Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming [Classical edition]

[humprof]

All Stravinsky except "Curiosity, Genius, and the Search For Petula Clark"
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https://www.harmoniamundi.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/905384_booklet.pdf

A fine companion to this release from last year (also editing, mixing and mastering by Karel Bruggeman)

You're finding so much good stuff, @mkt! The recent Harmonia Mundi releases have been great. I'd love to read an interview with the recording & mixing engineers about their techniques. [Edit: looks like the main guy responsible is Karel Bruggeman, who among other things has experience with Auro-3D for Polyhymnia, one of the original partners in the formation of the PentaTone label.]

 

[humprof]

Well this is off to a good start ...

Appears the Atmos mix is by film & TV mixer Mark Willsher:
https://www.threads.net/@pin3hot/post/CummzI3NOMp

Here's an interesting "state of the technology" survey that he published in September 2023. Mostly old news by now, but still worth reviewing, and always interesting to get an insider's perspective (@sjcorne, take note?):
https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/09/immersive-audio-the-past-repackaged-or-a-new-frontier

An excerpt:

It is amazing to have all these new tools and options, but they should be at the service of the content; they don’t all have to be used all the time! For instance, if someone is happier with their lead vocal as a phantom center (playing out of the left and right speakers and not a center channel), then they should not feel obliged to do anything different . . . The same goes for some of the newer options: height/ceiling channels, moving objects, binaural renderer settings, and the list goes on. At the moment, due in part to good intentions, many labels and distributors impose restrictions on what can be accepted as an immersive release, which for the most part is content in a Dolby Atmos container (I call it a container as you don’t have to mix in Dolby Atmos to release in Dolby Atmos). Some labels require height channels, some labels require objects, and some set restrictions on binaural metadata. There may be best practices, and there are always bad choices that can be made, but we should not be required to use something for the sake of it. This does not lead to a better product; we do not need sound everywhere in order for the experience to be immersive.

Another unfortunate reality is that of data compression. For forty years, many have been bemoaning the quality of CD audio. In the late 1990s, CD sales plummeted with the rise of file sharing (low-quality, lossy-compressed audio), followed by the rise of digital sales and streaming distributors. Since then, the quality level has come back up to where most platforms now support 24bit audio, often marketed as the artist’s true intent or studio quality. Yet, now with immersive streaming, we are back to significant data compression: In the case of Dolby Atmos, our multichannel immersive deliverables are squeezed into a bit rate equivalent to that of a stereo CD. What consumers hear at home can be worlds apart from what is heard in the studio — not that a sizeable difference between the studio and home is anything new, but it is nonetheless disappointing in 2023.

 

[humprof]

A gramophone editor's choice. "Produced with great care, this set from Pentatone gathers together our new Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Tilson Thomas’s work as a composer, a perfect tribute in his 80th year."
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/grace-the-music-of-michael-tilson-thomas

I still haven't listened, though I'm looking forward to it. From this morning's Pentatone newsletter:

Michael Tilson Thomas received the highly esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledging his decades of extraordinary contributions to classical music. In his acceptance speech, he spoke warmly of his career and the personal significance of his works. To mark this achievement, we’ve just released a deluxe box set featuring nearly 5 hours of his most intimate compositions: GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas.​

When I saw him conduct the Mahler 5th last January in San Francisco, I imagined (wrongly) that that was the end. Sounds like this time for real. But talk about facing death with grace: "A coda can vary greatly in length. My life's coda is generous and rich."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/arts/music/michael-tilson-thomas-brain-cancer.html

 

[mkt]

Presto recording of the week, Stephen Hough plays Stephen Hough

 

[mkt]

 

[~dave~~wave~]

The Steve Reich is tied in with the release today of his Collected Works 27-CD box on Nonesuch.

https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/st...s-27-disc-box-set-out-now-nonesuch-2025-03-14

Jacob’s Ladder and Traveler's Prayer are also available to stream and download today. The former, performed by the New York Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden with Synergy Vocals, was made during its October 2023 world premiere at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The New York Classical Review called it “lovely and refreshing ... Superb.” The premiere recording of Traveler’s Prayer, performed by Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals, was made at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, also in 2023. “The tone of its score, from first note to last, is sustained sublimity,” says the Los Angeles Times. Reich narrates a Track by Track, exclusively available on Apple Music Classical, that includes his comments on seven works from the box, including Traveler’s Prayer and Jacob’s Ladder.

 

[humprof]

The Steve Reich is tied in with the release today of his Collected Works 27-CD box on Nonesuch.

https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/st...s-27-disc-box-set-out-now-nonesuch-2025-03-14

Jacob’s Ladder and Traveler's Prayer are also available to stream and download today. The former, performed by the New York Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden with Synergy Vocals, was made during its October 2023 world premiere at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The New York Classical Review called it “lovely and refreshing ... Superb.” The premiere recording of Traveler’s Prayer, performed by Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals, was made at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, also in 2023. “The tone of its score, from first note to last, is sustained sublimity,” says the Los Angeles Times. Reich narrates a Track by Track, exclusively available on Apple Music Classical, that includes his comments on seven works from the box, including Traveler’s Prayer and Jacob’s Ladder.


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Interesting to note that while 24 of the 27 discs in the set comprise recordings originally released on Nonesuch, the other 3 are made up of works licensed from other labels: Deutsche Grammophon, Wergo, Shandar, Sony Classical, Philips, Angel, and Harmonia Mundi--but notably not ECM. Guess Manfred Eicher didn't want to play nicely with the other children.

 

[humprof]

Long interview with Reich by NPR's Tom Huizenga:

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5319902/steve-reich-interview-collected-works

In 1960s New York, Reich says, everybody was under the spell of Cage and Stockhausen. "But, you know, it ain't me, babe."

I'd much rather hear John Coltrane and Miles Davis and Kenny Clarke and learn something from that. And I would say to pinpoint one of the key moments for me is John Coltrane's Africa, which is 16 minutes in the key of E. How does he make E work for 16 minutes? Well, if you have incredible, complex, gorgeous and sometimes just screaming from the soprano sax, you've got melodic interest. If you have Elvin Jones, who's an incredibly polyrhythmic drummer, all over the place, then you've got rhythmic interest. And if you've got Eric Dolphy orchestrating, where shrieks sound like elephants coming through the jungle on French horns, then you've got incredible timbral interest. So, put it all together, there are other ways to have intense musical development by staying put, harmonically.

 

[adspink]

Really liked the string orchestra on this and the Atmos mix is phenomenal