Thread: Neilsen's new Maskarade

Posts: 10

Post by Geohominid July 8, 2015 (1 of 10)
I'm just in the process of reviewing this opera, having bought a copy from JPC. Having finished listening to Disk 1, I was greeted by my Oppo's announcement that Disc 2 was an unknown disc. After trying this several times, and rebooting the machine, it still could not read Disk 2. I have an earlier Oppo DVD which also plays SACD, and this failed to read Disk 2 as well. Having returned the disc, I ordered one from UK Amazon for next-day delivery. To my chagrin and surprise, while Disk 1 worked, Disk 2 failed again. My computer's BluRay reader was able to read the CD layer on Disk 2.

I have emailed to Da Capo, asking if they knew anything about this and could they advise me if they knew of a way to get a working Disk 2. Haven't heard yet.

If anyone else has had this problem with Disk 2 in the boxed opera, could you let me know?

Thanks,
Geohominid (John)

Post by Chris July 8, 2015 (2 of 10)
Geohominid said:

I'm just in the process of reviewing this opera, having bought a copy from JPC. Having finished listening to Disk 1, I was greeted by my Oppo's announcement that Disc 2 was an unknown disc. After trying this several times, and rebooting the machine, it still could not read Disk 2. I have an earlier Oppo DVD which also plays SACD, and this failed to read Disk 2 as well. Having returned the disc, I ordered one from UK Amazon for next-day delivery. To my chagrin and surprise, while Disk 1 worked, Disk 2 failed again. My computer's BluRay reader was able to read the CD layer on Disk 2.

I have emailed to Da Capo, asking if they knew anything about this and could they advise me if they knew of a way to get a working Disk 2. Haven't heard yet.

If anyone else has had this problem with Disk 2 in the boxed opera, could you let me know?

Thanks,
Geohominid (John)

Dacapo also sell their recordings as hi res downloads. Some even as DXD downloads.

Post by Geohominid July 8, 2015 (3 of 10)
Chris said:

Dacapo also sell their recordings as hi res downloads. Some even as DXD downloads.

Thanks, Chris.
I had the same idea and just downloaded a hi-res master from DaCapo in order to carry on with the review.
John

Post by krisjan July 13, 2015 (4 of 10)
John - why no mention of the disc #2 playability issue in your review? Was your review based partly on the download? I think these are relevant issues that should have been elucidated in a thorough review in addition to the otherwise excellent information you present. At the very least, this discussion should be included in the "Discussion" thread for that release.

Post by Geohominid July 13, 2015 (5 of 10)
krisjan said:

John - why no mention of the disc #2 playability issue in your review? Was your review based partly on the download? I think these are relevant issues that should have been elucidated in a thorough review in addition to the otherwise excellent information you present. At the very least, this discussion should be included in the "Discussion" thread for that release.

Krisjan,
I thought long and hard about this. Granted that two purchased sets had a disc two which failed to load on my two Oppo players MIGHT indicate a mass error in pressing, I emailed to DaCapo but so far have had no reply. I just don't have enough evidence to declare this was a serious problem in the review, as it could stop people in the future from purchasing because of a coincidental problem. I thought it better to find out first if anyone else had an unloadable disc two on a different player. I don't know enough about pressing procedures, presuming that some kind of quality check would have been made on samples from each pressing. If I found that there was clear evidence of the cause being a flaw in a whole pressing (pretty dramatic!) I would have added this to the review, and removed it when there was evidence that the problem was resolved.

In order to get more information without making too much of a fuss, I asked for info from the Forum, and none has yet been given from any source, including the sellers, to whom I have now returned the boxed sets.

Not wanting to waste the time on the review so far, I was keen to carry the job to the end, so I bought and downloaded the Master 96/24 set from DaCapo and very carefully checked that the sound on disc one (which I still had from JPC, awaiting sending back) had no discernible difference to the downloaded flacs. This proved to be the case, so I continued with my review processes. It's the music with which I am mainly concerned; I'm not a representative of a record company. At the time I posted, there was still no evidence that there was a major problem. And at the time of writing, there is still no further evidence about what happened and why.

