The April 2023 issue of The Absolute Sound features a new article from Stephen Estep entitled “New Classical Recordings on Vinyl” and highlights our Reference Mastercuts series! Look for the article in the April 2023 issue of The Absolute Sound!
2019 Best Engineered, Classical GRAMMY® Nominee2019 Best Classical Compendium GRAMMY® Nominee “a must for movie fans and audiophiles alike.” —Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International John Williams is a game changer. Early in his career he crossed the lines between music that was “art” and music that was “commercial,” and never looked back. He is one of the best known, most awarded and most successful composers in US history, and his name is inextricably connected to outstanding…
Doug MacLeod’s Blues Music Award-winning Break The Chain recording is now available as a 45rpm, two-LP set pressed by Quality Record Pressings on 180-gram Vinyl, with half-speed mastering by Paul Stubblebine! In this release, his third album for Reference Recordings, Doug MacLeod continues to explore the breadth and depth of the human condition. Recorded by Reference’s Grammy-winning engineer ‘Prof.’ Keith O. Johnson at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California, Break The Chain has twelve new…
The Audio Beat‘s Mark Blackmore reviews our LP re-issue of Arnold Overtures! “Twenty-five years after releasing the Grammy-nominated Arnold Overtures, Reference Recordings has reissued it as a 180-gram, half-speed-mastered LP, and what an LP it is. Paul Stubblebine, who mastered the original CD, returns to do the remastering for this fine reissue pressed at Quality Record Pressings. … Film buffs know Arnold’s music from his award-winning score for The Bridge on the River Kwai. Audiophiles…
Order Now Malcolm Arnold The London Philharmonic Orchestra Authoritative first recordings of important works composed and conducted by Sir Malcom Arnold (1921-2006), one of England’s very greatest composers. 1993 GRAMMY® Nominee for Best Engineered Classical Recording. A perennial hi-fi favorite recorded by Keith O. Johnson now available on LP! This new Reference Mastercuts LP release is a single 180 gram disc, half-speed mastered at 33 1/3 rpm by Paul Stubblebine, pressed on virgin vinyl at…
Order Now The Audio Beat critic, Tim Aucermann, gives our Kansas City Symphony Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3, “Organ” Reference Mastercuts LP a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in Music and Sound: “Reference Recordings (RR) has catered to vinyl-playing audiophiles since the mid-1970s, and label CEO Tam Henderson has a solid grasp of what his finicky audience wants: recordings of acoustic music performed in actual concert spaces captured in holographic sound with a genuine sense of presence. And realistic…
Order Now Professin’ The Blues Now Available on 180 gram Vinyl as a 45RPM Double-LP! RM 25-17 Professin’ The Blues proclaims Fiona Boyes passion for the Blues as she celebrates the unique contribution of recording and mastering engineer ‘Professor’ Keith O. Johnson, Reference Recording’s Technical Director and audio legend. In her self-penned and illustrated liner notes Fiona makes the declaration, “’Professor’ Keith’s amazing approach to capturing sounds, mostly with his own hand built equipment, is…
Order Now Wayne Garcia has a new review for our Nojima Plays Liszt recording in the latest issue of The Absolute Sound: “One of Reference Recordings’ most beloved LPs, Nojima Plays Liszt was recorded in December, 1986. It’s been a perennial of this magazine’s Super LP List, and now RR has reissued the title as a half-speed mastered 45rpm two-LP set with original liner notes by TAS Senior Writer Robert E. Greene. … Minoru Nojima…
Just Arrived — Nojima Plays Liszt! A great gem from our catalog, now released for the first time as a 45 rpm 2-LP set, half-speed mastered. Nojima Plays Liszt (RM-2516) is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl from Quality Record Pressings, and packaged in a beautiful old-style gatefold jacket.RM-2516 – NOJIMA PLAYS LISZT – Order Now! Nojima Plays Liszt (RR-25) was named “Best Recording of the Month” by Stereo Review when it was originally released…
NEW LP Release and NEW LP Stock! NEW! STRAVINSKY: THE RITE OF SPRING RM-1515180-gram 45RPM*Half-speed mastering by Paul Stubblebine The 1997 GRAMMY® nominated Minnesota Orchestra recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is now available on LP! “The Rite of Spring, The Firebird Suite and The Song of the Nightingale have never sounded more magical or more dynamic! This HDCD has more detail than any live performance I have attended. The orchestra and the hall…
GRAMMY® Nominated Kansas City Symphony recording Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 “Organ” is now available as a Reference Mastercuts LP! First LP mastering of this work at 45 rpm! Details RM-1514 Single 45 rpm LP 180 Gram pressing from QRP in Deluxe Gatefold Jacket Michael Stern, conductorKansas City SymphonyJan Kraybill, organProducer: David FrostRecording Engineer: Keith O. JohnsonRecorded by: Sean Royce Martin, Half-Speed LP Mastering: Paul Stubblebine Composed at his artistic peak, Camille Saint-Saëns said of his…
The new Reference Mastercuts recording of Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Copland receives high praise from Positive Feedback Online: “The original release was on HDCD CD and has been a reference disk for my reviews since it was available…I am so very pleased that RR waited until QRP and its fully tweaked 200 gram LP presses could have a go with this. … Like all great LPs, they produce more pure definition than their…
Celebrate #ThrowbackThursday with a 2013 review of our Minnesota Orchestra: Copland 100 CD, and buy the newly released LP today! “The Minnesota Orchestra has a rich history of excellence when it comes to Copland, both on record and with the various music directors who have led the ensemble. That tradition is gloriously upheld in this 2000 tribute program. As always, Oue leads his marvelous players with distinction, and the sound is top notch. If you’re…
John Sunier gives our Mephisto & Co. Vinyl Re-issue a Five-Star rating on Audiophile Audition: “This is a collection of eight variously daemonically-influenced shorter orchestral favorites, ranging from not quite three minutes to twelve minutes. It got reviews calling it superb when it first came out in 1998 as a CD. Now Paul Stubbleine has remastered it and the double 45 rpm pair were pressed at QRP and they include a huge amount of notes…
MEPHISTO & CO. Minnesota Orchestra/Eiji Oue Jorja Fleezanis, violin solos One of RR’s all time favorite recordings, available for the first time on vinyl! RM-2510 – NEW 45 rpm LP release NOW AVAILABLE. ORDER NOW!(2-LP set, half-speed mastered by Paul Stubblebine, 200-gm vinyl from Quality Record Pressings in deluxe gatefold jacket) Ghosts, goblins, spirits and demons run amok in this program of infernal orchestral favorites: MEPHISTO WALTZ (Liszt), NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (Mussorgsky), TAM O’…
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit
Mark Donahue & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)