Favourite CD's for sound staging, imaging, etc.
03-01-2004, 06:53 PM
#132
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 871
CD Title: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky(Symphony no.6, Pathetique)/Rautavaara(Apotheosis).
Ensemble: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor: Mikko Franck.
Label: ONDINE.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was born in 1928 and is still alive today. His symphony, "Apotheosis", is all about praise, a celebration of the fullness of life. This orchestral piece is very atmospheric and richly hued, full of colors and textures.
Petr Illyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).
The title of his symphony no. 6, "Pathetique", was proposed to Tchaikovsky by his brother and was graciously accepted. In Russian, unlike English, the word Pathetique signifies sadness or sorrow and not pity.
Current speculation has it that Tchaikovsky was forced to commit suicide by an honour court to prevent the publication of his homosexual relationship with the nephew of a Russian nobleman. In view of the compelling emotional charge contained in the Symphony, it is tempting to link it to the composer's impeding death as a ghastly prophecy of his own fate.
The stormy first movement is followed by a lighter second movement. The third movement begins as airy and breezy but mutates into an energetic, military, angry march that finally escalates to a dazzling culmination. The finale is a slow piece, contrary to symphonic tradition, which shows the sadness and bleakness, ultimately leading to nihlistic destruction.
Gorgeous stuff !!!!!
ONDINE is a Finnish audiophile quality record label which has done a superb job recording these symphonies.
Once again, as in most well recorded classical cd's, this recording has alot of musical information, with a very wide dynamic range. There is plenty of bass (in the correct proportion ofcourse), midbass, midrange, and high frequency on this cd. If you have an excellent audio system, you will have no problems listening to the softer and subdued(relatively speaking) string section while the horn section is going full throttle. You should still be able to clearly hear the strings subdued with the horns going full blast. The loud passages of these symphonies appear very suddenly and will surprise you.
This is a beautiful recording and should be added to your audiophile collection.
[ March 01, 2004, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Keith ]
Ensemble: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor: Mikko Franck.
Label: ONDINE.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was born in 1928 and is still alive today. His symphony, "Apotheosis", is all about praise, a celebration of the fullness of life. This orchestral piece is very atmospheric and richly hued, full of colors and textures.
Petr Illyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).
The title of his symphony no. 6, "Pathetique", was proposed to Tchaikovsky by his brother and was graciously accepted. In Russian, unlike English, the word Pathetique signifies sadness or sorrow and not pity.
Current speculation has it that Tchaikovsky was forced to commit suicide by an honour court to prevent the publication of his homosexual relationship with the nephew of a Russian nobleman. In view of the compelling emotional charge contained in the Symphony, it is tempting to link it to the composer's impeding death as a ghastly prophecy of his own fate.
The stormy first movement is followed by a lighter second movement. The third movement begins as airy and breezy but mutates into an energetic, military, angry march that finally escalates to a dazzling culmination. The finale is a slow piece, contrary to symphonic tradition, which shows the sadness and bleakness, ultimately leading to nihlistic destruction.
Gorgeous stuff !!!!!
ONDINE is a Finnish audiophile quality record label which has done a superb job recording these symphonies.
Once again, as in most well recorded classical cd's, this recording has alot of musical information, with a very wide dynamic range. There is plenty of bass (in the correct proportion ofcourse), midbass, midrange, and high frequency on this cd. If you have an excellent audio system, you will have no problems listening to the softer and subdued(relatively speaking) string section while the horn section is going full throttle. You should still be able to clearly hear the strings subdued with the horns going full blast. The loud passages of these symphonies appear very suddenly and will surprise you.
This is a beautiful recording and should be added to your audiophile collection.
[ March 01, 2004, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Keith ]
03-02-2004, 09:11 AM
#133
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 871
CD Title: LANG LANG, TCHAIKOVSKY/MENDELSSOHN, FIRST PIANO CONCERTOS.
Ensemble: Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
Piano: Lang Lang.
Label: Deutchse Grammophon.
Lang Lang was born in 1982 in Shenyang, China where he began piano lessons at the age of 3. At the age of 5 he had already won the Shenyang Piano Competition. At age 11, he won the first prize and award for outstanding artistic performance at the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany. At 14 he was a featured soloist at the China National Symphony's inaugural concert. He then moved to Philadelphia for further studies in piano and music at the Curtis Institute.
His breakthrough came at the age of 17 when he was suddenly asked to perform as a replacement for Andre Watts who could not make it due to illness. He had to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has moved forward and progressed at a rapid rate from one triumphant appearance to another.
On this cd, Lang Lang plays the first piano concerto of Petr Tchaikovsky and also the first piano concerto of Felix Mendelssohn with aplomb. He is accompanied by the always excellent Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Daniel Barenboim. The finesse and grace of his keyboard playing along with the excitement of a large scale orchestra behind him provide for some exciting listening.
Deutsche Grammophon, a German record label, recorded this performance with excellent audio engineering, providing us with a top notch sound quality disc.
