No Disc Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Stravinsky The Firebird on Mercury Living Presence. I have several of the original Mecury LIving Presence LPs (Shaded Dogs) and while there performaces are outstanding and recording quality is superb, the vinyl noise is alway the downside of those older recordings (at least for me). I read that the new MLPs were well done. I purchased several of the new MLP SACD releases, and I can say they do not disappoint. If you are even a little into classical, this is a must have SACD IMHO. Superb performance, sonics, soundstage, it's all there. If all SACDs sounded this good I might actually power off my phono pre-amp for a time and give it a rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Additionally, this Living Presence SACD has three listening options: The mix used for the first release on CD, a new stereo mix for the SACD, and in three channel (Left, Center, Right) as originally recorded. If you have the necessary equipment in your set-up, you can hear this performance in three discrete channels, as originally recorded. The same thing was done for many of the recent RCA Living Stereo SACDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 I agree these SACDs are excellent, even with just 2-channel. Many of these have also been re-released on 200 gram vinyl. Some are very good, others just OK. Rimsky-Korsakoff's Scheherazade is the best Living Stereo vinyl re-issue I've heard so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 The Telarc label has always produced fine recordings. Of course the 1812 overture on SACD is very good. But a lessor known piece by Carl Orff "Carmina Burana" is even better. http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title.asp?gsku=0575&mscssid=04W7250N58QP8PC14URNNWVV5FE97AGA "For his Telarc debut recording with the ASO, Runnicles leads the Orchestra and Chorus in a dramatic new performance of Carl Orffs popular concert work, Carmina burana. Joining the ASO in this powerful new recording are Hei-Kyung Hong, soprano; Stanford Olsen, tenor; Earle Patriarco, baritone; and the Gwinnett Young Singers. This is the second recording of this large-scale work for chorus and orchestra that Telarc has made with the ASO (the late Robert Shaw conducted the previous release). Telarc returned to this particular work with the ASO forces in order to continue building its multi-channel surround sound catalog in the new Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) format. With the expanded dynamic range available in the new high-resolution recording technology, the theatrical elements of Orffs orchestrations and vocal settings are communicated with stunning immediacy and excitement. Carmina burana is one of the twentieth centurys most widely performed works for chorus and orchestra. Premiered in 1937 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, Carmina burana combines archaic poetry, simple, folk-like melodies, and motoric, primal rhythms to create images of the eternal springtime of the human soul. The poetry is taken from a collection of earthy thirteenth-century songs, written by students and vagrant clerics, and discovered in 1803 at the Benedictine monastery of Beuren in Bavaria. In 1847, J.A. Schmeller edited and published a number of the songs under the title Carmina burana ("Songs of Beuren"). From this collection, Orff selected the songs for his secular cantata, setting the poetry to his own original music. The poems from Carmina burana are in two languages, described by one scholar as "distorted medieval Latin and Middle High German." For this recording, the choruses and soloists have endeavored to perform the lyrics as closely as possible to the way their thirteenth-century authors would have pronounced them. Diction coach Jeffrey W. Baxter was aided by the expert guidance of Professor John Austin of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Georgia State University in Atlanta. In addition to his post with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles continues as Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and he was recently appointed Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Lukes in New York. During the 2001-2002 season with the ASO, he will conduct the Britten War Requiem with the ASO Chorus in March; Act III of Wagners Die Walkure with Christine Brewer and James Morris in April; and a program of Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky in May." