Damnation de Faust

I'll offer an observation on the SACD sound in 2-channel, stereo. Comparing it to DG's CD releases (both the 1990 Galleria and 1996 "2CD" issue, which sound identical), the SACD is dramatically more dynamic. My one and only complaint about the CDs has been the slightly "closed in" sound. It just does not have the oomph of, say, Solti's Decca recording. That is certainly remedied on PentaTone's SACD. Indeed, the dynamic range is even wider than Solti's 1982 digital one. In the early days of digital recording, Decca applied a dynamic-range ceiling to their recordings, which clearly clips down the volume on the biggest peaks. This severely affected Dutoit's Ravel and many of Solti's 1980s recordings, his Damnation of Faust included. There is no dynamic compression on Ozawa's analog recording (or Pretre's for EMI) and it is revealed at last in its full majesty and power by the PentaTone SACD.All this being said, there is just a bit of analog ambiance missing in the cleaning-up process for SACD, a certain menacing awesomeness to the huge Symphony Hall acoustic that the CD exhibits. Maybe it's a bit of extra bass bloat? I'm not sure. But I miss it during the most dramatic moments near the end of the piece (the Ride to the Abyss and Pandemonium sections). And the SACD is a little brighter on woodwinds and more sibilant than the CD (those hissing S's in the men's chorus in the same passage). But, this opening up of the sound allows the full dynamic impact to become realized, and it really is thrilling. The men of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus still sound a bit weak and backwardly balanced, and, try as they might, endearingly sound like a college Glee Club. They can't match their counterparts in Margaret Hillis's Chicago Symphony Chorus for Solti, let alone the Paris Opera Chorus for Pretre. Pretre remains supremely exciting in this piece (yes, even more so than Solti!), and has the advantage of the radiantly glorious mezzo Janet Baker. But, minor quibbles aside, everything about Ozawa's recording is fantastic. And now, thanks to PentaTone, it is as thrilling as any.

My comments seem to be in the minority, so I'll be brief. The copy of this Pentatone disc that I purchased was plagued by a very distant middle-of-sound-field perspective of the singers .. especially for any of Faust's musings when he was alone...This effect would then be followed by normal loudness levels when say David McIntyre appears. I have a very high-quality 5 channel system and have enjoyed other Pentatone productions of older performances...so I have no explanation for this phenomenon. To put the nail in the coffin I purchased a Japanese BluSpec stereo pressing of this performance and was very impressed by its presence, dynamic contrast and clarity of timbers for the BSO, the chorus and the principle artists. Go figure. In short, I suspect my Pentatone copy was an early or otherwise mis-manged pressing and that the experiences of the other reviewers are the ones to believe. Still, if you should have an experience of this fine performance like mine try the Blu Spec version..which can be had for the low twenty's delivered from Japan (e.g. via CD Japan).

Stunning SACD transfer from Philips original master tapes!

This recording has been around for more than 40 years now, so I'm going to skip reviewing the performance and focus on the 4.0 surround mix, which is the obvious selling point of this reissue.Unlike most 4.0 quad recordings from the 1970s (and surround sound recordings in general), this recording uses the rear channels discretely with the choirs, soloists and off stage instruments. The choirs are placed in the left and right rears, and the soloists take discrete positions around the listener rather than all of them being arranging front-and-center (so Mephistopheles tends to be placed in the right-front corner). And as the performance progress, they are moved around. For example, in the beginning of Part 4 Marguerite starts out in the front, but when the sound of the students and soldiers seep into her room she's moved to the right rear channel.Some people may think this is gimmicky, but I've attended plenty of choral music and in-concert opera performances where conductors do exactly this. And in this recording the results are pretty thrilling. The listener is placed in the center of the action and the discrete location of the soloists and chorus, combined with their movement adds a sense of spontaneity to the recording. It doesn't sound like you're just living to a reproduction of a performance but something created uniquely for home listening.Sound quality is mostly excellent. Putting aside the discrete use of rear channels, this is truly a recording that gives little hint that it's over 40 years old. The sound is spacious, warm and robust. There's no hint of tape hiss. My only complaint is the recording is overly reverberant in places, especially with the choirs.For those that already own a previous incarnation of this recording it's worth buying again if you have a surround sound system. If you only have stereo systems, then benefits are obviously fewer.

These Pentatone SACDs of Seiji Ozawa in Boston in 1970s quad are a revelation. He and his wonderful band in those days seemed to have a natural affinity for the French repertoire and the sound in multi-channel as rendered now by Pentatone is glorious. Here is Berlioz the fantasy of the music is almost as palpable as the near contemporaneous Symphonie Fantastique. This was not really my favourite Damnation in its DG incarnations: much as I admire Edith Mathis she is not quite the perfect Marguerite, Burrows is not as accomplished as Gedda and Donald McIntyre is rougher and less insinuating than Jose van Dam. But the thing here is the fabulous orchestral performance. At times it even bolsters the singers' characterisation: when Mephistopheles first appears the brass ("O pure emotion...") plays three raucous notes. These are so superbly placed in the rear speakers I nearly fell off my chair.There is an interesting correspondence on various audiophile sites with the original producer of many of these recordings, Thomas Mowrey who claims he was the only DG engineer to have been producing 'immersive' surround sound - where the rear speakers do more than just faint ambience - for the label in the 1970s: listening to the results I can believe him.The Pentatone production is high quality even down to the presentation, though it is not to everyone's taste. If we want a serious industry for quality listening of reissues, this is a niche I urge others to encourage by buying and trying. If the series is a commercial success we shall have lots more goodies from DG to look forward to, possibly including Ozawa's Romeo et Juliette............ Try his Ravel too so they issue the rest of that series!

Ya tenía dos versiones, (George Solti y Colin Davis), excelentes también, pero la Discográfica Pentatone, Cuando acierta, (algún fallito hay), es de resultados sorprendentes. El director y los intérpretes ofrecen garantía previa y la grabación es magnífica, así que esta vez, BRAVO!!!!

Très belle version qu'il faut absolument écouter en SACD. Ce support est magnifique et je ne comprends pas que les grandes maisons DG Decca Emi ne l'utilisent pas.