Great sonics
James M. Shertzer | Winston-Salem NC | 09/30/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This Rite of Spring has always been an impressive performance (and one of my favorite). An early Telarc digital triumph in the waning days of vinyl, it's even better in this stunning new SACD incarnation. The depth of field is uncanny, far better than on either the original vinyl or earlier CD version. The Tchaikovsky is perhaps less impressive but more than acceptable. Apart from the fact that both pieces are by Russians and can be VERY loud, I'm not sure I understand the pairing, though."
Performance and upgraded sound
Dennis Brandt | Red Lion, PA United States | 07/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There was always something a bit annoying about the sound of the early Telarcs recorded on the Soundstream digital machine. Turns out it was because the sampling rate was 50kHz, and the downsampling to 44.1kHz added many unwanted digital artifacts. With SACD technology, they can upsample the original master to 2.8MHz and then get an artifact-free downsampling to the standard CD. Even if you don't have an SACD player, replace your old version with this one. It's that much better sonically. In fact, I cannot tell the standard CD from the SACD layer. (That difference is apparent for those originally recorded in SACD, however.)
This is a superlative performance by a world-class orchestra. They give it a powerful and chilling sense of horror this music and its subject demands. I vote this as the finest performance of the Rite I've ever heard."