The new audiophile vinyl series The Original Source from Deutsche Grammophon (AAA)

[Rensselaer]

I just discovered that DG shipped my first order (for the 1st batch or Original Source albums) to Canada by SHIP (“maritime transport”). Yes, they are in a shipping container. It’s been a month since they sent it, and it’s still not even loaded on the ship!
They charged 60EUR to ship 4 albums, which is more than enough for air shipping. Guaranteed, they will all be warped when they arrive. Previously, they have always shipped by air, so I’m not sure what’s going on, other than pure incompetence.

I just sent them an email asking them to send a new batch via air. Honestly, I have never encountered such incompetence in eCommerce as with Bravado, the company that handles DG.com orders. They also never reply when they don’t like the question, so we’ll see what to do if they don’t.

If your DHL tracking # starts with two letters, it has not gone out by air, or it has but will use your local post office for delivery within your country; or it’s being sent by ship and will use your local post office. Terrible.

You’ll find tracking info here: https://www.dhl.de/en/privatkunden/pakete-empfangen/verfolgen.html?piececode=[ENTER TRACKING #]
USPS won’t show anything useful until it reaches the USA. @Lxgreen, yours looks like it was air to the US and now USPS ground from the DHL hub to you… DG should have paid for direct air service.

I ordered five LPs from them using PayPal. Two were not pressed yet (or back ordered) so I agreed to them holding all until those two were ready then shipping them all to me then (to the UK). After approving payment on PayPal, nothing. I sent them an email saying that usually, whenever I purchase something on line, I get some sort of acknowledgement from the vendor thanking me for the purchase, listing their understanding of what I purchased and confirming that all the records would be shipped when the two on back order were done in August. They returned an email listing the two on back order only. I wrote them again asking for the rest of the LPs I purchased to be included on the email for proof of purchase should nothing come of them later, then finally got what I should have received straight off. I am guessing this re-issue thing is new and everyone is trying to find their feet/roles. And then there is the language barrier.

 

[bonzo75]

Szell courtesy the General.

still got a few more performances to go through

 

[Rensselaer]

View attachment 112013View attachment 112014

Szell courtesy the General.

still got a few more performances to go through

When you've finished would you kindly list each in order (best number one) for the following?:
list one: interpretation/performance
list two: best sounding (most real/natural sounding)

 

[MikeHorns]

Has anyone ordered the complete 2nd batch from Music Direct, or another retailer in N America? I see that Music Direct does not have all the albums on the website: they show only 3 albums, but there are 7.

I bought them from Amazon. Lower price + free shipping.

 

[bonzo75]

DG Original Source

I am happy see new AAA series from one of the cornerstones of classical recording labels.There are four titles as of now, all mastered by Emil Berliner from original 4 track tapes. They say all of them will be on 180g vinyl and in deluxe gatefold with original covers. The records are limited and numbered and cost 35euros. No extortion prices and I am happy to pay that sum for clean AAA copies of good performances.

The first four titles are as follows;

Carlos Kleiber & Die Wiener Philharmoniker Beethoven: Sinfonie Nr. 7

Claudio Abbado & London Symphony Orchestra Stravinsky: Sacre Du Printemps

Emil Gilels, Amadeus Quartet & Rainer Zepperitz Schubert: Klavierquintett A-Dur “Forellenquintett” D. 667

Herbert von Karajan & Die Berliner Philharmoniker Mahler: Sinfonie Nr. 5

The email newsletter I got states that the series will continue for 14 albums which will be released over the course of 2023 but there maybe a typo there. Let's hope not!

Emil Gilels, Amadeus Quartet & Rainer Zepperitz Schubert: Klavierquintett A-Dur “Forellenquintett” D. 667

With the DaVa

 

[the sound of Tao]

View attachment 112013View attachment 112014

Szell courtesy the General.

still got a few more performances to go through


View attachment 112015

Fantastically spoiled for choices Ked, not always a complete fan of Karajan but a very fine Beethoven cycle… both this 1960’s and in his 1970’s set.

And Kleiber is always fabulously Kleiber (a good thing) and the 5th is the common reference for many even though there are also some detractors who figure he can veer into being a touch impersonal (I still find it an amazingly elevated full on gestalt machine) but this 7th is more of a deeply framed and more personal kind of take with Kleiber.

This should also probably be put in the context that for quite some time post war the European orchestras weren’t in optimal shape as they were reasonably decimated by the war (the extraordinary Paris Conservatory orchestra never really recovered) it took the great European orchestras (including the Philharmonia and LSO) time to regather their forces and their brilliance and greatest lustre. In this same period we saw the rise and rise of the great American orchestras… I’m listening right at this moment to a post war Reiner driving the Chicago Symphony into an epic and bedazzling with Dvoraks New World… and similarly (and in peak orchestral form) the Szell/Cleveland pairing is a Beethoven 7th fave, I’m a Szealot the shape of that 7th is flawless and the rendering of the allegretto is such a beautiful movement. Great call from the General adding the Szell’s 7th also into play,

As an aside for the more digitally optimised/oppressed theres still fabulous current performance choices available… I ride happily along with the great Beethoven symphonic cycle from Gunter Wand with the NDR and also you can do no musical harm with Barenboim’s Staatskapelle cycle… so plenty of breathtaking music making still going on (even for those hopelessly abandoned to the current age)… but I’ll digitally digress no further.

