Opinion

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Christopher Breunig  |  Sep 12, 2024
Now remastered several times, Britten’s War Requiem was recorded by the composer in 1963. Christopher Breunig recalls its Coventry premiere and, later, his cheeky cub reviewer’s account

Reissued last November on vinyl and in digital formats, Benjamin Britten’s Decca recording of his War Requiem was produced at Kingsway Hall by John Culshaw, and engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson, in January 1963 – eight months after its Coventry Cathedral UK premiere.

Peter Quantrill  |  Sep 12, 2024
With programme notes now written and translated by chatbots, and record covers created by image generators, can the first classical AI recording be far behind? Peter Quantrill thinks not

It was the word homotonal that caught my eye. Surely no one writes like that in 2024, I wondered to myself. I read on. ‘Similar to Plato’s ideas of the imprint of moral virtues onto the human soul through music…’ – eh? Bear in mind I was reading a booklet note to accompany a new album of Mozart’s piano sonatas. I flipped the page to look for the author’s credit. No name given.

Jim Lesurf  |  Sep 12, 2024
Jim Lesurf remembers a former HFN stalwart as he battles with the poor ergonomics and insufficient printed manual of a new audio purchase – before sending it back for a refund.

Many years ago I saw a poster which showed a young woman in a wheelchair at the top of a flight of stairs that led down to a public washroom. The point being made was simple: she wasn’t disabled by being unable to walk. The problem was that whoever installed the facility had ignored the existence of people who found the stairs a barrier.

Barry Willis  |  Sep 12, 2024
Hi-fi’s traditional distribution model has evolved due to the Internet, but the price of high-end equipment will always remain high, says Barry Willis – it’s more fine art than mass-market tech

Last month I touched upon the economics of audio – in particular, the unlikely possibility of getting back a substantial fraction of the money put into high-performance equipment. Long ago, the rule of thumb was that suggested list prices for high-end products were generally five times factory cost. That was when multi-tiered distribution was still the rule – manufacturers delivered goods to distributors, who in turn offered them to dealers. Distributors provided marketing assistance, employing sales reps who called on dealers, did demonstrations, and could intervene in the case of defective products.

Barry Fox  |  Sep 12, 2024
Shoppers at HMV can pick up an affordable turntable to go with their new LPs, but the retailer appears less interested in CD hardware. Barry Fox wonders if DVD players can fill the gap

Vinyl sales keep on climbing. They topped £177 million in the UK in 2023 – seven times higher than ten years ago. The figures come from ERA (which by linguistic contortion is short for the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association). ERA chief executive officer Kim Bayley couples the vinyl climb with ‘the remarkable return of HMV, now back in its Oxford Street home’.

Steve Harris  |  Aug 07, 2024
The BBC isn’t just a creator of content – since the early days of hi-fi it’s collected and archived commercial music. But has its operation become too big to continue, wonders Steve Harris

When you’ve got a million records, some of them might have to go. In January the BBC began a series of online auctions to dispose of unwanted vinyl from its fabled record library. In a tweet, Omega Auctions said it had spent a productive few days clearing out thousands of LPs from the BBC’s archive. You wonder whether this was just another job to them, or whether they thought they’d died and gone to heaven.

Peter Quantrill  |  Aug 07, 2024
They’re everywhere, says Peter Quantrill, but let’s dispel dyspeptic indignation and instead see young and gifted conductors as a sign of hope when it comes to the future of classical music. Tarmo Peltokoski is among the most youthful and gifted products of Jorma Panula’s conducting class at the Helsinki Conservatoire in Finland

As a follower of cricket and football, I got used years ago to seeing professionals at the top of their game (sorry), who had been born within the current millennium. But conductors? DG has lately been making a song and dance about their latest signing, Tarmo Peltokoski. Born in April 2000, he is now principal guest conductor of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and DG has recorded and filmed them together in a trio of Mozart’s mature symphonies.

Jim Lesurf  |  Aug 07, 2024
Our hi-fi history is often passed over by academics and museum curators, believes Jim Lesurf, which is why books such as Stephen Spicer’s celebration of Leak are so worthwhile

I was recently delighted and excited to hear that a new edition of Stephen Spicer’s book on the history of Leak – Firsts In High Fidelity – has been released. The original edition appeared as a large-format paperback in the year 2000, and it’s a fascinating account of the story of the people involved, the company, and its products.

Barry Willis  |  Jul 30, 2024
Barry Willis has turned some impressive profits reselling vintage audio gear, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule. In fact, much of the time he’s left counting the cost..

An enduring bit of wisdom cautions against extravagant purchases – the must-have new car, for example, that loses 20% of its value the moment it’s driven off the dealer’s lot. Something similar happens with high-end audio, but worse, because were you to try selling your latest cost-be-damned amplifier or ultra-performance DAC two weeks post-purchase, you’d be dismayed to learn that you might recover only 50% or so of what you paid.

Barry Fox  |  Jul 30, 2024
What’s the best method for turning your analogue LPs into a digital stream? Barry Fox seeks the solution as he digs into a confusing world of dongles, A/D converters and open source software

Experts will tell you it’s easy to make a digital copy of a music stream, or LP, to play in a car or carry around. You ‘just’ suck analogue music out of your hi-fi, feed it into a computer and then ‘just’ send it to a memory device or burn to a blank CD. Yes, but it’s only easy when you already know exactly how. I’ve recently got my hands dirty finding out the easiest ‘how’ for people who want to listen to music, not burrow down computer rabbit holes. Most computers no longer come with a disc burner. But they do come with USB sockets and for £20 you can buy a portable optical burner that literally just plugs into a USB socket. Software (or an ‘app’ in modern parlance) is needed to copy music to a blank CD or USB memory stick that plays at the press of a button.

Steve Harris  |  Dec 01, 2018
We have a hundred more record shops than we did in 2009, thanks to the efforts of those who run the stores and events like Record Store Day. But don’t celebrate just yet, warns Steve Harris
Barry Willis  |  Dec 01, 2018
An electric shock from an antique valve amp finally sends the rose-tinted glasses flying from the face of Barry Willis. Vintage gear? You can keep it, because the golden age of audio is happening now...
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