In the same way that the Warner Music Group is spearheading DVD-Audio, Sony Music is leading the charge for Super Audio CD — though that’s a little difficult to tell from Sony’s first batch of surround SACDs, which number exactly two. Yes, the company has been releasing stereo SACDs for some time now, but it was beaten to the multichannel punch by several other labels — most notably by Virgin U.K., whose reissue of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells earned high marks in our April issue. And although Sony was hoping to have ten surround SACDs ready from the likes of Miles Davis, Billy Joel, Jeff Beck, and Celine Dion, they didn’t make our deadline (though they may be in stores by the time you read this).

Of the two discs that did make it, one features the violinist Midori and is reviewed by Robert Ripps in his roundup of classical SACDs, immediately following. The other disc, on the Columbia label, is James Taylor’s Hourglass (Music , Recording ). Listen carefully and you’ll get a sense of the clarity, depth, air, and overall naturalness touted by supporters of SACD’s Direct Stream Digital technology. You’ll also hear a beautiful six-channel mix by Frank Filipetti, the original album’s engineer, mixer, and co-producer. Taylor’s lead vocals are rich and prominent in the center channel. Background vocals aren’t overdone in the back. The subwoofer level is perfect for this kind of acoustic music. And Filipetti gives a textbook example of how to use the surround channels subtly but effectively, filling them nicely when the song calls for it but reserving them for ambience when just ambience will do. There are two instances where he uses percussion dramatically in the surrounds, but I won’t give them away, since they refer specifically to the subject matter. Get out the booklet of lyrics and follow along.

             

You won’t find the lyrics on your TV screen because, although SACD is capable of carrying video content, none of the discs reviewed here includes any. Not that visuals would appreciably help two entries from the audiophile label dmp, the Vivino Brothers’ Blues Band (Music , Recording ) and the Bob Mintzer Big Band’s Homage to Count Basie (Music , Recording ). Each is just a four-channel mix — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (the excellent Tubular Bells is a four-channel disc, after all). But these are unremarkable mixes; in fact, they’re textbook examples of how reserving the surround channels for just ambience will sometimes not do. As Robert Ripps notes below, dmp does much better with its choral entry, Sacred Feast. But here, it seems to be going through the multichannel motions.

Finally, with their Supersonic/BMG import Don’t Give Me Names (Music , Recording ), I give you the Guano Apes — and you can have ’em. How these pedestrian German alt-rockers got the green light to make this heavy-breathing six-channel SACD is a mystery. The disc has been rolling around multichannel demo rooms like a marble stuck in a ship’s overhead. May we all have smoother sailing with James Taylor and other surround SACDs yet to come.

—Ken Richardson

           

The launch of classical music on multichannel SACD is impressive for its wide range of musical styles, from 16th-century English sacred choral music to 21st-century percussion ensemble. It’s also worth noting that the acoustic environments captured here (with varying degrees of success) include the concert hall, the church, and the battlefield.

Somewhat surprisingly, given the parent company’s involvement in the development of SACD, Sony Classical’s first multichannel entry is not one that is likely to draw much attention to the format. It’s a perfectly decent recording of two works by Mozart (Performance , Recording ). The Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat has fine playing by violinist Midori, violist Nobuko Imai, and the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. He doubles at the keyboard for the second work, the Concerto in D for Violin and Piano. While much is made in the program notes of the higher-than-usual tuning of the viola in this recording, the result is still a rather traditional-sounding and, by today’s standards, somewhat heavy-handed approach to Mozart. The six-channel surround mix creates a natural concert-hall ambience — orchestra across the front, the soloists split front left and right, and the surround channels used sparingly — but in the concerto, the piano is somewhat muddy and overly resonant.

           

Telarc’s first surround SACD is unlikely to be ignored. By choosing the 1812 Overture — a sonic crowd-pleaser that has long challenged recording engineers — as the focus of its disc of Tchaikovsky selections, Telarc is sending a loud and clear message that it means business. And I meant business, too, in my efforts to determine the disc’s level of success. With the assistance of the editors at Sound & Vision, those efforts involved three listening rooms, three surround systems, and three multichannel SACD players — in fact, all three multichannel players then in production. And while the sonic experience improved somewhat through a reference system including B&W Nautilus 803s for the front left and right speakers and a 15-inch B&W subwoofer, all in all this recording by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under Erich Kunzel was disappointing (Performance , Recording ).

The cannons and bells may thrill fans of this stirring piece, but there is music, too — and when it is effectively performed, it creates the emotional atmosphere that makes those sonic effects meaningful and truly spectacular. Here and elsewhere (in the polonaise and the waltz from Eugene Onegin, the Cossack Dance from Mazeppa, the Capriccio Italien, the Marche Slave, and the Festival Coronation March), the music all too often falls flat. Telarc has opted for the use of a chorus in the 1812, both for the opening hymn “God Preserve Thy People” (Kiev Symphony Chorus) and later on (Children’s Choir of Greater Cincinnati), and whether or not this addition is preferable to the original version, the choruses perform well and are nicely recorded. But the orchestral sound seems compressed and is burdened by overprominent bass. Following Telarc’s warning to set a “safe level” for the volume because of the cannons, it’s impossible to reach an acceptable level for enjoyment of the actual music. The bells get lost in the din and never achieve their effect. And even the cannons, while realistic, fail to be truly exciting. Perhaps the use of the recommended but optional “height channel” would have helped, but for most listeners, mounting one or two additional speakers overhead is an impractical solution.

     

Meanwhile, the dmp label demonstrates that, sometimes, less can be more. No mainstream repertory, no orchestra, no soloists were harmed in the making of the two dmp surround SACDs I auditioned. They, too, have an optional “overhead channel” — but dmp has created recordings that sound towering even in normal surround playback. Sacred Feast (Performance , Recording ), heavenly choral works by Tallis, Bruckner, and Messiaen, among others, has all the “height” you could ask for in a church setting. Not only does the music seem to float in a high space, but it also has depth, warmth, and brilliance. The Gaudeamus choir and its director, Paul Halley, give us a thoughtfully chosen, beautifully executed program.

Very different musically, and almost as satisfying sonically, is Far More Drums by the Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble (Performance , Recording ). In a collection that includes percussion works influenced by music from Haiti, Ghana, Hawaii, Bali, and Japan as well as new pieces by American composers Christopher Rouse and Russell Peck, dmp again demonstrates just how effective a surround SACD can be when engineering expertise is matched to musical daring.
Finally, from Delos, comes a disc that is daring in its own way. For its first multichannel SACD, the label has chosen relatively unfamiliar works by two 20th-century Russian composers: Shostakovich, represented by his Chamber Symphony, and Schnittke, heard in his Concerto for Piano and Strings. Both are performed by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra with Constantine Orbelian as pianist and conductor (Performance , Recording ). These are challenging works “dedicated to victims of war and terror,” and they are given thoughtful, very persuasive performances. The concert-hall ambience seems just right, with surround sound that is satisfying without drawing undue attention to itself. If the piano’s lower tones seem a bit muddy, its center-speaker placement is nonetheless excellent.

—Robert Ripps