Symphony No.4 Notre Dame [Hybrid SACD]

I bought this, not because I wanted a disc by the Netherlands Philharmonic (unknown orchestra to me) or by the equally unknown conductor Yakov Kreizburg, but because I couldn't get over the carping review posted by the guy from Arizona.

I have many Pentatone SACDs and they are almost uniformly excellent. I actually bought this one to see how bad it could be. After listening four times I must state that this disc is not bad at all - it is excellent. The sound is even better than many of my others.

Here we have realistic string timbres even in the dense writing high on the staff. When the strings are doubled by woodwinds, the fact is evident and both sets of instruments retain their individual character.

Not everyone will find Schmidt to their taste, he sort of sounds like Brahms talented little brother writing music (it is good music) decades after the passing of his more famous kin. While not influenced by Schoenberg, Bartok et al, Schmidt has moved forward in time and his writing, much of which is high on the staff, is difficult to record accurately. This one does the job and does it well. As for Kreiburg and the Netherlands Philharmonic, what a find!

I still puzzle why the previous review is so negative. I use a Sony DVP S9000 ES connected to a passive preamp to play SACDs. The amp is a 135 watt Musical Fidelity driving Magneplanar loudspeakers. They have big ribbon tweeters and are very accurate in the upper mids and highs. They are brutally revealing of any deficiency in recordings but this one was absolutely beautiful - the recording is superb! Five stars for the sound; I'm not so knowledgable of Schmidt that I would presume to comment on the performance. I would bet however that any question of balances should be addressed to the conductor not the recording engineers.

I understand that Pentatone multichannel recordings are intended to recreate the ambience of the recording venue not put you in the middle of the orchestra. I am really looking forward to hearing this in multi-channel when I can afford the extra equipment.

I try to keep my ears trained by attending live classical concerts in Boston's Symphony Hall and in Carnegie Hall. On average I attend a dozen concerts each season in those and other venues. I know what good string sound is. In stereo at least, this disc has it in spades.

I admit buying this recording was goaded by the difference in the two opinions here about the recording. I've not been the greatest fan of the late Yakov Kreizberg -- who died this past Ides of March at age 52 -- having heard and been disappointed by his Bruckner and Dvorák recordings on Pentatone. While the performances weren't memorable in a good way, the sound was fabulous both times.

I like the sound on this super audio disk and also liked the fact it plays digitally through my receiver's digital feed. The sound is beautifully balanced and natural although not up to the standard of top flight super audio disks I've heard led by Ormandy's Verdi Requiem. The surround sound is more than reverb; it tends to separate the strings and reinforce them in the rear.

In terms of performance, there are few symphonies that play themselves as easily as Schmidt's 4th and this is another recording that wears its pages well. A four movement late romantic edifice, the symphony unfolds in a motto theme in chromatic halves played by a horn that repeats itself throughout the score, a la Berlioz's idee fixe from the Fantastic Symphony. Its four movements are linked and played as one continuous thread of music.

The late conductor and the Netherlands orchestra deliver a reserved performance focused more on beauty of expression and stream of consciousness than passionate arcs interspersed with conversational elements. The conductor and orchestra have teamed up to give listeners an opportunity to hear the players each time they have the spotlight. A beautiful woodwind solo near the end of the molto vivace section and a regrettably flat horn near the end of the symphony are examples where solo contributions take precedence.

This disk stands out for the definition of the instruments -- you can clearly hear every individual voice -- more so than the transitional descriptions of love, mourning and death the conductor talks about in the notes. The addition of three selections from Schmidt's 1904 opera Notre Dame adds interest since these excerpts are rarely recorded. Kreizberg leads these sections -- the introduction, intermezzo and carnival music -- with far more ardor than he demonstrates in the symphony. Inclusion of the opera excerpts helped me select this performance over the other newer one by Sinaisky when it came time to make a buying decision.

Anyone coming to this music for the first time has a bounty of choices available. Most people learned the symphony through Mehta's recording in Vienna which can be had in a couple different couplings in the classical music aftermarket. There are a host of other good ones including those directed by Sieghart, Welser-Most, Jarvi and the aforementioned Sinaisky. Any of them will deliver satisfaction in Schmidt's most pleasurable Viennese symphony. This one has the advantage of natural sound and the Notre Dame excerpts.

Those of us who love the Schmidt 4th will rejoice at any new recording -- and this is its seventh (the 6th on CD). This beautiful, powerful work shouldn't be missed by anyone. But, alas, this is not the best recording. The performance itself isn't bad (none of them are), but it doesn't have the overwhelming impact of the best. At times the tempo is too slow, at others, too fast. The real problem, though, is the recording. Despite all the SACD hoopla I have yet to hear any SACD that is as good as the best stereo CD (same for DVD-A). The sound is confined with little warmth. Balances are wrong: the timpani sounds like it's in another room, but you hear every thing the bassoons are doing. Even the contrabassoon player who can't sustain notes long enough. The CD deserves only 3 stars, but I give it four for the composer! After all these years, Mehta on Decca is still the one to beat, both musically and sonically, with Welser-Most, Jarvi, Rajter, Sieghart not too far behind. Moralt still awaits CD release.
If the record execs don't do something soon to improve the sound of SACD I'm afraid it will go the way of Quad.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars