Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, Harmonia Mundi HMC 902118 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

Political ill-will meant that the planned Vienna Philharmonic premiere of the Brahms-influenced Dvo?ák Sixth was deferred for three years and it was first played by a Prague orchestra in 1881. The VPO’s only recording came in 2000 under Myung-Whun Chung – superb, like the BPO/Kubelík (both DG), and I don’t think this Lucerne Orchestra version offers any real challenge. In seeking out every tiny detail, their young American chief conductor, I think, loses a forward momentum – even in the furiant scherzo. Only in the finale does everything come together splendidly. Orchestrated from a 1894 piano original, the five-movement Suite, however, brings no such reservations. The (Russell Johnson designed) Lucerne KKL hall acoustic registers at movement-endings; but the soundstage is rather two-dimensional. CB

Sound Quality: 75%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

This looks like a 96kHz recording but there remains a lot of spurious noise and ultrasonic ‘clutter’ in addition to peaks at 20kHz, 32kHz and 46kHz. How much of the post-20kHz content is ‘real’ and how much is distortion from limiters, etc? PM