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High Resolution
Digital Audio
Music ReviewsSince we're starting to have some albums released in both of the high-res formats now, and I sometimes want to organize reviews by musical types rather than by format, we're mixing it up this month - SACD/DVD A/stereo/multichannel and with certain of the DVD-As even including various sampling rates and some video portions. I'm auditioning via a different DVD-A player this time and finding less problems accessing some of the disc features.
Bucky Pizzarelli, guitar - Swing Live (with Peter Appleyard, vibes; Allen Vache, clarinet;
Bernard Purdie, drums; Michael Moore, bass) Chesky DVD-A "2/4/6 disc" CHDVD222:
I reviewed Chesky's multichannel SACD version of this session recorded at the New York City music room Makor. It is of great technical interest not only due to being released on both formats, but also because the original recording was done with B-Format Ambisonics - the eminently sensible surround format that's been around for years and which I personally feel conveys the most natural surround experience possible with music. It took somewhat kludgey conversion this first time to fit the very flexible Ambisonics approach to the strictures of 5.1 surround, but the results already sound better than most straight 5.1 discs and future releases (Chesky is expanding its use of Ambisonics) should be even better.
There's quite an array of options provided on this DVD. First, there's the DVD-V layer, with a 96K/24bit stereo track, a Dolby Digital 4.0 channel mix, and room for some session photos shot during the live recording. Secondly, there is the 5.1 DVD-Audio mix - also 96K/24 - plus a 96/24 4.0 surround mix compatible with 5.1 setups. Last, there is David Chesky's alternate approach to SSfM - eliminating the LFE and center channels and feeding those signals to another pair of speakers high and to the immediate left and right of the normal front left and front right speakers - 55 degrees off of center to be exact. I plan to audition this offering with a proper setup soon, but I don't yet have the side speakers mounted, wired or amplified. I wanted to review this fine disc anyway since even if you don't yet have a DVD-A or SACD player you can still experience an excellent surround soundfield with the Dolby Digital 4.0 function. The photo stills are also accessible on both the 4.0 and 6.0 tracks.
The spot-on localization of the five musicians as well as the audience in attendance is almost uncanny. It really does put the listener in the middle of the jazz club audience, a quantum leap beyond other audiophile jazz efforts that have tried to do that - such as Jazz at the Pawnshop (though the recent F.I.M. 4.0 remix for SACD of that classic is pretty involving). The music puts you back in the era of Benny Goodman's quartet and sextet Vache captures the Goodman feeling, Pizzarelli is constantly inventive, and the interplay among the five players is almost visual in its spatial realism. The tunes: Lester Leaps In, Sweet Sue, Dinah, Perdido, If I Had You, Too Marvelous for Words, Lime House Blues.
Wayne Horvitz, piano - Forever (with Timothy Young, guitars; Keith Lowe, acoustic bass; Andy
Roth, drums) - SongLines/Hi Res Music DVD-A stereo HRM 2001:
Wayne Horvitz is straddling both of the new hi-res formats - we just reviewed his Sweeter Than the Day SACD here last month! Hi-Res is a new DVD-A reissue label specializing in restoring classic analog and digital two-channel masters to their highest fidelity via DVD-As' 96K/24 bit option. The producers state that they decided not to go up to the ultimate 192K sampling rate because there was more and better editing and production gear available for the 96K sampling rate. There is no video except for the title of each track, but the DVD-A starts out right away with track 1 without requiring video display. There's no need for an onscreen main menu in which to select stereo or multichannel playback and all discs in this series are stereo only. "Bringing Higher Fidelity to a Digital World" is the label's slogan.
