Mozart by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded in SACD. That's for me. I wasn't familiar with pianist Mariaclara Monetti, but the RPO would never select any soloist who wasn't top notch. The playing on this recording is of a professional quality you would expect from such forces. I'll let others banter about the finer points of the performance. It's the recording that disappoints me.
Ten seconds into the first track and without reading a single word in the program notes I knew this was a multi-miked, studio recording. Thanks to close-in, over miking, the tonal balance is BRIGHT to the point that I would turn down my treble control if I had one in the system. Since I ordered the SACD from Germany, I did not realized that it was recorded at C.T.S. Studios in London and that the recording engineer, for reasons known only to his hopefully unforgiving god, used 48 microphones to capture the sound. That is approximately 45 too many unless you're recording a four-piece rock 'n roll for kids who are already half deaf and have never heard an instrument that wasn't amplified. This miking procedure can offer no sense of a performance taking place in a hall with good acoustics, and it doesn't here.
Too bad.
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