What's Available Now from NHK?

NHK or The Japan Broadcasting System is taking the lead in publishing Blu-ray titles of symphonic music with audiophile-quality sound. They are apparently being distributed under the "Wint" label. The package labels state that almost all of the sound tracks were recorded with 96 kHz/24 bit technology. NHK is the only major label doing this. Much of what has come out so far is aimed primarily at the Japan domestic market. The disc, jewelbox, and literature are mostly in Japanese with limited English information. But the discs are region free; indications are that audiophiles and serious music lovers all over the world are interested in them. The prices for these discs is high, in part because of the care with which these products are made. And if you buy them with dollars, you will understand why the Japanese are concerned about the "strong" yen. We don't have anybody in Dallas, Texas who speaks Japanese. If you know Japanese, we would like to hear from you and get some help with translating some of the information on these discs and their packaging.

1. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 ("Pathetique"). Seiji Ozawa conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin. Released in 2008, this title has 5.0 PCM 96 kHz/24 bit sound. It is available now and you can order it by clicking now on Symphony No. 6.
    
   [It appears this has not been distributed in Europe or the U.S. It's a bit hard to figure why anyone would publish a HDVD for any market with only one symphony. From the viewpoint of NHK, this was probably an experiment. Seiji Ozawa has had a successful career in the West. In Japan, he is the Zeus of western music. So Japanese music lovers may have been happy to buy this in honor of the gods. By edict of the gods, we now have two HDVD performances of the Pathetique directed by Ozawa. This is not the same performance as that of the Pathetique by the same forces published in 2009 by Medici Arts in its Karajan Memorial Concert title (where it is a bonus selection). The NHK performance is fine, but so is the one on the Karajan Memorial Concert disc. Still people interested in 96 kHz/24 bit sound or the Japanese language material on the package might prefer the NHK disc even at its high cost. The quality of the performance and recording here would be in the A range, but I grade this title "X" because there is only one performance on this expensive HDVD. Henry McFadyen, Jr. July 2010]


2. Mahler Symphony No. 1 ("Titan") and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra (Saito Memorial Festival Orchestra). The Berlioz was recorded at the 2007 Festival; the Mahler was recorded in 2008. Released in 2009, this title has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. About 99% of the printed material with this disc is in Japanese. If you don't know that language, it's a humbling experience to navigate your way through the titles and extras, but you can do it. It's available now and you can order it by clicking now on Mahler Symphony No. 1 and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique.
    
   [Hideo Saito (1902-1974) almost single-handedly introduced Western classical music to Japan. His most famous protégé is Seiji Osawa, who was conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 27 years. Osawa is a kind of world citizen who seems to be always everywhere except that each September he returns to Japan to lead the Saito Kinen Memorial Festival Orchestra.
   Most of the members of the SMFO are Japanese regulars. But there is also a sprinkling of stellar musicians from the West, some of whom have already appeared on HDVDs reported on this website. For example, from this disc I recognize Rainer Seegers (tympany) and Gábor Tarkövi (trumpet) of the Berliner Philharmoniker. They appear in the Karajan Memorial Concert title published by medici arts. Also, Jacques Zoon, who plays principal flute in the Mahler Symphony No. 1, appears in the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, also published by medici arts.
   Each year the SMFO gathers and frantically rehearses to prove they can play major works in a manner competitive with the great Western symphony orchestras. I would not be qualified to say if they succeed on this disc. But from the way the performers act after each number, it's clear they think they have pulled it off. And Gramophone magazine in October 2009 declared the SMFO to be number 19 among the best 20 symphony orchestras in the world! Both performances on this disc are excellent for sure and worthy of our attention. market.
   The high-definition video recordings of both works combine sharp, clear full-stage shots with apt closeups. I found many interesting things to observe. For example, the SMFO has a blind violin player! I tried to compare the quality of the HNK sound recordings to that on the Karajan Memorial Concert, the medici arts HDVD disc that everyone loves so much (with the Berliner Philharmoniker directed by Ozawa). This I did both on my modest gear at home and on high-end equipment at the showroom of guru John Fort in Dallas (John Fort Audio Video).
   Fort and I concluded: What you hear from a sound recording isn't what the composer heard in his mind. Nor is it what the conductor hears or what a person sitting in the audience hears. What you hear in your home theater is what the sound engineer believes is the best rendition of the data he has from the recording session. The engineer has no control over the artistic merits of the recording, but he has a lot to say about the character and quality of what you hear. I would appear that the HNK engineers put special emphasis on getting accurate information for each section and individual voice in the orchestra. For example, the single harpist in the Mahler recording sits a bit aside from the rest of the performers, so there is a spot mike just for her. On the HNK recording, you hear the individual instruments especially well. On the Karajan Memorial Concert recording, the individual instruments are less distinct, but there is a stronger sense of "soundstage" and cohesion of the entire ensamble. So we would not say that either recording is better.
   Before visiting Fort, I had felt that the HNK recording was too "thin" for my taste. But when I returned to my small HT, I found that I liked the HNK better if I turn up the volume past my usual setting. Then I hear all the instruments and get a stronger sense of soundstage. But I can only do this when no other family members are home, because the loud sections of both these dramatic symphonies rumble through the whole house. I grade this title as an "A" with no markdown for high cost. Henry McFadyen, Jr.]
    
