The Absolute Sound SACD Sampler

Product Information
Telarc and The Absolute Sound have created The Absolute Sound SACD Sampler, a new surround sound sampler with all tracks chosen by Harry Pearson, founder of The Absolute Sound and chairman of the premiere publication’s editorial board.

“This disc is my unabashed effort to put together a sonic spectacular that will rot your shocks,” says Pearson, better known among hardcore audiophiles as The Great HP, in his liner notes for the fourteen-track project, “and to demonstrate the superiority of the DSD multichannel system so convincingly that there will be no doubt about which high-resolution digital medium is the technological best.” The sampler lives up to the promise.

HP digs deep into Telarc’s classical surround catalog and unearths treasures that are meant to assist anyone from the novice to the connoisseur in discovering and enjoying the world of SACD. The sampler covers the gamut of all things classical, including: Empire Brass Quintet’s rendition of Henry Purcell’s “Rondeau” from Abdelazer; an excerpt from Orff’s Carmina Burana, performed by Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Poco allegro from Martinu’s Symphony No. 2, which was recently released by Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and Andrew York’s transcription of Rodrigo’s “En Aranjuez con tu amor,” performed by LAGQ. “I am not one for being put in the middle of the players,” HP says of the LAGQ track, “but in this case, it bothers me not one whit.”

He closes the sampler with an excerpt of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and notes that “since there is no way to get a bit of this prize-winning (three Grammys) disc onto the sampler without sort of cheating, I cheated. What you will hear is the last third of the long final movement…scored for chorus and orchestra and using the poems of Walt Whitman as the text. What you should listen for is the waves of sound from the chorus on the wide stage that suggest those of the sea itself. And, then, there are the ever-softening pianissimos of the final bars.”

The information-packed liner notes offer a glimpse into the mind of an audiophile genius. He eschews the usual rhetoric of the audiophile world in favor of the basic facts and simple cues to make the listening experience as grand as it can be.

Tracks

1. Purcell: Rondeau from Abdelazer
    Orff: Carmina Burana (excerpts)
2. In taberna: In taberna quando sumus
3. Cour d'amours: Tempus est iocundum
4. Handel: Suite from F major: Hornpipe from Water Music
5. Martinu: III. Poco allegro from Symphony No. 2
6. Debussy: Le martin d'un jour de fete from Iberia
7. Ravel: Danse generale from Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No 2
8. Rodrigo/York: En Aranjuez con tu amor
9. Prokofiev: Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet
10. Traditional: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
11. Berlioz: Marche au supplice from Symphonie fantastique
12. Higdon: Movement IV from Concerto for Orchestra
13. Nielsen: II. Allegro: Presto from Symphony No. 5
14. Vaughan Williams: Finale: The Explorers (excerpt) from A Sea Symphony

Price: $39.95 $37.95

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