![]() Also included is a never-before-issued instrumental with a vocal reprise by Lanza. The hybrid SACD restores three additional tracks from the LP: two with under-recorded soprano Judith Raskin, whose unforgettable solo on the Szell version of Mahler's Symphony 4 has warmed the hearts of countless music lovers, and a third with chorus. The original CD included only those tracks from the original soundtrack recording of The Vagabond King that involved Lanza himself. The other bonuses, for those who treasure his performances, are found on Mario Lanza at His Best. As for the pithy criticisms recently voiced by Brian Hartsell, noted authority on Living Stereo, that the original LPs were "emasculated bass-wise-they sound like a pipe organ that had a sex change," a very brief audition on a not-fully-broken-in SACD player suggests that the original engineers had not partaken of Viagra before rolling the tape. ![]() While hardly the most thrilling track Fox ever recorded, it's finally available for all to hear. The disc also includes the first-ever release of Fox's RCA recording of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march. ![]() While the Schumann did appear on a 1993 Living Stereo CD, the sound of that version can't approach that of the new hybrid SACD. Virgil Fox's Encores, recorded in 1958, now includes Robert Schumann's Canon in B Minor, released on mono LP but omitted from the original Living Stereo pressings because of limitations of playing time. The SACD reissue offers the opportunity to hear the master tapes of the initial stereo version (also available on LP from Classic Records), which Sony/BMG reissue producer Daniel Guss politely characterizes as "representing the early maturity of the relationship of Munch and the BSO," in near-optimal two-channel sound. A stereo version of Munch's first traversal didn't see the light of day until the 1960s, on a release in RCA's sonically compromised Victrola budget line. While the earlier performance was far superior both sonically and interpretively, its only Living Stereo release was as a mono LP. According to Bob Moon, author of the classic London Decca reference book Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound, Munch/BSO recorded the Symphonie twice: in experimental two-channel in 1954, and in three-track in 1962. Of key interest to collectors is the SACD of Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and the Love Scene from Roméo et Juliette. Newton emphasized that 21st-century analog tape playback is superior to that of the original analog tape recorders, whose playback sections "never had the performance of the record section." Audiophiles who proclaim their two-channel LP and multichannel SACD equipment to be of comparable quality-no easy assessment to make-will have the final say as to whether these RCA Living Stereo releases ever had it so good. A Studer Aria analog tape recorder was connected with "premium" Siltech cables directly to dCS converters that encoded the signals to SACD's DSD data format. Newton also noted that, during the remastering process, the signal path was kept as short as possible. The CD layer on the hybrid discs is produced with a sophisticated computer program that downconverts the stereo DSD program to the CD standard of 44.1kHz, 16-bits, and sounds much better than using a PCM A/D converter." The DSD recording technique used to make the hybrid SACDs is almost perfectly transparent. "Since we work only from the original tapes, there are no generation losses. The project's remastering supervisor, John Newton of Soundmirror, Inc., extolled the reissues to Stereophile. This allows audiophiles with multichannel systems to hear the music as it was heard by the engineers and musicians in the studio during playbacks of the original master tapes. ![]() Remastered from the original two- and three-channel master tapes using the DSD process, these 10 new SACDs present the material exactly as it was recorded, without equalization, filtering, or other tampering.įor the three-channel recordings, which were made with microphones placed in the left, center, and right of the hall, all three front channels of the SACD format are used. The fourth round of RCA Red Seal Living Stereo hybrid SACD/CDs hit the literal and virtual shelves on February 7. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |