Opera Phantasies from 150 Years (SACD review)

From Bel Canto to Jazz. Volker Reinhold, violin; Ralph Zedler, piano. MDG 903 2134-6.

The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music defines a musical fantasia (or fantasy or phantasy) in several ways, the definition best applying here being "Free and somewhat improvisatory treatments of existing themes, often from operas." OK, to an uninitiated novice like me in the classical realm, that sounds an awful lot like a medley of greatest hits. But what do I know. "Fantasy" (or especially "phantasy") sounds a lot better than "medley." Whatever the case, the music here is remarkably vibrant, pleasant, and soothing as performed by two experts in the field.

On the present disc, German violinist Volker Reinhold and German pianist Ralph Zedler offer five examples of such fantasias (or, again, fantasies, fantaisies, or phantasies, depending on the language) spanning some 150 years of classical music history. What's more, three of them are world-première recordings.

You may remember Reinhold and Zedler from their earlier albums or from my own review of their Sarasate recording. Violinist Reinhold became the concertmaster of the Mecklenburg State Orchestra in 1989. According to the accompanying booklet, Mr. Reinhold "has gone on to perform a wide range of solo assignments and to dedicate himself intensively to chamber music. Additionally, for some years he has often assisted as a concertmaster with several Northern German orchestras. He has a special predilection for the virtuosic violin literature, above all Fritz Kreisler and also Pablo de Sarasate. He has incorporated practically all of the former's music into his repertoire. For many years he has performed successfully with his regular piano partner Ralph Zedler. Mr. Reinhold performs on a 'Mougeot,' a French violin from the 19th century."

As for pianist Zedler, I quoted last time from his Web site: "...he graduated from Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. He worked regularly in the singing classes of Liselotte Hammes, Klesie Kelly, Kurt Moll, and Edda Moser. From the autumn of 1999 to January 2011 Mr. Zedler was engaged at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin as soloist and Ballettrepetitor, participating in over seventy productions of opera, operetta, musical, oratorio, and ballet. Since 2011 he has worked at capital Opera, the smallest Opera Berlin, devoting himself to the repertoire of forgotten one-act plays. Mr. Zedler's concert career has taken him along with prominent figures such as singers Agnes Giebel, Ulrich Hielscher, Jean van Ree, and Edda Moser." And since the summer of 2016, again according to the accompanying booklet, "...he has been a solo repetiteur at the Volkstheater Rostock."

Volker Reinhold

Anyway, as I've said, here they offer five selections: the first is the Fantasia su motivi della Traviata di Giuseppe Verdi (1871) by Italian violinist, composer, and teacher Antonio Bazzini (1818-1897). Being Verdi opera, the music is understandably sentimental, poignant, and moving. Reinhold's violin is impassioned, as it should be, well echoing the voices on stage, and Zedler's piano accompaniment is unobtrusively sympathetic. Both players benefit from a long experience performing together, and they pretty much play as one. Listening from another room, my wife cheered at the closing passage.

After that is the Fantaisie sur Faust (1869) by Belgium violinist and composer Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881). Here, the fantasy on the music of Gounod is even more virtuosic, more dramatic than that of Verdi. It's also a bit more melodramatic and bombastic, so be aware. Vieuxtemps wrote his own introductions and interludes for the Gounod excerpts, so most of it hangs together, but until the famous music of the final third, little of it exhibits the lyricism of Verdi, despite Reinhold's superb technique and execution.

Next is the Fantaisie sur des motifs de l'opera 'La vie pour le Czar Ivan Susanin' de Glinka (1900) by Czech violinist and composer Frantisek Ondricek (1857-1922). With this fantasy, Ondricek covers more ground than the previous two composers in their fantasies, which may or may not be a good thing. Whatever, Reinhold and Zedler produce a big, robust piece of high intent and vivid contrasts.

Following that is Norma de Bellini, Fantaisie sur la quatrieme corde (1844), again by Henri Vieuxtemps but an earlier composition of his. The gimmick here is that Vieuxtemps instructs that the entire fantasy be played on a single string. Remarkable. And remarkable, too, is Reinhold's playing, which carries out Vieuxtemps's instructions flawlessly.

