James Boyk's Albums and Book
Raves on Three Continents for Emotion, Pianism and Sound Quality
The Scene A walled garden in Pasadena, California, the City of Roses. On one side, French doors framed in glowing teak open into a room of oak, lit with chandeliers and sconces. A large fireplace at one end faces a small balcony at the other. The ceiling is peaked and open-beamed, and curtains of deep red hang at the doors. For 75 years this Spanish Renaissance-style room was the loveliest recital space in Pasadena and all Los Angeles, and the one with the finest acoustics. It is Dabney Lounge at the world-famous California Institute of Technology. On this evening, seats are set up awaiting the audience; and a magnificent ebony concert grand awaits the pianist.
The Audience and the Relationship Well before concert time, music-lovers start to filter in: Caltech undergraduates and graduate students, faculty and staff, and members of the public from Pasadena and across Los Angeles. One former student has driven the 400 miles from Berkeley to be here. A Nobel Prize winner sits down next to a custodian; a student who may win a future Nobel, next to a retired lumber salesman who knew Gershwin. Another student, a math major, is destined for international stardom in opera. Three little girls in organza, sisters, await the music with wide eyes.For thirty years, listeners like these have attended concerts by Caltech's Pianist in Residence. Some here tonight have attended the series since it began in 1974. Many attend the pianist's informal weekly music and talk sessions in this room; these unusual classes are treasured by Caltech'ers and visitors from all over the world. Hundreds of students have taken the pianist's music-science course, which carries academic credit in music, electrical engineering and computer science. Dozens have studied piano privately with him. The pianist's relationship with these listeners, and with this room where he has taught for thousands of hours, whose acoustics he knows like the back of his hand, is unique.
The Artist The pianist is the internationally known recording artist James Boyk. He enters to warm applause, walking eagerly to the piano, pausing before playing just long enough to join the audience's entranced silence. Then the journey begins, into magical realms of feeling and revelation. "It carried me up to Heaven," says a listener. Another says, "Put that man in front of an audience and he has power."Boyk is not only a concert artist, but one of the country's great teachers, and author of a revolutionary book for musicians of all instruments. Often called a "Renaissance man," he is also a well-known audio engineer and researcher. To the puzzlement of some, he says that these activities fuel each other, and that he is a better artist for them.
The Recordings James Boyk draws from the piano intimate pianissimi and Heaven-storming fortissimi, orchestral sonorities, deep emotion and rapier wit. Through it all, the microphones, placed by Boyk himself, capture his artistry and the sound of the magnificent piano, the warmth of the hall, and the attentiveness of audience and performer to the music and each other. The result is the world's most honored series of piano recordings.
Albums and Book
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All music albums recorded in concert on Steinway Concert Grand except Bösendorfer Imperial for "Tonalities of Emotion." James Boyk's credits in bold.
USA: This imaginatively programmed and beautifully played recital may be the most realistic recording I know of a piano: truly breathtaking transparency, amazingly truthful dynamics and timbral purity, and an almost spooky replication of space and ambience. —Paul Seydor, The Absolute Sound 2011 High-End Audio Buyer's Guide
FRANCE: James Boyk, genius at once professional musician, professor of music, physicist-acoustician, is known equally as a great perfectionist in recording and sound reproduction. On this SACD, he is on top of his form at the Bösendorfer Impérial in Bach, Chopin, Debussy and Mozart. The recorded sound is very natural. —Jean Hiraga, Editor in Chief, Revue du Son & du Home Cinema.
SWEDEN: Boyk is no doubt an outstanding pianist endowed with remarkable feeling for the music's innermost emotions. —Thomas Roth, Musik och Ljudteknik.
AUSTRALIA: Absolutely superb recording of a superb piano (a beautifully tuned Bösendorfer Imperial). The sonic realism was jaw-dropping: it was easy to believe that the piano was right there in my room. A disc that should be in every audiophile's collection for the capture of the piano sound (and used as an object lesson for recording engineers), but it should also be in every music-lover's collection by reason of Boyk's superb interpretation of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue which is so perfectly interpreted and played that it brought tears to my eyes and sent a chill down my spine on my first listening. Even now, after months of hearing it, I still listen with a sense of suspended disbelief. —Greg Borrowman, Editor, Hi-Fi and Home Theatre Technology.
USA: One of the best-sounding piano recordings I have ever heard. Fortunately, the artistic quality fully measures up to the sound.... Boyk is one of those "why have I never heard of this artist before?" discoveries.—James Harrington, American Record Guide, Nov.-Dec., 2007.
