Mahler: Symphony No. 5 /St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Temirkanov (2005)
EAC Rip, WV (image), cue, log, scans | RAR rec. 3% | 271 MB
Classical | Label: Water Lily Acoustics | Time: 1:10:57
EAC Rip, WV (image), cue, log, scans | RAR rec. 3% | 271 MB
Classical | Label: Water Lily Acoustics | Time: 1:10:57
This disc and the other two so far in the series were a dream come true for Water Lily Acoustics CEO Kavi Alexander, who had been attempting to record the former Leningrad Symphony for about 25 years. The recording was made live during a public concert in 2003 in the orchestra's hall which is known for its superb acoustics.
The practice of the WLA label has been to record with a purist two-mike setup and without any EQ, limiting, compression or noise reduction. This approach is put to an extreme test when recording a full symphony orchestra. Only two mikes in a classic Blumlein configuration were used, and exact placement was a challenge. Even the surround and center channels of this 5.0 SACD were derived during mixing from the ambient (L - R) information of the hall which were preserved in the Blumlein setup. In this it appears to be a similar approach to the 4.0 SACDs which were created from Blumlein two-channel recordings made earlier for the Opus 3 label. There is actually a great deal of signal on the surrounds on the disc (more than on many multi-miked multichannel discs), giving an excellent portrayal of the great hall.
My first thought after listening a few minutes was to get out my R.S. level meter and re-adjust the levels of the front speakers, because it seemed my R front speaker was too prominent in relation to the others. The brass section seemed over to the extreme right and too loud. Well, the notes explain that Russian orchestras like to have the brass to the far right of the stage, and the string basses to the far left. So I was hearing just what the two mikes had preserved.
The listening experience is completely different from other Mahler symphony recordings where multiple mikes were obviously used. My favorite 5.0 SACD series of the Mahler symphonies is the SF Symphony with Tilson Thomas, but they haven't issued the Fifth as yet. On the strength of the ones that have been auditioned, I would draw the distinction as being something like the contrast between sitting in the best seat in the audience about a dozen rows from the stage (Water Lily) vs. sitting on the podium and having the various soloists stand up like a swing band when they do their solos (SF Sym.). There is no artificial highlighting here of different instruments or instrumental sections. The whole symphony is of a piece, and solidly placed some distance from the listener across the frontal soundstage. The surrounds contribute strongly to the feeling of actually being in the hall, as do the occasional coughs and chair squeaks. I would think this recording would clearly demonstrate the differences between a so-so surround system and a perfectly-adjusted super-high-end system - more readily than the usual multimic recording. I would love to hear it on a cost-no-object system.
The performance is strong and convincing. The big Mahlerian climaxes are not as overpowering as on most commercial recordings, but then they are also not as compressed and jumbled-sounding as normally heard. Everything seems to flow more smoothly and elegantly. I was reminded of the Sheffield direct discs of Prokofiev and Wagner, except that those were made in a far-too-dry movie studio and the natural acoustics of the St. Petersburg hall are just "wet" enough. This is a commendable achievement in the multichannel presentation of a symphony orchestra.
- John Sunier
Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 27. December 2008, 21:48
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) / Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-755A Adapter: 4 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 13:33.09 | 0 | 60983
2 | 13:33.09 | 14:11.63 | 60984 | 124871
3 | 27:44.72 | 18:04.22 | 124872 | 206193
4 | 45:49.19 | 10:24.15 | 206194 | 253008
5 | 56:13.34 | 14:44.34 | 253009 | 319342
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\_NETLAB\St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) - Mahler Symphony No. 5.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A7813E1B
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [220039D9]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [201B3788]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A8B569B9]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [6FBC295F]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [068D5F41]
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
EAC extraction logfile from 27. December 2008, 21:48
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) / Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-755A Adapter: 4 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 13:33.09 | 0 | 60983
2 | 13:33.09 | 14:11.63 | 60984 | 124871
3 | 27:44.72 | 18:04.22 | 124872 | 206193
4 | 45:49.19 | 10:24.15 | 206194 | 253008
5 | 56:13.34 | 14:44.34 | 253009 | 319342
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\_NETLAB\St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) - Mahler Symphony No. 5.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC A7813E1B
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [220039D9]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [201B3788]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A8B569B9]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [6FBC295F]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [068D5F41]
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
Tracklisting:
01. Trauermarsch |13:33|
02. Sturmisch bewegt |14:12|
03. Scherzo |18:04|
04. Adagietto |10:24|
05. Rondo-Finale |14:44|
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