Sibelius Symphony No.1 - Karelia Suite - Lorin Maazel VPO

Gorgeous recording and transfer

Early Decca - gorgeous. Just shows our recording technology has not developed a whole lot beyond this John Culshaw, James Brown & Gordon Parry recording of 1963. Another really nice transfer by HDTT from an original London pressing. The sound quality is just luscious -- deep sweet lovely strings, excellent dynamics, superb soundstage, open sounding and highly resolved, and dead quiet. This is one of the classic performances of the Sibelius Symphony No. 1 and should be in every serious classic music lover's library. What a wonderful new addition to my library in this very excellent digital transfer. Thank you, HDTT! BTW, I compared this reissue to the highly regarded Esoteric SACD which sells for crazy prices over on Discogs. If you have the Esoteric consider yourself very lucky because it truly is excellent. But, overall, I like this HDTT reissue better. Irrespective of the source for each, the HDTT sounds just slightly more open and resolved on my playback system, and the Esoteric has a bit of harshness in the strings that the HDTT does not have. If you don't already have the Esoteric, buy this HDTT reissue. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed in the sound quality of the DXD or DSD256 versions.