Not a old recording by any means, Seattle-area jazz pianist Horvitz taped the original in l999. Wish I could read the booklet's notes but they are red and about 5 pt against a busy photo background, so forget it. All 11 tracks are Horvitz originals and I love 'em madly. Blend together a bit of Bartok, Erik Satie and Philip Glass and add a jazz sensibility and you'll have a rough idea of what Horvitz is all about. Chromatic, with little central feeling of a particular key, but definitely not atonal. Most of the tracks spotlight his piano, with few solos from his compatriots. I loved the Satie-ish funky repeated figurations in In the Ballroom, an example of what's heard on several of the tracks. The piano tone is gorgeous, intimate yet rich and full without sounding like a 30-ft.-wide Steinway. Tracks: Ben's Music, Prepaid Funeral, LoveLoveLove, Capricious Midnight, 9 to 4, In the Ballroom, Forever, Disingenuous Firefight, Tired, Little Man, American Bandstand.
- John Henry
Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet - (with John Coltrane, tenor sax; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums) Prestige/APO Mono SACD 7094:
Well, this one from 1956 has been reissued plenty of times now, and here it is again. Notice the sticker on the outside doesn't say Hybrid Stereo. I really didn't expect there would be mono SACDs this early on, but then again since the enhanced resolution allows us to hear more subtle details of all well-made recordings, why not? And Rudy Van Gelder certainly made these "deep mono" tapings well. I think few casual listeners would pick up on the fact this is not in stereo. Doug Sax mastered the disc using Ed Meitner's converters and all-tube electronics in the tape deck. The CD's label is an enlarged version of the original rather crude Prestige LP label. Even if you bought every previous iteration of this classic you will probably want to hear and own this one if you have a SACD player. A/B'd with my most recent gold CD reissue it pulled aside that proverbial sonic veil. Tunes: My Funny Valentine, Blues by Five, Airegin, Tuneup/When Lights are Low.
- John Henry
Pat Barber is back and so are at least two new releases from Mobile Fidelity - who we thought were out of biz!..
Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue - (with Michael Arnopol, bass; John McLean guitars; Mark Walker, drums/percussion/body parts) - Mobile Fidelity/Premonition Records Stereo SACD UDSACD 2002:
Patricia Barber - Modern Cool - with quintet and the Choral Thunder
Vocal Choir - Mobile Fidelity/Premonition Records Stereo SACD UDSACD 2003:
Since many of us own these two discs in their original CD versions and I reviewed them back in l999, I hope readers won't think I'm lazy for just pasting in here what I said then:
I'd been seeing references to this new jazz vocalist for some time and heard a couple tracks on our local public radio jazz outlet but hadn't really paid attention. Barber's art requires some attention and now that I've given it I see what everybody was talking about! This is some talent! She's very cool, hip, post-modern, electronic, and has a sort of Weimar Republic cabaret stance about her. Her voice sometimes sounds like she's whispering in your ear. And she writes half the tunes herself! The first album showed her penchant for treating a song so radically different that you feel you're hearing it for the first time. That's what she does with Ode to Billy Joe, as well as A Taste of Honey. While not as quirky as the second CD, this one does include a short tune titled Wood is a Pleasant Thing to Think About. (!) Modern Cool has more originals, including an adaptation of an E. E. Cummings poem and her highly intellectual Postmodern Blues. Her ensemble has expanded to include guitar, extra percussion, trumpet star Dave Douglas, and on the sections I had thought were electronic, Barber herself playing only table knives on the piano strings!
I need only add that I'm now hearing details all thru both these albums that never were audible before. Since Barber is far from a song belter it helps to be able to hear every word of her often quiet lyrics and the higher resolution makes that possible. I also became aware of how many tracks on both albums are strictly instrumental and stand on their own, not just filling time between Barber's vocals. I especially liked Romanesque on the first album. And her piano work on both the instrumentals and behind her vocals is top flight. The second album is a much larger production with more variety and chorus on some tracks.
