In 1997, Jos van Immerseel and L'Archibudelli recorded Schubert's »Trout Quintet« on period instruments: The recording sweeps along in the opening movement with stormy momentum and, for instance in the variation movement, sparks after sparks of unleashed joy of playing (Sony Vivarte). The great value Wolf Erichson and Stephan Schellmann have placed on unadulterated dynamics, authentic spatiality and natural balances is something I have never experienced as truthfully as now with the Liszt Reference. For example, the producer and sound engineer legends refrain from emphasizing the double bass. This can therefore be lost on mid-range systems, on which many other recordings achieve their effect by means of spotlighting. Now, with the Liszt Reference, the historical instrument is in place at the center back right, and in realistic size, in depth and timbre, but also vividly audible in the quiet, but always integrated into the overall action. With its soft tone, the historical instrument clearly stands out from a modern double bass. This, I am sure, is how one would experience it in a concert hall.

Precise localization

Sonorous and punchy where necessary, the low frequency foundation resounds. It really goes down enormously, but always remains tight and contoured. Nothing booms. The result can be illustrated with a paradoxical picture: Here one learns that it is the dark tones that illuminate the room. They open up the volume of the recording location, they convey the sense of the vastness of the stage, on which the mid-high unit then precisely locates the musicians. Consequently, I experience the excellent acoustics of the Lutherse Kerk in Haarlem - expansiveness, depth gradation, authentic reverberation - almost immersively.

The Liszt Reference conveys one of those delightful listening experiences in which enthusiasm imparts insight. The technical reproduction of music - especially as a listener of classical music - has an actually alarming peculiarity. The simple possibility of regulating the volume at home strictly speaking prevents one from experiencing dynamic conditions as "in real life". The fact that an ensemble on historical instruments sounds completely different in the concert hall than a modern one, especially more quietly, is difficult to convey in the living room. And this is especially true when sound engineers - unlike here - use »close miking« (the microphones are placed very close to or even inside the instrument) and dynamic compression trimmed for effect. But: A sound system that is focused on musicality gives me, if I have live experience, the feeling for the true conditions! For this, it must reproduce the spatiality of the recording, and it must establish a credible soundstage in the listening room. The Liszt overwhelms in both disciplines. Precisely because it places the music far into the room, more precisely: into the spatiality that comes to it, it makes music so delightfully close to it, to the music.