Telarc - Celebrating 25 Years: The Classical Collection

TELARC'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE CELEBRATES A QUARTER CENTURY OF MUSICAL EXCELLENCE
Telarc International, a leader in digital recording since its inception in 1977, revisits the highlights of its extensive classical catalog with the release of Telarc Celebrating 25 Years: The Classical Collection, a two-disc set which retails for the price of one.

Twenty-five years ago, founders Jack Renner and Robert Woods—two former musicians and music teachers—set out to raise the standard of excellence for recording classical music. Operating on instincts and shoestring budgets, their fledgling company, Telarc Records, tapped into the budding revolutionary recording system from Soundstream Inc. Developed by former MIT guru Dr. Thomas Stockham, the Soundstream system digitally captured a substantially cleaner and broader sonic picture than traditional analog recording techniques.

Telarc's maiden voyage on the Soundstream system was a recording of the Cleveland Symphonic Winds led by Frederick Fennell. With its 'bass drum heard round the world,' this collction of works by Holst, Handel and Bach was the first commercially released digital recording of classical music in he United States.

Two and a half decades later, Telarc reamains a leader in digitally recorded music—not just in its flagship genre of classical music, but now in jazz and blues as well—with a catalog of more than 600 recordings. Since 1980, the label has been honored with thirty-six Grammy Awards for performance, production and engineering. Other significant awards over the years have included the French Grande Prix du Disque and Diapason d'Or, Japan's Record of the Year, and Germany's Audiophile CD of the Year.

THE ARTISTS AND THEIR MUSIC
"We must acknowledge that without the talent of the artists and their music, all of our technical expertise would be for naught," said Woods. "There are innumerable occasions when we learn much from the incredibly gifted conductors and performers whose own ears are valuable tools in helping us shape our work."

The late Robert Shaw's breathtaking rendition, with his Festival Singers, of the Rachmaninoff Vespers, is one of Telarc's most legendary recordings (Disc Two, Track 2). The extremely lush, a cappella choral work—recorded "in the round" at the Church of St. Pierre in Gramat, France—won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording in 1990.

Organist Michael Murray was one of the first artists ever to be recorded on the Telarc label. His thrilling performance on Saint-Saen's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor ("Organ"), with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, gave Telarc another of its many landmark recordings.

Telarc's catalog includes many distinguished recordings of The Cleveland Orchestra, including a complete set of the Beethoven symphonies led by Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi (Disc One, Track 13).

In recent years many exciting and talented new artists have come to Telarc's roster, including the brilliant young Chinese pianist, Lang Lang (Disc Two, Track 13), who has won worldwide acclaim for his two Telarc recordings; and the mighty Mormon Tabernacle Choir under its accomplished new Music Director, Craig Jessop (Disc Two, Track 20).

EVERYTHING YOU HEAR IS TRUE
Telarc's recording philosophy has always been one of "less is more"—to avoid tampering with a recording's sound in any artificial manner. Thus, whether recording the monumental forces of the Vienna Philharmonic playing Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (Disc Two, Track 1), the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Telarc's Grammy-Award-winning Berlioz Requiem (Disc One, Track 15), or the more intimate sounds of the Cleveland Quartet playing a Beethoven string quartet (Disc two, Track 14), the company's goal has always been to faithfully represent the actual sound of a performance within its venue.

A quarter century after those first digital sessions in 1977, the passion still burns and the original vision is still clear. Regardless of artist, genre or technological medium, Telarc remains committed to creating the truest and most authentic listening experience possible in recorded music.