| Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain, and Other Russian Showpieces [Hybrid SACD] | ![Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain, and Other Russian Showpieces [Hybrid SACD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61vPEr8RONL._SL160_.jpg)
| Artists: Alexander Borodin, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Mikhail Glinka, Fritz Reiner
Creators: Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Label: RCA
Category: Music
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $6.52
as of 9/6/2010 20:14 CDT details
You Save: $3.47 (35%)
New (21) Used (10) from $5.74
Seller: avatarmusic
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 2,199
Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 828766139426
EAN: 0082876613942
ASIN: B0002TKFRM
Release Date: September 14, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Promenade | | • | Gnomus | | • | Promenade | | • | Il Vecchio Castello | | • | Promenade | | • | Tuileries | | • | Bydlo | | • | Promenade | | • | Ballet Of The Chicks In Their Shells | | • | Samuel Goldenburg And Schmuyle | | • | The Marketplace At Limoges | | • | Catacombae, Sepulchrum Romanum | | • | Con Mortuis In Lingua Mortua | | • | The Hut On Fowl's Legs | | • | The Great Gate At Kiev | | • | Marche Miniature (From Suite No. 1 In D-Minor, Op. 43) | | • | A Night On Bald Mountain - Chicago Symphony Orchestra | | • | Prince Igor: Polovtsian March | | • | Marche Slave | | • | Colas Breugnon, Op. 24: Overture | | • | Russian And Ludmilla: Overture - Chicago Symphony Orchestra |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Just how hard can it be? December 28, 2005
A photographer (Planet Earth)
42 out of 43 found this review helpful
Just how hard can it be, in this age of digi-techno miracle machinery, to make a recording of a major symphony orchestra that sounds natural? They could do it at RCA Living Stereo (and Mercury Living Presence) in the 1950's with only two or three microphones and analog tube equipment. Today, with all the gizmos, most orchestral recordings are over-processed, over-equalized, over-mixed and blended, pasturized and homogenized into grating sterility.
This recording is wonderful. The performance is magic. The SACD layer is even more natural sounding than the CD layer. Keep your 5.1 multi-channel surround sound, I'm hooked on Living Stereo.
Beautiful mastering of a masterful recording February 14, 2005
Giacomo C.
35 out of 36 found this review helpful
This is quite simply a beautful mastering of what was always a masterful recording. One of the best, of the ones I have heard so far, of the new SACD incarnations of the Living Stereo collection.
This is perhaps my favourite recording of Pictures at an Exhibition - each of the pieces is perfectly characterized with stunning technique from the Chicago Symphony and Reiner. The recording brings this out brilliantly - THIS is the way this recording should be heard. If you have a multichannel system, you will get an extra treat - this recording was originally made with three channels to get a better centre image and this has been preserved in this issue (as is the case with all the LS SACD releases that were done this way). If your three speakers have sufficient distance between each other, you will hear a detailed sound stage the likes of which is rare, and truly belies the recording's age.
All the other pieces on the disc are brilliantly handled as well. Tchaikovsky's Marche Slav is notable for the warmth and unashamed romanticism the CSO and Reiner bring to it.
Highly recommended.
More Spectacular than EVER!! September 21, 2004
Richard Falgione (U S A)
97 out of 109 found this review helpful
I am a H U G E fan of the RCA Living Stereo Series. I had all the CD's (I wish I had the LP's) of the series, beginning with the 1993 discs through the releases remastered with the 20 bit UV22 Super CD encoding and the Weiss 24/96 technologies. I also have had the JVC XRCD's that have been released featuring RCA Living Stereo recordings. I mention this merely to establish credibility.
