Audio Asylum Thread Printer

As part of revisiting and updating my short survey of classical DVD-Audios from a year and a half ago, I was also asked to try to put into words just exactly what it is about DVD-Audio I prefer to SACD. I’ll try to describe this in the context of the more outstanding individual releases discussed below.
It’s been disheartening that more hasn’t been released in the DVD-A format since my initial postings. If it weren’t for Naxos and Silverline, we wouldn’t have much to choose from at all – and yet, for the most part, those labels are not producing the highest quality releases of which the format is capable, with the possible exceptions of the Naxos DVD-A of the Bach Mass in B minor , and the Silverline DVD-A of the Strauss 4 Last Songs and Ein Heldenleben (the only Silverline classical DVD-A that’s not a reincarnation of an older recording?).
I also repeat my disclaimer that it’s more important how a performance was recorded than what sort of media delivers it to us. I like to think I’m far from doctrinaire about my preference for DVD-Audio, and in many cases (e.g., the Mahler Fifth) I prefer hi-rez performances currently on SACD to those currently on DVD-Audio.
I’ve placed the more outstanding recordings nearer the top (the Chabrier through the Wagner), in order to get to the explanations of my preference for DVD-A sooner. Warning: I get off on a couple of tangents below. Sorry in advance!
Chabrier and Ravel: Orchestral Works (Sado/Lamoureux Orch 24/96 – 5.1 on Erato). This release is an overlooked gem! Many of the initial DVD-A releases from the Warner coalition (from a few years ago) sound excellent and this particular release may be the very best of that initial batch. This is a recording which really shows what the DVD-A format is capable of, in terms of soundstage depth, ambiance, and clarity. The microphones are further back than on a number of other DVD-A recordings and the absence of audible spotlighting is really gratifying. The Lamoureux orchestra sounds wonderful – really beautiful performances, a bit on the slower side if you’re used to, say, Paray/Detroit on Mercury. In the Ravel works (Bolero and Valses nobles et sentimentales), this release compares favorably with the justly praised MoFi Skrowaczewski /Minnesota SACD’s (derived from Vox analogue originals). But here’s a point in DVD-Audio’s favor (at least for me): on this Erato recording, I might not ordinarily find the microphone placement quite optimal (just slightly too much reflected sound), but the resolution of the format itself seems to improve my perception of what would ordinarily be an excellent (but not outstanding) recording. The DVD-A format seems to transform it from a pleasant into a superlative listening experience (at least for me). You can tell, I’m sure, that there’s a certain amount of guesswork in my trying to explain this quality of the best DVD-Audios, and I’ll return to this attempt at an explanation again in discussing the Farao Wagner set below. Anyway, I have not had this type of experience (where I recognize a certain type of sound and the format transforms it into something superlative) with SACD – at least to this extent.
Dvorak: Symphonies nos. 3 and 7 (Macal/Czech Philharmonic 24/96 – 5.0 on Exton). Just quoting a sample from the long review on my web site: “Regardless of what versions of [these works] you’ve previously enjoyed, I guarantee you have not heard the level of tonal subtlety from orchestral musicians (at least, on a recording) which you’ll hear in this DVD-Audio version of M�cal’s performance. Again, it’s the sonic engineering which allows these tonal subtleties to become audible, and in this recording, the alliance of high-resolution audio and nonpareil orchestral execution lead to what is almost a revelation. It may be hard to believe how much a performance can be enhanced through the audibility of these ever more subtle nuances, but my estimation is that they put the rendition on a much higher plane, and you start to miss them when you go back to other performances and you can’t hear them. (Not that they weren’t present in the other performances, it’s just that the older engineering did not allow us to hear them!)”
Dvorak: Symphonies nos. 5 and 9, “New World” (Macal/Czech Philharmonic 24/96 – 5.0 on Exton). Ditto the above.
BTW, the Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw DVD-A of the New World Symphony (on Teldec) is also excellent in terms of resolution and clarity, but I become slightly aware of the multi-microphones on this recording, despite the mitigating effects of multi-channel. In addition, there’s a fine Neumann/Czech Philharmonic performance of the New World Symphony available in Japan, but this DVD-A is not even multi-channel (24/44.1 – 2.0, on Denon).
Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus (Aimard 24/96 – 5.0 on Teldec). Still the best sounding recording of a piano I’ve heard! Dynamic range is tremendous, and subtle dynamic changes are superbly captured. Clarity is outstanding and every nuance which Aimard has put in to his performance is conveyed with a precision which does not exclude sweetness. No SACD of a solo piano (at least among those I’ve heard) is this good – just my opinion at the present time. This may or may not be a function of the music carrier however.
