Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra :: Schubert: Symphony No. 9 & Incidental Music to Rosamunde [SACD]

RE: Sorrowful Schubert

William E. Irving | Madison, WI United States | 07/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

""music fan" from Roanoke, VA wrote:"This SACD of Schubert's 9th symphony is one of the worst recordings I've ever heard. I don't know why Sony put this on SACD. The instrumental fidelity is nonexistent and there's no sound stage."Sony put this on SACD because this performance remains one of the finest PERFORMANCES (as opposed to stereo demo) in the catalog. Yes, the sound quality is less than state-of-the-art. During this period, solo passages were too often "spotlighted," the result rendering an artificial sonic balance vis-a-vis a live performance.What's more, Severance Hall has a somewhat dry-sounding acoustic and CBS's microphone placement and microphone choices often resulted in rather bright and brittle recordings from this hall. Telarc is perhaps the only label who has ever made a natural-sounding recording in Severance Hall, but I must confess, even live, I have never really liked the acoustic in Severance - too dry for my taste - brass sound sizzly, woodwinds buzzy and breathy, strings metallic and rosiny. Too bad - this superlative orchestra never sounds its best in its home hall.NEVERTHELESS ---Szell was one of the greatest conductors of the 20th Century, PERIOD! In my opinion, no one living is his equal. And his specialties were the Classical and middle Romantic repertoire - Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, and yes, SCHUBERT!ANY recording of Szell's is worth having. If you buy recordings to hear how great your stereo is, you should stay away from this and indeed any CBS recording made in the 60's for that matter. But if you are interested in hearing a document of a great performance, SACD is the clearest window you can have, regardless of the condition of the master tape.RATINGS: For stereo nuts --- 1 star
For musicians and music fans --- 5 starsOVERALL RATING --- 4 stars"

Exceptional performance and engineering

L. E. Roberts | Escondido, CA | 11/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Szell, as usual, proves the master of Romantic Music. His Schubert is fantastic, and the Cleveland Orchestra functions almost as a single instrument. The only trouble is that this is a Super CD format, and cannot be played on an ordinary CD player. However, the SACD format is extremely good, and I needed to upgrade anyway."