New HD 192kHz/24-bit remastering from original tapes
SACD 1-4 Newly remastered in HD 192kHz/24-bit from original tapes by Studio Circé
Manfred Symphony remastered with AI upscaling remastering by Atsuo Fujita
Riccardo Muti’s late-1970s’ Tchaikovsky Symphony Cycle (gratifyingly including Manfred), meticulously prepared by Muti for exact ensemble, variety of timbre, and a subtle range of dynamics, although he can be occasionally ruthless, yet also, and much more often, expressively yielding (the slow movement of No.1 is beyond enchanted), with many thrills and other beauties along the way. These roughly forty-plus-year-old recordings have been remastered for SACD and the DDD Manfred has been addressed by AI. The results are totally silent backgrounds, enough to perhaps lose the signature of the venue(s), the music emerging ethereally, maybe too the suspicion that the loudest fortissimos are a little restricted, although there are plenty of occasions when those suspicions are suspended, and there’s nothing restricted about the timpani – can only be Andrew Smith. These versions confirm what great music this is – not least the first three Symphonies – and how observant Muti is of what’s on the page, the performances’ precision musically revealing. There is a particularly passionate account of the Fourth Symphony, and I wonder, at that work’s very end, if Muti extends the use of the bass drum, not demonstrably, more for ballast, although tinkering isn’t Muti’s style, the man who is so strict with singers, that they should not add show-off top notes and the like to their operatic renditions. Put simply, these are admirably disclosing accounts (Romeo and Juliet too, very exciting and story-illustrative, although I found the Piano Concerto uninvolving). Warner Classics 2173296128 [5 SACDs]. A trip down ASD memory-lane follows…
https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/tchaikovsky-symphonies-1-6-manfred-romeo-juliet-5-hybrid-sacd
