greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (08/16/85)
This is a list of CD's that I've found particularly good for comparing players. Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (selections) Philadelphia Orchestra/Muti, cond. EMI/ANGEL The sound on this recording is fairly bright and close-up regardless of the player used. On some players (the Sony, Mission, Yamaha that I've heard) the brightness turns to harshness and becomes very fatiguing to listen to after a couple of selections. On a good player, the massive, dissonant chords at the beginning of the "Montagues and the Capulets" retain the clarity of the individual lines, whereas they become smudged on inferior ones. WARNING: the "cable differences are B.S." school will laugh at this, but I've found that the quality of interconnect cable used can also be crucial in allowing the brightness and detail of this recording to emerge without harshness or stridency. Sibelius: Symphony No. 4/Luonnatar/Finlandia Philharmonia Orchestra/ Ashkenazy, cond. (Soederstrom, soprano in the "Luonnatar") London This recording has several "telling" points. One is the range of massed string tone deployed in the symphony which shows the players ability to reproduce high frequency detail without hardness or edginess. Another is the unusually good sense of the acoustic of London's Kingsway Hall which provides, if the player is up to it, a beautifully spacious acoustic without the muddiness of excessive reverberation. It's a type of acoustic that no amount of after-the-fact knob-twiddling can simulate. Yet another feature is the very wide ranging, difficult, soprano solo. On a good player you can hear the way Soederstrom's voice blooms out as she soars in the upper register in the same way you can hear this characteristic of her voice in the opera house. On a poorer machine, her upper notes sound constricted and will be lost in the orchestral sound. Debussy: La Mer/Nocturnes London Symphony/Previn, cond. EMI/Angel On players that fail to resolve ambient information, this recording will sound closed and claustrophic, giving the impression that the instruments are laid out in a very flat, shallow area. Good players reveal considerably greater depth, particularly revealing the fact that horns and the trumpet are set considerably further back from the strings and winds, with the harp set very close. The third movement of "La Mer" indicates strengths or failings in reproduction of low bass in the drum thwacks that punctuate climactic phrases. Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man/Rodeo/Appalachian Spring Atlanta Symphony/Lane,cond. Telarc Also tests deep bass reproduction. The various brass sections are differentiated spatially front to back (some sounding closer to the listener than others) as well as right to left in the "Fanfare". Other recordings that offer extremely natural ambient information and thereby test a player's ability to reproduce this are the series of recordings made by English Decca (London Records in the U.S.) in Montreal with the Montreal Symphony conducted by Charles Dutoit. These include Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe", Falla's "Three-Cornered Hat", and Respighi's "Fountains of Rome" and "Pines of Rome". Very realistic reproduction of operatic voices is heard on the Colin Davis "Magic Flute" (Philips), two discs of Canteloube's "Chants D'Auvergne" with Kiri Te Kanawa (London) (personally, I find it rather junky music) on London, and Janacek's "Jenufa" also on London (though this one seems hard to find in this country). - Greg Paley
herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS) (08/17/85)
In article <460@olivee.UUCP> greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) writes: >This is a list of CD's that I've found particularly good for >comparing players. > >Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (selections) Philadelphia Orchestra/Muti, cond. > EMI/ANGEL > >Sibelius: Symphony No. 4/Luonnatar/Finlandia Philharmonia Orchestra/ > Ashkenazy, cond. (Soederstrom, soprano in the "Luonnatar") > London > >Debussy: La Mer/Nocturnes London Symphony/Previn, cond. > EMI/Angel > >Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man/Rodeo/Appalachian Spring > Atlanta Symphony/Lane,cond. Telarc another one that i recommend is "One Size Fits All" by the Nylons. they are a canadian a_cappella group that does a wide variety of classic rock and roll with percussion accompaniment. i have both the CD and the analog record. both are exceptional in quality, though analog recorded. the record is made by Attic records, but i forget which dutch label handles the CD pressing. Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu