Customer Reviews

The Sistine Chapel Choir in Concert at the Vatican

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Even considering the low price, you should think twice before ordering this CD. The sound is muddy throughout, and distorted during the louder passages. There is no indication when this live recording was made, but it is well below the quality we've now come to expect.

This is such a bad recording. I was so excited to hear this but i't very hard to hear it. I'm sure it would be beautiful but I can't stand to listen to a whole song. It's a shame to say but I wouldn't buy this album.

It sounds like it was recorded with a cheap hand-held cassette recorder with the batteries running down! There are sneezes and coughs and it was mastered at the wrong speed! If you MUST have this, I suggest ripping it to your hard drive and then running software such as Adobe Audition. Remove the noise, add some extra equalization, and transpose the entire thing up by 2-4 semitones depending on the piece, in resample mode, so that the length of each passage is shortened by the same amount that the pitch goes up. It should sound like boys and men singing, not demons and post-menopausal women with sore throats. It almost sounds halfway decent then.

Des Pres's "Ave Maria" is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it is woefully rendered here compared to Chanticleer or even Boston Camerata. This CD is low quality, but all the Sistine Choir CDs I have sound similar. Watch the Midnight Mass from the Vatican even now; the sound is poor. Remember, this is liturgical, which demands different standards. If you are interested in Latin ecclesiastical polyphony, or if you don't have other recordings of these songs and may sing them, I'd recommend it regardless. I got it for 99 cents at FYE, so I'm not complaining.