Universal‘s Deutsche Grammophon is launching a major worldwide campaign, offering a special 32-album selection of recordings from its classical catalogue – 18 of which have been exclusively Mastered For iTunes.
A further 30 LPs will be added to the selection later in the year.
The albums have been encoded from 24 Bit / 96 kHz high resolution masters, delivering music to listeners exactly the way the artist and recording engineer intended.
Featured artists include conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel, pianists such as Emil Gilels, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini and Hélène Grimaud, and instrumentalists and singers such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Hilary Hahn and Anna Netrebko.
“Mastered for itunes is a definite win for the classical consumer.”
Sid Mclauchlan
Deutsche Grammophon’s Grammy-award winning Producer, Sid McLauchlan, commented on the high sound quality of Mastered for iTunes: “We conducted a blind listening test in a studio, switching between our 24 Bit/96 kHz studio masters and Mastered for iTunes and found the differences astonishingly small.
“Nor did they fit into categories like “better” or “worse”. It was more like: Is there ANY difference?
“The warmth, clarity and tonal qualities of the voices, instruments and their acoustic spaces were all there, as was that intangible: emotion. Our conclusion was that the differences were too small to be noticeable and we couldn’t tell which one was which, nor which one was better than the other. Mastered for iTunes is a definite win for the classical consumer.”
18 titles, exclusively Mastered for iTunes are available now on iTunes:
- Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 4 & 5 [Wilhelm Kempff, Berlin Philharmonic, Ferdinand Leitner]
- Orff: Carmina Burana [Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Eugen Jochum]
- Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2/ Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 [Sviatoslav Richter, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan]
- Grieg: Lyric Pieces [Emil Gilels]
- Chopin: Polonaises [Maurizio Pollini]
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’, Schubert: Symphony No. 5 [Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm]
- Debut Recital [Martha Argerich]
- Ravel: Bolero / Debussy: La Mer / Mussorgsky: Pictures At An Exhibition [Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan]
- Tchaikovsky: Symphonies No. 4, 5 & 6 [Leningrad Philharmonic, Evgeny Mravinsky]
- Mozart: Symphonies No. 35 – 41 [Berlin Philharmonic, Karl Böhm]
- Schubert: Trout Quintet [Emil Gilels, Amadeus Quartet]
- Carmen Fantasie [Anne-Sophie Mutter, Vienna Philharmonic, James Levine]
- Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’ [Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim]
- Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3/Ravel: Piano Concerto [Martha Argerich, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado]
- Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra/Holst: The Planets [Boston Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg]
- Mahler: Symphony No. 5 [Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan,]
- Dvorak: Cello Concerto / Tchaikovsky: Variations On A Rococo Theme [Mstislav Rostropovich, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan]
- Brahms: Piano Concertos [Emil Gilels, Berlin Philharmonic, Eugen Jochum]
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