Sony Classical Violinist Midori Debuts Companyís First Original DSD Multichannel Sound Recording With Rarely Heard Reconstruction Of Mozartís Violin & Piano Concerto

Christoph Eschenbach Leads NDR Sinfonieorchester In Distinctive Performance Of Mozartís Sinfonia Concertante With Violist Nobuko Imai

7-Jun-01

In Sony Musicís first-ever original DSD (Direct Stream Digital) multichannel surround sound recording, violinist Midori and pianist/conductor Christoph Eschenbach present the rarely heard reconstruction of Mozartís Concerto for Violin and Piano on a new Sony Classical SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) that marks Sony Musicís first multichannel SACD release.Eschenbach conducts the NDR Sinfonieorchester in the concerto and Mozartís Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, K.364, with violist Nobuko Imai joining Midori as soloist. Produced by multiple Grammy Award winner Steven Epstein - winner of the 43rd annual Grammy for Classical Producer of the Year - and engineered by Richard King, this landmark SACD recording (SS 89488) will be released in the Spring of 2001, closely followed by the release of the conventional compact disc.Sony Music has released over 100 new and catalogue titles remastered for the SACD format. This Mozart disc is the first Sony Music title to have been originally recorded in DSD multichannel sound. Though an SACD player is required for playback of SACDs - and a multichannel SACD player is specifically required to realize DSD multichannel sound - all multichannel SACDs have a stereo mix as well to enable superb playback on all two-channel SACD players.The multichannel SACD format represents the next generation in music reproduction. It uses the latest Direct Stream Digital technology to deliver superior sound reproduction quality, with the ability to render all the nuances of a live performance. The result is a clearer, more natural sound that captures the musical atmosphere of the source material with outstanding realism. Using a sampling frequency 64 times higher than that of a CD, SACD offers an unparalleled listening experience. More information on Sony Musicís SACD releases is available at www.sonymusic.com\SACD.Heard here in one of its first recordings, the Concerto in D for Violin, Piano and orchestra, K.Anh.56, has been reconstructed by contemporary musicologist Philip Wilby using the 120 surviving bars of Mozartís score of the work. The 22-year-old composer described the work-in-progress in a letter to his father from Mannheim in the fall of 1778. He never completed the fragment, which has always tantalized critics and Mozart scholars. The musicologist Alfred Einstein referred to it as a ìmagnificent torso,î believing the fact Mozart never completed it was a tragic loss.After scholarly analysis, Wilby has concluded that the last of the six violin sonatas Mozart wrote a few months earlier is a working model for the concerto. Wilby has completed the first movement based on Mozartís 120 existing measures, using the second and third movements of the violin sonata as the basis for the rest of the concerto.This companion performance of the often-recorded Sinfonia Concertante is an unusual one. It uses ìscordaturaî tuning for the solo viola, in which the instrument is tuned to a different pitch (here a half-tone higher), giving the strings a greater tension and resulting in a more brilliant sound. Imai says this choice gives the sound of the viola ìanother dimension.îThe new tuning also required Midori to make adjustments in the fingering for violin of a work she has played many times. ìIt becomes almost a new piece,î Midori says. ìThe overtones of the viola now blend perfectly with those of the violin. My only regret is that we havenít done it sooner!îMidoriís most recent Sony Classical recording was a coupling of the Tchaikovsky and the first Shostakovich concertos, with Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic (SK 68338).Midoriís new Mozart recording with violist Nobuko Imai, pianist/conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Sinfonieorchester will be featured on www.MidoriViolin.com, the violinistís domain on Sony Classicalís Web site at www.sonyclassical.com. The album site will include sound clips, album art, liner notes and more. Sony Classicalís Web site at www.sonyclassical.com is an online resource for exploring the labelís entire catalogue of recordings, and includes sound clips, track listings, cover art and other information about the recordings. The site also features an online radio show, album supersites, multimedia, artist biographies, tour schedules and discographies for all Sony Classical artists, as well as special promotions, and much more.

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