Souvenir Pt. 1

Pure and adept.

     

Of his Serenade for String Orchestra Op. 48, Tchaikovsky is said to have written: "The larger number of players in the string orchestra, the more this shall be in accordance with the author's wishes". Trondheim Solistene, even as a small chamber ensemble, seems adept at seeming larger than life where appropriate. Similarly, their interpretation is large, lively and adept while maintaining a delicate touch where appropriate. Lest you think the Nielsen's work is an afterthought, the piece is played in this iteration under a new edition of the score which eschews its previous moniker of the "little suite". Trondheim Solistene's interpretation of his Suite for String Orchestra is well in line with the size and scope of the Tchaikovsky work and a lovely change of color to accompany the larger piece.

Players in the ensemble were intermingled, resulting in no one playing next to another with a similar part. In addition to a unique soundstage, it should be noted that whatever alchemy is then applied to individual's musicianship from this arrangement seems to benefit the ensemble as a whole in spades, lending the entirety a lyrical quality that comes through in these performances.

Taking full advantage of the DXD (352.8kHz/24-bit) format the of the recording, this 2L offering is among the finer sounding vinyl I've heard in my recent vinyl explorations. In fact, this pressing is on par with the best pure analog recordings I have in my collection. 2L's Morten Lindberg has taken great pains to refine things in the digital domain, and brings them to this direct copper-mastered pressing with equal effort and an ear towards signal quality in addition to the bang-up performance herein.