SPOTLIGHT The classical music general discussion thread

[4-earredwonder]

Always wary of those with the upsampled surround, but it's a well-recorded set in stereo.

I must have roughly 30 of those MEMBRAN Classical and JAZZ multi~ch [???] German pressed SACDs. For the asking price of $7~10 each, IMO, they represent a canny bargain and hey, the performances are lovely ......and the recordings better than a lot of more expensive offerings!

 

[mkt]

A January 2022 Gramophone Editor’s Choice available in surround on Channel Classics
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bart-k-string-quartets-vol-2-ragazze-quartet

 

[humprof]

Latest installment of the Times's "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love..." series is dedicated to the string quartet. Lots of the usual suspects--Beethoven, Haydn, Shostakovich, Ravel, Debussy, Bartok--plus some more off-the-beaten-path works. The piece I most want to hear in surround: the JACK Quartet playing Sabrina Schroder's "UNDERROOM"! (Seems to be a disc in the works, but I wouldn't bet on there being an Atmos mix--unless they raised enough money to hire Nathaniel Reichman, who's worked on some of their stuff for other labels, including the Grammy-nominated recording of JLA's "Lines Made By Walking.")
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/arts/music/five-minutes-string-quartet-classical-music.html

 

[4-earredwonder]

An interesting new DEBUSSY release from BIS

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=15221

BIS BIS-2622
Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

 

[humprof]

Happy diamond anniversary to Street Scene:
https://www.kwf.org/news/street-scene-weills-broadway-opera-at-75/Not my favorite work of Weill's, by any stretch--but it had an amazing team of collaborators and at least a handful of memorable tunes. Plus, a fine Dolby Surround recording on JAY Records.
https://www.jayrecords.com/recording/street-scene/

 

[~dave~~wave~]

I should mention, for those interested in organ music, that Aeolus produced a magnificent 19 SACD set of all of Bach's organ music in discrete surround sound. It's only one instrument so there's not going to be separation in the same way you'd get with a active surround mix of multiple instruments, but the surround channels capture the ambience and put you into the place so much more effectively than you can with stereo only. It's EUR 180 direct from them.

Just ordered from grooves.land for $161 shipped plus 5% PayPal fee.
Kooiman / Klapproth / Gnann / Gremmel-Geuchen -Sämtliche Orgelwerke -Aeolus SACD+CD Grooves.land/Playthek

 

[ubertrout]

Just ordered from grooves.land for $161 shipped plus 5% PayPal fee.
Kooiman / Klapproth / Gnann / Gremmel-Geuchen -Sämtliche Orgelwerke -Aeolus SACD+CD Grooves.land/Playthek

Wow, I didn't realize it had gotten so out of print.

 

[mkt]

Just ordered from grooves.land for $161 shipped plus 5% PayPal fee.
Kooiman / Klapproth / Gnann / Gremmel-Geuchen -Sämtliche Orgelwerke -Aeolus SACD+CD Grooves.land/Playthek

That is one of a handful of 5.1 releases streaming on Qobuz.
https://play.qobuz.com/album/0000020121024

 

[dadregga]

Alright having listened to

The Kansas/Stern Planets: The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Gustav Holst - The Planets, The Perfect Fool

The Bernstein Planets: Holst - Britten, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic - Holst: The Planets; Britten: Four Sea Interludes

And the Litton/BIS Planets: Gustav Holst, Sir Edward Elgar, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton - The Planets / Enigma Variations


...I gotta go with the BIS one as the best multichannel Planets put to digital disc thus far, both in terms of the performance and recording.

The Bernstein one is imperfect but a good second anyway.

 

[ubertrout]

Alright having listened to

The Kansas/Stern Planets: The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Gustav Holst - The Planets, The Perfect Fool

The Bernstein Planets: Holst - Britten, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic - Holst: The Planets; Britten: Four Sea Interludes

And the Litton/BIS Planets: Gustav Holst, Sir Edward Elgar, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton - The Planets / Enigma Variations


...I gotta go with the BIS one as the best multichannel Planets put to digital disc thus far, both in terms of the performance and recording.

The Bernstein one is imperfect but a good second anyway.

It's been on my pile for a while. Should listen.