Wagner: Die Walk�re (Soloists, Mehta/Bavarian State Opera, 24/48 – 5.0 on Farao Classics). I’ll leave my original wording unchanged: In a sense, this recording is not all that different from the Saturday Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts – it was derived from public performances, and you can hear the occasional cough or stage noise. However, the sense of atmosphere is palpable – you feel as if you’re actually there, such is the sonic realism in terms of the instrumental timbres (every section: woodwinds, brass, and strings – how well their resinous quality is captured!) as well as the interaction of the voices and the stage and surrounding acoustic. It’s strange, some of these voices on this recording I might ordinarily find too vibrato-laden, but the clarity of the recording itself goes far towards freeing the voices from producing this impression. (I’ve had this same experience with live opera performances – you go to the opera house expecting to find certain singers not to your liking, based on what you’ve heard of their recordings. But then you hear them live and discover they aren’t as bad as you feared – something about the unconstrained acoustic of a live performance.) When the instrumental and vocal hues are as faithfully captured as they are in this recording, it becomes easy to see why Rimsky-Korsakov, a wizard at mixing orchestral colors, admired this opera so much. Again, this is a case of a recognizable recording technique being transformed by the extra resolution of DVD-Audio itself – to the extent that I’ve not been able to find a matching experience (at least not quite!) with SACD.
Bach: St Matthew Passion (Soloists, Guttenberg/Orchester der KlangVerwaltung, 24/48 – 5.0 on Farao Classics). Possibly even more beautifully engineered than Farao’s Die Walk�re (above), this recording originates in the studio rather than in concert. As I mentioned before, I can’t stand the performance, yet I keep this set around, such is the quality of the engineering. I can’t believe Farao is now releasing only on SACD – I would bet even money that their masters are still PCM!
The two Beethoven symphony cycles (Abbado/Berlin Phil 24/96 – 5.1 on Deutsche Grammophon and Barenboim/Berlin Staatskapelle 24/96 – 5.0 on Teldec). I now have complete sets of both cycles, but I still feel that neither of these sets would be my first choice for interpretation or engineering. Of the two, the Barenboim is recorded far more beautifully and naturally to my ears – the Abbado suffers from an overabundance of microphones leading to a somewhat clinical sound with slightly undernourished strings. However, in the meantime since my initial posting, I’ve taken another poster’s suggestion to increase the sound from the rear speakers when listening to the Abbado recordings. This mitigates the deficiencies somewhat, and has convinced me that quick changes of level/balance ought to be available to the listener for any of the five or six speakers involved in multi-channel sound (without having to go through a tedious menu system)! As for Barenboim, I still find his a not very interesting cycle, with the exception of the Ninth, which is played and interpreted with considerably more conviction than the rest of the symphonies! On SACD, some listeners don’t like the way the Masur/Leipzig Gewandhaus performances sound (and these are only straight quad 4.0), but it’s my favorite complete traversal on hi-rez right now (although none of his performances would be my first choice for an individual symphony).
We might have gotten a chance to compare formats by means of the Carlos Kleiber renditions of the Beethoven Fifth and Seventh Symphonies (on Deutsche Grammophon), available on both SACD and DVD-A, but I don’t see what you can tell from these releases. Aside from the report that the SACD originates from a PCM mastering of the analogue original (which would not be a fair comparison), this is one of the worst sounding post-stereo-era recordings I’ve encountered from a major company (especially in the Seventh Symphony), produced, as it was, during the dark ages of Deutsche Grammophon’s infatuation with primitive multi-microphoned recording philosophy. Clinical doesn’t even begin to describe it – to me, this type of engineering is nothing more than a sabotage of the performance! (The same type of sabotage was wrought by DG on Giulini during his tenure with the LA Philharmonic.) (And BTW, I once owned these same Carlos Kleiber performances on LP’s, and the LP’s had the same obvious “reconstituted in the control room” quality, although as I mentioned, the Fifth is better than the Seventh.)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 / Respighi Pines of Rome (Macal/New Jersey 24/96 – 5.1 on AIX). I still have this recording and continue to play around with the settings to see if I can get it to sound better on my system. I’ve seen it praised by some listeners, but I still feel it suffers from an unflattering, clinical sound, although some individual instrumental timbres are well reproduced.
Mahler: Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” (Chailly/Concertgebouw, 24/96 – 5.1 on Decca). Superlative account resulting from what I would guess is a sophisticated multi-microphoned engineering effort, typical of Decca’s current activities in the Concertgebouw. (This estimation also applies to Chailly’s recording of the Mahler Eighth below.)
Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Chailly/Concertgebouw, 24/48 (despite what it says on the cover!) – 5.1 on Decca). This recording really gives you a great sense of the depth of the hall, captured much more clearly than previous Decca CD’s from the Concertgebouw (although I haven’t heard the CD of this performance). Besides the nonpareil Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chailly also has a pretty decent group of soloists at his disposal too. (When this many soloists are involved, there always seems to be a weak link who ruins part of the performance. No one lets down the team too badly here!)
(Note: I am also familiar with the Chailly recording of the Mahler Third on SACD. It too is consistent with the excellent results on the two DVD-A’s above. Haven’t heard Chailly’s Mahler Ninth on SACD.)

DVD-Audiobahn

A long, rambling post/update re Classical DVD-A's