News from Naxos

[Gremal]

This is a bit old, but I couldn't find any discussion of it. Only a very complimentary review by Kauffman who does not participate on the boards. First time I am seeing it--article at Stereophile.com. This is big news if Naxos starts putting more resources into blu-ray.

http://stereophile.com/news/naxos_bl...breakthrough/#

Naxos Blu-ray Breakthrough Bookmark and Share By Jason Victor Serinus
November 25, 2009 — The world's largest classical label, Naxos of America, has released its first Blu-ray music package. The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard contains three Blu-ray audio discs plus one three-hour Blu-ray videodisc that together hold 15 hours of music. All performances are by Tom Beghin, a baroque specialist and musicologist based at McGill University. Sound engineer Martha De Francisco, an Associate Professor at McGill, recorded the performances in high-resolution (24-bit/96kHz) PCM sound.

Beghin has recorded Haydn's music on seven modern replicas of historic keyboards ranging in age from a 1760s clavichord to a 1798 English grand piano. Three of the instruments—a 1755 harpsichord, a 1788 Tafelklavier, and a 1780 fortepiano—receive their performance premieres on The Virtual Haydn. For music lovers wishing to compare the sounds of different instruments playing music by a single composer, the project is a potential goldmine.

This collaboration between Naxos and McGill University's Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology allows audio playback in both 5.0-channel surround (DTS-HD) and hi-rez two-channel PCM. In the most novel feature of the Blu-ray videodisc, which contains three hours of HD video, viewers can shift Beghin's performances among nine "virtual rooms," each an aural replica of an actual room in which Haydn and other keyboard players of his era would have performed. At the same time, viewers can switch among the seven instruments, for a total of 63 (9 times 7) possible combinations. While this begins to sound like videogames for the Classical crowd, the brochure that accompanies the project contains many pages of detailed information by De Francisco and Wieslaw Woszczyk, James McGill Professor of Sound Recording, that explain the technical evolution and musical rationale for these 63 varieties of Haydn.

Klaus Heymann, founder and guiding light of Naxos, explains that although this one-off project came his way from McGill ready-made, Naxos "will definitely get into Blu-ray surround, sooner rather than later." Over the last few years Naxos has built up a library of hundreds of titles in surround-sound, most of them recorded at 20/44.1 or 24/44.1. Except for a smattering of SACD and DVD-Audio releases, which were discontinued due to poor sales, these surround masters have seen the light of day only as two-channel, 16-bit/44.1kHz "Red Book" CDs.

Naxos also plans to move to lossless downloads of surround-sound recordings, or "something better," in what Heymann calls "due course." What's not yet clear is how many future Naxos Blu-ray releases and lossless surround downloads will actually contain hi-rez audio, or if any of them will approach the 176.4 and 192kHz sampling rates now available on DVD-Rs from Reference, Chesky, and M•A Recordings. Blue Coast Records, too, is contemplating augmenting their current catalog of 100 or so 24/96 downloads with downloads at sampling rates of 176.4 or 192kHz.

In December, Naxos's studio head will meet with Johannes Mueller, whose MSM Studios in Munich has developed the Pure Audio Blu-ray format now used by 2L, the Norwegian hi-rez label. Custom-developed in Java programming, Pure Audio Blu-ray offers a standard feature set that allows 100% hi-def sound accessible without the player having to be connected to a video display (thank God). Thanks to user-friendly switching between the stereo and surround tracks that takes full advantage of the color-coded keys on Blu-ray players' remote controls, Pure Audio Blu-ray claims operation as simple as playing a CD. If Naxos can use Pure Audio Blu-ray as a medium for two-channel and surround recordings at resolutions of at least 24/88.2 or 24/96—or, ideally, 24/176.4 or 24/192—we have a lot to look forward to.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Very interesting and encouraging article Greg! I'm especially pleased to read about the Pure Audio side of it, and NOT having to turn on one's video display. Keep us posted please and thanks!

John

[Alexander J]

Just want to let know that Naxos has absolutely outstanding surround recording catalogue and that I was honored to license for our production, whey put a great deal of work on this material during the peak of DVD-A SACD days and it is a need move to make this effort of musicians producers and engineers to be available to the lager audience of listeners.


All the Best

Alexander

Originally Posted by Gremal

This is a bit old, but I couldn't find any discussion of it. Only a very complimentary review by Kauffman who does not participate on the boards. First time I am seeing it--article at Stereophile.com. This is big news if Naxos starts putting more resources into blu-ray.

http://stereophile.com/news/naxos_bl...breakthrough/#

[Hammie]

It is interesting that they are using a 5.0 DTS HD-MA track.

[Alexander J]

On another note I don't see Naxos engaging full strength with Blu-ray Audio development at this moment and the meeting with MSM Studios having more informative then development nature.

I still holding a license on the best Surround Recordings from Naxos of America for another 3 years and will be exploring this license to achieve greater Audio Presentation of this material on Blu-ray media that may not be limited to Audio Only.

That we really need is new creative approaches presenting High Definition Surround Sound on Blu-ray and unifying standard like 3.0 to make this happened in this prospective I see the Virtual Haydn like mine Uncommon Bach project is a grate achievement in terms of presenting new advantages of Blu-ray Audio Media to the listeners.