: Complete Songs (El y Amelinp, soprano;JOrg Demus, piano) PIILIPS 8789 084.

POLICE

0.01. N 114.10.-1

THE POLICE: Ghost n the Mlachine k&MSP -3730.

THE TANC:0 PRO ECT

--?,1111/4111141111

uc

THE TANGO PROJECT (William Schimmel,accordion; Michael Sahl, piano; Stan Kurtis,violin). NONESUOH D -7903C.

RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON: Shoot Out.he Lights. HANNIBAL HNBL 1303.

DOLLY PARTON: haartbreaa Express. RCA AHL1-4289.

PUCCINI: Tosca (Renate Scotto, Placido Domingo; PhilhermoniaOrchestra, James Levine cond.). ANGEL DSBX-3919.

RAVEL: L'Enant et les Sortileges (London Symphony Orchestra, AndrePrevin cond.) ANGEL DS -37869.

CLAUDIA SCHMIDT Midwestern Heart FLYING PSH FF 241.

SHOSTAKOV,CH: Symphony No. 10, in E Minor, Op. 93 :BerlinPhilharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan cond.). DEUTSCHEGRA/41401.110N 2532 030.

THOMSON: Four Saints in Three Acta (Orchestra of Our Time, Joel ThomeNONESJCH 79035-1.

SIPPIE WALLACE: Sippie. kLANTIC SO 19350.

L 0 E

liacIt-Ilx(; Mix I.;Variati IN

J. S BACe-I Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould,piano). CBS IM 37779.

WYNTON MARSALIS. Cctut.evt FC 37574.

Certificate of Merit

awarc ed to

Eugene Ormandyfor his outstanding contributions

to the quality of American mJsical life

LIGHTS. 9 mg."tar", 0.8 mg. ricotine, LIGHTS 10 O's: 10 mg. "tar",

0.8 mg. nicotine, ay. pE r cigarette by FTC method.Warning: The Surceon General Has Determined


EugeneOrmandy

The Philadelphia Sound - it's me!"

By Herbert tinpferberg

\IERICAN tastes in popular musicchange comparatively often, but

our favorite classical fare haslong been the symphony and relatedforms of orchestral music. No conduc-tor in our history has reached more lis-teners through live performances,broadcasts, and recordings than Eu-gene Ormandy, conductor laureate ofthe Philadelphia Orchestra, who is thisyear's recipient of STEREO REVIEW'SCertificate of Merit for outstandingcontributions to the quality of Ameri-can musical life.

Ormandy likes to say that he wasborn in New York City at the age oftwenty-two. It is a statement that, how-ever whimsical, gets to the heart of theOrmandy paradox-that of a tradition-al yet modern conductor who combinesa European background, outlook, andtraining with the vigor, flexibility, and

58 STEREO REVIEW

adaptability of an American organiza-tion man. At the age of thirty-seven,Ormandy took over a great orchestraand enhanced its quality. He followedone of the most popular classical musicacts of all time, the Leopold StokowskiShow, with the Eugene Ormandy Saga,which ran even longer-for an unprece-dented forty-four years-and still isn'tcompletely over. Now eighty-threeyears old, he remains a conductor whois alert, active, and readily identifiableby the smooth, seamless orchestralsound that has been his hallmark forhalf a century.

It has always been easy to underesti-mate Eugene Ormandy, for he has nev-er been one of the glamour boys of thebaton. The grand gesture, the sweepingstatement, the building-and gilding-of the image, are not part of his charac-ter. Yet the Philadelphia Orchestra of

today, which he assembled and shaped,represents as imposing a monument asany conductor could desire. It is no ac-cident that the Philadelphia is probablythe most consistent, reliable, and versa-tile of the great American ensembles,for these qualities are reflective of theman who put the orchestra together.Ormandy is perhaps the most outstand-ing all-around musician among the con-ductors of today. In an era thatabounds in specialists from Mozarteansto Mahlerites, he remains a universal-ist, at home in all styles, schools, andcenturies.

In fact, Ormandy has made some-thing of a specialty out of being a non-specialist. He remains the orchestraman par excellence. Little interested inopera (though he has conducted it occa-sionally, notably the Metropolitan's DieFledermaus in the early Rudolf Bing

years), he possesses a remarkable abili-ty to transform a symphonic score intoa live performance with a minimum offuss, fanfare, or flamboyance. Hismemory and his ear are almost legend-ary, and his gifts as a musical collabo-rator have earned him the title of the"prince of accompanists." More waryof his audiences than Stokowski, he hasnevertheless always displayed a willing-ness to play twentieth-century music.His nearly five hundred LP's, madefirst for Columbia, then for RCA, andmore recently on a variety of labels,have established him as the most fre-quently recorded conductor in U.S. mu-sical history. His impact upon thiscountry's musical life has indeed beenprodigious.

Ormandy's understanding of the souland psyche of th: orchestral musicianprobably stems f-om his unusual per -

FEBRUARY 1983 59

The youngEugene Ormandy

(photo courtesyof Mrs. Ormandy)

sonal history. He began his musical lifeas a violin prodigy at the age of four inBudapest, where he was born in 1899.His father, a dentist, was a frustratedfiddler himself, and he named his sonJeno (later Americanized to Eugene) inhonor of _lend Hubay, the greatestHungarian violinist of the day.

When he was nine years old, littleJeno began taking lessons with bigJena, and by the time he graduatedfrom the Royal Academy at the earlyage of fourteen he was already markedas one of the most promising young vir-tuosos in Hungary. He was scarcelytwenty when he began making his firstEuropean tours as a soloist.

This was the era in which JaschaHeifetz and other young European vio-linists were acquiring reputations andrewards in America, and Ormandy,urged on by two Viennese promoters,decided to try his luck here too. Unfor-tunately, his backers were as inexper-ienced as he was, with the result thatthe tour fizzled before a single concertcould be given. In December 1921, thetwenty -two -year -old Hungarian youthfound himself stranded in New Yorkwith little more to his name than a tux-edo and a Balestrieri fiddle that no onewanted to hear him play.

That was when his rebirth occurred.

Ormandy, always the practical -mindedmusician, took a job for $60 a weekplaying at the last desk of the second -violin section of the Capitol Theater pitorchestra. In later years he liked to de-emphasize his experience as a movie -house fiddler, but it should be notedthat the Capitol, then under the aegis ofthe celebrated "Roxy" (S. L. Rotha-fel), maintained a high -quality, eighty-five -piece ensemble. With two able con-ductors in Erno Rapee and David Men-doza, it did more than play accompani-ments for silent films, for its repertoirealso included light classics and sym-phonic excerpts. Ormandy quicklymade his skills apparent, and after hisfirst week he was promoted to the posi-tion of concertmaster.

For two years Ormandy remained inthe Capitol orchestra, gaining the kindof deep insight provided only by playingfour shows a day. Then, one afternoon,he was suddenly asked to step in for theconductor, who had fallen ill that morn-ing. He remembers that the programfor the day included a capsule versionof Tchaikovksy's Fourth Symphonyand that he had no trouble at all direct-ing it. From then on he was asked totake occasional turns on the podium,and eventually he was named full-timeconductor of the Capitol.

Soon word began to spread in mu-sical circles about the diminutive moviemaestro with reddish -blond hair whocould conduct almost anything in an ef-ficient, musicianly way. He began toget outside engagements, including anevening at Carnegie Hall, where he di-rected a group of musicians from theNew York Philharmonic accompany-ing a dance recital by Isadora Duncan'sadopted daughter, Anna. In the au-dience that night was Arthur Judson,then the monarch of managers. Judson,who was there to sign up Anna Duncan,remarked afterward, "I came to see adancer and instead I heard a conduc-tor." He promptly took Ormandy underhis managerial wing, had him resignfrom the Capitol, and put him into ra-dio broadcasting. Over the next fewyears the future music director of thePhiladelphia Orchestra was kept busyconducting the Dutch Masters Hour,the Jack Frost Melody Moments, andother shows now remembered only bynostalgia buffs.

Consequently, Ormandy didn't learnhis trade, as so many of his contempo-raries did, in European provincial operahouses and secondary symphonic cen-ters; he learned it in American movietheaters and radio studios. With hissure sense of timing, his remarkablememory, and his ability to provide whatwas wanted, hea week for his broadcasting activities-more than many purely symphonic con-ductors were making.

Judson also put Ormandy out on thesummer symphonic circuit, getting himengagements that included the NewYork Philharmonic at Lewissohn Sta-dium and the Philadelphia Orchestra atRobin Hood Dell. In October 1931,Judson was suddenly confronted withan emergency situation. Arturo Tos-canini had been contracted for a two-week guest -conducting stint at theAcademy of Music in Philadelphiawhile Leopold Stokowski was on a briefvacation. But Toscanini developed abad case of neuritis in his baton armand was forced to cancel. Judsonneeded a conductor in a hurry-onewho was unafraid of simultaneouslyfollowing Stokowski and replacing Tos-canini. "All of a sudden, everybody wasbusy that week," Judson recalled in lat-er years. "I thought of Ormandy. I saidto him, 'Gene, there's a vacancy in Phil-adelphia, but it could be suicide foryou.' "

It wasn't suicide. Performing a pro-gram consisting of Brahms's Fourth,Strauss's Till Eulenspeigel and Rosen-kavalier Waltzes, and the Polka andFugue from Weinberger's Schwandathe Bagpiper, Ormandy made such ahit with audience and critics that he

60 STEREO REVIEW

was promptly invited to fill the secondweek of Toscanini's engagement too.

As a result of his Philadelphia suc-cess he was engaged as music directorof the Minneapolis Symphony (now theMinnesota Orchestra), whose conduc-tor, Henri Verbrugghen, had been inca-pacitated by a stroke. Ormandy stayedfive years in Minneapolis, polishing hisskills yet maintaining his link to Phila-delphia by appearing regularly there asa guest conductor. While he was inMinneapolis he also acquired some-thing of a national reputation through aseries of pioneering recordings.

The Minneapolis Symphony thenhad a contractual quirk with its unionthat provided the players no extra com-pensation for recording sessions as longas these fell during their regular workweek. This enabled RCA Victor, start-ing in 1934, to record more than ahundred works with the orchestra, in-cluding such phonographic "firsts" asKodaly's Hary Janos Suite, Bruckner'sSeventh Symphony, and Schoenberg'sVerklorte Nock. The rubric "EugeneOrmandy and the Minneapolis Sym-phony" became associated in the mindsof many 78 -rpm record collectors withadventurous and unusual repertoire.

In 1936, Leopold Stokowski finallycarried out the latest of his severalthreats to resign as music director inPhiladelphia. Ormandy was the unani-mous choice of the board of directors ashis successor. Thus began what was tobecome the longest tenure any conduc-tor has ever had with a major orchestraanywhere, setting a record for durabili-ty in music that may well, like LouGehrig's record in baseball, stand forall time.

Sometimes there is a tendency to re-gard Ormandy's success in Philadel-phia as merely a continuation of Sto-kowski's, since it had been the latter,after all, who had taken over a provin-cial ensemble back in 1912 and turnedit into a world -class ensemble. But Or-mandy's achievement was strictly hisown. Wise enough not to undo Stokow-ski's work in assembling and training agreat orchestra, he nonetheless grad-ually and quietly put his own imprintupon it, and that endures to this day.

Talking about his takeover in lateryears, Ormandy explained: "I thinkmost conductors, stepping into a newjob with an orchestra, would have said,'Now I'm going to show them how Iconduct, how I approach Tchaikovskyor Beethoven or Stravinsky or anybodyelse.' I instinctively, without talking toa single human being, said to myself,'My dear friend, you've found a marvel-ous orchestra, one of the greatest in theworld, with an incomparable sound. Becareful to preserve that sound.' So I de-

cided to continue the orchestra as I

found it, making gradual changes ac-cording to my own ideas."

Those changes, in the end, were tan-tamount to building a new orchestrawithin the framework of the old, an all -but -imperceptible process that VirgilThomson once likened to a wine -lover'sreplenishing a fine cellar bottle by bot-tle. The last player who had been hiredby Stokowski, bassist Carl Torello, re-tired in August 1982; today's orchestrais 100 per cent Ormandy's in personnel,reflecting his acuteness of ear and feel-ing of ensemble. Just as Louis XIVcould announce "L'etat-c'est moi," socan Ormandy claim, as indeed he has,"The Philadelphia Sound-it's me!"

Most of the musicians who haveplayed for Ormandy regard him as su-preme among orchestra technicians. Hehas had throughout his career an un-canny ability to draw his characteristi-cally rich sound from almost any or-chestra he conducts, as he has demon-strated in the relatively few recordingshe has made outside of Philadelphia.His own musicians ascribe his results tothe efficient yet relaxed manner inwhich he conducts rehearsals, coveringa maximum amount of music in a min-imum amount of time, without bruisinganybody in the process. Samuel Mayes,who for many years was the Philadel-phia's first cellist, describes Ormandyas a conductor who "gives you an ideaof what he wants and then lets you,with your basic individuality, produceit. . . . He never made the mistake

some conductors make of trying to con-duct every note, of hamstringing you bybeating a stick in your face."

Ormandy regards it as a mistake toover -rehearse an orchestra-to leavethe concert, as the saying goes, in therehearsal room. When he was asked ifhis relations with his musicians havechanged over the decades, he replied,"Years ago when I heard somethingwrong, I looked in that direction. Now Ilook the other way. I started to do thatwhen I realized that every member ofthe orchestra is as human as I am. Imake mistakes too."

In common with most conductors ofhis generation, Ormandy believes thatthe art of the baton must be masteredthrough instinct and experience andcannot be taught. "I am reminded of astory I heard when I was a young vio-linist touring Germany," he says. "Ayoung man went to Arthur Nikisch ashe was getting out of his car at theLeipzig Gewandhaus and said, 'Maes-tro, please give me lessons. I want to beyour pupil.' Nikisch replied, 'Of course,I'd be glad to. It's very easy: 1-2-3-4,1-2-3, 1-2. The rest you have to doyourself.' "

In more ways than one Ormandy rep-resents the last of the generation ofsymphonic conductors who raised or-chestral music to the central position itcontinues to hold in America's concertlife. His active career overlapped andoutlasted the performance years of Sto-kowski, Toscanini, Koussevitzky, Wal-ter, Szell, Rodzinski, Mitropoulos, and

President Reagan congratulates Eugene Ormandy (center) and Benny Goodman (left) onthe occasion of their receiving Kennedy Center Honors in December 1982.

FEBRUARY 1983 61

Reiner, to name only some of those ac-tive in the United States. He is the solesurvivor of an era in which a conductorwas associated almost exclusively withone orchestra and one city, building anaudience, expanding a repertoire, andcreating and preserving an active mu-sical center.

Today's jet -age conductors representa subject upon which Ormandy speaksout with uncharacteristic bluntness."Their attitude often is: 'I want tomake a worldwide reputation in a hur-ry, and I don't have time to sit down.'Some of them have committed to mem-ory or are prepared to play five or tenprograms, and they would love to cashin on them, conducting them in variousEuropean countries. The responsibilityof a major or even a lesser symphonyorchestra is something they don't want.That is not good for an orchestra; one ofthe reasons for the stature of the Phila-delphia Orchestra is that it had onlytwo conductors for so many years. It isnot good for the development of a con-ductor either. Conductors grow withtheir own orchestras."

The Ormandy repertoire has alwaysbeen eclectic and inclusive. When hefirst took over the Philadelphia Orches-tra, he began to program a good deal ofHaydn and Mozart, composers whohad been relatively neglected by Sto-kowski. The contemporary works heplayed were somewhat fewer and cer-tainly less far-out than Stokowski'schoices had been, but he by no meansneglected modern music, particularlyby Americans.

Ormandy gave the world premieresof such works as George Antheil's Sym-phony No. 5, Samuel Barber's ViolinConcerto (with American violinist Al-bert Spalding), Paul Creston's Sym-phony No. 3, David Diamond's Sym-phony No. 7, Louis Gruenberg's ViolinConcerto (with Heifetz), Howard Han -son's Sinfonia Sacra, Roy Harris'sSymphony No. 9, Gian Carlo Menotti'sViolin Concerto (with Efrem Zimbal-ist), Walter Piston's Symphony No. 7,Virgil Thomson's Louisiana Story, anddozens of others. As far back as 1947Ormandy was given the National Mu-sic Council Award of Honor in recogni-tion of the American premieres he haddirected. In addition, of course, werethe numerous American performancesor world premieres he conducted of newmusic by Bartok, Britten, Chavez, VonEinem, Ginastera, Hindemith, Kfenek,Martintl, Milhaud, Penderecki, Proko-fiev, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Vil-la -Lobos, Webern-and others.

In another respect, too, Ormandy hasbeen a distinct modernist: he has neverhesitated to lead his orchestra into newtravel or technological ventures. Forhim the season never ended with thelast subscription concert at the Acade-my of Music; it continued at the RobinHood Dell concerts and at the SaratogaPerforming Arts Center during thesummer. In his regime the Philadelphiawas in the forefront of tours to Europe,the Soviet Union, and China; it claimsto have logged more miles than any oth-er orchestra, just as it has amassed thegreatest total number of recordings-

nearly all with Ormandy conducting.Only in the area of television has the

Philadelphia lagged somewhat, for theBoston Symphony under Seiji Ozawaand the New York Philharmonic, firstunder Leonard Bernstein and later un-der Zubin Mehta, have developedstronger profiles on the TV screen-this despite the fact that Ormandy ac-tually directed the Philadelphia in thefirst symphonic telecast in history, aCBS performance of Rachmaninoff'sSymphony No. 1 on March 21, 1948, atime when few people had sets in theirhomes.

Although he has been formally re-tired since August 1980, Eugene Or-mandy's influence on the PhiladelphiaOrchestra remains strong. He continuesto conduct a share of each season's con-certs, all members of the orchestra werechosen by him, and his successor as mu-sic director, Riccardo Muti, was hand-picked by him, with results as yet to befully assayed. Of his own place in Phil-adelphia's-and America's-musicalhistory there can be no doubt. It wasexpressed as long ago as 1938 by Law-rence Gilman, writing in the New YorkHerald Tribune, when he described Or-mandy, after only two years in Phila-delphia, as "an inseparable part of theAmerican musical scene." It is an as-sessment that remains as accurate to-day as it was then. 0

Herbert Kupferberg, senior editor ofParade magazine, is the author of ThoseFabulous Philadelphians (New York: Scrib-ners, 1969).

EUGENE ORMANDY ON DISC

fT is unlikely that any other conductor hasmade as many recordings as Eugene Or-

mandy. Certainly no other musician hasmaintained such a steady flow of recordingsfor so many years (nearly fifty) as Orman-dy has. He has recorded almost every majorpiece of music in the mainstream orchestralrepertoire and has recorded much of thatrepertoire more than once. It would, there-fore, be impossible to compile a list of Or-mandy's Top Ten. Here is a selection of cur-rent, very fine recordings by Ormandy andthe Philadelphia Orchestra. Almost all areon CBS or RCA. Some are new and someare not so new, but, with or without soloists,all of them are representative of the man'sstyle and are faithful to the sound of "his"orchestra. C.B.

O BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, inE -fiat Major ("Eroka"). RCA 0 ATC1-4032, © ATK1-4032.O BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9, in DMinor ("Choral"). CBS MY 37241, ©MYT 37241.O BIZET: Symphony No. 1, in C Major;

L'Arlesienne, Suite No. I. RCA ARL1-3640, © ARKI-3640. BRAHMS: Piano Concertos No. 1, in DMinor, and No. 2, in B -fiat Major. MEN-DELSSOHN: Piano Concerto No. 1, in GMinor. SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in AMinor. Rudolf Serkin (piano). CBS D3S741 three discs.O BRAHMS: Symphony No. I, in C Mi-nor. CBS M 31821, © MT 31821. CHOPIN: Piano Concertos No. 1, in EMinor, and No. Z in F Minor. Emanuel Ax(piano). RCA 0 ATCI-4097, © ATK1-4097 (No. 1); RCA ARLI-2868, © ARK I-2868 (No. 2). DEBUSSY: Nocturnes; La Mer; Clair deLune; Prelude a l'Apres-Midi d'un Faune;Danses Sac,* et Profane. CBS MG 30950two discs.

