Dear All, My apologies for digressing from the interesting discussion on the use of microphones.
My copy of the Marco CD arrived this morning, and having listened to it intently, I agree with many of the sentiments expressed here about the sound, particularly when played through a speaker system, where the effect is rather analogous to trying to view a great painting through someone else's glasses. However, I have found it works much better on my MP3 player. Despite all of that, this is the first album by a great player entirely devoted to Marco Dall'Aquila (with no disrespect to Chris Wilson, whose Naxos recording of some years ago is only two thirds Marco). In that respect, in my view this is the most significant recording of early lute music of recent years. There are many wonderful pieces recorded here for the first time (some of which are extremely challenging to play well) and they are performed beautifully. I get the sense that this is music that Paul O'Dette has a great feeling for. And again despite the misgivings about the recording, the album reveals the genius of Marco Dall'Aquila's writing for the lute which has been under appreciated for far too long. Best wishes, Denys To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
