Rachmaninov Orchestral Music on Exton: Listening Impressions

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The Exton 4-SACD set of Rachmaninov orchestral music has been available in Japan for some time, but I had resisted the temptation of ordering it from Japan because the cost of importing it to the US made it prohibitively expensive. However, Teresa recently posted the news that it was available from MDT in Great Britain for a considerably lower price (22 pounds, to be exact). Including shipping, the discs ended up costing me about $10 apiece. Not bad for new DSD recordings. Thanks, Teresa!
(BTW, Teresa is my nominee for Hi-Rez Inmate of the Year.)
At any rate, I'm glad to have these discs in my collection, although to be honest I might have felt disappointed if I had paid $100+ for the whole set. Musically, these performances fall into the good-not-great category, IMHO. The music itself is wonderful, and the Dutch radio orchestra sounds like an accomplished group, but the interpretations do not set any new standards. The critical community has tended over the years to dismiss Edo de Waart as a competent if uninspired conductor. I'm afraid that these SACDs would not exactly force de Waart's detractors to reexamine their position. De Waart seems unwilling (or unable?) to take the kind of risk that can elevate a performance to dizzying heights of inspiration. I'm fairly certain that you will enjoy the performances captured on these discs, but your current favorite recording of any given piece will very likely still be your favorite recording even after you've heard de Waart. Nothing here caused me to recalibrate my Rachmaninov paradigm.
Sonics: It's not easy to make general comments about the sound because the recordings were made over a period of a few years (albeit in the same venue), and there is a good bit of variance among the discs. But the sound is never less than good, and it's often very special. The DSD recording technology pays the expected benefits in overall richness and warmth of sound. (The string tone is especially pleasing.) The 1st and 3rd symphonies seemed particularly good on my system (stereo only, BTW). There were times when certain voices in the orchestra seemed to be given unnatural prominence, but overall the presentation impressed me as quite natural.
An observation: Exton's labeling declares this to be "the complete orchestral music," which is true IF you exclude the orchestral version of Vocalise, and if you also exclude the works for chorus and orchestra (The Bells, the "Spring" cantata, and the Three Russian Folksongs). So "complete" strikes me as being a bit of an overstatement.
Again, I'm glad to have these recordings. If nothing else, this album provides a convenient way to acquire a lot of the more obscure orchestral pieces (such as Prince Rostislav). It may well be that competing SACD versions of the Rachmaninov symphonies may take a long time to show up; these decent performances in high-quality sound will fill the gap admirably until more inspired offerings come along. Anyone who loves Rachmaninov and who enjoys DSD recordings would do well to add this set to his collection.
Happy Listening!

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Topic - Rachmaninov Orchestral Music on Exton: Listening Impressions - Doktor Brahms 10:32:45 09/21/05 (2)

Re: Rachmaninov Orchestral Music on Exton: Listening Impressions - Robert C. Lang 13:14:54 09/21/05 (0)

Doktor Brahms thanks for the review and kind words - Teresa 12:41:39 09/21/05 (0)

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