- John Sunier
Les Brown & His Band of Renown, featuring guest vocalists Jane Monheit & Lou Rawls - Session #55 - DTS Entertainment DTS & DVD-A 69286-01067-9-6:
The disc is a sort of tribute to bandleader Brown, who died last year. Its subtitle - 1936-2001 - makes the disc sound something like a re-issue of old recordings of the big band. But it's not - these multichannel masters, making full use of all six channels, are recorded just last year. Big bands are made for surround sound and this one is really a kick and a half. Puts you right up there on the bandstand I would have liked a greater proportion of instrumental vs. vocals, but that's just my prejudices. The lavish booklet has a paragraph about each one of the 21 tracks: Floatin', Secret Love, I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles, Drop Me Off in Harlem, Ain't She Sweet, They Can't Take That Away from Me, If Dreams Come True, Mood Indigo, It Could Happen to You, I Only Have Eyes for You, Bizet Has His Day, String of Pearls, Sentimental Journey, Undecided, That Old Black Magic, Satin Doll, Dansero, Yo Henry, Tenderly, Old Man River, Leap Frog.
- John Henry
Directions West - Silverline DTS & Dolby Digital only - 86026 9:
An unusual disc since it doesn't include DVD-Audio among its features. There is also very little information about the music, images and other material on the DVD. In fact it took some detective work to learn that all the music was composed and performed by a Richard Friedman. The music is heavy in Native American instruments - tom toms, rattles, rain sticks. Fidelity is tops, though it sounds very studio-created. There seem to be no separate tracks or identification of any of the selections; they just flow on, accompanying some very nice color still photos of the American Southwest, including close-ups of what appear to be very high fashion Indian costumes. Don't quite know what to make of this disc - it's an enjoyable Arizona Highways sort of slide show though.
- John Sunier
Herb Ellis & Joe Pass, guitars - Seven, Come Eleven - Live at the Concord Summer Festival (with Jack Hanna, drums; Ray Brown, bass) - Concord/Hi-Res Music stereo DVD-A HRM 2005:
I searched around in my yet-unorganized CD collection trying to find the 44.1 CD version of this album for an A/B comparison, and finally surmised that perhaps I own it not on CD but on the original LP. And I don't have my turntable set up as yet. This wonderful session was taped during the early years of the Concord Festival, when it took place in a small park in the middle of downtown Concord, California. I was there. The first thing I heard in this hi-res two-channel, 96K reissue from Hi-Res was the audience snapping their fingers along with some of the tracks. I never heard that on the CD or LP - whichever it was. Nuff said sonically, except that the Rotel receiver on which I'm reviewing this is frustrating in that it doesn't allow any further processing to be done on 96K stereo inputs - the same as with the ill-fated 96K non-DVD-Audio DVDs issued by Classic and Chesky. I would have loved to run this nice clean two-channel feed thru ProLogic II and feel like I was back in that Concord park with people snapping fingers all around me! The seven tracks: In a Mellow Tone, Seven Come Eleven, Prelude to a Kiss, Perdido, I'm Confessin', Easy Living, Concord Blues.
Monte Alexander, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis Trio - Hi-Res stereo DVD-A HRM 2008:
Another of the classic Concord Jazz masters reissued at 96K/24bit two channel by this new DVD-A reissue label (in which Mark Waldrep of A.I.X. Is involved). This one dates from l981 and has won acclaim as a complete gem of a jazz trio session. What can one say about three such jazz masters? In his liner notes Leonard Feather says what you're really hearing is the Oscar Peterson Trio, with Monte Alexander subbing for the Canadian keyboardist. This is because both bassist Brown and guitarist Ellis played for a time in the Peterson Trio. There's nothing especially Caribbean here - reflecting Alexander's Jamaican background - but all nine tunes have a certain lilt and sparkle that might be associated with the music of that part of the world. This trio is a major treat, that's all I can say. The tunes: I'm Afraid the Masquerade is Over, You Call It Madness I Call It Love, Blues for Junior, Sweet Georgia Brown, I Want to Be Happy, Put Your Little Foot Right Out, Capt. Bill, To Each His Own, Sister Sadie.
