User Details - steviev

library | recommendations


Name:
  Steve W.
Details:
  I always listen to MCH programme when available.
All my comments and opinions refer to MCH unless otherwise stated.
Record reviewer, American Record Guide.
Location:
  Oregonia
HiFi:
  Sony CE-595/Oppo 103
Denon AVR-588/Yamaha Aventage 1000 receivers
Polk fullrange fronts and surrounds / Boston subwoof
Polk full(ish)range ceiling-hangers for 2+2+2 recordings
1970's puke-green crushed velvet recliner (essential)
Country livin', where the loudest noise is the evening crickets
Email:
 
Web:
 
Posts:
  490

 
 
Reviews
Found: 22 show all

Beethoven: Complete Sonatas & Variations - Haimovitz, O'Riley        (8 of 9 found this review helpful)
  February 7, 2015

If forced to guess the performers' age based on playing style alone in Beethoven's early Opus 5 sonatas, I'd estimate early twenties, tops. Tempos are fleet, accents fierce, tonal beauty ever-yielding to passionate expression, breathless and impatient forward momentum always. In fact the performers ... more
Prokofiev: Symphonies 1 "Classical" & 2, Dreams - Alsop      (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
  November 27, 2014

Tempos in the tricky Symphony 1 are lickety-split, 13'47" total, which seems to be the norm for this symphony. I prefer conductors who slow down and give the woodwinds a bit more time to characterize their solos, but apparently I'm in the minority. The Sao Paolo SO ably hammers out all the notes ... more
Atterberg: Orchestral Works Vol. 2 - Järvi        (7 of 9 found this review helpful)
  April 19, 2014

This is a messy, perfunctory run-through of Atterberg's great Second Symphony. As usual Jarvi is in a hurry to just get it over with already, which makes no sense in this languorous, near-Impressionist work. The overall tempo in the first movement is too fast anyway, violins sawing away desperately ... more
Zelenka: The Capriccios - The Bach Sinfonia      (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
  March 26, 2014

This music is hilarious. I'm going to assume that Zelenka knew what he was doing when he wrote stratospheric parts far above the comfortable range of valveless hunting horns in his Capriccios, high notes that would make a lot more sense on trumpets. I'm also going to assume that our present ... more
Remote Galaxy by Flint Juventino Beppe      (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
  March 22, 2014

Aesthetically this is high-quality middlebrow movie music, reminiscent of Tim Burton's go-to composer Danny Elfman. It's essentially tonal, shot through with a degree of chromaticism that wouldn't offend Richard Strauss. 2L has recorded another disc of this composer's music, back when he called ... more

 
 
Latest Posts

New site up
July 31, 2015
So this is the new site....... Are you joking? I would never bookmark it. Embarrassing. Start over from scratch, Stephen. No joke. No one with an IQ above 85 would think this is better than the current SA-CD.net. ... more
Discussion: Strauss: Symphonia Domestica - Janowski
July 27, 2015
These same Berliners performed Pentatone's ten-opera Wagner series, which Pentatone disclosed were recorded in PCM Hi-Res, whatever that means. There's no such disclosure on this Strauss disc, so I assume it's DSD. ... more
Discussion: Strauss: Symphonia Domestica - Janowski
July 24, 2015
It's recorded at a lower level than usual for Pentatone, so crank up the gain about six decibels or so. The dynamic range is restricted, quite realistically, as if there were a fidgety, expectorant audience in attendance and not an empty hall. In multichannel, there is no muddiness in complicated passages. It's a gorgeous recording. ... more
Best SACD piano recordings
July 19, 2015
Yes, I have: electric piano (in my case, Yamaha YDP-223) heard thru headphones, with all reverb settings turned off. It's the purest, driest, isolated piano sound possible, the ideal that some famous pianist or other is seeking to replicate via an acoustic piano, when all this time it's available to anybody with a few hundred bucks and an AC ... more
SACD Stereo: it doesn't make sense
July 13, 2015
And the hiss and rumble perfectly replicate the whirring of indoor air-conditioning fans and traffic passing by outside the hall, respectively. ... more