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Discussion: Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 - Munch

Posts: 3

Post by Windsurfer February 6, 2007 (1 of 3)
I just listened to this today. Seems a little fast in places (but I can adjust to that). The notable thing is the sound is quite good considering that it was recorded more than 50 years ago!

Post by fafnir February 6, 2007 (2 of 3)
When the "Unfinished" was first released in the mid-fifties coupled with Beethoven's Fifth, the critic C. G. Burke proclaimed in "High Fidelity" magazine that the sound on the record was so good that it would be a standard until "the next apocalyptic revolution of the phonograph." Three "apocalyptic revolutions" later this record is still around and doesn't sound half bad either. No one would confuse it with the latest SACDs, but it's good enough to provide musical pleasure, albeit in pure stereo. Hearing it provides a great reminder of how much we have progressed in sound reproduction since the introduction of stereo over fifty years ago. Munch's performance is good but not exceptional. As was standard practice at the time, no exposition repeats are observed in either score. I prefer the Nott performance on Tudor most probably because of it's completely different take on the over-familiar score - almost elegiac.

The "Great C Major" was recorded about three and half years later, and is a better recording in three front channels. Again, not state-of-the-art, but more than sufficient to convey the force of the music in Munch's dynamic performance. Tempos may be a somewhat faster than customary, but they worked for me; I found the performance to be sensitive and exhilarating. For those who are interested, Nott's performance on Tudor appears to be ready for imminent release.

Post by Jonalogic August 20, 2010 (3 of 3)
Arnaldo said:

In comparing Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 - Munch to Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 - Dausgaard, Jonalogic's review seems to imply that the BIS disc is a 2009 DSD recording (*). Instead, it should be noted that most recent BIS SACDs are 24 bit 44.1 kHz PCM recordings. The only DSD recording currently available of these 2 symphonies is Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 - Sieghart.

On the other hand, it's interesting to see a higher percentage of recommendations against an otherwise informative review, likely due to a simple negative mention of a BIS disc.

(*) Review by Jonalogic: "... when I auditioned the modern, Schubert-lite perfomances of Dausgaard on BIS... is almost comically flat, congealed and unfocussed. The inner lines and voices which are so clearly delineated musically and separated spatially in the minimalist 1950's analog recording just smear together in the 2009 DSD effort..."

Arnaldo Hi

Quite right that the BIS is not DSD. Silly me - I stand corrected. However, this does not impact on my general conclusions, of course.

I am decidedly not anti-BIS. For instance, I have been lavish with praise for their Wigglesworth/Shostakovich series, and others.

However, I didn't feel that the Dausgaard recordings was one of their better ones, either sonically or musically.

You win some, you lose some.

Jon

Closed