DVOIkAK: Symphonies No. 7, in D Mi-nor, and No. 9, in E Minor ("New World").RCA ARLI-3555, © ARK1-3555 (No. 7);RCA ARLI-2949, © ARK1-2949 (No. 9). HINDEMITH: Concert Music forStrings and Brass; Symphonic Metamor-phosis of Themes by Weber. ANGEL SZ-37536. HOIST: The Planets. RCA AGLI-3885, © AGKI-3885.

MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto in EMinor. TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concertoin D Major. Isaac Stern (violin). CBS MY36724, © MYT 36724.O MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibi-tion. RAVEL: Bolero. RCA A R LI-0451. PROKOFIEV: Love for Three Oranges,Suite; Lt. Kale, Suite; Symphony No. 1, inD Major ("Classical"). CBS M 31812, ©MT 31812. RACHMANINOFF: Piano ConcertoNo. 3, in D Minor. Vladimir Ashkenazy (pi-ano). RCA ARLI-1324, © ARKI-1324.O SAINT -SANS: Symphony No. 3, in CMinor ("Organ"). Michael Murray (organ).TELARC 0 DG- 10051.

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5.RCA AGL1-3886, AGKI-3886. SIBELIUS: Four Legends from the"Kalevala." ANGEL S-37537, © 4XS-37537; MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LAB (mas-tered at half speed) MFSL 1-523.O R. STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra.ANGEL 0 DS -37744.O TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphonies No. 5, inE Minor, and No. 6, in B Minor ("Path&tique"). DELOS 3 DMS 3015, © DPR 3015(No. 5); DELOS 0 DMS 3016, © DPR 3016(No. 6).

62 STEREO REVIEW

2008A Sonic OdysseyA Survey of What Lies Ahead for Audiophiles

By Alan Lofft

IN 2008 A.D., "We'll have a smalldigital player with no moving partsand little plug-in memory modules,

each with several hours of music storedin solid-state memory circuits. Youcould take the module in to a recorddealer who would slip the cartridge intoa machine, punch a code into the con-sole, and thirty seconds later hand itback to you. You'd pay your bill andaway you'd go. Furthermore, the origi-nal musical information would not be inthe retail outlet; it would likely bedown -linked by satellite from a centraldata bank. The fee charged by the re-tailer would be broken up and distrib-uted to the appropriate artists, produc-ers, and owners of the digital musicalsoftware."

A little too Buck Rogers, perhaps?Too close to those outlandish PopularScience cover stories circa 1955? Not

at all. These are the confident predic-tions of Almon Clegg, assistant generalmanager of the Matsushita TechnologyCenter's audio division (Matsushita isthe corporate parent of Panasonic andTechnics). He is intimately involvedwith developing the audio hardwareyou'll be using in your homes to enjoymusic five, ten, or twenty-five yearsfrom now.

Clegg's confidence in the emergenceof direct channels of software deliveryto audio consumers (whether by satel-lite, cable, or FM) is reinforced by hiscompany's involvement in a unique ex-perimental system called Codart, cur-rently being tested in San Franciscopreparatory to being launched national-ly. "Codart is the embryo of a very effi-cient distribution of software, whetherit be music or video games," saysClegg. In its present form, Codart pro-

grams are broadcast late at night overFM radio. Codart sends out a code thatturns the subscriber's tape recorder onat the right time to record a selectedprogram, then turns it off at the pro-gram's conclusion. The charge for themusical selection is automatically add-ed to the subscriber's monthly credit-card bill. The fee is typically the sameas the royalty charge included in thepurchase price of a record, without thecosts of vinyl, pressing, distribution,and sales packaging. "A disc might cost$8 or $9 in a record store," notes Clegg."With Codart, the charge might be$2.50 or $3." In Clegg's scenario, Cod -art could be extended to satellite or ca-ble delivery systems (likely in digital -audio form) and would not necessarilyspell the end of record stores. "The re-tailer might have a down -converter intowhich you'd load your tape or data

FEBRUARY 1983 63

module," Clegg says. "Twenty-fiveyears from now I see a very low-costdown -loading system of software distri-bution, perhaps a fourth generation ofCodart."

Whoa! Ease back on that throttle,Captain Kirk! "Data module"? "Downloading"? "Software distribution"? Ata time when many stereo owners arebarely confident about (finally) havingtheir tone -arm geometry correct andtheir tape heads demagnetized, whenmany of them are uneasy about theintroduction of an entirely new play-back standard-the digital -audio Com-pact Disc-talk of plug-in data mod-ules can summon up in even the har-diest of audiophiles disquieting feelingsof being left behind, of (horrors!) tech-nological obsolescence. Talking withindustry experts, I found general agree-ment that these changes are not goingto come about overnight. Nonetheless,there is a distinctly positive and excitedtone to their forecasts of things to come,a sense that change is inevitable andthat we should climb aboard the digitaltrain, for it's going to be an extraordi-nary journey!

The notion of a central data bank fordistribution of digitally recorded musicis a recurring motif among industrythinkers (and one with interesting vari-ations), although Bob Ingebretsen,president of Soundstream and a closeassociate of digital -recording pioneerThomas Stockham, believes that a mar-ket for "hard copy" (prerecorded musicon a digital disc or card) will exist formany years. He thinks that economicswill determine which format-disc orcard-becomes the predominant me-dium. "The AudioFile Card thatSoundstream has developed has the po-tential to be a very inexpensive distribu-tion medium. It's a photographic proc-ess, the card can be replicated verycheaply, and the information density isextremely high-about 320 million dig-ital bits per square inch, greater thanthat of the Compact Disc."

Robert DeForest, president of DigitalRecording Corporation, the company

that developed the optical technologyon which the AudioFile Card is based,cites the coexistence of the LP recordand the audio cassette as showing thattwo different media can be widely ac-cepted. He suggests there may be roomfor both the digital card and the digitaldisc in future listening rooms. "We be-lieve the AudioFile Card has the capa-bility of setting an additional standardin digital audio. It's smaller than the

gies-the videodisc, the home comput-er, the personal calculator, the video re-corder, the Compact Disc, the Audio -File Card, video games. In twenty-fiveyears these will all converge into a sin-gle modular system to which you canconnect a video game, a symphony re-cording, a TV movie, or a home -budgetcomputer program; it might also inter-face with a cable service for a videonewspaper or magazine. The key is the

"How many speakers would you need . . . ? Doyou have wallpaper made up of many tiny loud-speakers that are 'array -addressable' . . . ?"

Compact Disc (it measures 3 x 5

inches, the same size as a file card),thus increasing the likelihood of its be-ing played in an automobile, and it'sless expensive to produce. Therefore thecost will be attractive enough to gener-ate a sufficient market." DeForest alsopoints out that, while the current ver-sion of the AudioFile Card can hold 45minutes of music, future versions maybe produced in a kind of sandwich, withseveral layers of digitized programs onone card and a possible total playingtime of 450 minutes. The optical scan-ner will play back successive layers,each 45 minutes, switching betweenlayers the way an eight -track tape deckswitches between tracks. And, in a fas-cinating extension of card technology,it is even feasible (by shortening theplaying time of each card to 3 minutes)to reduce the size to that of a 35 -mmslide, making possible the ultimate dig-ital juke box! The AudioFile system hasyet to receive its first public demonstra-tion, however.

Looking well ahead, both DeForestand Ingebretsen envison an eventualconsolidation of disparate media intoone console -like home computer/enter-tainment unit. As Ingebretsen put it,"There are all these different technolo-

mall%

Ablik

Kr_.11111111..-

digital representation of the informa-tion, whether it's a bank account or asymphony. The digital commonalitywill tie all the forms of home entertain-ment together."

Emil Torick of the CBS TechnologyCenter suggests that listeners of thefuture may assume a more active musicalrole in the home, particularly as syn-thesizers and other electronic keyboardinstruments are connected with somecomputerized entertainment consoles."This offers a new extension of musicreproduction, performance, and compo-sition possibilities. For audiophiles, inone embodiment, I can see it as a kindof space-age piano roll; software couldbe sold which would not be reproduced,but played by the computer throughthe electronic instruments interfacedwith the home's Apple, Radio Shack, orIBM computer." In an elaborate fieldtest of the Videotex system being con-ducted by CBS and A.T.&T. in Ridge-wood, New Jersey, two hundred homeshave been outfitted with interactive ter-minals that are connected to a centraldata base.

"As a kind of sidelight to the proj-ect," Torick explained, "we includeddata to play the electronic organ in asubscriber's home. You can dial up theselections you want, and the computerin the central data base will then 'play'the organ to entertain you for the eve-ning. It does illustrate that there aremore ways to get music to the homethan simply playing a record through apair of loudspeakers. The problem withan interactive system accessing high -quality digital stereo is the very widetransmission bandwidth required,"since it would take about a week to sendone hour of high -quality digital audioover a telephone line. "So the ability tohave each subscriber call for exactlywhat he wants when he wants it," Tor-ick points out, "could tax the abilities of

64 STEREO REVIEW

any systems that we could possiblythink about now."

And the Compact Disc?"At this point it's at least 50 per cent

more expensive than a conventionaldisc. The man in the street may not findenough additional value in it. With ear-lier developments in audio-going froma breakable shellac disc to an unbreak-able vinyl-I can see why there was astampede, but the degree of improve-ment with the digital disc is not thatgreat. While it certainly has some ad-vantages, it's not clear to us in the in-dustry that the large population of rec-ord buyers will necessarily see them."

The long-term future of the CompactDisc-in North America, at least-willbe determined by American recordcompanies' acceptance of the newformat. William Fox, vice-president ofoperations and finance for CBS Rec-ords, notes that while CD's are sellingvery well in Japan, "What happens inJapan and what happens in the rest ofthe world are two different things."

Henry Kloss-president of KlossVideo Corporation, the "K" of KLH,and the founder of Advent, a man whohas had an enormous influence on homeentertainment over the past twenty-fiveyears-does not envision any dramaticrevolution in audio over the next quar-ter century, with the possible exceptionof one device: "A sound system whichprovides a thoroughly well-done, effec-tive form of synthetic reverberation;one that makes the immediate environ-ment appear to be a large, excitingplace, rather than a living room. It'snecessarily done by a complicated sys-tem, one that utilizes many speaker sys-tems." Kloss calls the Compact Disc "ahalf -way step" to an eventual no -mov-ing -parts module for digital storage ofaudio. And TV sound? "The sound al-ready supplied by the PBS network isalready good enough that if it had al-ways been that good, we wouldn't becomplaining. Not sending the soundover telephone land lines is the firststep; this step has already been takenby PBS. When people start not buyinga particular TV set because the soundisn't good, then we will get better TVsound."

Readers who anticipate the eventualarrival of the large, hanging, flat -screenTV are doomed to disappointment, ac-cording to Kloss, a pioneer in large -screen -TV projection technology. "Theforms into which screen technology canpossibly change are strongly influencedby 'How big do people want this? Arethey happy with a 45 -inch, or do theyreally want a 10 -foot picture?' Beyond45 inches, it becomes impractical otherthan by projecting light. If all anybodywants is a 45 -inch picture, then you in-

crease the chance that a flat -screen sys-tem (that is, where the image is createdat the screen) can happen. But it won'tbe larger than 45 inches, and it won't becheap."

CBS's Emil Torick predicts a com-bining of video with audio: "We'restudying ways of improving the qualityof television reproduction both withhigh -definition TV (HDTV), whichwill certainly be adaptable to large,wide-screen displays, and with multi-channel sound as well."

Sony's president, Akio Morita,echoes Torick's thoughts on the value ofHDTV and points out that with its highscanning rate (it has twice the numberof scan lines as conventional television),it is equal to 35 -mm film in picture def-inition and color quality. Because vid-eotape facilitates faster production andis easier to edit than film, Morita ex-pects HDTV to bring about a "revolu-tionary change in the motion -pictureindustry" rather than a fundamentalalteration of television standards.

Henry Kloss has strong views aboutHDTV: "Talk of HDTV seems to sug-gest that the present standard can't per-mit a really good picture, and that isabsolutely wrong. I bristle at the atten-tion given HDTV when one is compar-ing it with what is a poor use of thepresent standard. The present standard,properly just about allthe excitement you can stand. Would abook of poetry be much more enjoyableprinted on particularly fine paper?"Kloss does predict the arrival ofHDTV, however, probably from direct -broadcast satellites, but, apart fromtechnical/scientific applications, hesays, the need "is not substantial."

There is a widely held belief amongaudio -industry leaders that analog au-dio hardware has reached a point in itsdevelopment where there is little roomleft for improvement. The current stateof the art is very fine indeed, and anysignificant improvements in audio com-ponents in the years to come will beseen not in tuners, amplifiers, receiversor loudspeakers but in signal -processing

devices used to create the illusion of athree-dimensional, live, acoustic space.

Bob Carver, president of Carver Cor-poration, asks, "Why is it that no four-year -old can be fooled into believingthat he's listening to a live band ratherthan a pair of loudspeakers? It's be-cause the timing cues and spatial cluesare missing. Fundamental research intopsychoacoustics seemed to stop onceBell Labs determined what they neededto know to make communications sys-tems. Some very bright people are go-ing to have to thoroughly investigateand understand exactly how it is wehear things, and then that's going tohave to be translated into hardware."

Are multichannel, multispeaker sys-tems the answer? Carver thinks not."In real life you hear two sound arrivalsfor each sonic event; these provide thetiming information that your brainneeds to reproduce a three-dimensionalimage of the sound field. Two channelscan convey all the necessary informa-tion-it's just that they have to containthe right cues. The more speakers youhave, the more sound arrivals there are,and the more difficult it becomes toerase the signatures of all those soundsources and bring it back to those twoarrival cues. If the necessary psycho -acoustic research happens, music sys-tems twenty-five years from now can bebreathtaking in their realism."

Roy Allison, of Allison Acoustics,also emphasizes the need for productiveresearch into psychoacoustics and fore-sees a greater involvement of signal -processing techniques in simulating adesired acoustic environment: "With agreater knowledge of how to produceany subjective aural effects we wish,manipulation of existing signals (espe-cially older recordings of great per-formances) will become more effectiveand rewarding. Digital processing tech-niques should provide further impetusto the generation of sophisticated hard-ware."' Allison predicts a "fairly rapid"move to digital tape equipment in thehome and an eventual transition fromthe digital disc to some sort of electron -

FEBRUARY 1983 65

ically scanned solid-state memory car-tridges, but he doesn't foresee any revo-lutionary changes in loudspeaker de-sign. "There is still plenty of room forrefinement of current speaker technolo-gy and adaptations in form to meetwhatever the 'system' requirementsmay be in the years ahead."

Matsushita's Almon Clegg is alsoconfident about the endurance of two -channel stereo: "With the signal -proc-essing skills that will be developed overthe next few years, I believe that twochannels can transfer enough informa-tion to the listener." Along with severalMatsushita engineers, he has alreadydeveloped and demonstrated a systemthat uses analog -computer simulationof the sound -pressure ratio between theleft and right ears to achieve control ofsound -image localization in a completecircle around the listener with conven-tional two -channel, two -loudspeakerplayback. But this "spatial fidelity"technology will be applied in the re-cording studio rather than the listeningroom. "During the mix -down and mas-tering," Clegg says, "the localizationsignals will be buried in the stereo sig-nal. No signal -processing apparatuswill be required on the playback end."

Mark Davis, a development engineerat dbx and contributor to the BASSpeaker (the journal of the Boston Au-dio Society), is not at all convinced thattwo channels can convey enough infor-mation, but he recognizes that there aremany problems inherent in a multidi-mensional approach. "How would youintelligently control, say, a hundredchannels, instead of two, in the record-ing studio? How do you encode that in-formation in a finite amount of spaceon a record or a digital card? If you'reintending to control the spatiality of thepresentation, how do you deal with thewidely varying 'spatiality' of listeners'homes?" Davis predicts the eventualappearance of a high-speed digitalprocessor that would control the disper-sal of sound in a room with great preci-sion, "a device that would control thepressure waveform as a function of timethroughout the room," which wouldlikely involve "a microphone array thatfeeds back information to the processorabout what's happening in the roomand how to modify the signals to theloudspeakers accordingly."

Davis points out some very real prob-lems in such a presentation: "Howmany speakers would you need to putin a room so that you couldn't hear thesound as coming from any one of them?Do you have wallpaper made up ofmany tiny loudspeakers that are 'array -addressable' in the manner of a mov-ing -light display sign?" Any such ap-proaches would require much faster,

more powerful, and less expensive digi-tal processors-able to do "fairly magi-cal things in real time"-and, he adds,"we're only at the dawn of that sort ofthing." Davis is apparently working"feverishly" on such devices at dbx. Hewon't give details, but he did acknowl-edge that dbx has already run A/Btests on several prototypes and thattheir effects are "clearly audible "Whether people will consider the ef-fects an improvement, he says, is notclear.

Some of the most spectacular leaps intechnology over the next quarter -cen-tury may well appear in the area ofmagnetic tape and disc recording de-vices. Ed Havens of TDK reports on anextraordinary new magnetic -opticalformulation currently under develop-ment: "It's in disc form, is both record -

about as far as possible in terms of per-formance. The only trend visible is onetoward a reduction in size; for the samesound quality and performance, every-thing is becoming smaller, and this canbe seen in portable equipment too."

Music buffs and audiophiles madeapprehensive by the foregoing prophe-cies of change need only recall the mu-sic -reproduction machinery of a quar-ter -century past: clumsy turntables,vacuum -tube amplifiers, and transduc-ers that in comparison with the best oftoday's components were almost crude.Since then, formats have come andgone (perhaps a brief word in memoryof quadraphonics and the Elcaset?),and standards have changed, yet audio-philes have proved to be remarkablyadept at accommodating the shifts inaudio technology. In the next quarter -

"There has been a change in commitment on thepart of consumers from the appurtenances ofsuccess-the size, scale, and glitter ofcomponents-to the music."

able and erasable, and is suitable fordata, audio, or video. It uses a substra-tum material that is made to be magne-tized very easily; the coercivity can beraised or lowered through a light treat-ment that's applied to it. It uses a laserbeam. Once the digital pulses are putdown, the material will retain them un-til it is again put under a special treat-ment for rerecording. On playbackthere's an optical sensor that can ac-tually sense the direction of the magne-tization; the light is refracted different-ly from, say, a pulse or an absence of apulse." Havens noted that the new op-tical/magnetic disc is "certainly withinthe time frame of twenty-five years"and that it will be "targeted to the con-sumer market."

"The next transition, less than tenyears away," said Havens, "is digitalrecording applied to a compact audiocassette. Pioneer, JVC, and Sharp havealready introduced prototypes that usecompact cassettes and stationary heads,and other manufacturers are workingalong similar lines." But, Havens cau-tions, "it's unlikely that this technologywill be applied to portable or auto -sound applications because of its sensi-tivity to vibration and the critical na-ture of the tape tracking."

Havens went on to say that "The gen-eral feeling in the industry is that cur-rent analog audio cassette technology,and the tape machines, have been taken

century there will be time to adjust tothe increasing presence of the ubiqui-tous digital bit in our musical lives.Moreover, there is reason for excite-ment about the changes that digitaltechnology may introduce. Bob Berko-vitz, a consultant in computer applica-tions to various companies includingBoston Acoustics, notes that "Therehas been a change in commitment onthe part of consumers from the appur-tenances of success-the size, scale,and glitter of components-to the mu-sic. And this is one of the healthiestthings to have happened."

By now it must be quite obvious thatthe many knowledgeable audio -indus-try spokesmen have quite differentviews of the future. A big stumblingblock to finding out how these peopleare planning to make their fortunes inthe future is that they don't want togive away any secrets. It seems that justabout everyone in the field has his ownpet project, and they all work very hardto divert any conversation from prema-turely revealing its nature. It is, there-fore, quite likely that the future will beeven more exciting than the predictionshere suggest.

But whatever kinds of hardware andsoftware we will be using in the year2008, you can rest assured that it willdeliver full -range, noise -free music withrealistic ambience. If you close youreyes....

66 STEREO REVIEW

Best of the MonthStereo Review's Selection of Recordings of Special Merit

A Nearly Perfect Set ofWell -Made Pop Songs:

A Tonic from Utopia

OVER the years, Utopia has worn al-most as many hats as its best-

known member, songwriter/producer/guitar wizard Todd Rundgren. Thegroup has presented itself as heavy-metal space -rockers, as cosmic par-odists, as a cover band, and even occa-sionally as a back-up group. But the hatthat seems to fit the band best is the oneit wears on the new Network album,"Utopia." This nearly perfect set-oneregular LP plus a bonus disc with fivemore songs-confirms Utopia as mas-ters of the well -made pop song. Everyone of its fifteen concise, cleverlycrafted tunes is a gem. They run the gam-ut from head -bangers to tear-jerkers,and all sport hummable melodies, amus-ing lyrics, and smart arrangements.

