My SACD of the new Carré recording arrived yesterday, and today I listened to it in depth, and also compared with a re-listening of the Stockhausen Verlag recording.
They are both wonderful recordings of a powerful and very beautiful work. Listening to both recordings on cd format, they do have different ‘personalities’ that seem to me very much related to the times they were made. The 1960 recording supervised by Stockhausen has, of course, that particular authenticity, and somehow the ‘personality’ I spoke of is the same effect that comes across in recordings of e.g. Gruppen and Momente. How much that is influenced by the memories I have of those recordings when I first heard them nearly 50 years ago is hard to assess.
The new recording, recorded in 2016 with ‘sound direction’ under the supervision of Kathinka Pasveer, has a brighter and deeper sound field. The performance in its own way is just as wonderful. Somehow it does sound more of this time (I’m not quite sure what created that impression for me) and the performance of both choirs and orchestras are remarkably excellent. If I had to choose between the two recordings on the basis of the 2 channel cd listening, I would not be able to give a preference. I could never let go the original, because of its historical importance, and because it’s the performance that I first fell in love with!
But - listening to the SACD of the new recording does certainly make a difference. However there is a precaution regarding my review of this as a surround sound experience. First is that this assessment is made by 72 year old ears, that have lost some of their acuity. Second is that my sound system is a typical 5 speaker system made for listening to SACD and movie surround sound, which has 2 main large Wharfedale speakers at the front, and smaller rear and centre speakers. These are primarily designed to give a sense of ambience in most SACD recordings rather than a complete 360 degree surround sound experience. Also, my listening environment has a large 3 seater couch facing the front, with a back that to some extent diminishes some of the sound coming from behind. I found that standing up made the surround sound even more effective.
The other thing I notice is that our ears are designed to favour noise coming from in front of us. So turning to face the front or the back would change the dominance of which direction the sound seemed to be coming from.
All of that said, I found the sound from the SACD version very effective and at times completely thrilling. There is definitely separation of the four music groups between front and back and left and right. This was most effectively noticed in percussive sounds, whereas sounds from the choir and e.g. strings did (to my ears) wash a bit more, and had a more ambient quality. But the detail and clarity of the sound I found wonderful. And this did definitely contribute to a deeper understanding of the direction and structure of the music.
So, yes, if you have a good sound system, there are significant advantages in the surround sound qualities of this new recording. Personally I would not consider giving up either of the recordings I have of Carré, they are both treasures.
The Kagel piece, Chorbuch, I did not know before. I have listened to it once, and it sounds interesting. My one significant criticism I have of this CD is that the Kagel piece starts a mere 15 secs after Carré has finished, which is too much, too soon. I hadn’t had time to recover from the experience of Carré.
To finish, I will quote from the booklet: “Essentially the live experience of this music cannot be dispensed with, but this recording comes as close as possible to a live performance in its precision and spatial effect” - and that seems to me to be a very fair assessment.