- John Sunier
The Larry Goldings Trio (Goldings, B3; Peter Bernstein, guitar; Bill Stewart, drums/cymbals/gongs) - Moonbird - Palmetto/Hi Res Music stereo DVD-A HRM 2004:
Goldings is part of the rebirth of the Hammond B3 in jazz and has been playing with his trio for a decade now, so though he's young he's far from a greenhorn at the organ/guitar/drums genre. Goldings reports that the shadow of Jimmy Smith is over every B3 player today and the challenge is to find one's very own way. The late Larry Young is more of a model for Goldings, in exploring new melodic and harmonic directions rather than just variations on a blues pattern. Some of Goldings' lowest pedal notes remind me to put a high-pass filter back into the circuit to my twin subwoofers, because with the extended frequency range of this 96K recording, my sub drivers are having a fit on occasion. Tracks: Crawdaddy, Moonbird, Woodstock, Christine, Empty Oceans, Xoloft, Comfort Zone, I Think It's Going to Rain Today.
Herb Ellis & Freddie Green - Rhythm Willie (Ellis, guitar; Green, rhythm guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Jake Hanna, drums; Ross Tompkins, piano) Concord Jazz/Hi-Res Music stereo DVD-A HRM 2010:
Back to l975 for this session which is obviously built around the rhythm guitar chops of Freddie Green, who joined the Basie Band in the late l930s and at the time of this recording was still providing his amazing rhythmic underpinnings to the trademarked Basie Sound - using his unamplified acoustic guitar. The electric guitar lines of Ellis soar like an eagle over Green's foundation of rhythm and notes. There's also some fine swapping of solos between pianist Tompkins and Ellis. Ray Brown has also been around seemingly forever and is a terrific asset to any jazz aggregation with his wide-ranging experience. Jazz writer Phil Elwood mentions in his notes to the album how so many new young bassists and drummers alike destroy their competence by simply playing too loud. I've felt that way for years - nice to get some support for such a view from such an authority! Suffice it to say neither Brown nor Hanna can be accused of over-loudness - they known how to fit in smoothly and put the spotlight on Herb and Ross. The tracks here are: It Had to be You, Rhythm Willie, Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You, A Smooth One, When My Dream Boat Comes Home, Conversations, I Want a Little Girl, Orange Brown and Green.
- John Sunier
The Best of WB Sound Effects - Crash! Bang! Boom! - WB/Kid Rhino multichannel DVD-A R9 76729:
The 18 tracks of this DVD-A present over 100 classic Warner Bros. Cartoon sound effects and music. There are four complete "scores" to WB cartoons, all the music of the ever-popular Carl Stallings. Talk about programmatic compositions - these are continuous so-called "Mickey mousing" passages strung together! They sound like newly-recorded 5.1 masters with the current studio orchestra. However, the other sounds from cartoons seem to be mostly pan-potted mono sounds from old optical tracks of dubious fidelity - doctored up and spun around the room for effect. I know this is for kids, but if I were a kid I think I would have the same reaction I have as an adult - I wanna see the damn cartoon, not just hear the soundtrack! Never mind whether it's coming at me from all directions or not. There is one video cartoon, Chuck Jones' Now Hear This, an interview and a photo gallery. But the sound effect tracks are only accompanied by a still title image on the screen for the entire track.
- John Henry
Olu Dara - Neighborhoods - Atlantic multichannel DVD-A DVDA 83391-9:
A bit of information about singer/composer/guitarist Dara would have been helpful, especially considering all the space for extras that DVD-As boast. He gives thanks to the city of Natchez and his mother's last name is Jones, so Dara seems to be one who strongly identifies with things African. What is known by me is that he wrote or arranged all 11 of these tunes, that he plays not only cornet, harmonica and guitar but also something called a wooden horn - no further details on that. He has the assistance on some tracks of none other than Dr. John and Cassandra Wilson. Some of his songs reminded me of Taj Mahal. The disc's title tune is a good one, and as a film buff I also found the track subtitled At the Movie Show a kick. Lots of interesting percussion and backup singers spread around the surround tracks involve the listener in the album. Tracks: massamba, neighborhoods, herbman, strange things happen everyday, bell & ponce, I see the light, out on the rolling sea, bluebird, used to be, red ant, tree blues. This cat ain't got no truck wit' capitals...
