Comparison Recordings:
Dmitri Yablonsky, Russian Philharmonic
Orchestra. Naxos DVD-Audio 5.110020
Bernard Haitink, LPO [ADD] Decca 425
068-2
The news may or may not be good. With
this series MDG launch a new
system of surround sound playback, "2+2+2".
This offers two front channels, right
and left; two rear channels, right and
left; and, in addition a front upper
and left upper channel to be placed
above the front two channel speakers.
The two extra channels are programmed
into the centre channel and sub-woofer
channel which are not otherwise used.
Theoretically any 5.1 system decoder
and amplifier should be able to provide
the correct six channels. It would then
only be necessary to buy two new speakers
to place on top of your existing right
and left front speakers and make the
appropriate connections. Reports are
that this is a superior system to all
others tested.
For over thirty years
surround sound has meant a right and
left front channel and a right and left
rear channel. The addition of a front
centre channel and a sub-woofer channel
did not change the basic geometry of
the system which was originally developed
for films and marketed for home playback
as the CD-4, SQ, and QS quadraphonic
LP records of the 1970s and 1980s.
Recently the International
Telecommunications Union has established
a standard for European broadcasting
which moves the "rear" speakers
around to the side, just behind the
listening position. Disks engineered
in this ITU 775 system sound less ambient
and have front channel sound source
information in the rear when played
over a conventional "four in the
corner" system.
However, we are advised
that 2+2+2 is fully compatible with
conventional 5.1 listening; at worst,
if you have only four speaker channels,
you just don’t play the two upper front
channels. But, if you have four speakers
in the corners of your listening room
and have your 5.1 system decoder adjusted
so as to blend the centre and sub-woofer
channels into your right and left front
speakers, a 2+2+2 recording might exhibit
poor front channel separation. To play
back 2+2+2 recordings on a "four
in the corner" system, you might
prefer to adjust your decoder as though
you have a full range sub-woofer and
a full range centre channel, and then
refrain from connecting those channels.
I suppose for completeness
one must mention yet another surround
sound system which never quite made
it out of the laboratory: Left front,
centre front, right front, with a single
rear ambient speaker (actually early
Dolby Surround was very close to this
system since the rear channel information
was monophonic even though it was played
back over two speakers, which in some
instances, were connected out of phase
with each other.) One could achieve
this arrangement with careful connection
of four identical speakers to a two
channel stereo power amplifier, but
many amplifiers would become unstable
and distort or operate their circuit-breakers,
so the idea never caught on.
The documentation with
the disk is unclear. This is a Hybrid
SACD, yet according to the web-site
and the documentation in the booklet,
the real 2+2+2 tracks only appear on
DVD-Audios, not SACDs. I suspect the
truth is that the SACDs and DVD-Audios
have the same 6 channels, but that’s
not quite what the documentation says,
at least not in English, as I read it.
The notes by Iosif
Raiskin refer to performances of this
work in the USA by conductor "P.
Monte" an obvious reference to
Pierre Monteux, well known for his performances
of this work. I checked to see if the
French translator had caught this, but
no, the error is repeated faithfully
in the French and German versions of
the notes.
At the time of the
premiere, the story was on all the news,
of Shostakovich, brave volunteer fire-fighter
in Leningrad, being spirited away to
a safe haven in the Urals to write the
symphony, then the score, microfilmed,
sent by a blacked-out night train to
Odessa, by solo fighter plane to a safe
Mediterranean port, thence to London
and New York. Then there was the battle
between Toscanini and Stokowski as to
who should have the privilege of the
first U.S. performance. At the time
the critical consensus was that the
music would be long forgotten while
the story would remain a legend. Well,
many of you’ve probably heard the story
here for the first time, but the work
remains as one of Shostakovich’s most
successful and beloved scores. The first
movement is an ingenious double parody
on a tune from Die Fledermaus
and Ravel’s Bolero, the long
final movement is a textbook on innovative
orchestration. By the time I’d heard
the first four bars I was hooked and
I’ve loved the music ever since.
To avoid being overwhelmed
or having to dive for the volume control,
set the opening passage at a slightly
boisterous mp, not mf
as you might with other recordings.
Adjust your surround speakers so that
the offstage band at 15 minutes is at
centre rear.
