add to wish list | library


9 of 9 recommend this,
would you recommend it?

yes | no

Support this site by purchasing from these vendors using the paid links below. As an Amazon Associate SA-CD.net earns from qualifying purchases.
 
amazon.ca
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
amazon.de
 
amazon.fr
amazon.it
 
jpc

Discussion: Massenet: Scenes pittoresques, Le Cid (ballet) - Jarvi

Posts: 16
Page: 1 2 next

Post by Geohominid May 7, 2014 (1 of 16)
I've just spent a very happy 80 mins or so listening to this dazzling disc of Massenet. Like Polynomial I had the Fremaux disc of some of this music, and it is a thrill to hear it again in HD, along with some rarely heard pieces.

The disc runs to 81:30" so there was no room left for the Meditation from 'Thais' with Truls Mørk on cello, so in two places of the booklet it refers to this being available as a free download. Going to the Chandos site, you are referred to the Classical Shop to get the download. After looking carefully, I could see no way of getting the track for free on their web-page, so I bought it in Studio flac surround (which at least gives you all the other formats free).

It was worth the £3, a lovely, reverent solo from Truls without undue sentimentality.

John

Post by Euell Neverno May 7, 2014 (2 of 16)
Geohominid said:


It was worth the £3, a lovely, reverent solo from Truls without undue sentimentality.

John

Meditation from Thais "without undue sentimentality?" Not sure how that could be done. :-)

Post by Chris from Lafayette May 7, 2014 (3 of 16)
Geohominid said:

I've just spent a very happy 80 mins or so listening to this dazzling disc of Massenet. Like Polynomial I had the Fremaux disc of some of this music, and it is a thrill to hear it again in HD, along with some rarely heard pieces.

The disc runs to 81:30" so there was no room left for the Meditation from 'Thais' with Truls Mørk on cello, so in two places of the booklet it refers to this being available as a free download. Going to the Chandos site, you are referred to the Classical Shop to get the download. After looking carefully, I could see no way of getting the track for free on their web-page, so I bought it in Studio flac surround (which at least gives you all the other formats free).

It was worth the £3, a lovely, reverent solo from Truls without undue sentimentality.

John

Yeah - this is a great album. I went the route of the 24/96 surround download and I agree with your comments (and John's in his review) - a beautiful disc all around. Personally, I would have liked the microphones to be just a bit closer (personal taste - perhaps based on the Paray/Detroit recording of the "Phèdre" Overture having been my imprint version of that work!), but the overall SQ of this new recording is still excellent (as are so many Chandos recordings these days!). I love that little suite from Le Cid too - one section of it was a radio "theme song" on the classical station I listened to while growing up.

As for the Meditation, as well as Truls plays it, this work just has to be played and heard on the violin! Otherwise, we'll miss Massenet's unique combination of spirituality and sensuousness that really does call for due sentimentality - not undue sentimentality as you so rightly observe! ;-)

This kind of album can be a wonderful respite from too steady a diet of Bruckner and Mahler, and I don't think Massenet gets the credit he deserves sometimes for his well crafted, fascinating and attractive music. To write music like this so successfully is perhaps a lot harder to do than it sounds.

Post by Chris May 8, 2014 (4 of 16)
Chris from Lafayette said:

Yeah - this is a great album. I went the route of the 24/96 surround download and I agree with your comments (and John's in his review) - a beautiful disc all around. Personally, I would have liked the microphones to be just a bit closer (personal taste - perhaps based on the Paray/Detroit recording of the "Phèdre" Overture having been my imprint version of that work!), but the overall SQ of this new recording is still excellent (as are so many Chandos recordings these days!).

