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Reviews: Palestrina: Missarum liber primus - Roberto Gabbiani

Reviews: 2

Review by Bill Tubes January 10, 2005 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
This release on 3 discs (the third only 30 minutes long) is an out and out disappointment. For the first SACD of Palestrina, I was looking forward to performances on the scale of the Tallis Scholars or other major (primarily British) choral ensembles that have impeccable precision and intonation and well as fine interpretations. As the owner of a number of previous Fone releases, I assumed both the sonic quality but also the performance quality would be superb. The set includes 5 mass settings, and is by the Coro Polifonico Dell' Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia.

I listened on my fairly new EMM Labs CDSD transport and DCC2 stereo DAC/preamp. This replaced a Lindemann D680 which in turn replaced a Marantz SA-1, modified part way through my ownership by Richard Kern. The amps are Jadis JA 250 tube monoblocks driving Magnepan Tympani IV-a speakers, with HMS cables throughout. I can only comment on the stereo layer. I have more than 500 (nearly all classical) SACDs in my collection, complementing several thousand CDs and LPs.

The sound is good without being outstanding, even given its being a DSD recording. I have been considerably more impressed with the sonic quality of earlier analogue Fone recordings. But the sonics are not the issue here.

The choral sound of 23 voices is simply coarse, entrances are smeared, intonation is very variable, the voices sound like amateur college students, not trained professionals that we are used to in most recordings of Renaissance polyphany over the past 20 or 30 years. I had to force myself to listen to all five mass settings all the way through. The unpleasant choral sound has a sameness to it that permeates every movement of the five masses. This set is unlikely ever to be replayed by me.

I regret having to post such a negative review. I am frankly most surprised Signor Ricci, the guiding light, producer, and engineer of Fone chose to release these discs, given the quality and character of his other releases. I post this only because I was so looking forward to the first Palestrina release on SACD--and was so disappointed. Having spent many hard-earned dollars on a three disc imported set made it only worse.

Be forewarned.

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Review by capezio January 16, 2011 (0 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Starting recently on the SACD world I was too disappointed with such a low quality selection of chorus singers in this recording and listening to the samples at Amazon I can agree with every word of Mr. Bill tube (reviewer).

We can barely listen to 5 minutes of this recording without being boring with this poor quality chorus.

It´s a pity Fonè spend so much time and money to make a Hi-Fi recording like this.

Could be a reference in this not-so-much wider SACD world.

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