I listened to the whole recording this afternoon. As I mentioned earlier, there is a background constant fine crackling noise throughout sides A and B, with louder random pops throughout the two sides. This level of noise is what I would normally associate with well used 50 year old LPs, not a new LP made today. The noise level is much lower on the other 4 sides, except towards the end of side D, when a regular pop appeared over about 8 revolutions. The noise is most likely a QC problem, something that they should have rejected. I have not come across noise to such an extent with the dozens of LPs I bought from Analogue Products or even Speakers Corner, and it should not happen with such an expensive set.
The performance I rate as excellent. I heard Jakub Hrusa in Paris conducting the Vienna Philharmonic this May, and I was mightily impressed. He was actually in Hong Kong with the Bamberg Symphony earlier in the year, but sadly I had to miss that concert. He played with the same level of intensity in this recording, and there is beautiful phrasing and a sensitive touch. The band is well disciplined with sharp entries and highly responsive dynamics. Compared to the best symphonic recordings (using tapes as reference), the scale and dynamics is a shade lower. The sound could do with a bit more transparency and ambiance, but this could be the acoustics of the venue. The presentation is mid-hall, and there is good depth of image and decent width. The sound is tonally well balanced.
I went back and surveyed the DGG Original Vinyl LPs that I have. The Mahler 5th has a similar background noise problem, though not as severe as the first two sides of this recording. The others are pretty clean, even though not as clean as the typical Analogue Productions LP. I think the first two sides of my set is inacceptable, and should have been rejected. Aside from that, I would put this recording in the top rank of contemporary classical recordings, though still not quite reaching the heights of the best Decca SXL, RCA LSC or Mercury Living Presence (on master tape). Of course, this LP is still much better than your average second hand original SXL or shaded dog LP, but one should expect better quality control with such a niche product.
that alerted me.
