Beethoven Symphony No.5

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Dvorak Symphony No.9 in E minor Op.95

"In the case of the New World Symphony, HDTT transferred the sound from a London Phase Four 4-track tape, recorded in 1966. Due to the nature of the Phase Four process, the sonics appear fairly compartmentalized, yet they are wonderfully open, moderately close, and well detailed. The dynamic range is wide and the overall response quite smooth"
Classical Candor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Brahms Symphony No. 2

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Brahms Symphony No. 3

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

"Vandernoot and company make us realize every disjointed harmony, every juxtaposition of beauty and spite that run through this epic work, mounted by HDTT in thrilling sonic VistaVision" Gary Lemco Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mahler Symphony No. 2

"The overall effect is as if we are hearing this music for the first time. And it does grow on you. By Part III, I was hooked. And Part IV, featuring contralto Lucretia West, reeled me in. The instrumental early sections of Part V are also extremely effective—and somehow more refined in sound, which is clearly intentional: we are after all building toward the 'resurrection' itself. But the freshness and immediacy remain intact. When the chorus enters in Section 9 of Part V, we are absolutely in Scherchen's hands—and also those of soprano Mimi Cortese. And then in Section 10, we have both superb soloists singing together against and with chorus. The Conclusion is all one can imagine."
Bob Neill/Positive Feedback Online

"I generally don't keep multiple versions of selections in my disc library, but some of the great symphony literature seems to be the exception.  The Mahler Second is represented by Gilbert Kaplan on DGG (it's the only symphony he conducts!), Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Abbado.  However, this powerful Scherchen performance sometimes bests them all in terms of its sheer intensity.  And the sonics are superb in the DVD version.  I recommend it!"
John Sunier/Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mendlessohn Sym No.4 and Mid Summer Nights Dream Music

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Beethoven Symphony No. 4 and Leonore Overture

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mozart Jupiter & Haffner Symphonies

"Taken from Philips prerecorded 4-track tape, these Mozart performances from Eugen Jochum (1902-1987) testify to his broadly middle-German, humanist perspective, always combining a palpable sense of reverence with a lithe and sensuous musical line. The Concertgebouw woodwinds make themselves conspicuously present in the Jupiter Symphony, where the strings provide a magical aura of sound not so far from Bach's halo for Jesus in the St. Matthew Passion"
Gary Lemco/Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Bruckner Symphony No. 5

"HDTT is to be commended for reissuing this version in hi-res. It comes from a 1960 London quarter-track prerecorded commercial tape"
John Sunier/Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mahler Symphony No. 4

"The Sony/Columbia disc doesn't sound all that bad, mind you, if listened to in isolation. It's when you put it up against the more-transparent HDTT rendering that it suddenly doesn't seem so great. The HDTT transfer sounds cleaner, clearer, and more dynamic, displaying more stage depth along the way"
Classical Candor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Beethoven Symphony No. 1 and No. 7

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Haydn Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat, Op. 84 and
Haydn Symphony No. 100 Military Symphony

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Brahms Symphony No. 4

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Bizet Symphony in C - Jeux D' Enfants - La Jolie De Perth

Fifty-year-old recordings don’t come much better than this; well, I was wrong, for this high-res transfer from HDTT adds even more lustre to an already desirable collection. True, the bass in the symphony may seem a little tubby - some may even characterise it as analogue-like - but the string and wind sound is reach-out-and-touch tangible. Every nuance and timbre is heard in a way that scarcely seems possible in a recording of this - or any other - vintage.
Dan Morgan/Music Web International

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Bruckner Symphony no 9 in D minor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 7 (Recorded Live)

"for fans of Mahler and/or Haitink, this live recording has the advantage of reliable playing and good sound. What's more, the HDTT disc (or download) is the only version of this particular Haitink performance currently available"
Classical Candor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D major

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Hindemith Symphony "Mathis der Maler" and Konzertmusik for Brass and Strings, Op. 50
Janácek Sinfonietta

