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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'm afraid I agree with others that this recording is far from perfect. Having recently been knocked off my seat by the powerful and well-executed performance at ENO, I have listened repeatedly to the Keene performance (recorded in 1983). In comparison to eg Akhnaten (1987), the recording and mixing of the Keene Satyagraha performance is not superb. I can only hope that ENO produce a modern mix of the London performance.
So, why 4 out of 5? Because the opera is superb and this is the only recording available!!
So, why 4 out of 5? Because the opera is superb and this is the only recording available!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is Glass' most beautiful piece. On my modest system [Pioneer Amp & Goodmans speakers], the sound is neither 'grainy' or 'harsh' I was transported back to the ENO last month where I heard it for the first time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is obviously a fantastic piece of music, the shimmering arpeggiated stuff, the cross rhythms, the beautiful voices etc., however this is also a very detailed work that seems to suggest almost microscopic listening, hence the technical points below.
I bought this to replace my mp3 copies of this piece (sorry about that...) as I hated the way they sounded and put it down to bad quality 128 kbit/s encoding - unfortunately I was wrong...
The recording sounds like it was made on a Dictaphone, except for the incessant and distracting muttering and page riffling from the chorus and orchestra - how do these guys do this? Did the engineer mic up the music stands but not the instruments? I can also hear the noise gates on the chorus opening and shutting so that odd words seem to jump out at you, and even the singers' breathing seems to trigger this effect. Why did they even bother gating stuff if so much other stuff is allowed to leak through anyway. Honestly, an amateur recording in his shed wouldn't make such school-boy errors - Sony last time I heard are a massive multi-national company, does no-one listen to this stuff before it is sent off to be pressed?
Another personal bugbear - why are the solo voices panned hard left or right? Do these guys have no idea of what stereo is for? (to create a nice 3d sound environment, in case you wondered). It sounds really peculiar on headphones - even in a room with little natural ambience you hear voices reflected off the walls and therefore in both ears! In an opera house I would like to think that there was a little more natural reverberation, which brings me to another point - most of what I hear seems to have been caused by an over-emphasis on close miking singers and parts of the orchestra - were there no ambient microphones in the room at all?
I have to admit much of the classical music I've listened to has been fairly "flat" sounding, and I accept that there is certainly a different recording aesthetic at work here - I certainly don't expect the mix to be compressed or run through a load of psycho acoustic processing like a rock/electronic/pop record, but really, much of this could have been fixed in an afternoon in a studio (I could do it myself, to be honest - Mr Glass, if you can let me have the masters I'll gladly polish them for you - assuming it was recorded on multi-track at all!).
I bought this to replace my mp3 copies of this piece (sorry about that...) as I hated the way they sounded and put it down to bad quality 128 kbit/s encoding - unfortunately I was wrong...
The recording sounds like it was made on a Dictaphone, except for the incessant and distracting muttering and page riffling from the chorus and orchestra - how do these guys do this? Did the engineer mic up the music stands but not the instruments? I can also hear the noise gates on the chorus opening and shutting so that odd words seem to jump out at you, and even the singers' breathing seems to trigger this effect. Why did they even bother gating stuff if so much other stuff is allowed to leak through anyway. Honestly, an amateur recording in his shed wouldn't make such school-boy errors - Sony last time I heard are a massive multi-national company, does no-one listen to this stuff before it is sent off to be pressed?
Another personal bugbear - why are the solo voices panned hard left or right? Do these guys have no idea of what stereo is for? (to create a nice 3d sound environment, in case you wondered). It sounds really peculiar on headphones - even in a room with little natural ambience you hear voices reflected off the walls and therefore in both ears! In an opera house I would like to think that there was a little more natural reverberation, which brings me to another point - most of what I hear seems to have been caused by an over-emphasis on close miking singers and parts of the orchestra - were there no ambient microphones in the room at all?
I have to admit much of the classical music I've listened to has been fairly "flat" sounding, and I accept that there is certainly a different recording aesthetic at work here - I certainly don't expect the mix to be compressed or run through a load of psycho acoustic processing like a rock/electronic/pop record, but really, much of this could have been fixed in an afternoon in a studio (I could do it myself, to be honest - Mr Glass, if you can let me have the masters I'll gladly polish them for you - assuming it was recorded on multi-track at all!).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Most moving opera
A really good version of a fantastically moving opera. You will be hugely upset by Act 2 but uplifted by the end - the main voice is crystal.
Published 5 months ago by Coshy
Sometimes bread and water will do when you are really, really hungry
It#s probably foolish to expect a recording made nearly 30 years ago to deliver the quality of more recent technological advances, but when this is all there is I will be... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Lady Fancifull
A fine recording of a towering work
Although the recording dates back a few years, it still has the freshness of an opera house performance and the whole company do justice to this great opera. Read more
Published on 13 May 2010 by C. BANGS
Bargain
I saw English National Opera's wonderful production of this opera recently and just loved the whole production so had to get hold of a recording of this beautiful music. Read more
Published on 8 May 2010 by DH
Sadly the sound quality IS rotten...
No question this is a fabulous opera, and it seems as though it might have been a fine performance. But the sound is oddly flat and brittle - there is nothing of the richness you... Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2008 by Daniel Currie
Great performance terrible recording
This performance by the New York City Opera company is excellent, but the recording and/or mastering is just atrocious. Grainy, harsh, hashy... Read more
Published on 6 May 2007 by Gordon E. Anderson
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