[Czilla9000]

I was browsing for a copy of the Rite of Spring and found a Telarc "50khz Soundstream" SACD Hybrid CD. The symphony is the Cleveland Orchestra, the conductor is Loren Maazel (spelled something like that).


I bought it and listened to it and I thought it sounded really good on my CDP. I want to buy a SACDP to hear it in its full glory.

Anyway, did I make a good buying decision? Am I getting the "full" Rite of Spring experience? Again, It sounds great to me but I want to check in with the experts (you guys).

Anyway, I love the Rite of Spring. I think it is my new favorite piece of music.


PS - Here is the link for the CD -
http://www.telarc.com/sacd/title.asp...05AFURQE4S3S09

 

[DarkAngel]

Really you should get all three of the major ballet works, they are all great:
-Rite of Spring
-Firebird
-Petrouchka

Best performance for me remains the Stravinsky's own recordings he made in the early 1960's on CBS label (now Sony) These are CDs but I suspect soon Sony will release them as SACD. Currently available on mid priced CDs Stravinsky/Sony

Also seek out Haitink/Phillips Duo, a mid price 2CD set that gives very good performances of all three ballets

As far as SACD you have Maazel/Telarc, I have seen no review comments on this new release, but Maazel has other older recordings of these works on CD.

BTW.....after visiting your link it appears this is not new recording but SACD remaster of previous recording by Maazel. The combination of Maazel and Cleveland orchestra also released the famous Maazel/Telarc version of Mussorgsky's Picture at an Exhibition back in the 1980's which was long considered a sonic showcase because it didn't have the usual treble glare common back then........doesn't sound as impressive today.

 

[KR...]

One of the best ones that I know about is this one :

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel Best performance for me remains the Stravinsky's own recordings he made in the early 1960's on CBS label (now Sony) These are CDs but I suspect soon Sony will release them as SACD. Currently available on mid priced CDs Stravinsky/Sony

Actually, the SACD version of this performance has been available for quite some time (I've had mine for a couple of years). I consider it my favorite version.

 

[Sweet Spot]

I personally have never heard a better version than the one done by Seiji Ozawa and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also on the CD is The Firebird Suite done by Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra...It goes perfectly with the other recording.

It's on the RCA Victor and BMG labels. 1991

 

[Calanctus]

Wow, synchronicity...just as I find this thread, I'm listening to my new Rite of Spring CD. It's Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Orchestra, on Philips, and it sounds really excellent. The acoustics of the hall and the dynamics of the drums are really something.

Here's an online review at Positive Feedback (scroll down the page, the Rite review is about halfway down).

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

Originally posted by RickG Actually, the SACD version of this performance has been available for quite some time (I've had mine for a couple of years). I consider it my favorite version.

Yes that's the ticket........they must have snuck that one in on me.
BTW is that version a hybrid or SACD only disc?

Cal
I have a few newer Gergiev recordings (not Stravinsky) and he has been turning some heads recently with some very good recordings both performance and sound quality.

BTW, I now have Stealth mini digital to go with Stealth, he he.

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel Yes that's the ticket........they must have snuck that one in on me. BTW is that version a hybrid or SACD only disc?

None of the Sony SACD's are hybrid...they want you to buy their playback equipment!

 

[Czilla9000]

There apears to be TWO versions of the Rite of Spring on SACD -


1. The Telarc one I bought -

2. The Sony one Rick bought -

 

[Czilla9000]

This is what Telarc says about the "Soundstream" recording technology -


Quote:

Telarc's first digital recordings utilized the Soundstream recording system which is based on a sampling rate of 50kHz, compared to a standard compact disc, which has a sampling rate of 44.1kHz. The higher rate of the Soundstream system offers an extended frequency response (up to 25kHz) and increased detail. To produce the original compact disc, the Soundstream signal had to be converted from 50kHz to 44.1kHz, a process that inherently causes a loss of quality not only by lowering the frequency response, but also by the complex mathematical process needed to derive 44.1kHz from 50kHz. Until recently, no digital system has had the capability to capture the full quality the Soundstream process had to offer. The advent of Direct Stream Digital™ (DSD) technology and its frequency response of over 100kHz allows the Soundstream tapes to be remastered to DSD, presenting to the listener the true sound of the recording. Not only is the original bandwidth preserved, the sonic artifacts produced by the awkward sample-rate conversion are eliminated as well. The end result is the sound that the recording team intended, even though it had to wait for more than 15 years!

