[Sonnova]

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 01:53:24 -0700, Steven Sullivan wrote
(in article ):

Gary Eickmeier wrote:

10. Telarc's Rite of Spring, Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland. This album is
worth an entire article all by itself. I have never read a review of it,
nor
heard anyone praising it, but my jaw starts out on the floor every time I
play it and progresses from there. It has a flair and a bombast that I have
never heard from any other recording, anywhere. Pure Telarc.

This was a 'digital LP' in the days before CD, and I used to own it in that
form back in the early
80s. I recall it mainly for the buxom lady in silhouette on the cover, and
for the
*absurdly* slow, drawn out solo timpani whacks during one section --
exaggerated well beyond what the composer intended, and clearly there just to

'show off' digital.

So, not the most tasteful performance, but it did have 'flair', and arguably
this is not
a piece that should be done 'tastefully'.

(I prefer Stravinsky's own stint conducting Le Sacre with the Columbia SO,
a 1960s recording that finally got the digital version it deserved when it
was released on SACD
some years back) (2-channel only, though)

I have that. I agree. It's a great version artistically and it sounds superb
too. That first spate of non-compatible (no Redbook layer) Sony releases of
Columbia Masterworks recordings by Stravinsky, Walter, Bernstein, Szell,
Ormandy, etc. is what convinced me that SACD was "the audiophile's digital
format".