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Review by Chris December 26, 2003 (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
This is the first CD I have bought from DGG for quite a few years.DGG has for very good reasons, I think, been blamed for their strident,hard, multi-miked and artificial recordings.All too often you have the feeling that their engineers have been aiming for a sound that will impress on Mid-Fi equipment.The more mikes ,the better seems to be their idea.
This time they have recorded in 24/48 resolution, but why not 24/96,24/192 or even pure DSD?
The sound on this SACD hybrid is better on the SACD layer, but still not better than some ordinary RBCDs in my collection.
And when I compared it to two more than forty year old recordings on LP,I found more realistic, than this new digital recording.
Where is the real progress in recording technology when both the Chicago symphony under friendly Fritz on RCA recorded in 1960,and the Concertgebouw under Jochum also on DGG 1962, sound better , with more natural velvety, sweet,string sound and more realistic timbres?On both these old LPs even the huge Gong sounds more natural Ok, the RCA is beginning to show its age a bit.(Maybe it´s just my old Victrola copy that is worn out?)But it is, most of the time, squeaky clean and natural, and together with the old DGG, it reproduces an orchestra much as you would hear it live.Even DGG could make good recordings in the early sixties and the Jochum Mahler LP is a good example of that.
But unlike the other reviewer of Boulez´s new recording for DGG,I do quite like Boulez´s reading of this masterwork.
Das Lied von der Erde is in my opinion one of the true gems, in all of Western Classical Music.
When those cellos and doublebasses reverberate in the huge acoustics, it is almost as if time itself stands still.Truly magical.Boulez lets this timeless music speak for itself without any obvious "interpretation".
And I even prefer Yioleta Urmana over Nan Merriman on the old classic 62 LP. I find Merriman´s "wobbly" vibrato style a bit over the top .But the best interpretation of all ,I think, is Christa Ludwig´s under Karajan also on DGG ,that is if you can still get the original LPs ,The Galleria CD transfer shows all the signs of bad digital mastering from a good analogue tape.
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Sonics: 
