Classical in surround - Awesome: but where to start?

[Kal Rubinson]

Try the DTS series of CD/DVD-A that are being sold. I have their Mozart, Schubert & Tchaikovsky discs, all conducted by Don Jackson and featuring either the London Symphony Orchestra, or else the London Philharmonic. Very well recorded, superb 5.1 mixes that are fully discrete as well (not just the usual reverbs in the rear job).

I agree with your assessment of the sound but it is in the service of some of the most insipid performances on disc. For me, they were all "listen once" experiences.

I'm not the worlds biggest SACD fan, but the Australians - with the backing of government money, apparently, are putting out Wagners Ring Cycle - in it's entirity - in 5.1 on SACD. I saw the article in one of the online DVD-Audio sites, and it may be old news to some but was the first I had heard of it.....may well be worth a look. It didn't say if it would be in the written german, or Goodall's English version (which I have on SQ Vinyl!!)
Either way, multichannel Wagner - done well - cannot be anything other than impressive!

Fine performances of both Rheingold and Walkure with excellent theater-perspective sound: good vocal sound, the orchestra is in the pit, resulting in excellent warmth and detail with limited brilliance in the sound of the brass and upper strings.

Kal

 

[Guy Robinson]

I agree with your assessment of the sound but it is in the service of some of the most insipid performances on disc. For me, they were all "listen once" experiences.

Fine performances of both Rheingold and Walkure with excellent theater-perspective sound: good vocal sound, the orchestra is in the pit, resulting in excellent warmth and detail with limited brilliance in the sound of the brass and upper strings.

Kal

They did the entire Ring, right? What about Siegfried and Gotterdammerung? Whoa! I just checked the price on this $73 for Die Walkure?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

They did the entire Ring, right? What about Siegfried and Gotterdammerung? Whoa! I just checked the price on this $73 for Die Walkure?

So they say. So far, only the first two.

Kal

 

[DennisMabry]

I have been looking at these three discs;

Rimsky-Korsakov & Borodin
London Symphony Orhestra - Conducted by Antal Dorati
Mercury Living Presence M-CH SACD

Borodin / Symphony No. 2 & Excerpts from Prince Igor
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Conducted by Ole Schmidt
Membran M-CH SACD

Dvorak & Borodin / String Quartets
The Royal Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble
Membran M-Ch SACD

Perhaps those in the know could tell me which of these three would be the best to aquire or to avoid altogether!?? The first title is three channel, but I could not tell from the description about the other two. Any feedback would be great!

Dennis

 

[Kal Rubinson]

The Mercury is pretty decent of its sort. Bright and bold.
I have no first hand knowledge of the Membran discs except that the vast majority have performances that predate multichannel so they are remixed and/or synthesized. In any case, none of these three is representative of modern discrete multichannel SACD.

The labels with the most consistent MCH SACD quality are, imho and in no particular order, Pentatone, ChannelClassics, Hyperion, Polskie Radio, Harmonia Mundi, Linn, BIS, SFSO and, usually, Telarc, Chandos, LSOLive, RPO and Ondine.

You can also check my listings (link in the sig) or Felix's website for suggestions.

Kal

 

[DennisMabry]

Thanks Kal,

The label recomendations will be very helpful!

Dennis

 

[ct]

I would add one more label: TACET in regards to good multichannel classical surround music. Tacet started out with DVD-A, and has added SACD, but, IMO they do surround sound chamber music as well, and better, than most. Their Schubert Quintet is one of my favorites; and two works with the Camerata Frieden, Beethoven and Mozart, are superb. You can go to their website and view all their offerings.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Tacet is a curious situation. They make excellent recordings, musically and technically, but their attitude towards surround representation varies from straight-forward to the downright experimental. That's why I did not include them on my list of consistently reliable labels.

One can also add, btw, Capriccio, MDG, Fone, ArtMusic, etc.

Kal

 

[Chris Gerhard]

If the score of the greatest movie from 1938 counts as classical music, I picked up another disc, Korngold's "The Adventures of Robin Hood", Naxos Mch DVD-A, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, William Stromberg, conductor. I think it was about $6 from Buy.com using Google Checkout. It sounds like a fine performance of that great film score to me.

Chris

 

[stormchaser]

I'm following Chris here in talking up the Google Checkout, but if you want to stock up on the Living Stereo SACDs, go to CD Universe and if you buy them in batches of five and use the Google Checkout, you average about 7 bucks per disc including shipping. I'll be placing an order shortly.