First off, I am not a classical guy by any stretch of the imagination. It's not that I do not appreciate it, I just don't KNOW it all that well. Other than the famous stuff (you all know what that is), I am a rookie when it comes to composers and works.
However, I am very familiar with "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris". Being a child of the '60s, I grew up with musicals as part of pop radio and parents listening so I was exposed to a lot of stuff that today would never make the public airways (or what's left of them). Look back at the Billboard charts of the mid-60's and you'll see stuff like "The Sound of Music" soundtrack as the #1 album! Hard to imagine these days.
Anyway, back to this post. I always liked Gershwin, especially these two pieces, so I remember getting the Columbia Quad that appeared at the end of the quad era.
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-------------------(SQ LP images pulled from from discogs)-------------------------
While it was a nice version, with the piano roll and all, it never got my attention as being "quad". So it sat there in my library, pulled out from time to time for a listen, but many times I never even bothered to enact 'SQ' because even with my Tate it never seemed that great. Oddly enough, when the SM2 came out this was one of the albums I tried first, and again was pretty much disappointed. Once I got the SM2 decode files to my PC, I really never went any further because it just didn't seem to make any difference.
But now - along comes Michael Dutton, and HOLY CRAP!!! THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING!!! This really is a discrete Rhapsody and AIP!! I have to admit I ripped it first, got it on the PC, then went to check it out and found myself listening and watching the wav files all the way through to these two pieces. It's perfect!! This is an absolute discrete mix and if the SQ mix was compromised to get it to work with SQ, then this was the discrete mix that was destined for Q8 that never made it. It's for real FOR SURE.
Honestly, I have no idea what "Carmina Burana" and "Beethoven: Late Choral Music" are. I will certainly listen to them eventually, but in the mean time I am taking these two Gershwin tunes in the car and will listen to them like a classical aristocrat during my "high brow" commute in the morning!
This is a masterpiece, IMHO. The disc is a '10' for me, because it's great. I promise to listen to the rest of it at some point, but for now, if you like Gershwin, well here are two of his most popular works, in splendid, well mastered, beautiful quad - all thanks to Micheal Dutton.
What a great disc! (You haven't ordered it yet?)