I had just 20 minutes. Even less actually as I needed time to put the dust cover back on my turntable and get myself ready to start work. But I did have 17 to 18 and a half or so minutes. AND, I really just couldn’t help myself. I HAD to hear the latest classical Hot Stamper I’d just received the previous afternoon in the post.

I always feel a certain mild anxiety before I start meeting with clients in the morning. I work as a trainer, and I’m managing a range of different personalities and problems, physical and mental, sometimes emotional. It can be a challenge. One that always goes better when I’m not stressed out and show up with my “A” game.

So it would seem a stupid idea to turn on my stereo and create a completely unnecessary distraction, not to mention the added time pressure, just before the start of my work day. But this is the kind of stupid thing this audiophile does. I play amazing sounding records at amazingly stupid times. I just can’t seem to help myself.

I put the record on and within seconds, literally, I was transported. What immense SPACE! The orchestra and the hall sounded HUGE! I was hearing sweet, luscious strings, crisp, delicate percussion with POWERFUL tympani and a MASSIVE bass drum. And THOSE HORNS. My goodness. They were sublime.

Soon I realized, this is not a stupid thing to do at all! This is the VERY thing I ought to do. I played most of the first side, took the record off, covered the turntable, and went to work feeling energized. My mind was relaxed; my heart open.

The Power of a Great Classical Record

The right classical record played on the right system is an absolute joy, and it can raise the bar for analog audio to dizzying heights. I recently bought a Super Hot London pressing of Chabrier’s orchestral pieces performed by L’Orchestre De La Suisse Romande and conducted by Ernest Ansermet that floors me every time I played it.

Listening to this new record, it occurred to me how special it was to hear a classical record with SO MUCH air and space, and with every instrument in the orchestra so fully realized and SO natural sounding. Not many audio systems can play a record like this one and bring it to life. It took A LOT of doing the right things in my system – adding two Townshend Seismic Platters and an EAR 324 phono preamp in particular, not to mention a whole host of other system modifications and tweaks, in order hear this record the way it was meant to be heard.

I’ve had plenty of terrific listening experiences with jazz records, such the recent deep-ish dive I took into Charles Mingus’s Pre Bird. And of course, I am SO very up for a BIG, KICK ASS rock album, such as the early “RL” pressings of Led Zeppelin 2 I’ve been playing with regularity over the past few months.

But the experience of hearing a timeless classical piece, thoughtfully recorded, skillfully mastered, well pressed onto vinyl and wonderfully reproduced is so enchanting, I find myself wondering why I listen to anything else. The best experiences I’ve had listening to classical music have left me elated and awestruck by the music; dumbfounded by performances that are nothing short of astonishing.

So when another Super Hot copy of a record featuring “España” arrived at my door last week, this one performed by the London Philharmonic and conducted by Ataúlfo Argenta, I was literally DYING to hear it. What else could I be? Records of this caliber compel me to listen, and the 18 1/2 or so minutes I spent playing it the other morning more than rewarded the effort.

Two Different Hot Stampers of “España”

Each of these Super Hot Stampers features different orchestras and different conductors, but they also include different works. In addition to the Chabrier piece, the Argenta gives us some fine compositions by Enrique Granados, Moritz Moszkowski and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, while the Ansermet features Chabrier’s work alone.

I’ve enjoyed hearing what both albums has to offer, not to mention each conductor’s interpretation of the featured work. Over the past few days I’ve been able to spend some time with each of these records and their respective versions of “España,” consistently struggling to pull myself away from my listening sessions. Getting to know these records has been a thrill and a privilege that I’m now honored to share with you.

If you’re reading this and you are knowledgeable about classical music, know that I am not, and therefore I hope you’ll appreciate that my observations are those of an audiophile with limited experience, but a growing passion and enthusiasm for the genre. I absolutely LOVE this music. And it’s hard for me to overstate HOW MUCH the rare opportunity of hearing these virtuosic performances, reproduced so beautifully, has informed and inspired me.

Two Different Conductors and Performances

Argenta conducts a nimble, romantic, perhaps feminine “España.” He takes his time, building anticipation and drama. His orchestration is fluid, flowing and flamboyant. Ansermet’s portrayal is more measured, the tempo less fluid, steadier, and a bit more forceful. Ansermet’s “España” is the Rolex watch to Argenta’s Balenciaga bracelet. It’s his Saville Row suite to Argenta’s Parisian couture gown.

The respective finales of these pieces nicely highlights their overall differences. Ansermet sustains the drama of the piece more evenly throughout. The entire performance is bold and brash, with his finale only slightly elevated in scale from the performance as a whole. Argenta builds whimsically toward a grand and extravagant finish. Then he serves up a finale that is MASSIVE and EXPLOSIVE, like a turbocharged fireworks display.

From an audiophile perspective, both records give us just about everything we want from a classical record. Both feature HUGE soundstages and sweet, achingly natural tonal presentations. I found the Ansermet a bit bigger and bolder with more solid bass than the Argenta, but the latter to feature some wonderful and wonderfully recorded solo interludes, particularly during the Rimsky-Korsakov piece.

Reproducing a life-sized, lifelike violin AND delivering a larger than life orchestra with the right space and clarity is no easy feat, but this copy of the Argenta manages it with an impressive ease. Near the end of the second movement of “Capriccio Espanol” (or perhaps near the start of the third?), a solo violin comes to life right before us. It sits there, just to left of the room, and it’s so real we can almost reach out and touch it.

This is followed shortly thereafter by a solo flute, further back and to the right, then a harp blooms across the middle of the soundstage, then a group of violins, and then the orchestra, and then another solo violin, this time further back and to the right.

Suddenly, the orchestra comes to life again in HUGE, GLORIOUS waves! The flutes sing like songbirds, the cellos practically warm the air in the room and then . . . THE HORNS! Those sweet, lovely horns with their clear, crisp transients. Before we know it, the orchestra is RACING toward the finish. To say this is exhilarating fails miserably to do it justice.

If I had to quibble, and what self respecting audiophile doesn’t? I’d say that the Argenta Super Hot Stamper is a bit less transparent than its Ansermet counterpart. Going back and forth between the two records, it became clear to me how the Ansermet played with a clarity the Argenta couldn’t quite match. The Ansermet also plays more quietly, which allows us to more easily hear into the soundstage and make out more of the parts with greater ease.

Great Sound and Greater Appreciation

Musically, this translated into an effortlessness that enhanced my enjoyment of Chabrier’s compositions. I found myself more relaxed, more at ease listening to the Ansermet. Outside of the featured work, his rendering of the iconic, Fete Polonaise is a particular standout. At once precise and majestic, exuberant and exacting, Ansermet deftly navigates the piece’s joyful, waltz and mazurka rhythms, delivered so beautifully clear and delightfully distortion free on the Super Hot Stamper.

Perhaps we can simply chalk up this difference up to that of the recordings, but I really have no idea. These are the only copies of each of these records I’ve ever heard, and therefore how each stands up relative to others I can only guess at. Both copies earned the Super Hot grade from the Better Records team, and I have absolutely no trouble seeing why. Both are fantastic in their own ways, and I can honestly claim no clear favorite.

But purely from an audiophile perspective, the difference in these records comes down to this – the Argenta, with all of its many strengths, never manages to transcend the medium. Playing it, I’m remain aware that I’m listening to a performance, however revelatory, playing back on a record.

With the Ansermet, I was able to lose myself in the illusion that I was hearing a live performance. In my book, this is the ultimate test for a record and the system playing it. When the art transcends the artifice in analog audio, you’re hearing something very special indeed.

More Classical!

More Hot Stampers