Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2; Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

Werner Haas, piano; Eliahu Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. PentaTone Classics 5186 114.

For a while now Telarc Records have been distributing a line of SACD recordings for the PentaTone label. About hall of these releases are of newly recorded material and about half are taken from the Philips archives, where they were originally made in the early 1970s during the short-lived "quadraphonic" era. Such is the case with the Rachmaninov disc reviewed here, recorded in 1974.

It's hard to divorce the sound of this recording from the music, so much is Rachmaninov wound up in emotional concerns. The sound is wide, warm, and slightly veiled, with a deep bass at one end but a lack of sparkle at the other. It means that pianist Werner Haas's performance may be more romanticized by the audio than by his playing. In any case, Haas and Inbal produce a sometimes highly charged, mostly laid-back and sentimental view of the Concerto, while they take a more analytical view of the Rhapsody, the exception being the popular 18th variation.

The disc is dual-layered, providing a two-channel stereo presentation on one layer and a four-channel presentation on the other. Although SACD allows for up to five discrete channels and a subwoofer track, PentaTone engineers decided to preserve the original intent of the old recording in four separate channels only. I do object to one of their publicity statements, though. I quote from the disc's booklet: "The advantages of multichannel recording and reproduction are sell-evident: the sound is much more natural, the resolution is better and the spatial impression is much more convincing than stereo." To which I can only say, "Perhaps." The sound in multichannel should be more "natural" if the rear channels are used for minor ambience enhancement; but the resolution is dependent upon how well the recording was made in the first place. This recording, as I said above, does not have particularly good "resolution," as one listen to its Ashkenazy/Previn (Decca) or Cliburn/Reiner (RCA) rivals will point out. As for the "spatial impression" being better than stereo, that, too, is dependent upon how well the recording was made and upon how well set up and balanced one's five-point-one multichannel speakers are.

I also object to the Rhapsody having only four tracks for the 24 Variations; it means if you want to go immediately to, say, Variation 18, you have to fast forward or reverse to find the spot. Not convenient. And I'm not too keen on the disc case these things come in, either. It is not a standard jewel box, and if it breaks, how does one replace it? One of the cases, for instance, arrived with a broken hinge. The back-cover artwork does not fit into a conventional jewel box without cutting it. Where does one buy a replacement box?

I know, complain, complain. Let it suffice to say that if you have an SACD player and a five-channel audio system, the disc may be worthwhile investigating. For ordinary two-channel stereo playback, the Ashkenazy or Cliburn discs are preferable.