Chopin Fantasie Impromptu, Opus 66

Many thanks, Newbee (and all). Newbee, I did not take your original recommendation as one having actually heard the recording so I would not have blamed you either way :-)

FWIW I have a multi-layered version of the disc and am playing in on a Modwright/Sony player (SACD). I am not able to get the CD layer to play on my player (though it does have the layer there) so I brought it over to hear on my friend's system (an outstanding system, BTW), and came away with very similar impressions. Both his and my systems required copious amounts of attenuation at the pre stage. Mine was at 3:30 and his at 2:30 (this is not normal for either system). At the same time I'd brought over a far less lofty piece of piano music to hear on his system and I have to say I'd never heard a piano sound so good coming from a pair of speakers! It was hair raising good! So what I'm saying is that it was definitely not the system that was throwing a poor image. His player is just a CD player so was definitely playing the CD layer on the Hewitt. Interesting observation on the dual-layered discs. A bust in more ways than one for me as it was a relatively expensive disc too. From the standpoint of the performance it was a fine recommendation, and if the CD is better than the dual layer I certainly understand your recommending it. Burn me a copy and I'll burn you a copy and we can see how they vary on our respective systems;-) OK, I'm ordering the Kissin!

Jax 2, I'm sure you are too careful to make the mistake, but lest my comments about my purchase of the Kissin Impromptus 4, it is NOT in Vol 2. It is in a newer/different release.

BTW, I'm still puzzled about the gain differential as well as any sonic differences in general between MC SACD's 2 channel sound played back on a Redbook player vs a regular CD vs a Hybrid CD. I really think something is going on there. Be interesting if someone would feed back on this. I'm too lazy to start a new thread.

Newbee, do you have acces to the liner notes to tell me the recording engineer on the Kissin? If it's who I think it is, I might have an interesting story about the recording that might shed light on its sound.

Very strange about the Hewitt recording. I have other recordings by her on SACD, maybe I'll give them a listen on both layers this weekend.

Reprince, The recording engineer was Leszek Wojcik on the Kissin Chopin Vol 1. It was recorded in 1993 in Carnegie Hall. (Hard to believe Kissin has been around that long!)

Obviously I've been surprised by Jax2's comments, at least the degree to which he has found the recording defficient, especially the gain issue. The rest I can ascribe to different audio systems and sonic preferences, if they exist.

Please post if you do have the opportunity to hear a MC SACD disc played back on a Redbook CD player. In other 2 channel SACD's with a Redbook layer that I've heard on my Redbook CD players I can charge any 'differences' I've thought I've heard to my imagination.

Funny thing about audio, even though neither Kissin nor Hewlett are ever likely to be my favorites in Chopin, I'm buying two more CD's just to resolve some audio issues and find out if I'm missing something, performance wise. Go figure! :-)

My favorite Chopin interpreter has been Moravec, particularly his recordings on the old Connoisseur Society label. Some of his work was released on CD by VAI, but I’m not sure if this Impromptu was in those collections.

On the Kissin, it's not the same engineer, but I’ll tell the story anyway. I got the chance to hear the master tape of a Kissin recording at Carnegie made by Tim Martyn for RCA (I got Tim to bring his console and some of his master tapes to an NJAS meeting at my home last year). For that recording he used a pair of spaced omnis out in the hall, and a three (I believe—might have been a stereo pair) mic array over the piano to add presence. Since we were listening to the master tape and had the mixing console, we were able to cut out either of the microphone feeds and listen to just the omnis or the array over the piano. I would say that from your description the recording engineer for the Kissin probably had more of the close-up mics in the mix, while the omnis alone sounded closer to your description of the Hewitt recording (though it sounded about as realistic and balanced as anything I've ever heard in a concert hall—Tim’s observation was that Carnegie's acoustics are good enough that you really didn’t need anything more than the omnis, and I think that was the consensus in the club after our listening). So I think you’re right about the different recording styles, though keep in mind that a recording engineer might have used a number of styles to put the performance on tape, but the producer and the artist have a bigger say in the mix from the mics and the sound of the resulting finished product.