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August 1, 2012
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Haitink takes the cow by the horns from the very start of the opening Allegro. He reads more detail from the score than my preferred comparison readings of this symphony; Eugen Jochum (1978) with Dresden and Giulini with VPO (1987), both on RBCD. It also seems that for Haitink this opening movement ... more |
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July 25, 2012
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Among the 10 Bruckner symphonies, the 5th would get my vote as the one with the most beautiful introduction; it evolves from silence and remains constraint till, minutes later, the Adagio commences. Attention assured. Not less convincing is the six bar orchestral end-motive, whereby the orchestra ... more |
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July 19, 2012
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For a long time I had the Mravinsky recordings (1960’s DGG) as my preferred set for Tchaikovsky 4,5 and 6, but sound quality, as can be expected, was not good at all on the 80’s’ ADD CD’s.
We know that each of Tchaikovsky’s late symphonies concerns a conflict of a courageous but deeply vulnerable ... more |
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July 18, 2012
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Ok, another “Pictures at an exhibition” was not where we were waiting for (How many of them do we already have) unless there are special reasons to release one. On top of that this disc only provides 33 minutes of music, so all in all this sets high expectations.
And after listening I found at ... more |
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July 17, 2012
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The “pièce the resistance” of this disc is the Book of Visions, a piece of 40 minutes completed in 2005, complemented with his earliest Symphony (1955) and the Adagio Celeste for String orchestra completed in 2000. The title of this disc could easily point to the evolution in Rautavaara’s composing ... more |
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August 8, 2012
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| Yes, I agree. The download version of the Janacek Miss is available in 24/96, but the stereo files on the BLue-R issue itself are 16/48 whilst at the same time the MCH version is at 24/96. I would have expected that they include the stereo PCM24/96 version (or better the 88.2 from the recording) on the disk also. There does seem some space left on ... more |
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August 7, 2012
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| 24/96 in stereo. That's the swimming pool sound I was referring to. Wit's Glagolitic Mass I found tame and average solo performers. But there is little alternative. ... more |
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August 7, 2012
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| I do have all Witt BR-A's for specific artistic assesments but am not convinced at all that NAXOS understands Hi-Res recording in General. All the recordings suffer from swimming pool acoustics. On its own the reproduction of the string sections and instruments in general seem fine in their Multi-Channel version, but low frequencies drown in the ... more |
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August 3, 2012
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| I am in the same boat and could not agree more. So far I have not spend time on writing down any review on the Haitink/Beethoven series because I do not yet understand why they sound so fresh, new and good. Unexpected indeed.
Maybe the specific acoustics of the hall help Haitink to sound better in Beethoven, or reverse, maybe Haitink uses the hall ... more |
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August 1, 2012
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| As an aside: The only real added value for an audio only BR format is for MDG to promote their 2+2+2 recording and presentation format. Instead of double using the mid and Bas channel as on SACD issues, they now could use the front (2) + surround (2) + rear (2) channels. So they would use 6.o (of the 7 available on BR) instead of 5.1. In this way ... more |
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