Giancinto Scelsi 5/Aki Takahashi – The Piano Works 3

(Mode Records)

 

Picture: C     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Main Music Programs: B-

 

 

Mode Records has issued more classical music DVD-Video programs focusing on audio than any other label and though they never supported the DVD-Audio format, so they have not used the MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) format at 96/24 5.1 or even advanced Digital Audio Discs at 192/24.  After listening to the latest batch, 192/24 might not be a bad idea.  Giancinto Scelsi 5/Aki Takahashi – The Piano Works 3 could have benefited from that.

 

Offering six of the Italian composers piano pieces from 1954 (Suite N. 10 “KA”), 1953 (Quattro Illustrazioni and Cinque Incantesimi), 1939 (Sonate No. 3), 1974 (Aitsi) and 1978/88 (Un Adieu) showing that Scelsi was treating notes as “colors” and that would signify where he was going over the years with these pieces.  Between Miss Takahashi’s playing of the pieces and the booklet, the set gives you the chance to explore the pieces in full.  It is interesting, though I wish more exploration (without “spoon-feeding the art”) could have happened.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is soft and shot on analog video.  Why the footage in the recent Mode DVDs have been soft like this is odd, but is passable at best, though annoying.  The Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and PCM 2.0 96/24 mixes are good, but the surround versions lack full utilization and are not as clear as some other Mode releases have been.  There are no extras, though a booklet in several languages are included.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo