Sony G90 - Manual (Page 53)

ing the language of written text), it seems to vio-
late the spirit of the DVD interface to provide no
way to pick a language once, and stick with it.
The Karajan discs also let you choose sur-
round or standard audio. But I’m not impressed
with the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala
discs, which also offer 5.1 surround, but (and this applies to
Karajan, as well), not convincingly. Yes, it surrounded me, and
provided a momentary high. (“Look, ma! More sound!”) But
the effect wasn’t in the least realistic. We know that it was
faked, not to mince words, in the Karajan releases (see Heidi
Waleson’s piece, in this issue, for Sony Music’s acknowledge-
ment of that), and when I listened, I found I’d choose the
merely “stereo” option to get something even vaguely like the
real spatial layout of an orchestra. The Scala discs – like the
Karajan, transfers from VHS – also have an engineered sur-
round effect, and with no way to turn it off, I had to mute the
rear speakers before I could hear where the singers were on
stage. The surround sound, on both series, was richer, more
full of pomp and circumstance, but much less lifelike.
The Performances:
Not, though, that we’re talking about sound that’s all that
lifelike in the first place. The two Scala discs, especially Adri -
ana
(which has refreshing clarity), aren’t all that bad, but the
Karajans are awful. Or let me qualify that. The Karajans, I’m
sure, sound just the way the great conductor wanted them to.
At this late stage of his career, he favored a rich, undifferenti-
ated, beefy orchestral sound, and clearly reveled in every arti-
ficial way to make it even more that way on his recordings.
There’s certainly something impressive about the result, but
not in any way that reminds me of real music. There are won-
derful, pop-production sonic moments, one involving a bass
drum on the Vienna disc that made me feel that I’d descended
to the roots of all the earth. But a bass drum would never
sound that shivery and intimate in a live concert. If you have
any taste for live orchestral music, the sound of these DVDs
will be, at best, severely puzzling.
I might say as much for Karajan’s performances. By one
standard, they’re wonderful. On the Vivaldi disc, he leads the
Berlin Philharmonic; on the others, it’s the Vienna orchestra.
Both orchestras reach the highest levels of achievement, or at
least they do if all you care about is pure technique; their
sound, in a detached, not quite human way, is ravishing. The
performances, for that matter, do everything performances of
these pieces are supposed to do, except maybe touch the
heart. There’s something contrived, almost undifferentiated
about them, as if Karajan looked at all music as some kind of
abstract challenge, and even if he didn’t sacrifice the most
basic musical values, worked to make them sound like him,
not like Dvorák or Vivaldi.
In one way, the Dvorák is the best of the three, because
the music ends up speaking for itself, once you get used to
Karajan’s trademark sheen. There aren’t issues of Baroque
style (which might stop a purist from enjoying the Vivaldi), or
Viennese frivolity. But then, from another point of view, the
New Year’s Concert
is the best, because it raises no deep
musical issues, and the sheer virtuosity of the orchestral play-
ing can stand on its own. I’d rank it lowest, though, because
this virtuosity seems almost unhinged, torn away from any
real contact with human life.
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