Album Reviews

Long considered one of the great recordings of the early stereo era, España was originally issued in the UK on the British Decca label (SXL 2020) and on American subsidiary London (CS6006).

The recording venue,  Kingsway Hall, was one of British Decca's finest and it produced many legendary recordings including The Royal Ballet Gala Performances issued by RCA in America—one of a number of superb Decca recordings licensed by RCA.

Long considered one of the great recordings of the early stereo era, España was originally issued in the UK on the British Decca label (SXL 2020) and on American subsidiary London (CS6006).

The recording venue,  Kingsway Hall, was one of British Decca's finest and it produced many legendary recordings including The Royal Ballet Gala Performances issued by RCA in America—one of a number of superb Decca recordings licensed by RCA.

Classic Records issued The Royal Ballet Gala Performances on 180g and 200g double 33 1/3 LPs as well as on 45rpm single sided LP box sets, first on 180g and later on 200g. 

All of the attention lavished on that recording was well deserved. The same is true of this one. 

Speakers Corner issued a single 33 1/3 edition some years ago using a very poorly reproduced, grainy version of the original UK Decca cover. Fortunately the 180g LP pressing was superb as was the sound quality. 

The sonic spectacular presents a program of Spanish folk-music themed symphonic pieces,  written by non-Spaniards, with the exception of Granados's short "Andaluza" (#5) from his "Danzas españolas" originally composed for the piano.

The other pieces are Rimsky-Korsakov's bomastic and dramatically orchestrated, castanet drenched "Capriccio Espagnol," Chabrier's "España Rhapsody," and Moszkowski's "Spanish Dances 1-6." 

Chabrier's "Spanish Dances, Book 1, Op. 12" will sound familiar to some of you of a certain age.

Just as Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never" was lifted from the Italian standard "O Sole Mio" by way of Tony Martin's 1949 pop hit "There's No Tomorrow," Perry Como's 1956 hit "Hot Diggity Dog Diggity (Oh What You Do to Me)" lifts Chabrier's melody here.

The London Symphony, conducted by legendary Spanish conductor Ataulfo Argenta, performs the set with passion and requisite fire.

As for the recording, well, it's stunning in any format and even more so spread to three sides at 45rpm mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes. Side four repeats side one, which is not a bad idea given how many times you're likely to play side one!

The recording creates an exceptionally wide and incredibly deep soundstage—one that's unnaturally wide and deep given the hall perspective, which is back a ways from the stage. When you're sitting that far back you're not going to get this wide a perspective, but this is a recording after all and it was made during the early "wide separation days" of stereophonic recordings. 

Dynamics are extremely wide, instrumental timbers are accurate, with brass that bites nicely and strings that have a silky, but present sheen. Instrumental images are precisely drawn on the stage, which is airy and floats free from the loudspeakers, assuming your system can achieve that.  The overall tonality is rich and warm as the hall's acoustics dominate to a certain degree, warming and smoothing the overall sonic picture. However, the percussion, particularly the castanets and other transient rich instruments are smartly and sharply drawn. They leap from the stage appropriately. 

Folks who bought some of Bernie Grundman's original classical reissues for Classic Records and found some of them somewhat hard and bright need not worry any longer. The upgrade to his mastering chain has enriched the sound without dulling or rounding transients. The Speakers Corner single LP, not mastered at Berliner, is somewhat warmer and softer than Bernie's, but its dynamic expression and detail resolution can't match the new double 45.  

Still, if you own the original or the Speakers Corner, unless you are mad about the program, which, let's face it, is more in the "Festival of Light Classical Music," or Boston Pops repertoire category, you probably don't need to get this.

That said, if you do love it (I do) and want to hear it in all of its detail and dynamic glory, or if you don't have any edition of this recording and you want to hear a sonic spectacular that's also musically nourishing, you cannot go wrong with this record. It's also a tuneful, well-orchestrated and exciting program that's a great introduction to classical music. 

On the original UK Decca, Chabrier's name is correctly spelled throughout the annotation. The London edition misspells it once as "Charbrier". This reissue repeats the error. That's the only error I could find.

A superb reissue!

One final note: the misinformation about Decca FFSS and other curves being used in the stereo error persist, egged on by manufacturers oftering phono preamps with multiple EQ curves. Looking at this early stereo Decca record, recorded in 1957 and issued in 1958 at the dawn of the stereo era, what do we find?

The original UK España (I found it at a garage sale in a nearly empty, decrepit house lying in a box of junk) (!) has a ZAL-3251-5E matrix number stamped on the lead out groove area. "ZAL" was Decca's prefix for a stereo record, the four digit number was the tape identification, the number 5 is the lacquer number and the "E" identifies the mastering engineer. "E" being Stan Goodall. 

Every copy I've ever seen, American and UK has that same matrix number ZAL-3251-5E, which tells me that perhaps the first four lacquers were ruined in the cutting process. 

What's important here is that both the American and UK pressings were sourced from the same lacquer cut. The stamper and mother numbers vary of course. As with EMI, Decca put the mother number at the "9 O'clock" position and the stamper number at the "3 O'clock" position, using the letters "BUCKINGHAM" with "B" being "1" "U" being 2 etc. So that "UK" means the 24th stamper for instance.

The American version plainly says on the back jacket in a box "RIAA CURVE."  Since the American and UK pressings were sourced from the identical lacquer, it would be impossible for the UK version to use the "FFSS CURVE" and the American record, pressed in the UK from the same source, to use the RIAA curve. So when you read someone reference the "FFSS CURVE" being used on British Decca records, it's clearly B.S.! 

There are also those who claim the UK and US versions sourced from the same lacquer and possibly same mother and perhaps same stamper, somehow sound different. I don't see how that's possible except for the usual record to record sonic variations that occur in any press run.

I thought you should know this.