OUR COVER — Q&A on JMR: A Self-Guided, Non-Interactive Interview with John Marks — by John Marks!
(John Marks is President of John Marks Records.)

Q. Do you always dress this fancy?

A. No. This time of year, I usually wear khakis, a turtleneck, and, if it is cold, a cardigan, all from Willis & Geiger. For recording sessions I wear an ASC Tube Trap T-shirt while we move in and set up equipment, and then I change into something else.

Q. Do you actually use ASC Tube Traps at your recording sessions, or do you just wear the shirt?

A. We usually make use of some Tube Traps. A few, not too many. We’ve never had to rent a second van just to haul Tube Traps.

Q. To cut to the chase, what’s in it for me? Why should I buy a John Marks Records (JMR) CD?

A. JMR CDs make your stereo sound great, period. They justify the money you spend on equipment.

But beyond just sounding great, in all our projects we have tried to present real artists making real art. After you experience real art, you somehow perceive the world and the people in it differently. We sure hope for the better. That’s what we’re in it for.

Q. Give me an example.

A. Music for a Glass Bead Game is one of the best examples. On one level, it’s just a great recording job, the credit for which goes about 99% to Jerry Bruck. With the Schoeps Sphere microphone, Z Systems RDP-1 24-bit processor, and Nagra D, it’s a very pricey Christmas-wish list of pro audio equipment at the very top of the heap, and yeah, the CD really sounds good. Bob Ludwig, whose usual fare is the likes of Mariah Carey, mastered it, more about which later, and the result has electrified a lot of people.

But if that was all it was, it would just be another great recording job. Music for a Glass Bead Game goes way beyond good recording technique in at least two ways, one major, the other one less so.

The major way is that Arturo Delmoni and Nathaniel Rosen are as good as you can get on their respective instruments. At their level it is not a matter of better or worse, it is a matter of personal preference. You may prefer the tonal palette and interpretive approach of another violinist or another cellist, but you can’t point to any objective technical shortcoming in either Rosen or Delmoni. And you can point to a lot of artistic integrity, spiritual insight, and intellectual breadth.

I bet if either Arturo or Nick wanted to play like anybody’s favorite, they could. In fact, I have heard Delmoni imitate a couple of the greats of the older generation, and it is really quite something to hear him sound so unlike himself.

So, number one, all that expensive professional hardware is put to use documenting musicians who have something to say and the technique to say it with. Rosen and Delmoni have played together since they were teenagers, so they had been working together about 25 years when we recorded Music for a Glass Bead Game. I think it shows. I heard them play the Kodály Duo live at the Library of Congress in about 1986, and they nailed it, just like they did at the San Francisco Hi-Fi Show the year before last.

Let me also point out what Delmoni and Rosen are not I received a CD the other day with an apparently audible splice about nine seconds into a rather routine Beethoven piece. If people need to edit nine seconds into a piece that is played at a moderate tempo and is not technically challenging, they have no business making CDs.

Just as bad, I recently read an interview with one of the current young major-label "superstar" pianists, where he had to beg off from running over the allotted interview time because he was engaged to play the Brahms first piano concerto and he really had to learn it. That’s the moral equivalent of Leonardo Di Caprio saying excuse me, I’m due to play King Lear and I really have got to learn my lines. I don’t know if anyone else thinks that is a pathetic state of affairs for a culture to be in, but I sure do.

Q. What’s the other thing about JMR, apart from the artists?

A. The other thing is a little harder to explain, please bear with me. In years past, I perhaps could have gotten away with recording a recital of varied music for violin and cello and calling it Music for Violin and Cello or Three Hundred Years of Music for Violin and Cello (which sounds like something imposed under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines), the marketplace would have absorbed it to some extent, and life would have gone on. Not today. For the past few years the classical record business has been in a tailspin, with no relief in sight.

Q. Really?

A. Yeah. Two years ago Deutsche Grammophon suspended its US recording program and laid off 25% of its German headquarters staff. They cut new releases 30%. That’s published fact. The scuttlebutt I hear is that since then, things have not turned around for them.