Utopia's basic recipe is simple. First,take an offbeat angle on a familiar sit-uation. On Feet Don't Fail Me Now,for example, we have a guy whose girlhas just shown him the door, but hecan't leave: "Feet don't fail me now,/Stop pretending you've gone tosleep . . . ./ Time to hit the high-way . . . ./But it feels like my shoeshave been Crazy -glued." Second, hangit on a strong melody. Then throw inenough surprises to keep a listener offbalance, and you've got 'em hooked. It'sso simple, I don't understand why everyrock band doesn't do it.

There's a tendency to think of Utopiaas "Todd Rundgren's band," but thatvastly undervalues the contributions ofkeyboardist Roger Powell, bassist Ka -

Utopia (left to right): Todd Rundgren. Kasim Sutton. Willie Wilcox. and Roger Powell

FEBRUARY 1983

sim Sutton, and drummer Willie Wil-cox. All four share in the songwriting,and all take turns on the lead vocals.Rundgren has a hard time even finish-ing in the money in the vocal depart-ment. Sutton is a great power vocalist(on the order of Journey's Steve Perry),and Powell and Wilcox are both capa-ble of the kind of agile phrasing thatmakes a song sound freshly mintedevery time you hear it. And their FabFour harmonic style is one of the sharp-est hooks the band has.

This is the kind of album that givesyou three or four favorite tracks imme-diately, but every time you listen to ityou have to add to the list (mine is up toten now). These three sides selling forthe price of two are just the tonic tohelp us get through some sobering eco-nomic times. Great stuff, and a bargaintoo (but be forewarned: the bonus discwill be available for a limited timeonly). "Utopia" really is the best of allpossible worlds. -Mark Peel

UTOPIA. Todd Rundgren (guitar, vocals);Roger Powell (keyboards, vocals); KasimSutton (bass guitar, vocals); Willie Wilcox(drums, vocals). Libertine; Bad Little Ac-tress; Feet Don't Fail Me Now; Neck OnUp; Say Yeah; Call It What You Will; I'mLooking at You, but I'm Talking to Myself;Hammer in My Heart; Burn Burn Burn;There Goes My Inspiration; Princess of theUniverse;

Steve Reichin front of

Jackson Pollock'sPasiphae at the

MetropolitanMuseum of Art

ten but Not Gone; Private Heaven; Chapterand Verse. NETWORK 60183-I two discs$8.98, 60183-4 $8.98.

The Chamber Version ofSteve Reich's Tehillim:A Rare and Really JoyfulListening Experience

STEVE REICH'S recent Tehillim, nowavailable on an ECM recording,

differs from his earlier work in its use ofa text-four of the Biblical Psalms("tehillim" is Hebrew for psalms)-aswell as in its mood of religious ecstasyand its being through -composed insteadof worked out in short, overlapping cy-cles of repetition. Nonetheless, most lis-teners familiar with Reich's earlierwork will regard Tehillim as a com-pletely logical and highly satisfactorydevelopment out of his earlier style. Allthe so-called "hypnotic" qualities ofminimalist music lend themselves per-fectly to the sense of spiritual exaltationthat sweeps across this work and makesit a rare and really joyful listeningexperience.

The orchestral version of Tehillimby the New York Phi --

harmonic earlier this season and wasnot much liked. The record is of thechamber version-the "original cham-ber version," one is tempted to say-and it is scored for a typically Reichiancombination: four jazz -style femalevoices (Pamela Wood, Cheryl Bens -man, Rebecca Armstrong, and JayClayton), two electric organs, a stringquintet, four wind players, and six per-cussionists playing tambourines (reallysmall drums), maracas, marimba,vibes, crotales, and hand -claps. This isundoubtedly the right sound for what isessentially a vocal work of praise. Thevoices sing nearly continuously in a

close harmony or close canon, under-lined mainly by the iteration of the jin-gleless tambourines, maracas, andhand -claps, rather lightly supported(and occasionally interrupted) by thesimplest of instrumental punctuations.The frame is light and relatively short:thirty minutes, with some internal con-trasts. And, for once, Reich sustains themoods of the music just long enough,not too long.

This is a lovely performance and acrisp, striking recording of a new workthat is about as "up" as they come.

-Eric Salzman

REICH: Tehillim (Psalms). Steve Reich andMusicians, George Manahan cond. ECMECM -I-1215 $9.98, © M5E-1215 $9.98.

S

68 STEREO REVIEW

S

The Original andInimitable RochesKeep On Making Art,Not Just Pop Product

IF the Roche sisters were painters,they'd be surrealists-closer to Miro

than Magritte, and probably closer stillto Peter Blume. They don't juxtaposesequiturs and non sequiturs; they justmake "reality" seem a rather etherealand slithery concept. And if they werepainters, it would be more readily seenthat they are trying to make art and notjust pop product.

Their new "Keep On Doing," forWarner Brothers, assures us that theRoches intend to follow their own ad-vice to Keep On Doing What You Doeven though most people-like TomSnyder back when he had them on theTomorrow Show-don't know what tomake of them. It's partly artistic tem-perament and partly a matter of theirbeing unable to sound like anyone elseif they tried. The Roches are as originalas anybody in pop music.

The vocal harmonies are actually alittle straighter here than in their pre-vious albums-there are fewer dis-cords-but they are still eerie andunique. The songs are both sophisti-cated and childlike. There is a fairamount of indirect, off -center, some-times goofy insight in the lyrics and

some daring, sometimes dazzling, pro-gressions and modulations in the mel-odies. I Fell in Love, for example, hassome really strange chording-andRobert Fripp, who also produced the al-bum, plays some even stranger guitarruns-but the result is as musical as itis effective.

Or consider the song The LargestElizabeth in the World. It's about theway one feels, Terre Roche writes, "at atime when the boy is oblivious to thegirl" (adding, "I read in the paper theother day this has been happening toeverybody more and more."). MaggieRoche's Losing True, the opposite ofElizabeth's tumble of words, bendseach syllable through two or three un-related chords. The song's advice is,"Make no mistake when mystiquing amake." Even the two non -Roche songsare a little bent. George Gerdes'sSteady with the Maestro has a warpedchild's way of putting things (which issomething like the way the Rocheswork), and David Massingill's On theRoad to Fairfax County has a folkiefeel to it but an odd, puzzling ending.Incidentally, the vocal harmonies onthe latter are particularly dazzling, asthey are also on the opening a cappellaversion of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus(a feature of the Roches' live show forseveral years).

Throughout "Keep On Doing"there's not a single gratuitous pop de-vice. The Roches refer mainly to a

The Roches:top to bottom.Suzzy. Terre,and Maggie

world of their own creation; they are sofar beyond borrowing that they've for-gotten how. They are unique.

-Noel Coppage

THE ROCHES: Keep On Doing. MaggieRoche (vocals, guitar, keyboards); TerreRoche (vocals, guitar); Suzzy Roche (vo-cals, guitar); Robert Fripp (guitar); othermusicians. The Hallelujah Chorus; LosingTrue: Steady with the Maestro; The Larg-est Elizabeth in the World; On the Road toFairfax County: I Fell in Love; The Scor-pion Lament; Want Not Want Not; Sex Isfor Children; Keep On Doing What YouDo/Jerks on the Loose. WARNER BROS.23725.1 $8.98, Co 23725-4 $8.98.

Brendel and Serkin:Different but EquallyPersuasive Approaches toMozart Piano Concertos

BOTH Alfred Brendel and RudolfSerkin have long been associated

with Mozart's piano concertos, andeach has now given us an exceptionallyappealing new entry. Brendel's is a highpoint in his continuing series with Nev-ille Marriner, pairing No. 21, in C Ma-jor (K. 467), with No. 15, in B -flat Ma-jor (K. 450). Serkin's inaugurates a

FEBRUARY 1983 69

new series with Claudio Abbado withNo. 20, in D Minor (K. 466), and No.12, in A Major (K. 414). What thesetwo great pianists of different genera-tions share here is an uncommonly in-tense sense of conviction and integrityin their approaches to the music-ap-proaches that may be different fromeach other but are equally persuasive.

One might say Brendel demonstratesthat freshness of thought needn't in-volve eccentricity, while Serkin, whowill soon be eighty, reminds us withsimilar effectiveness that consistency ofapproach needn't be equated with stale-ness or lack of imagination. Brendel'stempos in the beloved K. 467 are all no-ticeably brisker than the norm, yet notat all uncomfortable. In his annotationArthur Hutchings cites Brendel's opin-ion that the opening of the work "con-veys the spirit not of a solemn marchbut of an opera buffa scene. He pointsout that the tempo Allegro maestosohabitually associated with this move-ment is not authentic and feels that itcontradicts the basic character of thepiece." How the music springs to lifehere without losing any of its breadth!And how elegant the much -abused an-dante sounds! (Surely it was nevermeant to be the sentimental adagio somany interpreters make of it.) Thework gains life, too, from Brendel's

Rudolf Serkin

tasteful embellishments here and there.The splendid cadenzas he plays are byRadu Lupu, whose own recording of K.467 (London CS 6894) is one of thefinest of the more conventional sort.Brendel's playing of K. 450 is similarlyenlivened, with the slow movementagain taken as a true andante, whichseems to make more sense-and showmore depth-than the slower pacinggenerally favored. Both solo perform-ances are provocative in the bestsense-stunningly played, beautifullyaccompanied, and especially attractivein Philips's wide-open digital sound.

Serkin's debut on Deutsche Gram-mophon is digital too, and the lifelikequality of the sound enhances the very"live" quality of the performances. Inhis recording of K. 467, made nearlythirty years ago with AlexanderSchneider conducting, Serkin too tooka fairly brisk tempo in the openingmovement, though he took conventionalones in the other two. There is nothingunusual or unconventional in his pacingof either K. 466 or K. 414 on the newdisc. His interpretation of each work re-mains essentially what it has alwaysbeen, except that both readings seem-as his remakes of such works so oftendo-still deeper inside the music, stillmore stimulated by a newly discovereddetail here or a previously unnoticed

one there to shed a bit more light on thescore without in any way altering itspreviously established proportions.

Serkin does not venture ornamenta-tion, but he makes every phrase glowwith life, one flowing into the next withthe sort of natural momentum that isthe ultimate validation of this music re-gardless of the tempo chosen. There issome faintly audible grunting in spots,but it is not obtrusive enough to spoilthe magic-and that is just the wordfor these performances. Abbado's partin them is thoroughly worthy of his su-perb soloist (who plays Beethoven'scadenzas in K. 466 and Mozart's ownin K. 414), and so is the achievement ofDG's engineers. What gladdening re-leases these are-both in themselvesand as implicit promises of more tocome. -Richard Freed

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 15, in B-flat Major (K. 450); Piano Concerto No. 21,in C Major (K. 467). Alfred Brendel (pi-ano); Academy of St. Martin -in -the -Fields,Neville Marriner cond. PHILIPS 0 6514 148$12.98, © 7337 148 $12.98.

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 12, in AMajor (K. 414); Piano Concerto No. 20, inD Minor (K. 466). Rudolf Serkin (piano);London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Ab-bado cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON CP2532 053 $12.98, 3302 053 $12.98.

Alfred Brendel

STEREO REVIEW

Don't blame your TV if it doesn't sound as good as your stereo. Now for just $7, you canget full rich vibrant TV sound through your own stereo system. But, there's a catch.

It's amazing. TV sound is really great.It is actually broadcast on the FM band.

In fact, all of those great sounding FMstations from FM 88 to 108Mhz thatyou listen to on your home stereo areactually tightly jammed between justthe 2 TV channels 6 and 7.

So, why do TVs sound so crummy?Well, if you compare a $1000 stereo sys-tem to even the best $800 TV, you'llrealize that when you bought your TV,all the talk was probably about picturequality, sharpness, and color purity etc.

The truth is that in most TV sets, allthe money goes into creating the bestpicture quality, and the sound is left toa cheap PM (permanent magnet) 3" or5" one way Low Fi speaker and an evenless impressive 1 or 2 watt amplifier.

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Popular musk

.1.HE painting of Rod Stew-art shown above is one of

fifty-seven portraits of rock art-ists by Debra Hope Schwartzrecently exhibited in New Yorkat the Century Café. Schwartzstudied painting when shewas a child in Philadelphia buteventually left art behind andwent into the music business.While working as manager andbooking agent for a local club,the Main Point Cafe, shesketched such musicians asTom Rush, Tom Waits, andBruce Springsteen, who ad-vised her to dump the musicbiz and use her obvious talent

flews Briefs

for art. Schwartz managed tocombine both of her interestsin a "Music on Canvas" ex-hibit featuring portraits ofElton John, Mick Jagger,Debbie Harry, the Police, andothers. Her works are ownedby such musicians as JacksonBrowne and James Taylor andby many music -industry ex-ecutives. All of Schwartz'spaintings are for sale, and sheaccepts commissions for newworks. It is rumored that theever -youthful Dick Clark hasa Schwartz original portraittucked away in his attic ....

P.W.

RMOCK -AND -ROLL nostalgiastrikes again! EMI Rec-

ords, the Beatles' English la-bel, plans to reissue each andevery Beatles single in chrono-logical order to coincide withthe twentieth anniversary oftheir original release dates.The company has also issued aboxed, complete collection ofthe twenty-six Beatles singlesat a suggested list price of$35. Meanwhile, Love Me Do,the Fab Four's debut disc, re-cently crashed onto the Brit-ish charts at No. 14, which isthree positions higher than itwas when it peaked back in1962. Next up: Please PleaseMe followed by From Me toYou.

American Beatles fans,meanwhile, also have some-

thing to look forward to.MGM/UA has brought out"The Compleat Beatles," asuperb video compilation tiedin with the recent Delilah cof-fee-table book of the samename. Featuring some of therarest extant footage of thegroup in performance, the vid-eocassette and CED videodiscversions were released lastfall, the LaserDisc in January.Both discs are, of course, inglorious stereo. 0

PROCEEDING on the theorythat if you can't lick 'em,

join 'em, CBS Records' top -selling arena rock band Jour-ney has scored a surprisingfirst: they will be the first rockgroup to have their very own

video game named after them.The object of "Journey Es-cape" is to "move" the fivemembers of the group pastvarious obstacles, which inthis case are not rampagingalien invaders but the rathermore mundane and realistictypes they might actually en-counter: photographers, crit-ics (!), and fans. To win, youhave to get the band into awaiting limousine (I am notmaking this up). The game,marketed by a California -based firm called Data West,will be available in the Atariformat and will list for thesomewhat steep price of$34.95. A massive promotion-al push is threatened to coin-cide with the band's forthcom-ing spring tour. S.S.

ROCK singers are usuallypraised for their ability

to swing with a backbeat, butLoverboy's Mike Reno recent-ly won acclaim for his waywith a backhand swing. At thefirst annual Music and TennisFestival in Atlanta, Georgia,last year, Reno was a finalistin the "Wimbledon Division,"while keyboardist bandmateDoug Johnson won the "U.S.Open Division" competition.

In the meantime, Loverboyis winning over audiencesinternationally and rackingup impressive statistics for aneophyte rock band. At this

writing, the group has sold5,250,000 records worldwide.Their debut album, "Lover -boy" (Columbia JC 36762),has been on the charts forninety-five weeks, their sec-ond, "Get Lucky" (ColumbiaFC 37638), follows close be-hind at fifty-two weeks, andtheir third album is on theway. Reno, pictured to theright of actor Vince van Pat-ten below, is holding his tro-phy-you guessed it, a lovingcup. P.W.

STILL another sign of toughtimes in the record busi-

ness: Stiff Records, the pio-neering English independentlabel that first brought ElvisCostello to our attention, isphasing out its American of-fice, and insiders report that itwill be closed up entirely bythe time you read this. Ironi-cally, the move occurs at thesame time the label has signedan American distribution ar-rangement with Phonogram.

Stiff's U.K. branch has re-leased two interesting video-cassettes, a documentary onBritish ska revivalists Mad-ness called Take It or Leave Itand a compilation tape includ-ing songs by Costello, IanDury, Lene Lovich, and oth-ers. Given the label's precar-ious American status, thereare no plans for domestic re-lease yet, but the tapes (in

Actor Vince van Patten and Loverboy's Mike Reno

72 STEREO REVIEW

VHS or Beta) can be orderedfrom Stiffilms, 115-123 Bay -ham Street, London N.W.1,Great Britain.

GRACENOTES: Go-Go's leadsinger Belinda Carlisle

has been hanging out with anew beau-Los AngelesDodgers rookie Mike Mar-shall. Seems Marshall wassmitten when he saw Belindaon a cable music show. Whenshe didn't answer his invita-tion to see a Dodgers game,the undaunted athlete trackedher down backstage at thegroup's recent L.A. concert.The rest, as they say, is his-tory; the pretty punkette evenmet Marshall's parents whenthe Go-Go's and the Dodgerswere both on tour in Cincin-nati. According to one wag,the relationship makes perfectsense; after all, she's got the

beat and he's got the bat.Ouch! . . . This may be afirst: NBC is considering apilot TV version of theBroadway hit Pump Boys andDinettes for inclusion on itsfall 1983 schedule. A modi-fied variety show, the pilotfeatures the original Broad-way cast as both stars andwriters. What next, a sitcomversion of Nicholas Nickelby?. . . No, that photo at theright is not a portrait of theMelbourne Skeet Shooting As-sociation. Rather, it's Austra-lian rock sensation Men atWork receiving quadruple -platinum certification for theantipodean success of their de-but album, "Business as Usu-al," on Columbia Records.We suspect, though, that theMen are rather more pleasedwith the LP's single -platinumcertification here in the States;after all, in Australia a

"platinum" album only hasto sell 50,000 copies; here it's1,000,000. . . .Guitarist Car-los Santana claims he has re-nounced his long-time guru,Sri Chinmoy. When a col-league asked Santana recent.

Din and Tape Review/

ly, "What are you into now?,"the mustachioed musician re-plied, "Tennis." Does thismean Carlos will now performwith an 8 x 10 glossy of Jim-my Connors taped to his am-plifier? S.S.

By CHRIS ALBERTSON NOEL COPPAGE PHYL GARLAND - MARK PEELPETER REILLY STEVE SIMELS JOEL VANCE

TONI BASIL: Word(vocals); vocal and instrumental accom-paniment. Mickey; Rock On; Be Stiff; No-body; Time After Time; Space Girls; andfour others. CHRYSALIS CHR 1410 $8.98,© CCH 1410 $8.98, 0 8CH 1410 $8.98.

Performance: FranticRecording: Rackety

About a minute or so into this album, evenbefore 1 realized that the soloist was thedancer and choreographer Toni Basil andnot just a singer with the same name, 1 gotthe feeling that hers was a visual act. Itwould almost have to be, given the franticconvolutions of her vocal style. Basil has al-ready had a hit with Mickey, included here,but about the only female singer who canconsistently get away with the kinds ofthings she attempts to do is Pat Benatar-who also happens to be one hell of a goodmusician. P.R.

NEIL DIAMOND: Heartlight. Neil Dia-mond (vocals); vocal and instrumental ac -

Explanation of symbols:C:) = eight -track stereo cartridge© = stereo cassette0 = digital -master recordingCD = direct -to -disc

= CX-encoded

Monophonic recordings are indicatedby the symbol 0

The first listing is the one reviewed;other formats. if available. follow it.

Guilty; In Ensenada; Front Page Story; andsix others. COLUMBIA TC 38359, 0 TCT38359, ® TCA 38359, no list price.

Performance. Gussied-upRecording Very good

There's an interesting contrast here be-tween how seriously Neil Diamond takeshimself and how seriously the songs takeanything. Collaborating mostly with BurtBacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, Dia-mond has finally managed to re-create thespirit of Tin Pan Alley-in other words,he's recycling the mainstream pop music of1953.

Ironically, although he has been trying tomove uptown for years, Diamond still singswith the real -person earnestness of hisBrooklyn roots. Combine that with the too -sophisticated -to -be -sincere nature of thesongs, the 1953 -style orchestral settings("relieved" occasionally by the even worsesound of a synthesizer imitating a stringsection), and you can imagine my variousand not quite compatible reactions. Some ofthe stuff here is attractive enough in its ownway; it just doesn't respond to Diamond'sattempts to breathe life into it. N.C.

