Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit, FLAC; Pentatone PTC 5186558 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

This is the fourth dance-related Pentatone programme with the youthful-looking Yamada (now 37), principal guest conductor with the Suisse Romande. Its founder, Ernest Ansermet, made the imaginative orchestrations here for Debussy’s Épigraphes (two-piano originals). These come as a breath of fresh air after the elaborate scoring of the Roussel, although the Suisse Romande players certainly respond to its challenges. Les Biches is heard in the five-movement Suite adapted from the frothy 1924 ballet, and Yamada brings an ideal light touch to this music – where, incidentally, you hear a theme duplicated in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. One innovation with this download is an interactive ‘booklet’, where you just click on the headings for what you want to read. CB

Sound Quality: 85%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

A bold attempt has been made here to capture the massive dynamic range of this orchestra. A few peaks hit the 0dBFs endstops with low-level bursts of ultrasonic distortion [see red trace on Graph]. But it’s a true 96kHz file. PM