SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[4-earredwonder]

The question is why do they release with BDs and CDs instead of one or the other. I have no use for the CDs.

Kal, I fear the ubiquitous RBCD will be with us .... until the end of days! Even a $59 Walmart Daewoo Blu Ray Player can play BD~A [just sayin'].

 

[Lute]

Thanks to you both for the recommendations. I'll pick a few and get started!

Lute, as it happens, I just listened this evening to the 2L Lux: Nidaros Girl's Choir and Trondheimsolisten. Wonderful music with fabulous bass extension in the organ pedal notes. It has a reasonably mild, ambiance-dominated surround mix, but still beautiful.

Also thank you for the tip on headless operation of the Tacet Bluray and DVD-A releases. The 2L Bluray of Lux certainly has it as well.

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying 2L‘s wonderful surround recordings. Sometimes ambient surround can suit a performance or piece of music, so I do listen to them as well. Lux: Nidaros Girl’s Choir and Trondheimsolisten looks good. I‘m a huge fan of both choral music and organ music, it’s right up my alley.

 

[Lute]

Guillaume Bouzignac: Motets

Saxon Vocal Ensemble
Matthias Jung

 

[4-earredwonder]

I listen to this one a lot when I'm driving - it's just so mind-clearing. And the GVSU NME version is pretty good

One could only hope that one day Tower Records in Japan will see fit to release this, IMO, definitive version on hi res SACD!

 

[Lute]

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Octet E flat major op. 20
Quartet D major op. 44 No. 1
Auryn Quartet
Minguet Quartet

 

[Lute]

Music for Monarchs and Magnates
Tallis: Spem in Alium

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

 

[ubertrout]

The question is why do they release with BDs and CDs instead of one or the other. I have no use for the CDs.

I mean, if you own a CD pressing plant (or several), then the costs of making the CDs are pretty much a sunk cost, so why not include them for those who want them?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I mean, if you own a CD pressing plant (or several), then the costs of making the CDs are pretty much a sunk cost, so why not include them for those who want them?

But how many people want both? Weren't there a few some big boxes with BDs and LPs?

 

[4-earredwonder]

I mean, if you own a CD pressing plant (or several), then the costs of making the CDs are pretty much a sunk cost, so why not include them for those who want them?

I buy those remastered Classical BD~As for their extended, uninterrupted playing times. IMO, the inclusion of the RBCDs only adds expense and bulk to the packaging. And unlike SONY [who has been sadly absent from releasing Music Only classical discs on BD~A], I don't think DGG owns their own pressing plants.

I have been playing those 100 remastered Bernstein Centennial RBCDs which come in a humugous bulky box and could only imagine how great they would've sounded on 8~10 BD~As in 96/24 resolution versus 16.44.1 RBCD quality! Shame on YOU, SONY, especially considering they were mastered from 192/24 or at a minimum 96/24 remasters from the original analogue masters! And SONY does own BD, RBCD and SACD pressing plants!

BTW, LSO has been releasing wonderful BD~A 5.0 remasters which include accompanying hybrid multi~ch SACDs in little boxsets for unbelievably reasonable prices. If they can do it why can't Sony?

EXAMPLES:

https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collectio...es-nos-1-5-overtures-a-midsummer-nights-dream
https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collections/pure-audio-blu-ray/products/nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6
As I mentioned, even an el cheapo $59 Blu Ray player is capable of playing BD~A ..... just don't anticipate any sonic miracles!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I can't wait until it is all available on downloads.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I can't wait until it is all available on downloads.

Until India, China and Russia, et alia, find a way to turn THE CLOUD into vaporware! PUFF!

The 1812 UNDERture, anyone?

 

[H.A.L.]

BTW, LSO has been releasing wonderful BD~A 5.0 remasters which include accompanying hybrid multi~ch SACDs in little boxsets for unbelievably reasonable prices. If they can do it why can't Sony?

EXAMPLES:

https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collectio...es-nos-1-5-overtures-a-midsummer-nights-dream
https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collections/pure-audio-blu-ray/products/nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6
As I mentioned, even an el cheapo $59 Blu Ray player is capable of playing BD~A ..... just don't anticipate any sonic miracles!

The Mendelssohn symphonies certainly fill a niche nicely: someone here -- perhaps 4-earredwonder -- recommended them to me and I appreciate it!

For pure surround goodness, though, Lute has it right, the Auryn Quartet Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major jumps out of the niche!

 

[4-earredwonder]

The Mendelssohn symphonies certainly fill a niche nicely: someone here -- perhaps 4-earredwonder -- recommended them to me and I appreciate it!

For pure surround goodness, though, Lute has it right, the Auryn Quartet Mendelssohn Octet E Flat Major jumps out of the niche!

Agree, halbroome, but for the price of the TACET SACD you can have all the symphonies on 1 BD~A. BTW, if you like Nielsen, that $18 LSO BD~A/SACD boxset comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
\
https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collections/pure-audio-blu-ray/products/nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Until India, China and Russia, et alia, find a way to turn THE CLOUD into vaporware! PUFF!

The 1812 UNDERture, anyone?

Huh?? I did not say streaming. I said downloads. You buy them and keep them secure.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Agree, halbroome, but for the price of the TACET SACD you can have all the symphonies on 1 BD~A. BTW, if you like Nielsen, that $18 LSO BD~A/SACD boxset comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Or not. I've been a fan of the Tacet Mendelssohn Octet since it was released but Davis's Nielsen set bores me.