The final item is the Concert Fantasy on Themes from Gershwin's Opera Porgy and Bess (1991) by Russian violinist and composer Igor Frolov (1937-2013). This is the one fantasy on the program that seems to include every familiar tune from the opera from which it derives. If you like Gershwin, you'll like Frolov's treatment of the themes, and you'll love Reinhold and Zedler's evocatively dreamy, jazzy realizations of the score.

Producers Werner Dabringhaus and Reimund Grimm and engineer Holger Schlegel recorded the music at the Konzerthaus der Abtei Marienmunster, Germany in April 2019. They made the disc in hybrid SACD, which contains a regular two-channel stereo layer for playback on a regular CD player and an SACD layer, which contains a two-channel stereo format, a multichannel format, and a 2+2+2 format for playback on an SACD player. Apparently, the 2+2+2 format utilizes the middle and bass channels to provide a left and right height dimension to the sound, perhaps somewhat similar to what Dolby ATMOS also does. I say "perhaps" because my system is two-channel stereo only, so I listened
in SACD two-channel. Presumably, the 2+2+2 format requires that listeners reconfigure their speakers, something I doubt a lot of people are willing to do, given the scarcity of SACD recordings in general and 2+2+2 recordings in particular. I guess the folks at MDG (Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm) know what they're doing, and I applaud them for it, but I'd be surprised if more than a half dozen people worldwide have set up their sound systems specifically for 2+2+2 playback.

Still, that's neither here nor there. In the SACD two-channel stereo format to which I listened, the sound was quite natural, with good positioning of the two performers relative to one another, if miked slightly more to the left of center than I might have liked. The hall provides a pleasant bloom, enhancing the realism of the recording. The violin appears resplendent and the piano dynamic, both instruments rendered as lifelike as one could imagine.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Ballets Russes: Russian Dances and Ballets (CD review)

Paavo Jarvi; Marinsky Choir, St. Petersburg; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.  Virgin Classics 7243-5-45609-2.

You're probably better at remembering things than I am because when I hear the name Paavo Jarvi I still find it hard not to think of Neeme Jarvi or Paavo Berglund. Fortunately, the younger Jarvi shares the same no-nonsense approach to music making as the older men. In this collection of famous short dances by Russian masters, Paavo Jarvi plays the music in a straightforward fashion--straightforward to a fault, I might add--and generally the music sounds the better for it.

The disc contains the usual suspects: Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Glazunov, Liadov, Glinka, and Borodin. The tunes are about as familiar as the names, too: the Polonaise and Waltz from Eugene Onegin; the "Sabre Dance" from Gayaneh; the "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker; the "Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet; the "Polovtsian Dances" from Prince Igor; etc.

Paavo Jarvi

As well, there are a few less-familiar pieces: Shostakovich's cheeky little "Polka" from The Golden Age and "Waltz No. 2" from the Jazz Suite No. 2; Liadov's "Dance of the Amazon"; Glinka's "Valse-Fantasia," among others. Nothing lasts more than a few minutes, so it's the kind of album you can pop into your player for a moment or two or linger over for a while between chores.

More important, Jarvi serves it all up comfortably. He is perhaps not as idiomatic as some conductors in this type of repertoire nor so colorful as others, but, as I've said, his direct, forthright approach lets the music speak for itself, and that can be a pleasant surprise, indeed. It's all fairly light music, after all, and in short bits it's hardly the kind of thing one can get too far into; therefore, Jarvi's honest yet lively renditions of these pieces hit a welcome sweet spot.

Originally released by Virgin in 2004 (and rereleased in 2011 by Erato on the disc pictured above), the recording is robust, to say the least, not always conforming to the audiophile's conception of good audio, perhaps, but reasonably faithful to a real-life source. The bass comes up strong, perhaps a tad overly heavy, the bass drum especially prominent when necessary. The midrange appears somewhat obscured by the bass overhang and in full bloom seems somewhat thick. The highs are maybe not always as clear or vibrant as they could be, either, and on occasion sound slightly hard and sharp. The overall sonic effect is not unpleasant, however, and will surely please listeners seeking a "big" musical experience.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click on the forward arrow:

Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy (UltraHD review)

Various composers and artists. FIM UHD 088 (4-disc box set).