DIRE STRAITS: Lore Over Gold. DireStraits (vocals and instrumentals). Tele-graph Road; Private Investigations; Indus-trial Disease; and two others. WARNERBROS. 23728-1 $8.98, © 23728-4 $8.98.

Performance: Run of DeMilleRecording: Slick

Mark Knopfler's dazzling guitar playingaside, the reason Dire Straits hit as big as

they did had a lot to do with their laconicunderstatement; they said more with fewernotes than just about any other group youcould think of. Well, forget all that. Withthis new album, Knopfler, now the band'sundisputed leader, has abandoned all cau-tion and churned out a series of Spring-steen-style epics that make the occasionaloperatic excursions on the previous "Mak-ing Movies" sound as pithy as haiku in com-parison. The opening tune alone runs overfourteen minutes, about two of which arealmost worthwhile. What's worse, the manhas clearly swallowed his rave reviews andnow believes he has Something to Say. Sowe get lots of strained metaphors out ofpulp fiction (Private Investigations) and ageneral air of portentousness that would befunny if Knopfler weren't so obviously seri-ous. The record could be a brilliant parodyof the excesses of the Moody Blues exceptthat it's meant to be taken straight.

Knopfler's guitar playing remains spec-tacular, but, given the hot air that sur-rounds it, it's impossible to care. S.S.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITDARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES: H20.Daryl Hall, John Oates (vocals and instru-mentals); other musicians. Maneater;Crime Pays; One on One; Art of Heart-break; Open All Night; Family Man; andfive others. RCA AFL 1-4383 $8.98, ©AFK 1-4383 $8.98, 0 AFSI-4383 $8.98.

Performance: ClassyRecording: Excellent

Say what you will about Daryl Hall andJohn Oates-that they're popularizers rath-

FEBRUARY 1983 73

PeterGabriel

ATHOUGH Peter Gabriel's previous solowork has been marked by consistent

care and intelligence, and is always well re-ceived by the critics, I don't think anyonecould have predicted his new record on Gef-fen, "Security." It's ambitious, original,and profound. Fusing one of man's oldestart forms, ritual drumming, with state-of-the-art electronics, Gabriel has transposedthe elemental rhythms and spirit of nativeAfrican music into a modern, technologicalcontext. The result is neither pretty nor eas-ily approachable, but it's hard to imaginehow the album could be more powerful. Thespare instrumentation-usually just drums,synthesizer, and electric guitar, all treatedpercussively for the most part, not melodi-cally-is raw and harsh. What melodythere is is kept deliberately simple; harmo-ny arises from the collision of sounds ratherthan the intertwining of themes.

In this uneasy setting, without the "dis-traction" of tunes, Gabriel's voice comes tothe fore, drawing the listener into his narra-tives with heightened expectancy. The lyr-ics are, in a word, overpowering. Just as hismusic bridges the primal and the modern,Gabriel's lyrics alternate between a primi-tive consciousness and contemporary anxi-ety. His various narrative roles include thepsychologist Carl Jung, an American In-dian, a madman, and a fishing villager. Hisoblique imagery is demanding, but whenthe lyrics take hold they are fiercely grip-

ping. San Jacinto, for example, begins as ifwe were witnessing an ancient Indian rite:an old man preparing to die. But as themedicine man leads him up a mountain tohis resting place, they pass houses, pools,and modern totems-Geronimo's Disco andthe Sit 'n' Bull Steak House-and you real-ize that what is happening is more than thedeath of a man; it's the death of a culture.

It has become fashionable to point toAfrican "influences" in rock. While some oftoday's pop music does stem directly fromAfrican traditions, most of the influence isonly second- or third -hand at best. But in"Security" Gabriel returns right to thesource. One of the most effective examplesis in the opening The Rhythm of the Heat, asong based on an account by Carl Jung of amystical experience brought on by the hyp-notic drumming of an African tribe. Nearthe end the narrative ceases, and the EkomeDance Company takes up a furious coda onGhanian drums. It's a spine -tingling mo-ment, I assure you. As 1 said, "Security" isa powerful album. -Mark Peel

PETER GABRIEL: Security. Peter Gabriel(vocals, synthesizers, percussion); instru-mental accompaniment. Rhythm of theHeat; San Jacinto; I Have the Touch; TheFamily and the Fishing Net; Shock theMonkey; Lay Your Hands on Me; WallFlower; Kiss of Life. GEFFEN 0 G HS 201 I$8.98, 0 MS 2011 $8.98.

er than innovators, that they don't measureup to their r -&-b mentors-when one oftheir songs comes on the car radio, you lis-ten, and without guilt. In other words,they're probably the only consistently suc-cessful pop musicians left in the Westernworld whose hit singles don't insult your in-telligence. Granted, this is a parched time,and one expects less from pop music thanone used to, but Hall and Oates have man-aged to combine the best elements of every-thing from Philly soul to English pop towhatever is fashionable this week in SoHointo something recognizably, delightfullytheir own.

Their new album does have a vaguely

formula feel to it; I miss the exhilaratingsense of artists hitting their stride that char-acterized their last two. Yet there are somevery good things here (Italian Girls, FamilyMan, Delayed Reaction), and even thethrowaways are serenely well crafted. Theoverall gloss of the production is immenselyappealing, even appropriate. Current wisdom has it that commercial success andquality are mutually exclusive, at least inrock-and-roll. "H20," however, is the kindof high-class popular music making thatproves it need not be so. S.S.

JIMI HENDRIX: The Jimi Hendrix Con-certs. Jimi Hendrix (guitar, vocals); Noel

Redding, Billy Cox (bass); Mitch Mitchell(drums). Fire; I Don't Live Today; RedHouse; Stone Free; Are You Experienced;Little Wing; Voodoo Chile; Bleeding Heart;and three others. REPRISE 22306-1 $8.98,© 22306-4 $8.98.

Performance. GoodRecording: Good

I have long objected to the Jimi Hendrixjunk -pile recordings released since hisdeath, none of which he would have autho-rized. This collection of concert perform-ances, while not a disservice to his memory,is little more than a patch job of acceptablescraps. Taken from appearances in Califor-nia, New York, and London between 1968and 1970, the package's selections span thetime during which Hendrix verged on aban-doning his original trio format and then re-turned to it because he could find nothingelse. His brief and crude experiments withjazz led nowhere-it was too complicatedfor him-and he was forced to return torock, which, by 1970, bored him.

Some of the selections are inordinatelylong or short, and most of the numbers areplayed as a job to be done for a paycheck.Hendrix's remarkable technique is evident,but the early enthusiasm that powered it ismissing. J.V.

JEFFERSON STARSHIP: Winds ofChange. Jefferson Starship (vocals and in-strumentals). Winds of Change; Keep OnDreamin'; Be My Lady: I Will Stay; andfive others. GRUNT BX L1-4372 $8.98, ©BXKI-4372 $8.98, 0 BXSI-4372 $8.98.

Performance VariableRecording Plush

The opening cut here, the title song, hasGrace Slick sounding almost like her oldself with those weaving, looping vocal lines,and it's worth having around. Unfortunate-ly, most of the rest of the album isn't, large-ly reflecting the adjustment this middle-aged group has made to sell records to thekiddies. Sometimes I think Mickey Thom-as's boy -soprano vocals are there for justthat reason, and most of the materialdoesn't do much to discourage suchthoughts. Most of the lyrics are the moon/June kind of thing Tin Pan Alley hackswere writing thirty years ago, and saidhacks probably would have come up withbetter tunes. The instrumentals are the opu-lent, warm -metal kind of thing the Starshiphas evolved; an extraterrestrial, or a youngenough human, would never connect it withthe sound of the original Jefferson Air-plane. Even though some of Slick's lyricsexercise her silly, self-indulgent side, I likeit better when she's singing lead (they'vegot her harmony singing hamstrung thesedays) than when anyone else is-and usual-ly someone else is. N.C.

EVELYN KING: Get Loose. Evelyn King(vocals); vocal and instrumental accom-paniment. Love Come Down; I Can't StandIt; Get Loose; Back to Love; and four oth-ers. RCA AFL1-4337 $8.98, © AFK I -4337 $8.98, 0 AFSI-4337 $8.98.

Performance: Too programmedRecording: Good

That "Get Loose" has risen to the top of thecharts is less a tribute to its quality than an

74STEREO REVIEW

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1

a

LindaRonstadtRonstadt

T111 RE aren't many pop singers who cando as many things as well as Linda

Ronstadt can. Her new Asylum album,"Get Closer," almost seems designed todemonstrate that, ranging ashard rock through a number of "singer's

songs" to country harmonies with DollyParton and Emmylou Harris. The vocalsare well nigh terrific throughout. Ronstadtnever lets a difficult note seem difficult, andher ideas about when and how to decorate aphrase are impeccable. A couple of therockers, the title song, and People GonnaTalk have nothing but good singing goingfor them. They are balanced, however, byKate McGarrigle's difficult -to -sing (notthat you'd suspect it from this rendition)Talk to Me of Mendocino and by TheMoon Is a Harsh Mistress, which JimmyWebb wrote in 1974 and which is his bestsong since his Wichita Lineman days.

Other high spots are the off -beat Mr. Ra-dio, written in 1976 by Roderick Taylor butwith a Depression -era romantic attitudeabout bringing a new radio home to thefarm, the country -like Sometimes You JustCan't Win, written by Smokey Stover in1962, and Parton's My Blue Tears. Thereare also some soaring vocals on a Joe Southtune and a so-so duet with James Taylor.Kind of a strange little program. Ronstadt'seclecticism this time is more quirky thantrendy, but her voice is great.

-Noel Coppage

LINDA RONSTADT: Get Closer. LindaRonstadt (vocals); vocal and instrumentalaccompaniment. Get Closer; The Moon Is aHarsh Mistress; I Knew You When; Easyfor You to Say; People Gonna Talk: Talkto Me of Mendocino; Mr. Radio; Lies; IThink It's Gonna Work Out Fine; TellHim; Sometimes You Just Can't Win; MyBlue Tears. ASYLUM60185-4 $8.98.

indication of the pitifully limited taste ofyoungsters addicted to junk music. Theheavy beat, underscoring such lyrics as"Ooh, you make my love come down," issupposed to incite a desire to dance, but thistreatment is about as exciting as an un-washed sock. Both the tunes and lyrics (ifyou can call them that) sound as if theywere written by a computer programmed tochurn out mindless clichés. Evelyn Kingdoes project an appealing effervescence inher performances. She is good enough tomake me almost like the better items here,Betcha She Don't Love You, Stop That,and I'm Just Warmin' Up. Otherwise, lis-tening to this album is like being trappedinside one of those portable noise machinesthat culturally stunted kids tote through thestreets. P.G.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITKOOL & THE GANG: As One. Kool & theGang (vocals and instrumentals); other mu-sicians. Street Kids; Big Fun; As One; HiDe Hi. Hi De Ho; and three others. DE.Li-rEDSR 8505 $8.98, © DCR4 8505 $8.98, 0DC8 8505 $8.9R

Performance Top dance musicRecording Very good

Some records are bathed in such a happyspirit that listening to them is like taking a

short, revitalizing vacation. The effect hasnothing to do with the loudness of the musicor the heaviness of the beat; it's all in thespirit of the performance.

This special feeling is present in abun-dance in this new release by Kool & theGang. Certainly it is one of the best dancerecords in many months, with most of thecredit going to the Gang for fine vocal ar-rangements and to Eumir Deodato as pro-ducer. Though all the selections stimulatelighthearted fun, the reggae -flavored Let'sGo Dancin' (Ooh La La La) is the standouttrack. It is also the longest, lasting for near-ly seven minutes; it could easily go on fortwice as long without bogging down. It's al-most as much fun as a trip to the Caribbeanduring Carnival. If you can't afford to trav-el, play this record instead. P.G.

DAVID LINDLEY: Win This Record! Da-vid Lindley (vocals, guitar); El Rayo-X (vo-cals and instrumentals). Talk to the Law-yer; Premature; Brother John; TurningPoint; Spodie; Something's Got a Hold onMe; and four others. ASYLUM 60178-1$8.98, © 60178-4 $8.9R

Performance Very goodRecording. Good

David Lindley, a versatile and gifted guitar-ist, is a well-known studio artist. Until re-cently he toured and recorded with Jackson

Browne, who featured him in his stageshows. His first solo album, two years ago,was a sort of guitarist's holiday, and "WinThis Record!" seems to be a deliberatelycasual sequel.

Part of Lindley's humor is invested in theaudio effects here. He uses corny echoes,worn-out amplifiers, and low-grade micro-phones to create a "garage studio" sound, atechnical musical joke that may be lost onany listener who does not possess sensitiveequipment. That aside, the songs are a mix-ture of good times and a specialist's whims.Too much of the album is given over to Ca-ribbean rhythms and to Lindley's own ma-terial, which is obscure, faintly paranoid,and dependent on the sexual slang of his cir-cle of friends. Still, his version of EttaJames's Something's Got a Hold on Me is arouser. He also knows how to convey theNew Orleans funk of Cyril Neville's Broth-er John, and Turning Point is a real treas-ure in the Caribbean mode, with Lindleyand Booker T. Jones, on organ, tradingeight -bar fills to a point of righteous fusion.These three cuts make the album worthkeeping for a long, long time. J.V.

LORETTA LYNN: Making Love fromMemory. Loretta Lynn, the Jordanaires(vocals); David Briggs (keyboards); CharlieMcCoy (harmonica); other musicians.Making Love from Memory; Don't It FeelGood; I Shouldn't Enjoy (Enjoyin' You SoMuch); Love the Day Away; Breakin' It;Deeper and Deeper; and four others. MCAMCA -5354 $7.98, © MCAC-5354 $7.98.

Performance. GoodRecording: Good

Being a harmonica player myself, I like thisalbum, because Charlie McCoy is all overit, playing some of the tastiest fills he's re-corded in a couple of years. Jordanairesfans might feel the same way; those boysare all over it too. As far as the rest of theworld is concerned, it could have beensomething truly fine if Loretta Lynn, orsomeone, hadn't suffered a diligence break-down while picking out the songs. The titlesong is passable, and There's All Kinds ofSmoke by Don Wayne and Lynn's ownThen You'll Be Free would go down almostperfectly on a truck -stop juke box, which isthe ideal place for a Loretta Lynn.record-ing. She has never sung better, and thebacking is good and clean and fairly honest-ly country. But most of the material doesn'tdeserve to be recorded.

Deeper and Deeper, as predictable as lowtide, naturally has as its punch line "out oflove"-and has to have an ugly hitch in itsmelody to get it in. In her last album, Lynnstretched out a bit on some material in othergenres, but this is not a case of that sort ofthing going awry. Only When We Get BackTogether, by Nancy Dolman and GordonWaszek, is unusually urbane, even for Lo-retta. The problem is that it isn't very good,and the mostly happy -talk country songsthat flesh out the rest of the album sharethat difficulty. A pity. N.C.

BARBARA MANDRELL: He Set My Lifeto Music. Barbara Mandrell (vocals); vocaland instrumental accompaniment. What aFriend We Have in Jesus; Swing Low SweetChariot/Swing Down Chariot; I Turn toHim; I Will Glory in the Cross; Through It

76 STEREO REVIEW

All; and five others. MCA MCA -5330$7.98, MCAC-5330 $7.98.

Performance: Good vocalsRecording: Okay

Country artists, as they call themselves,used to do this sort of thing all the time.Recording a gospel album now and thenwas to some a matter of paying dues, to oth-ers a hypocritical bid for money and image;in either case, it was routine. I think whathappened was that many of these artists re-alized at some point that the majority oftheir fans were no longer traditional coun-try people-rural and often fundamental-ist-and were more receptive to bedroomsongs than churchy ones.

In any case, Barbara Mandrell has pickedsome good songs for this, a nice blend oftouchstones and the unfamiliar. She alsogets some fine cameo appearances out ofsuch guests as B. J. Thomas, AndraeCrouch, and the Mt. Pisgah MethodistChurch Choir of Nashville. And Mandrellherself is maturing as a singer. My problemwith her has been that she has alwayssounded as if she were merely singing asong rather than making a statement.That's still a problem in some of the cutshere, but much less so than before. Whatreally hurts the album is the production,with its dreadful Nashville -on -TV sound, inwhich the entire, awful 101 Strings couldsink without a trace. If you can live withthat, you'll be reminded that a lot of thoseold gospel songs have terrific tunes. N.C.

ALICIA MYERS: I Fooled You This Time.Alicia Myers (vocals); vocal and instrumen-tal accompaniment. Better Woman or Big-ger Fool; Is It Really Real; Here's theTicket; I Want to Thank You; Concentrateon Love; and three others. MCA MCA -5361 $8.98, © MCAC-5361 $8.98.

Performance: GoodRecording: Good

Alicia Myers is a talented musician, noquestion of that. She has a natural feel forvocal lines and a firmly accomplished waywith a lyric. The problem here is that she'sbeen given material, much of it written byco -producer Kevin McCord, that just sortof sits there staring at her. No matter howshe tries to make it move or twitch, it re-mains leaden. She manages to get a littleaction out of the title song, I Fooled YouThis Time, but most of the rest ranges fromlanguid to almost catatonic. P.R.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITIGGY POP: Zombie Birdhouse. Iggy Pop(vocals); Rob duPrey (guitars, keyboards,vocals); instrumental accompaniment. RunLike a Villain; The Villagers; Angry Hills;Life of Work; The Ballad of CookieMcBride; Ordinary Bummer; and six oth-ers. ANIMAL APE 6000 $8.98.

Performance Typically crazedRecording: Pretty good

As with all true anarchists, whatever socialor political badge Iggy Pop wears is moreapt to be an afterthought than a guidingphilosophy-a post hoc justification for thepure delight of outrage and the liberatingjoy of havoc. Nonetheless, "Zombie Bird-house" makes a pretty strong cultural state-

ment. I guess you could call it Iggy Pop'svision of the global village: not a world unit-ed by benevolent technology but a savageplace where the first law is eat or be eatenand whose natives carry on their backs notbaskets but TV sets.

Iggy, of course, is the global village idiot,and "Zombie Birdhouse" is the crazed mut-terings of an unheeded prophet, a Cassan-dra of chaos. Warns Iggy, "The villagersare out tonight, uptight and bored, they'repushing you underground." He moves backand forth between civilization and the bush,from The Angry Hills, about a facelessmenace that lies in wait on the outskirts ofthe village, to Life of Work with its blink-ing, unquestioning army of workers poisedat dawn to descend drearily upon the city toface another day. Rob duPrey works a mi-nor miracle here with his buzzing, hard -driving guitar and dissonant electric pianochords, creating a tense, roiling atmospherefor Iggy's half -sung, half -growled baritone.And he does it, as the jacket boasts, withoutusing any synthesizers. Even if this weren'ta fascinating record, that alone would makeit worth looking into. M.P.

THE ROCHES: Keep On Doing (see Best ofthe Month, page 69)

THE ROCKETS: Rocket Roll. The Rockets(vocals and instrumentals). Rollin' by theRecord Machine; Rock 'n' Roll Girl; (IWanna) Testify; Mean Streets; Gimme YourLove; and five others. ELEKTRA 60143-1$8.98, © 60143-4 $8.98.

Performance: GoodRecording: Good

The Rockets grew out of the DetroitWheels, Mitch Ryder's back-up group inthe Sixties. They are a high-powered, skill-ful band, proudly parochial (as all Detroitcombos seem to be), and they throw in aRyder -like scream now and then. They'reentertaining but best taken two or threecuts at a time. The subject matter of thesongs-sex, cars, rock 'n' roll-is the usualguff masquerading as social commentary.But the Rockets really tear out on Born inDetroit and All Night Long, and their coverversion of the r -&-b standard (1 Wanna)Testify is excellent. This is basically a partyalbum for dancing, and a good one. J.V.

DIANA ROSS: Silk Electric. Diana Ross(vocals); vocal and instrumental accom-paniment. Muscles; So Close; Who; Foolfor Your Love; Turn Me Over; and five oth-ers. RCA AFL1-4384 $8.98, 0 AFKI-4384 $8.98, 0 AFSI-4384 $8.98.

