Live On Music

Johnson Remains No. 1; Winehouse, Hancock Soar

In a slow week for new releases, Jack Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” remains No. 1 on The Billboard 200 for a second week, despite a 52% sales slide. Bigger news comes from Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock, whose albums explode up the chart in the wake of their Grammy wins.

Tags: Album, New Releases, News, Son

New Living Stereo Releases

All CDs Are Newly Remastered in DSD (Direct Stream Digital) From Original Source Tape & Play on Standard & Super Audio Players



“These Super Audio CDs are far superior to all previous CD versions in every conceivable way…” – The Absolute Sound



Five new releases featuring legendary performances by Julian Bream, Jascha Heifetz, Charles Munch, Gregor Piatigorsky, Leontyne Price and Fritz Reiner will be added to RCA Red Seal’s critically acclaimed Living Stereo Super Audio series, in stores January 23. The most successful reissue series on CD, with over 1 million units sold to date, is also the first reissue series on Hybrid Super Audio CD. All CDs are remastered in DSD (Direct Stream Digital) from original source tape, play on both standard and Super Audio players, and feature updated original cover art and liner notes.



RCA Red Seal’s Living Stereo has set the standard for remastering and restoring among the most acclaimed stereo recordings made in analog sound. Each Living Stereo title has been remastered by an engineering team led by the award-winning John Newton, using only three of the available six channels (two when the original recording was two-track stereo) in order to remain faithful to the sonic image created by the original producers. Newton remarks, "Two important technologies come together to allow SACD customers to hear these programs in higher fidelity than the original engineers could listen to. By using the best playback channels and heads on a modern transport we heard material that certainly did not come through the original tube type analog tape recorders. This improvement coupled with the incredible clarity of the DSD process allows today’s listener to hear more of what is on these historic tapes." Although DSD remastering has added a fresh luster to the sound, no signal processing has been used to “improve” the original tapes of these performances.



The series has been consistently applauded in the press. “The sheer fun of listening to the latest batch of RCA Living Stereo CDs sets the standard for the most basic criterion for spending money on recordings – that one will turn to them again and again. They revel in the glorious sounds of inspired performances of greatly rewarding music,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote. Noting that the new format allows the original Living Stereo recordings at last to be heard as they were created, Ultraradio.com writes, “They are revelations … Cheers to BMG for mining its vaults in a proper manner.”



The new Living Stereo releases include:



• SPAIN - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its finest, under the impeccable leadership of Fritz Reiner, brings elegance and fire to some of Spain’s greatest orchestral music, with Leontyne Price in a volatile performance of El amor brujo. CD includes ALBENIZ Navarra, Iberia; FALLA El amor brujo, Interlude and Dance from La vida breve, Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat GRANADOS Intermezzo from Goyescas. Multi-Channel Super Audio CD plays back on three channels.



• HEIFETZ – DOUBLE CONCERTOS - The incomparable Jascha Heifetz plays three of the greatest “double concertos” – by Bach, Brahms and Mozart – in distinguished collaboration with cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, violist William Primrose and violinist Erick Friedman. CD includes BACH Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor; BRAHMS Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor MOZART Sinfonia concertante in E-Flat. With New Symphony Orchestra of London; Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; Alfred Wallenstein, conductor and Izler Solomon, conductor.

Multi-Channel Super Audio CD plays back on two channels (Bach) and three channels.











• SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9 “Great”; Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” - In recordings of inimitable grace and probing depth from conductor Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Schubert’s two most beloved symphonies are coupled for the first time in the Living Stereo series on CD. Multi-Channel Super Audio CD plays back on two channels (Symphony No. and three channels.















• STRAUSS Don Quixote, Don Juan - Rarely has the music of Richard Strauss been brought to life with the sheer beauty and muscular intensity Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra give it in their sublime recordings of Don Quixote and Don Juan. With Antonio Janigro, cello; Milton Preves, viola; John Weicher, violin.

Multi-Channel Super Audio CD plays back on three channels.















• POPULAR CLASSICS FOR SPANISH GUITAR - The mastery of guitarist Julian Bream is perhaps at its best in Spanish music, and this legendary recording – featuring some of the most popular works ever written for the guitar – gains a new luster and brilliance in its new DSD remastering. CD includes HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS Chôros No. 1; Etude in E Minor TORROBA Madroños TURINA Homenaje a Tárrega; Garrotín; Soleares VILLA-LOBOS Prelude in E Minor ALBÉNIZ Suite española; Granada; Leyenda FALLA Homenaje “Le tombeau de Claude Debussy” TRADITIONAL Canciones populares catalanas: El testament d’Amelia TURINA Fandanguillo,

Multi-Channel Super Audio CD plays back on two channels.

Tags: New Releases, Son

Listen to the SonyBMG Masterworks Podcast!

Our co-directors of A&R, Warren Wernick and David Foil, bring you the SonyBMG Masterworks Podcast.



Each episode will feature Warren and David talking about our new releases in depth, and will include interviews, sound clips and more!



Episode 1 focuses on four titles in our Classic Library series.



You can check out the official podcast home page or subscribe to the podcast feed directly or through iTunes.

Tags: New Releases, Son

Legacy Recordings Presents Contemporary Gospel’s Essential Stars

Contemporary Gospel soars into the Legacy catalog on the wings of the Zomba Gospel Group’s Verity Records imprint, and a quartet of double-CD Essential Series collections on four of the most prominent figures in the entire genre: Fred Hammond, Pastor John P. Kee and his New Life Community Choir, Pastor Donnie McClurkin, and Pastor Hezekiah Walker and his Love Fellowship Crusade Choir.  All four packages - with separate liner notes on each written by Bil Carpenter, author of Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia - is in stores  on Verity/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

To purchase these new releases please check out the Sony Music Store.

Tags: New Releases, Son

40th Anniversary of 1967’s Summer of Love Gets Underway with Three New Releases!

Legacy Recordings is gearing up to celebrate the Summer of Love with a new campaign in celebration of an era that changed the world. On May 15th, Legacy will release three brand new albums from Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and The Remains - as well as relaunching the musical time capsule, “The Sound of the Sixties.”  “Sweeping Up the Spotlight: Jefferson Airplane Live at the Filmore East 1969,” was recorded in November and previously unissued. It features a 61-minute set which finds the classic lineup at their absolute peak! “Listen My Friends! The Best of Moby Grape,” is the first new front-line anthology in 14-years of this first-generation San Francisco band- featuring the perfect 20-song overview of their 1967-69 Columbia albums. “The Remains,” is the first new look in 16 years at the beloved Boston band who opened the Beatles’ final tour in summer of 1966. The release will feature ten songs from their one-and-only LP as well as ten more songs they cut in 1965-66.

Tags: Album, New Releases, Son