Chopin Fantasie Impromptu, Opus 66

Thanks all. Newbee, great to hear from a fellow idiot! I'd already done a bit of research on my own and had already ordered the Hewitt version on SACD so good to hear I made a good choice. Great input as always, Newbee, and I'm a hopeless romantic, which is probably what drew me to the piece in the first place. See my original thread if you want to watch the DVD and hear the passage that caused me to seek this out in the first place. Funny you mention your mom, I was back east visiting my mom (writing from there now as a matter of fact) where both my mom and I were watching that DVD and we both commented about that piano passage at the end of the DVD finding ourselves looking for the source in the credits. Alas, there was none. I'll look up the Rubinstein version(s) as well, which I may already have on some disc as I do have some of his performances. Thanks to all for the recommendations.

Evgeny Kissin Plays Chopin

I'll pick this one up as well. Very good playing.

Just got Kissin CD. Excellent! Both the performance and the sound quality. Just awesome! Highly recommended.

Just got Kissin CD. Excellent! Both the performance and the sound quality. Just awesome! Highly recommended.

Thanks, I will order it. I got the Hewitt SACD. While the performance is outstanding, the recording and sonics are surprisingly poor. It seems to have been recorded with very low gain necessitating a 3 O'clock position on my preamp, as well (necessitating a similarly high position on a friend's system). The piano seems distant and a bit fuzzy overall...not in crisp, sharp focus, nor very immediate. It's a shame as the performances on these two discs are very nice indeed. Certainly on the more romantic side as Newbee sussed out.

Jax2, Re your sonic observations of the Hewlett disc. I have it in 2 channel redbook cd. I do not have the SACD (or even a SACD player, for that matter). Which leads to my question - is the SACD you have a 2 channel, or multi channel?

I ask because what you have described about the recordings sonics in general, is exactly what I have experienced when I have listened to the redbook cd layer of a multi-channel SACD. I'm told it isn't so, so I only know what I 'think' I have heard. I've never had the two format (Redbook and SACD) discs to do an A/B comparison. But, I'd think that if the disc was recorded to play back in 5 channels it is going to sound different when only the front two channels are played back. I don't know if on a SACD player that will make a difference or not, but I heard a distinct difference playing a MC SACD on a redbook player than I hear when I play back the CD layer on a 2 channel SACD hybrid recording.

I'm really curious as I did not experienced the problems you described which seem to surpass my hearing inadequacies. The gain issue for instance. I had no issue with gain at all. Well with in my expectations of CD playback. Nor did I find the piano excessively recessed nor did I detect any mic's sitting on the soundboard either.

Very interesting...........

PS I'm happy you ordered this before you read my recommendationa - I don't have to take any responsibility for your disappointment. :-)