Review (fanfaremag)Why, you may rightfully ask, is a review of a Blu-ray disc-the hot new high-definition video medium-not in the DVD (or video) section of this magazine? The answer is that this release is something new, a music-only Blu-ray disc. BDs are proliferating on the shelves of Blockbuster and Best Buy because the sensational picture quality shows off what high definition television is capable of. But the audio specifications of the technology represent a giant improvement over the compressed surround-sound options carried on regular DVDs, Dolby Digital, and DTS; in fact, the sonics leapfrog over CD into SACD territory. Opus Arte has already released a number of Blu-ray programs of opera, ballet, and concert material. But why not use BD as a music carrier and forget about video altogether? That’s what we have here, with this program entitled "Divertimenti."
Place "Divertimenti" in a Blu-ray player, turn on the video display, and you’ll see a menu to choose among audio options and to select the music you’ll hear. Then, you may as well turn off the TV. Founded by recording engineer Morten Lindberg, 2L (for Lindberg Lyd AS) is a Norwegian company that has been releasing CDs and SACDs since 1996. The intrepid listener is provided with no fewer than five audio options on the BD, plus another three on the hybrid multichannel SACD that’s also included in the set. These are derived from an ultra-high-resolution DXD master-if you must know, that’s Digital eXtreme Definition, with the music originally encoded at 32-bit/352.8 kHz. "Divertimenti" offers the program at 24-bit/192 kHz quality as DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1, Linear PCM 5.1, and PCM Stereo. There’s also, for some reason, regular old-fashioned Dolby Digital 5.1. The sound of the high-resolution versions is sensational-extended, super-clean without any digital astringency, richly textured, and dimensional. Additionally, 2L provides a multichannel perspective that puts the listener in the middle of the action. It’s highly involving and takes one deeply into the performance without seeming at all gimmicky.
nominated for 3 grammys:Best Surround Sound Album
Best Engineered Album, Classical
Best Small Ensemble Performance