Boyk plays the very devil out of this [Prokofiev] sonata.... The piano sounds incredibly lifelike. —Richard Freed, Stereo Review
Boyk's obsession with the purity of the recordings of his concerts has made him an authority on audio equipment. His Prokofiev is prized among audiophiles for being a rare example of a recorded piano sounding like one being played live. —Wayne Biddle, Discover
Desert-Island Disc —Ifan Payne, The Absolute Sound
Some of the most realistic and subtly nuanced piano sound I have heard on records in a long time.... The interpretation [of Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ravel] is worthy of the extraordinary care that has gone into making this record, and the result is something to cherish. —Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
Almost incredible fidelity. . . even more impressive is the integrity of the performance. —James Wierzbicki, High Fidelity
Unbelievably precise, his musical concept extraordinarily definite. The piano sounds as a piano should. We rank his 'Pictures at an Exhibition' among our reference recordings. —HiFi Magazin (Hungary)
Perhaps the most distinguished interpretation I've heard.... The feeling of "coming close to the vision of the composer" is strongly present. In this live recording in front of a devoted audience, the playing is powerful and full of life, yet with no loss of concentration. ... I just wish that every recording were done in the same way. —Musik & Ljudteknik (Sweden)
World's only comparison of (a) pure digital, (b) digital-from-analog, and (c) pure analog recordings, made at the same time from the same microphones; (a) and (b) on the CD, (c) on the LP. The analog master tape was the first tape made on MagnesaurusTM. From the album notes: "Interested listeners may use this double release of LP and CD to investigate some timely questions: Given an analog master tape, which medium preserves its virtues better, LP or CD? (Compare the LP with the analog half of the CD.) Does a CD sound better made from digital or analog master tape? (Compare the two versions on the CD.) And most important, which preserves the emotional impact of the music better, purely analog or purely digital recording? (Compare the LP with the digital half of the CD.)"
The argument stopper. —Ken Kessler, Hi-Fi News & Record Review
Recommended. —National Public Radio microphone workshops.
Highly recommended. —John Eargle, Audio
World's only such comparison. Lets the listener hear the "imaging" properties of 18 different mikings. A must for every recording engineer and every musician who records. Hear the wildly different images produced by various mikings! Hear how different types of microphones give different images with the same miking! No music, but important for effects of recording technique on music. Easy-to-understand booklet explains all. Or just sit down and listen, first to the complete spoken introduction on the disc, then to the examples. In 20 minutes, you'll know more than many professional engineers, and it will be real "ear-knowledge," not just talk. Each miking occupies two tracks. The first identifies it, the second lets you hear it. Use second track only for blind testing! (Three versions of Blumlein miking are included, along with four of coincident cardioids, two of ORTF, two of NOS, two of M-S, two of spaced omni's, and more. All these terms are clearly explained in the booklet.) Not a computer simulation but a real recording of real mikes on a custom-made acoustic source. Educational booklet includes Quick-Start Guide and "About Microphones & Stereo," a 2500-word primer by James Boyk written specially for this album. Also has complete transcript of spoken introduction, and graphics of microphone patterns.
Some of the most realistic and subtly nuanced piano sound I have heard on records in a long time...The interpretation is worthy of the extraordinary care that has gone into making this record, and the result is something to cherish. —Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
Almost incredible fidelity...even more impressive is the integrity of the performance. Critic's Choice —James Wierzbicki, High Fidelity
Boyk plays the very devil out of this sonata.... The piano sounds incredibly lifelike. —Richard Freed, Stereo Review
Boyk's obsession with the purity of the recordings of his concerts has made him an authority on audio equipment. His Prokofiev is prized among audiophiles for being a rare example of a recorded piano sounding like one being played live. —Wayne Biddle, Discover
Desert-Island Disc —Ifan Payne, The Absolute Sound
pr2 (LP): Boyk plays Schumann, Chopin 1980
Schumann: "Kinderszenen," Op.15. Chopin: Fantasy in F Minor, Op.49.
Performer / Producer / Album NotesVirtuoso pianist...superb recording. —Lawrence Vittes, Performing Arts
SOLD OUT.
pr1 (LP): Boyk plays Scarlatti and Beethoven 1978
Scarlatti: Sonatas in C, K.513; d, K.9; G, K.146. Beethoven: Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op.111.
Performer / Producer / Album NotesRecord to Die For (1992) —Stereophile
SOLD OUT.
Press Comment "I quickly augmented my collection of these fabulous James Boyk piano recordings." -Gramophone (England). "Record to Die For" (1992) -Stereophile "Boyk plays the very devil out of this sonata...The piano sounds incredibly lifelike." -Stereo Review "Unbelievably precise, his musical concept extraordinarily definite. We rank his 'Pictures at an Exhibition' among our reference recordings." -HiFi Magazin (Hungary) "Desert-Island Disc" -The Absolute Sound "Almost incredible fidelity...even more impressive is the integrity of the performance." -High Fidelity "The interpretation is worthy of the extraordinary care that has gone into making this record, and the result is something to cherish." -The Washington Post "Perhaps the most distinguished interpretation I've heard...The feeling of 'coming close to the vision of the composer' is strongly present." -Musik & Ljudteknik (Sweden) "Critic's Choice"—High Fidelity
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