Everyone have their RCA LIVING STEREO SACDs yet? Better grab 'em! Leontyne Price...

Txs guys. Unfortunately I don't own a SACD player, and don't even do CDs anymore. I've gone iPod!

 

Other than Living Stereo, are there any recommendations on classical SACDs currently on sale at B&N? Is Gergiev Mahler cycle in 2 channels? Is it worth owning it? Or should I look for Zinman cycle somewhere else?

 

I have a few of the Zinman SACDs and they sound great. It all depends on whether you like the interpretation or not.

 

I would not recommend any of Gergiev's Mahler recordings. He is at his best with Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Berlioz and many others, but not with Mahler IMO.

 

I can listen to both Zinman's and Gergiev's Mahler through Apple Music streaming. Yes, I slightly prefer Zinman/Tonehalle's refined performance to Gergiev/LSO's rough-on-the-edges live recordings. Neither will likely replace my treasured cycles by Tennstedt and two Bernsteins or even some mono Walter. However, I like to experience this multichannel SACD audio spectacle, and a complete Gergiev can be had for $35, while a used Zinman set will cost ~$70 even if I go to Japanese Amazon. I did read somewhere that Gergiev's mutlichannel (5.0 or 5.1) may be a studio creation that sounds synthetic (I guess, as opposed to multi microphones that are properly set up?). Any insight or opinion on this? Speaking of Gergiev's Russian repertoire, how do his Mariinsky SACDs sound?

 

Multichannel Mahler? I wouldn't go with either of those. I would suggest the MTT, Abbado (BlueRay, missing #8), even Stenz.

 

Ipod?! Hey Mr. Retro. 2002 called, it wants its music player back! Haha jkjk.

 

I did like that comment! Believe it or not my original 60 gig iPod still works and sounds fantastic hooked up to my Stereo system, but I use my iPhone more, and it's been an awesome ride!
Funny, we're talking like it's old technology, although it's the newest of all the other formats. (LP, 8-Track, Cassette & CD)

 

I am price sensitive, so Abbado/Lucerne-BD with #1-7 for ~$40 is an excellent suggestion. I do read your articles, Kal, and appreciate your inputs. This will be my first serious foray into multichannel recordings. I have flirted on the idea for many years, but when my child was born, the priority changed for a while. Are there other strong recommendations? I see multiple intriguing Bruckner recordings on SACD. Then, there are interesting BD opera recordings for Wagner/Richard Strauss/Janacek etc. Anything considered a must-listen multichannel classical beyond Living Stereo? (or maybe somebody could direct me to the right thread)

 

The Gergiev cycle is in multichannel, and I think the 8th is pretty good. For $35 it's a pretty good introduction to Mahler's work, although it's not necessarily the first choice interpretation-wise.

 

There have been a number of excellent Beethoven cycles on SACD - in particular the Haitink/LSO and Vasnka/Minnesota are easily recommendable - and quite cheap.

 

Gergiev's M8 is the best of his series and one that was not recorded in the Barbican!

 

If the repertoire suits and you are collecting sets, consider the Kitajenko's Shostakovich symphonies on Capriccio and Tchaikovsky symphonies on Oehms.

Honeck's Dvorák 8/Janácek and Strauss' Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel on Reference Recordings.

Mackerras' two sets of the late Mozart symphonies on Linn.

Gaffigan's developing set of the Prokofiev symphonies on Challenge Classics.

 

I like to thank ubertrout and Kal. I listen to everything all the way to Unsuk Chin, so Kal's list is precious. As I type this, I am listening to Gergive's Mahler 8 from Apple Music streaming (I know I should switch to TIDAL, but the lack of certain children's songs in TIDAL killed the deal). Even with the compressed stereo source, the sense of space is impressive. I am equally into operas. Are there any BD/SACD recommendations on that front?

 

I ended up buying 28 of the $5.99 SACDs from Barnes & Noble. Four more were out of stock. I scored the Bartok title on Discogs for $12.88 in M- condition. Hopefully the other 12 won't be too difficult to find.

