In addition to its rich cultural traditions of knitting mittens and home burned production, the municipality Selbu with its location at the dark side of Jonsvannet a beautiful church where the oldest parts believed to date from the 1100s. In this church the Trondheimsolistene arranged a concert with Marianne Thorsen as soloist on three of Mozart's violin concertos one day in May this year (2006). This led to a release of the SA-CD on the label 2L.

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The concert consisted of the violin concertos nso. 3-5, respectively KV. 216, 218 and 219. In other words, three violin concertos composed around 1775. Musically this is a very appealing release, where Marianne Thorsen excels as a soloist. My definite favorite on this disc is the interpretation of the 3rd Violin Concerto (KV 216), where the adagio particularly appeals to me. This trio of violin concertos seems to be a widely used combination as concert repertoire, and this is also including a release with Anne-Sophie Mutter with these three.

2L, which stands for Lindberg Lyd AS, has in many ways made an unusual approach to this task. Firstly, it is very gratifying that the constant rumors of SACD's death constantly are confirmed to be significantly exaggerated, and this time (2006) in the form of a very audiophile release here in Norway. 2L has not chosen to make this as a hybrid disc (possibly due to technical reasons?), But instead has equipped this album with a separate disc for CD and SACD, the latter has both stereo and multichannel tracks. For the buyer, this is of course an excellent situation, allowing eg an AB comparison of CD and SACD. How this comes out cost-wise, I leave to Lindberg to watch over.

Furthermore 2L claim that this is the first SACD release in Europe where it is used "Digital eXtreme Definition" (DXD) during recordings. From what I understand this is actually PCM with resolution of 352.8 kHz / 32bit. This is then converted to DSD on SACD.

Uncertain of how DXD influence on the result, this is a very good release even when it comes to sound quality. Subjectively perceived it is very wel defined, and dynamics that are so important in giving life and presence to this type of recordings are particularly prominent.

There is always a tension connected to multi-channel publishing, especially for classical music. For a good number of conservatives music buyers - not to mention conservative audiophile - it is a heavily fortified dogma that a presentation should preferably take place in only two channels and, alternatively, a multi-channel publishing strictly impose the listening position from the floor, preferably the back row!

To this dogma I think the gentlemen L `Orange and Lindberg have a relatively liberal approach. At least it is here more activity in the surround channels than is usual for multi-channel publishing of classical music, and it revolves largely on direct sounds, not just the ambience.

And should I try to place myself somewhere in Selbu Church this day in May based on the sound stage, it is under no circumstances the back of the gallery. At the tip of the conductor's wand is far moer likely. And then we all may philosophize over the location that provides the best for the music ...

The Mozart release is highly recommended as both CD and SACD recording. Not to mention if you want to hear beautiful rendition of Mozart.