I purchased this based on the positive review given here ... I mainly purchased it for the Goldmark -- though after listening to Milstein's version here from the 1950s, I would say that I much prefer my rendition by Perlman on LP.
For the Brahms, it turned out that the interest for me was actually the 1st movement cadenza which is Milstein's own, but the Praga disc entirely fails to mention this; in fact, the rather poor notes allude to the cadenza being by Joachim (which it is not). I am a Milstein fan, but I find this rendition of the Brahms to be a bit cold and lacking in emotional warmth, though others plainly do like it more than me.
At the end of the day, the sonics are fairly muffled and below average, so I am not sure what is gained by putting this on SACD. It is true that the CD layer and the SACD layer sound different ... but if they both sound fairly mish-mashy, it's all really much of a muchness. More problematic, I think I prefer the CD layer, which is not entirely helpful. For some reason, the SACD layer seem very base heavy???? And under those circumstances, I suspect one might as well stick to the CD release (various couplings exist) which one can buy for about $1 on Amazon.
--------
Addendum: The solo Bach Chaconne excerpt (last track) sounds MUCH better on the SACD layer than on the CD layer. It's the main concerto tracks that seem base heavy on the SACD layer.
|