Listening to this fine performance come Alive in this SACD. The sound quality is nothing short of stunning. This will be a demo disc for all SACD players. Absolutely divine. The spatial sound extends across all 5 channels in what may be the be the ideal way to hear an orchestra come alive.
I really hope Vocalion Dutton will tap onto other SACD titles in the Gerhardt series. What a sonic treat.
It seems no time since everyone was rushing to buy the non-Dolby Surround re-releases because the standard stereo versions were reportedly far superior. Now a multi-channel release is pulling people back the other way… All this backwards-and-forwards must be more than just slightly confusing to most listeners.
The multi-channel here is discrete and presented in its intended mix. Dolby Surround was a process by which a center and surround channels were matrixed into a stereo image; it was never discrete and would often muddy up the sound. The CDs were at best an approximation of the original quadrophonic mix, but the SACD layer here allows us to hear the original mix.
I just obtained all the remaining albums in this series from Dutton/Vocalion, even the David Raskin album.
I've been comparing the Michael Dutton mixes for straight stereo with their YouTube counterparts. There's no question the new mixes are far better than the old ones, aided no doubt by considerable digital-to-analogue chip improvements since the last remastering cycle.
