Born 100 years ago this year, John Culshaw set new standards in the craft and art of classical recording, primarily during his tenure at Decca. His recordings of Wagner's complete Ring cycle and Britten's War Requiem were critical and commercial successes of an order that has rarely been equalled, and remain acknowledged classics of the gramophone. To mark his centenary, we talk about what made him such an important figure in the history of recording, and pick 10(+) essential records which fully display his exceptional gifts as a record producer, and which sound as fresh today as they did when they were first made.

Monk was born on October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Four years later his family moved to New York City, settling at the Phipps Houses at 243 West 63rd St in Manhattan, known then as the San Juan Hill area, later referred to as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts neighborhood. When he was five years old, a neighbor gave him piano lessons in the stride style of Fats Waller and James P Johnson. At ages 10-12 he had classical piano lessons from Simon... Read More

Countless pieces of music written by 20th-century (and later) composers are very accessible, listenable, and rewarding. Here are a few.

(This feature originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)He didn’t play an instrument and he didn’t sing, but Brian Eno was in the band, and the band was Roxy Music. So what exactly did Eno (full name Brian Peter George St. John de Baptiste de la Salle Eno—wouldn’t you shorten it?) do for Roxy Music, which he co-founded in London with Bryan Ferry back in 1972? Listen to Stranded, the first Eno-free Roxy album and you’ll hear something missing. Or, listen to the... Read More

Deutsche Grammophon’s outstanding, AAA-mastered Original Source Vinyl Series continues apace with four more titles just announced, slated for release on October 4th. 

Like previous releases, these are all mastered and cut directly from the original 4-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney C. Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios, incorporating 2-tracks of ambient hall information recorded at the original sessions.  (For the full technical background on this series I refer you to my review of the first batch here).

In Part 2 of this look at Giulini's legendary recordings of the late symphonies of Anton Bruckner, we review Symphonies 8 and 9, and talk with Rainer Maillard at Emil Berliner Studios about what made the original recordings so successful (even though early digital), and how he went about freshening up the original masters to create these new vinyl reissues (which include the first ever vinyl release for the 9th Symphony). You can read Part 1 here.

Carlo Maria Giulini is one of those conductors whose discography yields constant treasure, from his early Philharmonia recordings on EMI to his always surprising DG legacy with American orchestras like the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  A highlight of his later discography were the three Bruckner symphonies he recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the fabled Musikverein. In the first of two articles we talk about what made conductor and composer so unique in their own fields and time, and review this new remastering from the same team at Emil Berliner Studios responsible for the highly successful Original Source Series of vinyl reissues - this time working from digital master tapes. Part 2 includes an extensive interview with Rainer Maillard about how the original sessions were recorded, and how he went about improving the sound for this landmark reissue.

In Part 3 of this special Memorial Day weekend celebration of Benjamin Britten's timeless anti-war statement, we tell the story of how Decca revisited the master tapes and used the latest technology to bring this historic recording back to life for a new generation of listeners on vinyl and CD/SACD.

In Part 2 of this special Memorial Day weekend celebration of Benjamin Britten's timeless anti-war statement, we tell the story of the Decca sessions - led by producer John Culshaw and engineer Kenneth Wilkinson - which created one of the acknowledged classics of the gramophone.

From the moment it was released in 1963, Decca's recording of the War Requiem with the composer conducting was hailed as a supreme achievement of the gramophone. It sold over 200,000 copies in a few months, and is universally acknowledged as a classic. Marking Memorial Day weekend, we tell the story of its composition, recording, and assess the new vinyl and CD/SACD remasterings.

After spending my previous article gushing over Barenboim’s sonically thrilling Bruckner 4, we’re left with the three remaining Original Source titles for this month, which are some of the most “meat and potatoes” repertoire we’ve seen so far. Any decent classical record collection is going have a copy of these three works: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Brahms Symphony No. 1, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. They are frequently recorded and performed cornerstones of... Read More

The Blue Note Classic Vinyl series has issued nearly 100 records since its inception in 2020 and put back in print many of the long acknowledged classic Miles, Monk, Rollins, Mobley, Morgan, Shorter, and Hancock LPs from the label’s incredible bop/hard bop catalog. The series has also released a substantial selection of funky jazz/R&B organ records from Blue Note’s late period, which have been ignored by fans of “Blue Note jazz” but revered and considered equally... Read More

Last year, when record club Vinyl Me, Please announced their 11LP box set of Miles Davis’ electric period studio albums, I almost immediately preordered it. For hardcore fans, it seemed (and turned out to be) essential: a lavish box set of the albums from In A Silent Way through Get Up With It, cut by Ryan Smith and Joe Nino-Hernes from flat tape copies of the original masters and packaged in laminated tip-on jackets, it’s the perfect document of Miles’ most... Read More

In a web exclusive, we break down the stats behind this momentous release, which represents a game changer in the remastering of recordings from analogue's final golden age.

Continuing our coverage of this marvelous box set which gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 2 I review in more detail the discs contained in this timely reissue. (You can read Part 1 here, where I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context).