Post by Arthur March 30, 2010 (21 of 34)
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I got it this morning and have only sampled one movement: the first movement of the 4th. This was of the most egregious examples on the RBCD of shrill trumpets, so I figured it would be a good quick test: the trumpets still have an edge, which I consider to be a hallmark of this Russian style of playing, but the almost painful shrillness is completely gone. This is a good sign!
They changed the order with the 5th and the first movement of the 4th on the first disc, then the rest of the 4th and all of the 6th on the second disc. Musically, this makes more sense to me. On the other hand, there is no sleeve for the notes so they just fell out when I opened the disc, and the only non-Japanese notes are a reprint of some old English notes on an oversized paper that is folded up and stuck in. Very cheesy! And for a production charging such high prices, I would expect the front cover to give accurate information about what's inside, not just a reprint of the cover of a third of the contents!
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I'd love to hear a bit more about this release from people who have heard it. I'm intrigued but wary of spending so much for something I own on SACD.
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I just picked up this set last week and am in the middle of auditioning it. I've compared the 4th symphony to the original DGG pressing, and also to the later reissue from 1977. I find the sacd to be arguably the best of the three editions, with the first generation lp possibly the least. I also found the sacd to be almost indistinguishable from the later 2535 235 DGG lp. Over all, I have found the Esoteric titles to be among the very best engineered sacds that I've encountered, and I plan to own all titles. I also have the Ring cycle and find that to be top notch as well.
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Post by Claude May 4, 2010 (24 of 34)
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Thanks. The most interesting comparison would be with the DG Originals CD reissue, presumably made from the same 24/96 PCM copy.
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Post by Scytales May 15, 2010 (25 of 34)
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I cannot comment the merits of this Esoteric reissue compared to those of the DG The originals edition, but, after I have compared the 4th symphony on SACD to the same on the 1987 CD edition, I have the opinion that the former is better, with notably better ambiance. It was the first time, by listening to this recording, that I did have the feeling to hear an orchestra which had played in an actual concert hall. That's thrilling, really.
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Post by hiredfox May 17, 2010 (26 of 34)
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This latest batch of Esoteric recordings are not available in the UK yet according to Jack Lawson
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Post by hiredfox July 6, 2010 (27 of 34)
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Jack has two of the new batch of 4 discs (Tchaikovsky 4, 5 & 6; Dvorak 8 / Brahms 3), the two operas have not been released yet. The former is £60, the latter £32.
Some really good news - the Esoteric site makes the point strongly and repeatedly that these two discs have been mastered in DSD. This is a very welcome departure from previous practice and maybe is a response to our disappointment that PCM was involved in the re-mastering process for previous releases.
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Post by Claude July 7, 2010 (28 of 34)
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hiredfox said:
Some really good news - the Esoteric site makes the point strongly and repeatedly that these two discs have been mastered in DSD. This is a very welcome departure from previous practice and maybe is a response to our disappointment that PCM was involved in the re-mastering process for previous releases.
"Mastering in DSD" can be a misleading term. Every SACD needs to be mastered in DSD at some point of the procedure. What counts is the source material (analogue tapes --> DSD, or analogue --> PCM --> DSD).
I see no Esoteric departure in what you indicate. That's what they always did.
Playing back 24/96 PCM copies from Universal (because they don't get the tapes) and record the analogue signal to DSD with the Esoteric converter.
The only difference with other PCM-sourced SACDs (like the Universal SACDs) is that for the later the PCM-DSD conversion was made entirely in the digital domain.
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Post by hiredfox July 29, 2010 (29 of 34)
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Frankly I am bemused by the poor review given these discs by our colleague on SA-CD.net and criticism of performance on this thread. For sure, £60 is a heck of a lot of folding money but that should not be allowed to bias the minds of reviewers against the new SACD's on grounds of affordability or value-for-money. After all one man's meat.....
These are truly legendary performances that I was privileged to buy as a kid, Gramophone was right to say that these performances are benchmarks in recorded performance as well as setting a standard for Tchaikovsky interpretations that has never been equalled.
These new transcriptions are truly astonishing, the engineers have retrieved an incredible amount of inner detail that is not clearly audible on the earlier CD's and if the sacrifice is some sense of loss of in your face visceral excitement (which some may prefer but certainly not me) the overwhelming benefit is of a sense of tonal accuracy and live presence that is rarely if ever captured on disc. The rasp of brass and the shriek shrill of flutes in 4 is worth the money alone. Claims of added muddiness seem to me to be perverse and patently absurd, for those that don't know that's what a live orchestra sounds like and in any case it's the same on the analogue discs and the earlier CD's if you listen carefully.
Believe who you will, these discs are a very fine addition indeed to the SACD catalogue and to recorded music as a whole.
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Well, I sold my RBCD of these to have a friend get the Esoteric SACDs for me in Japan, just in case. Will get them when I get there in October.
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