This is a light instalment, as, writing as I am (sorry for the delay in translation, it's my fault, dear English-speaking readers) during the hottest summer I can remember, I am in trouble understanding what I am thinking myself.
I have decided not to publish my review on the Peter Gabriel SACD work, despite my previous intention and declaration, as I have to keep a sound balance between pop and classical music (I think I have told you I am a classical music snob) ad as I don't think these records are sonic threats in the first place. Just one thing about PG SACDs: if you just want one, get Up. I know, I know, it's not an unforgettable album (I remember getting some flak when I first stated this opinion of mine in local music forums, an opinion which seems to be more common nowadays); I actually think it's the least accomplished one in PG's official, main studio career - excluding, thus, OVO, the soundtracks and the live albums - but a single listening session, in stereo and in comparison with the CD and the 180 g Realworld vinyl has been enough to decide that this album shines in, and was probably conceived for, the SACD format. The SACD wins over the LP in density, speed and both spatial and frequency extension. There's no denying that the album doesn't contain outstanding music; it's not a bad record, in absolute terms, but I think we all expected something better from PG.
What I will speak to you of this time are, instead, a couple of record labels I think are doing a great job among those who jumped on the SACD bandwagon from its first days.

The first two Videohifi.com labels

I think these are the first two labels to be featured in Videohifi.com. I chose these two because they are independent, open to innovation, they have a good SACD catalogue and they seem to be serious both musically and technically, while not being, strictly speaking, "audiophile" labels. I am most suspicious of "audiophile" labels, the ones which prove J. Gordon Holt's law on music and recording quality (the one which states they are proportionally inverse); I have bought many audiophile records which, after the first "wow" about their recording quality, have encumbered my shelves, never to be listened to again because of their, how can I say, uninspiring musical content. In the case of our two labels (and in others I will tell you about in the future, our very own Fone' label being one of them) I would talk about independent labels taking a special care in both recording and performance quality.

Lyrinx

The label
I think this label has limited circulation and distribution; I guess it won't be a problem, for our readership, as the SACDs are available from the usual Internet sources and from their French distributor, Abeille Musique (http://www.abeillemusique.com, good and speedy service, in my experience).
The label is French, and most of the performers are French or based in France; it's one of the eldest French classical music independent labels, with a catalogue counting more than 130 CDs and SACDs. The owner, and man behind the console, is René Gambini. He has always been attentive to recording quality (he uses tube microphones and custom-made mike amps) and he has been the first, in France, to record in DSD, enthusiastically adopting the new format (and later evolving to multichannel) after some comparison tests with 96KHz/24 bit PCM. All of the Lyrinx SACD are hybrids issued from DSD recordings; almost all of the recent Lyrinx projects are DSD recordings and Gambini has been hired by another label for a SACD I'm writing about below.

Some records
My collector madness has forced me to get all of the Lyrinx SACDs but two or three I haven't got around to ordering yet. The first Lyrinx SACD I have bought, and the one which made me think this Gambini guy was on to something, is a Chopin recital by a young Polish pianist, Caroline Sageman, including the Piano Sonata Op. 35 and the four Scherzos. It is a high quality performance (it won't probably revolution our perception of Chopin, but it is enjoyable and miles better than the disposable performances audiophile labels provide us, using recording quality as an excuse), emphasizing the architecture of Chopin's music more than the rhapsodic, hyper-romantic traits, but this is a choice perfectly in place in the chosen repertoire. Sound quality is excellent, the piano reveals in a way which is not often heard the fact that it's made not only of strings and hammers, but also of wood and harmony table, with shimmering, woody harmonics. The SACD layer has a definite, decisive advantage on the CD in the reproduction of harmonics; furthermore, the soundstage of the CD layer is shallower and its dynamics are more compressed.
A second really interesting record is one of the few SACD boxed sets to have appeared until today, a complete recording of the Mozart String Quintets, played by the Fine Arts Quartet complemented by Yuri Gandelsman (second viola) on three records (don't worry, the set doesn't cost an arm and a leg). It's a good version of the Quintets, worth of a music lover's interest even if these are among the most recorded works of the chamber repertoire; the recording, which comes in stereo and multi-channel, is extraordinary in instrumental colour and precision. The soundstage might seem a little odd at first, because of the really long reverberation times, which seem to be a characteristic of the recording venue. The record is, indeed, difficult to play well: the playing system must be able to precisely tell the direct and the reflected sounds, if not, the outcome can be jammed and opaque.
Where Lyrinx seem to be at their best is in piano chamber music. The first example is a beautiful record by Florent Héau (clarinet) and Patrick Zygmanowski playing French chamber music for piano and clarinet, in particular some interesting works by Chausson, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Françaix, Widor and Poulenc, which I think are well performed (I don't have any comparison version) and, most of all, beautifully recorded (the clarinet sounds remarkably real). The second example is a recent Fauré/Ravel piano and violin works record, performed by Vadim Tchijik and Cedric Tiberghien, which presents a definitely realistic balance between the instruments.
The SACD I mentioned earlier, the one Gambini made for another label, is a joy. It's a Praga Digital (a label which is part of Harmonia Mundi's team), the second volume in their Bartòk complete works for piano and violin series; it includes the Rhapsodies for Piano and Violin, the Sonatina, the Hungarian Folk songs and the Rumanian Folk Dances. It's one of those coveted instances of a wonderfully recorded wonderful performance. It's the best piano and violin SACD I have heard until today - once you'll have tried it, you won't do without it any more.
I am only mentioning a pair of recent Lyrinx SACDs, in particular the one including a selection of André Boucourechliev's chamber music, as the repertoire is for the dedicated and informed in contemporary music, and the one in which Katia Skanavi plays Rachmaninov, Schumann and Haendel piano works, because I haven't had the time to listen to it long enough. If you decide to buy these records anyway, I think you can't go wrong.