Performance: Good showRecording: Very good

"Silk Electric" is another three-ring effortby Diana Ross that succeeds more oftenthan it fails. Ross has taken over the pro-ducer's job for her albums since her move toRCA, and the results have been excellent.While she may not have grown as an artistwith this move, she has certainly expandedher talents. There isn't a moment on thisrecording that doesn't reflect her personalconviction about the material she's per-forming. Unfortunately, the material-in-cluding such fluff as Muscles and Turn MeOver-doesn't really bear the weight of herperfectionism. (Continued overleaf)

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FEBRUARY 1983 77 CIRCLE NO. 45 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Lionel RichieALREADY well known among r -&-b enthu-

siasts for writing a string of soft -soulhits for the Commodores, Diana Ross, andothers, Lionel Richie proves that he is also asinger to reckon with on his debut solo al-bum for Motown.

In his work, Richie has refused to limithimself to the familiar and related formulasof pop, funk, and r -&-b. He has opened hismind and ears to other sounds, particularlypost -Sixties folk music and contemporarycountry music. The union of black bluesand white country music is quite a naturalone, for they are first cousins socially. Bothare the expressions of economically de-prived people, mainly in the South, whoseek relief from their anguish in songs that

may wail or whine but always strike a chordof deep and genuine emotion. The similarityof themes in the lyrics of the two genres isoften very striking. Both are story -tellingforms, and both concentrate on hard timesand hard luck in love. Country fans andblues fans have grown increasingly willingto listen to each others' music.

Lionel Richie is a careful listener, and,more important, he is a splendidly giftedwriter. He has a firm sense of melody to-gether with an emotional sensitivity thatenables him to translate feelings into musicwith rare clarity. Most of the songs on hissolo album will haunt your mind long afteryou've finished playing them. Granted,there are a couple of throwaway numbers,trite uptempo songs included to appeasethose who respond only to a heavy beat orare embarrassed by sentiment. But they areeasily overshadowed by at least half a dozensongs that magically sparkle with the dis-tinctive Richie touch.

Truly, which was released as a single,positively soars, borne aloft by its musicalquality and Richie's extraordinarily appeal-ing singing rather than by contrived effects.His voice here has a warmth and sinceritythat make his delivery seem personally ad-dressed to each individual listener. Thebuoyant You Are is, quite simply, one of thebest new pop songs I have heard since theyears when Stevie Wonder was producingsuch jewels as You Are the Sunshine ofMy Life.

With so much clutter, noise, and outrightfoolishness in popular music these days,Lionel Richie's album debut is an event,and the record itself is one to treasure andto listen to again and again.

-Phyl Garland

LIONEL RICHIE. Lionel Richie (vocals,piano); vocal and instrumental accompani-ment. Serves You Right; Wandering Stran-ger; Tell Me; My Love; Round and Round;Truly; You Are; You Mean More to Me;Just Put Some Love in Your Heart. Mo-TOWN 6007 ML $8.98, 0 M75 6007 $8.98,0 M8 6007 $8.98.

Ross has now reached that stratosphereof sales and popularity where she can callthe shots in every aspect of her career. Sofar she's been right most of the time. Theweakest link in her albums right now is thepaucity of songs that bring out the irrever-ent flip side of her performing personality.She's gone about as far as she can go withher particular brand of heavy glamour; sheought to try her hand at a little light come-dy now. P.R.

RUSH: Signals. Rush (vocals and instru-mentals). Subdivisions; Chemistry; DigitalMan; New World Man; and four others.MERCURY SRM-1-4063 $8.98, MCR-4-4063 $8.98, 0 MC8- 1-4063 $8.98.

Performance Self-controlledRecording Very good

Unlike Pink Floyd, Rush will probably nev-er transcend the limitations imposed by the

big -arena "progressive" rock genre, butwithin its confines the band produces somefairly credible music. On "Signals" theyhave reined in some of their bombast andemerged with what may be the most satisfy-ing Rush album to date. Lead vocalist Ged-dy Lee, whose high-pitched histrionics gavetheir past albums all the appeal of a smokealarm at 3 a.m., is actually disciplined here,and the music is more effective for it.

Though "Signals" is largely concernedwith the implications of technology, andwith technology as metaphor, there is verylittle that's new or innovative about the mu-sic itself. But what it lacks in originality itmakes up for with admittedly gimmicky butneat tricks of engineering (guitars thatsound like helicopters, a dramatic missilelaunch). While synthesizers provide the pri-mary texture, it's really Neil Peart's agiledrumming that gives the music most of itsstructure as well as its power. The biggest

surprise is the lyrics, which are frequentlyoverwrought but have many more intelli-gent moments than I would have expected;Subdivisions and Losing It are unusuallylucid for this genre. A good album. M.P.

MICHAEL STANLEY BAND: MSB. Mi-chael Stanley Band (vocals and instrumen-tals). In Between the Lines; If You LoveMe; Night by Night; When I'm HoldingYou Tight; Spanish Nights; Love Hurts;and four others. EMI AMERICA ST -17071$8.98, 0 4XT- 17071 $8.98.

Performance Not badRecording: Good

MSB is a second- or third -generation rockband. When Michael Stanley is singing, hesounds like a poor man's Bruce Springsteenand the band like a poor man's E StreetBand, but the album is not self-indulgent.There are no long, silly solos, and, this timeanyway, there's a minimum of tuneless riff-ing. The group puts its collective head downand gets on with it. The playing is crisp andbasic, and some of the songs are too. Themost impressive here are Spanish Nightsand Take the Time, both written by Stanleyand both about coping out on the streets in arather pessimistic atmosphere. The fivesongs by Kevin Raleigh have less bite andmore clichés and are less interesting.There's nothing here that will bowl over aveteran rock listener, but it's good trainingfor the kids. N.C.

STEEL BREEZE. Steel Breeze (vocals andinstrumentals). You Don't Want Me Any-more; Lost in the 80's; 1 Think About You;

Every Night; and four others. RCA AFL I-4424 $8.98, AFKI-4424 $8.98.

Performance CatchyRecording. Good

Most of these songs are all hook and no sub-stance and rely heavily on synthesizers (youknow how I feel about those), but theseboys have still managed to fashion a catchylittle sound of their own. What makes itwork are the vocal harmonies, which aremuch better than average. Although guitar-ist Ken Goorabian likes to work with a grit-ty overlay of feedback, he knows how toweave lines around the synthesizer so that itdoesn't sound grafted on, as it usually doesin such bands. Goorabian is also the group'swriter and seems to put most of his energyinto the choruses and refrains. If you waitout the verses, you may tap your foot.

N.C.

SYLVIA SYMS: Syms by Sinatra. SylviaSyms (vocals); orchestra, Frank Sinatracond. Hooray for Love; That Old DevilMoon; By Myself. Them There Eyes; AllMy Tomorrows; and five others. REPRISE23724-1 $8.98, 23724-4 $8.98.

Performance: Pro all the wayRecording: Glossy

I looked forward rather eagerly to this al-bum when it was announced. Sylvia Syms isone of the finer singer -stylists around, andshe has made many good records in thepast. Frank Sinatra is a personal friend ofhers and admires her as a professional aswell. It was his idea that they should collab-orate on an album. Don Costa was called in

78 STEREO REVIEW

to do the arrangements and co -producealong with Sinatra.

Despite the famous mega -talents in-volved, "Syms by Sinatra" is something of adisappointment. Not that it isn't beautifullysung by Syms. It is. Not that Costa's ar-rangements aren't shining examples of pop-ular art. They are. And, most of all, not be-cause Sinatra's conducting isn't absolutelyin sync with Syms's singing. It is. What'sdisappointing is that the whole productionis so sleek, so glossy, so absolutely "perfect"in every detail that listening to it is like be-ing in a room that's been so meticulously"designed" that mere humans seem out ofplace.

Consider, for instance, the lovely By My-self. This jewel of a song shines quite wellon its own, but after being buffed and pol-ished by Syms and Sinatra, it gleams with alaquered sparkle that seems slightly artifi-cial. This sort of transformation happensmore than once here. While it may pleaseand delight Syms fans, who may feel that atlast their girl is getting the kind of produc-tion she's always deserved, it also deadensher work into super -pretty still lifes.

There are a few grand exceptions, espe-cially a truly lovely and pulsing That OldDevil Moon and a poignant You Must Be-lieve in Spring, but overall this album suf-fers from its own perfection, its exquisitetastefulness, and its obvious expenditure ofa great deal of money. P.R.

UTOPIA (see Best of the Month, page 67)

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITLUTHER VANDROSS: Forever, For Al-ways, For Love. Luther Vandross (vocals);vocal and instrumental accompaniment.Bad Boy/Having a Party; You're the Sweet-est One; Since I Lost My Baby; Better Love;and four others. EPIC FE 38235, FET38235, no list price.

Performance. Justifies his reputationRecording. Good

The accolades heaped upon Luther Van -dross have been exceptional for an artistwhose solo recording career began only onealbum ago. He has introduced a softer,more controlled sound into contemporaryrhythm-and-blues, and he has become oneof the top producers in this field, reshapingthe formidable talents of Aretha Franklinand the promising Cheryl Lynn. With thissecond solo album, Vandross proves that hecan sustain the charm.

All the elements blend with inconspic-uous ease. Vandross suggests rather thanshouts, making music that flows with acoolly sensual grace. And my, how this mancan sing! He takes hold of a thematic frag-ment, lifts it above the instrumental back-ground, and then runs vocal arpeggios thatseem to transform it into something greaterthan anyone would expect. When he tacklesuptempo material, he shifts the beat toavoid the tiresome, overdriven bass that hasall but obliterated the art of black popularsinging. In Bad Boy/Having a Party, for in-stance, he uses conversation to set the moodbefore laying down a relaxed beat that con-veys a sense of celebration without frenzy.His update of Smokey Robinson and War-ren Moore's Since I Lost My Baby, a hit forthe Temptations years ago, reveals a gift for

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reworking r -&-b classics that he should ex-plore more fully. His own songs tend to beundistinguished or even dull. Nevertheless,the finest moment on this new set is in hisown Forever, For Always, For Love. It is ashimmering ballad, a marvelous example ofVandross's vocal art and certainly the bestsong he has written. More! P.G.

VANITY 6. Vanity 6 (vocals); instrumentalaccompaniment. Nasty Girl; Wet Dream;Drive Me Wild; He's So Dull; If a Girl An-swers (Don't Hang Up); and three others.WARNER BROS. 23716-1 $8.98, © 23716-4$8.98.

Performance. Amusing soft pornRecording: Good

While the three sultry women who compriseVanity 6 are not likely to win any prizes fortheir singing, that is not why people listen tothem. They dish out a highly amusing kindof soft -porn entertainment that combineshumorous raps and chanted lyrics withimaginatively tailored instrumentals. Thesexual references are pretty blatant on Nas-ty Girl, and they are bound to bring a slysmile to your lips. Most of the other titlesspeak for themselves. He's So Dull comesclosest to being a standard rock dance num-ber. The funniest selection is If a Girl An-swers (Don't Hang Up), which containssome put-downs that are likely to find theirway into the lingo. Generally, the music isfine for dancing, but keep an ear open forthe lyrics. P.G.

JESSE COLIN YOUNG: The PerfectStranger. Jesse Colin Young (vocals); Car-los Vega (drums); Michael Porcaro (bass);Bill Cuomo (keyboards); Dean Parks (gui-tar); other musicians. The Perfect Stranger;Fight for It; Ophelia; Fire on the Water;Long Nights Coming; Jamie; and four oth-ers. ELEKTRA 60151-I $8.98, © 60151-4$8.98.

Performance Fine vocalsRecording. Clear but cluttered

Jesse Young managed to overcome the pro-duction to make a decent go of this album,but, I'll tell you, the St. Louis Cardinals hada much easier time subduing the Milwau-kee Brewers, and that one went sevengames. Put a lesser singer (Kenny Loggins,say; the material and the back-up remindme of him) in this same setting, and thething would be obnoxious. A polite soft -rockcombo and an overactive synthesizer serveas back-up, sounding too much like theMOR mush we hoped-and thought-rock-and-roll had banished twenty-fiveyears ago.

The material, much of it a joint effort byYoung and Wendy Waldman, is better thanthe production makes it seem, but several ofthe songs don't quite go the last mile. Forexample, Fight for It, a duet with Carly Si-mon, has the makings of a fine melody anda truly fine complement of voices to sing it,but it doesn't quite have a fine melody; it'sabout one idea short of one. Others havelyrics that encourage your mind to wander.Ophelia and Jamie keep my attention best;something about Young and girls' names, Isuppose. Young's singing is lithe and athlet-ic, but it never sounds unnatural. It's theone consistently good thing about this re-cording. N.C.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITMONTY ALEXANDER, RAY BROWN,AND HERB ELLIS: Triple Treat. MontyAlexander (piano); Herb Ellis (guitar); RayBrown (bass). Body and Soul; When LightsAre Low; But Not for Me: Fungi Mama;and four others. CONCORD JAZZ CJ -193$8.98.

Performance. Shades of ColeRecording: Excellent

Remember the Nat King Cole Trio? If youare old enough to have listened to jazz in themiddle to late Forties, when the trio's suc-cess spawned similar combos from, well,Natchez to Mobile, you will undoubtedlystart reminiscing as soon as you hear thisnew Concord Jazz release recorded in Ja-pan last March by Monty Alexander, HerbEllis, and Ray Brown. If you heard theirprevious set, "Trio" (Concord Jazz CJ -136), you know what to expect here. If not,prepare yourself for a good taste of bubblyswing, some marvelous interplay, and asound as rich and creamy as the threescoops of ice cream depicted on the cover.

C.A.

ALL STAR TROMBONE SPECTACU-LAR. Art Baron, Sam Burtis, Gerry Cham-berlain, Mickey Gravine, Sonny Russo,Rod Levitt, Jimmy Knepper (trombones);Roland Hanna (piano); Bucky Pizzarelli(guitar); Earl May (bass); Ronnie Bedford(drums). Ballad Medley-That's All/Soli-tude/I Surrender Dear/You Don't KnowWhat Love is/Lover Man/A Flower Is aLovesome Thing/Imagination: Gus' Slide.PROGRESSIVE PRO 7018 $8.98, © C 7018$8.98.

Performance Well -locked hornsRecording. Very good

This is the fourth in a series of Progressivealbums of jam sessions featuring a rhythmsection and six or seven horn men playingthe same instrument. It is a gimmick, to besure, but in many ways a worthwhile one.True to form, side one is devoted to a balladmedley, side two to a bouncy blues namedafter and credited to producer Gus Statiras.Of the seven trombonists, only JimmyKnepper and Rod Levitt could, strictlyspeaking, be called stars, but their five less-er -known colleagues shine just as brightly,and all are given equal time. Each playerhas his own tune in the ballad medley (SamBurtis's Imagination was left off the jacketlisting, but it is intact on the record), andpianist Roland Hanna gets to make state-ments here and there. Well done. C.A.

JAN GARBAREK: Paths, Prints. Jan Gar-barek (soprano and tenor saxophones, woodflutes, percussion); Bill Frisell (guitar);

Eberhard Weber (bass); Jon Christensen(drums, percussion). Kite Dance; Consider-ing the Snail; Arc; Footprints: The Move:and three others. ECM ECM -1-1223 $9.98,© M5E-1223 $9.98.

Performance. EntrancingRecording Excellent

Norwegian reed player Jan Garbarek'sstyle makes the erstwhile "cool" saxophon-ists from the West Coast sound positivelytorrid. He is still creating soundscapes of hishomeland's mountains and fjords, and ifyou have ever sailed along the coast of Nor-way on a summer evening, you will relivethe experience through Garbarek's music.Never has the picture been as sharply in fo-cus as on "Paths, Prints," his latest ECMrelease. If you like mood music with bite,you can't go wrong with Garbarek. C.A.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITRONALD SHANNON JACKSON ANDTHE DECODING SOCIETY: Man Dance.Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums); the De-coding Society (instrumentals). The Art ofLevitation: Catman: Belly Button; Spank-ing; Giraffe; and four others. ANTILLES AN1008 $7.98.

Performance Intricate energyRecording Good

The Decoding Society is a sextet led bydrummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, whoseexperience includes time spent with suchavant-gardists as Ornette Coleman and Ce-cil Taylor. But Jackson's band is saturatedwith tradition, all kinds of musical tradi-tions tied together in a most compellingfashion. "Man Dance," the group's third al-bum, starts with the title tune, a lively re-flection of swing and rhythm -'n' -blues thatstomps and bounces joyfully but retains acharacter all its own. The funk flies fromthere and does not abate until the very lastnote. But this is funk with substance, and ifyou have but an ounce of soul you will findit entrancing. Is it jazz? Yes, sometimes,but Jackson beats his drums down so manystylistic paths that to single one out wouldbe unfair and inaccurate. C.A.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITTOM SCOTT: Desire. Tom Scott (alto,tenor, and soprano saxophones, lyricon);Ernie Watts (saxophone, flute); VictorFeldman (keyboards); other musicians. De-sire; Sure Enough; The Only One; Stride;Johnny B. Badd: and three others. ELEK-TRA/MUSICIAN 0 60162-I $8.98, © E4-60162 $8.98.

Performance Perfect fusion mixRecording Excellent

Even if you haven't been an ardent fan ofTom Scott's, this album offers so captivat-ing a sample of his special blend of jazz andpop that it is bound to win you over. Scott'sinvolvement with fusion predates commonusage of the term, going back to his experi-ments with the L.A. Express in the earlySeventies. He has had so much practice inmixing musical styles that it is no wonder hedoes it so well. In the past I have criticizedhis tendency toward slickness. His musicsounded too much like themes for TV copshows-not surprisingly, since he has

80 STEREO REVIEW

scored many of them. But this time aroundhe has gone beyond gloss to produce a setthat scintillates with lively tunes and grittyperformances, particularly by Scott and Er-nie Watts on sax, Victor Feldman on key-boards, and Mike Landau on guitar. John-ny B. Badd, a wailing take -off on old-timerock-'n'-roll, is the most fun, with othertreats being Feldman's Stride and a balladcalled The Only One that's sweet withoutbeing mushy.

This album is Scott's debut on BruceLundvall's Elektra/Musician label and hisfirst digital recording, done with no over-dubs. The ensemble on "Desire" played to-gether for some time before going into thestudio, and in this album it exhibits excep-tional cohesiveness and spirit. P.G.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITJIMMY SMITH: Off the Top. JimmySmith (organ, Arp string ensemble); Stan-ley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); GeorgeBenson (guitar); Ron Carter (bass); GradyTate (drums); Errol Bennett (percussion).Theme from "M.A.S.H."; Ain't Misbehav-in"; and four others. ELEKTRA/MUSICIAN60175-1 $8.98, © 60175-4 $8.98.

Performance Off the cuffRecording. Very good

It has been a long time since I heard a newrelease by organist Jimmy Smith, and, quitefrankly, I didn't think I was missing much.But "Off the Top" from Elektra/ Musicianmade me revise my thinking. This is notJimmy Smith thundering through pompousarrangements, as he so often had to do onthe Verve label. No, this is Smith the jazzman, surrounded by an elite group of hispeers, swinging through an enduring no -charts session. But that's not all, for the setalso takes guitarist George Benson out Ofthe pop context that has made him so wide-ly known and puts him firmly back intojazz. It all adds up to a superb display oftalent and experience. C.A.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITSPYRO GYRA: Incognito. Spyro Gyra (in-strumentals); instrumental accompani-ment. Last Exit; Old San Juan; HarborLights; Oasis; and four others. MCAMCA -5368 $8.98, © MCAC-5368 $8.98.

Performance. FluentRecording Excellent

There are no surprises on the latest offeringfrom Spyro Gyra, the reigning chart -top-pers of pop -jazz. While predictability isusually enough to do in any jazz album, thisgroup seems to be able to get away with it.Neither visceral nor cerebral, "Incognito,"like Spyro Gyra's work in general, justglides effortlessly by on its spry, crafty mel-odies, surehanded arrangements, and flaw-less production. It covers a lot of musicalterrain with maddening ease: r -&-b, whitefunk, blues (Toots Thielemans tosses insome harmonica here), Latin jazz (Tootsagain, whistling this time), and the obliga-tory pop -jazz ballads. I suppose you couldquibble over a band like this; they're toopat, too slick, too light. But their fans don'tmind-and neither do I. M.P.