 

All SACD unless otherwise noted:

Per Norgard, Symphonies 1 & 6, Oramo/VPO (Dacapo)
Messiaen, Eclairs Sur L'Au-Dela, Rattle/BPO (Warner)
Scriabin, Symphony 1 & Poem of Ecstasy, RNO/Pletnev (PentaTone)
Schoeck, Elegie Op. 36, Mertens/Mutare Ensemble/Muller-Hornbach (NCA)
Wagner, Parsifal, Pape/Lehman/Urmana, MTO/Gergiev (Mariinsky)
Strauss, Elektra, Theoren/Meier, VPO/Gatti (Arthaus Musik) (BD)
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, Magee/Mosuc/Sacca/Volle, ZOHO/Dohnanyi (TDK) (BD)
Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, Graham/Elsner/ZTO/Zinman (RCA/Sony)
Danae Dorkin, Fantasy (music of CPE Bach, Schubert, Schumann) (Ars Produktion)
'A Bridge of Dreams', Hillier/Ars Nova Copenhagen (Dacapo)
Kleiberg, David and Bathsheba, Trondheim SO/Kaljuste (2L) (SACD and BD)
Ravel, works for orchestra, BSO/Ozawa (PentaTone)

 

Here's an interesting article from 1999 on the initial efforts to bring the Living Stereo albums to CD while maintaining audiophile-quality sound...

NEW MAGIC FOR OLD SOUND
By LAWRENCE B. JOHNSON
NEW YORK TIMES
JUNE 27, 1999

It was an eerie encounter, hearing the high, pianissimo string harmony rippling into clear presence over the familiar contrapuntal weave of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Experience suggested that not even the most expensive compact disk players could extract that luminous layer of sound from a conventional CD, no matter how painstaking the mastering process. But here was an ''ordinary'' disk playing in a moderately priced machine, and delivering music as transparent, vital and complete as one expects to hear in a good concert hall.

In fact, the CD at hand, created from a 1962 recording by Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony, is not at all ordinary. Standard, yes, in the sense that it can be played on any boombox. But the breathtaking sound bespeaks a clever grafting of cutting-edge digital technology onto the garden variety compact disk.

That hair-raising Bartok belongs to the first fruits of BMG's new High Performance series, which at the bargain price of $12 per CD promises digital revelation for classic recordings from deep within the vault of RCA Victor Red Seal.

The new project, headed by a veteran engineer, Nathaniel S. Johnson, is something of a higher-tech sequel to BMG's compact disk revival of the RCA ''Living Stereo'' series, which helped to launch stereophonic sound in the late 1950's and early 60's.

But while the remastering of ''Living Stereo'' CD's generally reflects great care, that process still utilizes the same digital sampling rate of 44.1 kilohertz that has governed the compact disk since its genesis in the early 1980's. For its High Performance remastering, BMG uses a sampling rate of 96 kilohertz with 24-bit resolution, compared with the 16-bit capacity of the CD as we know it.

This more elegant digitizing process, known as 96/24, will apparently be the standard for DVD-audio recordings somewhere down the road. And the latest generation of DVD players can indeed play back that supersonic mode. But no CD player can do so. Thus, the real magic of BMG's new recycling process springs from a digital engine that converts the 96/24 masters to the 44.1-kilohertz, 16-bit framework of regular compact disks.

''You lose some very delicate upper partials in the down-conversion,'' Mr. Johnson said, ''but I have to say a major benefit of 96/24 is miraculously carried through.''

Miracle or not, the result is quite amazing to hear in disk after disk. And to experience a work like the Concerto for Orchestra or its companion here, Kodaly's ''Peacock Variations,'' with such presence and textural depth is to gain a new appreciation of both Leinsdorf's expansive, clear-sighted interpretations and the Bostonians' thoroughgoing virtuosity (09026-63309-2).

On a blazing CD of Stravinsky ballets, the Boston Symphony's 1968 recording of ''Petrouchka'' -- with a youthful Michael Tilson Thomas at the piano -- is paired with the Chicago Symphony's 1969 ''Rite of Spring,'' both under the stewardship of Seiji Ozawa (09026-63311-2). BMG's high-speed processing and 24-bit platform serve equally well to underscore the fearsome power of the ''Rite'' and the airy brilliance of ''Petrouchka.''