Q. How has the market downturn affected JMR?

A. About the same way. Around that same time, we put out a recording of Arturo Delmoni and Yuri Funahashi playing the Brahms first violin sonata and the Amy Beach violin sonata. For my money it is the best recording of both pieces, considering both interpretation and sound.

Amy Beach is a fantastic American composer who unfortunately gets pigeonholed as some kind of paleo-feminist. If somebody played some Amy Beach music for you and told you it was a previously-unknown 19th-century Bohemian or German composer, you’d have no reason to pick a fight unless you happened to know the piece. But a lot of people have somehow gotten the idea that to listen to Amy Beach, who died 75 years ago, you need Birkenstock sandals and a subscription to Mother Jones. But I digress.

Anyway, some magazine critics were very supportive of us, Harris Goldsmith at Fi in particular. Harris compared the musicianship on Arturo’s Brahms & Beach CD to Furtwängler’s music-making. Stereophile and Audiophile Voice ran good reviews also. Hard-core music scholars were nearly unanimous in their judgment that, yup, Delmoni has raised the bar on the Beach violin sonata. We spent a pile on radio and print promotion, but we didn’t come anywhere close to break-even.

Q. Why?

A. Lots of reasons. The market rather suddenly reached saturation for classical CDs. If you record the Brahms first violin sonata, there’s a lot of dead guys and even a few dead girls who are tough competition.

Not enough record store personnel can take the time to listen to a CD and say, by golly, this is a viable alternative to the old folks and a lot of the young ones too. A few store personnel might refuse to be blinded by major label ad budgets and say, "hey, great interpretations, creative programming, I think you should buy this." But how many consumers today both can appreciate the difference between a truly poetic performance and a rather generic budget reissue, and even then, want to pay full price? Not enough, apparently.

Q. So what happened?

A. I realized that if we were going to put out a recording of violin-cello duos, I’d better have a more interesting story to tell than Music for Violin and Cello. I had to find a way to reach out without dumbing down or sleazing out. And that is the other factor that makes JMR different. Minor compared to the musicianship, but a factor nonetheless. At JMR we make the technology serve the music, and we try to present the music in the context of culture and the world of ideas.

We have done this all along, but with Music for a Glass Bead Game we made it a soup-to-nuts thing, not just a dimension of the liner notes. Our first CD release combined music for cello and orchestra of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. A combination that baffled some people, but I think we made a musical case for it. The problem was, to read the justification, you first had to buy the CD and read the liner notes.

Q. Chicken and egg.

A. Yes. So what I came up with was a project where we would use all the marketing savvy we could muster, as long as we didn’t deface the music itself, like adding synthesizer whooshes to Hildegard of Bingen, or dumb down the context of the music, like Tchaikovsky for Commuting, or sleaze out the marketing with sex or violence. The creative "selling" of Music for a Glass Bead Game as a concept starts on the cover, and continues over onto the back tray card.

Q. What’s the music like?

A. At CES somebody marveled, "wow, I’ve never heard power violin before!" And he is right, this is "power" chamber music. Very dynamic. A lot of people have the idea that classical music is all wheezy and creaky, when it isn’t being limp-wristed. Music for a Glass Bead Game is something that Jimi Hendrix fans can enjoy, because it contrasts the rational, mathematical, logical discourse of Bach with the primal, instinctive, tribal music of Kodály and Martinu. And suggests some common ground in the Handel/Halvorsen.

Q. What is a "Glass Bead Game"?

A. At the end of World War II, Hermann Hesse wrote a novel called The Glass Bead Game predicting a widespread nuclear holocaust, and imagining what the world would be like after centuries spent trying to rebuild. One of my favorite reviews that Music for a Glass Bead Game received said that the CD achieved universality without the trauma of nuclear annihilation. (My other favorite review said that despite appearances, it was not New Age drivel designed to facilitate an aromatherapy session.) In Hesse’s novel the Game is a multidisciplinary exercise designed to prevent the fragmentation of knowledge into self-limiting fields.