British Decca is one of the oldest, most-prestigious, and most-innovative record companies in the world, producing classical, popular, jazz, even country-Western recordings since the 1920's. To help celebrate Decca's accomplishments, the audiophile company FIM (First Impression Music) have put together this four-disc box set of Decca stereo recordings, remastered in FIM's 32-bit Ultra High Definition PureFlection processing. The recordings represent some of Decca's best work of the past fifty-odd years, and the remasterings reflect some of the best sound possible with today's compact-disc technology. Along with a sturdy clothbound box, a hardbound book of Decca history, and another hardbound book of production notes and disc sleeves, the set makes an attractive package for the music lover and audiophile alike. An expensive but attractive package.

FIM owner, president, and producer Winston Ma tells us in an introduction to the set that the Decca name goes back to 1914 when Barnett Samuel and Sons introduced a portable gramophone they called the Decca Dulcephone. Shortly afterwards, they renamed the company The Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd., and in 1929 sold it to Edward Lewis. It wasn't long afterward that Decca Records Ltd. became the second-largest record company in the world, calling itself at the time "The Supreme Record Company" (and, thus, the present set's "Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" title). Wilfred S. Samuel created the actual name "Decca" by combining the word "Mecca" with the initial "D" of their logo "Dulcet" (or their trademark "Dulcephone"). Samuel figured "Decca" would be a good brand name for the company because almost anybody could pronounce it in almost any language. Clearly, the idea worked and the name stuck. For a few decades in the mid twentieth century, a conflict with American Decca caused a minor problem, resulting in the parent British company calling their American product "London Records," but things have settled back to "Decca" worldwide for these past many years.

As I say, FIM selected the tracks from among some of Decca's best stereo releases. What's more, if you have already collected any of FIM's previous remasterings, you will recognize the selections from their previous work. This time, however, the FIM folks have reassembled them and rereleased them to their latest audio standards. Here's the track listing;

Volume One (UHD 089)
1. Glinka: Overture - Russlan and Ludmilla (Solti, LSO)
2. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movement 1 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
3. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movements 2 and 3 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
4. Granados: Intermezzo from Goyescas (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 1, Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Bernstein Elmer: The Magnificent Seven (Stanley Black)
7. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Voices of Spring (Boskovsky, VPO)
8. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Perpetuum Mobile (Boskovsky, VPO)
9. Loewe: "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Edmundo Ros)
10. Di Capua: "O Sole Mio" (Pavarotti)

Volume Two (UHD 090)
1. Verdi: Aida - Gloria all Egitto (Carlo Franci)
2. Albeniz: Castilla (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
3. Albeniz: Austurias (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Rimsky-Korsakoff: Capriccio Espagnol (Argenta, LSO)
5. Chabrier: Espana (Argenta, LSO)
6. Mussorgsky: Night on the Bare Mountain (Solti, LSO)
7. Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina - Prelude (Solti, LSO)
8. Bernstein, Leonard: On the Waterfront, Symphonic Suite (Stanley Black)
9. Rodgers: "I Whistle a Happy Tune" (Edmundo Ros)

Volume Three (UHD 091)
1. Strauss, Richard: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Prelude (Mehta, LAPO)
2. Falla: The Three Cornered Hat - Act 1 (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
3. Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Verdi: Nabucco - Act 1, Gli arredi festivi (Carlo Franci)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Tempo di Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Andante non Troppo (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
7. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Allegro Moderato (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
8. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 3 - Danse Espagnole (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
9. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Introduction (Lanchbery, ROHO)
10. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Pas-de-Deux (Lanchbery, ROHO)
11. Strauss, Johann, Jr. and Josef: Pizzicato Polka (Boskovsky, VPO)
12. Steiner: Gone with the Wind - Tara's Theme (Stanley Black)

