Carmen in 3D (Opus Arte Blu-ray 3D)/Persuasive
Percussion: Enoch Light (1958/Intermusic SA-CD/Super Audio Compact Disc
Hybrid/Top Music International/Audioplan)/Barenboim/Boulez:
Liszt Piano Concertos/Wagner (Accentus)/Carlos Kleiber: Traces To Nowhere (ArtHaus)/Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra (aka The
Thieving Magpie/Dynamic)/Fellini,
Jazz & Co.: Berliner Phil./Richard Chailly (EuroArts)/Tribute To Jerome Robbins (Paris Opera
House/BelAir/Naxos Blu-rays)
3D
Picture: B 2D Picture: B- (N/A on Carmen) Blu-ray Sound: B (Barenboim: B+/Kleiber:
B-) DSD SACD Sound: B- PCM SACD Sound: C+ Extras: C+ (Ladra: C) Main Programs:
B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Persuasive Percussion Super Audio
Compact Disc is only available from our friends at Top Music International, has
a Compact Disc layer that will play on virtually all CD players and can be
ordered at the link below.
Here’s a
new round of instrumental and Classical titles for us to look at and they are
more diverse than usual.
For
starters, we have Carmen in 3D from Opus
Arte in the Blu-ray 3D format and though it is not our first Classical Blu-ray
3D title (a great Lang Lang Blu-ray
3D was already issued by Sony Classical, reviewed elsewhere on this site), this
is a fine Royal Opera House performance that is up to the level of the previous
two Carmen releases we have covered. You
can read more about those starting at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11281/Alice%E2%80%99s+Adventures+In
I will
not go into the storyline again, but Stage Director Francesca Zambello and
Conductor Constantinos Carydis are obviously fans of the work, deliver it with
energy and a flow that gives it as much life as I have ever seen in a
production of it and the cast (including Christine Rice, Bryan Hymel, Aris
Argiris and Maija Kovalevska) have the kind of chemistry we have come to expect
from the best Opera Blu-rays. However,
the 3D is so interesting and done in a smart way that it overcomes any of the
limits we might get in a 2D HD presentation and any 3D fans should want to get
this disc because it is so different and effective. Credit also needs to go to camera-version
director Julian Napier for not overdoing the 3D. Note there is no 2D version of the show on
this disc, which is rare. Extras include
2D featurettes on the disc and an illustrated booklet
Next
comes a new version of Terry Snyder & The All-Stars with their 1958
experimental stereophonic breakthrough album Persuasive Percussion: Enoch Light (part of their Command records
label of the time) issued as an SA-CD/Super Audio Compact Disc Hybrid with
alternate PCM CD tracks by Intermusic/Top Music International as a promo to
promote the sound quality and performance quality of speakers, anti-vibration
equipment and audio chords by the Audioplan company of Germany. I have heard of the company before and have
encountered their speakers a while ago.
The booklet included made me want to hear them again.
The
instrumental performances here are good and the Volume Two album is also included as there was enough room. Unfortunately, the sonic limits show from the
age of the recording, so this is only so much of a demo, but it is one of those
recordings everyone should hear once (a bunch of CD versions have been issued) and
the disc was produced and mastered by Povee Chan using the following:
SADiE
Digital Precision Mastering
Monitor Amplifier:
Lavardin Model IT
Mastering
Monitor: Audioplan KONZERT II
Power
System: Isoclean Power Conditioning System
Mastered
with Black Rhodium cables
Made in Germany by ADIS
Tracks
include:
1)
I’m
In The Mood For Love
2)
Whatever
Lola Wants
3)
Misirlou
4)
I
Surrender, Dear
5)
Orchids
In The Moonlight
6)
I
Love Paris
7)
My
Heart Belongs To Daddy
8)
Tabu
9)
The
Breeze And I
10) Aloha Oe
11) Japanese Sandman
12) Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing
13) Blue Is The Night (Group 2)
14) Blue Tango (Group 3)
15) Miami
Beach Rhumba (Group 3)
16) Yours Is My Heart Alone (Group 2)
17) In A Persian Market (Group 2)
18) Mambo Jambo (Group 1)
Fans will
want to check it out for themselves and with the extra groom especially since
it was a big deal at the time that they were recording the stereo on 35mm
magnetic film stock for separation. Unlike
most CD versions, they added extras tracks in the way of that second volume
which should have been a no brainer for the competing versions. A paper pullout is the only extra.
Barenboim/Boulez: Liszt Piano
Concertos + Wagner
(Accentus) is the latest of the many Barenboim Blu-rays we have been lucky
enough to encounter and you can read about the pervious discs starting with
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11073/Felix+Mendelssohn+Bartholdy+(2011/
This June
2011 performance has more Liszt than Wagner, but is yet another smooth,
consistent, solid show that delivers the music and that is a good thing. An informative booklet with text and trailers
on the disc are the only extras.
