SSI 2013

One of the most memorable musical events of SSI 2013 was the "live-plus-recorded" mini-concert by cellist Vincent Bélanger, presented by MBL. There were several of these every day of the show; Art Dudley wrote about it in an earlier blog posting. I had attended one of these events last year, and ended up playing the cello—after a fashion. This time the special guest was Stereophile publisher Keith Pray, and, as you can see in the picture, he had a great time.

The more serious part of the event was M. Bélanger, playing along with not one but two recorded versions of himself. Was the recorded sound indistinguishable from the live? No. But then they never claimed that it was, and the sound of the MBL system was undoubtedly excellent. And what came through, live or recorded, was the impeccable musicianship of Vincent Bélanger.