"Steinberg's performances of both of the Hindemith pieces vie with the best, the composer's own recordings"

"The end result is sound quality which belies its age. [I agree wholeheartedly. Even the HQ versions on standard CDs are amazing...Ed.] "
Peter Joelson/Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mahler Third Symphony (Live Recording)

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

"Munch and his orchestra are utterly persuasive in their view of the work and thanks to HDTT, they are with us again in wonderful, near-analogue sound. Incidentally, this 1962 version is rarely seen on a reissue, the 1956 version is the one thats almost always used"
Bob Neill/Positive Feedback Online

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral"

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Beethoven Symphony No. 3

"As far as the sound goes, HDTT took this performance from a Westminster LP recorded in Vienna in 1958. The sonics display excellent clarity, body, and definition, with a wide stereo spread and ample dynamics. Indeed, the sound belies the recording's age by surpassing almost anything produced today"
Classical Candor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mahler Symphony No. 6

Erich Leinsdorf conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 ("Scotch") & "The Hebrides" (Fingals Cave) Overture

"Recorded by EMI in 1960 and remastered by HDTT in 2011 on an HQCD, the sound is quite good. Coincidentally, I had on hand for comparison the same symphony recording remastered by EMI Japan in 2010, also on an HQCD. Both discs are splendid, with reasonably wide dynamics, a realistic midrange, and a natural ambient bloom to the acoustic. The differences are that the newer HDTT sounds slightly smoother and fuller to me, with a marginally stronger bass response"
Classical Candor

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Ives Symphony No 4/Second Orchestral Set No. 2

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Bruckner Symphony No. 7

Best Discs of the Year list for 2011 by Audiophile Audition

The most immediate impression I glean from this performance of Bruckner's most popular symphony must be its optimistic sobriety, its passionate devotion to a series of fixed points of emotional departure. Each of the various Bruckner "periods" receives its due proportion, the various Wagner orchestral and thematic influences neither treated perfunctorily nor over indulged. Rudolf's personal predilection for the trumpet savors the heavy role of that instrument in this work's sonic structure, and the cleanliness of articulation, especially in the last movement, proves heroically resonant. Tempos are generally brisk, though the C-sharp Minor Adagio wrests many a tragic utterance in the course of its 17-minute evolution. The Cincinnati misterioso string tremolos, the absolutely volatile, syncopated hunting riffs in the third movement Scherzo in A Minor, and the silken peroration at the finale to the last movement provide a potent addition to a Bruckner catalogue too long remiss in having ignored Rudolf's idiomatic account.
Gary Lemco - Audiophile Audition

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Honegger Symphony No. 3 and 4

The legendary conductor Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), collaborating with his hand-picked Orchestre de la Suisse Romande which he founded in 1918, performs two major works by Arthur Honegger (1892-1955). Honegger insisted that his works, to be effective, must appeal to his audience: "My efforts have always been directed toward the ideal of writing music that is understandable by the great mass of listeners but sufficiently free of banality to interest music lovers." Ansermet, much noted for the accuracy and sympathy that he brought to modern scores, especially those with a Continental sensibility, achieves both luminosity and intelligence in these two colorful but affectively disparate scores.

The so-called "Liturgique" Symphony No. 3 (1946) reflects the composer's commitment to the Catholic revisionist movement, conceived in three movements related to the Requiem Mass. The opening, dark-hued Dies Irae storms forth, aggressive, in low strings, brass, snare drum, piano, and triangle, declamatory, militant. The tonguing for the brass parts alone requires no mean virtuosity. The texture absorbs the piano's percussiveness in the course of a seamless but tormented sensibility. De profundis clamavi ad te strikes a reverential tone, a strong melody whose nobility and ardent processional feels indebted to Faure. The middle section becomes more anguished, more imploring in layered textures. Calm and qualified resignation return, especially in the flute and string parts, though the uneasy fervor remains. Another crisis mounts, but the forces of reconciliation prevail. Dona nobis pacem begins with irony in the bassoon and tympani, the brass intoning a wry march. Virtuosic figures and slides in the woodwinds contribute to the somewhat jazzy, whirling effects. A poignant lyricism invests this music despite the periods of agitation and menace that may be shuddering memories of WW II. The final pages release us from militant, bellicose feelings and move to a serene plane of existence, a kind of idyll for solo violin, flute, and harp.