   
3. Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and Sommernachtstraum. Seiji Ozawa conducts a 20th-year anniversary concert of his Japanese Mito Chamber Orchestra in April, 2009 at the Mito Art Tower. Yu Kosuge is the piano soloist. For the Sommernachtstraum the orchestra is joined by soprano Akiko Nakajima, mezzo Katherine Rohrer, ladies of the Tokyo Opera Singers (Chorus master: Masanori Mikawa), and narrator Yukiyoshi Ozawa (Seiji's son, an actor). The information in the collector's booklet is 99+% in Japanese, but there are nice subtitles in English. Disc has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. It is available now and you can order it by clicking now on Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and Sommernachtstraum.
    
   [Two of the most delicious confections from the Mendelssohn Konditorei! Kosuge had as much fun playing the piano as I had watching her. The A Midsummer Night's Dream music is complete with the Overture (written when Mendelssohn was 17) and the Incidental Music (written when Mendelssohn was 35). I was familiar with this music from the A Midsummer Night's Dream Ballet recorded by the Pacific Northwest Ballet and issued in HDVD by Opus Arte. I guessed that the soloists and singers on that disc were rendering poetry from Shakespeare, but I could not follow it. On the Mito Chamber Orchestra disc, subtitles for the poetry are provided in Japanese and English! Also, the music pauses from time to time for narration by Yukiyoshi Ozawa (subtitles in English), which gives the Japanese audience some inkling about what goes on in Shakespeare's complicated play of fairies, lovers, and weddings. My daughter, who prefers rock music, did burst into the home theater, mouth agape, at the sound of the famous wedding march. Finally, there is, as a bonus selection, a tender rendition of the Bach Air from Orchestral Suite in D major.
   One benefit from seeing classical concerts in HDVD is that you get to know the individual musicians! In this recording I recognized maybe 8 players from the Saito Kinen Orchestra featured on the NHK HDVD of the Mahler Symphony No. 1 and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. The Mito group has a lady tympani player, something I never saw before.
   The only reservation I could have about this disc is its cost. It's probably a luxury item even in Japan. The exchange rate (December 2009) now against the yen would make this quite expensive for most consumers outside Japan. NHK knows this, of course, and the disc is not intended to compete with vendors like Opus Arte or Decca. So I grade this title as an "A" with no markdown for high cost. Maybe NHK could compete outside Japan by including more music on their titles. Henry McFadyen, Jr.)
    
   
4. Bruckner Symphony No. 9 and Schumann Piano Concerto. Bernard Haitink conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Murray Perahia is the piano soloist. The title is the first effort by NHK to produce an HDVD of Western classical music with performers who have no special connection to Japan. The front cover is in English. But the rest of the disc is in Japanese. There are extras with persons speaking in English, but only Japanese subtitles are provided. So this disc is not aimed at the world market, but just for domestic consumption in Japan. This title has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. It is available now and you can order it by clicking now on Bruckner Symphony No. 9 and Schumann Piano Concerto.
    
