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Reviews: Mozart: Great Mass in C Minor - Nicol Matt

Reviews: 3

Site review by Geohominid May 13, 2009
Performance:   Sonics:    
The text for this review has been moved to the new site. You can read it here:

http://www.HRAudio.net/showmusic.php?title=1640#reviews

Review by beardawgs February 9, 2004 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
This is a mixed bag. The performers and conductor are new to me, and if the new batch from Brilliant weren’t such bargains, we wouldn’t consider buying them. Talking about price/quality value, well, I’m not entirely sure was our £7 well spent. This seems to be first ever release of Mozart’s Great Mass in DSD and MC, but if you’re not entirely desperate to have it, it might be a good idea to wait for a while.

My main complaint is the recorded sound. It doesn’t sound like any DSD recording I’ve heard so far. There is no clarity, focus is missing even in solo singer’s numbers and the reverb of the venue is far too big for this kind of music. The sound picture is blurred, the choir is far too distant and the orchestra too prominent on quite a few places. If you don’t know the mass text, you won’t understand a single word from the chorus. As if you’re listening from another room. There is not a trace of space wider than the speakers, and back channels are there to provide long echo, as if it was artificially created. Soloists seems to be singing at exactly the same places, rather annoying when all 4 of them are singing – men are slightly right, women slightly left, but more often one over another. Dynamics are also a bit awkward, when it gets loud, it’s just loud, not voluminous. And the high strings and flutes are more piercing than tender on anything above mezzo-forte.

The performance itself is not bad at all. Matt starts opening Kyrie in a highly romantic fashion, very slow and he speeds up a bit the following movements. As if he is not entirely sure about his conception, or it was the long hall reverberation time that forced him to slow down so much. His choir is technically perfect, well disciplined and tight, but I couldn’t hear it properly for any final conclusion. Solo sopranos are also good, although they tend to strain their upper registers. This is not the type of the performance we would expect today, but I have to add that I’m a great fan of romantic approach for this Mass. Long soprano aria ‘Et incarnatus est’ is the highpoint of the disc, very well sung and sounds better than the rest for a simple reason – just one singer and the orchestra, so you can actually hear everything.

There are also 11 short Bach’s chorals included, and the things are slightly better here. One can actually hear the words from the choir, and the instrumental accompaniment is not as elaborate as in Mozart, so it doesn’t get in their way. Much.

All in all, it costs and it sounds £7.

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Review by Elliotdurand August 4, 2008 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
I guess this is the only SA-CD I regret buying, the sound quality doesn't honor DSD recording, it just sounds like a well recorded conventional CD. When you buy a SA-CD you expect to be once again astonished by its sound and the feeling of space it gives by playing with all the speakers. They could have taking more advantage of the many characteristics SA-CD has to offer. The performance is fair but given the deficiency just mentioned it's not worth its price. I believe the sound quality is the essence when liking a piece.

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