The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Over the past decade or so, a quiet revolution has been happening in the world of recorded music: the return of the vinyl record. Of course, for those who spent many years amassing large collections of vinyl LPs and resisted the temptation to take the lot down to the charity shop when CDs came along in the mid-1980s, vinyl never really went away. The sudden decline in the vinyl market in the late 1980s and early 90s owed more to industry pressures than customer demand, although record collectors didn’t take long to cotton on to the fact that CDs seemed to offer superior playback quality for those whose financial means only stretched to modest equipment. As economies of scale kicked in and budget-price CDs came on the market, the demise of vinyl seemed inevitable. To listen to the latest new releases, you had to buy CDs, even if you still hankered after the superior artwork, legible liner notes and ‘handlability’ of the LP album.

With the more recent arrival of digital downloads and streaming services, many seasoned vinyl collectors may now be relishing the fact that the compact disc at last appears to be getting its comeuppance. Yet those same collectors would also be the first to point out that downloads and streaming rely on exactly the same digital technology which, in their view, robbed recordings of their vibrancy, depth and warmth – something which was certainly true in the first decade of digital recordings, although subsequent technical improvements mitigated the initial analytical harshness. While digital recording requires upper and lower limits to be set for the soundwaves to be sampled, analogue recordings capture physical vibrations across the full spectrum.

Yet there are undoubted drawbacks to LPs – whether of digital or analogue recordings – which will be all too apparent to experienced collectors. Because the LP is an essentially physical medium, relying for playback on the physical contact between stylus and playing surface, degradation is inevitable over time. Add to this the fact that vinyl generates static which inevitably attracts dust, which – even with the most careful handling – becomes embedded in the grooves, resulting in clicks and pops during playback. Then there are the scratches that can occur accidentally and can ruin a treasured album, in extreme cases resulting in the stylus skipping from groove to groove. And – here’s the final rub – only those with the most sensitive ears are likely to appreciate the advantages of vinyl sound: this has nothing to do with musical perception or intelligence per se, but rather the fact that some people’s ears are just more sensitive as audio receptors than others. And, as age encroaches, the loss of upper frequencies becomes more apparent.

The revival of the LP as a fashionable and desirable medium for playing music owes much to the sentimental foresight of one man: Zdeněk Pelc, a former employee of Czechoslovakia’s state-owned record  industry, who took over its vinyl factory in the mid-1990s and transformed it, as GZ Media, into a lone outpost of vinyl record production. By 2016, it produced a staggering 25 million records, and is now Europe’s leading manufacturer in the medium. The revival of the LP’s fortunes owes a huge amount to Pelc, and also to some shrewd marketing decisions by record companies, who detected a market – albeit a rather niche one – for high-end vinyl products. If in the 1970s the record companies were victims of their own success, turning out millions of reduced-thickness records which were prone to warping, now they market more durable, heavyweight ‘virgin’ vinyl (typically 180g). The new generation of vinyl records has shorter playing times per side to ensure less loss of quality towards the end of a record side – a common complaint in the bad old days, and one that particularly affected classical music, where movements and acts often conclude with loud perorations.

To claim a resurgence in the market of classical LPs would perhaps be overstating the case, but with companies like Universal Music (DG and Decca) and Warner Classics now increasing the number of limited-edition LPs issued each year, and encompassing both new recordings and reissued classics, there has certainly been a remarkable revival of interest in the medium. However, with discs costing upwards of £20 each, and requiring expensive playback equipment for optimal listening experience, this is a hobby for those with deep pockets. And at the upper end of the market, things can get very pricey indeed: the luxury repackaging of Solti’s landmark recording of Wagner’s Ring is a case in point – over £150 for the 6-LP incarnation of Götterdämmerung alone! Some issues trade on the increased presentational possibilities of the larger format. Alpha’s 2-LP issues of the single-CD instalments in their acclaimed Haydn 2032 series of symphonies includes lavish booklets which are the perfect vehicle for the arty photographs that have graced the series.

One problem of this revival is that the repertoire is often restricted either to artist-led ‘concept’ albums, or to the sort of safe popular classics that were a feature of the early days of the CD. Once again, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons dominates (17 sets of various vintage, including adaptations and ‘recompositions’, at the latest count). Coloured vinyl is emerging as a new gimmick (aimed at younger listeners?), and ‘legendary’ recordings are reappearing at a steady rate (including Carlos Kleiber’s live Beethoven symphonies on Orfeo, due out this week). Most jaw-dropping of all, perhaps, is the 45rpm direct-cut vinyl of Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony by the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša on Accentus: three discs retailing for well over £200! Like their earlier similarly pricey issue of Smetana’s Má vlast, this is a limited edition that will no doubt similarly sell out. But who exactly buys these luxury packages, and how often do they get played? We’d love to know!