| Review by zany July 13, 2005 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
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| This inexpensive set is a real bargain. The recording quality is excellent and the performances are spirited, leaving little to be desired. The series ends with a refreshing version of the 'Jupiter' which brings out all the grandeur and exitement of Mozart's masterpiece. Whilst there may be finer recordings of some of the symphonies the overall quality is such that I have awarded five stars to the performances on the stereo layer.
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| Review by nickc August 19, 2005 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
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I'll have to start this review with an admission that I haven't even listened to nos. 1-24 - Mozart is Mozart but life is too short to wade through every note he wrote!
I started my listening at the first well known (and minor-keyed) symphony, no.25. You might remember it from the opening scene of Amadeus when we see Salieri descending into madness and attemting suicide.
First impressions are often correct and straight away I thought the first movement was a bit laid -back. These are period performances that in a sense are almost anti-period - instead of hectic the tempi are generally relaxed. Nothing wrong with that, I just like my music too be a bit more high-voltage.
Another thing is the lack of weight of the strings. Brilliant are coy about the size of the orchestra and woodwind and especially brass can almost overwhelm the small body of strings at some points.
When we get to the last four great symphonies things have improved somewhat - No. 38 "Prague" is excellent but then no.39 is a bit staid for me.
The booklet states that these were original stereo PCM recordings (it doesn't say what rate) which were then remixed for surround. The recording is of a piece with the playing - instead of up-close we are in a farily large and resonant space, placed further back from the orchestra than I like - though once again that is only personal preference.
SO recommended, with the above caveats.
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| Review by MichaelCPE August 24, 2005 (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
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I have only listened to the first three discs, so I cannot yet properly review the music.
But I can comment on the audio quality.
The recording was originally PCM stereo. I found that the SACD Stereo version has much better defined instrumental placement and clarity. The multi-channel mix is less defined and a bit of a blur. So for carefull listening the Stereo version is preferable.
The multi-channel version also commits one of the biggest sins of multi-channel mixing. The lowest bass is included in BOTH the main speakers (left and right) AND the sub-woofer. So if you have main speakers which reproduce low bass, you get a double helping. This sounds very bad. The solution is to switch off the sub-woofer.
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| Review by audio-grubi March 20, 2008 (8 of 8 found this review helpful)
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"This surround sound master was generated from original PCM stereo recordings using SpatialSonics process which was analogically transfered to DSD using GENEX and PYRAMIX systems. The audio was Spatialized and Mixed by Carlos de Andrade and mastered in Surround and Stereo DSD by Luiz Tornaghi at Vision Digital Studios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil"
This technical informations are printed on backsides of the collection box and on the paper cover of each single SACD. Translated in short form: The 6 (or 5?) channel surround mix is totaly artificial and that's the way it sounds like. Just TERRIBLE!
Only the front speakers (left, center, right) are active (with an unusual loud and dominant center speaker), while the rear speakers are nearly quiet. (No, that's NOT a problem of my equipment, 'cause all loud speakers are adjusted on same level with a level meter!)
The center speaker just play the music signals of the left and right front speakers in mono but no discret signal or music information. That's the difference to the much better sounding 3 channel recordings of RCAs "Living Stereo" and "Mercury Living Presence".
Well, I'm sorry, but I don't agree with the former authors and in my opinion on this SACDs the stereo mix sounds much better than the multi-channel mix, without that the stereo version would sound truly well. This are multi-channel SACDs nobody has waited for and I don't understand, why "Brilliant Classics" produced these, 'cause there are existing much better SACDs of this lable (Albinoni: Oboe Concertos from Opp. 7 & 9 Stefan Schilli (oboe) - Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra -
Nicol Matt (conductor) for example).
I neither know Carlos de Andrade nor Luiz Tornaghi and never before heard of them, so I don't know, what kind of music they producing or mixing normaly, but I guess it's not classical music.
What luck, that I got this discs really cheap on amazon.de!
About the interpretation: For me they are uninspired and boring. You can read during listening and when the music is over, you don't know what was played. There are so many more interesting recordings of Mozarts symphonies on CD and SACD (Sir Neville Marriners interpretations of the Youth Symphonies on Pentatone for example).
My tip: If you really like this recordings and want them, buy the (chaeper) CD version and listen it in surround by using the DTS Neo:6- or DOLBY PRO LOGIC II(x)-decoder of your Surround Receiver/Amplifier. That sounds much better and more three-dimensional than this "multi-channel" remixes!
No recommendation.
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| Review by pulpicon November 10, 2011 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
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| Unfortunately, I have to underline the review about poor multi-channel and also poor performance. This set delivers the the most disappointing SACDs I ever bought yet - although one is warned about this by the very low price already. The performance is boring and not at all livid. The performance of Adam Fischer (also SACD) is much much better.
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Sonics: 
Sonics: 
