SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[humprof]

In this morning's email, 25% discount on Channel Classics SACDs and downloads.

That's pretty classy--a welcome recompense for the hasty disappearance of their website. Now I have to decide all over again whether there's anything in their catalogue that I want but don't have! Here's a link, filtered for "SACD":
https://outhere-music.com/en/classi...sics?products[refinementList][format][0]=SACD

 

[4-earredwonder]

Martha Argerich COMPLETE CHOPIN RECORDINGS on DGG .... 5 RBCDs and 1 BD~A containing an ATMOS remix ..... less than 1/2 price @ AmazonUS

Universal 028948600083 (6 discs)
Stereo/Multichannel
Classical - Instrumental
Chopin: Piano Sonatas 2 & 3, Scherzos 2 & 3, Barcarolle, Preludes, Mazurkas Op. 59, Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante, Polonaise 'Heroic', Polonaise-Fantasie, Piano Concertos 1* & 2**, Introduction and Polonaise^, Cello Sonata^

Martha Argerich (piano)
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello^ & conductor**)
London Symphony Orchestra*
National Symphony Orchestra, Washington^
Claudio Abbado* (conductor)

HRAudio.net review and ordering links:

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=14821#reviews

 

[mkt]

That's pretty classy--a welcome recompense for the hasty disappearance of their website. Now I have to decide all over again whether there's anything in their catalogue that I want but don't have! Here's a link, filtered for "SACD":
https://outhere-music.com/en/classi...sics?products[refinementList][format][0]=SACD

I picked up a few. 3 of the 4 are not available on SACD, so no chance (?) of appearing at Berkshire Record Outlet or used.

 

[windhoek]

I finally ordered this Dutton-Vocalion release of The Planets by Bernstein/NYP orchestra and I'm pleased to say it's the best multichannel release of The Planets I've heard. I've heard a number of ambient releases and even releases touted to be dynamically discrete, but this one here is the best I've heard so far for sure.

I'm pretty sure that's me done with The Planets. I've got it on vinyl and I've got a collection of releases in digital as well, from stereo to ambient surround to dynamic surround. Not to mention transcriptions for organ and 20-fingers, and of course, as reimagined by Tomita. I've heard it live in concert as well so yeah, I think that's me

 

[JediJoker]

I'm pretty sure that's me done with The Planets. I've got it on vinyl and I've got a collection of releases in digital as well, from stereo to ambient surround to dynamic surround.

Do you have the Ozawa Boston Symphony recording? Have you heard it? It's the one I grew up with and is still my favorite, performance-wise.

 

[windhoek]

Do you have the Ozawa Boston Symphony recording? Have you heard it? It's the one I grew up with and is still my favorite, performance-wise.

I haven't heard that one JJ. My main stereo version is this one by Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic. It's pretty solid. That's not to say I might not ever stumble across a more enjoyable version, and yours might be it, but it's pretty good all the same. That said, I've still to hear the stereo track from the Bernstein SACD, which might well be as equally impressive as the surround option.

 

[kap'n krunch]

right now I am declicking the Ravel / Jean Martinon LP rips from the boxset.. and I JUST found that a few years ago there was an SACD EMI Japan limited release of the whole Orchestral collection which , unfortunately now has become unattainable, as opposed to the Debussy one which I just got recently....oh well..if anyone feels like selling their set, please PM me...

 

[barfle]

I finally ordered this Dutton-Vocalion release of The Planets by Bernstein/NYP orchestra and I'm pleased to say it's the best multichannel release of The Planets I've heard. I've heard a number of ambient releases and even releases touted to be dynamically discrete, but this one here is the best I've heard so far for sure.

I'm pretty sure that's me done with The Planets. I've got it on vinyl and I've got a collection of releases in digital as well, from stereo to ambient surround to dynamic surround. Not to mention transcriptions for organ and 20-fingers, and of course, as reimagined by Tomita. I've heard it live in concert as well so yeah, I think that's me

Is this the same performance as the vinyl SQ or the SACD with the Britten “War Requiem?”

 

[windhoek]

Is this the same performance as the vinyl SQ or the SACD with the Britten “War Requiem?”

I'm afraid I've no idea about either of those questions, so I'll happily defer to the answer that hopefully follows, sorry.