Recording took place at the Symphony Center Orchestra Hall, Chicago, February 2003.
Ensemble: Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
Piano: Lang Lang.
Label: Deutchse Grammophon.
Lang Lang was born in 1982 in Shenyang, China where he began piano lessons at the age of 3. At the age of 5 he had already won the Shenyang Piano Competition. At age 11, he won the first prize and award for outstanding artistic performance at the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany. At 14 he was a featured soloist at the China National Symphony's inaugural concert. He then moved to Philadelphia for further studies in piano and music at the Curtis Institute.
His breakthrough came at the age of 17 when he was suddenly asked to perform as a replacement for Andre Watts who could not make it due to illness. He had to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has moved forward and progressed at a rapid rate from one triumphant appearance to another.
On this cd, Lang Lang plays the first piano concerto of Petr Tchaikovsky and also the first piano concerto of Felix Mendelssohn with aplomb. He is accompanied by the always excellent Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Daniel Barenboim. The finesse and grace of his keyboard playing along with the excitement of a large scale orchestra behind him provide for some exciting listening.
Deutsche Grammophon, a German record label, recorded this performance with excellent audio engineering, providing us with a top notch sound quality disc.
Recording took place at the Symphony Center Orchestra Hall, Chicago, February 2003.
03-02-2004, 05:09 PM
#134
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 295
nirvana - unplugged
egals - hell freezes over
johny cash - any of his last fur relases on america records
the tea party - tangents
bruce spring stine - the rising, plus other tracks from that album
cold - there self titaled debut
pink floyd - dark side of the moon (there supposed to be relreasing it on dvd audio with a 5.1 mix of the original quadraphonic release)
fatboy slim - drop the hate
eva cassidy - filds of gold
guns n freaken roses - november rain
Hans Zimmer featuring Heitor Pereira - Nyah, off the mi2 sound track
icubis - Aqueous Transmission
marilin manson - his latest disk
portishead - i never heard such a killer bass line, i had to turn the sub out down so i could hear the vocals
tool - just about everything they made, specialy lateralis
a perfect circle, more great soundnig stuff
as for mp3 for sq play back NO
anything under 192 sounds like crap
you can hear the compesion or the artifacts from anything under 320
the best is encoded at 1440, but hell thats actually cd quality, and whos going to use that?
if you want to find higher bit rats use kazza lite or win mx, you can get it at winmx.com
egals - hell freezes over
johny cash - any of his last fur relases on america records
the tea party - tangents
bruce spring stine - the rising, plus other tracks from that album
cold - there self titaled debut
pink floyd - dark side of the moon (there supposed to be relreasing it on dvd audio with a 5.1 mix of the original quadraphonic release)
fatboy slim - drop the hate
eva cassidy - filds of gold
guns n freaken roses - november rain
Hans Zimmer featuring Heitor Pereira - Nyah, off the mi2 sound track
icubis - Aqueous Transmission
marilin manson - his latest disk
portishead - i never heard such a killer bass line, i had to turn the sub out down so i could hear the vocals
tool - just about everything they made, specialy lateralis
a perfect circle, more great soundnig stuff
as for mp3 for sq play back NO
anything under 192 sounds like crap
you can hear the compesion or the artifacts from anything under 320
the best is encoded at 1440, but hell thats actually cd quality, and whos going to use that?
if you want to find higher bit rats use kazza lite or win mx, you can get it at winmx.com
03-18-2004, 10:47 PM
#135
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 871
CD Title: The Ray Brown Trio, Soular Energy.
Label: Concord Jazz.
A beautiful recording, with Ray Brown (stand-up bass), Gene Harris (piano) and Gerryck King (drums).
With these exceptional musicians doing their thing with synergy and top-of-the-line engineering, we get music and sound quality to die for !!!!!! Most of the songs on this cd are jazz standards but this trio performs them with alot of soul !!!!!
Highly recommended for all jazz fans !!!
Label: Concord Jazz.
A beautiful recording, with Ray Brown (stand-up bass), Gene Harris (piano) and Gerryck King (drums).
With these exceptional musicians doing their thing with synergy and top-of-the-line engineering, we get music and sound quality to die for !!!!!! Most of the songs on this cd are jazz standards but this trio performs them with alot of soul !!!!!
Highly recommended for all jazz fans !!!
03-28-2004, 12:03 PM
#138
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 871
CD Title: Dvorak Symphonic Poems.
Composer: Antonin Dvorak.
Ensemble: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Label: Teldec.
In the late 19th century, many composers began composing their music to non-musical themes that were inspired by literature.
On this 2 cd set, Antonin Dvorak's (1841-1904) compositions are inspired by the stories written by Jaromir Erben.
These stories are rather gruesome, as they deal with blood and death of young women and children in a rather grotesque nature.
The names of Dvorak's symphonies are:
1) The Golden Spinning Wheel,
2) The Noon Witch,
3) The Water Goblin,
4) The Wild Dove.