Judging by the two reviews here by reviewers I rarely disagree with and your praise too,it seems I will have to put this one too on my shopping list. I already have two other albums by the same orchestra/conductor and label,the two Raff titles and I like both.Although Raff´s music may not always be absolutely top tier, the SQ from Chandos ,almost always is imho.
I don't want to cross swords with another Chris, but unlike you obviously,I for one really appreciate that contrary to some other labels Chandos do NOT stick 30+ spot mics,up the nose of the players,but strive to capture a very realistic highly resolved soundstage of an orchestra playing in a good hall.
Judging from pictures from recording sessions and some info in recent booklets their main pick up is from a "Thureson" stereo pair,with subtle use of a few spot mics.
And with their new Ravenna system the stereo balance is according to Chandos, actually done at the sessions live,and not at the mixing desk later.
The results of this approach,speak for themselves clearly on basically every Chandos title I have bought during the last couple of years.
SOTA 24/96 pcm IMO.
They seem to work very differently from the "German Tonmeister" interventionist "throw all the mics we have at the orchestra"and then mix later,to be on the safe side,approach employed by some others labels.

The recent recording of Sibelius' violin concerto from Bergen is also a lesson in how to record a violin concerto naturally and truly realistically imo.To mention just one other recent title also really worth hearing from Chandos both for its high musical quality and its superb SQ. Although I am not very familiar with Massenet's music I look forward to hearing this album soon.
And complete,ie.including the Meditation from Thais which did not fit on the SACD.
But this week I am busy discovering some other very interesting music by Henze and Olivier Messiaen on RCO Live.Massenet will have to wait until I am back home again after a winter in the wonderful tropics of Asia.

Post by Chris from Lafayette May 9, 2014 (5 of 16)
Chris said:

. . . I don't want to cross swords with another Chris, but unlike you obviously,I for one really appreciate that contrary to some other labels Chandos do NOT stick 30+ spot mics,up the nose of the players,but strive to capture a very realistic highly resolved soundstage of an orchestra playing in a good hall.
Judging from pictures from recording sessions and some info in recent booklets their main pick up is from a "Thureson" stereo pair,with subtle use of a few spot mics. . .
The results of this approach,speak for themselves clearly on basically every Chandos title I have bought during the last couple of years. . .
They seem to work very differently from the "German Tonmeister" interventionist "throw all the mics we have at the orchestra"and then mix later,to be on the safe side,approach employed by some others labels.
The recent recording of Sibelius' violin concerto from Bergen is also a lesson in how to record a violin concerto naturally and truly realistically imo.To mention just one other recent title also really worth hearing from Chandos both for its high musical quality and its superb SQ. . .

Hey, man! I'm innocent! I love the Chandos recordings of the last few years. Otherwise, why would I have posted the following:

"the overall SQ of this new recording is still excellent (as are so many Chandos recordings these days!)"?

Nevertheless, it still seems to me that Chandos engineers often may have their microphones just a bit closer in Scotland and Norway - to the advantage of recordings originating from those sites (compared to Geneva). That's all I was trying to suggest.

I also agree with you about the SQ of Jenny's recently released Sibelius Concerto, despite a bit of sogginess from AD. Overall, I love this recording!

Believe me, all other things being equal, I fully agree that, in general, the fewer microphones, the better. Having said that however, I'll note that the Tonmeisters are getting better these days than they used to be when they "throw all the mics [they] have at the orchestra". You can see lots o' microphones in Chailly's blu-ray recordings with the LGO of the Mahler symphonies - and yet the SQ is still pretty darned magnificent - at least IMHO.

Post by Chris May 9, 2014 (6 of 16)
Chris from Lafayette said:

Hey, man! I'm innocent! I love the Chandos recordings of the last few years. Otherwise, why would I have posted the following:

"the overall SQ of this new recording is still excellent (as are so many Chandos recordings these days!)"?

Nevertheless, it still seems to me that Chandos engineers often may have their microphones just a bit closer in Scotland and Norway - to the advantage of recordings originating from those sites (compared to Geneva). That's all I was trying to suggest.

I also agree with you about the SQ of Jenny's recently released Sibelius Concerto, despite a bit of sogginess from AD. Overall, I love this recording!

Believe me, all other things being equal, I fully agree that, in general, the fewer microphones, the better. Having said that however, I'll note that the Tonmeisters are getting better these days than they used to be when they "throw all the mics [they] have at the orchestra". You can see lots o' microphones in Chailly's blu-ray recordings with the LGO of the Mahler symphonies - and yet the SQ is still pretty darned magnificent - at least IMHO.

