| Review by Dan Popp January 3, 2004
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
I like acoustic music. There is something about the spareness of it that allows the delicate harmonics of each instrument to come through - if recorded right. This DSD disc is recorded right. Nice and rich but not tubby, detailed but not (usually) grating. My only negative comment on the sonics is that a couple of the instruments have a lot of very high harmonic content, and these are captured with perhaps a bit too much brutal honesty for my taste. I saw a published comment by the recording engineer (back when this disc originally came out) to the effect that some of the instruments could sound very harsh and ugly on PCM recordings because of high-frequency overload. It's not exactly "harsh" on the SACD, but it's there and you can't escape it.
But that comment applies only to a couple of instruments on a couple of cuts and probably won't bother many people. Overall the sound is lush and inviting. Percussion in particular is very convincing. My cats look up at the speakers a lot when this is on.
The performance seems very confident and accomplished - I am a little out of my depth here, as my wife is actually the Celtic music expert. There is fun and tenderness here - and with sometimes 3 or 4 songs woven into each cut, you get a lot of music for your money.
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