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Funily enough I have just started sorting through the SACD's I bought way back when - as I picked up an SACD player at the weekend. When I was buying there was an awful lot of Szell recordings out there - and I think I got most of them. If you dont like Szell - this list is almost useless. I dont mind him and there are a few Bruno's to soften the blow: Thus far I have catalogued: Wagner Da Rheingold / Die Walkerie / Seigfried / Gotterdamerung / Die Meistersinger Von Nuremberg / Tristan und Isolde Cleveland George Szell SS 89035 Sony 2 channel Brahms Symphony No. 4 Columbia Symphony Bruno Walter SS 6113 Sony 2 channel Mozart 1-3 Sinfonia Concertante / 4-6 Concerto in D major Midori / Nobuko Imai / Christoph Eschenbach NDR Sinfonieorchester Christoph Eschenbach SS 89488 Sony 5.1 channel Grieg / Bizet / Mussorgsky Pier Gynt / L'Arlesienne / Pictures at an Exhibition / Dawn on the Moskva River Cleveland George Szell SS 89414 Sony 2 channel Beethoven Symphony No. 3 / Egmont / Coriolan / King Stephen Overtures Cleveland George Szell SS 89341 Sony 2 channel Schubert / Beethoven Unfinished Symphony (8) / Symphony No. 5 New York Philharmonic Bruno Walter SS 6506 Sony 2 channel Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Columbia Symphony Bruno Walter SS 6012 Sony 2 channel Tchaikovsky / Mendellssohn Violin Concerto in D Major / Violin Concerto in E Minor Concerto Isaac Stern Philadelphia Eugene Ormandy SS 6062 Sony 2 channel Rossini / Auber / Berlioz Overtures : Il viaggio a Reims / La scala di seta / L'italiana in Algeri / Il Turco in Italia / La gazza ladra. Fra Diavolo. Le carnival romain Cleveland George Szell SS 89411 Sony 2 channel Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C major / Incidental music to Rosamunde Cleveland George Szell SS 89342 Sony 2 channel Schumann / Weber Symphony No. 2 in C major / Symphony No.4 in D minor. Oberon Overture Cleveland George Szell SS 89382 Sony 2 channel Mahler/ Walton / Stravinsky Symphony No. 10 Andante:Adagio: Purgatorio. Partita for Orchestra. Firebird Suite (1919 version) Cleveland George Szell SS 89415 Sony 2 channel Vivaldi The Four Seasons Concerti Isaac Stern Jerusalem Music Centre Chamber / Philadelphia Eugene Ormandy SS 89039 Sony 2 channel Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 in A major / Incidental music to Midsummernight's Dream / Hebrides Overture Fingals Cave Cleveland George Szell SS 89343 Sony 2 channel Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat major / Symphony No. 40 in G minor / Exsultate, Jubilate Cleveland George Szell SS 89340 Sony 2 channel Mozart Piano Concerto 20 / 27 Concerto Murray Perahia English Chamber Murray Perahia SS 42241 Sony 2 channel Bach Concerto in F major / Partita No. 1 in B flat Major / Partita No. 2 in C Minor Glenn Gould SS 6141 Sony 2 channel Handel Water Music / Music For the Royal Fireworks New York Philharmonic Pierre Boulez SS 89120 Sony 2 channel Dvorak Symphony No. 8 in G Major / Symphony No. 9 in E minor Cleveland George Szell SS 89413 Sony 2 channel Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 + bits Arcadi Volodos Berlin Philharmonic James Levine SS 64384 Sony 2 channel Strauss Blue Danube / Pizzicato Polka / Delirien Waltz / Voices of Spring / Austrian Village Swallows / Perpetuum Mobile / Overture to Die Fleidermaus Cleveland George Szell SS 89383 Sony 2 channel Chopin / Rachmaninoff / Schumann / Liszt Piano Sonata 2 / Etude-Tableau in C Major and in E Minor / Arabesque in C Major / Hungarian Rhapsody No 19 in D Minor Vladimir Horowitz SS 6371 Sony 2 channel Haydn / Mozart / Fasch / Hummel Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E-Flat major / Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in D Major / Concerto for Trumpert, Oboes and Strings in D Major / Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E Major Wynton Marsalis English Chamber Raymond Leppard SS 57497 Sony 2 channel Gabrieli / Brade / Pezel / De Lassus / Holborne Canzonas and Sonatas / Almand Gaillard / Suite / Providebam Dominum / Suite Philadelphia / Cleveland and Chicago Brass Ensembles SS 89173 Sony 2 channel Copeland Appalachian Spring / Billy the Kid / Four Dance episodes from Rodeo London Symphony Aaron Copeland SS 89041 Sony 2 channel Barry Dances with Wolves Film Score ES 46982 Epic / Sony 2 channel Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture / Polonaise from Eugene Onegin / Capriccio Italien / Marche Slave / Waltz from Eugene Onegin / Festival Coronation March / Cossack Dance from Mazeppa Cincinnati Pops / Kiev Chorus / Childrens choir of Greater Cincinnati Eric Kunzel SACD 60541 Telarc 5.1 channels Berlioz Symphony Fantastique / Love scene from Romeo and Juliette Cincinnati Symphony Paavo Jarvi SACD 60578 Telarc 5.1 Mahler Symphony No. 5 Philharmonia Benjamin Zander 2SACD 60569 Telarc 5.1 channel Stravinsky / Borodin The Firebird / Music from Prince Igor Atlanta Symphony and Chorus Robert Shaw SACD 60039 Telarc 2 channel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.