John M

Post by Chris July 14, 2015 (6 of 10)
Geohominid said:


Not wanting to waste the time on the review so far, I was keen to carry the job to the end, so I bought and downloaded the Master 96/24 set from DaCapo and very carefully checked that the sound on disc one (which I still had from JPC, awaiting sending back) had no discernible difference to the downloaded flacs. This proved to be the case, so I continued with my review processes. It's the music with which I am mainly concerned; I'm not a representative of a record company. At the time I posted, there was still no evidence that there was a major problem. And at the time of writing, there is still no further evidence about what happened and why.

John M

OMG!
You heretic!
At a time when almighty Zeus has decided to upgrade the site to include only SACDs and Blurays you dare to include a review partly based on the PCM masterfiles used at the recordings sessions instead of the Holy Grail SACD?
What were you thinking of?
What if you will be banned for this terrible heresy?

Post by krisjan July 14, 2015 (7 of 10)
John - Thanks for the thorough explanation. I would have handled it differently but I respect your decision to press forward with your review using the D/L'd files. I can only hope that this will not become a major recall problem for Dacapo - margins in this industry are thin enough as is without having the extra costs of repressing and sending replacement discs to miffed customers.

Post by Chris July 14, 2015 (8 of 10)
Dear Geohominid,
thanks a lot for an interesting review and the link to the Royal Danish Library where not only the full score of the Opera Maskarade,but also it seems basically everything else Nielsen composed for orchestra,is available as free pdf downloads. I have both bookmarked their site and already downloaded the 2nd and 5th symphonies and will listen to my recordings with the scores next time.
While I am very happy to discover all this for free, would you or anyone else here,maybe have more sites to recommend for free pdf scores of other works?
Unlike some Gods,I absolutely love this new digital age of downloads!
Cheers Chris

Post by Geohominid July 14, 2015 (9 of 10)
Chris said:

Dear Geohominid,
thanks a lot for an interesting review and the link to the Royal Danish Library where not only the full score of the Opera Maskarade,but also it seems basically everything else Nielsen composed for orchestra,is available as free pdf downloads. I have both bookmarked their site and already downloaded the 2nd and 5th symphonies and will listen to my recordings with the scores next time.
While I am very happy to discover all this for free, would you or anyone else here,maybe have more sites to recommend for free pdf scores of other works?
Unlike some Gods,I absolutely love this new digital age of downloads!
Cheers Chris

Hi Chris,
Glad you are enjoying the pot of golden Nielsen scores in the Royal Library.
Another major source of free scores is IMSLP.org, if you haven't found it already. It has thousands of scanned classical scores of all kinds - solo, chamber, orchestral etc, which are in PDF files. I find it very convenient to download them straight onto my iPad, from whence I easily follow a piece of music with the score. This is really a cloud score bank! Getting hold of a score? Easiest to use Google or your favourite search engine and just type e.g. "IMSLP Chopin mazurkas" and it goes straight there. Lists of editions and extracts or multi-part scores are given, and also lists of performances (not usually major recorded ones) in MP3 which you can listen to. After all my years of laborious searching for free pdf scores, downloading, printing, binding and storing, this is, as you say, another digital thing to love!

Regards,
John

Post by Chris July 15, 2015 (10 of 10)
Geohominid said:

Hi Chris,
Glad you are enjoying the pot of golden Nielsen scores in the Royal Library.
Another major source of free scores is IMSLP.org, if you haven't found it already. It has thousands of scanned classical scores of all kinds - solo, chamber, orchestral etc, which are in PDF files. I find it very convenient to download them straight onto my iPad, from whence I easily follow a piece of music with the score. This is really a cloud score bank! Getting hold of a score? Easiest to use Google or your favourite search engine and just type e.g. "IMSLP Chopin mazurkas" and it goes straight there. Lists of editions and extracts or multi-part scores are given, and also lists of performances (not usually major recorded ones) in MP3 which you can listen to. After all my years of laborious searching for free pdf scores, downloading, printing, binding and storing, this is, as you say, another digital thing to love!

Regards,
John

Thanks a LOT for leading me to a free for all,genuine Goldmine!
I'll be as busy downloading scores as music from now on!
I spent many days at the Esplanade Music Library in Singapore where they have both pocket scores and full size scores ,reading scores both before and after many concerts.
I was actually thinking of going to my nearest properly stocked library which is some 70k from where I live,and borrow some of their scores,yesterday. But now I'll just download for free from IMSLP instead.
The full size printed scores at Kinokunya bookshop in Singapore were often priced at 30-50 SGD.
God bless downloading!
Cheers Chris

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