June 2007
Theres no doubt about Glenn Goulds 1956 Goldberg Variations being a landmark in several respects, and no doubt about the clarity and presence of this new hybrid SACD, on which the performance is presented twice: once in multichannel, then in binaural stereo designated "The Ultimate Headphone Experience." But for some of us this is bound to come through as somewhat unconvincing -- not because of the actual sound, but because of the way we are influenced by what we know about how it was achieved. Objectively, this is probably unfair, but our fallible psyches dont often work objectively and thus may allow the "re-performance" to seem to some degree sterile, deprived of the human qualities we associate with gritty LP surfaces and an assuring level of distortion to mark a historical recording as being of its time. This reaction is a human failing which perhaps ought to be an embarrassment in the face of what Zenph has achieved, but, to my admittedly preconditioned ear, the humanity and depth of Goulds own achievement seem to be missing here. Perhaps listeners coming to this iconic performance for the first time, uncluttered by a half-centurys familiarity, will receive the unarguably spacious-sounding "re-performance" with the level of enthusiasm that greeted the original release more than 50 years ago. For now, though, Im keeping the CBS CD mono transfer [MYK 38479]. GO BACK TO: |