Customer Reviews

Dvorák, Walton: Cello Concertos [Hybrid SACD]

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I ordered this disc for three reasons, Dvorak's Cello Concerto, Gregor Piatigorsky, and SACD. The biggest surprise was the SACD part but I'll get to that later.

First the Dvorak Cello Concerto. As a teenager I was a student of the cello and had the great good fortune to have as my teacher a remarkable lady who was the Principal Cellist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. The opportunity to study cello with her was one of the really special experiences I had as a student of the instrument.

One of my first LP recordings of the Dvorak featured Gregor Piatigorsky. Later I had the opportunity to hear my teacher perform the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Houston Symphony; I was so proud of her that I could hardly stand it.

These events secured a special place in my heart for the concerto where it has remained for many years. When I saw this recording of Piatigorsky playing the Dvorak I knew I wanted it. I have just finished playing it and am bursting to tell you about my surprise.

When SACD first came out Sony produced a number of two channel recordings based on earlier works in their catalog; these recordings were sometimes rather marginal in their technical quality and certainly didn't realize the full potential of the SACD medium.

When I saw this was an older recording redone in SACD I was mildly concerned that this would be a repeat of my Sony experience. The big surprise for me was these are excellent sonically and have fabulous sound on SACD. This particular recording is a three channel recording using the front left, center, and front right channels which can all be played on any multi-channel SACD player.

The liner notes tell how the RCA engineers recorded some of their "Living Stereo" recordings with three channels using a three-track recording made on an Ampex 300-3 machine using 1/2 inch tape running at 15 ips and later at 30 ips (ips stands for inches per second). Although at the time the technology didn't exist for three channel playback in the home there must have been the hopeful expectation that such technology would eventually be available for use in the home.

The results for the listener is an outstanding musical experience with phenomenal dynamic range. I was amazed to get such quality from a recording made so many years ago and to get Piatigorsky playing the Dvorak with such audio quality was much more that I had even hoped for.

If you're set up for home theater surround, happen to love music, and you are not yet enjoying SACD may I suggest the OPPO BDP-93 universal player offered by Amazon for $499.99. It will play your Blu-ray, 3D, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, and CD's all very well. I have the older BDP-83 and have had great success with it.

We're living in technologically exciting times; I hope you're having fun with it!

I love the 'cello. It's range covers the range of the human voice. It is a wonderful "singing" instrument. This CD contains one of the greatest 'cello concertos ever written. Every part of the concerto is melodic, "singing", and emotionally satisfying. This version by Piatagorsky was perfomred and recorded in the 1960's. It sounds as fresh today as it did 45 years ago. This CD was given to me as a gift from a friend. Thanks Jim....appreciated! Email: boland7214@aol.co