What’s Spinning July 2021

Great album - this and the equally fine East West - introduced me to the fine skills and sensitivity of the audio engineer Claudia Engelhart who recorded the ‘West’ tracks on both albums. There is an amazing effect on track one of East West - ‘I Heard it on the Grapevine’ - where in my system there is amazing stereo width with the image going way beyond the right speaker - superb.

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Any love for SACDs here?

I have maintained a dCS SACD transport ever since dCS sold their first one. So I still get to play SACDs. Do I still buy them though? There may be the odd occasion but so many issues on SACD are now available as downloads at higher resolutions than DSD64. Further most (not all) SACD releases originate from PCM original recordings. I will always try to buy a release format that matches the original. It is, however, not always easy to find provenance. But if it is a PCM hi-res original I also often find significant discounts to the price of the download as I am a Qobuz Sublime+ subscriber.

So, let’s call my sentiment fondness rather than love.

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Thanks Peter. I’m getting a Rossini transport and will buy some SACDs to audition. Interested in good titles.

Congratulations Franco on the Rossini transport. I love mine.

Recommending SACD titles is difficult as many of those I would suggest are very much out of print as most record companies who used to support SACD no longer do or do so very rarely. Used copies can fetch unbelievable prices ( I have seen <300$/£/€ a pop) and some, whilst currently available, need to be self imported from Japan. I am happy to try but all will be classical music. Is that of interest?

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Sure Peter. That would be greatly appreciated. I buy on Discogs or eBay as well. Thanks :pray:

OK. here is a small selection:

Linn Records CKD411 Corelli Concerti Grossi OP.6 Avison Ensemble

CKD 411 Sleeve

This is a small band version of the concerti but superbly played with natural sound quality and is how I became familiar with the works. NLA and be careful as Linn Records has reissued many of its SACDs as CD only including this.

Linn Records CKD 362 Handel Concerti Grossi OP.6

CKD 362 Sleeve

Another small band, strings plus continuo version. Lovely playing and sense of musical shape. Again some of Linn’s finest sound.

Archiv 00289 477 5578 Tameau Une Symphonie Imaginaire, Les Musiciens du Louvre / Marc Minkowski

This SACD always elicits " Wow, what is that" comments from guests. Marc Minkowski’s wonderful confection made up from some of Rameau’s most spellbinding pieces drawn from various original sources.

Channel Classics Vivaldi 4 seasons Rachel Podger /Brecon Baroque

There is no record catalogue number as I am cheating having it as a DSD128 file. However I am sure that the SACD is fab too. Just look at the awards!
Podger 4 Seasons

Any of Rachel’s other Vivaldi discs are equally recommendable.

So just a short list all of which are from my particular area of interest in Baroque music.

Oh can’t forget this Romantic piece:

Niucracker Jurowski
Pentatone Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Valdimir Jurowsky

A live recording with spectacular sound and one of the finest performances of Nutcracker on record. I am cheating again having it as a download but I am sure that the SACD will be superb. NB: It was great to hear Jurowski’s final concert as chief conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra last night at this years Proms ( not present, on BBC Radio 3). It concluded with him being presented with the highly prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. When I say prestigious, a medal from the society that commissioned Beethoven to write the 9th symphony and whose previous recipients include Brahms and Stravinsky, is certainly that.

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Thank you so much Peter! I’ll get them for sure!