- John Henry
John Williams, guitar - The Magic Box - (with Paul Clarvis, hand drums etc.; John Etheridge,
acoustic steel guitar; Richard Harvey, flutes, whistles etc.; Chris Laurence, double bass; guests: Francis Beby & Samza, vocalists; African Children's Choir) - Sony Classical stereo SACD SS 89483:
Williams, Yo Yo Ma and the Kronos Quartet all brought out world music oriented albums this month. Williams focuses on music involving the guitar in Africa. He points out that the history of the guitar is different there than in South America since in Africa were many plucked string instruments already whereas South America had none, so the population fully embraced the guitar. Among the instruments with which he plays on the 15 tracks are thumb piano, sanza, requinto guitar, balafon, bongos, tumba, accordion, Indian harmonium, tiple, djembe, Malagasy flute, panpipes, dulcimer, and the most complex and beautiful-sounding stringed instrument - the kora. Several of the tracks feature two guitars, but the title tune track is solo guitar. Williams reports his process of learning and performing this music often tested the limits of Western ideas of notation and rhythm. The clarity and improved soundstaging of the stereo SACD aids immensely in singling out and identifying the specific sounds and locations of the exotic African instruments.
- John Sunier
Here are a pair of 20th Century blockbusters in DVD-A...
OLIVIER MESSIAEN: Turangalila Symphonie (complete) - Michel Beroff, piano; Jeanne Loriod, ondes martinot; London Sym. Orch./Andre Previn - EMI Classics multichannel 4.0 DVD-A 7243 4 92398 90:
This is one of a series of multichannel releases from EMI dating from the late 70s four-channel masters made for release on Angel's SQ-encoded LPs in the U.S. One side of the double-sided disc plays on any DVD video player, with 4.0-channel Dolby Digital format, while the other side plays as MLP-encoded four-channel DVD-Audio. It's certainly a quantum leap over the old SQ LPs, and the LFE and center channels are not really missed.
This is an unnervingly complex score - sort of a modern musical megalomaniacal creation such as Alexander Scriabin might have done at the turn of the previous century. Composed in the late 40s on a commission from Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the 80-minute epic work might be described as a sort of vast surrealistic tone painting in which love, death, pain, sensuality, ecstasy and gothic horrors all come together. The Catholic sensibility of most Messiaen works is not as strong here, but his ecstatic feeling is present as much as in any of his music. The orchestra has a large percussion section, and the piano, celeste, glockenspiel, vibes and the electronic instrument the Ondes Martinot combine to give what the composer calls his Gamelan sound - adding a unique tone color. There are ten main movements to the symphony, falling into three main groupings. The screen display for the work shows only the titles of each movement; there is no artwork or details on the music, which would seem beneficial since this is such a unique and rarely heard work.
- John Sunier
WILLIAM WALTON: Belshazzar's Feast, Symphony No. 2, Portsmouth Point Overture, Scapino
Comedy Overture - John Shirely-Quirk, bar./London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Andre Previn - EMI Classics 4.0 DVD-A 9 92402 2:
Another quad era master resuscitated for DVD-A. The recordings from l972 and '74 were considered top flight in their day and with the improved discrete reproduction of the original four channels the popular British oratorio becomes an exciting experience indeed. The libretto of the old Testament story is in the booklet, but the enunciation of the choir and the high-res surround sonics are so good that most of the words can be clearly heard. (Though it could be I just have them memorized from having played bass drum in this in college.) There is one point that had my ears not believing what I heard: in the triumphant processional music after Belshazzar and his court meet their fate presaged by the hand writing on the wall, a short fanfare figuration is heard in the brass. Some idiot - either in the original quad mix or recently doing the reissue - crudely panned the passage briefly to the surround speakers, then back to the front. This is just the sort of thing that has the two-channel sticklers poking fun at surround sound for music. The short and brilliant Second Symphony and two energetic overtures fill out this most enjoyable disc.
