Please see my review
of Ossy Renardy’s Brahms Concerto
for a brief overview of this series
of remastered recordings overseen by
Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio. Also
follow the link at the head of the review
for contact information regarding this
issue and the pricing structure which
reflects the short playing time.
Anthony Collins’ Delius
recordings of 1953 suffered from some
sonic limitations and they can now sound
rather string-starved and lacking in
bloom. Additionally surface noise can
rather afflict them. I’ve reviewed a
re-release of them on this site link
and I want to contrast that release
on Decca, and the Beulah which also
features some of them, with this new
one. If we take Brigg Fair we
find that Pristine has concentrated
on eliminating the surface noise that
rather let down the previous re-releases
on Decca and Beulah. The results are
commendably quiet and clean. The consequence
of that however is to reduce the immediacy
of the original recording; the orchestral
strands are much less immediate – harp,
winds – and less airy. Pristine’s result
is a gauzy, quiet one but rather lacks
openness of sound.
The same is true of
the remainder of the Collins sides.
The Walk To The Paradise Garden scores
over Beulah in reducing surface noise
and LP ticks and scratches but there
is much less tone here and the results
sounds dulled. Song of Summer is
similarly transferred. The basses sound
galumphing and indistinct. For all the
surface clutter in the Decca and Beulah
you could hear the string separation
and choirs quite distinctly.
In short I think that
there needs to be a balance between
reducing the surface noise on these
1953 Deccas (and taming the shrillness
of the strings) and retaining immediacy
and openness of sound. We have seen
certain Naxos transfers recently erring
too far in favour of eliminating surface
noise and I think this one does the
same. The ear tends to accommodate the
surface noise after a while but limiting
frequency response doesn’t flatter these
sides. The actual performances are a
different matter. As far as I’m concerned
Collins could do no wrong and I certainly
commend his conducting.
Jonathan Woolf
London Symphony Orchestra/Anthony Collins 
