Thalia Ensemble - Reicha: Wind Quintets - Hi-Fi News

A fellow-pupil with Beethoven in Bonn, Antoine Reicha (from Prague) wrote no fewer than 24 wind quintets, represented here by an Adagio for cor anglais and wind quartet and Quintets in G and B-flat. Eight CPO download volumes from the late-1980s cover the complete output, but the young artists here were recorded in York by Philip Hobbs in July 2014. Formed in Amsterdam three years earlier, the Thalia Ensemble plays historic or period copy instruments - and very well too. Reicha set some devilish tasks for the natural horn in particular: trills and rapidly repeated notes in the D-Minor Adagio, for instance. In its time, listeners would probably be socialising, with only half an ear to the music and perhaps this genre is of greater interest to players than to audiences. Hobbs has provided a wide soundstage with the instruments clearly delineated. CB

Sound quality: 85%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Another fine 192kHz recording by Philip Hobbs, available in several resolutions from MP3 up to the 192kHz/24-bit download tested here. In practice, the 96kHz version should capture as much ‘real' musical information. PM