A RECORDING TECHNOLOGY SHOWDOWN

What's the best way to record music? Half-soeed mastering? 33 or 45rom? Analogue or digital? Mike Valentine has produced an audiophile recording that allows you to decide for yourself. Neville Roberts attends the session

People often ask Mike Valentine, the man behind the Chasing The Dragon audiophile label, the best way to record music and the differences between techniques. He’s asked so often, in fact, that he decided to produce a recording that explores different approaches to allow people to decide for themselves.

He decided to use a relatively popular piece for the main work – Mendelssohn’s Octet. A short ‘encore’ piece entitled Two Guitars is also selected. The venue chosen was the Henry Wood Hall in the Southwark district of London and the date is 5 February 2022.

Mendelssohn wrote his Octet in 1825 at the age of 16, and many commentators have asserted that no other composer has written such a major piece at such a young age. The Octet consists of four movements: an exhilarating Allegro, an Andante, the famous Scherzo and a fast-paced Presto.

In order to facilitate comparison of a variety of recording techniques, Two Guitars by Ivan Vasiliev, arranged for the string octet by David Ogden is chosen as an encore piece. It starts slowly and develops into an exhilarating and exuberant climax.

The musicians The Locrian Ensemble is tasked with playing, comprising eight of the fi nest musicians in the UK all of whom are soloists in their own right. Jack Liebeck plays first violin. Liebeck’s instrument is a Guarneri model produced by Joseph Curtin in the USA in 2021. Its sound is focused deep and powerful, but retains a warm quality throughout the registers.