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I received three new (to me) from the Italian company Open Reel tapes. They are the Piazzolla Seasons with cellist Enrico Dindo, the Vivaldi Nisi Dominus with contralto Sara Mingardo, and the Telemann and Tartini Violin Solos with Marco Rogliano. I played all three this evening with my new Ampex ATR-102 and Doshi 3.0 tape prepro. I had previously bought the Vivaldi Cello Concerti tape and the Beethoven Piano Sonatas tape from Open Reel and was quite pleased - but haven't heard them on my new machines.
All three are absolutely wonderful tapes. First, the artistry on all three tapes is consistently superb - great playing/singing of unusual repertoire, I have heard the Piazzolla before, in a concert which alternated with the Vivaldi Four Seasons. Piazzolla is very accessible. The Vivaldi vocal piece (with a short Pergolesi piece as a filler) is exceptionally sung by Sara Mingardo. Marco Rogliano plays the two baroque solo violin pieces with a combination of expression and clarity.
However, what makes the difference for me on these tapes is the extraordinary engineering of Marco Taio, whom I believe is the driving force behind Open Reel. He has been able to capture venues with a rich acoustical environments - they appear to be churches. However, he has been able to make the recordings with the proper balance of direct and reflected sound - not too much reverberation - so there is great clarity to the playing, but enough reflected sound to give warmth and a real sense of the halls where they were recorded.
I will be buying the other two classical issues from Open Reel (there are 10 releases currently, with seven of them classical). At 245 Euros each without VAT for none EU countries, they are reasonable, especially with the strong US dollar.
Larry
All three are absolutely wonderful tapes. First, the artistry on all three tapes is consistently superb - great playing/singing of unusual repertoire, I have heard the Piazzolla before, in a concert which alternated with the Vivaldi Four Seasons. Piazzolla is very accessible. The Vivaldi vocal piece (with a short Pergolesi piece as a filler) is exceptionally sung by Sara Mingardo. Marco Rogliano plays the two baroque solo violin pieces with a combination of expression and clarity.
However, what makes the difference for me on these tapes is the extraordinary engineering of Marco Taio, whom I believe is the driving force behind Open Reel. He has been able to capture venues with a rich acoustical environments - they appear to be churches. However, he has been able to make the recordings with the proper balance of direct and reflected sound - not too much reverberation - so there is great clarity to the playing, but enough reflected sound to give warmth and a real sense of the halls where they were recorded.
I will be buying the other two classical issues from Open Reel (there are 10 releases currently, with seven of them classical). At 245 Euros each without VAT for none EU countries, they are reasonable, especially with the strong US dollar.
Larry
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