Paul McCartney's Ocean's Kingdom

Paul McCartney's first ballet Ocean's Kingdom is on the Telarc label, it's a shame they no longer release SACDs.

Paul McCartney: Ocean's Kingdom
John Wilson (Conductor), The London Classical Orchestra
Hear Music / MPL / Telarc

Now that Concord Music Group has let all of Telarc's SACDs go out-of-print the ONLY high resolution Telarc recording that exists is one 24bit 96kHz download from HDTracks of Al Di Meola's Flesh On Flesh here is hoping that Paul McCartney's new ballet is at least released as a high resolution download and not just as a CD and MP3.



*** UPDATE *** Paul McCartney's Ocean's Kingdom is now available as a 24 Bit 96kHz download at HDTracks.

Lynne Hoffman-Engel Joins Five/Four Productions

Lynne Hoffman-Engel former VP of Decca & Telarc Records joins 5/4 as Senior VP of Strategic Planning and Marketing.

Lynne will be focused on working with artists, orchestras, arts organizations, and record labels to expand Five/Four's relationships and business, drawing from her vast network of relationships that she has developed in the music world over the past 30 years. She will work with the Five/Four partners to further the brand of the audio production company through marketing and strategic planning initiatives.

Additionally, Lynne will act as a resource to the Five/Four team and its clients, utilizing her skills and experience in artist relations, marketing analysis, budget development, repertoire planning, and record production to help Five/Four and its music partners increase their brand through innovative recording of great music.

Five/Four Productions is half of the original Telarc recording teams (Michael Bishop, Robert Friedrich, and Thomas Moore) that were let go by Concord Music Group and now work as independent contractors for Telarc and other labels.   The other half formed SonArc Music (Robert Woods and Elaine Martone)

TELARC SACDs MIA

Why did Concord Music Group buy Telarc and Heads-Up and then quit their SACD release programs?  They gave us the most realistic recordings on planet Earth and then took them away.

It has been over two years since the last Telarc SACD was released.  I have yet to find a recording company whose SACDs are as realistic, especially to Telarc's stateside USA recording teams.   Polyhymnia who recorded most of Telarc's European recordings comes close.  I have PentaTone SACDs also recorded by Polyhymnia that offer excellent sonic realism.  Also some of the better Reference Recordings, Channel Classics, Chandos and a handful of Exton's.  But nothing equals the absolute concert hall realism achieved on Telarc SACDs?  Getting almost there is still a letdown after getting near concert hall realism in my home from Telarc SACDs.  And not just in classical music, Telarc was the absolute best at recording jazz, blues and folk music. 

Concord Music Group please resume your SACD program!
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Here is a list of new Telarc recordings NOT released on SACD because of Concord Music Group's decision to abandon SACD.  The engineers are still recording in PURE DSD, in multichannel and stereo yet there are only on CD and MP3!

• Troubadour Live by Eric Bibb  
• An Evening With by Dave Grusin  
• Medicine by Tab Benoit
• Spanish Music for Classical Guitar by Albeniz - David Russell  
• That's How We Roll by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band 
• Brahms Works For Cello and Piano by Zuill Bailey and Awadagin  
• Hiromi: Solo Live at Blue Note New York  
• Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody by Al Di Meola 
• The Definitive Dave Brubeck on Fantasy, Concord Jazz and Telarc by Dave Brubeck   
• The Singing Rooms by Jennifer Higdon, Alvin Singleton, Alexander Scriabin, Robert Spano and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus   
• Have You Ever Been...? by Turtle Island Quartet  
• Great Strauss Scenes by Christine Brewer, Richard Strauss, Donald Runnicles and Atlanta Symphony Orchestrav 
• Pushing the Envelope by Gerald Albright
• Joined at the Hip by Pinetop Perkins and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith 
• Cameron Live! by Cameron Carpenter  
• In Hi-Fi Stereo by Mindi Abair    
• Clovis People, Vol. 3 by Otis Taylor   
• Groove Alchemy by Stanton Moore   
• Interchange: Concertos by Joaquin Rodrigo, Sergio Assad, David Amado, Delaware Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Guitar Quartet    
• Sonidos Latinos by David Russell  
• Flood by Moreland & Arbuckle 
• Rockin in Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington by John Pizzarelli   
• Bach Cello Suites by Zuill Bailey   
• Mozart Arias For Male Soprano by Michael Maniaci, Boston Baroque and Pearlman   
• Booker's Guitar by Eric Bibb  
• Place to Be by Hiromi   
• Holst: The Planets; Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, Paavo Järvi and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 
• Blu.Black by Corey Harris  
• Never Far Away: Music of Bright Sheng by Bright Sheng, Jahja Ling and San Diego Symphony Orchestra
• From the Top at the Pops by Edvard Grieg, Max Bruch, Stephen Feigenbaum, Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn     
• Caroline Goulding by John Corigliano, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Paul Schoenfield and James Scott Skinner
• Complete Works for Piano & Cello by Zuill Bailey and Simone Dinnerstein
• Jacques Loussier Plays Bach by Johann Sebastian Bach and Jacques Loussier
• For David by Sergio Assad, Francis Kleynjans, Stephen Goss, Benjamin Verdery and Philip Rosheger
• Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10; Veljo Tormis: Overture No. 2 by Dmitry Shostakovich, Veljo Tormis, Paavo Järvi and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
• Górecki: Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" by Henryk Gorecki, Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Christine Brewer  
• Desire by Tierney Sutton 
• Never Going Back by Shemekia Copeland  
• Keri Noble by Keri Noble  
• At Last by Ann Hampton Callaway 
• Zuill Bailey: Russian Masterpieces for Cello and Orchestra by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, Martin West and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra     