Carlos Kleiber: Traces To Nowhere is a documentary about the famed
conductor, who also turns out to have been a genius and a very difficult man to
deal with at times. Some major names in
the business are interviewed (including Placido Domingo) and Director Eric
Schultz presents the man’s life as best he could with a good selection of
archival material and facts added. The
resultant biography brings back to life a major name you might not otherwise
hear about and more conductors whose works will not see home video releases, et
al, deserves such top rate coverage. An
informative booklet with text and trailers on the disc are the only extras.
Gioachino Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra is the first Rossini work we have
ever covered in almost 9 years of this site, despite Barber Of Seville being such a hugely popular work. Our first disc from the Dynamic label, some
of the music might be familiar to fans of Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, as the translation is The Thieving Magpie (putting that on the Blu-ray cover would have
upped sales). It is great to see a
full-fledged performance of the original opera, especially one this good from
the Rossini Opera House, directed by Damiano Michieletto and conducted by Lu
Jia with the Prague Chamber Choir. The
drama starts with a man coming back from a war with an actual magpie repeating
the name of a peasant friend of our protagonist over and over in an ominous
sign of things to come.
I will
not say much more, but serious Clockwork
Orange and Kubrick fans should see this once just to get something new out
of his classic film. If you have never
seen the opera, here is a great chance to enjoy it. An informative booklet with text is the only
extra.
Fellini, Jazz & Co. has Richard Chailly conducting
the Berliner Philharmonic, but as far as Fellini is concerned, this outdoor
show only offers Nino Rota’s Ballet Suite from Fellini’s 1954 classic La Strada (Criterion did a DVD, so
hopefully a Blu-ray is coming).
Otherwise we get Shostakovich’s Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra,
Respighi’s Fountains Of Rome, Pines Of Rome & Danza gueresca ‘Belikis’ and
Lincke’s Berliner Luft, which finishes the show to huge crowd response. A fine show, we get an informative booklet
with text and trailers on the disc as the only extras.
Finally
we have the Paris Opera Ballet with their Tribute
To Jerome Robbins with Koen Kessels conducting the Paris Opera
Orchestra. Though the selections danced
to are set to the music of Ravel (Ensol), a world premiere by Nico
Muhly (Triade), and two sections of Chopin (In The Night, The
Concert), the dancing is unmistakably the work of Robbins whose
choreography has been seen on stage and film screens for decades now.
Even if
you have not seen anything on stage, you have likely seen his work in films
like West Side Story (which he
co-directed), Fiddler On The Roof
(see Blu-rays reviewed elsewhere on this site), the Mary Martin Peter Pan, On The Town, Gypsy and The King & I (all due on Blu-ray)
becoming one of the most important choreographers of the 20th
Century and beyond. This is a great tribute
concert and I was thrilled to see it work so well. Brigitte Lefévre is Director of Dance, Gerard
Mortier is Director and an amazing cast of dancers who nail it over and over
again. Again, dance and Robbins fans
will love it. An informative booklet with
text built into the DigiPak case is the only extra.
The 1.78
X 1, 1080p full HD MVC-encoded 3-D – Full Resolution digital High Definition
image on Carmen 3D is the visual
champ here and delivers a consistent 3D image that could bring fans to classical
and opera by being so engaging and consistent.
Color is good and consistent for an HD shoot and after testing this on
several systems, the disc held up between them nicely. The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on the rest of the Blu-rays have good image quality throughout,
though a few have motion blur (including one with more break up than usual, but
that I rare enough to not hurt it overall) and fine overall. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes
on all the Blu-rays (save Kleiber,
which is only PCM 2.0 Stereo) are well recorded, but the Barenboim disc has the best mix and soundfield overall. The PCM 2.0 Stereo on Kleiber has a mix of old and new audio since it is a documentary
and that includes older monophonic sound, as expected. I liked the editing. The PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes on the other
Blu-rays are fine and there for cross-compatibility with older systems, but
none can compete with their DTS-MA counterparts.
The DSD
2.0 Stereo on Percussion is better
than the PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo on the disc, but both have a flat frontal
soundfield that is not great, but shows its age. We do not know the source material, but why
it is limited is odd. Still, I doubt the
other regular CD versions could be better, but who knows save big fans. To find out more about ordering the Persuasive Percussion SA-CD, start with
this link, then go to the HOW TO ORDER tab on the left-hand side column:
http://www.topmusic.com/tm-sacd9013.2.htm
The
direct order link is:
http://www.topmusic.com/to-order.htm
- Nicholas Sheffo
