Best Classical SACD's

Ethancf

Hey guys,

I am getting into SACD, and I want to get some recommendations of the best SACD's out there for Classical music. Telarc recordings? I only run in 2 channel, but I want something that will just blow me away.

Thanks!

John K.

Ethan, there're about 700 classical SACDs, but I'll give you my thoughts on where to start. My first suggestion would be the excellent bargain-priced Swan Lake I got a few months ago(now temporarily out of stock). Then, consider the gigantic Il'Ya Murometz on Telarc; the beautiful Rachmaninoff 2d Symphony ; Schippers doing Alexander Nevsky and Pictures at an Exhibition ; Bernstein with a fine Copland collection .

gregure

I wrote the following in regards to the new SACD Mahler series from San Francisco in another thread a few days ago:
A few months ago I had the pleasure of going to a concert in San Francisco for a SF Symphony concert conducted my Michael Tilson Thomas. The sound of the orchestra has come a long way in MTT's tenure, and the beauty of sound they produce as an organic whole is wonderful. The opening to Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet was so delicate and open sounding in the hall, with a real sumptuous sound from the clarinets. CD's have a come a long way in reproducing that sound, but have not really been able to capture that "live" sound. Until I picked up a copy of the new Mahler 3 recording from MTT and SFS on SACD/Hybrid. I was absolutely blown away by the precision and exactitute with which this new format captures the sound of actually hearing the music in Davies Hall. Woodwinds sound like woodwinds, brass chorales have a real ringing, full sound, and there is just a general openness and ripeness to the overall experience. Dare I say it, it's as if all of the overtones are retained in the recording. I have since picked up all of their Mahler recordings, Symphony 1 being my favorite so far. 2 is also excellent, but the organ in the finale is just too damn muted to give it a full overall impact, however every single tam-tam stroke is clearly heard over the orchestra and ringing bells, a rare feature in recorded versions of this symphony. Overall, these are the best recorded performances I have ever heard of these works. SACD, even in hybrid PCM format, is clearly the winner in the format war as far as I'm concerned.

Emlyn

The RCA Living Stereo hybrid SACDs have been getting a lot of good press for the last few months. Amazon has a few of them for $10.99. Not all performances are as significant as others. A good place to look is at www.acousticsounds.com with the lists of recommended recordings by Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound or Chad Kassem, owner of Acousticsounds. Browsing either list yields good ideas on some classical SACDs that were selected for either the quality of the performance or the quality of the recording, or both.