Sold Date: February 10, 2017
Start Date: February 27, 2009
Final Price: $20.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 5972
Buyer Feedback: 0

Here’s another outstanding Sonic Arts album.  Stephen Kates (cello) and Carolyn Kobler (piano) perform Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1st Movement), The Girl With The Flaxen Hair, and Clair de lune, Ravel’s En Forme de Habanera, Sicilienne by Faure, and Messaien’s Louange a l’eternite de Jesus.  Recorded in 1981, pressed in West Germany by Teldec, in original box. Lovely performances and a superb recording.

“Stephen Kates has a voracious appetite for the rich, warm tones unique to the cello. His repertoire ranges from the earliest to the newest, and nowhere is he more at home than when the score calls for long, singing tones.

Carolyn Pope Kobler has an especially clear sense of ensemble, and her playing is far from mere accompaniment. She appears to seek ways of bringing out the inner voices, producing a rich and orchestral sound.

At the risk of boring those who’ve seen others of my notes for this series of Sonic Arts recordings, I want to repeat the expression of my special pleasure at hearing the live quality they capture. Leo de Gar Kulka has a truly masterful understanding of his craft and art, that of making recordings which are as near as possible to the real thing.

Musical artists of every sort would do well to contemplate making direkt to disc recordings. That’s because they can come closer, in this fashion, to showing listeners how well they play or sing in live performance. It’s a great challenge, since it doesn’t allow for all the re-takes and post-mixing of old as well as endless editing...but it’s definitely a challenge worth facing.”

Scott Beach

Producer and Recording Engineer: Leo de Gar Kulka
Mastering: L. Kulka, Sonic Arts Corp., San Francisco, CA
Engineering Assistant: Kenneth K. Lee, Jr.
Music Notes: Scott Beach

The Sonic Arts catalog of LP’s was recorded by Golden State Recorders and Mastered by Sonic Arts.  Under the stewardship of San Francisco’s legendary Leo De Gar Kulka, GSR and SAC were home to famous famous performances and recordings that ran the gamut from Janis Joplin to Turk Murphy to Vivaldi.

Mr. Kulka’s Laboratory Series records feature realistic sounding, “live” recordings beautifully recorded in stereo without effects or processing, and then precision mastered to a Neumann VMS-70 lathe using a simple, pristine signal chain. The LP’s were manufactured to the highest standards by Teldec in West Germany and include detailed liner notes about the performance and the technical concept of the recordings.  We are proud to being you these superb vinyl recordings -- great values on original, mint records from the SAC Lab Series Catalog.

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