The RCA living stereo SACD remasters.

By now, any SACD adopter who's also a classical music lover is well aware that there are 10 titles recently released in this new format; all are hybrid disks, making them playable on conventional CD players in addition to the new SACD-compatible equipment available now. More great news is on the way: the Mercury Living Presence reissues as SACDs that were originally scheduled earlier this year will have already been released by the time you read this. RCA is promising another ten titles for December 2004, but I had no information on the specific titles in this subsequent release at the time of this writing. I count myself among those who've anxiously awaited the arrival of these grand old chestnuts, but I am disappointed to report that the upcoming Mercury titles will not be budget-priced as those from RCA are.

As for the present releases, there's something for everybody, it would seem, I won't list all 10 of the titles, but if you are just learning of this development here, you can point your browser to RCA's official web site for the series at www.livingstereosacd.com/index.jsp. This column is limited to a discussion of the four of these I received initially. I have owned all of these recordings previously in at least one other format. As analog LPs, I have had the good fortune to have two of them in their original Shaded Dog issues, the others in my vinyl collection are audiophile pressings from RCA and Classic Records, and I have two-and-a-half of the four in the earlier RCA Living Stereo CD series (Van Cliburn's Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto was paired with the Beethoven Fifth Piano Concerto previously, now it comes with his famous Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto).

RCA boasts this is the first time that these recordings are made available in a multi-channel format. Since many of their legendary recordings were done with three-channel tape recorders, the company chose to offer them to the public just as they were originally taped. The results are that on some of these, you will have the option of using your center channel if you own a multi-channel player; I do not. Moreover, the new reissue of Munch's recording with the Boston Symphony of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony is from a recently found three-track tape, so it is a debut of sorts. Since, it seems to me, it would offer the biggest difference between what we've heard in the past and what's now available I'll begin with this one.

One other thing, though: I wanted to take into account any differences I might hear between the standard CD layer of the new hybrids and the earlier CDs. In my opinion, something can be learned about how a new DSD master can compare with a straight PCM transfer when we're not comparing apples to oranges. RCA made new CD-compatible transfers from DSD for each of the ten titles at the same time they were making the SACDs, so this step could help to assure me that the differences I might hear between SACD and CD were real, and not just the effect of different engineering and equipment choices. Regardless of what you might read elsewhere, all equipment does not sound the same: software can demonstrate this noticeably at times, Engineers often take individual approaches to creating their masters too, so it is not likely that the sound from one reissue series sounds exactly like its predecessors.

As with the earlier CD release of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony (09026-61500-2), the new SACD (82876-61387-2) also includes Munch's Boston performances of Debussy's La Mer and Ibert's Escales. And, while most audio enthusiasts will want this disk for the symphony, it's the latter two that sound the best on both the CD and the SACD. Listening only to the CD layer of the new SACD release, I found it to have a slightly wider sound stage than the older CD, but the older CD sounds just a bit more cohesive overall to these ears. Images that appear solidly between my speakers often wander a bit in the DSD transfer to PCM. I notice this most in the woodwind section where flutes and clarinets suddenly bolt from right center to left rear. Strangely enough, the organ finale in the Maestoso is far more vivid and spacious in the DSD transfer than on the original CD, and the lowest frequencies appear to be slightly more defined. The organ image itself takes on a more realistic form, spanning most of the width of my listening room whereas the older CD makes it sound more compact. Both recordings are a bit harsh in a few rare instances, and these are all concerned with the brass and cymbals. Indeed, the cymbals in the new SACD transfer are quite irritating, much less so on the CD. I don't know how much of this is due to any differences between the two master tapes used, but I find listening to the cymbals on the SACD verging on the excruciating. This may well be closer to what the master tape sounds like, but my guess is that the original LP released in 1959 is the most euphonic and satisfying.

Next in line is Munch's gracious performance of Ravel's Daphnis Et Chloe (SACD: 82876-61388-2, CD: 09026-61846-2). Things are much better sounding here in either release compared to the Organ Symphony, and, in fact, this is the best sounding of the four SACDs reviewed here by a considerable margin. The SACD segment has a distinct advantage in openness and transparency over either of the two PCM samples. If I were asked to choose just one of these four to give a fair representation of what is possible in the SACD medium, this would be it. Still, this is not among the best sounding analog to SACD transfers I have heard, and in my opinion RCA could have done a better job. As performances go, Munch gives us one of the best ever, but my favorite remains the account Pierre Monteux recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Perhaps the most famous of these recordings is Van Cliburn's performance of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto (82876-61392-2). This was recorded just days after Cliburn won the 1958 competition in Russia, and holds the distinction of being one of only three classical recordings to be listed on the Billboard album charts. It is also one of the best selling classical music albums of all time, and with good reason. Having heard only the original LP release of this, I cannot determine whether its earlier CD releases were any different from this one, but it provides a very acceptable sound on both its CD and SACD layers. The piano appears a bit larger than life compared to my old, worn, original LP, but it is quite satisfying in all other respects.

Finally, we come to Monteux's Boston Symphony recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 6, Pathetique, (82876-61397-2). Since three of these four SACDs feature the Boston Symphony, I thought it fairest to judge this one's sound on the basis of hearing how the RCA engineers approached the recording sessions, and how the three disks ranked. While somewhat spacious, the sound here appears a bit small. There is neither the width nor depth that I find on either of the Munch recordings, but I felt that the tonal balance is far better than what I hear from the Saint-Saens segment of the first disk reviewed above. With that in mind, this Tchaikovsky disk ranks significantly below the Ravel. From the performance point of view, Monteux does not seem to convey the sense of urgency I consider most important in hearing this work.

I must say that in consideration of these four disks, the single most worthy point I can make about the majority of transfers of vintage analog to DSD/ SACD I have heard is that the engineers who are performing this work are their own worst enemies. I would imagine that many younger audiophiles who have never had the good fortune to hear the early shaded dog LP versions of these recordings would call into question the hearing abilities of their predecessors. They would be wrong. As a whole, these sound nothing like the shaded dogs. They have only a little of their musical soul hinting at what their hobbyist ancestors prized so highly--no blood, no real sense of dynamics. As with most transfers of vintage analog, I find that despite the digital capability to offer greater ranges, we get more compression instead. Listening to these recordings and then thinking that they might adequately provide a sense of what the master tapes might sound like would be akin to looking at a famous painting in a dimly-lit art gallery through dark sunglasses.

I would be happy to have your questions or comments about the recordings discussed in this column, or about the SACD medium. You can email me at [e-mail].

--SGB