Le
Comte Ory
(2015/Rossini/Blu-ray + DVD)/Jansons/Yo-Yo
Ma: R. Strauss, Dvorak
(2016/Belvedere Blu-ray)/Aspects
Of America
(2018/Pentatone)/Bach:
Secular Cantatas, Vol. 10/Masaaki Suzuki
(2018/BIS)/Hieronymus
Praetorius: Missa In Festo.../Cordes/Janig
(2018/CPO)/Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra/Honeck: Beethoven, R. Strauss
(2018/Reference Records)/Stenhammar/Jarvi:
Gothenburg Symphony (2018/BIS)/Ujamaa
(2018/2L Records Blu-ray; last 6 Super Audio CD/SA-CD/SACD Hybrid
releases/all Naxos releases)
Picture:
B- + C/B- Sound: B/B- All SACDs: B+ B B- 2L Blu-ray*: B+ B B
Extras: C/C SACDs: C- Main Programs: B-/B-/B-/C+/B-/B-/B-/B-
Here's
a new group of classical releases in three formats, Blu-ray, DVD and
Super Audio CD, the latter of which we have not taken on in the
Classical Music genre for a bit. Two of the discs offer sonic
surprises and join one of the Blu-rays for the latest of our
continuing coverage of multi-channel music....
We
start with the first of those few videos, released separately in two
formats, Blu-ray and DVD. Hard to believe, but this is the first
time we have covered any version of Rossini's Le
Comte Ory
from 1828 (based on an 1817 work), but this 2015 Malmo Opera
performance with Leonardo Ferrando as seducer Count Ory is it. He is
trying to seduce a married woman whose husband is about to return
from The Crusades and not care about the destruction he could cause,
but this comedy decides to have some karmic fun with the happenings
(religious issues shadowing things, intended or not) and we finally
can see it is action.
Tobias
Ringborg conducts what is a long 142-minutes show and though it is a
little longer than I would have liked, it looks good, the singing is
fine and production had to be this long to do the work in the most
well rounded way. The energy is decent, as is the audience, and I
would recommend giving it a good look, but just be sure you have the
energy because it is still a long one.
Our
other video release is even more of an event bringing Mariss
Jansons
and Yo-Yo
Ma
together to take on major works by
Richard Strauss
(Don
Quixote)
and
Antonin Dvorak
(Carnival
(Overture, Op. 92),
Symphony
No. 8 (in F Major, Op. 88))
in this 2016 show from the Belvedere label (we've not really
encountered them before, but this works fine) on Blu-ray. Anything
with Yo-Yo Ma tends to be a cultural event and runs a healthy 111
minutes. In this case, I might have wanted this one to be a bit
longer and think the two stars meld together perfectly, their command
of the pieces as good as anyone performing them today and maybe more.
Another
good live audience and decent recording make this a must-see for
serious fans and a preferred choice for those seeking Classical Music
on Blu-ray. Is it me, or does Yo-Yo Ma just get better all the time?
Starting
on our audio-only hybrid, multi-channel Super Audio Compact Disc
releases, we start with Aspects
Of America
(2018), a collection of five 20th
Century composers (Sean Shepherd, Sebastian Currier, Christopher
Rouse, Kenji Bunch, Samuel Barber) conducted by Carlos Kalmar with
the Oregon Symphony that fills the disc well with music maybe we
should hear more of and have not, presented here both sonically and
artistically in the best way possible.
Nothing
stood out particularly strongly, including one piece over the other,
yet the grouping speaks of a moment in music (most composers are from
the latter half of the century) that meant a special kind of renewal
of instrumental music not connected to film, television, radio drama
or the like. Especially in today's overly visually mediated world,
the collection gives us a hidden look at music untouched by 'video
addition' and that alone makes it worth visiting. Add the fine
sonics and you can't go wrong.
Bach:
Secular Cantatas, Vol.
10
by Masaaki
Suzuki
(2018) is the first of our religious-esque entries and is not bad,
but the one entry here that did not do much for me despite the
excellent recording. Beautiful but repetitive, it is shorter
comparatively at 66 minutes, but each of the two tales here have
something to show and say (the latter Ich
Bin in Mir Vergbugt
being political versus the 'festive' nature of the first, Angenehmes
Wiederau, Freue Dich in Deinen Auen)
challenging works to
listen to, even study and understand. I found no false notes or
issues with the performances and interpretations, but experts on
these would know better than I would.
Since
it is sonically as good as about any recording of the works, you
cannot go wrong very much if you want to know about the the music and
can be confident to start here.
Hieronymus
Praetorius' Missa In Festo Sanctissimae Trinitatis
is not just religious-esque, but explicitly a Latin Mass from circa
1600! Conducted by Manfred Cordes with Organ Solo (or is that Solo
Organ?)
by Volker Janig from a 2018
performance. This I usually not my kind of material, yet I found the
70 minutes worked a bit better than the Bach pieces that alluded to
spirituality, et al. Still, even I could only take so much of what
is here, yet it has more of a pace and smoothness than most such
works like this I have actually ever heard. Now you can decide for
yourself.
Covered
during the days of the horrific Tree of Life murders in the Squirrel
Hill section of the famed Steel City, the new Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra recordings
of
Beethoven and Richard Strauss
(2018) take on a new weight, showing the arts in the city alive at
their very best, representing the city and the side (never large
enough) that loves, embraces and supports the arts. Released by
another new label to us, Reference Records, music director Manfred
Honeck picks up where past conductors Andre
Previn and Loren Maazel left off. William Caballero does horns for
Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, but the somewhat dark irony
here is that the Beethoven piece is Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 'Eroica'
that has had some controversy in the past in how it turned up.
