SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[GOS]

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Puccini: La Bohème - Solti

How's that one sound Brett? I have it in my "cart" from Vocalion.

 

[Lute]

How's that one sound Brett? I have it in my "cart" from Vocalion.

It sounds great, Gene. The rears are discrete and immersive. The sound is nice and full. The music is excellent, of course. The performance is first rate.

 

[4-earredwonder]

An excellent Brett [Lute] Recommendation and only $8 delivered, brand new, from AmazonUS in a pristine Super Audio CD Case. Performances are robust and extremely well recorded [DSD 5.1] with tactile ambient rears:

ありがとう, Brett!

 

[Lute]

An excellent Brett [Lute] Recommendation and only $8 delivered, brand new, from AmazonUS in a pristine Super Audio CD Case. Performances are robust and extremely well recorded [DSD 5.1] with tactile ambient rears:

ありがとう, Brett!

Glad to hear you like it. I love when various instruments, like a pianoforte, are used in recordings. It helps mix things up and keeps it interesting.

Speaking of pianos, I just picked up Pentatone’s excellent SACD: Mendelssohn: Works for Cello & Piano - Moser, Beatson. It’s a collection of pieces by Felix and his sister Fanny for cello and piano. The piano used is a delightful sounding 1837 Érard piano similar to the one the Mendelssohns would have played at home. Of course the 1694 Guarneri cello is also very special. The surround mix is ambient, nothing aggressive going on, but it captures the warmth of these lovely instruments. Here’s a review with an interview video...

https://www.wrti.org/post/classical...r-alasdair-beatson-works-mendelssohn-siblings

 

[4-earredwonder]

Liza & Dmitry Ferschtman: Duos for Violin and Violoncello [Challenge Classics/Mch SACD] Impeccable sonics and erstwhile performances

 

[4-earredwonder]

Pinchas Zukerman Plays and Conducts Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with the English Chamber Orchestra/Zukerman Plays and Conducts Vivaldi's Four Concertos [Dutton Epoch/Columbia/QUAD SACD] Both Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London

 

[Lute]

Just picked this one up at the record shop this morning and now giving it a spin in honor of old Ludwig’s 250th anniversary. Thank the heavens for TACET

 

[4-earredwonder]

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Just picked this one up at the record shop this morning and now giving it a spin in honor of old Ludwig’s 250th anniversary. Thank the heavens for TACET

Gee, Thanks Brett...250 years old but who's counting?..... LvB

• Lived: 1770 - Mar 26, 1827
• Height: 5 feet 4 inches

 

[Lute]

Gee, Thanks Brett...250 years old but who's counting?..... LvB

• Lived: 1770 - Mar 26, 1827
• Height: 5 feet 4 inches

Time flies when you’re having fun!

 

[Lute]

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Prelude to Khovanshchina

New Philharmonia Orchestra
Charles Mackerras (conductor)

 

[Lute]

Haydn: String Quartets Op. 9

Auryn Quartet

 

[GOS]

Time flies when you’re having fun!

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LMFAO!

 

[mwhealton]

I just ordered Lost Voices from Hagia Sophia from Capella Romana. It uses acoustic synthesis to produce a multichannel mix (including Atmos channels apparently) to recreate the acoustic of Hagia Sophia. We'll see how it works out. The release has a stereo CD and a Bluray with multichannel , etc. Musically, Capella Romana specializes in less well-known Eastern Christian chant and choral music.

 

[JediJoker]

...Capella Romana...

I took voice lessons from one of the tenors in that group for five years.

 

[Lute]

I just ordered Lost Voices from Hagia Sophia from Capella Romana. It uses acoustic synthesis to produce a multichannel mix (including Atmos channels apparently) to recreate the acoustic of Hagia Sophia. We'll see how it works out. The release has a stereo CD and a Bluray with multichannel , etc. Musically, Capella Romana specializes in less well-known Eastern Christian chant and choral music.

WOW! That could be pretty cool if done right. Do let us know what you think of it.

I found this Blu-Ray.com review on their website.

https://cappellaromana.org/5-star-blu-ray-review-for-lost-voices-of-hagia-sophia/
Hmm...I might not be able to wait

 

[4-earredwonder]

I took voice lessons from one of the tenors in that group for five years.

I'd give you a tenner just to hear you sing, JJ!

 

[Lute]

Gregorio Allegri: Miserere

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Stabat mater; Missa Papae Marcelli; Tu es Petrus

Solo quartet: Deborah Roberts, Sally Dunkley, Caroline Trevor, Donald Greig
Cantor: Andrew Carwood
Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips

This sublime stereo album was remixed in Hi-Rez 5.1 surround in order to recreate the depth of the Sistine Chapel. It’s still a bit front heavy, but the rear speakers are used discretely for some parts.

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=9409#reviews

 

[humprof]

I just ordered Lost Voices from Hagia Sophia from Capella Romana. It uses acoustic synthesis to produce a multichannel mix (including Atmos channels apparently) to recreate the acoustic of Hagia Sophia. We'll see how it works out. The release has a stereo CD and a Bluray with multichannel , etc. Musically, Capella Romana specializes in less well-known Eastern Christian chant and choral music.

NPR's Weekend Edition ran a story on this recording today. (Might be why it's currently backordered at Amazon!)

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/22/8084...d-of-the-hagia-sophia-more-than-500-years-ago

 

[Thomas Mowrey]

That actually is pretty crazy - it's a wonderful piece - total bombast in the best way possible. It's one of those pieces I actually heard live (NYP with Masur) and then went back to the recordings to listen more.

I'll go further - there really isn't a good multichannel version for many of Liszt's orchestral works, and this seems like a bizarre oversight. We do have a few versions of the piano concertos, which you'd expect, and the Dante Symphony (which is really one of his lesser works, although I do appreciate its availability), but we don't have one of his Faust Symphony or the Hungarian Rhapsodies, which were long staples of the repertoire. And while I appreciate the older stereo recordings being reissued on BD-A and SACD (including most famously the below), there's a difference in what you get with a modern high-res multichannel recording.

Of course, if Dutton or DG itself reissued Bernstein's recording of A Faust Symphony from Boston, which I understand is a Thomas Mowrey active quad mix, never heard by the public, I wouldn't complain.

The Bernstein Boston recording of the Liszt "Faust" Symphony was recorded 8-track on one-inch tape in a quad configuration in August, 1976 in Symphony Hall after a performance at Tanglewood the Sunday before. I was the producer and I edited the 8-track originals in Boston shortly after the recording. However, I left the company shortly after that, and the edited 8-track originals were sent back to Hannover where Günter Hermanns mixed them straight to stereo for LP release. I do not believe that a 4-track quad mix was ever done.

The reference to "a Thomas Mowrey active quad mix" above may be to the Berlioz "Damnation of Faust", which is a very dynamic, 360-degree quad mix that I made myself. At some point someone at DG made an anodyne stereo remix of that recording, which is what DG has in its catalogue now. However, my original dynamic mix was released as a Hybrid SA-CD in quad and stereo by Pentatone and is available on Amazon.

 

[4-earredwonder]

And what should arrive in today's mail. Another LUTE Recommendation [albeit, with caveats]. I shall spin it tonight while trying to get my thousands of disparate discs onto their respective shelves....methodically arranged by category!