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FEBRUARY 1983 8I

TrumpetTitans

Roy Eldridge

IN the early part of this century, when jazzfirst began to take form in New Orleans,

the trumpet (or cornet) soon emerged as thereigning instrument. Cornetist Buddy Bol-den may well have been the first jazz mu-sician. He left no recorded trace of his play-ing, but he was said to have been so power-ful that one could hear his horn from oneend of the city to the other. While tales ofhis musical accomplishments have undoubt-edly been generously embroidered over theyears, he made a strong enough impressionto have his legend live on into the space age.Many followed in Bolden's footsteps, and,fortunately for us latecomers, most of themhave had their artistry well documented onrecords.

Louis Armstrong, of course, is not onlythe most influential trumpet player the id-iom has known, he is also the best-knownjazz performer in the world. It is thereforenot surprising that producer Dan Morgen-stern chose to feature him in the first re-lease of what will eventually be twenty-fivefour -record sets in a collection jointly pro-duced by the Institute of Jazz Studies andthe Franklin Mint Record Society. Thismonumental series is ambitiously entitled"The Greatest Jazz Recordings of AllTime," but, judging by the contents of thefirst album, "The Greatest Jazz Performersof All Time" would have been more accu-rate. For example, the set contains Arm-strong's recording of Avalon with the Dukesof Dixieland, not by any stretch of even themost fertile imagination one of the"greatest recordings of all time." Nor aresuch items as Darling Nellie Gray, with theMills Brothers, or Armstrong's 1956 Deccaversion of Song of the Islands. There aremany wonderful things here, especiallyfrom the early part of Armstrong's long re-cording career, but only about half of thetwenty-four tracks might qualify as amongthe "greatest jazz recordings." These in-clude such Hot Five classics as Struttin'with Some Barbecue, Basin Street Blues,and West End Blues and the 1929 big -bandversion of When You're Smiling.

Sharing the Franklin Mint set with Arm-strong is Roy Eldridge, another exceptionaltrumpeter who belongs among the handfulof all-time trumpet titans. Eldridge contin-ues to bear traces of Armstrong's early in-fluence, but he developed a highly individu-al style in the Thirties, a style the youngDizzy Gillespie used to emulate with con-fusing perfection. The Eldridge perform-ances here also cover four sides and also in-clude material that is glaringly out of placein the prescribed context but rewardingnevertheless. Spanning three decades, froma 1935 recording with Teddy Hill's band(Here Comes Cookie) to a 1965 trio side forthe Limelight label, the collection offers agood, representative glimpse of Eldridge'sart and of the Swing Era that fostered it.Particularly interesting is Eldridge's appro-priately torrid 1951 rendering, with ClaudeBolling, of the 1928 Armstrong/Earl HinesFireworks. Eldridge plays some of the Arm-strong passages verbatim, but with a slight-ly different accent.

Any Eldridge fan, or trumpet fan, forthat matter, should also look into anothercurrent release of old jazz, this one devotedentirely to "little jazz." Columbia calls it"Roy Eldridge-the Early Years," and thatis exactly what it is. This two -disc set startsoff with the same Teddy Hill side includedin the Franklin Mint set and duplicates fourother selections, but then it takes off in adifferent direction and offers ten previouslyunissued performances. Unlike the FranklinMint, Columbia is restricted to its own ma-terial, but that is no problem here becauseEldridge made many great appearances onthat label and its subsidiaries. These in-clude selections with him as leader and as asideman with Hill, Mildred Bailey, TeddyWilson (with Billie Holiday), and the GeneKrupa Orchestra.

The Franklin Mint set is attractivelypackaged, the records are a pleasant shadeof deep red, and Dan Morgenstern's notesare authoritative if not comprehensive. Co-lumbia's Eldridge set is not packaged withany notable distinction, but John Chilton's

notes for it are comprehensive and very wellwritten. -Chris Albertson

LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND ROY EL-DRIDGE: Jazz Masterpieces. Louis Arm-strong (trumpet, vocals); instrumental andvocal accompaniment. Alone at Last; But-ter and Egg Man; Struttin' with Some Bar-becue; West End Blues; Symphonic Raps;Basin Street Blues; When You're Smiling;After You've Gone; Chinatown, My China-town; All of Me; Medley of ArmstrongHits; That's My Home; Dusky Stevedore;Solitude; Swing That Music; Darling Nel-lie Gray; Alexander's Ragtime Band; IWonder; Some Day; You Rascal You; Songof the Islands; Avalon; Someday, Sweet-heart. Roy Eldridge (trumpet, vocals); in-strumental accompaniment. What Shall ISay; Rockin' Chair; Here Comes Cookie;Jangled Nerves; Swing Is Here; AfterYou've Gone; Wabash Stomp; Heckler'sHop; The Gasser; Minor Jive; Fiesta inBrass; St. Louis Blues; Little Jazz; Twi-light Time: Fireworks; I Remember Har-lem; Easter Parade; School Days; Dale'sWail; I Still Love Him So; Wailing; HowLong Has This Been Going On; Hanid; Un-decided. FRANKLIN MINT RECORD SOCIETYI 1-2-3-4 four discs $43, © $43 (plus $3.80postage and handling charge from theFranklin Mint Record Society, FranklinCenter, Pa. 19091).

ROY ELDRIDGE: The Early Years. RoyEldridge (trumpet, vocals); various orches-tras. (Lookie, Lookie, Lookie) Here ComesCookie; Wabash Stomp (two takes); Flori-da Stomp; Wham (Re Bop Bom Bam);Rockin' Chair; Massachusetts; Harlem onParade; What Shall I Say; After You'veGone (two takes); Let Me Off Uptown; TheMarines' Hymn; Heckler's Hop; Where theLazy River Goes By; That Thing; A BeeGezindt; I'm Nobody's Baby; Green Eyes;Ball of Fire; That Drummer's Band; "Mur-der," He Says; Watch Out!; Swiss Lullaby.COLUMBIA Gii) C2 38033 two discs, no listprice.

82 STEREO REVIEW

THEATER FILMSFAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.Original -soundtrack recording. JacksonBrowne: Somebody's Baby. Jimmy Buffet:I Don't Know. Don Felder: Never Surren-der. The Go-Go's: Speeding. Louise Goffin:Uptown Boys. And fourteen others. FULLMooN/Asvt.um 60158-I two discs $12.98.

Performance. Market -researchedRecording. Good

I haven't seen the film for which this pack-age serves as a souvenir, but I've heard thatit's not quite without redeeming social con-tent. That, however, is more than can besaid for the album, which is excruciatinglydull. In fact, if this is the music that realkids actually listen to while they're out rais-ing hell, then we are probably nurturing ageneration of accountants. "Heavy -MetalRevisited" or "Son of FM" is what it is; themusic is a safely mixed bag of currentlyfashionable radio styles. There's a soupconof arena -rock courtesy of Sammy Hagar, ashameless Doobie Brothers pastiche byJackson Browne, contributions from four-count 'em, four-ex-Eagles, even a fanglessdollop of New Wave pop from the Go-Go's.It's all inoffensive and utterly withoutquirks of any kind. Frankly, I'd rather playPac-Man. S.S.

GEORGE GERSHWIN MEMORIALCONCERT. Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, LilyPons, others (vocals); Oscar Levant (pi-ano); orchestra, Otto Klemperer, VictorYoung, Alexander Steinert conds. PreludeNo. 1; Concerto in F, Allegro; Swanee; TheMan I Love; They Can't Take That Awayfrom Me; Porgy and Bess, excerpts. CITA-DEL CT 7025 $9.98.

Performance: HistoricRecording. Noisy

This is an LP transfer of Ira Gershwin's pri-vate recording of the Memorial Concert forGeorge Gershwin at the Hollywood Bowl onSeptember 8, 1937, two months after hissudden death from a brain tumor at theheight of his fame and the age of thirty-eight. The tribute brought out some of thebiggest brass in films and music to honorhim in grand style.

The program got off to a galvanic startwith Otto Klemperer conducting his ownarrangement of Gershwin's Prelude No. 2,followed by Oscar Levant's passionate per-formance of the first movement of the Con-certo in F. The evening really ignited, how-ever, when old-time Hollywood musicalhoncho Victor Young stepped up to the pod-ium to conduct a "song group" that in-cludes two very special performances. Thefirst is Al Jolson's triumphant, express -trainrendition of Swanee, which Gershwin hadwritten for him in 1919. Jolson's Swanee isone of the truly great pieces of popular art,

"as legendary," as the liner notes to this al-bum point out, "as Garland's Over theRainbow or Paul Robeson's Old Man Riv-er." The second unforgettable performanceis Fred Astaire's lithe and elegant run-through of They Can't Take That Awayfrom Me; it s pure magic.

The second half of the program was de-voted to excerpts from Porgy and Bess.Since this was Hollywood, remember, guesswho was picked to sing the Introductionand Summertime? None other than LilyPons, a stylish coloratura soprano fromNice who was probably the most celebrated"serious" singer of the Thirties (much likeLuciano Pavarotti is today). Gershwin wassaid to have been a great admirer of Pons,but I wonder what he would have thought ofher readings here ("Yawr dandee eez reechand yawr maw eez good-lookeen"). Thesound is acceptable throughout, but there isa muddy thump during a good deal of theprogram. P.R.

NINE (Maury Yeston). Original Broadway -cast recording. Raul Julia, Karen Akers,Anita Morris, Kathi Moss, Liliane Monte-vecchi, others (vocals); orchestra. COLUM-BIA JS 38325, JST 38325, no list price.

Performance Heavy-handedRecording Okay

I have a theory about Maury Yeston andNine: I think he spent a good part of thenine years it took him to get this show toBroadway commuting to New York fromNew Haven, Connecticut (where he's onthe Yale music faculty), seeing every newmusical in town (especially those of Ste-phen Sondheim), and, being a quick study,trying to synthesize the "perfect" musicalof the Eighties. He did not succeed.

Yeston's score for Nine, his first forBroadway, lacks not only originality butany kind of cohesive, personal quality of thesort that might distinguish it as a "Yestonscore." Nor is it even particularly "promis-ing." Many of the numbers, such as LilianMontevecchi's marvelously saucy FoliesBergeres, are notable only for what a partic-ular performer makes of them, and the lyr-ics, which Yeston also wrote, are too oftentruly embarrassing. Be Italian, a show -stop-per on stage as performed by Kathi Moss,hits bottom on disc if you really listen to thewords.

From the very start, with the sung Over-ture delle Donne, the recorded production issodden, utterly lacking that quality of ado-lescent fantasy that is the hallmark of theFellini film 81/i on which the musical wasbased. And, to be fair, the heavy-handedproduction does Yeston a disservice, for hedid write a couple of really lovely ballads,one (Simple) sung by Anita Morris and theother (Only with You) by the show's head-liner, Raul Julia. Casting Julia in this roledoes Yeston an additional disservice, for theman just cannot sing.

Nine won a Tony Award as Best Musicalof 1981-1982 and earned Yeston a Tony aswell for the season's best score. The cassetteversion contains over eighty minutes of thatmusic, a fair amount more than the LP atthe same price. Most prominently missingfrom the latter is a big chunk from the sec-ond -act production number entitled TheGrand Canal. All in all, though, awardsnotwithstanding, it is no great loss. C.B.

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FEBRUARY 1983

Classical Music

flews Briefs

Morton Gould (left) with Soulima and Francoise Stravinsky

Aeveryone must know bynow, 1982 marked the

hundredth anniversary of thebirth of Igor Stravinsky. Cele-brating this occasion, the U.S.Postal Service issued a com-memorative stamp. The first-day -of -issue ceremonies in-cluded a luncheon given bythe American Society of Com-posers, Authors, and Publish-ers (ASCAP), Stravinsky'sperformance rights organiza-tion. The host was ASCAP

composer Morton Gould, andthe guests included Stravins-ky's son, Soulima (a formerpianist and once an RCA re-cording artist), and his wife,Francoise. Also among theguests was ASCAP composerAaron Copland, who took along look at the Stravinskystamp and, noting its two -centdenomination, observed: "Igorwouldn't really have likedthis; he was such a dollars -and -cents man himself." 0

CNDUCTORS: Antonio d'Al-meida conducted the

Royal Philharmonic in a re-cording of Canteloube's Songsof the Auvergne, with singerFrederica von Stade, whichhas just won a Grand Prix duDisque in France. The albumwas a November release byCBS Masterworks, and the la-bel has scheduled Volume IIof the songs with the same art-ists for fall 1983.... Cele-brating his eightieth birthdaythis year (January 6) is Mau-rice Abravanel, conductorlaureate of the Utah Sympho-ny. He was its music directorfor thirty-two years, whichprobably puts him second onlyto Eugene Ormandy (see page58) in length of service to amajor American orchestra.Abravanel's more than fiftyrecordings are almost all onthe Vanguard label.... Antal

Dorati, conductor laureate ofthe Detroit Symphony, has re-ceived the honorary degree ofDoctor of Humane Lettersfrom Wayne State Universityin Detroit.

MANY musicians enjoy therespect of their col-

leagues, but few inspire affec-tion as well as admirationfrom other members of themusic world. An exception isthe Spanish pianist Alicia deLarrocha. Following her re-cent recital at Avery FisherHall at Lincoln Center, thefirst well-wishers to arrivebackstage included fellowpianist John Browning andphilanthropist Avery Fisherhimself. Commenting on therecital, Browning said, "Ihave never heard better per-formances of Debussy's L'Isle

Joyeuse and Ravel's Albo-rada del Gracioso." He wasfollowed by senior colleagueClaudio Arrau, who is cele-brating his eightieth birthdaythis month.

The pianist who inspiresmost awe among other key-board artists is probably Vla-dimir Horowitz, and when hearrived backstage, De Larro-cha fell to her knees in front ofhim and worshipfully claspedhis hands. Her daughter, Ali-cia Torra, reached for a cam-era, but when she asked forpermission to photograph thishistoric meeting, De Larrochaassumed the more convention-al pose with Arrau and Horo-witz shown in the picturebelow.

Record companies are busycirculating the work of thistrio of keyboard titans. Lon-don has a couple of albums byDe Larrocha lined up forspring release-a coupling ofMozart's Piano ConcertosNos. 19 and 22 (K. 459 andK. 482, respectively) and anLP devoted to Schubert's Son-ata in B -flat Major, Op.Posth. (D. 960).

RCA Records has just re-leased a new recital album byHorowitz titled "Horowitz inLondon." It is a single -disc set(with a bonus Horowitz inter-

view record) recorded atRoyal Festival Hall in Londonlast May. The same concertwas the source of not one buttwo videodiscs, also titled"Horowitz in London," one byRCA SelectaVision and theother by Pioneer LaserDisc.Both offer more of the actualprogram than the LP does.

Meanwhile, all the majorrecord companies for whichArrau has recorded over a pe-riod of fifty -odd years havemulti -record packages nowbeing released or immediatelyupcoming. CBS Masterworksis issuing a three -record set inMarch, including a perform-ance by Arrau of Liszt's FirstPiano Concerto with the Phil-adelphia Orchestra under Eu-gene Ormandy. EMI has inthe works a three -record Ar-rau set spanning thirty-twoyears. And RCA -France is dueto release what is announcedas Arrau's very first Ameri-can recording, Bach's Gold-berg Variations, recorded in1941 and never released.

Philips Records, the compa-ny with which Arrau has beenassociated exclusively for thepast twenty years, will bebringing out the greatestnumber of his recordings.Called "The Arrau Edition,"the complete set will comprise

Claudio Arrau (left). Vladimir Horowitz. and Alicia de Larrocha

84STEREO REVIEW

fifty-nine LP's in seven deluxeboxes, the first of which hasjust been released. The initialbatch includes all of the pianoconcertos of Beethoven andBrahms, with Bernard Hai-tink conducting, and all ofBeethoven's piano sonatas.

For a glimpse of the manbehind the music-a reveal-ing portrait of the artist in hisown words and the words ofseveral of his distinguishedpeers-see the recently pub-lished Conversations with Ar-ras by Joseph Horowitz (NewYork: Knopf, 1982). C.D.

TARS OF DISC. TAPE. ANDVIDEO: RCA has just re-

leased the two -record digitalalbum "Leontyne Price andMarilyn Horne Live from theMet," derived from the PBSnational telecast of last De-cember. Conducted by theMet's music director JamesLevine, the program consistsof the American prima don-nas' renditions of arias andduets by Handel, Mozart,Rossini, Bellini, and Verdi.Miss Horne will be back onTV screens on February 9when Zubin Mehta conductsthe New York Philharmonicin Beethoven's Ninth Sym-

phony in Exxon's Live fromLincoln Center series on PBS.Other soloists will include JonVickers and Martti Salminen;a soprano is yet to be an-nounced. . . . The January30 Met concert of arias andduets by Placido Domingo andSherrill Milnes, also con-ducted by Maestro Levine,will be simulcast "live on vid-eotape" on PBS at a futuredate. . . . When the RoyalShakespeare Company's pro-duction of Nicholas Nicklebycame to America's televisionscreens (January 10 through13 on Metromedia stations),the TV soundtrack album wasnot far behind-it has beenreleased on the DRG label.Music and lyrics are by Steph-en Oliver. . . . A Requiem byGeoffrey Burgon, composer ofthe music for BBC -TV'sBrideshead Revisited, is asoriginal in concept as it is im-pressive in realization. It isavailable here from PolyGramSpecial Imports on the Argolabel.... RCA has issued thesoundtrack album of Sir Rich-ard Attenborough's filmGandhi (opening nationallyJanuary 28). The score is bysitar virtuoso Ravi Shankarand British composer GeorgeFenton. C.B.

1.0

E

Marilyn Horne left) and Leontyne Price

Disc and Tape ReviewsBy RICHARD FREED DAVID HALL GEORGE JELLINEK

STODDARD LINCOLN ERIC SALZMAN

ALBINONI: Concerti a Cinque, Op. 5. I

Musici. Philips 0 6769 082 two discs$25.96, © 7654 082 $25.96.

Performance SparklingRecording. Good

Compared with Vivaldi's originality andrugged drive, Albinoni's music seems light-weight, relying more on charm than any in-herent strength. A few of his concertos go along way. I Musici performs twelve of themhere in its usual polished manner; this is sol-id, modern string playing with very littlereference to authentic performance prac-

Explanation of symbols:0 = eight -track stereo cartridge

= stereo cassetteO = digital -master recording

= direct -to -disc= CX-encoded

Monophonic recordings are indicatedby the symbol

The first listing is the one reviewed;other formats, if available. follow it.

tice. All in all, I'd characterize it as goodsonic wallpaper. S.L.

ARENSKY: Trio No. 1, in D Minor, Op. 32.GLINKA: Trio Pathetique in D Minor.RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Trio in C Minor,Scherzo. Eastman Trio. TURNABOUT TVC37016 $5.98, © CT 7016 $5.98.

Performance Just fineRecording: Well balanced

Anton Arensky (1861-1906) is rememberednow almost entirely on the strength of a sin-gle work, the Variations on a Theme byTchaikovsky for string orchestra (original-ly, like the Barber Adagio, part of a stringquartet). Aside from the charming waltzfrom the Op. 15 Suite for Two Pianos,which Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilo-witsch recorded so memorably, and the bal-letic little Violin Concerto, whose waltz sec-tion Heifetz used to play as an encore piece,the D Minor Piano Trio is about the onlyother work of his we're likely to hear. Of thethree current recordings of it, this newestone strikes me as the most attractive andsurely the most committed. The nostalgic,fairy-tale aura that seems to emanate fromso much of Arensky's music is given exactly

its due in this affectionate performance,which radiates just the sort of shared inti-macy that is wanted in an undertaking ofthis kind.

Mikhail Glinka's more familiar TrioPat hetique was originally composed forclarinet, bassoon, and piano and has beenrecorded in that version as well as in a sortof compromise version for clarinet, cello,and piano. It also lends itself well to presen-tation by violin, cello, and piano, especiallyin the sympathetic performance recordedhere. Rimsky-Korsakov himself chose not topublish his Piano Trio, or even to finish it,since he felt "that chamber music was not[his] field"; it was completed by his son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg some threedecades after Rimsky's death. But it is apleasant souvenir all the same.

All three performances suggest long ac-quaintance with the material and total una-nimity of approach by the Eastman Trio'sfine players (Zvi Zeitlin, violin; Robert Syl-vester, cello; Barry Snyder, piano). Therecording is very well balanced. R .F.