- John Sunier
TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake (14 selections) The London Philharmonic/Don Jackson - Silverline multichannel DVD-A 86032-9:
Like most of the Silverline discs, this one includes not only 5.1 DVD-Audio but also 5.1 DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital. In this case the addition of DTS plus the program length seems not to allow space for any special visuals such as stills from the ballet, etc. The playing is super-professional; this is not exactly sight-reading stuff for the London players after all. The energy of the dance suffuses the performance and with the 5.1 surround involves the listener more deeply. I heard surprisingly little difference between the DTS and the DVD-A layers on this disc. A lengthy struggle ensued when I attempted to access the Dolby Digital tracks on the DVD Video side of this double-sided disc. Neither of my DVD players would at first work; one played the first four seconds and then stopped. Finally I was able to get to continue. They seemed to have nothing to do with the onscreen display.
- John Sunier
Three Greatest Hits discs in multichannel DVD-A up next...
TCHAIKOVSKY CLASSICS - The London Philharmonic/Don Jackson - Excerpt from Piano
Concerto No. 1, excerpt from Sym. No. 1, Andante Cantabile, Andantino from Sym. No. 2, Andante from Sym. No. 4, Excerpt from Romeo & Juliet Overture, Andante from Sym. 6, Waltz of the Flowers from Nutcracker Ballet, Menuet from Mozartiana Suite, Panorama from Sleeping Beauty, Excerpt from Swan Lake, None but the Lonely Heart, Excerpt from Sym. No. 5 in E Minor - DTS Entertainment 69286-01077-9-3:
Like the Silverline discs this one has both DTS and DVD-A layers. It also boasts a special 2.0 stereo Dolby Digital Mix. This must have been some sort of shared project with Silverline. These are good but not top-of-the list performances. One is enveloped with sections of the orchestra all around you. The disc would be ideal to give out to first-time home theater purchasers who get a combo DVD-V/DVD-A player, in the hopes it could convince them to start enjoying high-res music in surround without images up on the scene.
- John Sunier
GRIEG - Classical Masters Series - London Philharmonic/Don Jackson - Morning Mood, Gavotte & Sarabande from Holberg Suite, Last Spring, Norwegian March, Symphonic Dance No. 2, Evening in the Mountains, Norwegian Dance No. 2, At the Cradle, Sigurd Jorsalfar Prelude, Solveig's Song, Adagio from Piano Concerto, Notturno from Lyric Suite - Silverline DVD-A 86029 9:
Another composer's greatest hits collection, but with the added inducements of: four more channels of sound, choice of three different multichannel formats - DD, DTS or DVD-A, choice of on-screen program notes on each selection or a slide show of nature still photography. In reference to the latter I must repeat my beef about the strange programming of the photography. One image is superimposed over a another or part of another, but suddenly - not as a slow dissolve - and often not resulting in a pleasing composition. To someone who used to produce multi-image slide presentations, it reminds me of projector or programmer problems which put unintended images up on the screen. As with all the Silverline series, you can play the music without requiring the on-screen display. The surround is quite, well, surrounding. Playing is excellent and the program notes are useful for those HT fans for whom this might be one of the first music-only discs to which they are being exposed.
- John Sunier
MENDELSSOHN - Classical Masters Series - The London Philharmonic/Don Jackson - Nocturne
from Midsummer Night's Dream, Con Moto from Italian Sym., Andante from Reformation Sym., Menuetto from Sym. No. 1, Excerpt from Violin Concerto in E Minor, Hebrides Overture Excerpt, Menuetto & Trio from Sinfonia No. 8 for Strings, Adagio from Scottish Sym., Adagio Religioso from Sym. No. 2 - Silverline DVD-A 86030-9:
Ditto everything in the above review, except you'll probably find the Grieg collection provides better background music than Mendelssohn, if that's what you're looking for. Mendelssohn demands a bit more ear-attention.
