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Review by tonereef March 4, 2014 (5 of 9 found this review helpful)
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| This isn't a review of the music because I found this disc unlistenable due to its highly ambient church mic'ing, which virtually eliminates any direct sound in favour of an all-enveloping resonance. I've listened to many string quartet SACDs and CDs with varying amounts of resonance, but this is the most extreme I can remember. So beware: if you prefer chamber music played in a space designed for chamber music, look elsewhere. The strings have no presence, virtually no image specificity, and completely transformed timbres - the cello for example is little more than a blob of sound. IMO it's a waste of SACD technology to record anything this way, because there's no detail for high-res to resolve (even on my highly resolving Stax headphone system). It's a wash, literally. Channel Classics evidently had second thoughts, because the follow-up Amsterdam String Quartet Haydn SACD was recorded in a different church and mic'd way closer, so that the ambience imparts a pleasing sense of continuity to the playing rather than drawing attention to itself, much less taking over. It sounds gorgeous.
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Sonics: 
