State-of-the-Art Recordings of Classical Works (SACDs)

[Yuen A.]

Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Two Humoresques Op. 87 Four Humoresques Op. 89 Two Pieces, Op. 77 (Two ‘Earnest Melodies’) Two Serenades, Op. 69 for violin and orchestra Suite for Violin & Strings in D minor, Op. 117, JS 185 James Ehnes (violin)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos CHSA 5267 SACD)

Wow, this is one of the most heartrending and breathtaking performances of the Violin Concerto! Gramophone rightly says: "The orchestral detail, both accompanying and soloistic, is ear-prickingly ‘present’, revealing inner voices too often covered in recordings of the piece. Ehnes is at one with the landscape in the Adagio, tender and melancholic ..."

 

[Yuen A.]

György Ligeti String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 4 Marmen Quartet (BIS 2693 SACD)​

Wow, these performances and recordings are absolutely astonishing! It's as good as it gets. The Marmen Quartet playing sounded so alive in my listening room. Every musical nuance (the subtle variations in dynamics, tempo and expression) were reproduced with absolute clarity and in the form of a three-dimensional soundscape.

 

[Yuen A.]

Aram Khachaturian Piano Concerto in D flat major, Op. 38 Masquerade Suite (arr. for solo piano by Alexander Dolukhanian, 1952)
Concerto-Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra in D flat major Iyad Sughayer (piano) BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Andrew Litton
(BIS-2586 SACD)

These are highly enjoyable performances! The recordings are able to superbly captured the timbre, scale, depth and transient attack of live acoustic instruments. Gramophone says: "Sughayer’s exciting delivery has clarity, rhythmic precision, brilliant virtuosity and a translucent impressionism in the gentler passages."

 

[Yuen A.]

Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No.2 in C minor (arr. Anthony Payne) Johann STRAUSS II Wein, Weib und Gesang, Op. 333 (arr. Alban Berg)
Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble/Trevor Pinnock (LINN RECORDS CKD 442 SACD)

This chamber arrangement of the Bruckner No. 2 is fresh, intimate, detailed and satisfying. Gramophone says: "The Scherzo’s Trio works especially well and there are times in the finale where the music takes flight in a way that I’ve virtually never heard in an orchestral performance (just get that piano). Those passages alone would deem the disc an enjoyable supplement to your existing Bruckner collection." I agree. The recording is state-of-the-art. The timbres, the dynamics, the 3-D soundscape are all great!

 

[Yuen A.]

Berlioz: Harold En Italie, James Ehnes (viola), James Ehnes (violin)
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos 5155 SACD)

The Telegraph says: "James Ehnes, playing violin in the Rêverie et Caprice and switching to viola for Harold en Italie, is the protagonist in this all-Berlioz programme, but the disc is equally distinguished by the lucid, exhilarating, smoothly contoured playing of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under that experienced Berliozian Sir Andrew Davis." The recordings are crisp, focus, immediate and realistic. The bass lines are lifelike and the acoustic space is well captured.

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[Yuen A.]

Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 Symphony No.3, Op. 27 "Sinfonia Espansiva" Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo (BIS-2048 SACD)

I will only comment on the Symphony No. 3. Wow, the performance here is so intense, so impassioned and so riveting! As to sound quality, the soundscape is very wide and spacious. Instrument separation and imaging are excellent. The BIS engineers were able to reproduced a tactile, glowing sonics. Every textural detail was captured with palpable presence. The woodwinds are especially enchanting.

 

[Yuen A.]

James MacMILLAN Sun-Dogs Visitatio Sepulchri Netherlands Radio Choir; Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic; Celso Antunes/James MacMillan (BIS 1719 SACD)

MusicWeb International rightly says: "The performances are absolutely superb. Both the playing and the singing are incisive and assured and I’m sure the composer will have been delighted with the results. ... The recorded sound is in the demonstration class, in every respect; in particular the percussion in Visitatio Sepulchri is recorded with stunning realism." Indeed, the recordings are very transparent, vivid, atmospheric and dynamic. Voices and musical instruments sounded lifelike in a reverberant space.

 

[Yuen A.]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No.. 7 in E major, Mason Bates Resurrexit Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck
(Reference Recordings FR-757 SACD)

The Pittsburgh's performance of the 7th is dazzling. The recording provides a detailed, spacious, deep and wide soundscape. Fortissimos are awesome! The burnished orchestral sound holds the listener’s attention from beginning to end.

 

[Yuen A.]

Gustav Mahler SACD 1 Adagio from Symphony No. 10; Symphony No. 8, Part I SACD 2 Symphony No. 8, Part II San Francisco Symphony Chorus; Pacific Boychoir; San Francisco Girl’s Chorus; San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas (SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY 821936-0021-2 SACD)

The sound is brilliant, refined, full, rich, detailed, intense and very atmospheric. The big fugues are astonishingly clear, grand and exciting.

 

[Yuen A.]

Lim Yunchan Chopin Etudes Op.10 and Op.25 (UHQCD + MQA-CD Japan Edition Decca UCCD-45027)

Wow! What a performance! His right-hand octaves are explosive, the tenor of his playing, earthshaking. The stretto playing in the left-hand is like gunshot. The audio quality is excellent for this edition.

 

[Yuen A.]

Ludwig van Beethoven The Complete Symphonies Camilla Tilling (soprano), Kelley O’Connor (mezzo-soprano), Issachah Savage (tenor), Ryan McKinny (bass-baritone), The Washington Chorus, National Symphony Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda (National Symphony Orchestra NSO 0013 SACD)

BBC Music says regarding Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3: "Gianandrea Noseda secures from the players an insistently singing sense of line that has this instrumentally-minded composer sounding like one of his more vocally inspired colleagues (for instance Schubert), while in no way short-changing the music’s rhythmic firepower. Tempos are brisk in a way that on the whole convinces: Noseda’s choice for the ‘Eroica’ Symphony’s Allegro con brio first movement feels satisfyingly right, as does the second movement’s ‘Marcia funebre: Adagio assai’, which comes across as it should – a slow march, not a comatose dirge. Noseda includes all the repeat sections indicated by Beethoven; the first movement of the ‘Eroica’ sounds all the more impressively spacious as a result."

The Sound Mirror’s Sobotka/Donahoe team have done a great job here, with its well spaced out soundscape, great imaging and strong bass line. I love the airy textures and the way the inner detail comes out very naturally.