 

[humprof]

As a casual but longtime Minnesota Orchestra fan, and a Twin Cities resident when she was hired, I was saddened to learn of the death of concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis--who, in, the opinion of the New York Times, was "in large part responsible for the resurgence of the Minnesota Orchestra, which came to be widely regarded as one of the finest in the nation." She had a "frank personality" and a "palpable intensity," the Times obit says; "[l]ike its concertmaster, the orchestra performed 'with the kind of furious finesse that every composer prays for.'" (That last quote was Alex Ross, writing in The New Yorker in 2005.)
https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/stories/remembering-jorja-fleezanis/

 

[humprof]

Before plonking down the princely sum of $9.60 for this week's BIS special--three sinfoniettas by Poulenc, Prokofiev, and Britten--I thought I'd preview it on Apple Music. I liked the music well enough, but since I also have my AVR set up to apply the Dolby Surround Upmixer to all stereo signals from my ATV4K, I also realized that mix-wise, I liked what I was hearing better than anything I've bought from BIS in the past. As someone who prefers more immersive mixes for classical music (over standard hall ambience), I think this may be my default from now on. Haven't experimented yet with what the DSU will do with a 5.0 mix.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Have been spinning this absolutely MAGNIFICENT set from DGG for the past two days. Glorious musicmaking. I purchased the 7 disc UHQ MQA encoded CDs from Deep Discount during their recent 15% off sale [$63]. AmazonIUS is charging $120 for the exact same set. VERY HIGH RECOMMENDATION

 

[kap'n krunch]

man, I will NEVER get tired of listening to Claude's stuff... the guy was a freaking GENIUS!!! (well, we share the same BIRTHDAY, LOL!)...was listening to my SQ conversion of CD disc IV of the Martinon ...!
I love it how he takes you there...and this is the most discrete of any of his Orchestra music I have found so far...well, that I KNOW of!

 

[humprof]

A(nother) remastered Solti Ring cycle--with Atmos this time. Milk that cow, I guess.

All I've been able to find so far are short, stenographic news items in Opera Wire and BBC Classical that are lifted from Decca's poorly written press release:
https://www.deccaclassics.com/en/ar...-ring-sounding-better-than-ever-before-267505
Nothing in that release about multitracks. And based on what I'm hearing/reading, that's because there weren't any: Decca mixed live to two tracks. (There's apparently documentary evidence of a 4-track recorder and a line of ambience mics in the studio for the post-Rheingold operas, but some sources claim that those latter two mics were used to overdub special effects only.) Also, the stuff about "spot-baking" is seeming nonsense: there's no practical way to do that, and the tapes all predate the era of sticky-shed syndrome anyway.

One source I've read says that apart from a King Records reissue, which used Japanese copies of master tapes, all previous remasters were done from 1984 digital transfers, when the original masters were found to be in poor condition and required extensive repair. (Another source says the 2012 remaster was based on newer 1997 transfers, whose over CEDAR-ization was repaired with digital tweaking.) Assuming the masters are still playable, a new hi-res transfer could certainly be an improvement.

The good news is that even when they're "upmixes" (or the working equivalent), the more recent Atmos mixes from Decca's back catalogue have sounded pretty good--full and immersive. But will this latest reissue be a marked improvement over my 2014 Pure Audio stereo Blu-Ray (which used the 2012 remaster), which I can always run through the DSU? I doubt it, unless they've also employed stem separation AI. But happy to be proven wrong.

EDIT, one day later: the discussions on which I've been eavesdropping on a particular mailing list have grown very interesting--a few things have emerged with more clarity, but some fresh clouds, too. Stay tuned, I guess.

Talkin' to myself here, I guess, but here's a really fascinating article from this month's Sound On Sound about how these pioneering recordings were designed to be "immersive" in ways that still fit today's definition of that term.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/decca-ring-cycle-then-now
Sounds as though, at the very least, this new box will represent a sonic improvement over my 2014 Blu-Ray (which used the 2012 remaster). "The recordings have previously been transferred to digital twice, in 1984 and then again in 1997, both times under the direction of longstanding Decca engineer Jimmy Lock. 'The most recent reissue was in 2012,' recalls Dominic Fyfe, “but that used the 1997 transfer as the basis. That was done at 24-bit, 48kHz, and they used CEDAR for the de-noising and de-hissing [at the time of the transfer in 1997], but at that time it was quite invasive. It shaved a lot of the high frequencies off, and things like that.'"

