Track Listing

1. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ('Organ'), Op. 78: I. Adagio; Allegro moderato
2. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ('Organ'), Op. 78: Poco adagio
3. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ('Organ'), Op. 78: II. Allegro moderato; Presto
4. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ('Organ'), Op. 78: Maestoso; Allegro
5. La Mer, symphonic sketches (3) for orchestra, L. 109: De l'aube à midi sur la mer
6. La Mer, symphonic sketches (3) for orchestra, L. 109: Jeux de vagues
7. La Mer, symphonic sketches (3) for orchestra, L. 109: Dialogue du vent et de la mer
8. Escales (Ports of Call), suite for orchestra: Rome-Palermo: Calme
9. Escales (Ports of Call), suite for orchestra: Tunis-Nefta: Modéré très rythmé
10. Escales (Ports of Call), suite for orchestra: Valencia: Animé

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15663 in Music
• Brand: RCA
• Released on: 2004-09-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Hybrid SACD - DSD, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

"Stereo" yes, "Living", no
This release may well be the best CD release of Munch's recording of Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony, but for me the question is: Is it as good or better than the original RCA "Living Stereo" LP issue? The answer here is a resounding no.

I have listened carefully to this disc and the "Shaded Dog" RCA original on and off now for several days. In all respects: tonal clarity, nuance of color, 3-dimenional image, overall presence, I found the LP (a "1S" pressing) to be far superior.

I'm not really happy to report this. I am hoping that the SACD format will offer a way to reproduce the impact of Living Stereo and other great audiophile analog recordings for the mass of listeners in our digital age.

The performance of course is a killer.

(The Escales and La Mer sound curiously flat on my SACD copy. They must be the victim of some technical problem.)

Mark Hite

An Old Favorite in a new container
These are some of the RCA Red Seal Classic recordings from their

Living Stereo series remastered for SACD. The Saint-Saens

recording comes from a recently discovered Three Channel master

tape, so on the SACD Surround portion of the disc you hear Left,

Center, and Right channels only. Not 5.1 or 4.0. What you do hear

are Three of Charles Munch's finer recordings with the Boston

Symphony Orchestra. The recordings made in 1956 and 1959, manage

to stand the test of time, and are welcome additions to the SACD

catalog. Especially at Mid Price. Hopefully these Ten SACDs will

be the first of many. One recording I hope will be issued on SACD

is the Berlioz Requiem with Munch, The BSO and Leopold Simoneu.

Also Maestro Munch's recording of the Berlioz Symphonie

Fantastique

Five Star Performance, but the engineers dropped the ball
It isn't very likely that you've arrived here not knowing that this recording is one of the first of ten legendary RCA Living Stereo titles to be offered in the high-tech SACD format. As with the earlier reviewer below, I have my own personal list of favorites from the RCA catalog that I hope to see in the SACD format one day, but I hope that when that day comes, I will not be as disappointed with the sound on those as I am with this one.

Super Audio CD (SACD) is touted as being a better medium than conventional CD, and this has been demonstrated to me time and again. Given the possibilities, it is important that the engineers who perform the transfers from the original master tapes to a digital format pay even more attention to their work than they have in the past. If they don't, they run the risk of providing consumers with a product that is, in fact, inferior to less capable mediums, and that is certainly the case here. The previously available CD has a less irritating sound to it, and is therefore more satisfying to hear.

I bought four titles from the Living Stereo SACD series at the same time; this one provides the poorest sound. This hasn't always been the case: audiophiles value the sound of the original LP highly. Caveat Emptor to audiophiles.