Volume Four (UHD 092)
1. Bruch: Scottish Fantasia, Op. 46 - Movement 1 Oistrakh, Horenstein, LSO)
2. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Movement 1 (Oistrakhs, Kondrashin, MPO)
3. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 I. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
4. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 II. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
5. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 III. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
6. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 I. - Marcia (Marriner, ASMF)
7. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 II. - Minuet (Marriner, ASMF)
8. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 III. - Rondo (Marriner, ASMF)
9. Strauss, Johann Sr: Tivoli-Rutsch Waltz (Boskovsky, VPO)
10. Strauss, Johann Jr: Blue Danube (Boskovsky, VPO)
11. Rapee: Charmaine (Mantovani)

I suppose there is some rhyme or reason behind the grouping of the selections, but what that reasoning is, I could not discern. The pieces do not appear arranged by composer or conductor or even by composition or recording date. My guess is that the set's producers merely grouped the various items according to personal fancy. In any case, the music is so good and so well recorded and remastered, one need only sit back and enjoy it. Of course, it means not being able to hear too much of one thing, so except for the Mozart it's mainly bits and pieces and short works. But it makes picking out and playing back favorite items for relatively brief listening sessions quite easy. Or you might find a favorite disc among the four and replay it time and again. Who knows.

Sir Georg Solti

In my case, having reviewed this music before from FIM, it made picking favorites easy because of familiarity but hard because I really liked them all. Nevertheless, let me comment on just a few of the set's most outstanding tracks.

Sir Georg Solti's conducting could sometimes sound hard-driven, even frenetic, but when he was on, as he was here in selections from Glinka (Russlan and Ludmilla) and Mussorgsky (Night on the Bare Mountain) with the London Symphony Orchestra, he was electrifying.

For a while (too long a while), Decca experimented with a recording technique they called "Phase 4." It employed the use of about two hundred microphones per instrument and resulted in a sound that was strongly dynamic, ultra clear, flat, forward, compartmentalized, and anything but natural. However, no one could argue that it wasn't spectacular, and that's what we get in Stanley Black's rendition of Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven, recorded with the London Festival Orchestra. The recording has a clarity and impact I guarantee will impress almost any listener.

Nobody did Johann Strauss Jr.'s music as well as Willi Boskovsky, especially in his recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, as we hear on Voices of Spring and Perpetuum Mobile. The grandness of the orchestra matches the grandness of the music, and the musical lilt is nigh-well perfect.

And so it goes, with each selection a little gem. Ataulfo Argenta's way with Rimsky-Korsakoff's Capriccio Espagnol and Emmanuel Chabrier's Espana is a joy to behold; John Lanchbery does up Herold's La Fille Mal Gardee better than anyone before or since; and Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields are as polished and precise as ever in Mozart's Divertimento and Serenata Notturna, with sound that Decca (on their Argo label) never topped. It's all a pleasure to hear.

Along with the four discs come two hardbound books measuring about 7 1/4" square. The first one contains four paper sleeves for the discs, with each disc slipped into its own static-proof jacket. Then, there are 108 glossy pages of technical information on the composers, the compositions, the original Decca recording processes, and the FIM remasterings. The second book is 264 pages long and chronicles a history of the Decca organization, its major artists, its labels, its products, and just about anything else you'd ever want to know about the company. The books strike me as well written and lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs.

Insofar as concerns the sound of FIM's remasterings, it's obviously excellent. Although, as I've mentioned, FIM had remastered and released these selections before, they went back and replicated them over again using their newest 32-bit UltraHD and PureFlection processing formats. According producer Winston Ma, this technology yields the highest degree of fidelity possible from a standard Red Book CD, so you can play the discs back on a regular CD player rather than use some exotic equipment. (OK, I know what you're thinking: If you can afford a set as costly as this one, you probably already own an exotic audio system. But that's beside the point.)

