| Review by Daland November 5, 2004 (13 of 14 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
| This is a very spirited performance that can be warmly recommended. The sound is spacious and natural, with velvet strings and cutting brass and much bloom on the woodwind. There are hardly any obtrusive audience noises to indicate that this is a live performance. My only reservation would be that over half a dozen SACDs featuring this symphony are already on the market (with more to come). Some are very good (Szell, Fischer, Bernstein, Ashkenazy). So it would be wiser to explore repertoire less well represented on SACD. The disc is rather short measure (just over 41 minutes), but reasonably priced (14 EUR in Germany).
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| Review by -orlando- April 16, 2005 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
| Superb orchestra playing, hear these woodwinds. Conductor and orchestra seems to be very happy with each other. There are a lot of "New World" recordings but Jansons is surely competitive with the great ones with Fischer, Kondrasjin, Harnoncourt en Kubelik. This CD is a jewel both in the freshness of the playing and in the clearness of the recording. My favorite!
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| Review by mandel September 17, 2005 (5 of 6 found this review helpful)
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The RCO play beautifully, note perfect and with passion. As for the recording, you are placed fairly close to the orchestra but still with a good sense of soundstage; there is amazing sonic clarity while still having a warm sound. Turn it up and you can hear *everything*, the downside of this being the bloody audience noises in the quieter sections (I shall ignore this for the star ratings)... Very enjoyable disc, would have been a stunner without the audience noises.
Technical details (multichannel): Direct to DSD recording in 5.0. Good use of the centre channel, carries a fair proportion of the sound, but never sticks out. Quite a lot of use of the rears too, which is probably why the disc sounds so warm (which works well for this piece), doesn't cause any issues with positional clarity though.
Shoot the audience, keep the sound engineers :)
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| Review by Domimag April 24, 2010 (4 of 7 found this review helpful)
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A very good and dynamic performance of this symphony but I have to say that I have 16 SACD "RCO Live" and this one is the worst for its recording quality !
The orchester seems too far, in a "railways station" global acoustic. Compared to some of the most recent RCO I have (for example the 8th with Requiem of Dvorak), it is day and night.
I don't think it is Polyhymnia who record this SACD.
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| Review by Luukas June 12, 2015
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Lovely performance from the Concertgebouw Orchestra and its chief conductor Mariss Jansons! This is my first impression of the RCO Live's SACD. It is at the same time my first SACD of Dvorak's Ninth. I wasn't disappointment.
PERFORMANCE
The disc has recorded at the Great Concert Hall of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Jansons' approach is light and beautifully focused. The performance contains many "special effects": for example the nuance falls suddenly and then grows again. The orchestra follows closely the conductor's tricks. Especially the first movement is very good.
RECORDING
The performance is mixed to the 5.0 surround sound with the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) layer. The sound picture is clear, realistic and warmth. This is live recording but it is almost invisible. The audience's noise is muted perfectly.
SUMMARY
This is perhaps the best Dvorak's Ninth on disc and must purchase for all music lovers! Highly recommended, absolutely.
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