 

[H.A.L.]

At the age of 12 I started piano lessons, advancing to a classical piano professor who tsk'ed tsk'ed I started too late, only to have me wind up a wild rock n' roll Jefferson Airplane sort of fan who taught himself electric guitar. Such is life. At any rate, dear GOS, there is WORTH in classical music that cannot be denied!

As for Auryn Quartet on TACET, I'll have to understandably admit bias toward anything with keyboards, so I guess it is not surprising -- after having collected all the TACET surrounds, OCD for the win -- that my absolute favorite, with an incredible surround effect of the piano in the rear and strings up front, is this Schumann:

https://www.tacet.de/main/seite1.php?language=en&filename=production.php&bestnr=01443
I include the URL as it has a nice graphic of how the instruments are placed around the listener. For my surround fix in keyboards, I have to go for concertos and the like, as solo keyboards in surround come off as rather unimpressive (prove me wrong with some recs, oh quaddies!). I have Debussy and Chopin solo piano recordings in surround, but . . . the piano alone doesn't seem to lend itself to much discreetness on those.

 

[ubertrout]

I buy those remastered Classical BD~As for their extended, uninterrupted playing times. IMO, the inclusion of the RBCDs only adds expense and bulk to the packaging. And unlike SONY [who has been sadly absent from releasing Music Only classical discs on BD~A], I don't think DGG owns their own pressing plants.

I have been playing those 100 remastered Bernstein Centennial RBCDs which come in a humugous bulky box and could only imagine how great they would've sounded on 8~10 BD~As in 96/24 resolution versus 16.44.1 RBCD quality! Shame on YOU, SONY, especially considering they were mastered from 192/24 or at a minimum 96/24 remasters from the original analogue masters! And SONY does own BD, RBCD and SACD pressing plants!

BTW, LSO has been releasing wonderful BD~A 5.0 remasters which include accompanying hybrid multi~ch SACDs in little boxsets for unbelievably reasonable prices. If they can do it why can't Sony?

EXAMPLES:

https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collectio...es-nos-1-5-overtures-a-midsummer-nights-dream
https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/collections/pure-audio-blu-ray/products/nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6
As I mentioned, even an el cheapo $59 Blu Ray player is capable of playing BD~A ..... just don't anticipate any sonic miracles!

As I understand it, LSO Live is as much a publicity program as a profit center - they'd like to many money from selling discs, but it's not the focus of their efforts. This means the incentives are different. Just a guess - it's certainly possible for others to release discs the way LSO does, but I suspect the reduced profit is less attractive for a normal record label.

 

[4-earredwonder]

As I understand it, LSO Live is as much a publicity program as a profit center - they'd like to many money from selling discs, but it's not the focus of their efforts. This means the incentives are different. Just a guess - it's certainly possible for others to release discs the way LSO does, but I suspect the reduced profit is less attractive for a normal record label.

And as the label suggests, ubertrout, LSO LIVE discs are DSD recorded in their entirety, probably without further overdubs, while paid performances are taking place thus minimizing any need for uber pricey studio time. And their pricing would certainly suggest either patron subsidies or other lucrative incentives driving those prices below what most classical labels charge for a single multi~ch SACD!

And despite Kal Rubinson's boredom with the LSO Live Nielsen Symphonies, I came across this little blurb @ Presto Classical:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8048610--nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6

 

[ubertrout]

And as the label suggests, ubertrout, LSO LIVE discs are DSD recorded in their entirety, probably without further overdubs, while paid performances are taking place thus minimizing any need for uber pricey studio time. And their pricing would certainly suggest either patron subsidies or other lucrative incentives driving those prices below what most classical labels charge for a single multi~ch SACD!

And despite Kal Rubinson's boredom with the LSO Live Nielsen Symphonies, I came across this little blurb @ Presto Classical:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8048610--nielsen-symphonies-nos-1-6

My understanding is that most of the orchestra labels do a "patch session" during rehearsals to cover things flubbed live, but it's pretty low-cost compared to studio recording.

 

[humprof]

The market has clearly changed (something an industry vet like you obviously knows), but in a weird way it's become an opportunity. Increasingly the industry is looking to find profit wherever it can, and disc replication costs are at an all-time low. And Universal Music (especially DG) has discovered that buyers will pay a premium for box sets that include a Blu-ray disc of the set material in high-resolution. And they've done a few forays into multichannel recently as well - they've released the Bernstein and Karajan 70s Beethoven symphony cycles into Dolby Atmos (although it's mostly just quad with some summed channels as I recall), and they also issued the Solti recording of Tannhauser in 5.1 sourced from the quad mix: Wagner: Tannhäuser (Solti, 1971) 5.1 Blu-ray Audio from Decca Quad Tapes

You can see all the DG Blu-ray audio releases here, for reference - it looks like they're very actively being released: DG (label) - Blu-ray audio (page 1 of 5) | Presto Classical
Edit to add - more from Decca: Decca (label) - Blu-ray audio (page 1 of 2) | Presto Classical

Thanks for those links, @ubertrout . So do we know how many of those fifty-odd BDAs include (even nominally) multi-channel content? There's Tannhauser, the Bernstein and Karajan Beethoven cycles, Kleiber's "complete" symphonic recordings, Carmen, The Planets & Zarathustra...anything I'm missing?