This sounds to my ears the finest recording yet of Feldman's Trio of 1980, and it is good to have the video aspect to see the interaction between Takahashi, de Saram and Sabat, but (and this is a rather big but) the audio is presented not in the 96/24 LPCM of the the original recording but in a choice of lossy Dolby Digital 5.1, lossy 5.1 DTS (based on a cut down 48/24 source) or lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital. This makes the "96/24 Hi-definition" logo on the packaging at best misleading. Even with its sample rate conversion to 44.1kHz and quantization noise shaped to 16 bit, the 2 CD alternative issue provides somewhat superior audio quality. Why, oh why did Brian Brandt not give us lower definition video and an LPCM 2 track stereo option? I for one would also happily have sacrificed one of the surround options in favour of 48/24 LPCM. A missed opportunity to present the subtle sonics of this wonderful work in something closer to that achieved in René Möller's original 96/24 recording on which this DVD is based.
Get it anyway. Until Sebastian Lexer's recording of the Tilbury, Cooper and Humphries performance from the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival appears on Volume 3 of the Matchless Recordings audio DVD series, this is the best option in my opinion. However, given the lossy audio presentation, this issue must drop one star.
