Sparkling Mozart in Surround Sound
5 Stars
Posted
Sunday, March 16, 2008
by
XIC
It is without question that the music on this recording is some of the most sublime in the classical music world, so a review in this case need only address sound and performance, both of which are truly excellent.
Using DSD technology, the SACD multichannel layer gives you a very realistic sound space, where you can almost visualize being inside the hall where it was recorded. The center, surround left and surround right speakers are used mostly for ambient, reverberant sound. While I normally prefer to hear the center speaker used as part of the orchestral soundstage, the feeling of natural hall acoustics that this recording gives makes up for that and works quite nicely.
As with all Hybrid SACDs, there is a multichannel and stereo SACD layer, and as a bonus, the regular CD layer is in HDCD, if your system can reproduce that. If not, it will read as a normal CD.
With four Mozart symphonies played tightly with enthusiasm and energy, this set is truly outstanding.