Salzburg Festival 2012: Opening Concert

A demanding opening concert delivered well and with conviction
The opening concert to the 2012 Salzburg Festival could not possibly be described as an easy crowd pleaser. It is traditional for such a concert to have a theme and presumably this year's theme was Russian music. The opening two pieces were vocal which may have been quite a challenge without sub titles for the audience, especially as the Mussorgsky songs were in Russian and relatively unknown. The final item, Prokofiev's fifth symphony, probably came as an aural relief to many.

The recording itself is of a very high standard with detailed and crisp camera work which still avoids being invasive. The imaging quality is good with excellent definition and the sound is well delivered in DTS-HD Master 5.0. Stereo is also provided and comes as the default option which always seems to me to be strange given the likely home cinema set-ups aimed at. Very few manufacturers currently give the surround sound supplied as the default option. The actual sound is wide ranging and offers...





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