   [Gramophon magazine says that the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is the best in the world. Haitink was long the conductor there. He was succeeded a few years ago by Mariss Jansons. Here Haitink was invited back as guest conductor, so this was a sentimental event for everybody. The Gebouw itself also seemed to enjoy the evening by emitting its own mysterious aura. It's the most magnificent music venue I've seen. It has the same "shoebox" shape as the Vienna Großer Musikvereinssaal. But it is larger and grander even than the Vienna hall and appears consecrated, as if it were a church. It features staircases that emerge from the top of the back wall and fall sweeping past the huge organ through the performing stage to the conductor's podium. When the conductor and soloists descend these steps, you think of Judgement Day.
   The Schumann concerto with Perahia provided a comfortable warm up. The best seats in the house were occupied by a family with a seven-year old boy and his slightly older sister. The young man made it thru the Schumann almost without wiggling. After the intermission, the family was gone---wisely relieving the children from having to endure the Bruckner.
   Even I start wiggling after 40 minutes of Bruckner. So when that time came in my home theater, I went to the pantry and got a beer. Thus braced, I'll have to say that the 9th Symphony kept growing on me. This work has long passages of extremely tricky fast music played by the huge band at just barely-audible pianissimo. The Concertgebouw folks handled all this with absolute precision and authority. The NHK sound engineers also recorded this with matching precision and clarity. Since this piece was dedicated to God, the brass sections (including a bunch of horn players switching to Wagner tubas) got their chance to offer up sounds audible in Heaven.
   So this is a beautiful HDVD of a special event played by great musicians in one of the world's top concert halls. The 96kHz/24 bit sound is excellent. After this disc came out we got the Leipziger Gewandhaus version of the Schumann piano concerto with Argerich as pianist. The Argerich performance makes the Perahia take seem a bit soulless and academic. On reconsideration, I grade the Perahia concerto title as a "B." I still give the Bruckner an "A." So the combined grade for the disc would be an "A-" or maybe a "B+." Henry McFadyen, Jr March 12, 2010]
    
5. Seiji Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set. A compilation of concerts conducted by Seiji Ozawa over the years. This title will be released June 25, 2010. It is available for pre-order from CDJapan.
    
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6. Brahms Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra. This title, released 2010, has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. Valuable bonus features. It is available now from CDJapan.
    
   [Here comes the Saito Kinen Orchestra (Saito Memorial Festival Orchestra) again with my favorite symphony musician, the blind violin player. The recording of the Brahms Symphony No. 2 was made in 2009 only 10 months before it was released in early summer 2010. The NHK folks were trying hard; and with this title, they moved up to a new level of excellence in the recording of symphony music. I just listened to this three times. This is the best played and recorded symphony I have experienced. This was also the first time in my life when I felt I had supped with Brahms, a composer I usually have listened to from a sense of duty rather than desire. Why is this recording so good? The Saito Kinen group was fired up (you see that best after the performance). Next, the NHK engineers have perfected their 96kHz/24 bit sound recording techniques in the large venue. Finally, the photography was expertly mapped to the actions of the conductor and the principal players. Plentiful lighting of the stage allowed the cameramen to take picture quality for granted and focus on framing their images.
   The Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 was recorded in 2006 with a huge orchestra. (Probably only about 25% of the players in 2006 were also in the orchestra in 2009.) This recording also offers excellent performance, sound, and video. It's a more dramatic work than the the Brahms Symphony No. 2, and it leaves a terrific impression. So it fits well on the same disc with the Brahms Symphony No. 2 even if the the technical aspects of the recording are not quite on the same exalted level as the Brahms. I also compared this Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 to the San Francisco Symphony version we have in HDVD in the "Keeping Score" series. The SFS recording was made at the Proms in England. The performance was good, but the sound was somewhat muddled and the video crews were challenged by the garish lighting at the huge Proms venue. Probably because of the 96kHz/24 bit sound recording techniques used, the Saito Kinen recording is distinctly better than that of the SFS. The Saito Kinen sound is cleaner, better focused, and more accurate. And with Ozawa conducting, the Saito Kinen performance is more intimate, nuanced, mysterious, and spiritual than of the SFS.
   In summary: for superb playing, sound recording, and video, this title gets an "A+" for the Brahms Symphony No. 2 and an "A+" for the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. Henry McFadyen Jr. July 2010.]
    
   
7. Leoš Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen opera to libretto by the composer. Directed by Laurent Pelly in 2008. Stars Isabel Bayrakdarian and Quinn Kelsey. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Set for release on August 27, 2010. It is available for pre-order from CDJapan.
    
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8. Mahler Symphony No. 9 and Beethoven Symphony No.7. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Disc is set for release on August 27, 2010. It is available for pre-order from CDJapan.
    
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