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lf all the sound that came out of one speaker went into one ear and all the sound that came out of the other speaker went into the other ear. you could perceive an astonishingly accurate sonie image.

Unfortunately. ears dont work that way. They both hear some of the sound from both speakers. Making the sonie image eonsiderably smaller. And a lot less detailed

The Sound Concepts IR 2100 restores that image to the musie

By electronically eompensating for what your ears do to the musie

It comes with a 12 foot cable that lets you compensate differently for dif ferent reeords at different places in the room. And it goes for just $250

Julian Hirseh of Stereo Review said, “It is hard to imagine a greater benefit from a $250 investment."

,    ,    We agree

Bę/ore you invest in bigger compo nents to get the bigger sound you’re looking for, listen to what you now > have through an IR 2100 ^v    You may find that your problem

isn’t your eąuipment. ^v    lt’s your ears.

/bund

cbfKcpl/

Box 135. Brookline. MA 02146. [phone] TRY IT NOW! Send $3.00 for a dcmonslralion tape

CLASSICAL Record Reviews

for thc K. 299 Conccrlo for Flute and Harp. composed spccifically for thc usc of thc tilled amatcur flutisi and his harp-ist daughter. Mozart's music-in these conccrlos. as in so many of his sym-phonics and operas-spcaks morę truły than his words of the inexhaustiblc in-vcniivcncss. skill. and special relish with which hc wrote for thc flute as well as thc other woodwind Instruments.

At any ratę. these long-bclittlcd works havc come into their own on thc tidal wavc of the fluting renaissancc led by thc supremę French virtuoso. Jcan-Pierrc Rampal. and morę rcccntly. his Irish counterpart, James Galway. The

latter stars in two of the best-sclling flute-concerto programs(from RCAand Pickwick). the former. on various labcls, in many. The present Musical Heritage reissuc of his latest one (rccordcd by F.rato in 1979) mcrcly reaftirms Rampal’* firmly established reputation for immaculately limpid (onal qualitics. imperturbablc cxccution. and inter-prctative impersonality. The novel at-traction is Isaac Stern’s appearancc as a conductor in something other than violin works—in spirited. competent perfor-mances marred only by thc presence of some nervous tension and the absencc of fully Mozartcan lissomc grace.

Rampal himself doublcs as conductor. as he occasionally has before, in the CBS issue of a strong, open 1980 Erato recording of a program that ingeniously combincs thc flutc-harp concerto (co-starring a deft Laskine pupil. Maricllc Nordmann) with the isolated rondo orig-inally written for thc composcfs Salzburg violini$t colleaguc Brunetti (thc flute transenption is not Mozart’s, but a publisher’s) and thc presumed onginal vcrsion. for oboe. of thc Sccond Flute Concerto. The admirablc Frcnch oboist Picrrc Pierlot for once becomcs just a bit acidulous tonally; flutist Rampal of course sounds as magical as evcr. while conductor Rampal occasionally vcrgcs on overvehemcnce.

Some connoisscurs miss certain char-ismatic elements in thc otherwise near-perfect Rampal interpretations (and in Galway‘s morę ovcrtly Romantic ones)-spontaneity. winsomeness. cxuberance. or however one defines them. These are what make the Bcnnctt/Malcolm con-certos the closesl compclitors to thc Nicolet/Zinman versions on Philips-if not the most delectable in thc wholc dis-cography. Similarly scnsitive. they are perhaps less elegant but morę breezily invigorating. William Bennett is familiar to American listeners only through his many fine solo and ensemble contribu-tions to the recordings of thc Acadcmy of St. Martin-in-thc-Ficlds under Neville Marriner. Robin Golding’s superior jacket-notes and Argo’s gleamingly radi-ant sonics further enhance these truły “Mozartean" pcrformances. which in-clude cadenzas much morę stylistically appropriatc than usual. One can only lament thc absence of thc usual filier, thc K. 315 Andante. Thcrc is some back-ground noise that may or may not ap-pear in thc casscttc edition. which (like thoscofthc Rampal programs) I haven’t yet had a chance to hear.

It’s extremely doubtful that Mozart himself ever hcard thc flute played with the magistcrial skill of today’s perform-crs-evcn by his admired Mannheim soloist Johann Baptist Wendling. Ccr-lainly. he never hcard thc cxquisilcly varicolored qualitics commandcd by the modern cylindrical-borc instrument. What he did hear must be most closcly approached by Frans Vestcr’s pcrformances on a 1796 German Grenscr flute of the type all pre-Romantic composers wrote for. with a conoidal borę. six fin-gcr-holes. and a single kcy. Since the Duc de Guines (onctime ambassador to London) played a six-keyed English flute capable of producing iwo addi-tional notes called for in the K. 299 Concerto. Vester shifts thcrc to an instrument manufactured by Millhouse in London, c. 1800. (Edward Witsenburg playsa singlc-action pedał harp madę by

Clrclo 37 on R«»^«r*S»rvlCi Cmrć

78 Clrelo 22 on ftoador*Sorvtco Cord ►

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