Q. Where does music fit in?

A. Throughout. The Game proceeds along musical and mathematical rules. The Glass Beads themselves were strung on wires on an abacus frame in the early years of the development of the Game, to enable a kind of portable, erasable musical notation. By the time the story takes place, that was far in the past, though they still called the Game after the Beads of musical notation. The music of Bach and Schubert both figure significantly in the story the novel tells.

Q. Are any of the pieces on the CD directly from the novel?

A. You can make a case, and we do, for the Bach two-part Inventions as part of the music curriculum Hesse describes, but the Glass Bead Game is not really a performance art. The idea of the Game is to use ideas, including musical ideas, as playing pieces. Imagine playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the cheat notes to a multimedia World Civilization course. Then, go read Hesse’s novel! And buy the JMR CD, too, that would be nice. Buy several, and give them as gifts, in fact.

Q. Who chose the pieces on the CD?

A. It was a combination of things that we always knew Delmoni and Rosen should record, such as the Kodály and the Handel, and some inspired guesses on their part as to what would work. Sequencing took some thought and a few attempts, but I think that the result works very well as a recital. At the end of the Handel, you feel you’ve heard it all.

Q. Music for a Glass Bead Game lights up the HDCD™ light, but the credits say nothing about HDCD. Comments?

A. Ah. Long story. Music for a Glass Bead Game has achieved some notoriety as an "unlabeled HDCD™ disc." The issue of "unlabeled HDCD™ discs" is not as black and white as the public discussion to date might suggest.

First let me say that the HDCD™ processor box is a powerful tool, and like most powerful tools, in the right hands (Bob Ludwig’s) it can be used creatively to get inspiring results. I wouldn’t let it get near my artists’ work unless I believed it worthwhile.

It would be best to separate the discussion into two topics: the Pacific Microsonics box is one thing, the HDCD™ process is another. The HDCD™ process consists of some use of the Pacific Microsonics box in the creation of a CD, which is then played back on a CD player, that either has the HDCD™ decoder chip in it or not.

Most of the discussion to date seems to assume that the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box has one in and one out, no options and that’s it, so a disc is "HDCD" or not.

It’s a little more complicated. The Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box accepts either analog or digital inputs. It has several processing options. It also has a re-dithering stage to output 16 bits for making CDs.

So there is an entire spectrum of creative choices to be made (I won’t tally up all the permutations). The most complete is putting an analog mike preamp output into the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box analog input, electing to use all the processing algorithms, and outputting encoded, re-dithered, 16 bits. My understanding is that this is how Reference Recordings does it.

Some people claim that a CD made in this manner, if its program material takes full advantage of HDCD’s dynamic and frequency domain processing, when played back on a non-HDCD capable CD player, can exhibit processing artifacts such as compression. I personally have not heard this, but I haven’t gone looking for it either. I respect the judgment of those who have.

Another option, the one we chose for Music for a Glass Bead Game, is to take a hi-bit digital source, such as from a Nagra D, and use the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box only to re-dither it to 16 bits. This use of the Pacific Microsonics box puts the HDCD™ flag in the digital word that triggers the light to go on, on an HDCD-capable player or converter. But the light going on does not necessarily mean that the original recording was made using the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box as the analog to digital converter, or that processing was used to try to stretch dynamics beyond conventional 16-bit CDs.

My hope is that by doing things this way, we deliver a CD that has the best possible re-dithering on any player, no potential negative aspects when played on a non-HDCD capable player, but nonetheless can take advantage of the flexible digital filter in a HDCD-capable player.

We had experimented some time earlier with HDCD, and the results were inconclusive. At some point there were apparently some software changes, and we revisited the issue. We took the plunge on faith, and I was quite bowled over by the difference between the 16-bit DAT safety copies I had used for editing and the final CDs with HDCD™ re-dithering. Both are 16 bits, but the Pacific Microsonics re-dithering made a remarkable improvement in both liquidity and detail, making the recording both easier and more rewarding to listen into. Perhaps even more so on an HDCD™ player. But I can’t figure out a scientifically valid way to test that!

