Just got in Pentatone's latest quad transfer, featuring Bartok recordings from 1973 and 1976 (the inlay says 1979, but the booklet says 1976, clearly correct since the LP came out in 1977).
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I've only listened to the Concerto for Orchestra so far with Kubelik conducting, and I'm still forming an opinion. The dynamic range on this disc in quad is enormous - it needs to be cranked, but be prepared for some serious volume once you do that in parts of the piece. I frankly think I need to listen again from the beginning at a louder volume. The actual performance is fantastic, of course, there's a reason it's roundly praised. Surround activity is discrete but subtle - generally the instruments providing the subtext are placed in the rears and the instruments being featured are placed in the fronts. It's not a surround extravaganza, but it's more aggressive that the average classical recording.
Also need to listen to the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Ozawa recorded this same program with his Saito Kinen Orchestra in the early days of SACD, and it's an excellent DSD-recorded SACD that still pops up at reasonable prices. Will be interesting to compare.
There's a lot of competition in this repertoire - if Sony hadn't nerfed the quad in the Boulez version on SACD that would an the obvious contender. Reiner's classic account with Chicago is essential, but only in 2/3 channel on Living Stereo.
There's no obviously superior one in proper multichannel, though.
Nice find bro. I bought mine when it was released, so I guess I must have paid in the vicinity of $25 or so... ??
