But the real beauty here is how the Sinfonias allow you to delve into the performance without ever losing sight of the whole. Faust’s playing is beautifully fluid and articulate, despite the virtuoso demands of the scores. Locatelli was not just a famous virtuoso violinist, he was famous for extreme fingering and playing to the inner limits of the fingerboard (once famously getting his fingers stuck in the bridge of his instrument). The harmonic substance and musical body that characterises the Sinfonias extends right to the top of their range, so that when Faust explores the extreme upper registers of her instrument (as in the Andante from Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 3 No. 11) you get none of the thin or scratchy sound that so often afflicts loudspeakers. The instrument’s tonality and the harmonic structure and body of even these extreme notes is beautifully preserved, the soaring lines beautifully articulate, played with immaculate poise and control. It might just be the ultimate musical high-wire act, making what could be a purely technical exercise into a captivating musical event, full of grace and tension, the physical action of the bowing as apparent as the controlled pressure it demands. Meanwhile, the swoop down to the other extreme of the instrument’s range underlines just how seamlessly Peak Consult has engineered the transition from treble to mid-band, while the clean, effortless clarity of the trills and double stopping further reveals the textural and tonal resolution of the speakers. There’s none of the edgy discord you hear so often, just cleanly defined fundamentals and harmonics in perfect harmony.
Faust’s playing is as beautiful as it is breathtaking, but there’s so much more to admire here. The body and weight that the Sinfonias bring to the orchestra’s bottom end, especially the left hand of the harpsichord (and you won’t see that written very often!). The single double bass and thorbo combination is imbued with just the right, rich roundness to give a planted foundation to the performance, the celli have astonishing texture, the harp continuo (!) is as surprising as it is deftly incorporated. The sheer quality of the musicianship here is remarkable: the Sinfonias render that quality remarkably apparent. Just as apparent as they make the shifts in orchestral composition and musical density as the programme moves from one piece to the next.
Hidden voices…
In the same way that these speakers bring substance and body to violin or cello, they bring chest and an identifiable character to voices, enlivening performances with the sort of incidental detail and nuance that brings them to life. Shawn Colvin’s Cover Girl (Columbia 477240) is a great example on one album that contains a number of different ‘voices’. Play the opening track, ‘Every Little thing (He) Does Is Magic’ and you hear Colvin run through her expressive range, mixing up breathy intimacy, slurred syllables to stretch rhythm and phrasing, hitch kick changes of pace and curling, spoken emphasis to bring a personal feel to this familiar lyric. The whole vocal firework display is delivered with an effortless clarity and stable sense of substance that allows the lyric to command the song and dictate musical terms without you even noticing that that is what’s happening.
