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In Reply to: RE: Have you listen to the RCA living Stereo SACD of this? posted by jygesq on July 03, 2007 at 08:10:57
Yes, and I will listen to it again soon. The Munch is amazingly well done even by today’s standards and *especially* compared the XRCD version. The RCA is rich and powerful. And the interpretation may be the best that I have. After I listen again I will makes offer comments.
Robert C. Lang
Back in the 1950's, when I was growing up in Boston, we lived about 10 minutes walk from Symphony Hall, and I had the good fortune to attend several concerts of the BSO with Charles Munch.
E. Powers Biggs was the resident organist then, and I heard him play the newly-installed Aeolian-Skinner organ in Saint-Saens Symphony No.3. Even to my youthful, untrained ears, it was a powerful performance. To this day, I remember walking home in a daze.
As you probably know, the Symphony Hall acoustics are legendary, considered to be among the best in the world. They are captured in all their glory by the RCA Living Stereo recording of Saint-Saens "Organ" Symphony by Charles Munch and the BSO with Berg Zamkochian at the organ. I had the superb vinyl LP version for many years and later the 1993 redbook CD. This was and still is an outstanding recording both for Munch's impeccable interpretation and the spectacular sonics.
Since I've only had a universal player for a few months, I have not yet acquired very many SACDs. However, on my modded Marantz CDP, the Munch version still sounds great, and I would be interested in your review of the SACD.
I also have several other redbook CDs of Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, including the 1981 Peter Huford recording with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, the 1980 Michael Murray version with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and the 1961 E.Powers Biggs recording with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. To my aging ears, all three are excellent both for sound and interpretation.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to which SACD version you would recommend.
Thanks,
Barney
and easily bests the XRCD, which I thought sounded better than the Living Stereo RBCD. I've also owned this recording in several other guises, including the original RBCD, the original LP (non-'Shaded Dog' pressing), and the ".5" half-speed mastered LP reissue. (I guess you could say that I really like this performance!) The SACD beats 'em all, IMO. If I remember the liner notes correctly (I don't have the disc immediately at hand) the SACD was mastered from the original 3-track tapes, which were newly discovered. (All previous issues were made from second (or more) generation mixdowns, evidently.) This would account for the wonderfully fresh and alive sound on the SACD.
Russell
Hi BarneyT,
My abbreviated response to jygesq immediately above was regarding the Munch/Boston/Zamkochian (organ). Actually, I am happy that jygesq brought it up because I had not listened to it in a while. In fact, the last time I listened to it was after the announcement that Zamkochian had died three or four years ago.
This afternoon I had a brief opportunity to listen to the 4th Section/finale. And man it is indeed powerful and indeed well recorded and indeed well performed. No excuses needed for its 48th anniversary with respect to recording. I am very excited to discover this again and hope to listen to it in its entirety in the next few days.
Robert C. Lang
The more I think about it, I like what I like, whether others agree or not should not mattter. Many of the RCA living Stereo SACD are wonderful:
Pictures at Exhibition,New World Sym., Saint Sains org, Smyphony Fantastique,for the money and availabilty though amazon, these where truly
great on CD, but so much better on SACD!!
the Munch SACD version. I will definitely purchase it.
Since I am presently archiving a large bookcase full of CDs in WAV format on to my PC external hard drive, I am somewhat hesitant about purchasing SACDs unless the redbook layer is an improvement over the original version I already have. From what you said, the redbook layer of the Munch SACD is a remastered version of a recently discovered 3 channel recording.
Although I already have about 10 carefully selected SACDs of Van Cliburn, Julia Fischer, Antal Dorati, etc. that I listen to on my universal DVD/CD player, I am more frequently using my PC as my primary music source. It's not only much easier to catalog and access my recordings, but also, with specialized software and a USB DAC, can provide virtually error-free and better sounding playback than even my modded Marantz CDP.
Unfortunately, I cannot rip the SACD layer to my PC, since there is no DVD/CDR drive or software presently capable of playing/ripping the DRM encoded signal on a PC. As a result I am being very selective in purchasing SACDs.
Again, sincerest thanks for your response.
Barney
I believe the RBCD layer of the Munch SACD is derived from the DSD layer (as opposed to the Mercury SACDs, where the RBCD layer is the original CD mastering), so you should hear most of the benefits. Enjoy!
Russell
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