 

[ubertrout]

Talkin' to myself here, I guess, but here's a really fascinating article from this month's Sound On Sound about how these pioneering recordings were designed to be "immersive" in ways that still fit today's definition of that term.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/decca-ring-cycle-then-now

So the BD-Audio is made from the 24/48 stereo master in 1997 and now considered unusable, whereas the new transfer is from the original 3-track (or more depending on year) session tapes? Interesting-ish.

 

[humprof]

So the BD-Audio is made from the 24/48 stereo master in 1997 and now considered unusable, whereas the new transfer is from the original 3-track (or more depending on year) session tapes? Interesting-ish.

Yep. And although the Atmos mix is of necessity "derived" from stereo, Siney did not use "programs. . .where you can upsample a stereo mix into Atmos and it pulls the sound apart" (I wish I knew more precisely what he was referring to there). Instead, it sounds like he used reverb plug-ins in order to recreate the room and convey a sense of being "in the best seat in the hall." Somewhat similar to the approach Steve Genewick has taken with Kind of Blue, the classic Blue Notes, etc. Not my favorite approach--especially when it comes to off-stage sounds, which Siney has not attempted to pull out of the stereo field, even though he concedes that Culshaw would certainly have been all over that if the technology had been available to him.

 

[ubertrout]

Yep. And although the Atmos mix is of necessity "derived" from stereo, Siney did not use "programs. . .where you can upsample a stereo mix into Atmos and it pulls the sound apart" (I wish I knew more precisely what he was referring to there). Instead, it sounds like he used reverb plug-ins in order to recreate the room and convey a sense of being "in the best seat in the hall." Somewhat similar to the approach Steve Genewick has taken with Kind of Blue, the classic Blue Notes, etc. Not my favorite approach--especially when it comes to off-stage sounds, which Siney has not attempted to pull out of the stereo field, even though he concedes that Culshaw would certainly have been all over that if the technology had been available to him.

Interesting. I might stream the atmos but I think I'll keep my current set. In any case, there's a number of good modern cycles (including the cycle Van Zweden did recently for Naxos on blu-ray audio) where high quality surround doesn't require this sort of archeology.

 

[4-earredwonder]

NOW available from DGG: 3 RBCDs, A PURE AUDIO BD~A in Dolby ATMOS and a Performance of the concertos with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO on a separate BD~V. Also includes a Hardcover book!

https://smile.amazon.com/Beethoven-...7e-92ef-4e7b2ae0af98&pd_rd_i=B097SQWRCP&psc=1
In 1989, Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein recorded Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5. 30 years later, Zimerman returns to these Piano Concertos. He offers an exceptional new interpretation recorded with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra. This limited deluxe 3 CD & 2 Blu-ray includes videos of all 5 concertos, breathtaking Dolby Atmos surround sound, and bonus interviews by Sir Simon Rattle. Hardcover Book (DVD size).

 

[kap'n krunch]

NOW available from DGG: 3 RBCDs, A PURE AUDIO BD~A in Dolby ATMOS and a Performance of the concertos with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO on a separate BD~V. Also includes a Hardcover book!

https://smile.amazon.com/Beethoven-...7e-92ef-4e7b2ae0af98&pd_rd_i=B097SQWRCP&psc=1
In 1989, Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein recorded Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5. 30 years later, Zimerman returns to these Piano Concertos. He offers an exceptional new interpretation recorded with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra. This limited deluxe 3 CD & 2 Blu-ray includes videos of all 5 concertos, breathtaking Dolby Atmos surround sound, and bonus interviews by Sir Simon Rattle. Hardcover Book (DVD size).

IIRC, the Rattle Beethoven Symphonies BD mix is quite good, is this similar?

 

[4-earredwonder]

IIRC, the Rattle Beethoven Symphonies BD mix is quite good, is this similar?

Just ordered this. At just a little over $30, for 3 RBCDs, a Pure BD~A in ATMOS, no less and a BD~V concert recording .... a phenomenol deal! NOT to mention a hardcover book!