Stereophile returns to Blue Heaven
Story by John Atkinson
In September of last year,
Stereophile recorded Rendezvous: Jerome Harris Quintet Plays Jazz at
BHS. Engineer/ Producer John Atkinson was so happy with the results of
this recording, he returned in May to record a classical quintet
featuring Antony Michaelson on clarinet.
Clarinetist Antony Michaelson was educated at Trinity College of Music
in London, where he studied with Keith Puddy and John McCaw. His love of
music was the driving force behind his search for a "better stereo
system": in the late 1970s, unable to find such a stereo, he founded his
first hi-fi company, which made tube amplifiers. He then put his hi-fi
knowledge to good use as founder and managing director of Musical
Fidelity. His equipment is available from Audio Advisor (800-942-0220).
Realizing that he missed the joy of making music, Michaelson resumed
serious practice of the clarinet several years ago and currently studies
with Thea King.
First violinist Adrian Levine has performed in more than 40 countries
worldwide, and has appeared as Guest Concertmaster for many major London
orchestras. In 1985, he became co-concertmaster of the Academy of Saint
Martin-in-the-Fields, where he often directed the orchestra and
appeared as a soloist. He then moved to the Philharmonia Orchestra in
1990, and in 1992, was Concertmaster of the Opera House in Rome. He
plays on the "Wilmotte" Stradivarius, made in 1734.
Second violinist Kathy Andrew holds an M.M. in violin from the Peabody
Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She currently performs with the
Springfield Symphony, the Berkshire Symphony, Opera North, the New
England Bach Festival Orchestra, and the Bella Rosa String Quartet. She
also teaches at Bennington College, the Putney School, and the
Brattleboro Music Center.
Cellist Judith Serkin began her studies with Marta Casals Istomin, and
continued with David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet at the Curtis
Institute of Music. Serkin was a founding member of the Soldier Creek
Music Festival in Nevada, and has been on numerous Music from Marlboro
tours. She has performed across the United States and Canada, and has
toured extensively throughout Japan.
Michaelson, Levine, Andrew, and Serkin were joined by violist Stephen
Tees for an evening of classical music, featuring the Mozart and Brahms
Clarinet Quintets.
These two works were recorded just before the Show by Stereophile editor
John Atkinson at Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas,
for a CD to be released in the late fall of 1999 on the Stereophile
label.
The superb church acoustics of Blue Heaven Studios provided sympathetic
support for these intimate chamber music works, and John Atkinson was
able to use minimal miking: a coincident pair of Neumann M147 tube
microphones and a spaced pair of B&K omnis. For maximum signal
purity, no mixing console was used; instead, the outputs of the four
mikes were amplified with ultra-low-noise solid-state preamps from
Millennia Media and converted to digital at 24-bit/88.2 kHz resolution
and sample rate.