Flutter On Your Bottom End?*
30-odd years after the invention of the CD, Terry Hyde investigates the persistent and intriguing market for classical music on vinyl.
Some of the most valuable vinyl records in the world are recordings of classical music. Even in the under-a-tenner corner of the market, there are plenty of classical collectors who buy used LPs. How come? The received wisdom is that a CD recording is far superior: free of pops, crackles, wow, flutter and turntable rumble. However, you are unlikely to experience the last three if you’re lucky enough to own the English-made Michell Orbe SE turntable shown here (and available locally through Tavistock Audio in Market Street).
It seems that there are several forces driving this market. Firstly, a particular piece or performance may never have been issued on CD; or if it had, it is now long deleted, difficult to find and expensive. So, if you really want such a recording: vinyl is your only option.
Some audiophile collectors (with good hearing) say that the sound of an analogue recording on vinyl is better than a digital recording on CD - it’s somehow ‘warmer’ than digital. This might sound subjective, but there is some science behind this experience, which can get a bit nerdy and involves terms like ‘sample rate’, ‘bit depth’, ‘frequency cut-off’, ‘sound degradation’ and ‘audio resolution’. Or to put it another way, most record companies producing CDs or downloads are just interested in selling stuff: it might as well be deodorant or meat pies.
‘You don’t really care for music, do you?’
Leonard Cohen ‘Hallelujah’ from his LP ‘Various Positions’ (1984)
In the concert hall, the audience is hearing in analogue, where there is more audio saturation and added harmonics. The sound from the stage has not been converted and compressed into billions of ‘bits’ (noughts and ones) to be decoded by ear and brain into what we experience as music. However, just as there are good and bad quality digital CD recordings (even those that have been remastered), so there can be good and bad analogue vinyl
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pressings. For example, in the rock genre, lightweight re-issues of the Stones ‘Sticky Fingers’ on LP were of notoriously poor quality.
Unfortunately, just to undermine my argument and show me up, some classical buyers actually collect digital recordings on LP! Shown here is a photo of one of a pair of digitally recorded LPs by the Japanese-born pianist Mitsuko Uchida, which I sold for £41 on behalf of TASS** to a collector in Taiwan.
At the top end of the market, some collectors who probably don’t even like music, will pay thousands for a rare classical LP, simply because it is a valuable artefact that will increase in
value. Also boosting the market are the ‘completeists’ (also found in rock etc) who want to possess every recording by a particular artist. So, a Maria Callas completeist will want all her recordings on LP (including the compilations and re-issues) and again on CD (even though they are the same recordings) plus also cassette tape, 8-track cartridge and even fragile 78 rpm shellac records.
Finally, as with the 1st edition of a book, collectors will often pay a premium for the 1st ‘pressing’ of an LP. At the moment and shown here, TASS has in stock Cantelli conducting The Philharmonia Orchestra in Beethoven’s 7th Symphony on the Classics for Pleasure label:
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