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Re: I've only listened to the 'Sacre' on this disc so far...

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on October 31, 2006 at 19:19:16

In Reply to: I've only listened to the 'Sacre' on this disc so far... posted by Russell on October 25, 2006 at 00:06:39:

I just got the recording last night and have listened through once (multi-channel mode only). Were you listening in stereo or 5.1?

Anyway, based on my single listening so far, I mostly agree with what you say about the sound - it's damped down a bit, but not badly as on many other recordings. It's kind of eerie that these performances were supposedly recorded in concert, but there's hardly any sound that betrays the presence of an audience! So I'd guess that directional microphones are being used, which could account for that damped down effect you mention. That said, I liked the balance among the orchestral sections - it's very string dominated, with the brass not nearly as overpowering as on some other recordings. (For me, this is a good thing!) Percussion has great impact (too much bass drum, a la Telarc!). Overall, the sound is artificial in some ways, but on the other hand, it's better than most of the DG multi-miked recordings which have been hitting the market for decades.

In all three works, but particularly in the Stravinsky, I could hear the proverbial "things in the music I've never heard before". (I could always see them in the score, but I never actually heard them!) And I don't mean that these details were artficially brought to the fore - they stayed as secondary lines (as they should), but they were still audible.

Salonen plays the original version of the Moussorgsky (not the more widely played Rimsky-Korsakov version). Of the three recordings I know of non-Rimsky version (the other two being Abbado and Lloyd-Jones), I think Salonen's is clearly the most ferocious and intimidating!

Finally, I note that the engineer, Fred Vogler, is the same engineer who recorded the wonderful Salonen concert performances (Beethoven symphonies 5, 7, and 8, Lutoslawski, etc.) for the iTunes downloads earlier this year. Strangely enough, I was much more aware of the natural presence of the audience in the iTunes performances, and in that respect, the iTunes recordings were less artificial sounding than this new SACD (despite SACD's many other advantages, not least the frequency and dynamic range)!

I may post some additional comments after I've had a few more listening sessions.

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