Telarc is why I adopted the SACD format

Found an interesting quote of mine on a printout of my old now defunct website analoglovers.com dated 2/16/2007

"To my ears DSD is the least destructive of all digital but it is still digital.  If Telarc made 100% pure analog LPs I would have no need for digital."

Telarc recordings are the only reason I own an SACD player.  The Concord Music Group purchasing Telarc and then ending their SACD program is the biggest disappointment in my life and the greatest tragedy to befall the SACD format.

Since Telarc is not making SACDs anymore, I want someone (anyone) to give step up and equal the sonic excellence they achieved and record the basic repertoire.  PentaTone, Reference Recordings, Channel Classics and IsoMike are sometimes close but not quite there yet, but I do have hope.  My biggest hope is that someone buys Telarc from Concord Music Group and restarts their SACD program, so I can be excited about new SACDs again!

I remember the rush of chills that would cascade my body when a new Telarc SACD was announced!  Then the anticipation as I wait for it to arrive in the mail.  And then the supreme excitement of the first playing of a new Telarc SACD, which are unique as they get better and better on each additional play.  My oldest and still one of my favorite Telarc SACDs is over a decade old, purchased in December 2000 - On Broadway with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops.

Whereas I would gladly replace any non-Telarc recording I own with a Telarc high resolution version, I would NEVER replace a Telarc with a recording from another label.  Telarc's ARE that great!

I would prefer the Telarc SACD program to resume as that is how DSD recordings sound the best but I will settle for high resolution downloads, Blu-Ray or perhaps a yet to be invented high resolution format.  However downsampling these wonderful recordings to CDs and MP3 as is being done now is totally unacceptable!  

Perhaps LP will be Telarc's new high resolution format?  They have reissued some of their LPs such as Round-Up Orff's Carmina Burana and Ein Straussfest: Music Of The Strauss Family  Of course these are from the digital masters, 50kHz in the last two.  

Concord Music Group is also now issuing Jazz and Rock LPs under it's many labels.  

I would love to find a financial backer to purchase Telarc from CMG

As previously noted Concord Music Group is letting most Telarc's SACDs and CDs go out of print, some now only available as MP3s.

Telarc made what I feel are the most realistic recordings ever released on SACD or any other format.  They are the definition of the concert hall experience and was SACDs biggest supporter, that is until they were purchased by Concord Music Group.  

Telarc records exactly what was in the concert hall, jazz club or studio, no tricks, no EQ, no unnecessary mixing, etc.  What you hear on their SACDs is what you would hear if you were there in person.  They record mostly direct to stereo and direct to surround.  Even most of the sound effects on the Cincinnati Pops recordings are done in "real time'  So far Telarc is the only record company to expose the full resolution of SACD.  Channel Classics, PentaTone, Reference Recordings and a handful of others sometimes come close but they are not there yet.  In time I hope they will be.

