events

MUSIC NEEDS HI-FI

by Mario Berlinguer

Excerpts from SUONO, June 1998


		Alessandro Schiavi of Diapason did not organize an ordinary presentation, but an 'event' in which the presence of the products was - as it were - incidental. To begin with, the demonstration took place in one of the most spectacular hotels of Garda lake, the Laurin Hotel, a veritable jewel dating from the turn of the century. But the main event was the concert given by that great exponent of the bandeon Dino Saluzzi, the most celebrated living soloist fascinating instrument Saluzzi performs only infrequently, and it is rare to be able to listen to him in an exclusively bandeon concert. How the organisers ( Diapason and the audiovisual production company Morgana) managed to put an such a show is hard to understand, but the fact is that at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday the 13th May (1998), in a delightful room carved out of the great lounge of the ancient Palazzo Cominelli (just a stone's throw from Salò), Saluzzi began to play, visibly moved by the special nature of the surroundings. The audience listened with rapt attention to the amazing musical abstractions of the Argentine musician. An extraordinary concert, not least for the excellent system of amplification 'improvised' by the organisers. The original idea was to leave the bandeon 'natural', without any amplification. But it was realized that the furthest rows would have heard little, and Saluzzi is accustomed to play with a little sound reinforcement afforded by a surround amplifier (and by an effect point supplied by a Lexicon). Purists will turn up their noses, and I admit to having had my own doubts. It must be said that Saluzzi's playing is made up of subtleties, nuances and also a certain amount of elaboration of the sound for musical ends. The bandeon-player, moreover, feels his instrument very closely ( Saluzzi rests the bandeon on his thighs ) , and the only way to make sure that people listening at a distance can hear properly is to make the instrument more powerful, by increasing the dynamics and thus obtaining new and different expressive possibilities. This is also the reason why Saluzzi's records (ECM) present a particularly rich 'expanded' bandeon. Schiavi made a pair of Adamantes III available ( the loudspeakers presented in the room at the Hotel Laurin), connected to a Chord power amplifier fed from Saluzzi's 'travelling mixer'. I saw with my own eyes Saluzzi fell in love with the Adamantes III; he immediately ordered several sets in a portable, professional finish, more robust though less elegant than the regular production ones. During the sound tests in the concert venue Saluzzi was happy as a sandboy. His joy was the best gift that he could make to the organisers, a joy that turned that same evening into a memorable occasion. The demonstration at the Laurin was truly interesting: Diapason presented their new loudspeakers, Adamantes III, the tiny Karis and a centre-speaker called Kentron. The Adamantes III retains the same appearance that has made these loudspeakers famous from the very first version, with its faceted cabinet, designed to eliminate both internal resonance and frontal diffraction ( the two drive units are placed in a way that is dramatically close to the ideal of a single point source). Moreover, in the third version Diapason has made use of their 'direct drive' technology introduced with the Micra and Adamantes Limited Edition. The bass unit, built to Diapason specification, is a driver which rolls off by itself without the need of a crossover, allowing it to be connected directly to the amplifier. Also conceived in this way are the Karis, loudspeakers that pack a phenomenal punch and surprising depth. They showed a natural, detailed sound, powerful, yet with an amazing tonal palette; the aspect that honestly most surprised me, although in a necessarily less than perfect system, was the ease with which the loudspeakers disappeared from the scene.