From one Chris to another Chris,"Not worry chicken curry". My comment about crossing swords was only intended as a pun nothing more.
It seems many here take comments far too personally.
I did read your comment "as are so many Chandos recordings these days!"
And I wholeheartedly agree with you.
The only slight exception to the 24/96 SOTA rule regarding Chandos imho are some of the BBC 3 co-productions which are not always quite as naturally balanced as the others.And the difference in sound from Bergen compared to Geneva is probably more a result of different acoustics,than different miking I guess. But I could be wrong there.
Once again all in my personal opionion,and mainly as heard in stereo only via my own systems ie HD 800 headphones and Martin Logan Electrostatic speakers.
How are you listening to your mch downloads by the way?
I will give mch a home trial this summer maybe.
I already know that when done right it can be better than plain stereo.
It is mainly a question of cost and suitable space for a proper setup. And also the fact that I spend often more than six months abroad every year,that has made me hold back on mch for so long.
And from this year I may spend even more time away from grey and dull and far too often much too cold and rainy Sweden.
I am going home early next week and the temperature where I live is basically the same it was when I left Sweden in early Januari, ie.7-10 degrees centigrade. Cheers "Chris from the Tropics".

Post by Chris from Lafayette May 10, 2014 (7 of 16)
Chris said:


How are you listening to your mch downloads by the way?
I will give mch a home trial this summer maybe.
I already know that when done right it can be better than plain stereo.

I don't know how much indulgence we'll get for going off course and using the "d" word, but I listen to my hi-rez d[ownloads] directly off of my Mac Mini, using VLC media player. (iTunes doesn't seem to do multi-channel - or at least I haven't found a way to make it do multi-channel.) The feed goes from my computer via HDMI to my Marantz pre-pro. The problem is finding enough sites which have multi-channel downloads available - right now, I'm confined to The Classical Shop, hd-klassik (where I was burned) and iTrax. Robert and George keep promising that multi-channel d[ownloads] will become available on eClassical, but I haven't seen it yet there, even though I've been a thorn in their sides about this for a couple of years now. ;-)

Post by Chris May 10, 2014 (8 of 16)
Chris from Lafayette said:

I don't know how much indulgence we'll get for going off course and using the "d" word, but I listen to my hi-rez d[ownloads] directly off of my Mac Mini, using VLC media player. (iTunes doesn't seem to do multi-channel - or at least I haven't found a way to make it do multi-channel.) The feed goes from my computer via HDMI to my Marantz pre-pro. The problem is finding enough sites which have multi-channel downloads available - right now, I'm confined to The Classical Shop, hd-klassik (where I was burned) and iTrax. Robert and George keep promising that multi-channel d[ownloads] will become available on eClassical, but I haven't seen it yet there, even though I've been a thorn in their sides about this for a couple of years now. ;-)

Hello again Chris,if I understand you correctly you employ no other DAC than the one in the Mac?

Post by Chris May 10, 2014 (9 of 16)
Chris from Lafayette said:


Believe me, all other things being equal, I fully agree that, in general, the fewer microphones, the better. Having said that however, I'll note that the Tonmeisters are getting better these days than they used to be when they "throw all the mics [they] have at the orchestra". You can see lots o' microphones in Chailly's blu-ray recordings with the LGO of the Mahler symphonies - and yet the SQ is still pretty darned magnificent - at least IMHO.

Hello Chris, I forgot to respond to your comment on many visible mics.
Just because there are lots of mics on stage doesn't always mean that every single one of them made it into the final mix. Some labels keep them there for "emergency use" only.

Post by Chris from Lafayette May 10, 2014 (10 of 16)
Chris said:

Hello again Chris,if I understand you correctly you employ no other DAC than the one in the Mac?

You are correct, sir! No external DAC for me (at least so far). I'm very satisfied with the 79-cent DAC in the MacMini! ;-)

Page: 1 2 next

Closed