Thanks for your review. I will order it along with the Rheinberger organ concerto with Biggs.
It really is - gave it a listen today. Far more discrete than a classical recording you'd hear today. In my opinion this is the new top choice in surround for Alexander Nevsky Cantata, and it's a really good performance to boot. Reiner's famous account in Living Stereo (only on AP SACD) is plagued by terrible balances in the 3-channel mix - I suspect it was never meant to be heard like that. And in any case Reiner uses an english translation for some of the movements, which doesn't work that well for me. Slatkin's quad mofi version is fine, but neither the performance nor the acoustics (nor the mix) are as good/interesting) in my opinion. Schippers is good in what I believe is a surround mix sourced from 2 or 3 channel master tapes, but it's not real surround. The only real competition in my opinion is Naxos's DVD-Audio from a dozen years back with modern forces - the acoustics are better but it's much less discrete and the playing isn't quite as good in my opinion.
Thanks for your review. I will order it along with the Rheinberger organ concerto with Biggs.
Usually anything with organ and orchestra becomes an automatic buy, especially given the relative dearth of such recordings.Thanks for the recommendation.The Rheinberger organ Concerto is gorgeous. You will LOVE it!
While Slatkin did some fine work (and on the flip side Ormandy was sliding in his later years), I still think the Ormandy/Philadelphia combination is superior in most pertinent ways.There's also Slatkin/Saint Louis on Vox Candide, reissued on MoFi. It's a really fine Marc Aubert/Joanna Nickrenz recording, but unlike some of the earlier Voxes that MoFi took on, this one has fairly typical concert-hall ambience in the rears. (That goes for Nevsky, anyway; the recording of Lt. Kije on the same disc--from a different session, originally on Turnabout--has more character and depth, surround-wise.)
But I agree: the D-V Ormandy is the new standard!
The typical ones pointed to are the Ozawa/Boston recordings, especially of Berlioz, and the Bernstein recording of Carmen (recently reissued on BD-A by DG itself as well).I haven't yet recieved my copies yet, but am looking forward to them. Which DG/Pentatone discs are you speaking of ?
Finally got to listen to the Lt. Kije Suite, and I'm a little less enthusiastic. The quad mix by Michael Dutton is really good and active - the suite is defined by several different voices in the orchestra at the same time, and he uses the surround mix to really give each voice room to breathe. The problem for me is that the actual performance doesn't have that much energy, at least as much as I expected, and the sound didn't seem that great to me either. I pulled out the BIS release to compare (a bit unfair, I know), and the brass and woodwinds sounded much better and more natural.While Slatkin did some fine work (and on the flip side Ormandy was sliding in his later years), I still think the Ormandy/Philadelphia combination is superior in most pertinent ways.
Still need to listen to the Lt. Kije - there's much more competition there, including a fantastic disc from BIS. That one also uses vocal parts instead of the instrumental version (which I prefer, but whichever).
Thanks for the evaluation. As it turns out, Lt Kije hasn't held much interest for me anyway. I am usually bored by it. I am still waiting for my discs to show up. Hopefully they should be here any day now.Finally got to listen to the Lt. Kije Suite, and I'm a little less enthusiastic. The quad mix by Michael Dutton is really good and active - the suite is defined by several different voices in the orchestra at the same time, and he uses the surround mix to really give each voice room to breathe. The problem for me is that the actual performance doesn't have that much energy, at least as much as I expected, and the sound didn't seem that great to me either. I pulled out the BIS release to compare (a bit unfair, I know), and the brass and woodwinds sounded much better and more natural.
Still totally worth buying, and if you're new to the piece you'll wonder what I'm talking about.
The Quad mix often seems like channels were arbitrarily chosen, rather than with a cohesive mix in mind.
...
I haven't listened to a great deal of 1970's Quad mixes, so perhaps this wasn't uncommon.
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