Mozart, W. A.: Don Giovanni.(Sound Recording Review)

Mozart, W. A.: Don Giovanni (highlights). Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia, with the Hungarian Radio Chorus and soloists. Recorded in 2000, at the Phoenix Studio, Budapest, Hungary. Engineer: Janos Bohus. 76+ minutes. Naxos 5.110011.

This is the only DVD-A release in this batch of recordings, and it is a bit unusual in that it was recorded at 44.1 kHz, with 24-bit resolution. Most of the DVD-A material I have reviewed was at 96 kHz, but the readout on my Onkyo DV-S939 player confirmed the listed information. The audible effect of this lower data rate should be zero.

One of the first things that I noticed when I first listened to this transcription (other than the richness, clarity, and depth of the sound) is that the engineer chose to make serious use of the center channel. More to the point, he made skillful use of it. The left/right blend across the soundstage is wonderful, with proper half-left and half-right imaging, and the front/back perspective and integration of the soloists and supporting instrumental and vocal ensembles was done just about as well as it can be. The soloists are maybe just a tad closer up in perspective sometimes than they might be at a live performance, but the balance is not objectionable in the least. If your favorite seat at the opera is within the forward-row sections in the hall you will love this presentation.

Lately, many American recording engineers have been fretting about how to properly use the center feed to get a decent soundstage blend without having centered performers sound like they are in a mono recording. Some do not know how to generate a center feed that includes hall ambiance, and there appears to be some concern about proper half-left and half-right imaging. Quite a few are apparently paranoid enough to not make use of the center feed at all, or at least to only use it just enough to not offend listeners who have a center speaker set up. This center-channel situation is the norm with both DVD-A and SACD recordings as best I can tell.

Admittedly, there is a certain non-paranoid logic to this, because in many home-system cases the center speaker is not properly height positioned in relation to the left/right mains, and it is also usually oriented wrong and often rather cheaply built to boot. These height, orientation, and quality problems can certainly blow good soundstaging to pieces, even if the recording makes astoundingly proper use of the center ...