The clarity on this Reiner "Pictures at an Exhibition" is staggering (and I am just talking about the CD layer of this hybrid for now! I'll get into the SACD layer a bit later.) I did A/B comparisons with the JVC XRCD2 and the CD layer of this recording and was surprised at what I did not hear on the JVC, which costs a cool $30 per disc. The JVC XRCD2 is more veiled and does not give you the spaciousness that the CD Layer gives you. As a weird example of the new clarity afforded by this new remastering, on Track 7 - Bydlo, the tenor tuba player playing the theme takes breaths between each phrase; sometimes it's a long breath, at other times it's a short gasp. On the JVC XRCD, you can barely hear it.
The bass drum used liberally throughout the recording is revealed like it has never been on any of the aforementioned recordings. This drum has real weight and impact; its reverberations in the hall are evident and the drum head itself has tone, texture and flex. I was truly shocked that this much sound information had been missing from this recording on CD until now. It's no wonder the LP version is so highly sought after and prized.
Throughout the entire disc, reasons to purchase this Hybrid SACD emerge: the wondrous sheen of the strings, the fantastic accuracy of the woodwind tones, the brashness of the brass instruments, the indescribable majesty of the final "The Great Gate at Kiev", etc. I can't list them all here but I can assure you that there is no other digital recording of Reiner's "Pictures at an Exhibition" that more completely reveals his genius, the beauty of this work, the virtuosity of the players of the 1957 Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the exquisite acoustics of the Hall in which they played.
With regard to the SACD layer, I don't know how a recording can sound more real in the digital domain, unless you were there in the Hall and, of course, at that point it's all analog. Some key SACD points: Wide and deep, accurately rendered soundstage. Stable, pinpoint placement of the players of the orchestra. Excellent timbre and dynamics. Without a hint of the digital etch that plagues CD's. This recording is truly brought to life using DSD. SACD is as close to reality as you're going to get using a 5 inch piece of plastic and this recording proves it!
The engineers at Soundmirror, the Boston studio that remastered this SACD from the original master tape to DSD, have done a SUPERB job with Reiner's "Pictures at an Exhibition." This new RCA Living Stereo Hybrid SACD is superior in every way to the crme-de-la-crme JVC XRCD2 which, except for the analog version on LP, was the be all and end all for the digital rendition of this recording.
Awesome music. Better than ever recording. September 9, 2006
Dick K (Centreville, VA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
What a treat for the ears!
The Living Stereo series was wonderful then and it's even better now. This hybrid SACD has fantastic sound quality and, thankfully, is completely true to both music and the original recording. Originally recorded in "3 channel stereo" that's what you get here--no, there's nothing in the rear channels of the surround mix but that's exactly the way it should be. Taken directly from the nearly 50-year old (!) masters, the engineers did nothing at all to the sound except digitize and transfer each track to the SACD/CD master. Nothing added, nothing subtracted. And the quality of those masters is astounding--clear, bright and full. No tape hiss. No loss of highs. Just wonderful music expertly performed.
Dissapointed you're only getting 3 channels and not 5-7? Don't be. You'll hear the musicians arranged across the broad, but shallow, Chicago Symphony Hall just as the engineers heard them in the recording sessions in 1957. And those musicians are superb, particularly to my ears, the brass and woodwinds. This is an excellent orchestra caught at its prime.
In short, get this CD! Even if you don't have a universal player now, the 2 channel transfer is equally good, a faithful recreation of a classic LP. And if you can play the SACD layer so much the better because for the first time you'll hear exactly what was recorded and what the engineers heard in nearly 50 years ago.
Wow! April 2, 2007
J. Milton (MA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
How can something older than me sound so good? The recording is top notch. Dont be fooled into thinking it is "just stereo", the ambience of symphony hall comes thru as though it were recorded in surround. Exquisite detail and perfect tempo. Timpani has realistic impact. And all the other music with Pictures makes this a real bargain!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Shop Free at Macys
| |
![Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006PV5VC.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Dvorák's New World Symphony and Other Orchestral Masterworks [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00076OMW4.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Respighi: Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Debussy: La mer [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000E1NWJQ.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Brahms, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0009U55RE.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002TKFQI.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
