MDG 910 1625-6
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD
| Musical Performance |   |
| Sound Quality | |
| Overall Enjoyment |  |
We all like what we like when we like it, but we should always be open to those off-the-beaten-track titles that, given a chance, can provide unexpected pleasure. It’s hard to imagine anything more unusual than a band comprising a dozen saxophone players (one sopranino, two soprano, three alto, three tenor, two baritone, and one bass), but it sounds a lot more familiar than you might think. The scores for three of Antonin Dvořák’s Slavic Dances have the ensemble sounding a bit like a huge, sonorous accordion. The “Lyric Waltz” from the jazzy Shostakovich Jazz Suite No.2 sounds like wistful film music to accompany a pair of lovers strolling by the Seine (or perhaps the Volga!). A suite of Gershwin songs played in a nostalgic “club” style finds the ensemble sounding totally idiomatic, and though “I Got Rhythm,” “The Man I Love,” “Liza,” and “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” sound pert and frothy, the soulful arrangement of “Summertime” plumbs greater depths. If you’re an audio buff in the know, it’s enough to say that the sound is MDG at its best, with excellent stereo tracks and multichannel ones that impart a greater sense of three-dimensional realism.