![King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Edition) (1973/2023) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/05/12/138741_front.md.jpg)
Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern – Britten’s Orchestra (2010)
SACD ISO: 3,33 GB (Stereo/MCH) | FLAC Stereo @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 984 MB | 3% Rec. Info
Label/Cat#: Reference Recordings # RR-120SACD | Country/Year: Europe 2003 | Artwork
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary
This “Prof. Johnson” Surround sound recording exceeded all my expectations! I never thought Prof. Johnson would buck the classical music recording industry standard of having the orchestra in front and only using the rear channels for ambient information. To my great and pleasant surprise, the orchestra surrounds the listener with the strings reaching around to the left side, the trumpets coming from the right rear and the snare drum from the left rear, etc. Also the center channel is well utilized, revealing the inner voices of the orchestra. One almost gets the sense of being in the middle of the orchestra facing the conductor but with the orchestra still correctly positioned with first violins being on the far left, string basses on the far right. For you bass lovers, the bass was deep, full, round and plump!! It was a fantastically thrilling experience, and so incredibly life like and with such a warm acoustic with great reverberation of the hall so well captured. The recording was made in the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence Missouri. Michael Stern and the Kansas City Orchestra have given us polished performances I found to be very well done with passion and verve. I feel with this recording, Michael Stern and the Kansas City Orchestra are now major player’s in the classical music world. Superb!! Highly recommended. FYI – This is a 5.1 channel Surround recording (Bass is incredible even without the LFE channel. I listened both with and without the LFE channel on.) sa-cd.net
Read more![Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra - Britten's Orchestra (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/13/Fffvb0Q.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra – Britten’s Orchestra (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:32 minutes | 912 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Reference Recordings
One of the chief characteristics of Benjamin Britten’s music is his masterful and highly distinctive orchestration, and the works on this album are among his most prized for that hallmark of his originality: the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, the Sinfonia da requiem, and the Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from the opera Peter Grimes. In tribute to Britten’s brilliant handling of the orchestra, Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony have recorded these works in 24-bit, high-definition sound, which provides remarkable details and ideal stereo separation of the instruments, but also puts the music in a rather dry and compressed-sounding ambience. A result of this kind of hyper-refined digital technology is that every note is heard quite clearly, but the space surrounding it feels airless, unless it is played at a fairly high volume; even then, only the bass drum and a few other percussion instruments show any signs of natural reverberation. Furthermore, there is a sustained though extremely soft background noise that is reminiscent of analog tape hiss, though it is not prominent or distracting. While the playing here is admirable for its pristine execution and energy, and Stern deserves kudos for drawing intensely musical performances out of what otherwise might have been a sterile showcase, the absence of lively acoustics makes this album a little hard to get used to, and perhaps only technophiles will rejoice in the sanitized reproduction.
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Conductor: Michael Stern
Orchestra/Ensemble: Kansas City Symphony Orchestra
(more…)