Pasadenans Go for Gold on First CD

R. STRAUSS: “ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA.” SAINT-SAENS: SYMPHONY NO. 3 (“ORGAN”). Pasadena Symphony, Jorge Mester, conductor. Newport Classic AUracle. Limited, numbered edition.

Recorded with a device shaped like a human head, fitted with microphones in its ears and hung roughly 10 feet above and 20 feet behind Mester as he conducted the orchestra at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, this disc manages an honest, accurate depiction of the sound of these musicians in that hall, although one occasionally suspects knob-turning from engineers in solo passages.

Produced in a limited edition of 5,000 24-carat-gold pressings, the recording, the Pasadenans’ first, is one of those audiophile jobs with outlandish claims. The sound is good but not that different (if at all) from your average Deutsche Grammophon release available at one-third the price.

Still, as a memento of this conductor’s and orchestra’s partnership, it is a solid item, even if we would have chosen music less traveled. But both of these pieces use organ and brass and are brilliant and thundering, and this is a demonstration disc. Argue with that.