Today we complete Klemperer's Beethoven cycle with the release of the Symphonies 7-9, recorded in stereo in London's Kingsway Hall for Columbia LP releases in 1957 and 1960. As I've written before (and do so again below), you might easily listen to these recordings, whether in their original LP issues or in any subsequent reissues, including the current EMI CD set, and consider them a great example of the art of recording - not to mention their superlative musical execution.

Yet again, when they're held up against their XR-remastered counterparts, one immediately hears just what a huge difference this technique can bring to these recordings. There is a clarity, a depth, a detail-resolution and an overall sense of "being there" which the original recordings simply couldn't convey, but which Pristine's new transfers have in spades.

Technically there isn't a dud amongst them: in addition to the fantastic sound quality, I've been able to fix tape drop-outs, odd electrical noises, mains hum, off-mic clicks and clunks, and a myriad other small niggles that have been ignored since the day of recording. They really do add up to a stunningly good set of Beethoven recordings, which should be an essential part of any music collection. If you've not taken the plunge yet, why not investigate our "virtual box set" FLAC downloads of the complete series and save 10% on the individual prices?



After continual growth, Pristine's CD sales started to fall in 2012...

It's now nearly 8 years since Pristine Classical launched as an online outlet for historic recordings, and for most of that time we've offered multiple download formats alongside CDs and, more recently, hard disc drives preloaded with our music collection.

During this time, as word has spread, and as more and more people turn to the Internet for their music, we've seen continual growth, year on year, in every part of our business. Until 2012, that is. This year, something very curious and interesting has happened, a trend I've been predicting for some time, but something we've not seen here at Pristine until now. This graph, which brought it to my attention illustrates it perfectly:


Now for obvious reasons I've removed the actual numbers here - suffice to say that the bottom is zero, and these show gross annual income from our three main revenue streams (our music streaming service, PADA, is included in the Downloads total).

As you can see, downloads have long had the edge over CDs in terms of total revenues, but for a while the growth in CD sales pretty much matched that in downloads. These two started to part company a little in 2011, but 2012 has seen something far more dramatic taking place: while downloads have continued on their upward trajectory, CDs have fallen for the first time, and by a considerable amount. Happily for me (and the French tax authorities) interest in our hard drive collections alone has risen by almost enough to counteract the drop in CD sales, so we can continue to keep the French elite in the style to which they have become accustomed (and Pristine gets to live another year!).

It's probably very unusual within the music "industry" to be able to produce figures like this. I can't easily think of another company which can compile these kind of "pure" figures - where there is only one outlet for sales and all of the products sold can be found at that outlet, and where it's equally easy to purchase any of the various formats from that outlet. It's about as unfiltered as sales figures come, and it says quite clearly to me that we're finally witnessing the beginning of the end of the silver disc.

A number of us abandoned CD (and its silvery cousins) a while ago, one way or another: Earlier this week I helped out at my son's primary school Christmas concert, providing the sound system and mixing the music and microphones for them. A part of this included playing four pre-recorded items provided by various class teachers - three songs arrived as MP3s on USB sticks, only one came on a CD...

That same son of mine is now getting into his computer games in a big way. Previously Christmas presents of this nature might have meant a game on a silver disc under the tree; this year they'll arrive direct from the Internet as downloads (which also automatically update themselves as and when required, just as we'd expect from the likes of Microsoft and Apple and their operating systems). Meanwhile a major European chain store selling mainly computer and console games has gone to the wall in 2012. It's probably not a good year to own a CD or DVD pressing plant, I fear.

Now I don't expect the audio CD to vanish overnight, as the compact cassette seemed to do (or was that just me?). But the speed with which  cassette sales, which at one point were out-gunning all other music formats globally, fell off a cliff may well prove instructive. As retail outlets start to question the merits of walls full of unsold CDs and warehouses full of dusty, expensive stock, they will surely come to question the merits of continued CD supply. If retailers come to a similar conclusion at the same time, the CD will indeed become an endangered species - just as it already has done in most teenagers' bedrooms.

I would expect the classical CD market to hold up longer than any other sector - but when a niche area within that market as specialist as our own starts to see CD sales falling, one can only view this as the writing on the wall for our silvery chum. We'll carry on making them for as long as people want them (one of the merits of our own short-run production system) - but others may not. And if the world's still here this time in 2017, just five years from now (Mayan "prophesies" notwithstanding), you can expect to see far fewer new CDs in it than you do today.




American 78rpm Rarities release update (PASC306)

In the original and rare issue of this recording on Artist Records 78s, the second of the two sides which constitute this section of the Genesis Suite was mispressed with a repeat of music from Schoenberg's "Postlude", and in the absence of evidence of a corrected pressing of this release, we initially released our transfer as originally pressed. Since then a copy of the errant side has come to light and we've been able to remake this part of the recording as originally intended (though not issued!).


Our downloads and CDs now contain the corrected version, however, orders placed for this recording prior to 20 December 2012 will include the Schoenberg side (some may actually prefer this to the Castenuovo-Tedesco continuation!).

We therefore offer here a download of the various FLACs of this revised track to replace the original version, in a single zipped download which includes mono, Ambient Stereo and 24-bit versions. To download this replacement track, CLICK HERE. Note that artwork and cue files have also been updated to reflect the revised timings for the piece and can be downloaded from this page.

If you bought the CD or MP3 prior to 20 December 2012 and wish to acquire a replacement copy, featuring the replacement track in place of the original, please contact downloadsupport@pristineclassical.com (for MP3s) or cdsupport@pristineclassical.com (for CDs).