See also:

Telarc, masters of the Art and Science of recording

About Telarc

Telarc Records - The Living Legends

Natural realistic bass response is a hallmark of Telarc recordings

Why I love Telarc DSD recorded SACDs

In short if not for Telarc I would not own an SACD player, for me Telarc defines the SACD format.  Sadly Concord Music Group, Telarc's new owner decided two years ago to no longer release SACDs even though they still record using the PURE DSD in multichannel using state of the art high band equipment in including the Sanken CO-100K microphone with frequency response to 100kHz.  

If I had a million dollars I would buy Telarc from Concord Music Group and issue all of the DSD recordings on SACD they made in the last two years.  In addition I would issue all of the DSD multichannel and stereo only recordings Telarc made since they started recording DSD in 1998 that were never released on SACD.  I would issue the rest of the historic 50kHz Soundstream recordings from 1978-1984.  In addition I would reissue all the SACDs Concord Music Group allowed to go out of print.  I would love to find a wealthy Telarc lover willing to support me in this endeavor.   

Highlights from a 12 year old interview with Jack Renner

Jack Renner of Telarc: Direct from Cleveland!
By Jonathan Scull •  Stereophile October, 1998

Lots of early history and tidbits about Telarc in this interview I just discovered.  Here are some quotes from Jack Renner but I recommend reading the entire article. LINK

Reply to Tom Stockham about using his Soundstream digital system, "If you'll extend it beyond 20kHz, we'll do a project with you."  To which he replied "All right, it's at 22.5k, where's the project?" Thus was born the 50kHz Soundstream recording system.

"...on April 4th and 5th in 1978 we made audiophile history with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds and Holst's Suites 1 and 2 for Military Band. It was the first commercial digital recording of symphonic music in this country. The bass drum that was heard around the world!"

"Firebird was the first commercial orchestral digital recording done in this country. Then, in October, we went back to Cleveland and recorded the now-famous Pictures at an Exhibition. And unbeknownst to us, that was to become the first digital recording with a world-class orchestra done anywhere in the world."

"I know what it's like to stand in front of a performing group. I know what it feels like. I know what it sounds like, the mix of direct and reverberant sound, for example."

"The master tape should sound like real musicians in real acoustic space."

"Well, it all really comes down to the signal path and, I think, to the combination of components. For years, when I first started making orchestral recordings with three and four microphones, I had a lot of imitators. But people just didn't quite get it right. Because it's not just putting up three or four mikes. It's which mikes you choose, it's the cable, it's the electronics—it's the whole signal path."

"We have used hot-rodded consoles. We had one that was internally wired with Monster Cable that we used for a long time. In fact, a number of years ago we were recording the Cincinnati Pops and the Monster Cable console went down—nothing to do with the fact that it was wired with Monster Cable, of course."

"We actually use a combination of Monster Cables and MIT. We're good friends with both Noel Lee and Bruce Brisson."

"So a component failed in the middle of a session. We had a backup console from the same manufacturer, Neotek, and it took us only 10 minutes to set it up. Now understand, we've got a signal that's spent its whole life from the microphone output to the A/D going through Monster Cable. Then we switched to the console with the standard cable in it. And the minute I brought up the fader, everybody in the control room—not just my technical assistants and the producer, but the orchestra manager, the musicians who weren't in that particular number—they all said, "What did you do, what happened to the sound?" Everyone could hear that the soundstage got smaller. Everything just got a little more narrow and not quite as bloomy. If you ever needed a demonstration of the effects of high-performance cable, that was it."

Personal heroes

"C. Robert Fine...that was easy! Without even realizing it, when I was a high school music teacher, I was listening to his Mercury Living Presence recordings and thinking, "Boy, that sounds like the real thing!" It was just...right. Or Lewis Layton on the RCA/Chicago Reiner recordings. They were models of simplicity that sounded absolutely natural."

Telarc SACDs disappearing

Concord Music Group is not only letting Telarc SACDs go out of print, but CDs as well. many Telarc recordings are now only available as MP3s.   New Telarc CDs are still being released but I wonder if they will do just one CD printing and then when it is gone just sell MP3s?  

Telarc is now on Yahoo Groups

Bob has started a Telarc Forum on Yahoo Groups dedicated to the discussion of Telarc LPs, Cassettes. CDs and SACDs.