You will note in the
recommended recordings above that I
have chosen very "cool" performances
of this symphony. Missing from my recommendations
is the Bernstein performance, for instance,
which some consider the best ever done.
But I like my Leningrad in Winter
dress as does Roman Kofman. Unfortunately,
this recording is almost too cool for
my taste. Then the conductor rushes
the final coda, which I compare to the
finale to Götterdämmerung*,
and which I feel should be played the
same way: with majesty and finality.
Orchestral detail, even on the SACD
tracks, is not so well delineated in
this recording as in either the Yablonsky
dts tracks or the Haitink CD.
I hope soon to be set
up for 2+2+2 surround sound, to listen
to this disk as it should be heard,
and if my opinion changes you may be
sure I will change this review to reflect
it; so watch this space for possible
future developments.
*Hum both tunes, ignore
the timpani notes, and you’ll hear the
similarity.
Paul Shoemaker
POSTSCRIPT
After this review was
completed, Werner Dabringhaus kindly
offered his comments which not only
answer some questions raised in the
review but also extend the information
available on the website. This has been
included here nearly complete (but with
some editorial adjustment):
"SACD and DVD-Audio
both have six channels with full range
frequency response. The booklet commentary
should be clear on this point.
In contrast to these
high definition formats the DVD-Video
has only five channels with full range
and a reduced additional ".1"
effect channel to use with a subwoofer
only. DVD-Video can handle music only
with Dolby Digital or DTS - both are
systems to reduce the original data
and you need a corresponding decoder
in the player or the receiver. But otherwise
you could not have best video quality
and multichannel tone at the same moment.
(Thus DVD-Video has a rather poor sound
quality compared to high resolution
DVD-Audio or SACD).
The loudspeaker configuration
for the DVD-Video set-up is fixed to
5.1. That
means front right and left, two surround
speakers and one centre and one subwoofer.
The sub is only for cinema effects:
earthquakes, detonations... And the
centre originally had the effect of
fixing dialogue exactly in the centre
of the screen in cinema: Wherever you
are seated you will always hear the
spoken words from the same place (which
normally defines the place of the main
actors as well)
because of its strict monophonic reproduction.
But for SACD and DVD-Audio
you have different possibilities: On
the one hand
you can achieve the best available technical
quality that is much superior to normal
CD stereo. But then you have the chance
to use 6 independent full-range channels.
Now you can use them in the same way
as cinema configuration invites: 5.1.
You will have noticed
that most of the music discs are not
using the .1 effect channel, some even
play in quadro 4.0 or - if you consider
the Living Stereo Recordings - in 3.0.
Here the sound engineers are free to
decide what is their best system. Our
idea was to use the 6 channels for a
3x stereo - the so called 2+2+2
Recording - which means: you use the
ordinary stereo, then add the ordinary
surround for room impression, then add
another pair of channels in order to
reach the third dimension in sound reproduction.
Note: all sounds the human ear can detect
are three dimensional with a definitive
height content. And in the orchestra
you will detect the woodwinds a little
bit elevated and the timpani even more...
Here are the main effects of 2+2+2:
You are completely
free from the sweet spot (one of the
biggest disadvantages of stereo and
5.1 as you know) You are completely
free in the choice of your loudspeaker
configuration: be it 5.1, 5.0, 4.0,
stereo: just put the disc into the
player and it will work properly fine.
In case you use the
2+2+2 set-up you will have the natural
three dimensional sounds just as in
the concert hall. And if you come closer
you will hear more detail. If you are
at a greater distance you will hear
more room ambience...
Note: It is not necessary
to have any decoder for 2+2+2: Every
DVD-A or SACD
(my favourite choice, the multiplayer
for all formats) has six analogue outputs
that only have to be amplified and connected
to the correspondent loudspeakers. In
this case you need a 6.0 amplifier at
least. You only have be careful to set
the same level of all the loudspeakers.
Even if you decided
to use the mixdown facility you will
achieve a proper sound image with a
good front separation.
I personally do not
like artificial sounds coming from elsewhere
in the listening room. But here the
effect of the "red army" entering
the scene from behind was I thought
very convincing. A number of our recordings
of Schütz choral works use the
same technology to evoke the sound of
singing in Dresden during Schutz’s day.
Best regards
Werner Dabringhaus"
Beethoven Orchestra, Bonn/Roman Kofman 
MDG
937 1203-6 [74.05] 