J. S. BACH: Cantata No. 84, Ich bin verg-niigt mit meinem Glikke; Cantata No. 52,Falsche Welt, dir trau' ich nicht; Cantata

FEBRUARY 1983 85

The Beaux Arts Trio: Isadore Cohen. Menahem Pressler. Bernard Greenhouse

Beethoven Piano TriosWHEN Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zu-

kerman, and Jacqueline du Pre com-pleted their recording of all the Beethoventrios thirteen years ago (with clarinetistGervase de Peyer replacing Zukerman inOp. 11), they were, respectively, twenty-seven, twenty-one, and twenty-four yearsold. Although the performances showedsome of the excesses to be expected fromplayers of such strong personality, so youngand so newly formed into an ensemble-overintensity, a bit of laid -on expressive-ness, a general underscoring in some pas-sages that benefit most from a simple,straightforward approach-they also dis-played the phenomenal musicianship thatentitled these young players to undertakesuch a project and enabled them to carry itoff with, on the whole, a great deal of per-suasiveness.

The five -record set (Angel SE -377I) didnot stay in the active catalog long, and noportion of it had reappeared until last fallwhen Vox reissued a single -disc package ofthe two Op. 70 trios on its Cum Laude la-bel. These two performances may well bethe most pleasurable segment of the origi-nal set, the two sides on which enthusiasmand subtlety are most effectively balancedand on which all elements come togethermost happily in the service of the music.The E -flat Trio is especially appealing here,the "pre -echoes" of Schubert in its thirdmovement realized most endearingly. Therecording is quite good, the balance for themost part excellent, though the cello seemsa little artificially forward now and then.

Still more welcome is the Beaux ArtsTrio's new Philips disc of the third trio of

Op. I and the second of Op. 70. This is not areissue from the complete set recorded inthe mid -Sixties when Daniel Gullet was thegroup's violinist (still circulating as Philips6747 142) but the third installment in thecurrent ensemble's project of rerecordingthe whole series. We have already had theirnew Archduke (9500 895) and Op. I, Nos.1 and 2 (9500 988). On those discs, andagain on the new one, there is a more gen-erous helping of repeats than in the earlierset and a little more expansiveness in theapproach overall. Perhaps there is also a bitless drive in the final movement of Op. I,No. 3, but there is certainly no shortage ofvitality in any meaningful sense. Individu-ally and collectively, the playing is on thehighest level-at once aristocratic andwarmhearted, and with an unfailing feelingfor the true pulse of the music. Everythingabout these performances seems so utterlyright that there is little to say about themexcept that they must surely be the "refer-ence" versions of both works now and willsurely remain so for a long time. The vivid,well-balanced sound could hardly be better,or the surfaces quieter. -Richard Freed

BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in D Major, Op.70, No. 1 ("Ghost"); Piano Trio in E -flatMajor, Op. 70, No. 2. Daniel Barenboim(piano); Pinchas Zukerman (violin); Jac-queline du Pre (cello). Vox CUM LAUDEVCL 9024 $8.98, © VCS 9024 $8.98.

BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in C Minor, Op1, No. 3; Piano Trio in E -flat Major, Op. 70,No. 2. Beaux Arts Trio. PHILIPS 6514 131$10.98, 7337 131 $10.98.

No. 209, Non sa the sia dolore. Elly Amel-ing (soprano); London Voices; EnglishChamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppardcond. PHILIPS 6514 142 510.98, 0 7337 142$10.98.

Performance Very goodRecording Very good

The three cantatas offered here, two sacredand one secular, are serious without beingsolemn or gloomy. They are performed ac-cordingly, with a welcome lightness oftouch and a nice animation in the brightersections. Both sacred cantatas have choralclosings and two arias apiece; the secularNo. 209 has an ingenious introductory con-certante with a prominent flute part beauti-fully played here by William Bennett. Inother solo contributions, violinist Jose LuisGarcia and oboist Neil Black also performwith distinction.

Elly Ameling's tones are as pure and ex-quisite as ever, though of late her styleseems to have become more self-consciously"arty" at the expense of spontaneity. Therecording balances are good, and the dischas wonderful surfaces. Although the tex-tures are transparent, there is a slight mud-diness in the busy horn passages of CantataNo. 52, possibly a result of excessive hallecho. G.J.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITJ. S. BACH: Violin Concerto No. 1, in AMinor (BWV 1041); Violin Concerto No. 2,in E Major (BWV 1042); Concerto for. TwoViolins in D Minor (BWV 1043). JaapSchroder, Christopher Hirons (violins);Academy of Ancient Music, ChristopherHogwood cond. L'OISEAU-LYRE 0 DSDL702 $12.98.

Performance: ElegantRecording. Fine

Of all the recordings issued during the lastfew months of various Bach violin concer-tos, this one by Jaap Schroder (in both soloconcertos), Christopher Hirons, and theAcademy of Ancient Music under the di-rection of Christopher Hogwood easilytakes first place. The use of authentic in-struments lends the music a clarity of soundand a relaxed elegance lacking in others.The performance too is a strong one withwell-chosen tempos and rhythmic vitality.The slow movements are particularlythoughtful; the sound of the short chords inthe accompaniment of the andante of the AMinor Concerto can be achieved only withauthentic instruments. Any effort made inlocating this disc will be well rewarded. It isexcellent. S.L.

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas: No. 8, in CMinor, Op. 13 (Pathetique"); No. 14, in C -sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight");No. 23, in F Minor, Op. 57 ("Appassiona-ta"). Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano). LONDONCS 7247 $10.98, CS5 7247 $10.98.

Performance First-rateRecording: Very good

This package is labeled "Three FavoriteSonatas," and, like virtually every otherdisc of these three works, it makes one ofthose deplorable sandwiches of its contents.In this case the sandwichee is the Appas-sionata, which is divided between sides one

86 STEREO REVIEW

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and two. This same performance may be en-joyed without the gratuitous interruption onLondon CS 7226, which has the samePathetique on the other side and includesthe two sonatinas of Op. 49. Ashkenazy'sMoonlight may also be had on CS 7111,sharing a side with its companion sonatafrom Op. 27 and with Op. 31, No. 1, on sidetwo. Surely these two discs, with their totalof four additional works, add up to a muchmore satisfying way to enjoy Ashkenazy'sBeethoven. R.F.

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4. in B -fiatMajor, Op. 60; Ah, Perfido!, Op. 65. EvaMarton (soprano, in Op. 65); EnglishChamber Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thom-as cond. CBS 0 11q 37209, no list price.

Performance Mostly excellentRecording: Very good

While the Collegium Aureum's "originalinstruments" chamber -orchestra recordingof Beethoven's Third Symphony on ProArte is a bit too raw for my taste, MichaelTilson Thomas's recordings of the Fourthand Sixth (the latter released last year onCBS M 35169) with the English ChamberOrchestra are more successful. The instru-ments are modern, but the orchestra is moreor less the size of one in Beethoven's day,which puts the woodwinds in proper balancewith the string body without the doublingcommon to most performances by hundred -player ensembles. It also helps that thesetwo symphonies are essentially lyrical andmore intimately conceived than the EroicaSymphony.

As with his Pastoral, Thomas here givesus a sensitive, honest, and unmanneredtreatment of the music. Not only are thestring/wind balances a pleasure, but his useof the Classical left -right arrangement offirst and second violins also helps illuminatethe score. The recording has fine stereoimaging, and the digital mastering is veryclean. The developmental episodes of the fi-nale benefit especially.

The brilliant concert aria Ah. Perfido!(Op. 65, not Op. 60, as it is identified onboth the jacket and the label of this release)actually predates the Fourth Symphony by

ten years. Previous recordings have offeredsuch heroic sopranos as Kirsten Flagstad,Birgit Nilsson, and Eileen Farrell. TheHungarian soprano Eva Marton brings amore Italianate, almost Callas -like passionto the music, as well as displaying remark-able vocal agility. She is clearly an artist towatch. Again, the sonics are excellent, withthe voice a bit closely miked but not obtru-sively so. D.H.

BERLIOZ: Symphonic Fantastique. Op. 14.Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel cond.TEI.ARC 0 DG- I 0076 $17.95.

Performance StylishRecording. Spectacular bass

This second digitally mastered recording ofthe Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique is af-flicted with some of the same sonic prob-lems as the first, with Zubin Mehta and theNew York Philharmonic on London, name-ly an acoustic surround that does less thanfull justice to the impassioned and corrus-cating music. In my opinion, Telarc com-mitted a major gaffe in moving from thebright and open spaces of Cleveland's Ma-sonic Auditorium to the comparatively darkand plushy environment of Severance Hall.It may have been convenient for piping inthe McGaffln Carillon bells down the streetto create an authentic and striking effect inthe Witches' Sabbath finale, but I wouldgladly have done without this fine detail tohave had the better sonic environment.

In particular, the bloom is missing herefrom the upper reaches of the violins, whilethe lower end of the frequency spectrumsounds overbearing. Subwoofer fans andthose who like to show off their systems'transient response will find the bass -drumand cymbal bits in the two final movementsmost impressive. I suppose that it was to ac-commodate these that the lengthy Sceneaux Champs movement was split betweenthe two sides of the disc.

Musically speaking, except for the almostjogtrot pacing of the March to the Scaffold,Maazel delivers a stylish reading that isvery convincing throughout the first threemovements, where the impassioned lyricismis most in evidence. I was also glad to hear

the cornet coloration in the Ball movement.But, given the availability of other fine re-cordings of the Symphonie Fantastiquewith lower price tags, including a 1980 CBSissue by Maazel and the same orchestra, Icannot work up much enthusiasm for thisTelarc recording. D.H.

BERLIOZ: Te Deum, Op. 22. FranciscoAraiza (tenor); London Symphony Chorus;London Philharmonic Choir; WooburnSingers; St. Alban's School Choir; otherchoruses. Martin Haselbock (organ); Euro-pean Community Youth Orchestra, Clau-dio Abbado cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMO-PHON 0 2532 044 $12.98, © 3302 044$12.98.

Performance Very goodRecording Reverberant

The Te Deum is characteristic Berlioz. Se-renely meditative pages alternate with bom-bastic proclamations calling for performingforces of extraordinary size: full orchestra,multiple choruses, organ, and tenor soloist.We have the composer's word that 950 per-formers participated in the 1855 premiere.Deutsche Grammophon provides no specificinformation on the numbers involved here,but judging by the jacket photos this per-formance too had a cast of hundreds.

Recordings originating in churches (St.Alban's Cathedral, in this instance) are sel-dom blessed in a technical sense. The pres-ent effort conducted by Claudio Abbado issuperior to an earlier one under Daniel Bar-enboim (Columbia M 34536) taped at theSt. Eustache Church in Paris, scene of thepremiere, but it is still a frustratingly im-perfect realization of Berlioz's complex andhighly imaginative writing. Orchestral de-tails are audible but lack transparency, andchoral pronunciation, expecially on the partof the sopranos, is indistinct. It is a pity, forotherwise this has all the earmarks of beinga dignified, well -paced, and imposing per-formance. I find it distinctly superior inter-pretively to the Columbia disc, on whichBarenboim's faster pace in the final move-ment tJudex Crederis) is less effective. Astill earlier version on Philips (839 790) isextremely well conducted by Colin Davis

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FEBRUARY 1983 89

Zoltan Kodaly in 1925 (drawing by Kunwald)

The Authentic Hary JanosFOR the centennial of Zoltan Kodaly's

birth in 1882, Hungaroton released thefirst authentic modern recording of one ofthe real treasures of Hungarian music,Hary Janos. The work defies compact cate-gorization. It is an operatic hybrid-a pica-resque Singspiel, a nationalistic fairy tale,and a unique mixture of authentic folkloreand distorted history. For a more detaileddiscussion I refer the reader to the 136 -pagebook that comes with the album. That initself is a thing of beauty: generously illus-trated, it is equipped with analytical andhistorical notes and a libretto in five lan-guages. The whole package should be a rev-elation to music lovers who know MiryJcinos only through the familiar orchestralsuite.

This is the only complete recorded versionnow available, and it surpasses everythingheretofore attempted, most specificallyLondon's misguided Anglicized effort ofsome years ago (OSA 1278, now with-drawn). The singing manages to combineartistic refinement with folkish gusto, andconductor Janos Ferencsik deserves praisefor reconciling these frequently conflictingqualities. His working knowledge of themusic spans more than forty years, begin-ning just about when I was myself intro-duced to this marvelously inventive theatri-cal work by an earlier generation of singers.

Normally, I would follow such an enthu-siastic introduction with a firm recommen-dation urging record buyers to obtain suchan artistic miracle. On this occasion, how-ever, a few words of caution are called for.More than half of Nary Janos consists of

spoken dialogue. It is delivered here by top-notch actors whose flavorful diction is afolklorist's delight, but the language isHungarian, and, libretto notwithstanding,the non -Magyar could easily tire of it. IfHungaroton were to release a single -disccollection of musical highlights from thisrecording, it would certainly have my unre-served endorsement.

An interesting innovation is that the setbegins with the so-called Theater Overturethat was originally intended for Hciry Jcinosbut subsequently became separated from itbecause of its length. It is colorful music,and it makes for a certain symmetry withthe lengthy and elaborate chorus withwhich the play closes.

It is frustrating to come across such anexquisite product without being able to rec-ommend it without reservations, but HaryJanos is an indigenous, untranslatable crea-tion. Isn't it a pity, though, that Hungarianis not spoken more widely?

-George Jellinek

KODALY: Miry Sandor Solyom-Nagy (baritone), Hary Janos; Klara Takacs(mezzo-soprano), Orzse; Maria Sudlik (so-prano), Empress; Balizs P6ka (baritone),Napoleon; Katalin Meszoly (mezzo-so-prano), Marie -Louise; Jozsef Gregor(bass), Marci; Sandor Palcso (tenor), Ebe-lasztin; others. Chorus and Orchestra of theHungarian State Opera, Janos Ferencsikcond. HUNGAROTON SLPX 12187-89 threediscs $32.94 (from Qualiton Records, Ltd.,39-28 Crescent Street, Long Island City,N.Y. 11101).

and technically more satisfying. Abbado,however, has the advantage of a superiortenor in Francisco Araiza, whose fifth -movement solo is delivered soulfully andwith an appealingly sweet tone. G.J.

RECORDINGS OF SPECIAL MERIT

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 1, in C Minor.Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbertvon Karajan cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMO-PHON 0 2532 062 $12.98, © 3302 062$12.98.

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 2, in C Minor.Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbertvon Karajan cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMO.PHON 0 2532 063 $12.98, © 3302 063$12.98.

Performances. EloquentRecordings: Excellent

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9, in D Minor.Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Ma-sur cond. EURODISC 27 914 KK $11.98.

Performance Spacious, transparentRecording: Likewise

These two digitally mastered DeutscheGrammophon discs mark the completion ofHerbert von Karajan's integral Brucknercycle for that label. Like Eugen Jochum inhis earlier DG cycle, also with the BerlinPhilharmonic, the two symphonies antedat-ing No. I are omitted from the canon. Inkeeping with his other readings in the cycle,fine ones all, Karajan here emphasizes thearchitectural element and the basic line ofmusical logic. Unlike Jochum, he rarely lin-gers over poetically lyrical episodes. TheFirst Symphony's opening pages do not goat the post -Schubert "walking" pace oneusually hears but at more of a Mahleriantramp. Sturm and Drang is what Karajanseems to find in this music, as is shown par-ticularly in an impassioned slow movementand a fiercely forthright finale. The poetrydoes come through momentarily in thedreamy trio section of the scherzo.

In the Second Symphony, Karajan accen-tuates the dramatic contrasts throughoutthe first movement and conjures up a fasci-nating atmosphere in the "tick-tock" epi-sode of the ruminative slow movement.Again the trio of the scherzo is, in its ra-diance, a high point of the reading. The fi-nale comes off with the utmost brilliance asKarajan makes the most of the last pageswhere thematic elements from earlier onare merged into a triumphant conclusion.As with DG's other digital recordings ofKarajan with the Berlin Philharmonic, thesonics are very strong on body, presence,and brightness.

From Eurodisc we get a fine sampling ofthe East German Bruckner cycle -in -prog-ress with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Ge-wandhaus Orchestra. The acoustic sur-round in the Gewandhaus is spacious in-deed, and it adds "bloom" to the stringtone. Four -channel playback of this quadra-phonic recording helps somewhat in addingtonal body, especially for the apocalyp-tic vistas of the opening movement and theconcluding adagio of the Ninth, but it alsotakes some of the "bite" out of an otherwisewell -paced scherzo-regrettably split be-tween two sides here. Masur knows hisBruckner inside out. If the grandeurs of Ka -

90 STEREO REVIEW

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rajan or the intensity of Jochum in his newAngel recording of the Ninth are a bit tooheady for your taste, the Masur perform-ance is a good alternative. D.H.

GLINKA: Trio Pathetique in D Minor (seeARENSKY)

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITHANDEL: Lesson in B -fiat Major (HWV434); Sonata in G Minor (HWV 580); Sona-tina in C Minor (HWV 583); Suite No. 5, inE Major (HWV 430); Prelude and Allegro inA Minor (HWV 576); Fantasia in C Major(HWV 490); Suite No. 8, in C Major (HWV441). Igor Kipnis (harpsichord). NONESUCH79037-I $11.98, © 79037-4 $11.98.

Performance: Bravo!Recording: Glorious

Handel and Kipnis-what an irresistiblecombination! Both have contagious energyand imagination bridled only by good taste.Where Handel left the performer room toimprovise, Kipnis steps in with a stronghand. The arpeggiatos unfold with a wealthof improvised figurations, the repeats spar-kle with ornamentation, and even such alifeless little piece as the Fantasia in C Ma-jor is decked out with exciting new clothing.This is a joyous album. Bravo George Frid-eric! Bravo Igor! S . L.

HANDEL: Messiah. Judith Blegen (so-prano); Katherine Ciesinski (contralto);John Adler (tenor); John Cheek (bass -bari-

tone); Musica Sacra, Richard Westenburgcond. RCA 0 ARC3-4352 three discs$38.94, © ARE3-4352 $38.94.

Performance SolidRecording Very good

We have been beset with recordings ofmany different versions of Handel's Mes-siah, so it is good to have a new one that willbe musically satisfying to those who havebeen brought up with the work. It is won-derful to hear a female alto rather than acountertenor and to hear "But who mayabide the day of His coming" sung by abass -baritone rather than a soprano. All theway through, conductor Richard Westen-burg has taken the best from both modernand "authentic" performing practice. Al-though returning to Handel's original or-chestration, he has used modern instru-ments and a continuo divided between or-gan and harpsichord. The playing is essen-tially modern, but he observes the traditionof double -dotting and tastefully added or-namentation. The choral sound is full-bod-ied but light when necessary. All in all, thesonorities fit the musical textures very well.Interest is sustained by careful pacing,which defines the dramatic units of thetext.

The soloists range from fair to excellent.Judith Blegen's light, clear voice projectsthe coloratura neatly (I wish she had donethe sixteenth -note version of "Rejoice"rather than the triplet one), and her lyricsinging is superb. Katherine Ciesinski'scontralto suffers from a wide vibrato, but

the sincerity of her expression is effective.Both John Adler and John Cheek sing he-roically, bringing strength to Handel's firmfaith.

One can relax with this recording. Thereare no surprises, nothing controversial. Theperformance is solid, and the traditionalversion is ever so lightly spiced with thefindings of historical research. S.L.

HAYDN: Symphony No. 86, in D Major;Symphony No. 87, in A Major. Academy ofSt. Martin -in -the -Fields, Neville Marrinercond. PHILIPS 0 6514 122 $12.98, © 7337122 $12.98.

Performance. StrikingRecording Very good

HAYDN: Symphony No. 82, in C Major("The Bear"); Symphony No. 87, in A Ma-jor. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Her-bert von Karajan cond. DEUTSCHE GRAM-MOPHON 0 2532 037 $12.98, © 3302 037$12.98.

Performance: RoutineRecording: Super

Haydn's Symphony No. 87, in A Major, thelast of the "Paris" Symphonies, is by nomeans a great one. It is, in fact, arid anduninspired. Herbert von Karajan's reading,although solid, reveals the work's inherentweaknesses. Neville Marriner's reading, onthe other hand, brings drive and excitementto the music, rendering it far more arrestingin performance than it actually appears tobe in score. Marriner drives the ubiquitous

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repeated notes of the first movement totheir destination with edgy nervousness.Karajan's repeated notes go nowhere andbecome more and more irritating as themovement progresses. Marriner's adagio ison the quick side, which keeps the tripletsflowing. Although the Berliners' wind play-ing is better, Karajan's tempo is so slow thatthe movement seems endless. Marriner em-bues the minuetto with a lusty peasant feel-ing, good-natured and strong; Karajanslows it down to a courtly tempo that wringsout the folksy elements so dear to Haydn.Marriner's finale is a delicious joke, whileKarajan's pushes forward humorlessly. Fitthe same comments to the other symphonieson each disc and choose accordingly. S.L.

