Dave Lampson:

>Given that most classical music relies on subtle details in tone
>coloration, balance, perspective, etc., there would seem to be great
>benefit to getting as close to the quality of the original master recording
>as possible.  A technology such as SACD essentially gives the average
>consumer an extremely high-quality digital copy of the original master.

Well, it's October now, and I am still the average consumer, but I
would like to say how good the more recent Praga recordings are, using
multichannel hybrid SACD technology.

If you feel tenderness and admiration towards Dvorak's chamber works,
as I do, you might appreciate perhaps their most recent release: the
Prazak Quartet plays Dvorak's eleventh quartet followed by "Cypresses",
a rarer work in the recorded world.  "Cypresses", for the very few of
you who might just not know, is based on twelve of eighteen songs Dvorak
wrote when he was quite young (1865), which he later arranged for string
quartet (1887).  No recommendation was ever given for playing the complete
cycle (B152), apparently, but I am glad to hear them movingly as such.
(PRD/DSD 250 198)

The Prazaks have recorded the last seven of Dvorak's quartets, most if
not all of which are, or will be released in the SACD format.

They have now completed the full set of Beethoven's quartets including
the Great Fugue.  Beautiful.  (They have recorded opus 130 with the
Grosse Fuge as finale, then following it on with the alternative finale,
Allegro.) I have heard the Prazaks several times in Paris, and, although
the warmth of a live performance is just about impossible to capture,
Praga has done a fine job, and the set is well worth acquiring, either
in the CD or SACD version.

For SACD enthusiasts, these, of course, are far from all the available
Praga SACDs...

Christine Labroche