"Another super-involving multichannel release from Tacet, who believe in involving the listener to the max by placing the musicians entirely around you rather than just trying to emulate the proscenium-oriented staging of most other multichannel classical discs. These two works are early Beethoven, following the general style of the serenades of Mozart and others, but with a more substantial feeling about them. There are diagrams for the placement of the musicians and they are different for the two works since one involves one more player than the other. Of course there are almost twice as many players as channels, so the 2nd oboe and 2nd bassoon are placed to the direct left and right of the listener - in the phantom side channels, so to speak. And the 2nd French horn is placed at the center rear (without using one of the 6.1 formats). For the Septet the violin is given a larger spatial area at left because of its importance musically in the work, the clarinet is at right and the double-bass at center rear this time. Great chamber music involvement to be sure!"
John Sunier

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