re: Boulez/DG M8 and "Real Player" on your computer

[barry guerrero]

Anyone out there have Real Player loaded on their computer? If so, I'm wondering if you would mind trying to open the little snippets at the "Track List" for the Boulez M8, located on DG's website. I can't get them to open, regardless of what player I try to route them through. They might not really be there, I don't know. Anyway, you get there by going to the DG website; then go to Artists; scroll down to Boulez; then click on "What's New". At that point, you'll see the Mahler 8th. Then click on "Track List", and you'll see a list of all the tracks on the two discs. There are also little icons for hearing snippets of those tracks. What I want to know, is whether or not the organ is clearly audible. How does it sound in general, etc. Thanks.

Barry

[Freddy van Maurik]

Barry,

I just checked these clips, and got them to play perfectly fine... At the start, but also during other parts of the hymnus, the organ is very well audible... and it sounds great. In the "Alles Vergängliche"-chorus however, it seems to be a bit in the background.
My overall-impression (on hearing just snippets) is that this may be a Mahler 8th to rank among the best, and the sound seems to be okay, but you can never be sure about that throught RealAudio-samples.

Freddy

[John Kim]

Freddy,

Thanks for the report. I too have no doubt that this is going to be a top notch M8th. As I recall,  his previous live concerts with BBC SO and NYPO in 70's were really impressive

John,

[barry guerrero]

OK, I added Real Player to my computer, just so that I could hear these bloody excerpts. Yes, it seems to be a decent sounding organ; not huge, but with a nice tone. Since it was recorded in the Jesus Christus Kirche (church), the sound and balances seem pretty good to me. I really like the playing and sound of the Staatskapelle Berlin: they're not as dark and heavy sounding as the Vienna Phil.; nor are they as slick sounding as the Berlin Phil. can often-times be. To me, they sound a bit similar to the Staatskapelle Dresden, or DSO Berlin. All of the soloists seem decent too, with tenor Johan Botha sounding particularly good. The only thing I'm concerned about are Boulez's consistantly slow tempi. He tends to unify tempo relationships - minimizing tempo contrasts from one section to the next. Anyway, it does sound promising. There's certainly plenty of exacting detail.

The European version is going to available from HMV Japan by the middle of the month. The Japanese version - which John claims often times sound better than domestic versions - doesn't come out for another few weeks after that. I'm not sure what to do, if anything.

Barry

[John Kim]

The European version is going to available from HMV Japan by the middle of the month. The Japanese version - which John claims often times sound better than domestic versions - doesn't come out for another few weeks after that. I'm not sure what to do, if anything.

Barry

Barry and all others,

BY ALL MEANS, get Japanese versions of ALL European or American labels - DG, EMI, RCA, etc. In my (limited) experience they sound better and often times far better than what we usually get here. There is no comparison.

John,

[Leo K]

This Boulez M8 sounds fantastic. 

[barry guerrero]

Yep. It sounded even better to me on my second turn through those excerpts. However, it does seem to be consistantly slow. I'm mostly worried about that earlier on in Part II: the big Wagnerian sounding, orchestral passage before for the baritone solo; plus the baritone and bass solos themselves. Nagano was slow throughout these passages as well, and it really sort of sapped the energy of the piece. We'll see.

[Ivor]

  Is there a particular method for getting japanese pressings?

  And how easy is it to get Japanese bootlegs?   


    Ivor

[barry guerrero]

www.hmv.co.jp is the best source that I know of. They're not cheap, and they send things Fed Ex. I don't know about bootlegs.

Barry