I agree wholeheartedly with harold's post. And, the Christian Badea performance of the symphony is a good deal better than the Ormandy version. It's also got a knockout performance of "Phaeton," which, if played a little too loudly, could cause some serious damage to loudspeakers!
The Ormandy was originally a Telarc LP, and that which bothered me then (and still does) is the overabundance of reverberation since the recording - orchestra included - was done in an empty church. The DSD-remastered SACD also has a lot more of the noise generated by the organ "breather' (at least, I think that's what it's called), which I don't recall hearing on either the LP or the earlier CD.
With the organ noise, and the reverberation, I'd suggest skipping this one, and going directly to the Eschenbach/Philadelphia recording on Ondine, which to my ears, is the best out there as of now. There's also a version by Yannick Nezet Seguin on ATMA, which received glowing accolades, but which I found especially disappointing. All of the orchestral work by Seguin is outstanding, but the organ just isn't loud enough. It's as if something just went terribly wrong.
Just as an aside, the famous entrance of the organ in the latter half of the second movement is written as a forte, and not a double or triple forte, as many audiophiles have come to expect. The ATMA recording doesn't even come close to a forte. That's a shame, since everything else on it is so good.
|