Anyway, I sat down and compared the sound of these new remasterings with the sound of many of the equivalent FIM discs I had in my library. This was fun for a few minutes until I recognized that I was hearing the same differences with every recording. The sound of the new transfers is smoother than that of the older ones. Sure, there is tremendous fidelity in both old and new, but the newer discs take some of the edge off the often brighter sound of the older ones. Not that there is anything wrong with the older transfers; they are certainly better than the original Decca releases; it's just that the new FIM product is that much easier on the ears, detailed yet ultraclean, clear, dynamic, and effortless.

Naturally, which sound one prefers may depend upon one's playback equipment. If your stereo system favors the high end, you may prefer FIM's new UltraHD masterings without question. If your system is at all soft or subdued, you might actually prefer the very slightly more forward sound of the older FIM issues. Personally, I preferred the newer sound, but without the master tapes with which to make comparisons, I have no way of knowing which transfers are the more accurate. Let's just say that if you have deep enough pockets, this "Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" box won't disappoint.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Russian Nights (CD review)

Music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Prokofiev, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Liadov, Moussorgsky, and Khachaturian. Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops. Telarc CD-80657.

Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra pretty much took over where Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops left off, both conductors and orchestras among the most popular classical recording artists of all time. Of course, it would have been nice to hear Kunzel conduct a single piece that lasted more than a few minutes, but, alas, it would not be on this album, something like his eighty-third Telarc disc.

This time Kunzel was doing Russian and Armenian composers, if not purely Russian or Armenian music. For example, the centerpiece of the album is Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, which seems a little strange considering Telarc titled the disc “Russian Nights” and then features a composition of Spanish-inflected music. Oh, well; I suppose we get the idea. Almost everything on the disc is familiar territory, and while it is all neat and tidy, it is oddly flat. The performances seem to lack the last degree of flair and passion these red-blooded Russian works needed. The album reminded me that Georg Solti’s old collection of similar Russian showpieces exhibited more zeal and excitement than Kunzel brings to the table. Then, too, I couldn’t help thinking of Ataulfo Argenta’s 1956 rendition of the Capriccio Espagnol on a remastered LIM XRCD, a performance so overwhelmingly powerful and colorful, it was a hard act for Kunzel to follow.

Anyway, here we get things like Glinka’s Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, Prokofiev’s March from The Love for Three Oranges, Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor, Tchaikovsky’s “Russian Dance” from The Nutcracker, and Moussorgsky’s Polonaise from Boris Godunov. They all sound appropriately showy, but my favorite pieces were the less flamboyant ones: Anatol Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake and The Music Box, and the star attraction, Aram Khachaturian’s “Love Theme” from the ballet Spartacus. This latter music demonstrates the disc’s wide dynamic range as well as the music’s wide emotional range. The sonics are quite spectacular if, as we’ll see, also problematic.

I began wondering as I listened to the Khachaturian if the wide dynamic range were not in itself some of the cause for the music sounding slightly earthbound. One has to turn the softest passages up in volume to appreciate them, and then the loudest sections knock you out of your seat. Now, I’m all for a recording displaying a realistically wide dynamic range, as long as it’s within reason. The result here, though, is that for the most part, you’re listening at too low a level and nothing seems to come to life except now and again. Add to this the fact that the Telarc engineers recorded the whole show in the smoothest possible manner at a moderate distance, and you don’t quite get the up-front, in-your-face presentations that these war-horses demand. The fact is, in terms of replicating a live experience, the wide dynamics would indicate a close-up seating position, while the smooth, warm response would indicate a greater distance. The contrast is a tad disconcerting.

Still, the Telarc disc provides good orchestral depth; good left-to-right stereo spread; typically good, if slightly overwrought, Telarc bass; some velvety polished highs; and those wide dynamics I mentioned. It’s almost, if not quite, enough.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:


JJP

Romantic Russia (K2HD review)

Music of Glinka, Mussorgsky, and Borodin. Sir Georg Solti, London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. LIM K2HD 043.

