Album Club - Week 144: 06/05/2014: Christina Pluhar (L’Arpeggiata) - All’ Improvviso

[mr sneff]

Excuse my ignorance but what is early music ?

Pre-Baroque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music

[ruleof72]

I've listened to it twice, once on my 2-channel system and once on my headphones. While I wouldn't call myself a lover of this type of music I did find most of the tracks relatively easy to listen to. It has a nice variety of sounds, which makes it interesting.

I have to agree that it is well recorded and I enjoyed the headphone version a lot. My Mad Dog Pro's did a great job of reproducing the sound that was fed to them from my Squeezebox/Beresford Bushmaster MkII/Schiit Magni setup.

7 out of 10 for me, mostly due to the quality recording.

[high.spirits]

A very nice listen, although I am not a fan of old style folk music. I really liked the Spanish style music.

Thanks for the suggestion Martin - 7/10.

[Bazil]

All though I wouldn't buy it I'm still going to give this 8/10 I've enjoyed it so much. I don't listen to classical but I grew up on ELP,Wakeman/Yes and enjoy a bit of folk so I fell into this quite quickly also I have recently got an ear for Spanish guitar.

[MikeMusic]

I'm surprised this isn't much more popular

The music, playing, production and engineering are superb

Not my sort of music at all. It just reaches out and takes me

[MartinT]

I played it again yesterday, Mike, and still love the performance and sound of the period instruments (especially that giant guitar Christina plays, and the dulcimer). Moreover, it's one of the best recordings on CD format out there. The Spotify version is a real disappointment.

[losenotaminute]

I played it again yesterday, Mike, and still love the performance and sound of the period instruments (especially that giant guitar Christina plays, and the dulcimer). Moreover, it's one of the best recordings on CD format out there. The Spotify version is a real disappointment.

That's interesting Martin - I couldn't understand why so many people were raving about the recording. Maybe I need to try a better quality recording because I stand by my view that the version I listened to (Spotify HQ) doesn't sound "right". I'll give it another go and see if I change my mind.

P.S. just fired up the first track - where is it recorded? There is so much reverb that it sounds like it's been recorded in a church (or a cave)....

[Mr. C]

I would agree with Martin on this one it did sound very real and had real depth of feild

Plus the lass can play

[MartinT]

Hi Lawrence, it was recorded in 2003/04 in the Chapelle de l'hopital Notre-Dame de Bon Secours. It has a lovely big acoustic but I don't find it overly reverberant - certainly not enough to blur the crisp attack of the instruments.

[losenotaminute]

Hi Lawrence, it was recorded in 2003/04 in the Chapelle de l'hopital Notre-Dame de Bon Secours. It has a lovely big acoustic but I don't find it overly reverberant - certainly not enough to blur the crisp attack of the instruments.

Thanks Martin, that would certainly explain the echo!

Sorry, just not my cup of tea this one. The clarinet playing in particular I find very unpleasant