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A new "babe to me" I enjoyed her new recording of Beethoven piano concerto No 2. Extremely good audio in Hirez
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So I downloaded Patricia's Beethoven/Ustvolskaya album and started at the beginning (with the Beethoven). Aside from the unpleasant vice on the vibrato which the conductor no doubt imposed (this HIP vibrato influence is getting really terrible!), I'm thinking, "something sounds strange in this orchestral tutti" - oh yeah, there are no winds in the orchestra! It's just strings! And in the middle of the slow movement, there are parts where only the principal players play (rather than the whole section as one normally hears it), and it sounds like a Beethoven Trio rather than a Beethoven Concerto. So then I go back to the computer to look at the booklet, and it turns out that they're not playing Beethoven's original (obviously!), but rather an arrangement for strings made in the 1880's by Vinzenz Lachner! So on that basis alone, this recording has extended my knowledge about this music - I had never been aware of Lachner's arrangements before!
So that kind of puts this recording in a one-of-a-kind category. It's very interestingly recorded too: the bass lines have greater prominence than on most other recordings, and, for that reason, you can hear all the interesting things the orchestra is doing with the articulation.
The company makes a big deal of its "direct to two channel" approach to recording, but one of the pictures in the booklet shows at least three pairs of microphones along with separate microphones for the piano. Unfortunately, one of the piano microphones is over the bass strings and one is over the treble strings, resulting in a "bass notes on the left, treble notes on the right" image of the keyboard which spreads across the length of my speakers. Nevertheless, I like other aspects of the recording, which, as I already mentioned, allow you to hear interesting articulation details.
As for the Usvolskaya Concerto for Piano, Tympani and Strings, I have to admit that I wasn't too impressed with its Shostakovich-derived gestures: with one exception near the beginng, the work kind of just sits there like a big blob. That's just my first impression, and maybe I'll change my mind after some repeated hearings.
I thought Patricia was pretty good, but, this being a one-shot unedited live recording, there were inevitably some inconsistencies in her touch that might have been smoothed out in the editing room if this had been a studio recording.
It may seem as if I'm a bit down on this release, but I'm glad I downloaded it because I found certain aspects of it very interesting indeed! As I said, thanks for the heads up!
I do not mind about the "large sounding" piano, it does ad a certain clarity to the sound, and I find that I can play it at a lower level
The new arrangement (to me) is most interesting and gives a fresh look to the work.
All in all I like the Beethoven 2, I would give it a 8/10 for performance and audio.
The other piece left me cold, I most probably never listen to it again!!
I don't think that the number of microphones is related to the "direct to 2 channel" claim. I would assume that it means that it is mixed down to 2 channels live, rather than later, but any number of mics could be used (just like in the early days of stereo).
BTW, I'm with you in hating that "bass on the left, treble on the right" soundstage, especially with an ensemble. Makes no sense at all. The bass strings are longer than the treble strings, so when you are in an audience listening to a piano, it's the opposite, if anything.
I just found the crowing about "direct to 2-channel" funny.
Regarding the piano, generally when I'm at a concert, I'm far enough away that I don't get any sense of directionality at all - at least when it comes to the strings! ;-)
I was having trouble navigating on her site, but I found her Beethoven/Ustvolskaya album at Pro Studio Masters too. (Looks as if it's on Apple Music too - not hi-rez there I'd guess!) The download is 24/96, at a current "special price" of $14.39. I may give it a try this afternoon, despite my current computer storage afflictions. (See below.)
I'm living on the precarious side of computer audio right now: one of the drives in my (3 TB x 2) RAID system just failed, and my last back-up (of the RAID drive) was over six months ago. I ordered a new, bigger (4 TB x 2) RAID drive yesterday, but I don't expect it to arrive for a couple more days, at which time I'll transfer everything over to the new RAID drive (and start to breathe a bit easier!). I will then replace the failed drive in my current RAID drive and use my current (old) RAID drive for backup of the new one.
(BTW, I like that blond violinist in the orchestra too!)
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