You’ve got win win options all over the shop shown here... plenty to love with all your contenders… looking forwards to hearing a video highlight of your favourites… and ongoing commiserations to your bank account as always

 

[Rotatoubib]

Great call from the General adding the Szell’s 7th also into play,

May I ask who is the General?

 

[bonzo75]

May I ask who is the General?

just an ordinary greedy record hoarder

 

[bonzo75]

Fantastically spoiled for choices Ked, not always a complete fan of Karajan but a very fine Beethoven cycle… both this 1960’s and in his 1970’s set.

And Kleiber is always fabulously Kleiber (a good thing) and the 5th is the common reference for many even though there are also some detractors who figure he can veer into being a touch impersonal (I still find it an amazingly elevated full on gestalt machine) but this 7th is more of a deeply framed and more personal kind of take with Kleiber.

This should also probably be put in the context that for quite some time post war the European orchestras weren’t in optimal shape as they were reasonably decimated by the war (the extraordinary Paris Conservatory orchestra never really recovered) it took the great European orchestras (including the Philharmonia and LSO) time to regather their forces and their brilliance and greatest lustre. In this same period we saw the rise and rise of the great American orchestras… I’m listening right at this moment to a post war Reiner driving the Chicago Symphony into an epic and bedazzling with Dvoraks New World… and similarly (and in peak orchestral form) the Szell/Cleveland pairing is a Beethoven 7th fave, I’m a Szealot the shape of that 7th is flawless and the rendering of the allegretto is such a beautiful movement. Great call from the General adding the Szell’s 7th also into play,

As an aside for the more digitally optimised/oppressed theres still fabulous current performance choices available… I ride happily along with the great Beethoven symphonic cycle from Gunter Wand with the NDR and also you can do no musical harm with Barenboim’s Staatskapelle cycle… so plenty of breathtaking music making still going on (even for those hopelessly abandoned to the current age)… but I’ll digitally digress no further.

You’ve got win win options all over the shop shown here... plenty to love with all your contenders… looking forwards to hearing a video highlight of your favourites… and ongoing commiserations to your bank account as always

I forgot to mention the Stokowski test press I have of B’s 7th.

As for the new world, I had compared the original decca kertesz (costs over 1k now) to the speaker’s corner on my first trip to G’s 5 years ago. I have the kertesz repress from decca, the Szell Cleveland, the Horenstein. Few others to compare including the Reiner.

musically my favourite is Ancerl with the Czech Phil. You can hear the vinyl rip on YouTube

 

[Rotatoubib]

i ordered the re-mastered version from Esoteric, should arrive next week
Title: Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 From the New World
Composer: Antonín Dvo?ák
Conductor: István Kertész
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic
Genre: Classical
Media: 1x 180g LP Vinyl Stereo 33rpm, Limited, Remastered, . Esoteric Classical Masterpiece Collection. Esoteric Mastering. Cutted on Neumann SP79C cutting console with VMS80 cutting lath @ Mixer´s Lab in Japan
Label: ESOTERIC
Cat#: ESLD-10001
Released: 1.4.2023 in Japan
Original release: 1961 by Decca SXL 2289
EAN: 4907034224838

 

[Rotatoubib]

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

I have bought all of the current three batches of Deutsche Grammophon 'The Original Source' vinyl with buying the last two batches last night all except for one i.e. 'Mozart Concertos Nos. 25 & 27' which is now sold out ! .

So if any WBF Members who may have bought more than one Mozart Concertos Nos. 25 & 27 would like to sell one of their copies to me this would be great so I can complete the set.

Just playing 'Beethoven Symphonie Nr 7' from the first batch and it sounds fantastic ! . Record surface noise near non existent and no pops and clicks with listening through my headphone system, although I guess re-setting up my MSL Eminent Ex cartridge using my newly purchased Wally Tools (Wally Scope, Wally Reference, Wally Skater & Wally Tractor Universal) last weekend with great email support and invaluable help and guidance from J.R. Boisclair has helped dramatically towards this as my other high quality records have also dramatically improved with lower record surface noise (I will be doing a WBF write up on my experience with using the Wally Tools in the near future).

 

[spiritofmusic]

All four titles sound great, chief takeaway being some of the best dynamics I've heard in my system. Current set of four ordered, twelve in total.

 

[bonzo75]

All four titles sound great, chief takeaway being some of the best dynamics I've heard in my system. Current set of four ordered, twelve in total.

why all twelve? Are you becoming a collector, ticking all boxes?

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

These two have sold out now as well ;

Deutsche Grammophon Onlineshop

store.deutschegrammophon.com

Deutsche Grammophon Onlineshop

store.deutschegrammophon.com

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

All four titles sound great, chief takeaway being some of the best dynamics I've heard in my system. Current set of four ordered, twelve in total.

For the 'The Original Source' Deutsche Grammophon re-issue LPs isn't the total so far 10 LPs (4 in first batch released, 3 in second batch released and 4 in the last batch released) ?

 

[spiritofmusic]

why all twelve? Are you becoming a collector, ticking all boxes?

Yes, I must have them all. ALL!

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Yes, I must have them all. ALL!

What are the other two (thinking there are currently only 10 so far) ?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Some more have just been announced.

 

[Zeotrope]

I bought them from Amazon. Lower price + free shipping.

I would trust Amazon more than DG.com for sure; but price is higher, not lower, at least from what I can see now at Amazon.com. From DG.com, it’s 35EUR/USD38.25.
Note that I don’t think you can pre-order from Amazon either.