24K Gold Coating! Audiophile Reference Series! Remastered using Sheffield's 20+16 Ultra Matrix Processing! Lukas Foss conducts The Sheffield Ensemble for this audiophile recording of William Malloch's arrangement of Bach's The Art of the Fugue. Sheffield's 20+16 Ultra Matrix Processing: This project features a breakthrough in CD sound quality: Sheffield's Ultra-Analog based 20 bit A/D converter is fed into an Apogee UV 22 encoder, allowing up to 15db of low level signal that is below the 16 bit noise floor to be encoded on CD. This dramatic increase in low level resolution represents a significant milestone in Sheffield's quest to achieve the fine detail and ambience retention characteristic of analog recording. The results are stunning! Lukas Foss (1922-2009) was recognized as a child prodigy early on. Piano and theory lessons began at the age of six with Julius Goldstein. His family moved to Paris in 1933 where he studied piano with Lazare Levy and composition with Noel Gallon. The family then moved to the U.S. in 1937 where he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with pianist Isabelle Vengerova, composer Rosario Scalero and conductor Fritz Reiner. He began a lifelong friendship with classmate Leonard Bernstein who later described Foss as an "authentic genius". William Malloch (1927-1996) was a musicologist who, after graduating from UC Berkeley in 1951, went on to receive an MA in composition at UCLA in 1958. He received many awards for his radio documentaries with special recognition for a commemorative recording "Gustav Mahler Remembered". His many interests included unearthing authentic tempos for music of the past, demonstrated on recorded performances which he produced of Ravel's Bolero and J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suites. "Malloch's version stimulates, excites, outrages, tantalizes, and finally blows away the prejudices which have kept the work under glass for more than 200 years!" -San Francisco Chronicle "An extraordinary release...the most remarkable Die Kunst Der Fuge ever recorded...do not deny yourself this joyous musical celebration!" -American Record Guide "Malloch's orchestration is a brilliant identification with the essence of Bach's art--transformed with wit, charm, and grace. He makes inspired use of the Sheffield Ensemble, with the most ingenious orchestration...the chosen tempi are magical. Recorded live to analog two-track, using minimalist microphone techniques and esoteric tube preamps to provide remarkable warmth and depth...this is priceless!" -H & B Review Features: • 24k Gold Coated CD • Remastered using Sheffield's 20+16 Ultra Matrix Processing