Brahms Sextets by Sestetto Stradivari

Following the Friday March 2nd release of Sestetto Stradivari: Brahms Sextets, NativeDSD publishes the personal notes from producer Igor Fiorini and first violinist David Romano.

Recording these works by Brahms was a work in some ways unique and also the beginning of a new search. Brahms is poetry, distance, it is a painting that has to be viewed from afar. Only at a certain distance the colours blend and create the emotion we expect.

We started from the sound of the first album but with Brahms it could not work. Technically the density of counterpoint, the agglomerates of chords that are created which cause harmonic explosions that must merge at a distance, could only work with a different research in sound.
Distanced, but still natural and complete. High definition (DXD or DSD) helps in this, otherwise some dynamics and agogics are lost and the overlapping of colours becomes inaccurate. These superimpositions of colours are determinant and allow to fully express the timbre of the closest dissonances, but also those of the distant harmonics, precisely those that will merge at a distance.

Finally, what completed our work was the search for a surrounding sound, even if always stereophonic. That would make the sound surround the listener, outside the speakers. The sound in the room surrounds the listener even if the source is frontal. The natural distance frees the front
sound surrounding and giving the listener the opportunity to appreciate that special distance about I spoke earlier, so important for us toward Brahms. We also hope that listeners will appreciate and deepen this.

For me it is a new approach to the environment and the context. It is a research that I will continue also in the next productions.

Igor Fiorini, producer VDM Records

The difficulty of facing the recording of the two sextets of Brahms, follows two parallel tracks. On the one hand, facing the masterpieces of the repertoire for Sextets necessarily confronts you with hundreds of performances and recordings of the past and the present. On the other hand, the desire to give your “own” impression is the need we have decided to comply with.

Once sitting in front of the microphones we tried to give back to the recording not only the hours of study and the hours of execution, but also what is our idea of sound. So the most difficult and at the same time the most gratifying work was the search for “our” sound, which would respond to a need for recognition from inside the group and the recognition of what is the sound in the room. Hard work. The judgment is yours.

— David Romano, first violin Sestetto Stradivari