[DVDA][OF] Berlioz - Requiem - M. Abravanel, Utah SO - 1969/2004 (Classic)

The highly programmatic Berlioz Requiem is not the first composition created especially for performance live in surround sound, but it is surely the best known and probably most dramatic of any. It was a natural choice for one of the first classical quadraphonic recordings. Vanguard Records began releasing both quadraphonic LPs and open reel four-track tapes in the early 70s. The Requiem was part of the Utah Symphony’s perusal of the Mahler Symphonies, and the recording session took place in the spacious acoustics of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City in 1969. Abravanel had developed the Utah Symphony from almost nothing into a well-respected orchestra which made international tours and whose recordings received much acclaim.
The Berlioz Requiem shares with the work in the same form by Verdi as highly theatrical and emotional, especially in their musical representations of the Last Judgment. Berlioz was far ahead of his time in all his music, fueled by a boundless imagination. He conceived the idea of spatial separation of the massive performing forces, especially in the Last Judgment section, with choruses spread out, eight tuned tympani, and four brass choirs at the points of the compass. As he said himself, “the combination would be entirely new, and a thousand possibilities which could not be realized with usual means, could be drawn out of these sounding masses.” The moment in the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) when the brass choirs blare out the Last Trump from the four corners of the listening area is one of the most hair-raising moments in classical music and the best surround demo an audiophile could hope for. The Utah version may not quite match more recent ones from Colin Davis and others, but those are all merely in stereo and this one is made to order for surround!
I was torn as to where to list this album in this publication - it has qualities that seem to all for any of three of our sections: hi-res, reissues and DualDisc. One really gets two DualDiscs here. There are two discs but the DVD-Video sides have no video displays at all, only the audio. The two discs represent one for multichannel sources and the other for two-channel sources. The multichannel has one side 24-bit/96K DVD-Audio and the other side Dolby Digital 4.0 for those users with a standard DVD video player only. The stereo DVD has one side DVD-Audio but with a two-channel-only 192K mix - rather than depending on the DVD-Audio system practice of mixing down to two-channel from the multichannel. The other side of this disc is a 96K PCM stereo feed, such as the few DAADs that have been issued by Classic and a few other labels. Of course both of these discs had to be DVDs, since the Requiem is way over the 80 minute capacity limit of both CDs and SACDs, and would have required two discs for each of the four options furnished here.
This same four-channel original was first released in a hi-res format by Vanguard themselves on SACD. Something went wrong because it suffered from serious distortion in climaxes. I owned the original four-channel prerecorded tapes and thus am quite familiar with the recording. It was thrilling on four matching speakers back in the 70s, slightly compromised only by tape hiss (no Dolby and one of the open reels was half-mil super-thin tape!). Last year the new owners of the Vanguard masters - Artemis Classics - reissued the double-SACD set, and this time they got it right.
Careful comparison of the Artemis SACDs with the new Classic four-channel DVD-A showed no noticeable audible differences. So for those multichannel aficionados with universal disc players the only advantage of the Classic would be its elimination of the break to go to the second disc. This also goes for the 96K/24-bit option; I found it very similar to the stereo mix provided on the Artimis SACDs. Next I did some A/B-ing of the 96K options vs. the 192K option. This was approaching the hairsplitting, but on certain portions of the more subtle choral passages it soon became clear that the 192K version had a modicum of greater transparency and fine detail. Switching to the Dolby Digital AC-3 four-channel side provided a much quicker decision as to differences. It was definitely muddier, more constricted and opaque-sounding than the DVD-A multichannel option - especially noticeable in the big climaxes when both choruses and orchestra were going full blast. So those strict two-channel fans who have either a DVD-Audio or universal player will find this release of interest due to the 192K disc side. And those without playback of either hi-res format but with a standard DVD player will also want this reissue because SACDs do not provide a Dolby Digital option, and it will at least give them a good impression of the most exciting classical music in surround around. - John Sunier audaud.com