Thread: Britten 100

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Post by Jonalogic June 11, 2013 (1 of 56)
Am I the only one who has, thus far, been totally underwhelmed by the non-existent impact on SACD of the 100th Anniversary of Benjamin Britten's birth ?

Of course, it's easy on RBCD - just re-release the flood of great Decca and EMI golden age recordings on mega box sets. Cheap, and problem solved.

But new recordings on SACD? Nada. Zip. Bupkiss. Rien. Bugger-all. Nichts. OK, you get the idea. Virtually nothing worth mentioning.

And the biggest booby prize?.... goes to Chandos, for releasing a promising looking and high-resolution coupling of the great violin and piano concertos...on RBCD.

So, still no violin and cello concerto. No Young Person's Guide in a performance that isn't risible. No Spring Symphony. No Peter Grimes - in fact, no operas AT ALL.

Sigh.

What a way to honour one of Britain's finest composer!

Post by Claude June 11, 2013 (2 of 56)
Are there many new recordings on CD to celebrate the anniversary? If not, that explains the absence on SACD.

The reason why Chandos releases some new recordings on CD (and hi-rez stereo download) and not on SACD was discussed a few times on this forum. It could have to do with the non-existence of a multichannel recording. Like the Elgar cello concerto, the Britten concertos were recorded in the MediacityUK studio.

/showthread/59736/59795
/showthread/82831/82839

Post by samayoeruorandajin June 11, 2013 (3 of 56)
Britten, I'm sorry, but meh.

Post by Jonalogic June 11, 2013 (4 of 56)
Claude said:

Are there many new recordings on CD to celebrate the anniversary? If not, that explains the absence on SACD.

The reason why Chandos releases some new recordings on CD (and hi-rez stereo download) and not on SACD was discussed a few times on this forum. It could have to do with the non-existence of a multichannel recording. Like the Elgar cello concerto, the Britten concertos were recorded in the MediacityUK studio.

/showthread/59736/59795
/showthread/82831/82839

Hi

Yep, good point, but there are certainly plenty more new Britten recordings on CD than on SACD! (including another violin concerto, dammit, coupled with the Shostakovich - ggrrr).

Of course, the plethora of great Decca recordings by Britten himself, plus Previn and many others on EMI at least does make up to an extent for this. No such luck on SACD, regretfully, although these would make for stunning re-issues if anyone ever wanted to.

Hmm.. not sure I follow the logic that SACD needs to be MCH; they're two different things aren't they? And there are plenty of stereo SACDs, of course. Plus I suspect 95% (?) of hi-fi listeners are stereo-based, anyway - just like you and I!

And I'm not clear why a specific venue like Mediacity might preclude MCH? I reckon it's just some bozo in Chandos tossing a coin to decide RBCD or SACD release...Especially considering some of the strange and off-track repertoire now appearing on SACD from Chandos. I must confess I have found some of their recent recordings - how shall we say - musically underwhelming.

If anyone in Chandos is reading this, please feel free to tell me otherwise?

Cheers

Post by Jonalogic June 11, 2013 (5 of 56)
samayoeruorandajin said:

Britten, I'm sorry, but meh.

Thanks for constructive comment.

No one's paying you to listen to his stuff!

Anyway, your loss.

Post by jazz1 June 11, 2013 (6 of 56)
Jonalogic said:

Am I the only one who has, thus far, been totally underwhelmed by the non-existent impact on SACD of the 100th Anniversary of Benjamin Britten's birth ?

Of course, it's easy on RBCD - just re-release the flood of great Decca and EMI golden age recordings on mega box sets. Cheap, and problem solved.

But new recordings on SACD? Nada. Zip. Bupkiss. Rien. Bugger-all. Nichts. OK, you get the idea. Virtually nothing worth mentioning.



What a way to honour one of Britain's finest composer!

Yes but you can get this RBCD's set for peanuts surely the biggest bargain in music for years,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benjamin-Britten-Collectors-Box-Set/dp/B001EOOC3W/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370962662&sr=1-1&keywords=britten+box

Post by Claude June 11, 2013 (7 of 56)
Jonalogic said:

Hmm.. not sure I follow the logic that SACD needs to be MCH; they're two different things aren't they? And there are plenty of stereo SACDs, of course. Plus I suspect 95% (?) of hi-fi listeners are stereo-based, anyway - just like you and I!

There are almost no new classical SACD releases with new recordings that are stereo only. I assume it's because many classical SACD buyers expect multichannel sound.

For stereo alone, there is the hi-rez FLAC format which is supported by more hardware devices than SACD.

That's how most classical labels seem to decide on the release format: multichannel --> hybrid SACD. Stereo --> CD and hi-rez download

Post by Jonalogic June 11, 2013 (8 of 56)
jazz1 said:

Yes but you can get this RBCD's set for peanuts surely the biggest bargain in music for years,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benjamin-Britten-Collectors-Box-Set/dp/B001EOOC3W/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370962662&sr=1-1&keywords=britten+box

Yep indeedy, or even...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Complete-Works-Various-Artists/dp/B00CJCHJ1U/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370963496&sr=1-2&keywords=britten+box

But the quality of many of these recordings merits vinyl or SACD, rather than plain-jane RBCD, of course.

Post by Iain June 11, 2013 (9 of 56)
Claude said:

There are almost no new classical SACD releases with new recordings that are stereo only. I assume it's because many classical SACD buyers expect multichannel sound.

For stereo alone, there is the hi-rez FLAC format which is supported by more hardware devices than SACD.

That's how most classical labels seem to decide on the release format: multichannel --> hybrid SACD. Stereo --> CD and hi-rez download

All you actually need for RBCD content on AVR is:
1) Dolby Pro Logic II Music DSP to convert 2-channel to multi-channel format
2) AL24 Plus processing to convert to high-resolution format

Post by Fugue June 11, 2013 (10 of 56)
I hope that BIS concludes its excellent Britten String Quartet series this year, and perhaps Channel Classics will add another Shostakovich/Britten pairing: Shosty's Cello Concerto No. 1 and Britten's Cello Symphony. We also need a pairing of Britten's Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto. Since I'm a guitarist, I'd love a m-ch SACD of Britten's "Nocturnal," too.

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