Minea: - A new curtain raiser for Minneapolis and pioneering DTS 5.1 broadcasts

[TLS Guy]

Last night the Minnesota Orchestra gave the first performance of Minea. (named for Minneapolis) This is a work commissioned by the conductor Osmo Vanska from his friend Kalevi Aho. Both are from Finland. The purpose was to provide a curtain raiser for this fine Orchestra and others. It is 18 min long and what an exciting curtain raiser it is. It is really a concerto for Orchestra, and highlights every section. The work is full of fugal forms and themes interwoven and quite a lot of syncopation. Brass is frequently blazing. The performance caused the house to erupt. The reception for the composer who came from Finland for the performance was exuberant. I think it was the most exuberance I have heard for a first performance.

The whole concert was marvelous.

DTS are now a sponsor of the Minnesota Orchestra and they are partnering with MPR to perfect their 5.1-2-5.1 algorithm. They have been working to perfect this algorithm and the microphone technique for it.

This algorithm is a 5.1 channel master and mix, that can be down mixed to 2 channel, and the algorithm allows recreation of the 5.1 mix with a DTS neural 6 decoder.

There have so far been three broadcasts. I thought the first a good effort. I missed the second. This third one was spectacular. It was the finest FM broadcast I have ever heard on all fronts. That is saying something as the BBC have set bar very high. However this broadcast last night moved to the top rank. The bass was deep and tight, all instruments perfectly balanced and a wonderful perspective. If FM had a better dynamic range, then it would have been as good as being there. The balance and mix was better than on the vast majority of commercial CDs and commercial SACDs. The compression was well judged and no compression artifacts intruded.

The DTS matrix does work, the audience response surrounds you, and I heard the odd cough behind me.

This broadcast really showed what a remarkable organization MPR has become and continues to become, because they don't stop still these days. It adds a dimension to Minnesota that other states just do not have or realize what they are missing. I'm proud to be a member of MPR's Leadership Circle.

Those of you interested and able can receive these remarkable DTS 5.1 broadcasts on Fridays at 8.00 PM central time via the Internet at MPR classical. The MPR stream is high quality and at a higher bit rate than HD radio.