8.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
Sting's Symphonicity tour with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra performs in Berlin.
Starring: StingMusic | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (96kHz, 24-bit)
Music: LPCM 2.0 (96kHz, 24-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A&M Records holds a special place in the hearts of many music fans who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. The diametric opposite of corporate giants like Columbia and Capitol, A&M had more of an ‘individual’ presence and always seemed to emanate a sort of family affair feeling with its roster of talent. What started as a garage-based sort of hobby, sort of business for trumpeter Herb Alpert and his partner Jerry Moss soon grew to be the largest independent record company in the world. In fact, when Alpert and Moss sold their interest in A&M decades later, the deal fetched each of them a cool half billion dollars. (That’s billion with a “b”). But in the early years A&M was known mostly for its middle of the road presence, especially with regard to Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, an “easy listening” consortium that nonetheless was one of the few bands in the 1960s which managed to appeal to both adults and kids. In fact for a while the TJB, as they were affectionately known in those days, handily outsold The Beatles, even at the height of the British Invasion. A&M slowly grew its roster with a number of huge acts, most notably Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, who helped establish the label with international and more sophisticated, jazz leaning audiences (in fact many early fans of the label assumed the “M” in the imprint was for Mendes). Even Sergio’s early records, as relatively jazzy as they were, toed a pretty fine line centered around easy listening, but after the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, A&M started seriously branching out, signing a number of important rock acts even as they continued to mine what soon became known as Adult Contemporary. Even their long established acts, like Brasil ’66, started experimenting with bolder sounds, as exemplified by Mendes’ extremely trippy psychedelic 7 minute “Crystal Illusions,” off of his 1969 album of the same name. While the 1970s saw A&M maintaining its adult oriented mainstream presence with their supergroup Carpenters (Richard and Karen did not like that The which people tended to put in front of their surname), the label had outgrown their Adult Contemporary roots, as evidenced by both the Tijuana Brass and Brasil ’66, which had since morphed into Brasil ’77, either disbanding or leaving the label. The 1970s saw a glut of important rock groups join the label, including Styx and Supertramp, but it was another “S” presence, albeit one initially associated with a group, who would become perhaps A&M’s most lasting contribution to late 20th century popular music. That of course was Sting, the lead presence of A&M’s multi-platinum band The Police.
Sting Live in Berlin looks really sharp a lot of the time thanks to an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. What keeps this Blu-ray from getting a higher video score is its tendency to bloom when the stage and arena lighting goes to blue, which unfortunately is a lot of the time. The blue is so overpowering that everything starts to look posterized, with gritty black and purple smears where shadows should be. In fact a couple of shots of the blue-lit audience are just mucky masses of color and shape, with nothing really completely discernable. Aside from that, this is a really nice looking transfer, with abundant sharpness, excellent fine detail, and nicely saturated color. When there's more natural stage lighting, Sting's face is revealed in all its (gasp) aging detail, and the midrange shots of the band and orchestra also show everything from flyaway hair to dust mites in the stage lighting.
Like a lot of audiophiles, and music lovers in particular, I'm prone to turning up Blu-rays, but I have to admit Sting Live in Berlin is one of the first concert BDs I've actually turned down, after its extremely robust lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (96 kHz/24 bit) sent a pile of discs I had stacked on my subwoofer flying across the room. This is big music with an often overpowering low end, but it's all mixed so expertly that you won't be complaining. This track percolates along often streaming at close to 10 Mbps, one of the heftier rates I've witnessed. With brilliant fidelity and superb support throughout all frequency ranges, this is reference quality audio in terms of live music performance. What's odd is how indecipherable Sting is when he speaks; in fact, it's next to impossible to make out what he's saying at least some of the time, and there are unfortunately no subtitles to aid the way along. But when he sings, everything is golden, with the band and orchestra expertly placed throughout the soundfield, and, aside from the unfortunate sing along episodes, audience sound relatively restrained. An LPCM 2.0 (also 96 kHz/24 bit) stereo fold down is available for those without a surround system.
A Conversation With Sting (1080i; 12:36) features the singer-songwriter talking about how this project got off the ground.
There will probably be two camps who react quite differently to this release. While both camps may be ardent Sting fans, one group will probably love this completely different side to one of their favorite artists, while the other camp may be asking, "Why?" Sting has always had large ambitions, and those are firmly on display in this gargantuan concert. If you're willing to go with the flow, and overlook the sometimes silly pretentiousness (who needs cellists standing up, for crying out loud?), there's a lot of very fine music here to enjoy. Recommended.
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