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Recent SACD Acquisitions

Posted by Doktor Brahms (A) on February 15, 2007 at 09:21:12

Fellow Inmates:

I don't want to bore you with a vast, rambling, discursive diatribe about the SACDs I've acquired over the past several weeks, but perhaps you will allow me to treat them in summary fashion. (As always, listening was done via a two-channel setup.)

TELARC: Some extraordinary discs are coming out of Cleveland these days. (But really, should that surprise us? I understand that Telarc is considering adding a new wing to their corporate headquarters to accommodate all their Grammy awards.) The Britten/Elgar disc is just magnificent; the final peroration that concludes the Enigma Variations is utterly splendid. My only disappointment with this disc is that it lacks the Grimes Passacaglia, which I think would easily have fit. However, the Telarc disc that has paid the most visits to my player is the ASO Sibelius Kullervo. This may be the most lifelike Telarc disc I've ever heard--and that's saying something. I attended the concert performances of Kullervo which led up to the recording sessions (heard it twice, in fact--hey, I'm a Sibelius junkie, and how many chances will I have to hear this piece live?), and I am floored by the way that Telarc's sonics recapture the live concert experience. When I listen to this disc, in no sense do I feel let down after having heard this piece in concert; instead, my ear tells me, "Yes, this is very much like what the ASO orchestra and chorus sounded like in the hall." Can one pay any higher compliment to a recording? What a remarkable accomplishment!

PENTATONE: I haven't been buying many of their new recordings, but the RQR reissues are quite nice. The Caballe/Carreras Tosca is sonically stunning, even if Colin Davis's conducting makes one suspect that he was given a horse tranquilizer before the sessions. Gorgeous sound, nonetheless. Interestingly, the booklet states that this recording was mastered from the discreet quad tapes, not the quad mix-down, so in a very real sense this is a new version of the recording, not a mere reissue. Thus some of the sound effects have actually been omitted from the mix (e.g. the cannons at the end of Act I, which can clearly be heard on LP and CD but are missing on the SACD).

BIS: The ongoing Grieg series--gorgeous. The Suzuki Bach Suites--glorious. The Vanska Minnesota Beethoven cycle--sorry, can't buy into it. Sound seems cold and uninviting; Vox was capturing this orchestra in better sound on budget LPs 30 years ago. And could someone please tell Vanska that "pianissimo" does NOT mean "inaudible"?!?

PRAGA: Early-generation chamber music SACDs from this source struck me as sounding somewhat harsh, dry, and studio-bound, but now I'd say that the Praga engineers are really on top of their game: recent discs strike me as a canny mixture of warmth and detail. The ongoing Brahms cycle from the Prazak Quartet is a gift to all lovers of Brahms; the Bartok cycle from the Parkanyi Quartet (now 2/3rds complete) is extremely impressive both musically and sonically. Forget the exaggerated grotesqueries of Mahler; the intimacy of chamber music is really where the superiority of SACD technology can best be appreciated. Just my opinion, of course.

ABSOLUTELY BEST SACDs I'VE EVER HEARD: Well, maybe I shouldn't go that far, but the Ray Kimber Isomike recordings of the Frye Street Quartet have to be among the most stunningly realistic recordings every made of anything. The term "virtual reality" comes to mind. Please, Mr. Kimber, give us more quartets. Start with Dvorak, if you please.

A FINAL LAMENTATION: I don't want to drag in a discussion of redbook CDs to this forum, but I have to say that the recent spate of DSD remasterings from BMG and Sony of their back-catalog analog treasures sound consistently splendid. Try the Ormandy Shostakovich First Symphony, for example, or the Oistrakh/Ormandy Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, newly reissued in DSD garb. The sound is strikingly good, and it makes me lament the SACDs that we might have had (but most likely will never have) from these sources.

Predictions about its demise notwithstanding, SACD is enjoying a perennially healthy condition, at least in my listening room.(I promised not to bore you with a vast, rambling, discursive diatribe, but I'm afraid that's what I've done. My apologies.)

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