Channel Classics

The label
I don't think I need to introduce this label. It's one of the most interesting independent classical music labels today; it's Dutch and its manager and founder is C. Jared Sacks. Artists as Pieter Wispelwey, Anner Bijlsma, Rachel Podger, Trevor Pinnock, Jos van Immerseel have recorded or still record for Channel.
Channel, as Lyrinx, has been one of the first labels to publish hybrid SACDs and seem to believe in the format, so much that some months ago Sacks announced that they would be going single-inventory for future releases. It hasn't happened yet (I guess because of the limited production volume of SACDs) but I guess it's going to, very soon. Channel's sonic priorities seem to differ from Lyrinx' ones: Channel seems to search for precision and transparency first, I would say that, while Lyrinx SACDs are characterized by a slightly tubey sound, Channel SACDs are high end solid state ones. Channel uses dCS digital converters and Schoeps and Bruel and Kjaer microphones, to confirm their choice for transparency and precision. All of Channel SACDs are sourced from DSD recordings.
It's nice to mention that, here in Italy, Channel's hybrid SACDs are priced like full price CDs.

Some records
Channel's star is, undoubtedly, Pieter Wispelwey, who has made many a record for the Dutch label (his second version of the Bach cello suites is one of the modern reference recordings of those works). Obviously Channel's first SACD was the reissue of his prized CD of Romantic works for cello and orchestra (Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Bruch). The performance is great, the sound is beautiful even if this is an "old" SACD, it is warm and clear, without a hint of digital coldness. The other Wispelwey SACD I have is the one containing the complete recording of Britten's Cello Suites. It's not, of course, an easy listen, as these compositions are quite meditative and austere, but, if you pass through the first impression, you will be rewarded by a high-level performance and by a particularly realistic cello sound with a precise and well readable surrounding ambience.
Another of Channel's vedettes is Rachel Podger. The English violinist is featured in two of the Channel SACDs I want to talk about: a very good record of the Rameau Pièces de Clavecin en Concert, featuring Trevor Pinnock at the cembalo, an excellent performance (contending the title of Best Recent Recording to the CD-only Zig Zag Territoires one, featuring Blandine Rannou), and a very good recording, with a great tone and a really precise soundstage; and one of my SACD references, Vivaldi's La Stravaganza, played by Podger accompanied by the Polush (!) ensemble L'arte dei Suonatori. This is, in my opinion, one of the standard-setting SACDs, at least by soundstage portrayal, in stereo (I don't know, and can't tell you about, the multi-channel version); the instruments are also particularly well balanced and realistic in tone. The performance is firmly in the non-extreme field of historically informed, period-instrument Baroque music reconstruction - no Giardino Armonico revolutions, here, but the alert tone and the articulation tell the playing apart from the Romanticising tradition. It's an excellent listen, which even those who can't bear period instruments can appreciate (I know there are still those who don't like period instruments, most of all down here in Italy)
The other Channel SACD I use as a reference is the one including a selection from Telemann's Tafelmusik, performed by the Florilegium ensemble. This one features a level of precision, air and transparency able to convert even the most sceptic DSD nay-sayer. This kind of transparency never becomes clinical, cool or dry. The performance is worth of such a recording.
The SACD on which the young Dejan Lazic plays piano pieces by Maurice Ravel features a quite individual performance, with often broad tempos (the Pavane Pour une Infante Defunte is a notable example) and some slight troubles in keeping the arch of the compositions under control, which place the performance a little below those of the confirmed Ravelians (Meyer, Merlet are my favourites, you can pick yours). The piano sound is different from the Lyrinx one, it's less rich in tone colour, but more precisely delineated in space and seemingly limitless in dynamics.
I can also recommend the disc containing a selection of Jenkins Fantasies and Airs performed by the Locke Consort (wonderful, almost unknown music, with a recording surpassed only by the Telemann and Vivaldi ones), and "Love and Lament", in which the Cappella Figuralis performs music by Monyeverdi, Carissimi and Della Ciaia, to hear how much human voice reproduction can take advantage of the SACD medium. I didn't enjoy the Veldhoven Mozart Requiem because of the uninspiring, coldish and directionless performance, no matter how good the recording could be.
Next time: the fonè label.