Teldec has done a superb job recording this orchestra. The orchestration is particularly impressive, and Dvorak creates some telling sonorities to illustrate the subject, using a variety of effects with great subtlety and imagination. This live recording sounds very atmospheric and highly detailed at the same time. The orchestra is nicely set-back in a warm but not overly reverberant acoustic and the results are perfect !!!!!
Just the cover of the cd set is beautiful enough to justify the cost of this 2 cd set and ofcourse with the gorgeous orchestration, this is a must buy for sq lovers.
Composer: Antonin Dvorak.
Ensemble: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Label: Teldec.
In the late 19th century, many composers began composing their music to non-musical themes that were inspired by literature.
On this 2 cd set, Antonin Dvorak's (1841-1904) compositions are inspired by the stories written by Jaromir Erben.
These stories are rather gruesome, as they deal with blood and death of young women and children in a rather grotesque nature.
The names of Dvorak's symphonies are:
1) The Golden Spinning Wheel,
2) The Noon Witch,
3) The Water Goblin,
4) The Wild Dove.
Teldec has done a superb job recording this orchestra. The orchestration is particularly impressive, and Dvorak creates some telling sonorities to illustrate the subject, using a variety of effects with great subtlety and imagination. This live recording sounds very atmospheric and highly detailed at the same time. The orchestra is nicely set-back in a warm but not overly reverberant acoustic and the results are perfect !!!!!
Just the cover of the cd set is beautiful enough to justify the cost of this 2 cd set and ofcourse with the gorgeous orchestration, this is a must buy for sq lovers.
04-09-2004, 09:41 PM
#140
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 871
CD Title: Mahler, Symphony No.6, "Tragic".
Composer: Gustav Mahler.
Ensemble: Philharmonia Orchestra.
Conductor: Benjamin Zander.
Label: TELARC.
Gustav Mahler's (1860-1911) Symphony No.6 is called "Tragic" because the material contained in this work is of a very sad nature. Mahler had the ability to see into the future and predict what was going to happen in the near future. With great sadness, he "saw" the death of his young daughter (which did occur) and his own demise which he also correctly had predicted would happen due to heart disease. Mahler completed this sypmhony in 1904 and his daughter died in 1907.
Well, this is not the kind of music that you will be singing to in the shower first thing in the morning. It is dark, brooding, moody, emotional, passionate, and filled with sorrow & anger. But nonetheless, it is a work of art by an artist at the height of his artistry and musicianship. I love this kind of stuff...absolutely gorgeous to listen to on a good audio system. This symphony is 90 minutes in length...very difficult for most orchestras to perform.
TELARC has done a superb job recording this orchestra and Benjamin Zander is a fantastic conductor who has been the musical director and conductor of this grand orchestra for a number of years.
The result is a gorgeous sounding cd of demonstration quality with an extremely wide dynamic range that will put any and all stereo systems to the test !!!!!! On this recording, you will go from a quiet pianissimo passage to a very loud and abrupt passage within a second, so get ready to be suddenly shocked !!!!!!
Recording took place at the Watford Colosseum, United Kingdom, from May 22-23, 2001.
Top flight recording equipment was used in this recording and the quality is very audible. Recording engineers; Tony Faulkner, Jack Renner and Martin Atkinson have done an excellent job for TELARC.
Composer: Gustav Mahler.
Ensemble: Philharmonia Orchestra.
Conductor: Benjamin Zander.
Label: TELARC.
Gustav Mahler's (1860-1911) Symphony No.6 is called "Tragic" because the material contained in this work is of a very sad nature. Mahler had the ability to see into the future and predict what was going to happen in the near future. With great sadness, he "saw" the death of his young daughter (which did occur) and his own demise which he also correctly had predicted would happen due to heart disease. Mahler completed this sypmhony in 1904 and his daughter died in 1907.
Well, this is not the kind of music that you will be singing to in the shower first thing in the morning. It is dark, brooding, moody, emotional, passionate, and filled with sorrow & anger. But nonetheless, it is a work of art by an artist at the height of his artistry and musicianship. I love this kind of stuff...absolutely gorgeous to listen to on a good audio system. This symphony is 90 minutes in length...very difficult for most orchestras to perform.
TELARC has done a superb job recording this orchestra and Benjamin Zander is a fantastic conductor who has been the musical director and conductor of this grand orchestra for a number of years.
The result is a gorgeous sounding cd of demonstration quality with an extremely wide dynamic range that will put any and all stereo systems to the test !!!!!! On this recording, you will go from a quiet pianissimo passage to a very loud and abrupt passage within a second, so get ready to be suddenly shocked !!!!!!
Recording took place at the Watford Colosseum, United Kingdom, from May 22-23, 2001.
Top flight recording equipment was used in this recording and the quality is very audible. Recording engineers; Tony Faulkner, Jack Renner and Martin Atkinson have done an excellent job for TELARC.
