RCA Living Stereo Classical SACDs

Most of these are from the JFK/Mm era and have a very forward sound. Any favorites among these you'd like to point out?

 

The Beethoven 5th and 6th with Munch and the BSO. I have about twenty of these RCA Living Stereo SACD's.

 

Many of these RCA Living Stereo SACD's are some of the greatest stereo recordings ever made. I'm not sure what you mean by "forward sounding". These were recorded during the golden age of stereo recording using 2 and 3 track tube machines and simple and pioneering microphone techniques. My favorites tend to be the Reiner, Fiedler, Much titles. I wish some of the UK Decca for RCA recordings would come out as well, which Classic Records had reissued 10+ years ago on vinyl.

 

The recently released DECCA Legends are quite nice with 24/96 resolution. I found the 1959 Strauss's ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA by the VPO and Karajan absolutely stunning and the performance actually surpasses the same recording by Karajan and the BPO made at a later date.

 

Love em.....some faves...

Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

Leopold Stokowski: Rhapsodies

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exibition

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto

Off the top of my head on some of the favorites.

All these have wonderful sq and I'm not an expert to comment on the performances but imho, to these ears, I think they are killer.

I should add that all the Van Cliburns are good, but the one mentioned is a personal fav.

 

Most of Karajan's earlier recordings surpass his later ones- his 50's Sibelius symphonies with the Philharmonia are better than his 60's and 70's cycles with the BPO, his Planets with the VPO is better than the one with the BPO, etc.

It's been argued that the only time Karajan could be considered truly great was in the 50's, and while I don't agree that he was ever really great, I do agree that the 50's were his best period artistically. The guy was doing Vaughan Williams and Walton for heavens sake. He never touched their works again once he reached Berlin. The creative lights just went out for him as his power grew.

Back to the topic. Never heard any RCA Living Stereo SACD's.

 

The Monteux/CSO Franck Sym. was, is, and, I guess, always will be the one to have.

The Reiner/CSO Scheherazade was, is, and, I guess, always will--well, you get the idea.

Lots of winners in this series, but those two are particularly near and dear to my heart.

 

three of my faves:

• Saint-Saens - Symphony no. 3; Debussy - La Mer; Ibert - Escales: Munch, Boston Symphony
• Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe: Munch, Boston Symphony
• Tchaikovsky - 'Pathetique' Symphony: Monteux, Boston Symphony

the Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninov piano concertos disc is essential, too.

 

I just got the Pines of Rome SACD from Amazon...

...and subsequently had a religious experience. Easily the best performance (and recording) of this piece I've ever heard. I'll be sure to pick some more of these discs up in the near future.

 

There've been a few threads on these releases, but I don't have the time to do a search.

 

I second that, Pictures is one of my very favorite classical compositions, and I always wanted to know how it sounds in surround sound.

 

If you love Pines, pick up the recording by Celibicache and Stuttgart on DG.

 

None of these RCA sacd re-isssues have "surround sound"
Most ARE multi-channel, but everything is in the front speakers: left, center, and right.
3 tracks, as are the original tapes....

 

It's only the front three channels, not full surround sound.

 

How is the sound then in only two channel system?

 

There are also two stereo mixes on each disc, one in super audio, and one redbook (cd)

 

Ok. Does my amp or player know how to saddle things right? Or do I have to fix that my self?

I have an Marantz SACD/CD player and Yamaha HT receiver. Listening only in stereo with two speakers.

 

In the disc players set up menu you should be able to set a "default" where the player will ALWAYS choose the stereo sacd layer when presented with a disc that has both stereo and Mch.
Consult your owners manual, if it comes to that!
If there is no set up menu (I'm thinking universal players WITH video output) there should be a button on the player or its remote, where this same choice can be made.

 

Your SACD player will know that you only have two speakers. It will mix a 3-ch SACD into two channels for you - in hi-rez.

 

I dont have an sacd player (as I cant afford one that sounds as good to me as my Naim cd player sounds with a well mastered 16 bit cd) so I can't say what happens playing the sacd layer of these discs but:

I can say that the 16 bit layer (which of course is 2 channel) on these discs is fantastic for 16 bit. I have xrcd's of some of the same performances, and these surpass them.

I still prefer good vinyl pressings, including Classic Records remasters, but these sound soo good that if I had to live with digital copies only of the Living Stereo stuff - I could do it without too much suffering.

 

I think this is one of the better reissue campaigns on SACD. The Van Cliburn and Fritz Reiners are my favorites. Look for the Pines of Rome and Vienna discs.

 

Choose your Living Stereo SACDs according to the repertoire you like. It's hard to go wrong with these. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Cliburn's Rachmaninoff/Prokofiev. I have not heard anyone's Rachmaninoff Third that I think is better overall. (I wonder if it's 100% live, or if there were any patches?)

 

Not exactly. As a previous post mentions, you can set your player to default to either the stereo or multi-channel version on the SACD layer. But it won't mix 3 channels down to 2. At least, none of my SACD players do that...

 

I have them all and like them all for the most part. The only problems I have sonically are the various discs containing Heifetz. He was recorded very upfront, unnaturally so in several cases.

My favorites among these tend to be the Reiner-conducted orchestral (as opposed to concerto) pieces. The Julian Bream solo guitar disc, while well-played, sounds a little blurred in SACD. It would probably sound best (gasp) in mono.

As previously stated, none of the discs is in surround. They are at most front-center-right, and some are straight two channel. I hope the series continues -- there is still much Living Stereo gold to be mined.

 

It's the original recording sadly, not the format. Guitar sounds perfect in DSD.