MFSL classical SACD's......long OOP

Remember the brief, good old days of quad? Various labels, Vox included, were experimenting with ways to get four channel sound out of the long-playing vinyl platter. I believe the old USA RCA label had a discrete four channel system that actually cut four separate channels into the otherwise 2-sided LP groove. This meant you had to have a special cartridge/needle combo to safely ride and reproduce the four tracks cut into the groove. Never took off. Others, EMI and Vox among them choose the matrixed sound path, rather like the ways FM radio was matrixing a stereo signal into its carrier waves, so that your home receiver could decode it down to two channels in your home.

A complete set of the Ravel orchestral music was recorded in Minnesota with the era's music director, Stanislav Skrowaczewski. Like the golden era recordings of the old Mercury Golden Presence label, the engineers adopted a deliberate minimalist miking strategy. Once they found what they thought was the sweet spot, they just left the microphones alone, and let Ravel and the orchestra do the rest. Then we got these wonderful performances, highly lauded from the moment they hit the streets, on vinyl with four channels of matrixed sound. You could listen in regular stereo, or if you had the matrix decoder, get four.

Now we are really well into the surround sound era, thanks mainly to how home theater got all of us to finally upgrade our hardware. Since we already have the equipment for movies, and now for HD television; we have little reason not to let our music collections into the mix. And, voila. These master tapes revive, standing up to something like their original audible stature, thanks to the new high resolution Superaudio format. Pentatone is doing something similar to what Mobil Fidelity is doing here, with those almost forgotten quad master tapes; and what a nice surprise - the sound couldn't be better.

The Minnesota Orchestra of the era wasn't particularly known for its French tradition or influences as such. If anything, the Boston Symphony had inherited that crown prince designation when Koussevitsky arrived from Paris, bringing star French players with him. Then Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch helped maintain that legacy once the big K was gone. The Jean Martinon period in Chicago never really took root, and so as time passed, the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit inherited the nomination for outstanding French orchestra outside of France. Nevertheless, these are utterly superb captures of a sophisticated Ravelian orchestral fabric - replete with finesse, sheen, silver - all polished to high gloss. This will remind one perhaps of the famous Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, reflecting light in all directions. And raising almost metaphysical questions of just what is real, and what is reflection, in the cross-hatch of all the refracted light.

Skrowaczewski knows well enough to let Ravel speak, without intruding. No mannerisms or oddities mar the music, either at the musical surfaces or in the melancholy or grotesque, subtle depths lurking beneath their polish. Tempos are consistently well chosen for the piece at hand. Some may at first hear the warhorse Bolero at too slow a pace, but comparison with the extant old version conducted by the composer in person would show that this slower, more languorous tempo is what Ravel himself adopted. There is still plenty of flash and fire in this Bolero, but also lots of that French intoxication with all things North African. Tourists are still going to far places to smoke kif and indulge in love-making with the local service industry that still knows where to find them.

Whatever you may think of French tourists smoking kif or the more hedonistic undergrounds in the North African tourist industry - As music: This is all simply marvelous to hear, especially in surround sound that finally yields up for our ears what has been sleeping on these old master tapes, all along.

Of course, this disc offers more than Bolero done with a slow, knowing hand that feels what it is reaching out to touch, namely, you. The Rhapsody, La Valse, Pavane, and Daphnis et Chloe suite no. 2 are the real point. Each of these works is simply so fine that they make Ravel's case as one of the acknowledged Great Composers of the West, all over again. What a felicity that Vox had the imagination and guts to go to Minneapolis, and get all this down, just when the other major labels had seemingly forgotten that Minnesota ever had a great orchestra. These Ravel performances will wear extremely well, no matter who else does them in surround sound and high resolution superaudio or dvd-audio. The only sad thing about this disc is when it inevitably ends, having played through. One could only have wished that Vox had been willing to get the full score of Daphnis from these sessions, the recording of the suites is so very finely done.

(You will find a second equally fine disc from these Minnesota sessions, also in surround sound superaudio from Mobile Fidelity. Plus, you can get their St. Louis sessions with Walter Susskind, which captured a very fine Smetana cycle of Ma Vlast, along with a rich and dramatic vision of Holst's Planets suite for large orchestra. Do not diss Susskind, by the way, because he was highly regarded by other musicians, including the likes of Ginette Niveau, Heifitz, Rubinstein, Milstein, Firkusny, Ricci, and Artur Schnabel. Nor is St. Louis confined to being a regional band: it is one of USA's oldest orchestras.)

Five stars. Is that enough? Hardly. This disc and its companion are simply among the true peaks in the mountain ranges of the history of recorded music. They may be equaled, but probably will never be bettered. Very highly recommended. Indeed.

Pictures At An Exhibition remains one of classical music's most popular, colorful and enduring works as does what is usually viewed as a companion piece, the orchestral version of "Night On Bald Mountain." This historic Vox recording of Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony is a bold, stellar recording of both of these pieces. The tonality of the instruments is mesmerizing, excellent and, even in stereo, the sense of space is nothing less than amazing. Slatkin also brings to life the famous ballet "Dance Of The Persian Slaves" from Mussorgsky's opera, "Khovanschina". For the original 1975 sessions, specifically mic'd for surround, Slatkin also put his distinctive stamp on Borodin's "In The Steppes Of Central Asia." Each piece, be it joyously melodic or darkly menacing, is the result of maestro and ensemble working perfectly together.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab maintains the resounding success of its debut surround series with this jewel from the illustrious Vox catalog on its critically acclaimed Ultradisc UHR SACD series. The full sonic spectrum of this masterpiece is finally unveiled as four channels of stunning detail, lifelike imaging and in-depth ambient information that enables listeners to experience the producer's original sonic intention for the first time. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's GAIN 2™ (Greater Ambient Information Network) mastering process enables the maximum amount of musical information to be extracted from an ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING and delivers to classical aficionados and high resolution surround enthusiasts alike as a dual-layer hybrid SACD. This Ultradisc UHR SACD features 4.0 surround sound and a new illustrated booklet with the original liner notes written by Richard Freed plus additional technical information.