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Flos Campi, Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus," Fantasia on Greensleeves - Sally P. Lentz, viola/Utah Sym. Orch. & University of Utah Chamber Choir/Maurice Abravanel - Vanguard Classics stereo SACD VSD 505:
Some of the loveliest English music all on one disc here. VW's very British brand of Impressionism comes to the fore in these smaller works vs. his great symphonies. The composer had a special affinity for the string orchestra, featured in most of these works. The six-movement Flos Campi uses a solo viola and wordless choir with its small orchestra for a delightful evocative feeling. Vanguard's president Seymour Solomon mentions in the notes that some of these mid-60's tapes were three channel and others two, but that he decided to mix all of them to standard two-channel stereo to avoid the center channel going in and out, causing some users to think the disc was faulty. I couldn't tell which were which from speaker playback, but perhaps next time I listen to this I'll use headphones and perhaps the enhanced center image from the three-channel masters will be noticed.
- John Sunier
A pair of superb pianists next, in a bunch of superb piano concertos in SACD...
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3; SCRIABIN: Etudes; Liu Yang River - Lang Lang, piano/St. Petersburg Philharmonic/Yuri Temirkanov - Telarc multichannel SACD-60582:
Telarc announces this to be the first complete piano concerto recording released in multichannel SACD. It was recorded at a live Proms concert in Royal Albert Hall, London. Chinese pianist Lang Lang burst on the scene in l999 when he filled in for an ailing Andre Watts. He is only 19 and is already playing regularly with the world's major orchestras. This is an electrifying live performance, and this is the perfect one of the Rachmaninoff four piano concertos with which to electrify an audience. Some of the rapid-fire scalar passages seem almost inhuman. Not only does the multichannel surround capture the staging of the piano in front of the orchestra, but it also captures the almost over-powering audience applause at the end of the concerto - well-deserved as it is. The pianist performed the ten Scriabin Etudes in a concert at Oberlin College and opened and closed the set with my personal favorite Scriabin Etudes: Op. 2, No. 1 in C-sharp minor and Op. 65, No. 3 in G Major. Hearing the solo piano in multichannel surround reminds me of the hesitation many record labels had early in the stereo era to recording the piano in stereo. Two channel reproduction added immensely to the realism of piano recordings (as long as misguided mic'ing didn't result in a 40-foot-wide piano); the same now goes for multichannel surround for solo piano.
BACH: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 - Murray Perahia, piano & conductor/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Sony Classical stereo SACD SS 89690:
Normally I'm partial to Bach concertos performed on the harpsichord rather than the modern piano, but Perahia is such a fine interpreter that I found this quartet of concertos a pleasure - especially in the crystalline sonics of stereo SACD. The works were recorded at the Air Studios in London and everything is balanced and placed to perfection. All the keyboard concertos are Bach borrowing from Bach - they existed as different instrumental works earlier and were adapted for keyboard and orchestra due to different needs during his stint in Leipzig. No. 6 in F Major, for example, will bring to mind the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, which it obviously is.
Stereo SACDs such as this (and the stereo mix on the above disc) seem to resolve a more solid center stage image of the solo instrument than most standard CDs. To my mind there's now even less reason for the center channel, which now can be employed along with the for-movies-only LFE channel to provide side/height-oriented channels that are far more appropriate to music reproduction in surround. Sony is now putting their stereo SACDs in a slide-on plastic cover (removed for the graphic above) which not only clearly designates the disc as stereo instead of multichannel but also on the rear warns that it is designed for SACD players only - meaning it is not a hybrid disc as offered by nearly all the other record labels. (But then the price was recently reduced to be closer to that of standard CDs vs. the hybrid discs.)
- John Sunier