Yet another sonic thriller spotlights the Bizet-Shchedrin ''Carmen Ballet'' in Arthur Fiedler's 1969 recording with the Boston Pops (09026-63308-2). Scored for strings and a prodigious percussion battery, Shchedrin's quirky, droll transmogrification of Bizet's opera has always intrigued recording engineers and mesmerized hi-fi buffs. But this is surely the work's most vibrant incarnation ever on disk. Shostakovich's incidental music for ''Hamlet'' and Glazunov's ''Carnaval Overture'' round out the CD.

Scenes from Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess,'' with Leontyne Price and William Warfield (09026-63312-2), recorded in 1963, and works for solo piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan played by Raymond Lewenthal (09026-63310-2) complete the initial release of five disks. The stunning immediacy of Lewenthal's piano sound, which seems to bring the instrument forward from the loudspeakers, points up the perhaps unsuspected sophistication of recording technology 35 years ago.

Just which treasures to resurrect through the new process was, and remains, a difficult call, Mr. Johnson admitted. ''We didn't want to recycle the 'Living Stereo' series, which will continue to have a life of its own,'' he said, ''so we decided to focus on the later 60's. Many of those recordings have never been brought out on CD.

''The Boston stuff alone, with Leinsdorf and Fiedler, is incredible: beautiful recordings made in the great acoustics of Symphony Hall. During Leinsdorf's directorship, the Boston Symphony was under contract to make seven recordings a year for 10 years. And there's another group of wonderful things with Jean Martinon and the Chicago Symphony, plus all the London Symphony recordings. There's got to be 200 or 250 titles without any problem.''

THE clarity achieved through the 96/24 mastering technique has proved to be double-edged, Mr. Johnson said. The revivified sound represents long hours of meticulous work.

''Little things that were invisible 30 years ago, like splices or air-conditiong hum, are a real problem. One particular noise in the Boston Symphony tapes has a signature that we joke about: 'There goes the bus to Harvard Square.'

''But we're able to go in and do remarkable things. It just takes a third again as much time as 'Living Stereo.' We've really tried not to compromise. We're seriously trying to set a new standard.''

To avoid overwhelming consumers in an already glutted CD world, BMG will limit the High Performance series to just 13 releases this year and 13 more in 2000. Among the disks scheduled for release by autumn: Handel's ''Messiah,'' performed by Richard Westenburg and Musica Sacra; ''The Fantastic Philadelphians,'' Vols. I and II (on one CD); a two-disk set of Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3, with Leinsdorf, and the Boston Symphony in a program of Bartok's ''Miraculous Mandarin,'' Varese's ''Arcana'' and Hindemith's ''Nobilissima Visione'' with Martinon and the Chicago Symphony.

''There is so much information captured on those tapes, just waiting to get out of prison,'' Mr. Johnson said. ''I hope this encourages people to listen more closely.''

 

Thanks Steve. Great, unique testament indeed.

Another one dedicated to Living Stereo is at :

 

And one more from RCA again but made in 1942 - 78 rpm era:

 

I stand corrected. There are 54 titles, not 41.
SA-CD.net - Titles »

 

I'm in the SACD club finally. Bought a Sony NS3100ES player at the thrift (for $9) last weekend.

And my first RCA Living Stereo SACD arrived today, the one with Heifetz playing concertos by Sibelius, Prokofiev, Glasunov, which is playing now. Sounds great!

I won't be collecting all of these. I have picked up dozens of shaded dogs over the years without being a very conscious collector: see record, grab record. And I love listening to them, ticks and pops and all.

But there are plenty of these SACDs out there to keep me excited, at $9.99 each. This thread is a great resource!

 

I now only lack four of the 54.

 

Congrats. I made it my goal to collect all of the Classic Records gold CDs quite a while ago. IIRC it took me about four years to get them all. Once in a while someone from here at the Hoffman site contacts me about buying one of the titles, but I always answer their inquiries by saying, "If I sold it to you, I wouldn't have a complete set anymore."

 

Just curious which four are you lacking? I own 30 of these and have all the ones I want for now!