Back in the glory days of audiophiledom, the late Sixties to the late Eighties, before home theater, 5.1 surround sound, and digital everything, things were different. Independent hi-fi shops thrived, the major record companies released dozens of new recordings each month from the world's top orchestras, and superstar conductors ruled. Among these star conductors were Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Bernard Haitink, Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Sir Neville Marriner, Andre Previn, Leopold Stokowski, and the subject of our review today, maybe the biggest star of them all, Sir Georg Solti. These conductors almost never failed to provide the listener with fun and excitement aplenty, and the record companies often recorded them spectacularly. Especially Decca and their superstar, Solti, be it with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, or here with the London Symphony. So, I greatly looked forward to hearing what one of our own day's audiophile record companies, FIM/LIM, could do remastering an old favorite album of mine, Solti's Romantic Russia.

The program, recorded in 1966, includes some of the best performances available in the popular Russian repertoire. Solti was at the top of his form in the rousing opening number, Mikhail Glinka's Russlan and Ludmila overture, as stirring and energetic an interpretation as any ever made. Indeed, it's a wonder the LSO strings didn't either catch fire and burn or simply snap off the instruments, the affair is so impassioned. Then comes Modest Mussorgsky's prelude to Khovanshchina, a calm respite from the rigors of the preceding track.

Still, the centerpiece of the album is Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain, in the arrangement by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that people most commonly hear on record. Of course, many nonclassical fans probably know the piece from Leopold Stokowski's arrangement in Disney's Fantasia, but that's neither here nor there. Solti goes with the Rimsky-Korsakov adaptation, as scary and evocative in its first half and delicate and serene in its conclusion as any other. I've always thought Solti's reading was one of the most-powerful ever recorded, making this Witches' Sabbath of evil spirits a truly frightening and wholly exhilarating experience.

The program concludes with Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor overture and "Polovtsian Dances" in renderings perhaps only surpassed by Sir Thomas Beecham's (EMI). In the "Dances," the LSO chorus help Solti out with some thrilling singing. Again, Solti whips up a frenzy, yet he never overlooks the more-sensitive moments of the score. I count this disc, along with Solti's Mahler and Wagner, as one of the high points of his long recording career.

Now, to the LIM remastering. Way back when I first bought the music on LP, the sound always struck me as more than a bit forward and harsh. When Decca first transferred it to CD, the sound appeared a little smoother but still somewhat glassy. In the later CD, which I had on hand for this comparison--a 96 kHz, 24-bit digital remaster from the late Nineties that Decca issued in their "Legends" series--the sound was better than ever, milder and warmer. But this new K2 HD remastering from LIM is in a class of its own.

First, I listened through the entire LIM album (LIM is a label of FIM, First Impression Music), remastered in LIM's elaborately advanced K2 HD format (a 24-bit, 100K Hz mastering process on 99.9999% silver), and what I heard pleased me no end. Then I put the older, Decca disc in another player and started comparing the two albums side by side. This time the LIM disc not only pleased me, it practically overwhelmed me. You have to understand that the Decca engineers captured a wide-ranging sound here, with a broad stereo spread and reasonably good stage depth, which both discs reproduce well enough. But on the Decca disc the upper strings that I thought were smoother than ever sounded more shrill than on the LIM disc, while the overall Decca response sounded consistently softer.

On the LIM disc, I heard more detail than on the Decca, without being bright or edgy. I heard a better, quicker transient response; a greater dynamic impact, especially in the percussion; a better balance among the frequencies; better transparency in the midrange; and more dimensionality. It even seemed that the LIM sound was wider across the sound stage, something that surely must have been my imagination, but who cares how it works.

Two notes, though, before closing: With the LIM you pay a high price for quality sound, and you don't get the added music Decca put on their regular CD, Solti's 1956 rendering of Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, a somewhat quirky but sympathetic work, full of life. What you do get with the LIM remastering besides the improved sound is some of the company's most stunningly beautiful packaging. Like most of FIM/LIM's releases, this one comes in a hardbound foldout container, like a book, with bound booklet notes, an inner sleeve for the disc, and a protective liner for the disc as well. But unlike some of FIM/LIM's early designs that featured a cutout front, this one uses a solid, glossy front cover, richly illustrated with the Decca album's original art work. Interestingly, the packaging is thinner, too, a welcome benefit for a crowded shelf.

JJP