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My first SACD in over a year: the Channel Fischer Mahler 2nd.

4.246.120.132

I hate to break with all Humantiy, but I didn't like it.

The first mov't goes along just fine, and the second is unusually lovely, the third exciting, poetic and dramatic by turns, but:

The mezzo solo 4th mov't seems like an afterthought; rushed and expedient.

The 5th mov't gave me the most trouble. The grand "opening of the graves" sequence, (before the two infamous percussion crescendi), comes across as more grim than grand. I didn't get any tingles. Then, in the usually terrifying music directly following the two pecussion crescendi, where is the terror?? I also had a problem with the first trumpet throughout--the playing is very mellow and soft-edged, rather than piercing and militant. Finally, the choral finale is sinuous and expediant, astonishing recorded sound notwithstanding. The organ underpinning is kind of underwhelming. Listen to the final Bernstein recording on DG for comparison. His is truly a transcendant finale.

Without getting off topic too much, it was interesting to compare SACD sound vs. vinyl sound after a year of only being exposed to the latter. I still, after careful consideration, have to say that vinyl is still superior. Granted, SACD string sound is smoother, but vinyl still gets the string sound "right," especially when it comes to planar imaging, or the imaging of a whole section of the orchestra, such as the celli, or the first violins. Vinyl also drapes the sound between and behind the speakers with a much more persuasive dimensionality.

As everyone knows, the Channel dynamics are indeed explosive. SACD, after vinyl, sounds hyper-realistic in this respect. Listening the SACD was a feeling akin to being consentually "man-handled." Fun, but not real. Lps can be just as thrilling, (take EMI's Muti/Philadelphia Rite of Spring, or EMI's Svetlanov/LSO Sheherazahde, for instance), but the sound is set back, much closer to what one hears live.

Will there ever be a format and delivery system that surpasses good vinyl?


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Topic - My first SACD in over a year: the Channel Fischer Mahler 2nd. - jdaniel 18:11:58 01/01/07 (75)
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