So basically I should not run out and buy another version of the "Spring"? The recording I have should give the piece justice?

(BTW, Telarc included some neat historical info about the Rite of Spring/Tchaikoskys 4th in the cover. Sony/Philips also had a pamphlet on why you should buy an SACD player.)

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by Czilla9000 There appears to be TWO versions of the Rite of Spring on SACD - 1. The Telarc one I bought - 2. The Sony one Rick bought -

There are more SACD versions than the two you list. The reason I dig the one I mentioned above is because the composer is conducting. I love to hear what the composer really had in mind when he wrote the piece. I get the feeling I'm hearing it the way it was meant to be heard. Sonically, the Telarc and other modern recordings will probably win out, but performance wise...I'll take the writer's interpretation.

I love to hear Copland conducting Copland...Gershwin conducting Gershwin...etc.

 

[Calanctus]

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkAngel Cal BTW, I now have Stealth mini digital to go with Stealth, he he.

Very nice. I assume you are running your source thru one and amp, etc. through the other? The B2 version I have actually has separate sets of innards for the analog and for the digital, all in one box.
BTW my last 2 Nites arrived today, so I will now be all Nite--at least as far as PCs out of my Stealth. Not sure if there's any reason to put Nites INTO the Stealth, but who knows....

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Calanctus Very nice. I assume you are running your source thru one and amp, etc. through the other?

That be right, check it out:

Stealths

Cal do you realize how much money we have in our AC cord/conditioners.........have we lost out minds

 

[scrypt]

You can't always trust the composer, you know, for the same reason that a great screenplay writer isn't necessarily a great director (Preston Sturges being a notable exception). I absolutely worship Bartok, and he happened to be one of Hungary's supreme pianists in his prime (though his rival, Erno Dohnanyi, was a wee tad better). Nevertheless, I grew to disregard Bartok's performances of his own pieces completely when learning the Suite for Piano and Allegro Barbaro, for the simple reason that Bartok plays them too fast to allow the listener to hear harmonic color and structure. He also speeds up continually, which seems to be the tendency of many other Hungarian musicians. It was also the vice of my own piano teacher, Dr. Bela Nagy (former president of the Liszt Society and Bartok's protege). I own recordings of Bartok playing, of course. But the best performances are still by other pianists.

Prokofiev was an incredibly proficient pianist, and Shostakovich was a competent one, and both of them recorded on occasion. I do quite like the subtlety of Shostakovich's recording of the Piano Quintet, but Prokofiev's version of his Third Piano Concerto lacks a certain depth and dynamic power, a certain delineation of levels of musical architecture, that makes me prefer performances by Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich and Stanoslav Richter. I really wish that Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, my favorite delineator, had recorded it.

Copland, Stravinsky and Hindemith were all perfectly decent conductors, but I still prefer other versions, such as Boulez's Le Sacre, to the composers'. Having said that, I'd still love to have the SACD of Stravinsky conducting his ballets (especially Petrouchka) *if* the SACD improves on the sound of the CD drastically. Does it, hmmmm?

Two exceptions: Samuel Barber's recording of his Hermit Songs with Leontyne Price remains the definitive version of that song cycle. And no one should screw with the electronic scores of Stockhausen but Stockhausen himself. I don't care *how* evangelistic he waxes on the so-called universality of his hermetic and quirky music, nor that, as Can says, he's the inventor of the dub mix. You might as well listen to cover versions of Wendy Carlos's "Timesteps" from A Clockwork Orange.

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by scrypt I'd still love to have the SACD of Stravinsky conducting his ballets (especially Petrouchka) *if* the SACD improves on the sound of the CD drastically. Does it, hmmmm?

scrypt, keep in mind the period these recordings were made:

Le Sacre du Printemps recorded January 5-6 1960, at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City.

L'oiseau de Feu recorded January 18, 1967, at American Legion Hall, Hollywood California.

I'm not aware of a Stravinsky conducted Petrouchka on SACD.

To my ears, the Sony SACD sounds magical, however, I don't have the redbook version to compare.
Quote:

Originally posted by scrypt You might as well listen to cover versions of Wendy Carlos's "Timesteps" from A Clockwork Orange.

GOD FORBID!

I've been a Walter/Wendy fan for decades and cherish Timesteps.

I can't fathom the thought of hearing a cover by Kool and the Gang...