The Fredösphere

Lynn found this incredibly good news about a huge collection of ancient manuscripts from a garbage dump in Egypt.  New technology is making the scrolls readable again.  Our knowledge of Greek literature could expand dramatically.  Combine this with the possibility that a partially excavated villa in Pompeii may also contain a large collection of scrolls, and we may see the classics become a seriously hoppin' discipline again.  Or not; Cronaca documents some caveats.

Speaking of the restoration of ancient artifacts from a classic Golden Age, Mark Jordan reviews a new Telarc SACD (surround-sound disc) of Miklós Rósza's scores from famous sword-'n'-sandal epic films.  He's lovin' it:

The ‘Ben-Hur’ suite opens with an ‘Overture’ colored with a rich, handsome glow by the Cincinnati players. The recording also wonderfully captures the rasp of the lower brass instruments in the opening bars. The largest musical instrument in this recording is Cincinnati’s Music Hall itself, and it is played masterfully. It is a huge wood and plaster hall, and it thrives best in lusciously scored music. Here, Rósza’s sumptuous orchestration fills the hall sonorously, and the surround channels give an amazing sense of the hall’s vast size. In the second movement of the suite, ‘Star of Bethlehem / Adoration of the Magi’, the women of the chorus are introduced, engagingly, from the rear channels. Moving into the aforementioned ‘Rowing of the Galley Slaves’, we come to the highlight of the disc. I don’t want to seem over-the-top here, but if in fifty years, music fans are discussing classic recordings of the early twenty-first century the way we talk now about RCA’s “Living Stereo” series from the 1950’s, this is the track they’ll be talking about. It starts with solo timpani thwacks, sounding through the hall and bouncing back from the back walls. The low winds begin rasping as the strings enter with heaving phrases. Then the brass start stabbing short pungent notes as the textures multiply through all the sections of the orchestra. At its height, it seems like everyone is playing at maximum volume, trying to blow the roof off the hall, but in Telarc’s recording, no sections are lost, no textures get submerged. This has to be heard to be appreciated. If you have a surround-sound system with SACD player, the moment the disc is released run out, get it, and play this track (and the next). If you don’t have such a system, get one or else suck up to a friend who has one. Without even having any players in the rear channels, this track exemplifies what a thrilling experience multichannel listening can be.

After the hectic orgy of sound in the previous movement, the ‘Alleluia’ pulls a quiet, but absolutely stunning maneuver. The strings begin the movement with a high, shimmering sound radiating from the stage out into the hall. After the brutality of the ‘Rowing music’, this sounds like the fluttering of angels’ wings. But then the sound of the strings “grows” from the stage and expands into the rear channels, surrounding the listener. It is, of course, nothing that you could ever hear in a regular live orchestral concert, but it is a brilliant manipulation of the multichannel technology to make this disc a work of art in its own right. This shift in perspective pulls the listener “inside” the music, like a vision that sweeps you up into the sky. The music grows to a glowing peak as more and more voices and instruments join in, then recedes to a gentle closing.

Note to the wifeösphere:  doesn't our old stereo, with its mere two channels, seem awfully inadequate now?