Has anyone ever heard of/used pristineclassical.com?

[ContrapunctusIX]

Lance, please let me know if this is out of bounds on this forum, if so I'd be happy to remove it. I'm curious to know if anyone has ever downloaded any of the FLAC files available on pristine classical. I've tried looking for reviews of the site, but it appears to be a collectors' site specializing in historic out of print recordings and doesn't have appear to get a lot of exposure. I saw a Paray/DSO performance of Brahms 4 there and it piqued my interest, but I'd like to know if anyone can vouch for whether or not the site is legitimate.

Any feedback you can provide is greatly appreciated!

[Donaldopato]

I have some Cantelli discs and downloads from Pristine Classical. They are fabulous and a definite improvement over the same performances from other sources.

Are they legal/ethical? That I really do not know.

[ContrapunctusIX]

I have some Cantelli discs and downloads from Pristine Classical. They are fabulous and a definite improvement over the same performances from other sources.

Are they legal/ethical? That I really do not know.

I was more concerned about whether or not transactions are secure via Paypal. I'm not sure they are technically legal, although from the sounds of it they only have recordings that are not currently (and never have been) available on CD.

[Barry]

I downloaded Ormandy/Sibelius flac files from Pristine and was happy with the results both in terms of sound and the smoothness of the transaction.

I see they put up a new transfer of the Furtwangler Beethoven 9th from 3/42 this week and have been thinking of getting that.

[Bösendorfer]

This came up before, a search quickly yielded this thread (and a couple of less relevant ones):

http://classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopi ... eclassical

Florian

[John F]

Pristine Classical is a European outfit, starting up in England and now based in France, and lots of recordings are in the public domain there which aren't in the U.S. That's why the Naxos historical series is sold in the record stores there, those stores that remain, but not here. Some of Pristine's releases do indeed duplicate previous CDs, such as the wartime Beethoven 9th conducted by Furtwängler. Their work has been praised in the Gramophone and indeed the New Yorker as if there were no copyright issue, so I don't believe we need to make an issue of it.

If your browser displays a locked padlock icon (in Firefox it's in the lower right corner) when viewing Pristine's order form, that web page should be as secure as your bank's or any other web site's encrypted connections. As for PayPal, I don't use it, so its security would be for others to comment on.

I first heard of Pristine Classical when Andrew Rose blew the whistle on the Joyce Hatto fraud. Don't buy downloads, so I've nothing to say about their quality.

[Istvan]

"I was more concerned about whether or not transactions are secure via Paypal"

'Paypal' is absolutely safe. The only thing to be careful of is the con men sending e-mail messages. You can tell they are phonies because the messages don't include your name and are full of incorrect English.

[Lance]

I have some (very little) experience with downloads and downloading is not of interest to me unless there is no other way to acquire the music. The numerous Pristine CDs I have are absolutely first-class. Great care is used in their restoration process and it all appears to be a labour of love on their part. I also use PayPal and highly recommend using this process when ordering anything via the Internet and where PayPal is offered as a payment option.

[ContrapunctusIX]

Thank you all for your feedback! It is greatly appreciated. I ended up ordering a Brahms 4 and Beethoven 6 & 7 with Paray/DSO.

[Barry]

Thank you all for your feedback! It is greatly appreciated. I ended up ordering a Brahms 4 and Beethoven 6 & 7 with Paray/DSO.

Let us know how you like them. Did you get the 24-bit Flac?

[ContrapunctusIX]

Thank you all for your feedback! It is greatly appreciated. I ended up ordering a Brahms 4 and Beethoven 6 & 7 with Paray/DSO.

Let us know how you like them. Did you get the 24-bit Flac?

I did. Currently listening to the Brahms 4. It's exactly what I'd expect from Paray thus far (this is a good thing).

[jserraglio]

In addition to Gramophone & the New Yorker, Fanfare regularly reviews Pristine's releases, so they are clearly regarded as legitimate, and are probably just as "legal" as Naxos is in its historical issues: i.e., it may be legal for them to issue this material but technically illegal for residents of countries like the USA to purchase it.

