Saint-Saëns: Symphony 3;
Encores à la française
Michael Murray, organ; The Philadelphia
Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, conductor.
Telarc SACD-60634
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Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever, Marches, Fanfares; others
Cleveland Symphonic Winds; Frederick Fennell,
conductor.
Telarc SACD-60639
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Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Pachelbel: Kanon; others
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin, conductor.
Telarc SACD-60641
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| Overall Enjoyment |
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Of course, those were digitally recorded LPs -- many
folks in the industry maintained that we wouldn't hear what digital was really
capable of until we got an all-digital playback format. When the compact disc came along,
these three Telarc titles were among the first releases -- and, to many listeners, they
were still not all that impressive.
Funny thing, though. Each time CD players improved, so did
the sound of the early Telarc CDs -- in fact, the disc of works by Barber, Vaughan
Williams, and Pachelbel became one of my early reference discs, chiefly because any player
that could resolve the dynamic shadings of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
was a very good player indeed.
Many of the early Telarc recordings, including these three,
were made using an early digital system called Soundstream, which used a sampling rate of
50kHz, which was quite different from the 44.1kHz sampling rate that was adopted for
"Red Book" CD. Telarc went for Soundstream before that standard was written, in
no small part because the higher rate afforded an extended frequency response (up to
25kHz) and phenomenal detail. When the 44.1kHz rate was chosen for CD, the Soundstream
signal had to be downconverted from 50kHz, which is not a simple mathematical calculation
-- and there was a resultant loss of quality.
At least, that's what Telarc always claimed. These days,
Telarc is one of the most active labels on the SACD scene, and they’ve decided to
take advantage of SACD's extended bandwidth to reissue their early Soundstream recordings
in their original bandwidth, without the "sonic artifacts produced by the awkward
sample-rate conversion." I'm glad they did -- these discs are a revelation.
Of the three, the audiophile favorite has always been the
Fennell winds disc -- particularly for the huge bass-drum sound of the Holst suites. That is
impressive, but the charm of the performances is the real selling point. They're fun --
and in the SACD version, they sound livelier and more colorful than ever. There's more
presence and hall sound than I ever heard on the CD, and I hear more of the inner voicings
in the ensemble.
My favorite, however, is the string disc. Yes, these days
the Pachelbel Kanon has a bad rap, but Telarc recorded the disc before it became
synonymous with fern bars and weddings. Anyway, this disc’s standout performance is
the Vaughan Williams Fantasia. Here, everything is perfect, from the way the sound
swells out of the silence to the contrast between the small string section playing without
vibrato to the larger ensemble playing with.
Many audiophiles confuse the concept of dynamics
with sheer volume. This recording is a beautiful example of how dynamics is about all the
shadings between complete blackness and blinding brilliance. It's a lesson in
subtlety, here conducted with a master's assured touch. It has become one of my most
relied-on reference discs. Again.
I have slightly more of a problem embracing the
Saint-Saëns disc. His Symphony 3 is tricky to record because one needs to balance the
orchestra with the organ -- no easy task. Here, the venue is a shade too reverberant for
the orchestra, leading (I think) to a somewhat cautious performance on the part of the
Philadelphia Orchestra. Or perhaps, Eugene Ormandy was less than engaged in this, his
umpteenth performance of the work.
Either way, the organ sound is superb and majestic, even if
I find the orchestral sound a tad removed. The rest of the disc is devoted to a recital by
organist Michael Murray at Boston's Symphony Hall in a delightful survey of French
encores.
All three discs offer 75-minute programs, expanding
considerably on the original CD versions. And yes, with the SACD release of these titles,
more is definitely better.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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