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More Observations after a Second Listening

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on November 1, 2006 at 18:11:51

In Reply to: Question re: Stravinsky/Salonen/Los Angeles posted by Doktor Brahms on October 23, 2006 at 08:26:00:

For my second listening of this new Salonen/LAPO SACD, I did some experimentation by raising the level of the rear speakers. This really helped mitigate the clamped down sound quality referred to in Russell's and my posts below. (I still haven't listened in 2-channel mode.) With this adjustment to the rear channel levels, I feel that the hall acoustics become more a part of the total sound quality, much to the benefit of the recording overall. I should also mention that the recording's overall level seems low, so that the master volume will need a boost.

One startling moment which I forgot to mention in my post below occurs at rehearsal number 4 of the The Miraculous Manderin (about 50 seconds into Salonen's performance): here the bass tuba comes in with a low B-flat with a power I've never heard on any other recording of this work. It almost sounds like an organ pedal and almost makes you jump out of your seat! If I remember correctly, the bass tuba part is notated an octave above its actual sound, so if this is true, that note is about 23-24 Hz, and it's LOUD!!! (A real test for your woofers and/or subwoofers!) Is it overdone and exagerrated in Salonen's performance? I can only say that I've heard this work live a couple of times (Mehta/LAPO at Chandler Pavillion in LA and Abbado/LSO at Davies Hall in SF), and in neither of these two performances did the bass tuba part leap out at me as it does on this recording!

Just for grins, I compared this section with a couple of other performances I had on hand: Dorati/LSO on Mercury and Skrowaczewski/Minneapolis on Vox. It's clearly audible on the Mercury rendition (one of the Living Presence recordings made with Harold Lawrence and Robert Eberenz, but without Wilma Cozart), but it does not have the startling heft and weight of the new Salonen recording. On the Skrowaczewski recording, this section is less noticeable. I mentioned below that the brass in general is not overpowering on this new recording, but this spot with the bass tuba is an exception to that statement.

I also relistened to the Abbado performance of the Moussorgsky "Night on Bald Mountain" for comparison. It's actually better than I had remembered - this was a Charles Gerhardt production from Kingsway Hall, and he achieved a really nice, integrated and spacious sound. Abbado's performance is excellent too. I still feel however that Salonen does even more with the dynamics - listen to some of the sustained brass notes where Salonen imposes some creepy "hairpin" dynamics. (I don't have a score for this work, so I don't know if that indication is really there - but just remember that a lot of nineteenth-century music is still very much undermarked by the composers.)

In summary, after two listenings, I still feel that all three performances are tremendously exciting, and that, although the recording quality has some moments when we're too aware of the engineering artifice, the sound quality is likewise impressive (with the right balance adjustments to your set-up).

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Schiit Audio

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