Transfigured Night brings together two outstanding composers associated with Vienna: Joseph Haydn and Arnold Schoenberg. The former is often seen as the oldest representative of the “First Viennese School”, whereas the latter founded the “Second Viennese School”, using the classicism of his predecessors to explore new, atonal musical paths into the twentieth century. By combining Haydn’s two cello concertos (in C-major and D-major) and Schoenberg’s symphonic poem Verklärte Nacht – in the 1943 edition for string orchestra – this album sheds a new, fascinating light on both Viennese masters.
The connection between the stylistically contrasting pieces on this album is further enhanced by the inspired playing of American cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists. For Weilerstein, this album is not only a fascinating exploration of the rich Viennese musical heritage, but just as much a confrontation with the dark history of a city her grandparents had to flee in 1938. Transfigured Night is Weilerstein’s first album as an exclusive Pentatone artist, as well as the first album recorded with the Trondheim Soloists since her appointment as Artistic Partner of the ensemble in 2017.
Alisa Weilerstein – Cellist
Trondheim Soloists
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 01:12:51
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | PTC5186717 |
| Qualities | DSD 512 fs, DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 24 Bit, FLAC 192 kHz, FLAC 96 kHz |
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| Executive Producer | Renaud Loranger |
| Notes | NativeDSD selectively creates higher DSD bitrates of label's releases using two methods (Merging Technologies Album Publishing and Singnalyst HQPlayer Pro), depending on the original edited master source. In order to understand the processes, a bit of background is appropriate. NativeDSD sells only recordings that were originally recorded in DSD or DXD (352.8KHz PCM). The overwhelming majority of these recordings were edited and post processed in DXD, then converted (modulated) into DSD deliverable bit rates. NativeDSD acquires the label's original DXD edited master, and using Merging Technologies Album Publishing, creates a first generation DSD64, DSD128, and DSD256, as well as a DXD FLAC deliverable. Additionally, on selected recordings, a 32bit PCM WAV file is extracted (the DXD PCM FLAC is 24 bits by format definition), and uses it to modulate a DSD512 using HQPlayer Pro.The exception to the above are the few label recordings (Yarlung, Eudora, Just Listen etc.) that record in DSD, and do no PCM post processing mixing, level balancing, EQ etc. That's doable by restricting post processing to just editing, where only the edit transition interval (typically 100ms or less) is PCM converted, leaving the DSD music content unaltered when rendered. For those recordings, the DSD edited master (the actual recording master with edits) is used with HQPlayer Pro to re-modulate the missing DSD bitrates.Why do any of this? It's to provide a DSD bitrate deliverable choice, allowing a customer to purchase the highest DSD bitrate their DAC will support.It's correct that there's no additional music content information contained in the higher DSD bit rate from the original DSD bitrate. What's different is the uncorrelated modulation noise content placement in the frequency spectrum. When a DSD original file is converted to DXD (PCM), the inherent DSD modulation noise is removed through the decimation filtering, and re-inserted when modulated back to DSD. The modulation noise (again, uncorrelated) is the carrier part of the DSD bitstream modulation, and an inherent part of the DSD bit stream.
While the spectorial shape is the same regardless of the DSD bitrate, it's effective start and end points move an octave higher for every doubling of the DSD bitrate. For DSD64, the uncorrelated modulation noise is about -110dB at 20KHz, rising to about -50dB at 100KHz. For DSD512, the modulation noise is about -110dB at 160KHz, and -50dB at 800KHz. What this allows is for the customer's DAC to use gentler, more Gaussian shaped reconstruction filters, with far improved phase response. |
| Original Recording Format | |
| Producer | Everett Porter |
| Recording Engineer | Lauran Jurrius |
| Recording location | Selbu Kirke, Trondheim, Norway in April 2018. |
| Recording Type & Bit Rate | DSD 64 |
| Release Date | August 24, 2018 |
Press reviews
The Times
Alisa Weilerstein and the Trondheim Ensemble manage the feat of being throbbingly intense and meticulously exact, and this performance knocked me flat.
Faced with the Trondheim Soloists’ gutsy fervour as they beaver through the late romantic paroxysms in the string orchestra version of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, a casual listener might wonder: “What do they put in the water in Trondheim? How come the musicians have such zing?” Well, the players are young, which always helps, but aside from the water, or the Norwegian air, another reason must be the galvanising presence of the always exciting American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the ensemble’s new artistic partner.
She gives us an immediate demonstration of her powers as the soloist in two Haydn cello concertos, music of an earlier Viennese age, although delivered with such volatile passion and flying fingers that no trace of dust remains. Even so, the interpretation that makes this album essential is the electrifying account of Schoenberg’s pivotal early piece (1899), based on Richard Dehmel’s enraptured poem about two lovers, a moonstruck forest and another man’s baby in the woman’s womb.
Here, Weilerstein is largely embedded in the ensemble, but she springs up for achingly soulful solo spots as the musical voice of the male lover, who hastens the night’s transfigurations by saying (although much more poetically): “It’s OK by me.”
Yet this truly is a group triumph. In the singing lines of this hypnotic work, the Trondheim ensemble manage the wonderful feat of being throbbingly intense and meticulously exact at the same time, and this performance knocked me flat. If it’s something they do put in the water, I’d like to get it bottled.
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