Price 32,40 Euros (Approximately $36 U.S. at present)
CD Information
The seeds were planted in the early 1970s when Deutsche
Grammophon realised what amazing results could be achieved by recording
on multi-channel tapes, using either four or eight channels. Yet, due to
a few restrictions, they never fully blossomed. Flaws in the playback
equipment meant that music connoisseurs were prevented from enjoying
these recordings in the way that artists, producers, engineers and other
professionals intended, even though recording technology was already
way ahead of its time.
Now — over a quarter of a century later — thanks to the arrival of the
multi-channel Super Audio CD (SACD), there is finally a system available
which permits these precious recordings to be released in the quality
they deserved back then.
This release is an outstanding version of Scott Joplin’s opera
Treemonisha. Not only because this recording — which was orchestrated by
the American composer and jazz musician, Gunther Schuller, in 1975 for
the Houston Grand Opera — probably comes the closest to Joplin’s
original intention, but also because the recording’s crisp and bright
sound can now be cherished on 2 SACD(s), complete with a full libretto
in English.
Joplin’s uniquely beautiful and dearly inspiring score is a buoyant
blend of ragtime, vaudeville and grand opera, with lots of dancing, a
big portion for the chorus, and arias and ensembles of stunning beauty.
The composition has an inherently American tone and it was definitely
created by a true entertainer. It is “a landmark set”, as Christopher
Cook put it in a review in BBC Music Magazine (August 2005).
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