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Discrete 3/2 AC-3 sound but mediocre performances

12/24/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a Delos recording of two war horses, Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra and Holsts' Planets. According to the liner notes Delos has been making their recordings with AC-3 in mind since 1995. The Dallas Symphony gives a pair of OK readings of the music. The video consists of still scenes of a museum during the Also Sprach. It was convenient to have the individual movements labeled on the video as the music was playing. The artwork during the Holst could have been done by a teenager. It's best to listen to this (if you must have this format now.) with the TV off. I view my purchase of this disk as one of my poorer choices. I got it because I wanted to see what could be done in this format. AC-3 will be very good as soon as some of the first tier orchestras enter the DVD medium. Imaging is good, much broader "sweet spot" because of the discrete center channel, rear speakers give good ambience information. Delos did well with the recording but the Dallas Symphony does not provide a good reading of the scores. Not recommended unless you really want to be the first on your block with classical music in AC-3 format. btw: There's no LFE (Low Frequency Effects) track on this disk. There's also a Dolby Surround encoding of the pieces for those without AC-3 decoding equipment."

Good technically...mediochre interpretations

12/11/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I wanted to agree with all of the points of the previous reviewer. However I do live in Dallas and do find that this manages to give me the illusion of the Meyerson Symphony Center in my living room. One error the previous reviewer made when he or she wrote, "The video consists of still scenes of a museum during the Also Sprach", that was not a museum, that was the outside and lobby area of the Meyerson Symphony Center. My hope is that Litton someday will be replaced by a world class conductor, or grow into one if he ever decides on appropriate tempos, phrasing and articulation."