The Sound of Things to Come

[emaidel]

I gratly admire Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem"). I wasn't familiar with the piece aside from the fourth movement, which, when sung in English, goes by the title, "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place." After joining the Spartanburg Festival Chours, and performing the 7 movement piece along with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra on April 19th, I can definitely say that I am very, very familiar with it now, and absolutely love this sprawling, truly majestic musical work.

I initially purchased two Telarc discs of the piece - one by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the other (in English) by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony. The Shaw disc gave me loads of trouble and usually refused to play without annoying ticking. The second replacement disc worked fairly well, but still with occasional ticking. Still, I preferred this rendition over that by the MTC, as that chorus is simply much too big for this work.

I also purchased an EMI disc with Simon Rattle conducting the piece. Rattle has some interesting interpretationss that are a bit startling, and most welcome, but the sound of the EMI recording, even though it's a relatively new one, is a bit thin and harsh, which, regretfully, is a common characteristic of many of Rattle's otherwise fine recordings.

The Shaw recording, played now on my Marantz SA-8001 plays flawlessly, and sounds nothing less than wonderful. Still, it's an older Telarc recording, done via the SoundStream recording system. Telarc has released a number of older recordings done on this recorder that have been remastered via the DSD process, and are available as 2-channel SACD's. The sonic improvements on such discs are astounding.

I sent Telarc an email asking if "Ein Deutsches Requiem" may be next on their list, but, not surprisingly, never got an answer. I've often stated how much a fan I am of Telarc recordings, but I have to say that their customer service often leaves much to be desired. Ultimately, past problems have been resolved to my satisfaction, but only after repeated emails, and nasty responses implying that messages were sent to me that in truth, never were.

Still, after checking for new SACD releases from Telarc, I was stunned to see that an all new SACD recording of this magnificent work (by Robert Spano and the Atlanta orchestra and chorus) will be released May 20th. Naturally, I placed an advance order and am all but salivating in anticipation of receiving it.

I've been both thorougly delighted, and somewhat disappointed in some of the newer Telarc SACD's, and sincerely hope that the former holds true for this recording. I'm looking forward to listening to it, and reporting my observations here on AR for others to read, and hopefully benefit from. My fervent desire is that it will be both a superb recording, and the definitive interpretation of the piece. That would truly be something!

More after May 20th.

[bobsticks]

Nice read e-maidel, and I agree that Telarc puts out some great stuff. Not only are the SACDs topnotch but the redbook cds are usually well above expectation. I am a big fan of Martin Pearlman and the Boston Baroque players and their rendition of Bach's "Mass In B Minor" is superlative in both sound quality and performance. Handel too, with "Music for the Royal Fireworks" being a constant favorite around here.

Lotsa good jazz stuff as well, if that's yout thing. Most of Oscar Peterson's catalog has been re-released via the DSD scenario. Those "Live at the Blue Note" discs are worth the search.

Another great label to check out for SACDs is the BIS label out of Scandinavia. I have a collection of the works of Greig including the "Norwegian Dances", "In Autumn Piano Concert", and "Peer Gynt" that never fail to astound. Don't skip out on the Bach Cantatas from the Far East if the opportunity presents itself.

Happy listening

[3-LockBox]

I have quite a few regular Telarc CDs - I've always found them to be the best recordings available, in CD format. Now they're doing SACD? One of these days I'm going to have to take the multi-channel plunge...maybe.

[emaidel]

I have quite a few regular Telarc CDs - I've always found them to be the best recordings available, in CD format. Now they're doing SACD? One of these days I'm going to have to take the multi-channel plunge...maybe.

Telarc has been producing SACD's for over 8 years and is a strong believer in the medium. Most of their releases are multi-channel, but the remastering of the older SoundStream recordings into SACD's are 2-channel.

I had no interest in the multi-channel capabilities, but simply the improved fidelity to be expected from an SACD. I sent an email to Jack Renner (former founder/president/chief recording engineer at Telarc) and asked if there would be a benefit in doing this, and he responded with, 'YES!"

As a result of Renner's enthusiastic response, as well as numerous glowing reviews, I purchased my Marantz SA-8001 SACD player. It's strictly a 2-channel player, and was just the item I'd been looking for for years: I wanted an SACD player that was only 2-channel, and also a first-rate redbook CD player as well. I can't praise the 8001 highly enough on both accounts.

So, you can easily switch over to SACD's without "taking the multi-channel plunge" if you don't want to.

[emaidel]

Another great label to check out for SACDs is the BIS label out of Scandinavia. I have a collection of the works of Greig including the "Norwegian Dances", "In Autumn Piano Concert", and "Peer Gynt" that never fail to astound. Don't skip out on the Bach Cantatas from the Far East if the opportunity presents itself.

Happy listening

I'd never heard of BIS before. thanks for the tip.

[3-LockBox]

Check out FIM as well, First Impression Music, an audiophile label which carries SACD titles as well as XRCD 24 titles (XRCD is a JVC joint and will playback on regular players). They specialize in reissues of older, long out of print albums and performances, as well as rare albums that for whatever reason, never made it to CD. I have a couple of XRCD 24, one of which I listen to all the time; Mozart: Three Divertmenti for Strings; a performance in which Mozart wrote where he situated the orchestra to play assigned left/right pieces. It sounds great even on non-XRCD players.

[emaidel]

Yesterday, May 20th, was to be the release date of this new Telarc SACD of Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem," and so I thought I'd check out Telarc's website to see what, if anything, additional may have been posted about the disc. What I found was somewhat disheartening: while the CD version of the disc was released yesterday, the SACD won't be released until July 29th.

Certainly not the end of the world, but I was really looking forward to listening to this disc over the next few days. So, now, like everyone else, I just have to wait.

[bobsticks]

Perhaps you can quell your sorrow with a couple of new acquisitions that I have enjoyed this fine morning.

Lang Lang's Dragon Songs is a spirited romp through some traditional and not-so-traditional Chinese chamber and orchestral arrangements. The disc's dynamic content is phenomenal and the instrumentation provocative.

Anna Netrebko's "The Russian Album", produced with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev is a collection of arias from Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov. Haunting and beautiful there is are a wealth of spacial qeues and a blackness of depth.

Though neither are Super Audio they are both HDCD's and two of the better examples of the medium I have observed, no doubt due to the strong production value by Deutsche Grammophon. I recommend either or both.