Bill the Kid Archive

San Francisco Symphony At 100, Blu-ray (2012)

by Audiophile Audition | Sep 14, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

San Francisco Symphony At 100, Blu-ray (2012)  Performers: San Francisco Symphony/ Michael Tilson Thomas Studio: SFS Media (6/12/12) Video: Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1/ English: Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Both 96kHz, 16-bit audio Subtitles: English, Spanish, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)Length: 2:26:30 Rating: *** 1/2  A rousing concert disc marred by too much talking. This disc documents a September, 2011 Centennial concert with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The same concert was presented on PBS some years ago in a more complete form. More about that later. As a concert recorded in high definition video and high resolution sound I have no complaints. It is well directed, well produced, and the musicians are in top form. Sadly, I have some complaints about the formatting of the disc and the program. Each presented work is opened with comments by author Amy Tan. They are fine for one viewing, but she is hard to eliminate from subsequent viewings as her comments preceding each work are located at the chapter stops. It would be better to have had each musical presentation start at the chapter break, so as a result you either listen to her comments, […]