In striking contrast to the Liturgical Symphony, the Fourth Symphony (1946) is serene; its subtitle "Deliciae Basiliensis" means "The Delights of Basle," and it was written after the composer had spent a carefree holiday in Switzerland. There is a chamber music sound quality about this work. The opening Lento e misterioso invokes Nature's peace and consolation. The Allegro remains essentially bucolic but animated, exploiting in boulevardier, serenade fashion the bright joys of the woodwinds, silky strings, horns, battery, piano, and triangle. The atmosphere of the latter pages is suffused with French song. The brief Larghetto begins ponderously in the strings, a march joined by selected woodwinds and horns, then a second melody in the strings counters the lugubrious cadence of the march. The flute and clarinet offer an interlude, but more plaintive figures follow that soon blend in a mixture of pleasure and pain in bird calls, Honegger's version of a Bruckner procession. The last movements subdivides into five major sections, opening with an extension of the Larghetto's march, but soon adding a trumpet and playful winds and strings. At times, the music quite frolics, carefree and coloristic, even mystical. The entire symphony has been a showpiece for the L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande principals, metrically and texturally appealing and intricate, often referring to German procedures that the other members of Les Six eschewed.

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Paul Hindemith Symphony in E-flat and Symphony in B-flat for concert band

Paul Hindemith's Symphony in E-flat (1940) is the product of his early exile in America, his having abandoned Germany and the Nazi Party for more liberal pursuits. The E-flat Symphony, however, set in a traditional four movements, certainly extends the traditions set by European predecessors. The effective wind writing, the counterpoint, the wry humor, and the light facility of the transitions mark Hindemith's typical mature style. Robust confidence and bombast no less infiltrate the score, a kind of concession to the American sensibility of the period, causing one critic to suggest that this "is among the
best American symphonies written by a German composer."

The brass open the symphony vigorously, the music then exploiting that acerbic lyric quality that Hindemith sports with gusty momentum, the colors bright, decidedly less gloomy than some of his so-called "functional music." Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983), a conductor who could easily bear the sobriquet "the British Toscanini" for his linear, clear style and literalist predilections, savors the muscular drive and brassy contours of the piece, its often voluminous swagger and sonic assertiveness. Oboe, trombone, and pizzicato strings make their distinctive impression in this vivacious reading from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Alternately pastoral and valedictory, the Symphony in E-flat advocates a version of Walt Whitman heroism, sprightly and unapologetic. The last movement combines plastic and flighty colors with that rigid academism in Hindemith of which the fugue remains the best expression. The finale cannot contain its egocentric bluster, but that, too, seems no less an American character trait.

Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat for Band (1951) premiered on April 5 of that year by the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own" in Washington, D.C. Both Arnold Schoenberg and Hindemith were among the first composers to demonstrate that music written for band, could be precise, thematic and beautiful.

The Symphony in B-flat for Concert Band is a 'cornerstone' piece for wind ensemble, one of the most prominent and widely known pieces composed or arranged for band. Each instrument's timbre, or sound quality, is different from any other; by changing the instrument playing a melody, the tone color of that melody is different. Hindemith writes the same melody throughout an entire movement with no interval or rhythmic changes, yet it seems like a different melody idiomatic to each separate set of instruments that play it. The tone color of a melody can also be significantly changed by the number of instruments playing; for example, the solo oboe playing the second theme in movement one sounds significantly different from the full clarinet section playing it a few bars later.

In writing the Symphony in B-flat, Hindemith created a serious work for winds, adding an important facet to the wide variety of orchestral music already in existence.

