| Review by jeffreybehr May 19, 2012 (3 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
Oh my...I'm first....gulp...
This is the famed recording released decades ago on a Vox Turnabout LP, most of which were rather noisy; this SACD is NOT.
The performance is quite good, but I'm no expert on Rach's SDs. I've heard several performances lately, live and recorded, and this seems to be as good as any. The 2-channel recording is quite natural, capturing the Dallas SO playing very well but perhaps not as well as it does now. Instrumental balances are natural, and the recording does NOT sound knob-twiddled.
The hall, McFarland Auditorium on SMU's campus, sounds rather small and without much bloom in this recording. I wonder what it sounds like in person? Probably I'll never know.
If you want a modern, indeed-hi-resolution version of this classic recording, here it is.
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| Review by jeff3948 July 13, 2012 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics:  |
| Mini review just to warn you. I bought this Stereo only SACD in hopes that it would be a block buster recording like several other Vox/Turnabout recordings, for instance the Ravel Skrowaczewski/Minnesota Recordings and many RCA Living Stereo SACDs. The performances here are good but not great. The entire recording is marred by the confined acoustics of the hall in which the orchestra was recorded in. It sounds like it was recorded in a cardboard box, almost no reverberation at all, acoustically dead. Also, the sound of the strings is old and dated, a sign that the magnetic tape might not have been taken care of properly or the special microphones mentioned in the booklet were just not very good after all, at least in the upper frequencies or something else is just not right. I’ve heard many other better stereo recordings of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances and Vocalise. If you are looking for a great stereo version, I highly recommend Oue’s version with the Minnisota Orchestra on Reference Recordings. Look for RR-96 HDCD about half way down the page at http://referencerecordings.com/Minnesota.asp . If you have to have stereo HD audio then you can purchase Oue/Minnisota version in what Reference Recordings call HRx in their original 176.4kHz/24 bit WAV file HR-96 HRx ( http://referencerecordings.com/HRxORDER.asp ) which comes on a DVD-R and then you can make your own HD DVD-A disc using Cirlinca Software's HD-Audio Solo Ultra (http://cirlinca.com/ ), or if you prefer surround sound, I recommend the SACD of De Waart on Exton: Rachmaninov: Complete Symphonies & Orchestral Works - Edo de Waart. Or get both I did. Both Oue and De Waart are supurb performances and recordings!
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