Academy Of Ancient Music & Richard Egarr : Birth Of The Symphony: Handel To Haydn
96kHz/24-bit FLAC, AAM Records AAM 001 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)
Produced/engineered by Philip Hobbs in Sept ’11, for AAM Records’ first release, this programme takes us from the Sinfonia from Handel’s Saul to Haydn’s F-minor Symphony 49, ‘La Passione’, via works by FX Richter, Stamitz and Mozart: the remarkable K16 – written when he was eight! There’s a related documentary at www.aam.co.uk/birthofthesymphony where Egarr and leader Pavlo Beznosiuk describe the pieces and their salient features (such as the ‘busy’ bowing in the Stamitz opening Presto) intercut with film from concert performance – the two natural horns are quite a sight. The lively acoustic of St Jude on the Hill, London, adds a complementary bloom to the sound of this small authentic instruments orchestra; the playing is energetic, with flowing slow movements and wide contrasts, piano to forte. CB
Sound Quality: 80%
Hi-Fi News Lab Report
No details were provided but the levels of noise suggest this was originally an analogue recording (or the mic preamps, perhaps?). Otherwise this is a true, uncompressed 96kHz/24-bit rendering with peaks rarely exceeding –6dBFs. PM