Frederick Fennell (1914-2004), a pupil of Albert Austin Harding and Serge Koussevitzky, made a career in concert band performance and recording. In Fennell's The New York Times obituary, colleague Jerry F. Junkin declared, "He was arguably the most famous band conductor since John Philip Sousa." In Fennell devised a new symphonic band organization. This involved scaling the typical concert band down to the wind section of a symphony orchestra, allowing for greater clarity and intonation. Fennell called a meeting of nearly forty players in May 1952. Fennell himself explained that "I chose the best students in the school, and the best solo performers, and the best ensemble players."

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players

Mozart Symphony No. 49 and Haydn Symphony No. 45 "The Farewell"

London Symphony Orchestra first French horn Barry Tuckwell basked in the recollection of having worked with several fine Hungarian maestros who led the LSO: Istvan Kertesz, Georg Solti, and Antal Dorati (1906-1988). Dorati, who would embark on the colossal project of recording all of the Haydn symphonies with Philharmonia Hungarica, always sensitive to the direct relationship Haydn enjoyed with the Austro-Hungarian tradition via the court of Nikolaus Esterhazy. Wolfgang Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, in 1788.
Charles Rosen (in The Classical Style) has called the symphony "a work of passion, violence, and grief." Conductor Bruno Walter once advised that no conductor younger than 50 attempt the score, given its depth of expression. Every movement but the third is in sonata-form; the minuet and trio are in the usual ternary or song form. The first movement Molto Allegro, 2/2, begins darkly, not with its first theme but with accompaniment, played by the lower strings with divided violas. Dorati injects this movement with a nervous sense of tragic foreboding. The E-flat Major Andante in 6/8 seems to fulfill that tragic promise, moving with a dignified grace that the LSO strings and woodwinds realize with refined taste. The so-called Minuet (Allegretto) in ¾ hardly qualifies as "dance music," with its askew agogic accents and sudden interjections of painful dissonances. The G Major trio section does communicate galant sensibilities, with alternating choirs in strings and woodwinds, particularly the bassoon. The LSO brass make their appearance in elegant form. The Finale (Allegro assai, 2/2) Dorati urges forward with a solemn determinism, the eight-bar phrases and "Mannheim rockets" moving almost in perpetuum mobile energy. The LSO clarinet, bassoon, and accompanying winds intone with stinging acuity, as does the body of LSO strings. The dark, often polyphonic force of the symphony's last movement under Dorati remind us that Beethoven may well have taken its pages as a source for his own, "fateful" Fifth Symphony.
The Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp Minor, known as the "Farewell" Symphony (Abschieds-Symphonie), was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1772. It was written for Haydn's patron, Prince Esterhazy, while he, Haydn, and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace in Eszterhaza. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt, so in the last movement of the symphony, Haydn subtly hinted to his patron that perhaps he might like to allow the musicians to return home: during the final Adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted violins left (played originally by Haydn himself and the concertmaster, Tomasini. Esterházy seems to have understood the message: the court returned to Eisenstadt the day following the performance.Dorati's reading, full of fire in the opening Allegro assai, projects a fierce sense of the empfindasamkeit, or "emotional" school of music instituted by C.P.E. Bach. The LSO string sound features biting attacks and incisive, clear intonation. The lovely, haunted Adagio in 3/8 highlights the LSO strings and woodwinds, a rather "baroque," liturgical sound as Dorati molds the phrases with tender affection. The Allegretto (Menuet) likes to alternate divided string choirs in ¾ time. We can hear Barry Tuckwell's resonant horn in the lovely trio section. The opening of the 2/2 Presto finale blazes with high spirits and bravura metric adjustment; the subsequent Adagio in 3/8 balances the structure of the previous second movement--allowing Tuckwell to appear once more--and bestows upon the work its eponymous, personal imprimatur, a reminder that time spares no one.

Compact Disc Burned on a Gold CD-R
HQCD (High Quality Compact Disc) Playable on all compact disc players
24bit 96khz Resolution DVD Playable on all DVD players
24bit 96khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players
24bit 192khz Resolution Flac Downloads Playable through most media players