 

[JediJoker]

Alright having listened to

The Kansas/Stern Planets: The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Gustav Holst - The Planets, The Perfect Fool

The Bernstein Planets: Holst - Britten, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic - Holst: The Planets; Britten: Four Sea Interludes

And the Litton/BIS Planets: Gustav Holst, Sir Edward Elgar, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton - The Planets / Enigma Variations


...I gotta go with the BIS one as the best multichannel Planets put to digital disc thus far, both in terms of the performance and recording.

The Bernstein one is imperfect but a good second anyway.

What about the Steinberg Planets?

 

[ubertrout]

Alright having listened to

The Kansas/Stern Planets: The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Gustav Holst - The Planets, The Perfect Fool

The Bernstein Planets: Holst - Britten, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic - Holst: The Planets; Britten: Four Sea Interludes

And the Litton/BIS Planets: Gustav Holst, Sir Edward Elgar, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton - The Planets / Enigma Variations


...I gotta go with the BIS one as the best multichannel Planets put to digital disc thus far, both in terms of the performance and recording.

The Bernstein one is imperfect but a good second anyway.

You're right, the Litton is really good. Not a surprise - he's been consistently excellent for decades at this point. As for the Steinberg, I think it's probably a better performance although it's close - I really like how Litton shapes it. The surround mix for Litton is less aggressive, although there's definitely some nice discrete moments. Litton has much better dynamic range and clarity in the 24/96 digital recording, though.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

You're right, the Litton is really good. Not a surprise - he's been consistently excellent for decades at this point. As for the Steinberg, I think it's probably a better performance although it's close - I really like how Litton shapes it. The surround mix for Litton is less aggressive, although there's definitely some nice discrete moments. Litton has much better dynamic range and clarity in the 24/96 digital recording, though.

The highest DR multichannel Planets I have is the Gardner on Chandos but I still prefer Steinberg and Litton.

OTOH, I really love the performance and sound of Boughton/Nimbus even though it is an old stereo only recording.

 

[4-earredwonder]

The highest DR multichannel Planets I have is the Gardner on Chandos but I still prefer Steinberg and Litton.

OTOH, I really love the performance and sound of Boughton/Nimbus even though it is an old stereo only recording.

Kal, was William Boughton's Planets recorded Ambisonically?

 

[humprof]

Sorry to take a left turn here, but with all this Planets talk, I can't resist mentioning a jazz big band arrangement that I just learned of--by LA-based composer/arranger/trombonist Jeremy Levy, on Seattle's Origin Records. No surround mix, sadly, but it has a big, wide stereo soundfield...
https://originarts.com/oa2/recordings/recording.php?TitleID=22182

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Kal, was William Boughton's Planets recorded Ambisonically?

I doubt it. It doesn't have much air until you play it loud.

 

[humprof]

Ståle Kleiberg's Violin Concertos 25% off at the 2L store till Feb. 6--all formats. (SACD/Blu-Ray combo is €22.50 shipped to the US.) Discount applied automatically.

I'm not big on Kleiberg's brand of neo-Romanticism--I actually find his Mass kind of dreary and ponderous (don't hate me, @edisonbaggins!)--but I listened to this recording on Apple Music (in Atmos) and quite liked it, and Lindberg's mixing here is unsurpassed.
https://shop.2l.no/collections/all/products/kleiberg-concertos

 

[dadregga]

Ståle Kleiberg's Violin Concertos 25% off at the 2L store till Feb. 6--all formats. (SACD/Blu-Ray combo is €22.50 shipped to the US.) Discount applied automatically.

I'm not big on Kleiberg's brand of neo-Romanticism--I actually find his Mass kind of dreary and ponderous (don't hate me, @edisonbaggins!)--but I listened to this recording on Apple Music (in Atmos) and quite liked it, and Lindberg's mixing here is unsurpassed.
https://shop.2l.no/collections/all/products/kleiberg-concertos

Seconded, I like this one a lot - it's a set of great works played well.

 

[mkt]

An interesting new DEBUSSY release from BIS

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=15221

BIS BIS-2622
Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Download now on sale for $9.75 at eClassical - Debussy Orchestrated

 

[4-earredwonder]

Download now on sale for $9.75 at eClassical - Debussy Orchestrated

If you decide to purchase the download would like to hear your opinion of it?