Although we had a pair of Wilson WATTs/Puppies set up in the control room, the acoustics…
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Before the first concert, I'd done what I always do: speak into each microphone capsule in turn so that we could check that the left channel was indeed the left, the right channel was indeed the right, and that they were indeed different from one another. Apparently, however, a capacitor in the Manley's pattern-switching circuit had failed early in the first concert, selecting that most useless of stereo microphone techniques: a pair of coincident omnidirectionals. Two-channel mono. Sodding mono.
Sidebar 1: Concert: The Music
Robert Silverman, Recorded Live in Concert
Concert: CD 1
Robert Schumann: Sonata No.3 in f, Op.14 ("Concerto Without Orchestra")
Allegro brillante
Scherzo 1: Molto commodo
Scherzo 2: Vivacissimo
Quasi Variazoni: Andantino de Clara Wieck
Prestissimo possibile
J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One
Prelude in e-flat
Fugue in d-sharp
Prelude in E-flat
Fugue in E-flat
Concert: CD 2
Franz Schubert: Six Moments Musicaux, D.780
No.1 in C
No.2 in A-flat
No.3 in f
No.4 in c-sharp
No.5 in f…
Sidebar 2: Who, What, When, Where, & How
Performances: Robert Silverman
Production/Editing/Engineering: John Atkinson, with Robert Harley
Executive Producer: Larry Archibald
Concert Organizer: Ralph Johnson
Road Manager: Danny Sandoval
Piano Technician: Charles Rempel
Emergency Piano-Stool Repair: Gorm Damborg
Photographs: John Atkinson
Venue: The First United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Recording Dates: November 6 & 8, 1992; November 5, 1993.
Steinway D piano: supplied by Riedling Music Company, Albuquerque, NM.
Microphones:…
Sidebar 3: Robert Silverman
"Pianists come and go, but the musical penetration of the sort Robert Silverman brought to his recital...is a rarity always. In matters of ultimate concern, his playing dwells on the deepest of levels."—The Washington Post
Robert Silverman is perhaps best-known in his native Canada, where he has performed with major orchestras from coast to coast. But he has also appeared, to outstanding reviews, with the Chicago Symphony and the Boston Pops, and in New York, Washington, London, Paris, Budapest, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, and the former Soviet Union…
Sidebar 4: Mapping the soundstage
I included the final track on Concert's CD 2 for those who pride themselves on their systems' soundstaging abilities. With the two B&K microphones still standing in the positions they had been to record the piano, Robert Harley recorded me talking and clapping my hands as I walked first from the far left of the 45'-wide stage to the far right, then from the very back of the 65'-deep auditorium up to and past the microphones and piano (fig.1).
Fig.1 The First United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, plan view. Arrowed line…
Morten Lauridsen's magisterial work for chorus and orchestra, Lux aeterna, appears in a fresh new recording, in truly excellent sound, on England's Hyperion label. The vocal ensemble Polyphony is accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia; both are led by Stephen Layton. Better yet, in addition to the CD-only version, there is a separate SACD/CD hybrid release (Hyperion SACDA67449), meaning that it is backwardly-compatible with CD players. Furthermore, the SACD layer contains a surround-sound program in addition to the stereo one.
Lux aeterna, composed in 1995–97, is a modern work of rare…
Grace Design has slightly tweaked the amplifier's appearance as well. It's still one professional rack unit high, half a rack unit wide, and of enviably high-quality fit and finish. The corners of the casework are now rounded, and the front panel is somewhat busier—not surprising, in view of the added functions. The biggest visual change is the addition of a blue LED numerical-display window that shows the volume setting in 0.5dB increments. Volume and input selection are still controlled by knobs. The volume-control circuit now has four channels, so variable line output and headphone volume…
Sidebar: Dual-mono Radio Broadcasting
How could the Barbirolli performance been broadcast in stereo in January 1959, when it is well known that the FCC did not license FM stereo broadcasts until June 1, 1961? The answer is a fascinating footnote to audio and broadcast history. Beginning in 1955, WGBH would occasionally offer a true stereo broadcast while staying within the ambit of its FCC license by the elegant expedient of broadcasting the left channel of the stereo program on WGBH while broadcasting the right channel simultaneously on another station: first WBUR, and later, WBCN. A…
If the sole criterion for choosing a winner in today's hotly contested premium arms race was original thinking, the Immedia RPM-2 might well come out on top. While some of its design details resemble those found on other products, in many significant areas the arm is unique—not for uniqueness's sake, but in order to efficiently implement some clearly considered goals. If the unipivot RPM-2 bears a resemblance to any other contemporary arm, it is Naim's highly regarded ARO—which I've never heard. The similarity, though, would appear to be superficial.
In designing his unipivot, one-time…
The armtube is damped with a special expanding foam. According to Perkins, the effect of the stainless-steel/aluminum/stainless-steel interface is an extremely fast transfer of energy from the headshell to the bearing.
The back-end business comprises a complex, rather ingenious, decoupled stainless-steel counterweight and a threaded and keyed stainless-steel shaft assembly. The counterweight can be slid fore and aft on the shaft by turning the knurled stainless-steel nut situated directly behind it. The key keeps the counterweight, which is drilled off-center, from rotating on its axis…