Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 "Organ" Hybrid Multi-Channel & Stereo SACD

Magnificent Recording with Kansas City Symphony on 5.1 Multi-Channel SACD!
Saint-Saëns dedicated the written form of his official Third Symphony to his friend Franz Liszt, who died a few weeks after the premiere in May 1886. The symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London, which had previously commissioned Beethoven's Ninth and Dvorak's Seventh. For the then 50-year-old Saint-Saëns, 27 years had passed since his last symphony. He claimed afterwards that he could not write such a work again. He had succeeded because he had concentrated on the piano and the organ, in the mastery of which he himself - like his friend Liszt - was a master.
The recording was produced by Grammy winner David Frost and mastered in HDCD by Prof. Keith Johnson at Reference Recordings. As always with albums from Reference Recordings, the sound is blessed with size and transparency, conveying a fabulous combination of room atmosphere and direct sound. However, the demonstration of power of the gigantic organ in Helzberg Hall in Kansas City is reserved only for loudspeakers with the appropriate potency. With Reference, you don't allow yourself to crop the instrument in the lower registers, and compact systems and mini-monitors are at a disadvantage.
These great works are interpreted by Michael Stern. Stern is in his second decade of working with the Kansas City Symphony, and during his tenure the ensemble has been hailed for its artistic ascent, organizational stability, audience growth, and original programming.
The centerpiece of this album, Saint-Saens' Symphony No.3 "Organ", was completed at the height of the composer's career in 1886. Of the work, the composer wrote, "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again."
Conductor Michael Stern's interpretations of these great works were captured by the team of GRAMMY® award-winners Keith O. Johnson (engineer, surround mastering) and David Frost (producer). Others on the team include Sean Martin (engineer) and Graemme Brown (SACD authoring).
This album was released on CD in 2015 and was subsequently garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Engineering. Now listeners can enjoy this brilliant recording in SACD Surround Sound.

Features:

• Super Audio CD
• SACD Multi-Channel SACD Layer
• SACD Stereo SACD Layer
• This Hybrid SACD contains a Super HDCD 24 Bit encoded Stereo CD layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
• HDCD

Musicians:

• Kansas City Symphony
• Michael Stern, conductor
• Jan Kraybill, organ
• Noah Geller, violin
• Mark Gibbs, cello

Selections:

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
1. Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor for violin and orchestra, Op.28
2. La muse et le poete for violin, cello and orchestra, Op.132
Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 "Organ"
3. Adagio - Allegro moderato
4. Poco adagio
5. Allegro moderato - Presto
6. Maestoso - Allegro