Hi everybody !
Why opening a thread dedicated to multichannel classical recordings? Because we are on a forum where people care about objectivity and perfection. Let's not forget that stereophonic sound was designed and perfected in the 1930s almost from its birth to be on more than 2 channels of recording and reproduction, and that throughout the following decades, many people in the field of classical music recording have striven to record and release albums in multichannel because they were well aware that multichannel audio is the way to improve accuracy and fidelity to the live experience.
In this first post, I am happy to introduced you with an album you will most probably not be able to get because of its scarcity, but will hopefully lead you to discover two musicians you perhaps never heard of, but are worth knowing:
Jean Cras (1879-1932) is a French naval officer who composed music inspired by his experience of the sea.
His piano works are not in the same league as Chopin's, Rachmaninov's, Debussy's and others of the same caliber. They are nonetheless very enjoyable. These musical works are distinguished not so much by their melodic or rhythmic quality. There are more of the kind of ambient music. These are protean musical pieces, sometimes delicate and sometimes passionate, like the moving surface of the ocean in the open sea.
Jean Dubé is a talented French pianist with a discreet career that deserves more attention. Equally at ease with the works of the great classical repertoire as with entertainment music, he understands what he plays and knows how to find ways to highlight its qualities to help it touch the listener.
The album illustrated above is a rare two discs set, one DTS CD with the full original 5 front-end channels recording with 5 omnidirectional microphones and one CD with a standard 2.0 stereo soundtrack (only the two "inner" microphones are used). I am for myself not able to enjoy this album in its full fledged 5 channels version for I still have only a 3 channels Hi-fi system. Nevertheless, to listen to this album in 3 channels make a better incarnation of the sheer size, power and sound envelope of a grand piano. The tactile presence of the instrument and its ability to fill an acoustic space in a three dimensional perspective are already much better than in only 2 channels stereo. Although the multichannel program is DTS coded (ie not lossless), when the pianist raise the dampers at the end of a piece, the resonances of the instrument continue for several seconds and then die away at a very low level. The perceptual coding therefore preserves enough finesse to not interfere to much with the musical restitution.
Your turn now !
Why opening a thread dedicated to multichannel classical recordings? Because we are on a forum where people care about objectivity and perfection. Let's not forget that stereophonic sound was designed and perfected in the 1930s almost from its birth to be on more than 2 channels of recording and reproduction, and that throughout the following decades, many people in the field of classical music recording have striven to record and release albums in multichannel because they were well aware that multichannel audio is the way to improve accuracy and fidelity to the live experience.
In this first post, I am happy to introduced you with an album you will most probably not be able to get because of its scarcity, but will hopefully lead you to discover two musicians you perhaps never heard of, but are worth knowing:
Jean Cras (1879-1932) is a French naval officer who composed music inspired by his experience of the sea.
His piano works are not in the same league as Chopin's, Rachmaninov's, Debussy's and others of the same caliber. They are nonetheless very enjoyable. These musical works are distinguished not so much by their melodic or rhythmic quality. There are more of the kind of ambient music. These are protean musical pieces, sometimes delicate and sometimes passionate, like the moving surface of the ocean in the open sea.
Jean Dubé is a talented French pianist with a discreet career that deserves more attention. Equally at ease with the works of the great classical repertoire as with entertainment music, he understands what he plays and knows how to find ways to highlight its qualities to help it touch the listener.
The album illustrated above is a rare two discs set, one DTS CD with the full original 5 front-end channels recording with 5 omnidirectional microphones and one CD with a standard 2.0 stereo soundtrack (only the two "inner" microphones are used). I am for myself not able to enjoy this album in its full fledged 5 channels version for I still have only a 3 channels Hi-fi system. Nevertheless, to listen to this album in 3 channels make a better incarnation of the sheer size, power and sound envelope of a grand piano. The tactile presence of the instrument and its ability to fill an acoustic space in a three dimensional perspective are already much better than in only 2 channels stereo. Although the multichannel program is DTS coded (ie not lossless), when the pianist raise the dampers at the end of a piece, the resonances of the instrument continue for several seconds and then die away at a very low level. The perceptual coding therefore preserves enough finesse to not interfere to much with the musical restitution.
Your turn now !
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