Well
performed here, 'Eroica' is the record on the turntable at the home
of the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's classic Psycho
(1960, reviewed elsewhere on this site) and as son as 1960, that
actually infuriated Classical Music fans and those of Beethoven, as
if the work was causing the psychosis and murder. I highly,
extremely doubt Hitchcock, book writer Robert Bloch or the rest of
the creative team intended that to be the case, but an essay inside
the case by Honeck himself about how it originally was about a
romanic hero, maybe Napoleon and maybe not, then how a funeral march
was composed by the legendary genius around the same time. [We are
NOT saying the real life killer heard any of this, but that it is a
now-sad coincidence that might shock some who look at the album's
content since the shocking killings.]
The
PSO is a point of pride in Pittsburgh for decades (always has been)
and will continue to be. Every Pittsburger I told about this to was
surprised and almost shocked they were getting any kind of
album issued since it is obvious how good they are and more need to
know. Now, this might even become a curio release, but it is a solid
one and definitely recommended.
Next
we have music by Wilhelm
Stenhammar
(1971 - 1927), another under-heard composer of the 20th
Century composer who gets four works here presented by conductor
Neeme
Jarvi with The Gothenburg Symphony from
from 2018. Running 67 minutes, this starts with a Romeo and Juliet
suite, then moves onto works with more genera titles that round out a
look at career more people again ought to encounter, hear and be
aware of. This was not bad at all, once again accompanied by
superior audiophile recording quality.
The
enclosed booklet has more details, but if your going on a spree to
hear composers you may have missed and need to catch up on, add this
to your list.
Finally
we have Henning Sommerro's Ujamaa
(2018) plus The
Iceberg,
conducted well by Ingar
Heine Bergby as the latest entry in the ever-ambitious 2L
Records release slate to have the best state-of-the-art new music and
recording at the highest definition possible to be a catalog of
quality music that you can enjoy as much as you can demo. This time,
they have issued a Blu-ray with Super Audio CD/SA-CD/SACD Hybrid
disc so you can hear the music with more options than I can remember
any other release in home video history offering, but that's 2L for
you.
You
can read more about the playback quality below, but this is as
state-of-the-art as anything 2L has ever issued (recorded in their
DXD 24bit/352.8 kHz PCM format, which sometimes has been great, and
other times been harsher than expected), this is smooth &
interesting throughout and a pleasant sonic experience all around no
matter what formats you can play it back in. Cheers tot the label
for not quitting or trying to find music we might not hear otherwise.
Now
for playback quality. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on the Blu-rays have the best of the three picture
performers here, as most of this material is audio only, both
displaying slight motion blur and detail issues, but colorful and
fine for what they are. The Ory
DVD is anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1, but softer than expected,
though both versions of Ory offer really good PCM 2.0 Stereo tracks,
but no surround offerings. Jansons
has the same tracks, plus a better DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.0 lossless mix that is not bad, but is slightly
lacking beyond no subwoofer channel. Otherwise, it is fine.
All
six Super Audio CDs offer two variations of the great ultra-high
definition audio-only DSD (Direct Stream Digital) in excellent 2.0
Stereo presentations and 5.1 DSD mixes that are all outstanding and
the sonically best presentations on the list. I expected some of
these to play very well, but all six are pretty impressive, showing
us once again never to underestimate the fidelity, detail, depth,
warmth and articulation of classical music at this high level. The
Pittsburgh
disc might have a slight compression feature, but that's more style
than an audio flaw from my impression and shares CD-player compatible
PCM 2.0 16bit Stereo tracks with the rest of the SACDs here.
However, in a first in my experience, it is encoded in the
underrated, lost-in--the-shuffle 20-bit HDCD format. You need a
decoder for it and a few thousand regular CDs were issued in it,
putting 20 bits of sound where only 16 bits would fit. We may have
2.0 PCM Stereo in 24 and even 32 bits now (DSD is one single giant
megabit oversampled 2.9 Millions times by comparison!), but it was a
revelation in the CD-only days and is a nice touch on that SACD.
*The
2L label has also added an audio-only Blu-ray (what they are known
for) with their SACD and we get four audio mixes. First is an
impressive Dolby Atmos 11.1 lossless (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown) mix
we are now slowly seeing on music Blu-rays, plus a solid DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless and even impressive PCM 2.0 Stereo track
worthy of the best on this list. However, the other sonic surprise
is the first time on the site we have encountered the home version of
the first digital 12-track audio format: Auro 11.1 lossless!
Introduced
by George Lucas on his Red
Tails
production years ago during the end of his years running LucasFilm,
it was his last major audio innovation before selling the company,
but he proved it could work and now it is the new state-of-the-art
sound in movie theaters and home video. Not that all 12-track mixes
are great, but they are a new permanent part of the sonic landscape
and that can be a good thing. The problem is that hardly any Auro
software exists for the home and in the U.S., it has not even really
been launched, though it is rolling out overseas. Of the top of my
head, the only Auro 11.1 disk out there I know of (though there are
likely more by now) is the 4K (non-HDR) foreign edition of the
original Texas
Chain Saw Massacre,
a low-budget monophonic film. The result is that the Auro here
played back in DTS by default. We'll revisit this title when we
can get to a Auro home theater and as more information comes in, but
nice demo disc too!
Extras
in all releases are the only extra, a booklet on each respective
release with informative text and tech info on each release. I was
surprised the videos has no more extras, but that is the case this
time around. Hopefully, we get more next time.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