Pristine's releases sound fine to me. Lately though, they have been enhancing the original sound on some of their releases to make it more acceptable to the modern listener. I don't mind that, but some purists may

[Barry]

I downloaded the 3/42 Furtwangler Beethoven 9th from Pristine in 24-bit Flac a couple nights ago and am very happy with the sound. It will definitely be my go-to transfer for this legendary performance, the one that initially turned me on to Furtwangler, at least for the next few years. I'm sure something even better will eventually hit the market.

[Chalkperson]

In addition to Gramophone & the New Yorker, Fanfare regularly reviews Pristine's releases, so they are clearly regarded as legitimate, and are probably just as "legal" as Naxos is in its historical issues: i.e., it may be legal for them to issue this material but technically illegal for residents of countries like the USA to purchase it.

Pristine's releases sound fine to me. Lately though, they have been enhancing the original sound on some of their releases to make it more acceptable to the modern listener. I don't mind that, but some purists may

Amazon advertised an Emil Gilels disc on Naxos for sale this week, I wonder if that means that we will finally get those Historical discs on this side of the Atlantic...

[jserraglio]

I downloaded the 3/42 Furtwangler Beethoven 9th from Pristine in 24-bit Flac a couple nights ago and am very happy with the sound. It will definitely be my go-to transfer for this legendary performance, the one that initially turned me on to Furtwangler, at least for the next few years. I'm sure something even better will eventually hit the market.

I have this performance on a Turnabout Historical LP and in the M & A CD set and love it. The youtube video is also worth a look, though the sound is badly distorted.

Another nice thing about Pristine is that they let you play a whole movement as a sample. I don't plan to buy this CD, but that 1st movement sounds really good. This is one of the releases that have been enhanced with Pristine's "XR Mastering."

As John F noted above, Pristine's Andrew Rose, along with Gramophone, exposed the Joyce Hatto hoax about 4 years ago:

Joyce Hatto - The Ultimate Recording Hoax
http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html

[Tore]

Lance, please let me know if this is out of bounds on this forum, if so I'd be happy to remove it. I'm curious to know if anyone has ever downloaded any of the FLAC files available on pristine classical. I've tried looking for reviews of the site, but it appears to be a collectors' site specializing in historic out of print recordings and doesn't have appear to get a lot of exposure. I saw a Paray/DSO performance of Brahms 4 there and it piqued my interest, but I'd like to know if anyone can vouch for whether or not the site is legitimate.

Any feedback you can provide is greatly appreciated!

I am a big fan of Pristine Classical, and I have bought and downloaded most of their catalogue. I always buy their mp3-files, which I am quite happy with. I belive the sound quality in their recordings are as good as it can be, considering the age of the material they release.

I was actually their very first customers some years ago, and I will be a good customer for many years to come.

Tore F Steenslid
www.steenslid.com
Sotra, Norway

[Barry]

I downloaded the 3/42 Furtwangler Beethoven 9th from Pristine in 24-bit Flac a couple nights ago and am very happy with the sound. It will definitely be my go-to transfer for this legendary performance, the one that initially turned me on to Furtwangler, at least for the next few years. I'm sure something even better will eventually hit the market.

I have this performance on a Turnabout Historical LP and in the M & A CD set and love it. The youtube video is also worth a look, though the sound is badly distorted.

I'm almost embarrassed to say how many times I've purchased this performance over the years. The first time was a used LP. I think I'll be set with this Pristine transfer for a good long time though.
I see they've now put the Furtwangler Bruckner 9 up on Pristine.

[StephenSutton]

I know Pristine and Andrew Rose very well, in fact Andrew remastered all the CDs so far released in our Historic Sound series. As to the ethics, as has been said, they work on material which is out of copyright everywhere except the USA, and the problem is not that it is illegal to buy it (it's quite ok to buy a CD from Pristine Naxos or Divine Art etc as long as you buy it from France/UK; the question is whether it is right for Andrew to make the downloads available direct to US customers. I don;t know. Where we have such recordings, we have to specify when loading up to iTUnes etc, that the USA is an excluded market.
Quality wise, he's the best.