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Site review by Geohominid October 28, 2008
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Strauss' Alpine Symphony spent many years out in the wilderness, having been branded at best as overblown and sentimental second-rate Strauss. Thanks to the advocacy of conductors of the quality of Kempe and Karajan, it slowly made it back, first into the recording world and now to concerts. Its episodic nature, with a climb of 22 sections to negotiate, requires a firm grip and determined forward momentum, with a discipline for not lingering too long over the lush orchestral climaxes. Jansons proved himself an excellent exponent of Strauss in his earlier RCO Live recording of Heldenleben. He brings out the references to Wagner's Ring in the Alpine Symphony, particularly in the darkly smouldering Nacht section with its echoes of the opening of Das Rheingold, and the transition to the Sunrise, with golden and resplendent horns from the indefatigable Concertgebouw brass section. The orchestral playing is simply glorious; a blend of disciplined precision of ensemble and expressive freedom of interpretation, particularly in the many beautifully played wind solos.
Jansons' reading certainly competes with Luisi's dramatic account with the Dresden orchestra, also on SACD. The couplings on these two discs are also fine - a surging, impetuous and headstrong romantic Don Juan, with the Concertgebouw relishing the tender sweetness and eroticism of the Don's conquests while Luisi offers a refulgent and moving Four Last Songs with Anja Harteros.
A direct comparison of the sonics of these two recordings is illuminating. The RCO Live disc was put together from no less than four live concerts by Polyhymnia with 88.2kHz PCM (we are not told if it is 16 or 24 bit), which is a marked improvement in fidelity over the 48kHz Heldenleben. The astonishingly holosonic image of the Concertgebouw platform and the capturing of the famous hall's acoustic are most convincing, giving the impression of being in a good seat in the front stalls area. Microphones are close enough to just pick up collective intakes of breath from the wind players, and even a surprising amount of vocalisation from Jansons, which I have not noticed on previous discs. He sings along with the horns in their great tune at around 15 mins into Don Juan, for example (fortunately at the correct pitch!) and there are other enouraging grunts from him. For me, this all just adds to the concert atmosphere, although for others it may be distracting. The Dresden orchestra is captured by Sony BMG at a rather greater distance, perhaps around mid-stalls perspective, in Dresden's Lukaskirche, another famous recording venue. It is immediately apparent that the RCO Live (plus audience) gives a much richer presence of the lower mid and bass frequencies; the harder acoustic of the Lukaskirche makes the Sony sound much leaner, yet still full of detail. Listeners with finely-honed ears might argue that the full DSD of the Sony BMG recording gives a better account of the upper partials of the violins, but digital numbers are not everything in the art of capturing sound. For my money, the sound on this RCO Live recording, especially in surround, is fully worthy of its 5 stars.
There is a brief burst of applause at the end of The Alpine Symphony, somewhat alarmingly signalled by a yell of 'Bravo' from a man several rows in front of the listener and to the right. While this is a novel experience for demonstrating the precision of one's surround imaging, it will be anathema for many. The applause can, of course, be programmed out on the player, but with so many tracks this would be a tedious process on some machines.
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Copyright © 2008 John Miller and SA-CD.net
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