We were in a bit of a rush to get the Glass Bead Game CD out, and were unsure about whether we could or should use the HDCD™ mark. We now have resolved that issue. Where we use the Pacific Microsonics box just for re-dithering, as on Rejoice! Volume Three, we note it in the liner notes. Where the Pacific Microsonics box is the A to D, we use the logo, as on our re-mastering (with a new track added) of Ruggiero Ricci’s Paganiniana recital that was previously on Water Lily.

Q. What about DVD?

A. Well, a few people may have noticed that HP at TAS called the demo DVD of our jazz project Blue Skies, and I am not quoting, the pick of the audio DVD litter. Since then we’ve been co-existing with newspapers on the floor and spilled Puppy Chow, hoping for the standard to grow up a little. End of metaphor.

What we see coming as a standard is not necessarily to our liking, so we will probably just go ahead and do linear 24/96. 192 kHz is tempting, but if we go down that path, the obligatory default option is Dolby Digital, and who needs that for high-end audio?

By the way, Dr. Gizmo liked even the CD of Blue Skies, so I hope we can tilt his kilt with the DVD. Blue Skies is a miraculous recording. One splice in music in the whole record. Two mikes. Lots of body and soul.

Q. Surround?

A. We have licensed the surround master tape of Nathaniel Rosen’s Reverie recital to Image Entertainment for release as a 20-bit DTS-encoded surround CD. That is currently available. In either two channels or DTS Surround, Reverie is a project I am very proud of. It was my idea to record Strauss’ art song Morgen as the last track, and I recruited Kaaren Erickson to sing it. It turned out to be her last recording.

There’s a story about that recording of Morgen. At the last New York Hi-Fi Show, Lonnie Brownell was kind enough to bring Max Roach to a press reception I was giving. Now, for as long as I can remember, Clifford Brown has been a near-mythic figure for me. (I wanted to name our son Clifford, but that was vetoed.) To shake hands with someone who, apart from his own achievements, worked with Clifford Brown, was a very special moment. Tommy Flanagan was there too.

The press event was for Arturo Delmoni to play one solo part of the Bach Two-Violin Concerto live, the other solo part previously recorded by Arturo, and played back via Nagra, c-j, ESP Concert Grands, etc. So Mr. Roach and Mr. Flanagan sat in the front row, Arturo worked his customary magic, time stood still, and then, all too soon, the music was over. We poured champagne, and it was my pleasure to bring glasses to Messrs. Roach and Flanagan, who looked quite pleased with the proceedings. They wandered into another room in the suite, as did most people.

We had with us a master tape clone of Reverie, so we put that on the Nagra, and started playing a Morgen take. Moments later, Max Roach walked back into the room, looked around, chuckled, and said a bit sheepishly that he had come back in to hear the young lady sing, thinking a live soprano was next on the program. A priceless memory.

Q. New projects?

A. Mostly I have been working to upgrade our web site, www.jmrcds.com. Planned recordings include Music for a Glass Bead Game, Volume Two, for violin and organ. A string-trio record, for violin, viola, and cello. Another Christmas CD.

Q. What equipment are you listening to these days?

A. Enlightened Audio Designs Ultradisc 2000, Plinius 8150, Shahinian Obelisks.

Q. Heard any great new CDs?

A. Cuando Dos, music for mezzo-soprano and classical guitar, Encarnacion Vazquez and Jamie Marquez, Urtext JBCC 013.

Q. Last words?

A. Thanks to everybody. Seriously. The first goal of true education should be to engender a spirit of gratitude. It’s a privilege to work with musicians who are great players and great people, with engineers who are artisans, with equipment that is reliable and empowering, and to receive the calls and letters I do from people who honestly believe that this shiny little plastic disc has somehow enriched their lives.

Just like the nice young couple on the X-Files, I am a bit of a Neo-Platonist: the truth is out there. Culture is a bucket brigade trying to bring the truth forward in time. I am grateful for the opportunity to help.

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