Praga Karajan releases

[charlesb]

Has anyone bought any of the Praga Karajan CDs? So far they have released at least 3 CDs, Sibelius symphonies 2 and 4, Sibelius symphonies 5, 6 and 7, and Shostakovich 10th Symphony coupled with Beethoven's 5th.

All of them have "Genuine Stereo Lab" on the front CD cover. This is strange as The 4th, 6th and 7th Sibelius symphonies are the 1950's EMI mono recordings. (The 2nd and 5th Sibelius symphonies are the EMI stereo recordings and the Shostakovich/Beethoven coupling are the 1960s DGG recordings.)

If you have heard them, have Praga managed to improve the sound to justify the "Genuine Stereo Lab" claim?

[philharmonie]

"If you've heard them, have Praga managed to improve the sound to justify the "Genuine Stereo Lab" claim?"

This is hardly possible with normal CD technology. You can only improve on an extension of the dynamic range, so you need a larger data volume. in the case of an optical data carrier, this is ultimately only possible via the audio blu ray or the SACD.

The only thing that remains for me is that labels such as Praga can take advantage of the expired copyright protection of older recordings. They use digital copies - but they usually do not have access to the original master tapes, so they can not make new scans to get a better picture of the master.

[tjh]

My experience with DG has almost always been that the original CD’s sound better than the reissues, particularly the Karajan Gold series in which there is a significant shift to the bass.

For me, I have not heard many satisfying Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto recordings. I opt for Arrau/Davis COA.