HOMAGE TO KREISLER: Works by Fritz Kreisler

by | May 10, 2005 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews | 0 comments

HOMAGE TO KREISLER: Works by Fritz Kreisler – Daniel Gaede,
violin, with Phillip, piano – Tacet S 52 – Multichannel Hybrid SACD, 64
min. ***:

Of the three Tacet discs I had
the pleasure to evaluate this month, this collection of works by Fritz
Kreisler is, unfortunately, the most mixed bag of the three. Not that
the performances aren’t all superb – they are, and Daniel Gaede, who is
the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, plays these pieces with
finesse and gusto. Tacet doesn’t provide an excess of information on
the recordings, either in the supplied booklet or via the web, so one
can only make certain suppositions with regard to why some of the
recordings here sound so much better than others. This disc is the only
one of the three that doesn’t utilize an all-tube microphone complement
in the recordings, and it’s my guess that the tracks that didn’t
exactly blow me away were the ones recorded with the Neumann KM140’s.
Excellent microphones, no doubt, but just not in the same class as
Neumann’s tube offerings. This disc also employs the most distant
recorded perspective of the three – which might also have colored my
perception of the presentations.

As with the other Tacet SACDs, the multichannel presentation offered
the best all-around recreation of the recording sessions. There’s some
superb music-making here – it’s just not in the same “ear-candy” class
as some of Tacet’s other offerings. Recommended.

Related Reviews
Logo Pure Pleasure
Logo Crystal Records Sidebar 300 ms
Logo Jazz Detective Deep Digs Animated 01