Hi-Res Downloads

192kHz/24-bit FLAC, DG 479 4817 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

Unusually, perhaps even a ‘first’, DG offers this at 192kHz/24-bit resolution. Kremer’s new programme – two really lightweight pieces and more substantial fare by Philip Glass and Giya Kancheli – was last month’s Album Choice CD [HFN Oct ’15] and, we thought, worth revisiting at this higher resolution. The eight-movement Glass Violin Concerto No 2 is a kind of response to Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ (although ‘Movement III’ is more suggestive of the Brahms). There’s some astonishingly wonderful music in it and the higher-resolution option certainly makes the reiterations of, for example, ‘Song No 1’ seem more purposeful. The same with the complex sounds in Ex contrario: for me a wintry sojourn (although there’s more compassion in Kancheli’s icy scoring than in, say, Sibelius’s Tapiola). It is a hauntingly beautiful piece. CB

Sound Quality: 95%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Even at its most dense, the full reach of the orchestra could have been captured with a 96kHz sampling rate [see Graph, Ex contrario, above], so the 192kHz rate here offers little extra for twice the file size. Recording is clean, however. PM