RCA Living Stereo SACD Wave 3 Announced! (sort of...)

Justin_P · 06-10-2005, 06:28 PM

It looks like July 26th is the date for the next ten Living Stereo SACDs.

Anyway, I was floating around at elusivedisc.com today and stumbled onto this:

http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo....mber=RCASASET3

I love this series so much. As someone who was waiting for the right opportunity to build a classical collection, these are a great way to go: great music, great performances, great price.

I wish they could crank these out faster, but then I'd never have money!

Justin

PaulDA · 06-10-2005, 07:40 PM

Excellent news. I too have been buying them up as fast as my wallet can handle (and sometimes faster).

Marc Colella · 06-11-2005, 11:14 AM

I'm only interested in the Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6.

Apparently (according to someone on the AA), this is the first appearence for this recording on CD as well.

Amazingly I don't have any of Beethoven's symphonies on SACD - and #6 is one of my favorites, so this is a no-brainer.

I'm sure the sound quality will be very good.

Lee Scoggins · 06-11-2005, 04:26 PM

Marc,

The Bruno Walter of #6 on Sony is very good.

Marc Colella · 06-11-2005, 05:07 PM

Quote:

The Bruno Walter of #6 on Sony is very good.

I've heard this disc has a considerable amount of hiss - more than the other Bruno Walter SACDs... so I held off on it.

The Bruno Walter Beethoven 6th is also $25 CAD which is pricey for a single-layer, stereo-only disc.

If the performance on the RCA disc is anywhere near as good as Walter's - and the fact that it'll be $11.99 CAD for this hybrid/MC disc (and Beethoven's 5th thrown in for free

), it's too hard to pass up.

**HTF Ads**

Dennis Nicholls · 06-12-2005, 08:27 PM

Set Includes:
Rachmaninoff & Prokofiev / Piano Concertos
Arthur Fiedler / Hi-Fi
Heifetz / Brahms & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos
Frank & Stravinsky / Symphony & Petrouchka
Beethoven / Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Strauss / Scenes From Elektra & Salome
Mahler / Symphony No. 4
Chopin / Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Stokowski Rhapsodies
Anna Moffo / Arias from Faust, La Boheme, et al.

* * * * * * * * * *

Does anyone have a good link to details of the performances? The Beethoven 5/7 SACD on DG by Carlos Kleiber is tough to beat.

I also have on SACD the Szell Eroica, the Walter Pastorale, and the complete set of the early, early von Karajan recordings. So I have less enthusiam for more B sym. right now.

Who is performing the Chopin and Rachmaninoff concerti? Byron Janis is on Mercury. Are these the Rubenstein recordings??????

Tom Brennan · 06-17-2005, 09:00 AM

Dennis Nicholls · 06-19-2005, 12:06 AM

From my point of view, these are the three most interesting recordings.

DISC ONE

1. Symphony no 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Conductor Charles Munch
Ensemble Boston Symphony Orchestra
Recording Studio

2. Symphony no 6 in F major, Op. 68 "Pastoral"
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Conductor Charles Munch
Ensemble Boston Symphony Orchestra
Recording Studio

DISC TWO

1. Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 77
Composer Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Conductor Fritz Reiner
Performer Jascha Heifetz (Violin)
Ensemble Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Recording Studio Venue Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Recording Date 2/1955
Notes Jascha Heifetz performs his own cadenza

2. Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35
Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
Conductor Fritz Reiner
Performer Jascha Heifetz (Violin)
Ensemble Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Recording Studio Venue Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Recording Date 4/19/1957

DISC THREE

1. Concerto for Piano no 1 in E minor, B 53/Op. 11 Composer Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)
Conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Performer Artur Rubinstein (Piano)
Ensemble New Symphony Orchestra
Recording Studio

2. Concerto for Piano no 2 in F minor, B 43/Op. 21 Composer Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)
Conductor Alfred Wallenstein
Performer Artur Rubinstein (Piano)
Ensemble Symphony of the Air
Recording Studio

It's too bad that I already have so many recordings - including two SACD recordings each - of the Beethoven 5th and 6th. Chuck Munch/BSO is at the top of the list. Although almost forgotten these days, he really performed miracles with the Boston Symphony, and was certainly head and shoulders about his successor, Leinsdorf. Munch's Beethoven's 9th is my personal favorite among all existing recordings (available in a two disc set "Charles Munch - Great Conductors of the 20th Century" on EMI for only about $10, highly recommended see http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=210058 ). Marc, I don't think you would be disappointed by this recording, although I haven't heard the Munch 5th and 6th since college days circa 1973.

Heifetz isn't my personal favorite among fiddlers (that's Szeryng) but coupled here with Fritz Reiner/CSO is probably unbeatable. The Reiner/CSO recordings especially had good sound.

I already have the Artur Rubenstein recordings of the Chopin concerti. This redbook CD is part of a complete Chopin cycle by Rubenstein. The sound on the redbooks is marginal for its era. I'm pretty sure I won't "double dip" on this set, as IMHO Chopin's concerti aren't his strong suite.

Seth--L · 06-19-2005, 03:24 PM

Marc, I don't think you would be disappointed by this recording, although I haven't heard the Munch 5th and 6th since college days circa 1973.

I assume repeats were cut in the 5th so that it could fit onto a single side of a LP?

I guess if you don't own many of these works on LP, CD, or SACD, this wave is exciting, but I'm personally getting tired of seeing the same old recordings of core repertoire repackaged for the 10th time, even if the sound is improved. At least the price is right unlike the full priced MLP discs.

Justin_P · 07-25-2005, 09:37 PM

Fortunately in this case, I totally fall into the category of people who don't own any of these works in any way, shape, or form. While I can totally see why it's a bummer to see the same stuff released again and again, especially when there are so many other Living Stereo releases that apparently never even made it to CD, I'm just excited that they are releasing them at all - especially at this price point.

I hope that they take wave four or five as an opportunity to delve a little deeper into their extended catalog, but even if they don't, I get the impression from their [admittedly limited] press materials that they are in this for the long haul. I think that as time passes we'll start to see them branch out and release some more unusual stuff released - unusual at least for Living Stereo re-issues.

How do the original CD releases generally sound, by the way? I always see the Alan Hovhanness: Mysterious Mountains disc chilling out at all the CD stores, but I doubt that it's high on RCA's list of must release SACDs.

Wave three streets tomorrow. What discs do you folks plan to pick up, or what have you picked up already?

Justin

PaulDA · 07-25-2005, 09:46 PM

I'm in the same boat. I've never purchased a Living Stereo release until the initial batch of SACDs. I plan to get all of them. For those who are beginning to build a classical library, I can think of no better way to get started. Of course, I've already branched out, but for relative "newbies" to classical, like myself, this is the way to go.