HiRez Poll Thomas, Michael Tilson - RHAPSODY IN BLUE (and more) [SACD]

[ubertrout]

So I'm just beginning to dig into this batch, starting with this recording. Listened to some of the Beethoven first - really radical quad mixing, and I thought it sounded pretty good too. I'll admit the quality of the pieces is very variable, but I enjoyed the King Stephen Overture a lot - one of the few pieces I'd heard before. Worth checking out.

The Rhapsody in Blue is technically excellent, but musically it just didn't work for me. It's really fast, but the problem is that MTT and the orchestra are locked into this piano roll so they're essentially playing catch-up to it. It's one reason why modern recordings with older rolls like this aren't tried more.

Here's Gershwin in a recording from 1925 - it's heavily cut, and they probably chose tempi to fit onto two 78s. Notice how it just feels in sync? I don't think it's possible with a preprogrammed roll.


Compare this to Bernstein's controversial recording - which is a full 3 minutes longer, and Bernstein isn't a first-rank pianist (he was of course a first rank conductor), and which is available as a stereo SACD and many RBCD versions. There's a vision and execution in that performance. I just don't get that here.

Still need to listen to the Carmina Burana and American in Paris - so much good stuff here, even with quibbles.

 

[ubertrout]

Listening to the Carmina Burana now. THIS IS AWESOME. This is the buried treasure - the Cleveland Orchestra play with perfect precision, at whatever speed is called for. MTT is completely in control and the recording was clearly conceived from the ground up for quad - and yet the only discrete issue was on a Q8 with a nasty cut. We've been waiting essentially 50 years. Great job to Dutton as well on the transfer.

 

[humprof]

Reviving this thread for the sake of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue," whose centennial earlier this week has been getting a lot of buzz in old media, new media, and whatever today's equivalent of the "blogosphere" is. Nate Chinen talks with Tom Huizenga about the piece in the second half of this week's episode of NPR's New Music Friday (move the slider to around 35:50):