MAHLER: Das Lied won der Erde. JessyeNorman (soprano); Jon Vickers (tenor);London Symphony Orchestra, Sir ColinDavis cond. PHILIPS 6514 112 $10.98, 07337 112 510.98.

Performance: ControversialRecording: Excellent

There are things to praise in this release,but there are also some problems. Positiveelements first. The recording is rich and ad-mirably detailed, with nearly thirty-fiveminutes of music on the second side inbright and distortion -free sonics. JessyeNorman is in marvelous form. She does notalways do full justice to the words, but hermusical phrasing and tonal beauty are ex-traordinary, and she finds the mezzo tessi-tura entirely comfortable.

The recording favors the orchestra, whichmay be a legitimate view considering Mah-ler's writing, but, for my taste, the singersare too much at a disadvantage in the firstand fourth movements. In any case, the or-chestral playing is magnificent. Colin Davischooses some unconventional tempos, buthe makes a reasonably strong case for them,even for the frenzied pace in the middle sec-tion of "Von der Schonheit," with whichMiss Norman barely copes. In the tenor's"Von der Jugend," however, Davis is im-possibly fast, though the main problem forme is the unfortunate choice of Jon Vickersfor the part. I admire his energy and stami-na, but his brusque, charmless non -legato isall wrong for most of this music. G.J.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITMOZART: Concert Arias. Schon lacht derholde Frahling (K. 580); Per pieta, bell'idolmio (K. 78); Misera, dove son! . . . Ah! nonson io the parlo (K. 369); Un mow di gioia(K. 579); Ah, non lasciarmi, no (K. 295a);Alma grande e nobil core (K. 578); Or thecielo a me ti rende (K. 374); Se tutti i mallmiei (K. 83); Voi avete un cor fedele (K.217). Edita Gruberova (soprano); ViennaChamber Orchestra, Gyorgy Fischer cond.LONDON OS 26662 $10.98, © 0S5 26662$10.98.

Performance. ExpertRecording: Very good

This is a companion disc to a previous Lon-don release (OS 26661) of Mozart concert

arias that featured Dame Kiri Te Kanawaas soloist. Others are to follow, and eventu-ally all thirty-five arias that Mozart wroteeither for concert use or to be inserted intoother operas will be available. The nine se-lections on this disc cover a substantial spanof Mozart's life (from 1766 to 1789) andrange from traditional opera seria situa-tions set to Metastasio texts to the far moresophisticated expressions of the later years.There are a few absolute winners amongthem: the witty and charming K. 217,which belies its early origin, the grandlydramatic K. 369, the delightful K. 374(somewhat weighted down by its lengthy in-troduction), and the sparklingly orches-trated K. 578. Several appear to be first re-cordings, including that of K. 580, whichwas left unfinished by Mozart (its scoringwas completed for this record by a contem-porary scholar).

Edita Gruberova's singing is pure in in-tonation and remarkably agile. I miss a cer-tain smiling playfulness in K. 374 and amore dramatic weight in K. 369, but, on thewhole, this is a very impressive album in-deed. The orchestral backgrounds are amite unpolished but acceptable. G.J.

MOZART: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 15,20, and 21 (see Best of the Month, page69)

MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 3, in G Ma-jor (K. 216); Violin Concerto No. 5, in AMajor (K. 219). Pinchas Zukerman (violin);Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pinchas

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STEREO REVIEW

Zukerman cond. CBS 0 IM 37290, © IMT37290, no list price.

Performance Beautiful, but ...Recording Splendid

CBS's new blue label, with its red stripe andtwo gold medallions, seems to be a throw-back to the pre -electrical Columbia labelwith its various World's Fair medals.There's no such throwback in the groovesthemselves, though: the stunning digitalsound, both warm and well-defined (withparticularly vivid bite to the double bass), isalmost as appealing as Pinchas Zukerman'splaying, which is surpassingly beautifuleven by his standards.

My one reservation concerns the extreme-ly leisurely approach to the slow movementshere. The timings show that the perform-ances are barely slower than in Anne -So-phie Mutter's recording of the same workswith Karajan (DG 2531 049) or in DavidOistrakh's (Angel SD -3789), but Zuker-man's are just slow enough that the mo-mentum tends to break down. In his gener-ally Romantic approach, the outer move-ments too are expansive rather than crisp,but they are quite irresistible for the beautyof the playing and the splendid integrationof soloist and ensemble. For many listeners,these qualities may suffice. Surely anyonewho enjoys beautiful violin playing must atleast hear this record. R.F.

MOZART: Piano Quartet No. in G Mi-nor (K. 478); Piano Quartet No. 2, in E -flatMajor (K. 493). Andre Previn (piano);

members of the Musikvereinquartett. LON-DON CS 7220 $10.98.

Performance. Solid, restrainedRecording Excellent

These are solid performances and record-ings, but I wish Andre Previn and theseViennese musicians had invested this musicwith the kind of expressive rhythmic andmelodic flourishes that eighteenth -centuryplayers took for granted. I'm not even talk-ing (necessarily) about eighteenth -centuryperformance practice. It just seems odd tohear rich, robust, romantic tone and phras-ing without the rhythmic and ornamentalexpressivity that should go with them. Notthat these are bad performances. Quite thecontrary: they are handsome ones. The feel-ing of constraint -1 almost said caution-isquite intentional and self-imposed. More'sthe pity. E.S.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITNIELSEN: Symphony No. 3, Op. 27 ("Es-pansim"). Elisabeth Rehling (soprano); Mi-chael Wilhelm Hansen (baritone); DanishRadio Symphony Orchestra, Yuri Ahrono-vitch cond. UNICORN-KANCHANA KP 8006$11.98, © UKC 8006 $11.98 (from Euro-class Record Distributors, Ltd., 155 Avenueof the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10013).

Performarce Stunning!Recording Handsome

This March 13, 1981, concert performanceof Carl Nielsen's Sinfonia Espansiva

nudges aside Leonard Bernstein's 1965 Co-lumbia recording with the Royal DanishOrchestra as the most strikingly dynamic tomake its way to discs. It is also superior tothe Bernstein recording in its freedom fromover -emphasis and its sonics.

Soviet émigré conductor Yuri Ahrono-vitch is currently chief conductor of theStockholm Philharmonic, and from thisreading it's easy to hear how he landed thejob. From the opening flourish it is clearthat this will be no ordinary rendition ofNielsen's Third Symphony. One is simplyswept away by the Dionysian energy of thefirst movement, and Ahronovitch's absolutecontrol of line, texture, and rhythmthroughout is astonishing. The slow move-ment, so evocative of the Danish landscapein its atmospheric duet vocalise for sopranoand baritone, goes flawlessly, and the quirk-iness, both polyphonic and coloristic, of theallegretto third movement comes acrosswithout ever seeming mere academic mu-sical gamesmanship. The march -like finalegets just the right pace here-brisk withoutbeing flippant and mercifully free of the un-due solemnity Bernstein found in it.

On the recording we are treated in full tothe wild audience ovation at the end. Ob-viously this concert was a real occasion, andthose who in the past found the SinfoniaEspansiva a shade less exciting and absorb-ing than the Nielsen Fourth and Fifth Sym-phonies may well change their minds afterhearing this disc. D.H.


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REGER: Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op.114. Steven Mayer (piano); Hague Philhar-monic Orchestra, Ernest Bour cond. LEO-NARDA LPI 113 $8.98.

Performance. Virtuoso pianoRecording: Live

This is a big, gloomy work smack up againstthe dead end of the Classical -Romantic tra-dition. It combines introversion with ex-treme virtuosity, not entirely successfully.If you are a fan of late -Romantic maso-chism, you may enjoy wallowing in this one.It is certainly very brilliantly played bySteven Mayer in this live recording tapedby Dutch Radio. The orchestra is a bit lessimpressive, and the recorded sound, favor-ing the piano, sets the solo instrumentagainst a dark, gloomy -sounding orchestraltexture punctuated by a few coughs fromthe audience. E.S.

REICH: Tehillim (see Best of the Month,page 68)

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Trio in C Minor:Scherzo (see ARENSKY)

ROSSINI: Sins of My Old Age. CantemusDomino; Aragonese: Le Sylvain; LesAmants de Seville; Duetto Buffo di DueGatti; I Gondolieri; La Passeggiata; LaFioraia Florentine: Un Sou; Le Dodo desEnfants; Toast pour le Nouvel An. Los An-geles Vocal Arts Ensemble; Armen Guze-limian, Raul Herrera (pianos). NONESUCH0 D-79027 $11.98, D4-79027 $11.98.

Performance- OkayRecording Excellent

Nonesuch was the label that first issued col-lections of Rossini's post -operatic legacy ontwo European -recorded discs a number ofyears ago (H-71089 and H-71 163). Severalselections on the first of these, a vocal al-bum, turn up in this new digital releasetaped in Los Angeles, including some set-tings inspired by the Metastasio poem MiLagnere Tacendo. (In his informative anno-tation, Philip Gossett relates in detail Ros-sini's apparent obsession with the poem.)Among the new items are the pastoral LeSylvain, the rather tragic Un Sou, and thefamiliar, not really authentic (as is also ex-plained by Prof. Gossett), but decidedly hi-larious Duet for Two Cats.

This is certainly an interesting collection,full of charming melodies, with some inge-nious counterpoint and a great deal of lilt-ing, rippling pianism. The recording is re-markable in its clarity and immediacy. Thetwo pianists are fine, and the singers arecompetent, if not always equal to Rossini'sexacting demands. G.J.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITSCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in A Major,Op. 120 (D. 664); Four Impromptus, Op. 90(D. 899). Claudio Arrau (piano). PHILIPS9500 641 $10.98, © 7300 806 $10.98.

Performance MarvelousRecording Limpid

As perhaps the most songlike of all Schu-bert's song -filled sonatas, the A Major com-posed in 1819 has always been the most fre-quently performed, heard with some regu-larity even when the big late sonatas were

neglected. It is a youthful work especiallyfavored by young performers and generallyregarded as music of naïve sweetness. It isclear that Claudio Arrau does not so regardit. While barely making a ripple in the so-nata's surface lyricism, Arrau conveys asense of unsuspected depth, of barely re-strained restlessness, and even, at times, ofnobly concealed tragedy not quite entirelyhidden. He manages to bring out thesequalities without distorting or changing thework's familiar physiognomy; his perform-ance is a marvel of subtle undercurrents andbrief flashes of revelation. One senses, with-out the aid of big dramatic gestures, theself-questioning in the outer movements-atight-lipped near desperation in the finalone each time the dance is doggedly re-sumed-and unforced pathos in the briefandante. I think this recording will per-suade many listeners that the conventional-ly ingratiating performances they enjoyedin the past left a good deal unsaid about thiswork.

There is a certain degree of sobriety, ofaristocratic understatement, in Arrau'sreading here of the Impromptus, the first ofwhich bears a curious relationship to theopening of the sonata. Again, though, thereis no conflict with the music's innate lyri-cism; the lyrical foundation seems more sol-id than ever, and each piece is so fully incharacter that one may more or less forgetabout Arrau as "interpreter." The sound islimpid and well -focused. R.F.

RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERITR. S'IlkAl SS: Alpine Symphony, Op. 64.London Symphony Orchestra, AndrewDavis cond. CBS 0 IM 37292, © IMT37292, no list price.

Performance- Musically remarkableRecording Excellent

After the recent super -spectacular record-ings of this work by Herbert von Karajanand Sir Georg Solti, it comes as a surpriseto see both these formidable conductorsoutdone by one barely out of his thirties.Andrew Davis has chosen to approach theAlpensinfonie as pure music, not a moviescore manqué, and to discover for himself,and for us, what can be made of it. He hasbeen able to shuck off most of the work'sprogrammatic baggage and to illuminateboth linear and motivic elements that tendto get lost in performances that exploit thesonorities and timbres for their own sakes.

Not that this performance is lacking insensuousness, but Davis has brought to thefore the score's substantial musical andpoetic qualities. For the first time in mymemory, this symphony held my interestfrom beginning to end. The treatment islean, transparent, and poetic, making it themost musically intelligible performance Ihave ever encountered. The sound is first-rate and fits the reading perfectly. If youwant a new and illuminating perspective onthis Strauss essay, this recording is the oneto have. D.H.

R. STRAUSS: Four Last Songs. Der Rosen-kawalier: Da geht er hin. Capriccio: ClosingScene. Elisabeth SdderstrOm (soprano);Philip Joll (baritone, in Capriccio excerpt);Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera,

(Continued on page MO)

CIRCLE NO. 19 ON READER SERVICE CARD 96 STEREO REVIEW

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RECORDS

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Richard Armstrong cond. EMI ASD 4103$12.98, © TCC-ASD 4103 512.98 (fromInternational Book and Record Distribu-tors, 40-11 24th Street, Long Island City,N.Y. 11101).

Performance: GoodRecording Excellent

After more than thirty years before thepublic, Elisabeth Soderstrdm, a uniquelyversatile and always absorbing artist, stillappears in remarkable form in this all -Strauss recital. The low passages in the firstof the Four Last Songs (Frithling) provide afew uncomfortable moments, but overallher renditions of these beautiful songs standup well to the stiff current competition(Schwarzkopf, Janowitz, Te Kanawa,Sass). The top notes ring out with completefreedom, and if the last two songs seemsomewhat less radiant and lyrical than theycould be, it may be because of the conduc-tor's rather prosaic approach.

The two operatic monologues are abovecriticism. Soderstrom is a seasoned inter-preter of these two great Strauss roles; whatshe does with these scenes is dramaticallyapt, insightful, and touchingly communica-tive. These qualities are particularly impor-tant in the Closing Scene of Capriccio,which requires a major artist to sustain in-terest. (The baritone Philip Joll is no help inthe brief role of the Major-Domo.) The re-corded sound is outstanding. G.J.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Nine Choruses. A GoldenCloud Stayed the Night; No Cuckoo in theDamp Woods; Morning; The Nightingale;Neither Time Nor Season; Hymn in Honorof St. Cyril and St. Methodius; Evening;Before Sleep Comes; Why Has the MerryVoice Grown Silent. Sveshnikov Chorus.MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 4432$7.75 (plus $1.60 shipping and handlingcharge from the Musical Heritage Society,14 Park Road, Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724).

Performance: EtherealRecording Very good

Tchaikovsky wrote only a few works forchorus, but those few are predictably me-lodic and perfectly lovely. Except for ayouthful cantata, based on the same Ode toJoy (Schiller) that inspired Beethoven, anda few scattered works for chorus and pianoor orchestra, most of them are contained inthis collection, originally released by Mel-odiya. Before Sleep Comes, a crepuscularpiece on a text by the Russian poet Ogarev,is from Tchaikovsky's student days. Therest are largely from his later years and in-clude settings of poems by Lermontov, Tsi-ganov, Balashov, and Pushkin, as well as akind of allegory by Tchaikovsky himselfabout a nightingale that has to leave the"white winter" and the "wild wind" of Rus-sia in order to feel warm enough to singagain. The performances by the SveshnikovChorus, under an uncredited conductor, aresublime. -Paul Kresh

COLLECTIONS

ISOBEL BAILLIE. Handel: Joshua: 0 hadI Juba lyre. Theodora: Angels everbright and fair. Samson: Let the brightSeraphim. Mozart: The Marriage of Fig-aro: Voi the sapete; Deh, vieni, non tardar.Schubert: The Shepherd on the Rock. Men-

delssohn: Elijah: Hear Ye, Israel. Offen-bach: The Tales of Hoffmann: Doll Song;Barcarolle (with Nellie Walker, contralto).Arditi: II Bacio. Newman/Charles: Do YouBelieve in Fairies? Marsland/Phillips:Among the Willows. Isobel Baillie (so-prano); various orchestras. PEARLGEMM 217 $7.98.

Performance: RefinedRecording Dated

Veteran collectors need not be told that Iso-bel Baillie was a popular Scottish/Englishsoprano in the years before World War II;her imported Columbia discs enjoyed widecirculation in this country. She was not anactive opera singer. Songs and oratorioswere her specialty, and at times her recordsprovided the only available version of a songor an aria in those far -away pre -LP years.As this reissue of recordings from 1927-1930 illustrates, Baillie could always becounted on for a pure tone, musical integri-ty, accomplished ornamentations, clear dic-tion, and a natural and unmannered de-livery. She may not have been a spectacularvocalist, but she was always a charming andcultivated artist.

All the selections are sung in English. Er-nest Hall (in the Samson excerpt) andCharles Draper (in the Schubert) providefine trumpet and clarinet obbligatos. Thesound is clean enough, but the treble mustbe cut to reduce the surface noise trans-ferred from the original discs. G.J.

JACQUELINE DU PRE: Recital. Paradis:Sicilienne. Schumann: Drei Fantasiestikke,Op. 73. Mendelssohn: Song Without Wordsin D Major, Op. 109. Faure: Elegie, Op. 24.Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Op. 47. Jacqueline duPre (cello); Gerald Moore (piano). J. S.Bach: Adagio in C Major, (from BWV564). Saint -Satins: Carnival of the Animals:The Swan. Falla: Jota. Jacqueline du Pre(cello); Roy Jesson (organ, in Bach); OsianEllis (harp, in Saint -Sans); John Williams(guitar, in Falla). ANGEL S-37900 $9.98, ©4XS-37900 $9.98.

Performance SuperbRecording: Quite good

With the single exception of the FaureElegie, which was taped nearly seven yearslater, all the performances on this recordwere recorded in what must have been Jac-queline du Pre's earliest sessions, in July1962, when she was only seventeen yearsold. The Bach, Saint -Sans, Falla, andBruch, which make up side two, have beencirculating for more than fifteen years withthe first of her two recordings of the ElgarConcerto (Angel S-36338) and continue tobe so available. To describe as a "recital"what is mainly a collection of encore pieces(the Schumann and Bruch are the excep-tions, of course) is hardly flattering to theperformer or the listener, but some sort oflabel had to be affixed, and I suppose this isas handy as any. In any case, the album of-fers superb playing filled with real interpre.tive insights, strong, handsome tone, dead.on intonation, and the sort of freshness onehopes for from so youthful an artist. Therecorded sound is good enough to pass fornew, but my review copy was afflicted byboth pinch -warp and surfaces apparentlymade of old emery boards. Other copiesmay well be free of these irritations. R.F.

ADVERTISERS' INDEX INREADER

SERVICE NO ADVERTISERPAGE

NUMBER

Acoustat Corp. 83Advent 16Angel/EMI Records 52

22 Audio Spot 96Audio-Technica U.S., Inc ea

Bose Corporation Cover 37 BSR - Equa Iizer

Canadian Mist. 458 Carver Corporation 6

11 Concord Electronics 2310 Consumers Company 94

Crutchfield Corp 20

DAK 21. 71Delco Electronics Division 31

18 Discount Music Club 1613 Discwasher 7914 Discwasher 81

18 Franklin Mint Corporation 38-39

Harman Kardon, Inc. 9

Illinois Audio 9119 International HI-FI Dist se

20 J d R Music World 93

28 Koss Corporation12 Kyocera

Marlboro 2558 Maxell Corp. of America 1732 McIntosh Laboratory. Inc 2235 Mura Corp 18

Nakamichl 11

38 Phase Linear 739 Polk Audio 4140 P.R.I.C.E. 79

Radio Shack 241 RCA Records 52

R. J. Reynolds/Camel 48, 49R. J. Reynolds/Salem 58, 57R. J. Reynolds/Vantage 32, 33R. J. Reynolds/Winston 12

9 Sanaui Electronics Corp. 2944 The Sharper Image 2245 Shure Brothers 7747 Sony Corp 42. 4343 Stereo Corp. of America 96

Stereo Discounters 8149 Studer Revox 18

50 Tandberg of America 1948 TDK Electronics Cover 248 Technics 26

U.S. JVC Corp. 35

513 Wisconsin Discount Stereo

FEBRUARY 1983

92

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