Mahler - Symphony No. 4 - F. Reiner, Chicago S.O., Lisa Della Casa - Living Stereo 082876-67901-2 (2005) SACD rip via PS3 to iso (3.36GB) | 24bit/88.2kHz flac tracks Mch (1.74GB) DR, 2ch (1.14GB) DR13 | DST | recorded 1958 | Classical, Orchestral SA-CD.net review: Review by Chris August 25, 2005 This is in my opinion one of the VERY BEST Living Stereos so far! And we have already had quite a few good ones. I find both the interpretation by Reiner,the playing by the CSO & the recording by Lewis Layton, absolutely outstanding! Reiner lets us hear exactly what Mahler wrote no more, no less. I don't find that boring at all ! On the contrary, "Ich geniesse die himmlichen Freuden" when listening to this the sunniest of Mahler's symphonies in such a perfect interpretation. I also hope Reiner's equally perfect Das Lied von der Erde will be in the next batch from Living Stereo. Once again Living Stereo makes me really wonder what progress, if any, has been made since 1958 when this recording was made. Everything basically sounds as fresh, clear & natural as almost only live performances can. The simple miking has rendered the soundpicture & perspectives more realistically than most, modern multimiked recordings ever have. However superficially impressive the latest Telarcs & others may initially sound, on repeated hearings there almost always creeps in that feeling of "cut & paste," of too many mikes, of balances not at all the way you would hear them in a live concert. There is NONE of that here. Everybody, including the solist, is heard performing in a believable acoustic! The critisism where I think Mr "P-Bucket" might have a valid a point is possibly regarding the soloist's singing. Both Edith Mathis under Karajan & von Stade under Abbado sound more angelic. But neither of them has been recorded as naturally as Lisa Della Casa, who for once sounds realistic in size & timbre. And she is thank God (Lewis Layton) not catapulted 20 yards in front of the orchestra as is the case in virtually all other recordings since the advent of multimiking! I have in the past couple of weeks been to quite a few live concerts in Estonia & Stockholm during the Baltic Sea Festival, where I heard live, both the Marinsky under Gergiev the Swedish Radio symphony orchestra under Esa Pekka Salonen. After such an intense live experience it is always a bit difficult to go back to "canned food". But of the recordings I have listened to since Saturday's live Kullervo in Stockholm, this Mahler's 4th is one of few that sounds reasonably much like the real thing. It isn't perfect, there are some slight signs of tape overload in the 2nd movement. Strings, although mostly velvety & sweet, sound a wee bit forced a couple of times. There is still a long way to go to recreate the huge dynamics & true sonorities of a big symphony orchestra. But strangely enough this old analogue recording does a better job than most modern ones do. Compared to denser works like the 6th & 9th this wonderfully "lightweight" symphony by Mahler standards, certainly is easily digestable fare with its naive take on life after death. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mahler-Symphony-No-Chicago-Orchestra/dp/B0009U55SI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1335803585&sr=1-1 =========================================================== foobar2000 1.1.11 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2012-04-30 15:17:59 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (1-3) Lisa Della Casa, soprano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago S. O. / Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track ( @4.76dB Gain) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR7 -0.01 dB -21.39 dB 15:59 01-Bedaechtig. Nicht eilen DR7 -2.28 dB -22.94 dB 8:57 02-In gemaechlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast DR7 -0.92 dB -21.32 dB 19:01 03-Ruhevoll DR9 -3.15 dB -26.46 dB 9:40 04-Sehr behaglich ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 4 Official DR value: DR8 Samplerate: 88200 Hz Channels: 5 Bits per sample: 24 Bitrate: 4129 kbps Codec: FLAC ============================================================ Actual 'DR' values are inaccurate with empty channels, but the peaks are relevant. ============================================================ foobar2000 1.1.11 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2012-04-30 15:10:02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: Fritz Reiner, Chicago S. O. / Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (1-3) Lisa Della Casa, soprano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago S. O. / Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track (@ 5.18dB Gain) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR13 -0.01 dB -20.36 dB 15:59 01-Bedaechtig. Nicht eilen DR13 -3.14 dB -21.85 dB 8:57 02-In gemaechlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast DR13 -0.72 dB -20.32 dB 19:01 03-Ruhevoll DR15 -5.45 dB -26.01 dB 9:40 04-Sehr behaglich ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 4 Official DR value: DR13 Samplerate: 88200 Hz Channels: 2 Bits per sample: 24 Bitrate: 2521 kbps Codec: FLAC ============================================================ Checksum for iso: 0b5aa657b52b31d6152fea92b68b6b0d *Fritz Reiner, conductor - Mahler Symphony No. 4.iso Checksum for Mch flac: 665d4a426a79ddd2eb6b1f38dfcab9f6 *Fritz Reiner, conductor - Mahler Symphony No. 4.flac Checksum for 2ch flac: 2431fdf3eca1ca4e97b175a00f257398 *Fritz Reiner, conductor - Mahler Symphony No. 4.flac