Arturo Delmoni Songs My Mother Taught Me Numbered Limited Edition Gold CD

An early TAS List recommendation, Arturo Delmoni's unparalleled artistry is captured on this near-mythical analog recording by David Hancock. Impex presents this rare masterpiece (which has had no official release in two decades) on pristine 24K Gold Compact Disc to dazzle a new generation of music lovers and audiophiles alike. Limited to 2,500 individually numbered copies, Songs My Mother Taught Me will continue in its elite rarity.

Songs My Mother Taught Me was recorded by David Hancock at the Church of the Holy Trinity, New York City, on May 8-9, 1982. The sessions were jointly produced by Arturo Delmoni, David Hancock, and John Marks. Arturo Delmoni plays a violin by Antonio Stradivari, 1721.

Mr. Hancock used a Studer A-80 1/2" two-track (30 i.p.s.) analog tape recorder and two Cambridge C35 ribbon microphones. No equalization or noise reduction was employed.

This 24k Gold CD was made from a digital transfer from the original analog master tapes by Robert C. Ludwig of Gateway Mastering in 1994 for John Marks Records.

Some of these pieces can be found on recordings by Perlman, Zukerman, Gingold, and others, but no one plays them any more beautifully or convincingly. It is the wort of infectiously attractive disc that brings knowing listeners in from the next room to ask, 'Who is that wonderful violinist?' He's Arturo Delmoni, and you should hear him!

There are also three violin encore discs worth considering. Kyung-Wha Chung exhibits her usual skill, but very little charm, in a disc that pretty much sticks to the usual encore repertory. Itzhak Perlman's all-Kreisler disc is more convincingly played, and includes some of his less-often-heard transcriptions. But the prize goes to Arturo Delmoni, whose warmly-played selections include, besides a well-chosen set of Kreisler arrangements, Smetana's 'From the Home Country,' which, although lasting a bit under give minutes, is a minor masterpiece.